Dark Wrath (15 page)

Shuddering in
reaction, Erin lay where she’d fallen when he’d pushed her inside, struggling
to calm her pounding heart and catch her breath.  After several moments
passed and the beast did not reappear, she pushed herself up slowly to a
sitting position and looked around.

The room was dark
except for a little light spilling through a small, barred window high in one
wall.  She could see that the room contained nothing more than a narrow
cot barely wide enough for one and wooden stool.  Aching all over, she got
up from the floor with an effort and moved to the cot.  The springs
squawked in protest as she planted her butt on the lumpy mattress, and both
dust and less pleasant smells rose from the fabric.  She found she was too
weary to care.

Struggling up
again, she ripped the thin coverlet off and beat the surface haphazardly to
make certain nothing creepy was lying in wait for her and finally sprawled on
the miserable cot and wrapped the cover around herself.

The tiny cell was
bright when she awoke.  She lay still for some time, staring up at the
exposed beams in the ceiling above her, listening to the sounds of movement
around her and trying to identify something familiar while memory slowly
returned and her mind sharpened.

They’d been taken
prisoner and she had no idea why.

Hearing a flurry
of new activity outside, Erin sat up abruptly, trying to determine the
direction the sound was coming from.  She realized after several moments
that the noise was outside the building and glanced up at the window.  From
the floor, she doubted she could reach it, from the bed, maybe.

Scrambling up,
she stretched upward until she could grasp the edge of the sill and then curled
her fingers around two of the bars set into the stone, pulling herself up until
she could rest her chin on the sill and look out.  Below, she saw a large
group of manbeasts coming through the gate of the outer wall.  A group of
Lycans formed the center of the group that had just entered.

Grunting with the
effort, Erin dug her toes against the wall, trying to get a better view. 
A sense of recognition, faint at first, grew in her as she studied the Lycan at
the forefront of the group.  “Jesse,” she murmured, torn between despair
at the realization that he, too, had been captured and relief that he seemed
unharmed.

Almost as if he’d
heard her, he lifted his head and his amber gaze met hers across the
distance.  She saw him tense, as if to bolt into action and for several
moments fear gripped her.

Evidently it
gripped the panthers, as well.  The men she’d seen loitering in the
courtyard, that she’d assumed were as human as she was, fell to their
knees.  Their bodies began to contort.  Within moments, they rose up
onto two legs as manbeasts similar in form to the catlike people who’d captured
her.

“Oh god! 
Don’t Jesse!  Please don’t!  You can’t hope to win against them all!”

Again, it was
almost as if he’d heard her whispered plea.  After several nerve wracking
moments, he seemed to force the tension from his body.  As he relaxed his
threatening stance, she saw the tension leave the other Lycans.

Reluctantly, Erin
gave in to her protesting muscles and lowered herself until she could touch the
bed again.  Settling on it, she blew on her burning palms absently, trying
to think calmly about the situation--trying
not
to think what their
capture would mean to her poor baby.

She wouldn’t give
in to despair.  Jesse still had a chance to escape.  He was smart,
and strong and capable.  He would find a way, and when he did, he would go
after Joshua.  She knew he would.

Boredom had
dulled most of Erin’s fear by the time a guard came to collect her late in the
afternoon.  She was almost more relieved to think something would be
settled than afraid anyway.

A female had
brought her food and water around mid-day and, revoltingly, a bucket to take
care of her needs.  The flat bread had been tasteless, though, and the
meat and peppers stuffed into it hot enough to make her breathe fire. 
She’d finally dumped the contents into the slop bucket and tried to assuage her
hunger with the tortilla and water alone.

She thought she
might kill herself if she had to endure much time as their prisoner, if she
didn’t starve to death first.

Her milk was
going to dry up very quickly with no more food than bread and water.

She thought the
man who came to get her was the same one who’d shoved her into the cell just
before dawn, but she wasn’t entirely certain.

She didn’t really
care until it occurred to her to wonder if there was any chance at all that she
might use the only weapon she had with her--her femininity.

She was doomed,
she thought a little hysterically, if that was the only weapon she had. 
The man scarcely glanced at her as he caught her arm and hauled her down the
corridor to the great room.

The room was
filled with people, or at least what appeared to be people.  She knew
better now, and she was still relieved that they were once again in human form.

Her heart skipped
several beats when she saw that Jesse and the other Lycans were seated among
them.

As if he sensed
her presence or had heard their entrance, Jesse turned to look at her. 
His gaze flickered over her torn, bloodied clothing before it met hers. Fury
blossomed in his eyes.

She must look
like hell.  “I’m alright,” she said quickly, fearful at the tension she
saw in him--that he would do something rash.

Her outburst drew
all eyes and she was almost sorry she’d said anything.

“This is your
woman, Lycan?”

Erin glanced at
the man who’d spoken, alarmed at the tone of his voice more than what he’d
said.  There was a satisfied purr to it, almost as if he welcomed the
opportunity to taunt Jesse and saw in her a pawn he could use to goad Jesse
into doing something stupid.

She hoped she was
wrong, because they were very badly outnumbered.

Jesse ground his
teeth.  “She is, and the mother of my son,” he growled, threat evident in
his voice.

A satisfied smile
curled the man’s lips.  It was hard to gauge when he was seated in a
chair, but he looked to be close to Jesse in height and build, perhaps a little
shorter and a little broader, but of a similar weight.  He was swarthy,
his hair as black as ink. She thought he must be around Jesse’s age, or perhaps
a few years younger.

She didn’t at all
care for the assessing glint in his gaze as he studied her thoroughly from head
to foot and finally gestured to the guard to bring her closer.  “She is
human,” he said as she neared him, glancing at Jesse again.  “But then I
have always believed the Lycan were not very discerning in their breeding
habits.”

Obviously, this
was intended to be a huge insult, and it seemed to Erin from Jesse’s expression
that it had struck home.  “It wasn’t by choice,” she interjected
quickly.  “We …uh … were prisoners and the scientists used us both in
their experiments.”

The man grinned
at Jesse.  “So--you did not choose the Lycan?”

Erin glanced
uneasily at Jesse as the guard leading her shoved her into a chair beside the
man who’d summoned her.  Would it be better to say she had?  Or she
hadn’t?

She hadn’t had
any opportunity to assess the situation she’d found herself in and suddenly
regretted saying anything at all.

She drew no clue
from Jesse’s expression.  He looked murderous by now, but that hardly told
her which way to jump.

Without waiting
for the response to his question that she had no clear idea of how to answer,
the man lifted her limp hand nearest him and examined it.  “And yet you
bear the marks, I’m told, of the beast who claimed you as his mate.  Me, I
think that sounds like choice, not force.”

Erin’s head
whipped in Jesse’s direction of its own volition, as if her mind had no control
over the action.  “Marks?” she gasped faintly, her mind too chaotic to
form any sort of opinion over the news.

She felt the
brush of a hand along her throat.

Jesse’s chair
squawked against the floor as he made an abrupt attempt to surge upward. 
Billy Ray and Tavian, seated on either side of him, grabbed him before he could
get to his feet, restraining him.  Jesse gave both of them a deadly look,
but he subsided.  “As you say,
mine
,” he muttered through gritted
teeth.  “Take your hand off my mate, Carlos, or I’ll take your head off
your shoulders.”

Carlos withdrew
his hand, but he chuckled.  “You’re in no position to make any demands,
señor
Lycan.  This is my territory,” he continued, his voice becoming deadly
cold now.  “And I can have your head removed from your shoulders. 
Your mark means nothing once you are dead.  Perhaps I will keep your woman
to entertain me.”

Jesse ground his
teeth, but he seemed to come to grips with his temper with an effort. 
“You can challenge me for her, according to the laws of the werefolk, and
nothing else, or your own people will think you nothing more than a coward.”

Carlos’ hand
tightened on the hand he still held until Erin winced.

Fury glinted in
Jesse’s eyes as they flickered over her face and then settled on Carlos
again.  “You will live to regret it if you simply dismiss what I’ve told
you,” he ground out.  “If they do not know you are here already, they
will, and they will be just as eager to experiment on your people as mine.”

Carlos shrugged,
but Erin could feel his tension.  He wasn’t as certain the feds wouldn’t
target them, or that the entire tale was fabricated, as he was trying to
pretend.

“Take them back
to their cells until I decide what to do with them.”

Jesse
stood.  “She comes with us.”

Carlos’ eyes
narrowed.  “You do not issue orders here,” he growled.

“It’s the law!”
Jesse ground out.  “And even you are not above that.”

Carlos flicked a
glance around at his people.  Apparently what he saw there was not the
support he’d expected.  His full lips tightened with anger, but he forced
a shrug.  “For now,” he said finally, releasing his grip on her arm at
last.

Rubbing her arm,
Erin surged to her feet and made good her escape, hurrying toward Jesse. 
To her surprise, he grabbed her, enfolding her tightly in his arms. 
Warmth flooded her.  Before she could hug him back, the guards separated
them, shoving them to get them to move.

Erin contained
her impatience.  At least she would be with Jesse.  The thought was
more of a comfort than it should have been under the circumstances.

T
he
cell she’d spent the night in was practically palatial compared to the one she
was escorted to with the Lycans.  This cell was perhaps twice as big, but
contained her and eight men, none of whom were small.  There wasn’t so
much as a single narrow cot or a stool to sit on.

When they’d all
managed to squeeze inside and the door had been barred behind them, the men
looked around and settled on the floor with their backs to the wall.

“What now?” Erin
asked, looking up at Jesse hopefully.

He was busy
examining the floor for a place to sit.  Catching her arm, he led her to
the corner and sat down, drawing her down on his lap.  “We wait.”

More than a
little discomfited at being pulled into his lap, Erin resisted as Jesse drew
her close, cradling her head against his shoulder.  “For what?”

He
shrugged.  “The big party.  You aren’t hurt?”

“I feel like hell
and probably look worse, but, no, bruised and a little battered and
scratched.  What party?”

Jesse lifted a
hand and, after rolling something around in his mouth a moment, removed it and
tossed it onto the stone floor.  “The Fed party.  I’m thinking
they’ll probably wait for dark to hit this place.”

Erin sat upright
and looked down blankly at the metal that had hit the floor.  “That’s--”

“Dr. Wagner’s
locator chip.  I thought it might come in handy.”

“But … it’s
dead,” Tavian said sharply.  “You said you’d deactivated it after we’d run
it around the city a few times to have the Feds chasing their tails.”

“Deactivated, not
dead.  I activated it when we were captured.”

The Lycans in the
room all exchanged worried looks.  “You sure that was a good idea?”

Jesse’s lips
flattened into a thin line.  “No.  But I am certain our current
situation is really bad.”

“They didn’t kill
us,” Billy Ray pointed out.

“Which only means
they have something else in mind for us that we probably won’t find any more to
our liking,” Jesse said dryly.

“How’s it going
to help us if the Feds get us?” one of the other men demanded.  “I ain’t
keen on becoming one of their specimens.”

“How many clan
members did you count coming in?” Jesse retorted.

The man shrugged
and glanced at his neighbor.

“About thirty,”
Tavian supplied.

“They came at us
with roughly three to one.”

“Yeah,
mon ami
,
but you stopped fighting as soon as they tole you they had your woman.  If
we had fought on--”

“They caught us
with our pants down, trapped between the jungle and the beach.  The end
results woulda been the same.”

“I would’ve been
willing to fight to the death,” the man groused.

“We came to
rescue my son and destroy their research.  Dyin’ wouldn’t have helped our
clansmen.”

“And this
will?  They’ll be expecting us now.  There won’t be no sneak attack.”

“They will be
diminished now,” Jesse growled.  “They are too arrogant to resist the
temptation of assaulting this compound.  They’ll throw everythin’ they’ve
got at it.  When they do, we’ll use the distraction to escape … and the
panther army will become part of our army, whether they agreed to help us or
not.  While the clansmen and the Feds are busy slugging it out, we’ll take
the facility and take care of our business here.”

Tavian grinned
abruptly.  “Good thinking,
mon ami
!”

Billy Ray studied
Jesse thoughtfully.  “What if they’re not interested in rescuing Dr. Wagner?”

Jesse
grimaced.  “Then we’re up shit creek without a paddle.  Anybody else
got any suggestions?  I’m wide open.”

A man near the back
spoke up.  “So they come and they distract de panther clan.  We’re
stuck in this cell.  What den?”

Jesse shook his head. 
“This cell cain’t hold us once we shift.”

Everyone looked
the cell over a little doubtfully.  “The walls must be two feet thick,
solid stone.”

“The door isn’t,”
Jesse said dryly.  He glanced at Billy Ray.  “I suppose it’s too much
to hope they didn’t scuddle the yacht?”

“It’s on a sand
bar in a little cover maybe six miles north of here.  The tide was out
when we hit it, though.  It shouldn’t be too hard to dislodge it once the
tide rises again.”

Jesse frowned in
thought.  “When we make our break, I want you five,” he said finally,
pointing to Tavian, Billy Ray and three other men, “to take Erin back, and get
the yacht out into open water again.”

Tavian and Billy
Ray immediately began to protest.

“This ain’t a
democracy.  It’s an order,” Jesse said tightly.

Erin sat
up.  “What about the baby?”

“We’ll get him.”

“Sneak in, you
mean, and then out again?”

“I don’t think
we’re going to have to worry too much about stealth--the bulk of the soldiers
will be here, unless they don’ take the bait.”

“But all the noise
will scare him,” Erin pointed out.  “I’m the only one here that has
something to keep him occupied and quiet.”

She was almost
sorry she’d mentioned it.  The comment drew all eyes to her breasts. 
Suddenly self-conscious, she sank against Jesse’s chest again.  When she
looked up at Jesse, she saw that he was studying her with amusement. 
“Point taken.  Billy Ray, take two men with you to retrieve the
ship.  The rest of us will hit the lab together, but you’ll stay out the
way.  Clear?”

Erin nodded.

“And you’ll
follow orders.”

Erin gave him a
look.  “For the raid, right?”

His lips
twitched.  “
Chère
,” he murmured warningly, and then stopped
abruptly as if he’d just realized they had an interested audience.

“Let’s not fight
about it now.  Later you can explain what Carlos meant about the marks,”
she added in a whisper.

He nuzzled her
ear.  “You’re wasting your time whispering,” he said low near her
ear.  “Lycan hearing is extremely acute … and fighting wasn’t exactly what
I had in mind.”

Erin felt her
face catch fire.

Several of the
men chuckled.

She tried to
convince herself it was because of something someone else had said that she
hadn’t overheard, but she had a bad feeling she was wrong.

* * * *

The Feds
announced their arrival at dark thirty with a bomb blast that shook the walls
around the captives so hard debris rained down all over them.  The
concussion rattled Erin’s teeth together.  She bit her tongue, wincing as
the coppery taste of blood filled her mouth.  Jesse curled around her until
the chips of stone, splinters of wood, and sand had stopped showering them and
then set her away from him abruptly and came up on his hands and knees.

Wakened so
abruptly from a doze and still disoriented, Erin lolled groggily against the
wall, watching in growing horror as the men in the cell began to shift into
their beast forms.  Within moments, all signs of humanity vanished from
them and surrounding her were snarling man-wolves.

Jesse launched
himself against the door, battering it with his shoulder.  It splintered
with the second blow and burst outward with the third, falling into several
pieces.  The men poured through the opening.  Erin had pressed
herself against the wall to avoid the stampede.  When the men had cleared
the door, Jesse reached inside, grabbing her arm and hauling her behind him as
he strode down the corridor.

The noise outside
the main structure was almost deafening.  Explosions and gunfire mingled
with the hoarse cries and screams of men and manbeasts.  The air was a
suffocating soup of dust, smoke, and gunpowder.  Blinded by the smoke,
Erin stumbled along in Jesse’s wake, trying her best to keep up with him, her
heart pounding so hard with fear her lungs labored all the harder to provide
her with oxygen, making her dizzy.

Before the group
could clear the building, a knot of the panthers burst inside.

Both groups
halted abruptly at sight of each other, tensing to battle.

“This way,” the
leader of the group bellowed.  “There’s a passage beneath the mission that
leads to the caves.  It exits at the falls about a mile from the coast.”

The Lycan all
turned to look at Jesse questioningly.  He nodded.  Turning, they
followed the panthers down the narrow hall that led to the cell where Erin had
spent her first hours at the encampment.  The door opposite her cell door
opened to a narrow flight of stairs that led almost straight down, more like a
ladder than stairs.  Swinging Erin up into his arms, Jesse held her
tightly to his chest as he raced down into the darkness below the mission.

The cool air
below soothed Erin’s eyes, but she could see no better in the darkness. 
One of the panthers lit a torch.  “I am Carlos’ second.  I cannot go
with you, but Juan will show you the way.  There are caves beneath the
island fortress, as well.  The gringos thought they had sealed them off,
but there is another way inside that he can show you.”  He grinned
suddenly.  “You should hurry and find your son before we send these
gringos scurrying for home.”

Jesse motioned
for his men to follow Juan.  When they’d passed, he held out his hand to
the man who’d helped them.  “If you ever find yourself in need of a
friend, I am your man.”

The beastman took
it in a firm clasp.  “I will remember … in case of need,
señor
Lycan.”

“Jesse.”

The man
grinned.  “Guillume.”

Jesse grinned back
at him.  “Good hunting, Guillume.”

When Guillume had
headed back the way they had just come, Jesse set Erin on her feet.  As
she stared at him blankly, he knelt on the floor.  “We need to move fast,
chère
. 
Get on my back and hold tight.”

Disconcerted, Erin
nevertheless didn’t argue.  The faster they went the better as far as she
was concerned and she knew she couldn’t possibly keep up with him on her
own.  To her stunned amazement, he began to shift once more when she’d
climbed onto his back.  In the blink of his eye, he was no longer
manbeast, but a great wolf that looked like any other save for the fact that he
was far larger than most wolves.

She was nearly
unseated when he launched himself into a run.  Burying her face against
his back, she tightened her arms around him, unable to focus on anything beyond
hanging on for all she worth.  When Erin finally nerved herself to open
her eyes for a look around, she discovered they’d left the smooth artificially
formed corridor behind.  The walls that closed in far too closely for her
peace of mind on either side of them were pock marked, as if they’d been
blasted.

The sound of
rushing water grew louder and louder as they traveled until it became a
deafening roar.  She could see no sign of it, though, and finally decided
that the water must be following some other channel in the rock.

As the flickering
light of the torch the lead man was carrying finally sputtered and went out,
the cavern descended briefly into blackness.  Erin realized after a few
moments that it wasn’t a total absence of light, however.  Lifting her
head, she saw in the distance a lighter patch.  As Jesse raced toward it,
the area around them grew brighter and brighter and she realized they were
nearing the mouth of the cave.

The narrow stone
corridor they were following widened abruptly into a tremendous cavern. 
Water rushed along channels on either side of them now, splashed and trickled
down the walls, gusted from natural spouts here and there.  Within moments
Erin was soaked to the skin with the fine mist rising from the water, her hair
plastered to her skull and dripping rivulets of water along her cheeks and
forehead.

She didn’t dare
loosen her grip on Jesse even for a moment, though.  She was still trying
to blink the water from her eyes so that she could see when they emerged from
the mouth of the cave.  The night sky was like a great, midnight blue bowl
above them, sprinkled liberally with winking silver specs of light. 
Rising just above the trees, the full moon was a huge golden-orange globe of
light that lit everything beneath it like dawn.

The water rushing
through the cavern burst forth into nothingness and dropped below them to drop
some fifteen to twenty feet to form a round pool.  The others had vanished
when Erin opened her eyes, but she saw them swimming toward the banks.

She had just
enough time to utter the words, “Jesse don’t you dar--,” when he leapt from the
ledge toward the water below.  Her arms and legs tightened around him
spasmodically.  She sucked in a breath to scream and strangled as they hit
the water and plunged beneath the surface.  Releasing her grip on him, she
pushed off of him and swam frantically upward.  By the time her head broke
the surface of the water, she could do nothing but cough and splutter, pounding
the water around her desperately to stay afloat.

Two very human
hands caught her around the waist, hauling her against a hard chest.  “Are
you alright,
chère
?”

She couldn’t stop
coughing.  “I think I filled my lungs with water,” she said in a hoarse,
choked voice.

“Next time close
your mouth.  It works better.”

She would’ve
slugged him if he hadn’t been holding her from behind.  She had to content
herself with elbowing him in the ribcage.  He grunted, but she was fairly
certain that was more to appease her than because she’d actually managed to
knock the breath out of him.  The resistance of the water was working
against her.

Without another
word he began towing her toward the bank where the others had gathered to wait
for them.  The moment they saw Jesse nearing the water’s edge, however,
they took off once more.  Three of the pack split off and followed the
bank of the stream.  The others plunged into the jungle headed southeast.