Unstoppable Force (Force of Nature Series) (19 page)

“I doubt very much that any of them
think you’re stupid. Not to mention, they’re all terrified of you.”
Lou moved into
the room ahead of the others as she continued.
“Then there is the fact that
I need you to show me how to be a mom. I’ve never had any experience worth snot
with the job requirements.”

“Deal. But you must promise me one
thing.”

Lou hesitated for several seconds
waiting for her to tell her.

“You must let Connor make you as happy
as you have him.”

Lou turned to look at her while everyone
in the pack froze. The bond that formed between the two of them in that moment
Lou knew would last several lifetimes. With a quick nod, she turned and moved
to the labs. The first person they came upon was Dublin.

The plan was simple enough. Move in,
kill them all, then blow the place up before they left. She moved up behind
Dublin and shifted to herself. She reached for the gown lying on the table next
to him before he turned. He looked surprised, yes, but she also saw the fear
written in his eyes.

“Do you know who I am?”

He shook his head then peered at her
closer before he suddenly nodded.

“Do you know why I’m here?”

“I would presume to kill me. That’s not
going to be nearly as easy as you might think.” He leaned in and sniffed her
before he stepped back. “You’re a wolf too. Oh that’s rich. William isn’t going
to be happy about that one bit. But I don’t think it’ll matter in the long
run.”

“And why is that?” She watched the
others move about the room until Dublin was surrounded. “Did you think I’d just
let him do what he wanted to me and not put up a fight?”

“Oh, I hope you fight. I haven’t had a
good tussle with anyone in a few days.” He reached out to touch her cheek and
she stepped back. His laughter made her mad, but she didn’t move. “You’re
nothing like he thinks you are, are you?”

“Nor you.” She felt the shift race up
her arm and to her hand. Before he could move to grab for her, she reached her
clawed hand out and tore his throat out. He grabbed at his ruined flesh and
started choking. “I’m not four anymore.”

He dropped to the floor where he stood,
his blood staining the floor beneath him. She stepped over his dying body and
moved toward the only other door in the room. Before she got to it Austin was
standing in front of her.

“Are you hurt?”

She looked at him oddly before shaking
her head.

“Good. You do something like that again
without my permission and I will punish you beyond your wildest thoughts. Do I
make myself clear?”

She nodded and stepped up to him. “You
don’t know what he did to me all those years ago.”

“And you don’t have any right to murder
without cause.” Before he could move away, she reached out and grabbed his arm.
She sent him every thought, every dream of what Dublin had done to all the
children that had been put into his care and what he’d done to the little
bodies when he was finished with them.

He staggered back and held onto the
wall. She hadn’t thought of what she’d done to him, only pissed that he felt
she had no right. When he reached out to her again, she nearly buckled at the
knees when he wiped a tear from his cheek as he touched hers.

“I’m so sorry. I had no idea that he’d… You
knew, didn’t you? All along, you knew that he was a monster.” He moved behind
her and she nearly shifted again when he continued. “Thank you, Lou.”

They moved slowly into the bowels of the
earth to confront the man who had hurt so many. The lab was running, machines
were doing their jobs, but William was nowhere in sight.

Chapter 16

He could smell them. William didn’t know
how many came, but he could smell wolf and vampire. Packing up the notes he’d
taken over the past years, he moved to the wall to hide away. He was just
closing the door behind him when she walked in.

William wanted to go out and inspect
her. He nearly had when he saw the others with her. He had a thought that she
was the alpha, but as soon as the monster of a wolf that had come in behind her
spoke to them, he knew the alpha. However, he was mesmerized by her even as she
shifted to human again.

She was a wolf. He had no idea how that
had happened as they had taken out her ability to shift when she’d been
created. Or so Dublin had told him. He glanced up at the door and wondered if
he could even now go up and kill the fat wolf, but decided that if he tried he
was going to be hurt.

“I know you’re in here. I can smell your
vile stench.” Even her voice was something to marvel at. There was so much
command in it he was impressed with her. “Come out now and I’ll kill you
quickly.”

He wanted to laugh at her. Bigger men,
even older wizards had tried to kill him, yet here he was to prove that he was
of a superior race. He willed the containers around the room to explode, trying
to kill off some of the men that had dared come with her. He didn’t hear anyone
howl in pain.

“My name is Austin Jackson Force. I am
pack alpha to these men and women and also high Trustee of the Council for
Vampires and Wolves. I hereby order you to come from where you are and be
sentenced.”

William laughed quietly. The man was
positively entertaining. Using very little of his magic, he reached out to the
room in general and answered the obtuse man. He was still laughing when he
spoke. “Threaten me? Why you stupid dog. Do you have any idea what I have of
yours? Do you only now see what power I have? Don’t be ignorant. Leave the girl
with Dublin and I shall think about letting you live until I finish with her. She
means nothing to you and everything to me.” William waited for the room to
clear. When he could still feel them in his lab, he leaned his head against the
door to listen and was surprised by the laughter.

“You want me, big boy, then you can come
out and try your best to get me.”

William’s head popped back so quickly
that he hit it on the wall behind him. Her voice did not sound respectful at
all.

“Do you hear me, old man? Come out and
show us just what a coward you really are.”

He was nearly ready to do so when he
heard her laugh again.

“Oh and by the way, Dublin is dead. I
killed him myself. Tore his useless throat from him like he was warmed cheese.
Oh, and I have my mother-in-law too.” Her laugher rang through to him. “You
aren’t such a big bad ass at all, are you?”

He had to take several deep breaths
before he would allow himself to speak. The girl was going to pay. He was going
to make her suffer in ways that… He suddenly realized what she had said. Dublin
was dead. If he was dead then… “I don’t believe you have the nerve to kill one
of mine. Do you know what the consequences are for killing a wolf? There are
rules governing that sort of thing.” He knew there were. He’d been breaking
those rules for all his life. “How do I know that you don’t lie?”

“Because I don’t. You want to know then
you’re going to have to grow some balls and come out of hiding. You know, I
didn’t know little men like you could be so afraid of a woman that you’d hide
in a closet like a little girl.”

He didn’t like what she was saying and
reached for the small mechanism in the door to open it. There was nothing
there.

He frantically searched for the small
lock and nearly sent himself into a panic when his fingers finally touched it. He
heard some noises, but was more concerned with teaching the bitch a lesson than
revealing where he was hiding. As soon as the door opened he froze in his spot.

The lab was destroyed. Not just the
equipment, though that was bad enough, but everything looked like it had been
melted down and now pooled on the floor in large puddles of steel. There were
hundreds of eyes staring back at him, more than he could count right now. He
looked around at the devastation and then at the girl who stood in the middle
of it all. “What have you done?” His breath was nearly knocked out of him from
the impact of the room. “You can’t have done this all on your own.”

“And why is that? Because I’m a woman
and so beneath your abilities? Or is it because you don’t think anyone but you
has any magic?” She made a sound much like a machine when it is done with a
cycle. “Wrong. I might be a bit less controlled about what I can do, but I’m no
less…powerful.”

He moved, not toward her, but what was
once his table. He looked at the glass and metal twisted together and the lump
of what could only be the steel table. He moved to other items he’d been using
not minutes before, all them broken, twisted, and now a mess on the floor.

The walls had fared no better. What had
once been glass cubicles that stood alone to give his workers the opportunity
to work independently or with a group now lay in an artistic grouping that
resembled a glassed Jackson Pollack painting rather than the pristine walls
he’d spared no expense on to make this project work. She stood in the middle of
the room that he only just realized was empty save for the two of them.

“You’re not alone.”

She shook her head and smiled. He would
have said it was a scary smile rather than one of friendliness.

“Do you have any idea who I am to you?”

“Yes, I know what you think you are to
me. I also know your every thought.” She slid into his mind as easily as he had
killed a man who had defied him. He saw what she’d done to Dublin and had to
grasp the closest object to hang onto. It just happened to be the wall.

“No. No, you lie.” Her smile said she
did not. “I’m much more powerful than you’ll ever be.”

“Yeah, about that. I don’t want to be
the all-powerful Oz. I want to be Lou Force, mate to Connor Force. But I can’t
do that.” She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him. “Do you want
to know why?”

He didn’t really. How could something so
perfect turn so quickly? He looked around the room for something, anything,
that he could use to toss at her. She laughed a little and he looked back at
her.

“I have the key.”

He staggered this time. She knew
entirely too much. Timothy was going to—

“He’s dead. By his own hand, but only
because you drove him to it. It’s just one more death to add to your growing
number of crimes.”

He reached for the man and found the
connection not only lost, but severed. He reached harder and found him with his
brain on the wall behind him and the gun still in his hands. He’d actually gone
and done it. Killed himself rather than serve him for the rest of his days. “He
was worthless. He was a constant source of amusement to me and I only allowed
him to hang around for that value alone.” He was reaching and stalling. He
didn’t like to be reduced to do either. “I should thank you for telling me
where he is.”

“No need. Nancy appreciated him more in
the last hour of his death than you probably did his entire life. Sad but
true.” She laughed without humor. “You could say that he’s the real reason
we’re all here.”

They appeared then. Only a few at first
then a few more as time seemed to slow down around him. He didn’t let go of the
wall, but continued to hang onto it. He didn’t like the fact that he needed the
support, but there was no way he was going to look weak in front of her either.
He’d been the most powerful being in the universe for nearly a thousand years. One
snippet of a girl, one of his creations, was not going to take that from him so
easily. He was startled out of his anger when she spoke.

“I said, you didn’t answer my question.”

He looked at her trying to remember what
she had posed before him.

“You didn’t ask why I can’t simply be
Lou Force. Don’t you care to see that your monster is happy? You really should
ask me.”

“Monster? What is that? You’re no more a
monster than—” William stopped talking when the wolf at her side growled low.
There was saliva hanging from his muzzle and his eyes looked red, evil red. “Is
that supposed to be your mate? He looks worthless.”

Her laughter made his skin crawl. She
was very good at this, too good at making terror run along his skin like a
thousand bugs. He rubbed his arms without thought and raised his chin when she
laughed again.

“Yes, he is. The man that I love. And
he’s taken exception to the fact that you were about to say I’m no more a
monster than you are. But back to the reason I can’t be Lou Force. I don’t
think I ever want to be called her again because like Ginger, that name brings
me bad memories. From now on, I want to be called Louise Force. The woman I was
always meant to be. ” She took a step toward him then another as she continued.
“As for you being a monster? We both know that you’re precisely that, a
monster. But we’re going to take care of that soon enough. Any last thoughts?”

He couldn’t believe this was happening. Did
she honestly think that she could take him out? Apparently, that’s exactly what
she thought. He looked at the wolves as they moved with her. As a pack, he
supposed, but more like a well-planned dance. Each of her steps that brought
her closer to him also brought the horde of wolves too.