Storm Watch (Woodland Creek) (14 page)

“Why are you doing this?” she asked, hoping to stall for time. Maybe one of Luke’s friends or the chief would show up. She was terribly afraid that Luke was dead. At the very least, she knew he was seriously injured. Nothing short of that would have prevented him from trying to help her.

“Stop fighting me and get in the vehicle,” he said calmly. “Or I’ll knock you out.”

Storm, furious and terrified, didn’t fight him as he helped her into the passenger side of the SUV. She was shivering from cold. With the sun going down, it was getting cold fast.

She stiffened when he climbed in.
Heat.
She needed to make heat. She’d burned Luke without even meaning to, hadn’t she? Surely, she could do the same to him? Why hadn’t she thought of it sooner? She’d figured that fear was the trigger for that skill—and she was certainly afraid enough. Why hadn’t she been able to burn him when he’d grabbed and cuffed her?

He reached across her to pull the seatbelt and she considered trying to bite him. Likely, though, all that would get her is slapped or punched. She didn’t want to risk him hitting her in the stomach and harming her baby.

“Please, you don’t need to do this. Just let us go,” she begged. “At least call an ambulance for Luke.” Likely wasting her breath, she realized with a huge surge of fear, but she had to try.

“No,” he said flatly and started the vehicle. Storm turned and watched Luke, but in the fading light, he disappeared quickly.

She knew that he was taking her to Raymond—and her death.

§§§

Luke groaned and opened his eyes when he felt eyes on him. He tried to focus and realized it was Mercedes. In her crow form. Although injured, and knowing he’d heal better if he stayed shifted, he changed back to human form. “Please, follow them. Let me know where he’s taking her.” His voice was weak. He’d lost a lot of blood.

Mercedes, unable to answer in speech as a crow, released a caw and took flight. Luke shifted back to his tiger, praying he’d heal fast enough to track the SUV before the tracks disappeared.

§§§

Samuels feigned sleeping when he heard the cop outside the door say he was going to check on the prisoner. It was going to be so easy to get away from these country bumpkins. They were no match for a wizard of his strength. After the cop came in and looked around the room, he left quietly and Samuels was alone once more.

They’d offered him an injection of a painkiller, but he refused. Drugs dulled his powers, and he couldn’t have that right now. He needed to set an illusion so they would think it was him in the bed sleeping.

Cursing at the pain, he stood by the side of the bed and did a quick spell that would allow him to escape with, hopefully, no one knowing before the morning, if he was lucky. Next, he pulled out the IV.

The doctor had decided to keep him overnight just to be sure there was no sign of infection.

Samuels wasn’t worried. He had healers he could call if the need arose.

If all had gone as planned, his man should be waiting for him in the parking lot. All he had to do was get out of the room. The clothes he’d been wearing were covered in blood, but he had little option. Of course, the shirt and coat were damaged, but at least they would protect him from the cold. He had a home near here. He could change into something better suited for his status.

His men had assured him that the white camouflage snowsuit and pants would keep him from being seen as easily in the woods surrounding Steele’s home. Now, they were covered in dark blood—at least the top half.

With a shrug and a mental note to punish Storm for this, too, he pulled on his ruined shirt and coat after pulling on his pants, socks, and boots.

Now, it was just a matter of getting out of the room. He couldn’t make himself invisible, but he
could
control the thoughts of the two men in the hall enough to believe him when he told them that it was a misunderstanding and that they were free to go.

The illusion of a body in the bed would keep the doctors from disturbing him at this late hour, and the nurse with the medication had already left. Excellent, he decided when he looked down at the bed.

He opened the door to the room and smiled at the two cops. “You were notified I had been released. You’ll be wanting to give me a gun. Now,” he said.

§§§

Luke didn’t take more than a half hour or so to heal enough that he felt tracking would be safe. And, he needed to get to a telephone. He had to let TJ know that Samuels was up to something. He’d shifted almost immediately back to his tiger when Mercedes had left. He figured she’d call the reinforcements in as soon as she ascertained where the man had taken Storm.

But, he wasn’t going to wait around to be sure. He took off at a run, following the quickly disappearing tracks. It didn’t take long to realize that they were heading toward the hospital.

Thanks to the road conditions, he was able to run faster in his tiger form than the man was likely able to drive.

Still, it was a forty minute drive in good weather. And the bastard had a good head start. Luke had been unconscious after getting shot, but wasn’t sure exactly how long he’d been out.

He wasn’t surprised to find that the car had ended up at the old Convent. It was abandoned, of course, save for the caretaker. It wouldn’t be difficult for a man with his abilities to hide his presence from Arnold. He hoped that he hadn’t hurt him.

Once he’d passed through the gates, he picked up Storm’s scent. Hers, and two others. One was Samuels! How the hell had he gotten out of the hospital? He shouldn’t have been able to.

Luke didn’t bother shifting back to human form. He was more lethal as the tiger. He prayed that TJ was also on his way—with backup, in case things went south and he was injured. Storm wouldn’t be able to fend off both men on her own.

He knew he could—but he wished he’d had time to come prepared. As it was, he had nothing but his enhanced senses. Just now, they were telling him that the three were in the basement of the old building.

He quietly jumped inside the same window that Samuels or his man had broken. As his tiger, he could move without making a sound.

The thought of Storm being hurt was tearing at him. He shouldn’t have been so careless until he’d known for sure that Samuels was behind bars. It’d probably been like taking candy from a baby to get away from TJ’s men at the hospital. He truly wished he’d killed the bastard when he’d had the chance.

The kind of men that worked for men like Samuels didn’t have a bit of loyalty past a paycheck. Storm would be safe when he was either locked away somewhere without phones, or dead. As far as Luke was concerned—dead was the best option. He’d already escaped once, obviously. And, he’d contacted a man when he should have not been anywhere near a phone.

He heard a whimper and quickened his pace. The sound of a sharp slap caused him to growl involuntarily. The bastard was hurting her. He prayed he was right in thinking that Samuels would want to keep her alive until the child was born. Still, she was pregnant, and this had to be affecting her both physically and mentally.

The baby was, of course, on his mind, but his first priority was getting Storm away from Samuels. At least there were only two of them. His growl might have alerted them to his presence, but that could play to his advantage if Samuels sent the other man to look for Luke. His first priority was Storm. His henchman could wait.

The building was dark, but didn’t present much of a challenge for him. He didn’t believe that the man that had taken Storm was a shifter or a wizard. So, Luke had the advantage in the dark building.

He could see a light under a door near the end of the hallway and moved silently toward it, keeping to the wall just in case they came from the room shooting first and asking questions later. It would make things easier if one of them opened the door. Luke was strong enough to get through it—but the element of surprise would be totally gone then.

Just as he had the thought, the door opened, Luke paused. He could see the man that had shot him slowly exit the room, a gun trained down the hall in the direction he stood waiting. Aimed high. That was good. The man didn’t know he was in tiger form, apparently. For that matter, he likely thought that Luke was dead.

Luke walked silently toward the man moving slowly in his direction. He felt the surge of adrenaline he had always felt in situations like this, which only heightened his senses.

He crouched low and waited. A sudden thought had him waiting before pouncing. If he let the bastard get past him, Samuels might not know just how close someone was to him. That few seconds could make all the difference.
Hurry up, TJ.

Luke could hear voices in the room now, and his anger intensified.

“You should have never run from me, bitch. Don’t you know who I am?” Samuels was saying.

“I know exactly what you are,” Storm replied harshly. “A monster.”

Samuel’s laughed. “Perhaps. But your lover is dead, and no one knows you’re here with me. Once we leave here, you’ll disappear. But first, you have something that belongs to me.”

Storm glared at him. “I have nothing that belongs to you.”

Samuels gave a mock sigh. “That child you are carrying is mine. As you saw, I am the one with the connection to the fetus. I can take him in an instant,” he said with a snap of his fingers.

Storm screamed as a wave of pain coursed through her. The baby! He was hurting the baby. “Stop it! How can you do this? It’s your child!”

“Of course it is my child. His powers come from me. I will not allow you to corrupt him.”

Storm felt heat building in her hands. They’d removed the cuffs and had tied her to a chair in the center of the room. She willed her heat to burn through the rope on her wrists.

Her heart raced frantically. She needed to free herself and find a way to get to Luke. He’d been so hurt, and she was terrified that Samuels was right—that he was dead. If he was, she was going to become the murderer Samuels was, and kill him herself. If he hurt the baby, she’d kill him. Whatever it took.

The ropes fell away and even through her pain, she smiled as she looked toward the door. She saw Luke! He was alive!

“Why are you smiling?” Samuels snapped, pointing his stolen .45 at her. “Do you want to die so badly?”

“Because you’re a dead man,” she said quietly just as Luke pounced. She scrambled to the ground, out of the line of fire just an instant before the gun went off. If she’d still been in the chair, she’d have been dead.

“Luke! Stop, he’s not worth it!” she cried as she took in the scene before her.

Luke had Samuels’ throat between his jaws. Samuels was frantically trying to bring the gun around toward the tiger—all two hundred and fifty pounds of irate predator.

Luke lifted his head and glanced at Storm. Other than bruises on her face, she didn’t seem harmed, thank God. He growled and used one large paw to get the gun from Samuels’ hand. It skidded across the floor.

Once the gun was out of his hands, Luke shifted back to human form. His hands wrapped around Samuels’ neck. “I warned you not to go near her again,” he growled. “You should have listened.”

“Luke, look out!” Storm cried.

Luke rolled instinctively to the side just as a shot rang out. The other man had come back. Luke heard a gurgling and realized that it was Samuels. The bullet had hit him in the throat. Luke had seen enough mortal wounds to know that Samuels was a dead man.

He shifted back to the tiger and took a leap across the room to shield Storm in case the bastard shot again. He felt a sharp pain in his hip just as he covered him with his body. With a growl, he turned to the man. Before he could pounce, he heard a shot and saw him fall to the ground just before TJ came into the room.

Dead or not, it was over. It was finally over. Samuels was dead—or soon would be—and he and Storm were alive. He turned to Storm and gave her a purr, then shifted back to human form.

His hip burned, but it wasn’t a serious wound. He looked down at her. “Are you okay?”

“I am now,” she said. “I’d just managed to use my Fire thing to get my hands free.”

Luke brushed the bruise on her cheek. “I’m sorry I let him touch you. I wasn’t fast enough.”

Storm reached up and caressed his face. “And I thought you were dead. We’re alive. Is Raymond dead?”

“He’s dead,” TJ said. “Good riddance.”

“The other man?”

“His name is Wilson,” Storm supplied. “Believe it or not, he’s Raymond’s attorney.

“Is he going to make it?” Luke asked.

TJ knelt beside Wilson. The bullet had entered the side of his chest. He was unconscious, but breathing. “I’m not sure. I’ve got the medics on stand-by.”

Luke stood and helped Storm to her feet. “The baby?”

“I think it’s okay, but we should go make sure. He had some connection to the baby that let him hurt me through it.”

Luke had never heard of that kind of thing—but whether it was simply a spell to cause pain, or some supernatural connection didn’t really matter just then. Samuels was gone, and they were safe. “We will.”

“Okay, Steele. Put some clothes on,” TJ said. He went to the hall and picked up a small overnight bag. “I’ve learned to keep an extra outfit in the car. I had a feeling you might need it after I spoke with Mercedes.”