Raven Moon (29 page)

The swarm’s rotting stench raked his nostrils and he whimpered. He shifted to bipedal form and avoided being trampled. He slashed his way out of the street and into the field where earlier a tranquil herd of longhorns had grazed. Fortunately, the zombies preferred to line up through the town rather than to venture to its outskirts.

Maddox returned to wolf form and loped along, following Rave’s scent. Savoy and his men had masked their scent with wolfsbane, making it impossible to follow their scent. Concentrating on the vehicle scent would not help. There was nothing unique about the smell of these trucks. They couldn’t hide, though. The huge tires left nice prints. Even if the road were asphalt, her feathers were like beacons. He pressed one to his nose and breathed in her sweet aroma. He had to trust that when the opportunity rose she would shift and escape.

His heart soared at the sound of caws. Rave? He stopped. His heart sank. Four crows ate a fresh road kill. A coyote flattened by the monster trucks. Maddox picked up speed. He panted and his stomach growled.

He ignored his hunger pangs and thirst, and dashed on. All that mattered was getting to his mate. His mood darkened. That is if her cocky little attitude didn’t get her killed.

Chapter 19

Please, let the Benandanti helicopter be stolen, Rave hoped. If the Kindred had aligned with the Benandanti, she was screwed. That is if the pilot recognized her. She imagined she was on all their most wanted posters,
Reward and Eternal Salvation for the capture of Satan’s Raven, Destroyer of the Bloodstone.
Alive not dead. What fun would there be if they couldn’t torture her before they executed her?

Armed men were strategically placed at each trailer entrance while others patrolled the airfield. One stood by the door as it shut behind her. They passed a ragtag command center that consisted of a radio station, maps, three blank flat screens and a few working laptops. Were they connected to the internet or were the computers used just for data collecting? There were rumors of some internet use.
Lucky bastards. Would they let me update my status?
She scanned the rest of the area.

I wonder where they keep the drone or drones.
A couple men sat around smoking cigarettes. They gaped and almost lost their smokes as she followed Savoy into the nearly empty mess hall. When was their last booty call? Maybe she could seduce her way out?

A chubby young man approached. “Sir, I refueled the plane. It’s ready when you are.”

“Good work, Dennis. We’ll leave at dawn.” Savoy pulled out a chair in what looked like a dining area. Damn, he didn’t say their destination.
Duh, not with me here
. “Sit, Miss Lexi. We’ll bring you a meal.”

Savoy turned to the youthful pilot, probably a recent recruit. He didn’t look like a typical athletic werewolf hunter. He looked too kind, his hands soft and his shoulders slumping from lack of military discipline. Maybe they had lowered their standards. Despite food shortages, the baby-faced pilot had not starved. He probably had just earned his pilot’s license before the zombie apocalypse.
Do you need a high school diploma for one?

“Get our guest and yourself a meal.”

“Yes, sir.”

Rave wanted to say she was not hungry but that was far from the truth. Breakfast had been hours ago and they hadn’t stopped for lunch. She could eat a longhorn, or two. To hell with saving a bit of Americana.

Savoy narrowed his eyes. “Stay put.” He nodded toward an armed guard by the door. “Try anything and he’ll handcuff you.”

She shrugged. “Got it.”
Not. As soon as I eat, I’m getting my feathery ass out of here.

He left her alone with the guard. The chubby pilot brought her something that smelled like beef and a pitcher of tea. He took a chair next to her. The overweight pilot wore a leather flight jacket, a Crush Zombie Brains video game T-shirt and baggy mom jeans. He eyed the guard and unwrapped his packaged meal. Poor guy. He obviously had not volunteered to be here. Savoy probably saved his ass and he’d been forced to stay.

Rave sensed he was no brutal killer. Hmm, how long had he been with the Kindred? “Hey, Dennis, I’m Lexi.”

He lowered his head and stabbed the square brownie with a plastic fork. “Hey.”

“So, Dennis, did you always fly Air Kindred?”

“Huh?” He set his brownie back down and his gaze flicked again toward the guard. He chuckled. “Oh, you mean the werewolf hunters? No. Four months ago, they found me in an airfield in Arizona. I’d been trying to refuel my dad’s tour plane when I was surrounded by zombies. They saved me. When their leader, a man named Jaeger found out I was a pilot he immediately hired me. Figured I owed them. And with the millions of undead and vicious tankers, I had no other choice.”

Rave cringed. Jaeger. She glanced at the door as if he would walk in on hearing his name. “So, is the leader here?”

Dennis spoke as he chewed. “Nope. Savoy is in charge here.”

She swallowed a bite of pretend meatloaf. “And now you hunt werewolves?”

“I don’t, I mean I’ve taken them on wolf hunts but mostly we kill zombies.”

“And have you killed any werewolves?”

His hands shook as he poured himself a glass of tea. “I best not say anymore.” He poured a glass for her. “Especially since you’re a prisoner.”

“You mean guest.”

Dennis scoffed. “Yeah right.” He whispered, “Are you a she-wolf?”

Rave snapped her white but un-fanged teeth at him and laughed as he angled away. “Don’t worry. I don’t bite.”
I peck.
“I’m as human as you.”
At least at the moment.
“So what kind of pilot were you before Z-phage?”

“I helped Dad with airplane tours of the Grand Canyon.”

Hmm. He would be a great asset to the Yosemite enclave. If she could convince him of a better life, would he help her escape? “We have a lot in common.”

“You fly, too?”

Rave gaped.
Boy, do I ever
. “No. I mean…we own a plane. My parents did.” Rave focused on her meal and thankfully so did the pilot. Why not steal a gun and hijack him with the fueled plane? After he saw how beautiful their compound in Yosemite was, he’d kiss her feet in gratitude. “Is your dad…”

His expression slackened in grief. “Him, Mom, my sister…bitten…gone.”

“I’m sorry.” Loss was another commonality between them. Savoy and another man, possibly the helicopter pilot entered the mess hall.

“Her name is Lexi, found her with Maddox,” explained Savoy as he brought the other man to her table. He turned to Dennis. “Leave us.”

Dennis scrammed out of there as if escaping a hornet’s nest.

Oh, shit
. Not a man. Dressed in black leather he had hair as dark as hers and with a heavy beard and low hairline, like what a man suspected of being a werewolf is supposed to look like. Her raven foresight also sensed his inner wolf. The wolf and holy cross Benandanti emblem on his shoulder sleeve further confirmed his identity. Rave lowered her head. Maybe he wouldn’t recognize her with longer hair. Not that it mattered, since her eau de raven aroma would soon reveal her true identity.

They sat in front of her and Savoy smiled at his professed friend and introduced her. “Lexi, this is Nick. He has some questions for you.”

Maddox’s pilot. Things just turned from bad to fucking bad. So they had joined forces.
It so sucks when I’m right
. She gave him a brusque nod and hid her face behind her tea mug. He sniffed the air and then laughed. “She’s not human.”

Rave lowered her mug and gave him the finger. “At least I don’t smell like a wet dog.”

“What?” Savoy threw her a fevered glare, the kind you saved for your worst enemy. He took out a long silver dagger. “You fooled me, bitch!”

Rave flinched, not that silver would poison her but being stabbed would kill her regardless. “I did?”

“The lupine scanner failed.” His neck corded. “I’m going to skin you alive.”

Nick grabbed his shoulder. “Your equipment is fine. She’s not a werewolf. This one is a raven shifter. Her name is not Lexi.” He gripped and lifted her chin, his stare chilling her.

Rave glared at the beta. “Don’t you know it’s rude to interrupt a person while they are eating?”

Nick let go and turned to Savoy. “You just captured our most wanted criminal, the Raven Princess, Ravenna. Destroyer of the Bloodstone.”

Savoy slipped his dagger in his sheath. “If that’s true, why didn’t she fly away?”

Rave sighed. “Because Maddox broke my arm after he captured me. He allowed a doctor to set it but I still can’t fly.”

Savoy raised a brow. “I thought you said he rescued you from zombies.”

“Yeah, after he broke my arm, I was trapped with no way to leave zombie central, San Antonio. If he didn’t bring me along, I would have been torn to pieces by a new variety of apish zombie. I intended to escape before he turned me over to his pack.” Best to mix her details with half-truths. One thing she’d learned from her werewolf friends was how to lie without a wolf detecting her falsehood.

“But you fought by his side,” retorted Savoy.

“Like I said, I owed him. Before you arrived I had the car keys and was ready to sneak off.”

Nick snarled. “From an alpha werewolf, I think not.”

“My plan was to get a hold of a small plane.” Not that she knew how to fly but why not tell another white lie? Anything so they would not learn she was the mate of their once greatest Templar warrior. And one they wanted dead. If he’d marked her throat as convention dictated, she might have been killed on the spot.

Nick met her gaze with his dark black eyes hollow of any pity. “And was Maddox really bringing you back or going after Jaeger?”

“Both. Though to tell you the truth, I hoped to seduce him into letting me go.” She gave him a sheepish smile. “You’re kind of cute.” Not.

He stiffened. “I’m sure your attempts, seductress, failed.”

Good. Nick apparently had only met Maddox recently and hadn’t learned his deep dark secret. He was a closet raven lover. “Big time. He warned me he would break my other wing if I tried again.” She leaned in and whispered, “I think he’s a virgin.”

Nick responded with a low growl.

Savoy raised his brow. “The way you reacted when we killed him was not like that of a captor.”

“I know. I’m apparently not immune to Stockholm syndrome. I was scared, alone and flightless with all the undead around. Plus, I thought you guys were tankers.”

Nick scoffed. “And where are your guards, Princess Ravenna?”

Rave swallowed. “They died protecting me from Maddox.”

Savoy turned to Nick. “I bet Lazarus would have had second thoughts about killing him, knowing he captured your greatest prize.”

She rolled her eyes and sighed.
Not likely, since I’m Maddox’s greatest prize, a fated mate.

Nick shook his head. “Delayed, perhaps. But this is why we warned Jaeger and you. The holy spirit told Prophet Lazarus Maddox was a secret pagan.” He glared at Rave. “One who broke his vow of celibacy.”

Who told him that?
Rave finished her tea but the beverage did not offer comfort. “So the drones that followed Maddox was whose idea?”

Nick grinned with pride. “I helped locate Maddox, but the Kindred built them.”

“So you betrayed him?” she asked.

Nick grinned. “Hastened his execution. I scented him to that tanker compound, the one where we paid good money for women.”

Good old, welcoming Stonefield Hospital. “Talk about desperate,” Rave scoffed.

Savoy glared at her. “None of your concern, Princess…whoever the hell you are.”

Her dinner ruined, she scoffed, “So the Kindred have turned into sex slavers?”

Nick’s voice darkened. “We saved these women from an evil fate with the tankers. Prophet Lazarus will find them good Benandanti husbands.”

“Eww.” She turned to Savoy. “Since when do Kindred allow human women to be sold to your sworn enemy?” She looked around. “Where is Jaeger?” She wanted to know about the chimpanzombies but no doubt, they wouldn’t share. If they had been here, she would have heard their hoots and hollers. Could the ape cargo still be on their way to Camp Benandanti? She wouldn’t be surprised if the Kindred betrayed them, even after their so called alliance.

Savoy’s tone remained calm. “You might meet him soon enough.”

Rave shook her head. “Who knew the Kindred would turn against their own kind?”

“Times are different. At least the Benandanti concur we humans were created in God’s image. Furthermore, the fact the Arbor pack has taken a powerful witch into their fold has changed our game plan to fight our common enemy.”

Idiots. “Unless we cooperate to win the war against the zombies, we’ll all lose.”

Nick stood. “Refuel, the helicopter, I’m taking her.”

Savoy gave him a sidelong glance. “You just got here from the Montana sector. Weren’t you ordered to look for more women?”

Nick grinned at Rave. “The Princess is top priority.”

Savoy shrugged. “Suit yourself.” He reached to shake Nick’s hand. “Tell Jaeger his cargo is on its way to Barker Creed’s camp.”

Did he mean the chimpanzombies? Yikes, not in the hands of Kindred sadist, Barker Creed. From the corner of her eye, she saw one of the men open the window before lighting a cigarette.

She shifted to raven form and scrambled toward the window. If she could get to the window there was a chance she could find a car.

Savoy barked. “Shut the window!”

The smoker did as told but Rave hopped up and pecked his hands. He swore and let go.

Rave leapt out.

Nick used his werewolf speed and met her outside the window. With swift strength, his clawed hands grabbed her by the throat and squeezed. He growled, “Shift back or I’ll break your neck, bird!”

Rave used her talons to rake his face and then twisted her neck to peck at him. When that didn’t work, she stilled, refusing to change. A quick death would be better than what Lazarus had planned for her but then she thought of Maddox. A caw attempted to escape her throat but it sounded more like an asthmatic wheeze. He dropped her; perhaps concerned he’d break her bird neck. She landed hard on the floor, shifted, then drifted into darkness.