In addition, they’d captured several of his people and a few of Andie’s cougars. That much he knew. They’d woken not long after he had and were close enough that they could hear each other call out, sometimes scream. He knew they’d been treated to the same rough beatings…and he could do nothing about it but roar into the dark.
Someone had done their homework. They’d known exactly who of his people to target, though they’d missed a few key folks by the sound of it. In particular, Corrie and Shane both appeared to be absent. Thank heavens for small mercies.
No one else knew Corrie was a Seer. After Sarai’s stories, that was a secret he intended to guard even more fiercely. Meanwhile, Shane…the cougar shifter was a tracker, among other skills. If he was still on the loose, maybe they had a chance of being rescued.
Until then, Zac sat on the cold floor, as far away as possible from the corner he used as a toilet. He leaned back against the wall, arms resting on his up-drawn knees. His thoughts, which should have been on escaping, focused on a particular blue-eyed blond who was probably freaking out.
When he didn’t check in, Andie would come for him. He’d bet good money she was on her way already. Since he wasn’t sure how long he’d been out, or even what time of day or night it was, Zac had no idea what might happen next. His internal clock told him it had been only about three or four days since their capture.
Zac clenched his jaw as the sound of approaching footsteps striking the rock flooring echoed down the tunnel of cells. He didn’t bother to move. He’d tried hiding in corners, flattening himself on the floor. Anything he could do to avoid the beating. But his captors must have night vision goggles, because they’d shown unerring accuracy no matter what he did. Now he balled up to protect his head and stomach as much as possible. He refused to utter a sound, no matter the pain inflicted. He wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of knowing they’d hurt him. He wouldn’t break…and he wouldn’t die.
He’d promised Sarai he’d return to her.
When he did, he’d make damn sure she knew exactly how special she was to him. Sure, he’d claimed her publically, but he hadn’t told her what was in his heart. She deserved to know. If he ever saw her again, he wouldn’t hold back.
He latched onto that thought as a blast of frigid water slammed into him full force.
Sarai trudged along behind George, careful to only step where he stepped as he moved through the woods. Doing so made it harder for anyone tracking them to determine numbers. She had no idea what he could see, or sense, or smell. They’d lost the tracks of the wagon ages ago. Now, he reminded her of stories of Native Americans and their infamous hunting and tracking skills. Then again, he was a descendant of the Inuit people, plus whatever else he was.
Either way, he never stopped or hesitated. She had absolute confidence he brought her closer to Zac with every step.
Suddenly, George jerked to a halt. The change in momentum was so abrupt, Sarai just barely avoided smacking into him. He scanned the area all around them, nose twitching as he took in some scent she was missing. If he’d been in his bear form, his ears would have been twitching too. Sarai stayed still as a statue and let him do his thing.
Then she heard it. A low growl coming from the underbrush just ahead of them. Not the growl of a bear or even a wolf. Sarai knew that sound. Whoever was ahead of them was a cougar shifter. The question was, exactly what side was this shifter on?
“He’s not growling at us,” George whispered.
Interesting.
“Got your knives ready?” he prompted.
She nodded. “Yes.”
“Follow me. If you have to engage, I want you to try to stay out of sight, just use the knives. Got it?”
Another nod.
Together, on stealthy feet, they inched closer. The hairs on the back of Sarai’s neck raised in response to the sound of several wolves, maybe two or three, their growls low and menacing.
George paused. He pointed to the ground, indicating Sarai should stay there. Then he mimed her peeking over the top of a large bush to see. After he got her nod of understanding, he moved away, off to the left.
Sarai waited, trying not to breathe loud, heart pounding.
She heard George’s voice. “You know, three against one just ain’t fair. But three against two. Better odds. Wouldn’t you say so, Shane?”
Sarai opened her mouth in a silent gasp. The cougar shifter was Shane. Friend then, at least she assumed so, and faced off against three wolves.
“Much better odds.” She heard Shane’s once-familiar deep tones rumble his answer.
Their adversaries made no comment, which was unfortunate as Sarai could have used that to get a lock on their location.
The next sound was a cacophony of roars, screams, and snarls. They must’ve all shifted and gone after each other. Sarai peered over the bush, a knife already in hand. All she saw was flying fur, snapping teeth, and grappling animals. She wouldn’t be able to throw from this position, she realized. She inched around the trees until she had a clearer view of the fight.
Two of the wolves were on top of George. Literally on him. Shane was handling his opponent for the moment. She watched and waited for her opportunity.
It came fast. George stood up on his hind legs to his full ten-foot height. The two wolves on his back couldn’t hang on. As they slid to the ground, Sarai nailed one in the back. Her second throw missed the other wolf, instead lodging in the tree behind him. He moved toward her with a snarl. The distraction was just what George needed. He snapped the wolf’s neck with a powerful, well-placed bite.
Then they both turned to Shane, who had pinned his opponent to the ground. He had his teeth sunk into the animal’s neck, but hadn’t bitten hard enough to crush its windpipe or rip out its jugular.
George shifted. He plucked her knives out of the tree and the dead wolf’s back. Shane’s captive’s eyes widened as he watched George wipe the blood off the one knife and hand them back to her as they made their way to where he was pinned on the ground.
“If you want to live, I suggest you help us. Lead us to where they’re holding our friends. Get us inside and to them, and we’ll let you go.”
The wolf looked at all three of them. Shane bit down a little harder.
“This is a limited time offer, friend,” George said.
The wolf whimpered, then jerked his head in a nod of agreement. Shane released him and shifted. So did the wolf, who turned out to be a lanky man with a scar running down the side of his face. He looked at Sarai with particular interest that made her wary. She had a feeling he knew exactly who she was.
Sarai realized she was standing there with three naked men and turned her back to let them dress. Once he was clothed—his garments torn from his earlier quick shift—she gave Shane a brief hug.
Then, aware of her previous vision about him, she said, “Where’s Corrie?”
He compressed his lips into a thin, white line. “Ran off. Night of the attack on the Timik.”
“With whom?”
He frowned. “I’m not sure.”
Sarai patted his shoulder but said nothing. She wasn’t sure herself what Corrie was up to or what she was.
“Let’s go,” George said.
They all fell silent as they followed their new guide. It didn’t take very long, only about an hour’s hike from where they were. He stopped beside a bush.
“Pull this aside, there’s a secret entrance. Follow it all the way up, then take the first tunnel on your right. It will angle down into the caves. The next two lefts will get you to the cells where they’re held.”
“Where will we find guards stationed?” Shane asked.
The young wolf hunched his shoulders. “We were the outside patrol. You’ll find two somewhere in this tunnel. They don’t stay in the same place. Another posted at the end of the tunnel. Another two at the entrance to the cells, and whoever else you find roaming the halls.”
He pulled his lips back over his teeth in a nasty imitation of a smile. “Good luck.”
“Our luck will depend on your luck, my friend,” George said.
His words wiped the sneer off their guide’s face. “You said I show you the way and you let me go.”
“I said you get us to where they’re holding our people. If any part of that goes wrong, I won’t hesitate to finish what Shane here didn’t.”
He was dead serious. Even Sarai swallowed. Mental note to never get on George’s shit list.
Their guide swore, but seeing he had no choice, nodded. He pulled back the bush.
“Wait,” Sarai said. She pulled out the satellite phone and relayed their coordinates to Andie. She slipped one of her knives out of its pocket and embedded it into the trunk of a small tree right beside the bush the shifter had pulled back. A signal to Andie of where to go.
“Okay.”
Looking extremely pissed and not a little afraid, their helper stepped into the entrance of the small cave. George followed, then Sarai, with Shane bringing up the rear.
They managed to get through the passage into the main tunnel. Periodic lights hung on the rock walls broke the darkness. A musty smell of water everywhere accompanied a constant dripping noise. When Sarai put her hand out, she discovered walls damp to the touch.
Their guide distracted each guard they encountered allowing Shane or George to take them down. They dragged their bodies out of the way, though the basic tunnels didn’t offer many options. If anyone came down the tunnel entrance they’d used, the unconscious men would be discovered.
As they made their way down the main tunnel they passed a door that made Sarai pull up. She didn’t have a vision exactly—just a feeling she needed to wait in there. Sarai had learned to listen to those little moments of gut instinct.
She looked at George and Shane. “I have to stay here. You go on without me.”
“No way,” Shane bit out.
“I agree. Zac would kill me if I left you alone in this place.”
“Zac doesn’t have a choice. This vision is telling me you need to keep going, and I need to be right here. You want to argue with that?”
So she’d fibbed. She’d found over the years that people argued less with a vision than a feeling. Stupid, really, since she knew they came from the same place inside her.
George and Shane both looked at each other, but they had no choice. Sarai tried the handle and found it unlocked. The door creaked as she cracked it to poke her head inside. Seeing the chamber empty, she stepped inside.
“I’ll be fine.” She waved George and Shane on as she closed the door.
However, once she was alone, she wasn’t quite sure what to do. Wait? Explore?
Just sitting there twiddling her thumbs didn’t sit well, so she started to snoop around. The small room, which housed a single desk, was otherwise empty. She checked for a phone or some way she could get more information to Andie, but came up with bupkis. Her satellite phone was worse than useless this far underground.
She couldn’t see anything else of note in the room. In desperation, she followed the walls, looking for anything she might be missing. She had to be here for a reason. She’d almost circled the entire space when she passed a point where the wall looked a little odd. Backing up, she eased by the spot more slowly.
Huh
.
She ran her hands over the rock only to realize the wall curved back in on itself. Using her hand as a guide, she slipped around the corner into a pitch black, claustrophobic area. She was about to pull a flashlight from her bag when she was jerked further inside. A hand covered her mouth to smother her scream.
“Shhh…Be quiet or they’ll hear you,” a fierce voice whispered in her ear.
Sarai’s thundering heart quieted. She recognized the owner of that voice, so she nodded.
“You’re not going to scream?”
She shook her head and the hand left her mouth. Sarai took a deep breath. “Corrie?” She still couldn’t see a thing.
“Yeah.”
“How’d you get in here?”
“I followed them when they took Zac and the others.”
“You’ve been in here the entire time? Why didn’t you release them?”
Corrie’s soft snort of derision reached her ears. “It’s not that easy. All the cells are electrified. I haven’t found a way to turn it off or get them out of there.”
A small flash, an image of Corrie inside the system of caves and tunnels, pierced her thoughts. “You’ve been waiting to make your move. What did you see?”
She felt rather than saw Corrie’s shock in the dark. “How’d you know?”
Sarai lifted a wry eyebrow, even though Corrie couldn’t see her face. “Speaking directly to me in a vision was a pretty good clue that you’re also a Seer. I’d never encountered one in my visions before, so I wasn’t sure. Until now.”
“Huh. Must not be a very good Seer then.”
“Maybe not. What did you see?” she repeated.
Corrie was silent long enough that Sarai thought about knocking a little sense into her. She spoke before Sarai could take a step toward her, almost as if she’d waited out Sarai’s patience threshold.
“This little passage leads to a much larger chamber. They’re going to take all of the captives there.”
“Do you know when?”
“Within the next few minutes they’ll discover George and Shane. After that.”
Sarai tried to force any of those images into a vision now that she had an idea of what was coming. Nothing came to her except gray fuzz, as though she were watching an old TV tuned to static. She must be involved in what happened next somehow.
“What happens after that?”
Corrie growled her frustration. “I don’t know. I can’t see it.”
“Has that ever happened before?”
“No.” By the sound of it, Corrie said the word through clenched teeth.
Sarai had to wonder if she had caused Corrie’s inability to see further, or if Corrie had the same issue she did and had difficulty seeing anything which directly involved her. Either way, they were about to operate with no help from their gifts.
Damn.
“Okay. Then we wait.”
“Duh.”
Sarai sighed. Had she ever been that snotty? Probably not. The Carstairses would have beaten it out of her by this age.