Loving Her (Keeping Her) (7 page)

Ben leaned over and spoke
into it.  “The eagle flies at midnight.”  The door slid open.

“Really?”  Cassie said,
“The eagle flies at midnight?”

“At least it’s not ‘dry
martini, shaken, not stirred.’”

“Hey.”  Clytie smacked him
on the arm.  “I was under pressure to come up with a secret code fast.  That’s
what came to mind.”

He shrugged.  “Voice
recognition.  It doesn’t matter what code you choose.”  He motioned Clytie in
the room ahead of him.  “We’ll program yours in later and you can pick whatever
you want.”

The room beyond the giant
door was a slightly smaller replica of the great room upstairs, though slightly
more utilitarian and no windows to show the forest or courtyard garden.  Still
there were comfortable couches and a full kitchen.

“Huh,” she said, looking
around a little disappointed.

“What?”

“I guess I expected an arsenal
and a wall of stacked MRE’s,” she said.  “This looks like a basement
apartment.”

“There’s an arsenal and a
shitload of MRE’s for long sieges, along with water and air filtration.  For
short stays we have real food.”

“Cool.  Frozen pizza,” Ian
said from inside the opened fridge.  “And like ten kinds of beer.”

Cassie gave him a look.

“Well, real man food.”  Ben
finished, “There's a whole freezer of meat."  Leading Cassie over to one of
the closed doors, he opened the door with another code and there was a wall of
monitors and a whole lot of buttons. 

“This is command center. 
You can see every room in the house from here, as well as the cameras we have
around the perimeter.  They are motion sensing so there will be an alert if
someone tries to come over the wall.  We have another one upstairs so this one
will only turn on if that one is compromised or one of us switched it over.” 
He pushed her down in one of the chairs.  “Ian and Cleo both know the system,
so follow their instructions to the letter.  And Cassie, no matter what you see
when they switch over, you stay here.”

“20 rampaging wolves, you
mean?”  She asked on a shaky smile.  She hated that Ben and Mac would be out
there, and she was hiding in here, but she knew without them saying it, that she
would be a liability against shapeshifting crazies.

“Something like that.”  His
voice was soft, his eyes, devoid of their usual humor, on her.  “I never had
anything worth losing before.  It makes a difference.”  She leaned up the same
time he leaned down, their lips melding, his hand touching her face.  Then he
was gone.

After Cleo showed Shawn
where she last saw Roxanne, she was forcibly pushed back toward the house. 

“I can help,” she said, her
eyes taking on a steely resolve.

Shawn narrowed his eyes. 
“Don’t push me on this Cleo.  If I have to drag your ass back to the vault it
will waste time I could be using finding Roxanne.  You want to work with your
dad?  That means you take orders just like the rest of us.”

She huffed out a breath but
nodded, resigned.  “You’re right.”  She turned to go, heading back to the
house, “but I won’t always be working for my dad.”

Shawn really didn’t like
the sound of that, but once he was sure she was headed back to safety, he put
it on the back burner.  Right now, he had a six year old to find.  He would
worry about the, too beautiful for her own good, and way too young, lioness
when the current mission was over.  Of course, if he flew his first search
pattern on the path she took back, it was no one’s business but his own.

Demon was the one who found
Roxanne, or more accurately, Roxanne found him.  He was close to two miles out
and nearly to the back wall of their property.  She fell into his arms,
literally from where she’s been hiding in one of the trees.  She reeked of wild
mint.  Demon caught her flying figure and nearly tossed her back.

He opened his mouth to
curse, but her tiny little hand on his mouth stopped him.

“Shh.”  Her voice was the
volume of a quiet wind.  “They’ll hear.”

“Who?” he whispered back
just as low.

She shrugged her tiny
shoulders.  She was covered in dirt and leaves, her hair a shambles; it looked
like she had purposefully covered herself with mud and then rolled in mint to
avoid detection.  Essie was right about one thing.  Roxanne kicked ass at hide
and seek.  She was going to need another bath.  At this rate they’d be giving
her one every damn day.

She pushed up in his arms
and whispered right into his ear.  “The ones from home.  They came to eat me.” 
She must have noticed his dubious expression, because she nodded her head with
six-year-old sureness.  “Hugo said when I was big enough to be meaty, they
would eat me.  Clide told Caty that if she ate cookies like her, her ass
wouldn’t fit through the door.”  She looked miserable.  “I ate cookies…like
lots.”  She spread her hands as far as her little arms would stretch.

“Who the f…”  Demon cleared
his throat.  “Who’s Hugo?”

“One of the wolves.”  She
leaned in again.  “He pinches and smells like fish.”

“You saw him here?”

“No.  But I was hiding from
Cleo and they were doin’ the calls.”

“Calls?”

“Bird calls, like for huntin',
over the big wall, that way,” she said pointing to the north across the
property.  “So I did what Es said and hid.”  Then her big eyes got sad.  “I
forgot to tell Cleo.”

“You did good runt.  Just
what you should.  Let’s get you home to Clytie now.”

“And ‘leo?”

“Yeah.”

“And Caty and Es?”

“Sure.”

“And you’ll pound Hugo and
he won’t eat me?”  Her little eyes were narrowed on his face.  He stopped mid
step and pulled her all the way up so that he was looking her right in the
eyes.

“No one’s gonna eat you,
kid.  I promise to pound anyone who tries.”

Then she smiled big and
hugged him around his neck as hard as her little arms could.  “’Cause you’re
the biggest and scariest best wolf ever,” she declared loudly.

“Shh,” he admonished,
clearing his suddenly raw throat.  “Let’s get you to Clytie before I have to start
pounding.” 

Shawn in hawk form flew
down for his check in and cawed when he saw Roxanne. 

“Yeah, she’s fine, but we
may have wolves on the north side behind the walls.  I’m thinking they’ll wait
until dark and then try to come over.  Let everyone know I’m taking Roxanne to
the vault and then heading that way.  See what you can see from above after you
warn the others.  Then find me.

***

“They’re staying out of
sensor range, well past the gates.  Roxanne must have killer ears because if I
hadn’t been looking, they would have stayed undetected until they approached
the wall.” 

“She’s used to hiding from
them, near as I can figure.  Recognized the hunting calls they use.”  Demon
looked grim.  “Tiny little thing was taught to hide from her own pack.  The
fuckers.”

Shawn went on with his
summary while both Lucas and Eli joined them.  Mac and Ben were keeping an eye
on the encroachers from the north wall since they were the best at remaining
undetected.  If they didn’t want you to see them, you didn’t see them, period. 
Logan was sticking close to the house just in case.  “The men Bidel hired are
good; we’ll have to take them out first.”

  “Demon,” Logan said, his
serious eyes on Demon’s.  “I know why you sent the men back alive the first
time when you killed Clancy, and you were right to try mercy when there was a
chance of stopping a feud before it started.”  His voice went utterly cold. 
“This time, they had their warning.  If we don’t utterly annihilate them,
others will see it as a weakness and we’ll be facing more challenges.”

“No,” Demon growled.  “We
end them tonight.  For whatever fucked up reason, Bidel has decided I’m his
enemy.  He wants to make war with me and mine; we’ll exterminate the fuckers
and salt his mother fuckin’ earth.”

     ***

As soon as it was dark, the
wolves started climbing over the walls.  In the vault control room, everyone
was huddled around the monitors but Roxanne and Essie, who had both
inexplicably fallen asleep in the spare room across the hall, without any
apparent trouble.

Cassie doubted she would sleep
for a week she was so keyed up.  Ian was eating and Cleo was pacing, but her
and Clytie were sitting like veg heads with their eyes glued to the screen
waiting for something to happen.

“Are you sure these
monitors are working right.”

“Yes, once again,” Ian
sighed dramatically.  “I am positive.  When there is something to see they’ll
switch on.”

Almost before he started
speaking lights flashed and two monitors came to life.

“It’s the sensors on the
walls.  They’re making their move.  Not even waiting till full dark.”  Ian
shook his head.  “Even without Roxanne’s warning we would have had time to
prepare for this breach.”

“I count six,” Clytie said,
watching the bodies move in the weird blobs of infrared.  “Where are the
others?”

“That’s a good question,”
Ian said, he looked at Cleo and she nodded.  “Diversion.”

“But diversion from what?” 
She mused, flipping a switch here and there until every room in the house was
showing on the screens, in random order.

“Hey, that’s my bedroom,”
Cassie said, as it flipped through.  She narrowed her eyes at Clytie.  “You could
have mentioned I was under surveillance.”

Her own eyes were narrowed
at the screen as rooms flew by.  “I would have if I had known.”  She slapped
herself on the forehead.  “That’s how he knows everything!  Man, he is getting
such a talking to when he gets back from his wolf mayhem.”

That had Cassie rolling her
own eyes.  “Right, would that be before or after he drags you off to bed and
gives you the business?”

Before Clytie could
retaliate, there was another sensor that went off, this one a motion detector
outside the front door.  Another monitor flickered on and they could see what
looked like 15 wolves scattered across the front lawn. 

“They breached the wall,”
Eli said grimly.  “They’ll be in the house within minutes and the others don’t
know.”

“Yes they do,” Clytie said,
pointing to another screen.  “That’s Logan at the side of the house.  What’s he
doing?”  They watched as he used his elbow to break the window he was standing
by.  Immediately there was a loud wailing and the board lit up like Christmas. 
“The others will hear that and come running.”

“But running into what?” 
Cassie asked, refusing to blink as she watched the ever-changing screens. 
“That’s a lot of wolves...and they’re in the house.”

“Relax,” Ian said, even as
his eyes darted back and forth, his pizza forgotten.  “They can’t get in here. 
There’s no need to worry.”

“It’s not me I’m worried
about.”

The monitors showed
different angels of the marauding horde of shapeshifters as they thrashed the
front hall and great room.  Few were actually shifted to wolf.  Most were just
men dressed in hunting camo or commando black. 

Cassie winced for Clytie
when one of her encaustic pieces was torn from the wall and thrown.  "Man,
the guys are going to be pissed," was all she said, but from the tone of
her voice, she was reaching that very state herself.  While some of the wolves
seemed determined to weave a path of destruction, there was a group of five, in
black, that ignored everything but the stairs.  Clearly, they had an agenda
that was not random devastation.

"These five here are
military trained," Cleo said, her eyes glued to the invaders creeping up
the stairs, her hand caressing the pommel of the knife at her hip.  "This
house has three wings, question is did they chose Demon and Clytie’s randomly
or did they know where they were going.  Either way they're heading for high
ground."

"A trap for the guys?” 
Cassie asked.  Her throat tight.

Cleo turned and looked at
her.  Her eyes were shooting gold sparks and had slit like a cats.  "Don't
worry.  They might be good, but they aren't a match for ours.  Even Ian could
take them, and he's had the least training of us all."

"Hey."  Ian
narrowed his eyes.  "I can hold my own."

"That's what I said,”
she snapped back at him.

"Yeah but your tone
was suggestive of weakness."  He grouched, "And I'm good."  He
winked at Cassie, his voice going low.  "Very, very good."

Every woman in that room
rolled her eyes in unison.  However, Cleo spoke for them all.  "Get your
head in the game dumb ass; we're under siege and you want to flirt?"

Before Ian could answer
another blinking light flashed, and he became all business.  "Second floor
breach."

"What the hell are
they looking for?"  Cleo asked, studying their movements.

"You mean who,"
Ian said grimly.  "They aren't looking for knick-knacks the way they're
moving, and it's not the guys because they were diverted away."  They all
turned to look at Clytie, who looked away from the monitor of the woods only
long enough to shrug. 

"Well, would you want
to face Demon without a hostage?"  She turned back.  "Frankly, I'm
more concerned about the guys out there than anyone in this room.  Even
professional ass kickers can have bad days."

"Infrared sucks!"
she suddenly proclaimed.  Not being able to tell light blobs apart as they
battled was driving her crazy.  Cassie had to agree, which was why she was
watching the house monitors.  At least you could tell who was who in those, even
if it was creepy watching the bad guys ransack the house she was standing in.

"There," Cassie
said.  "Logan just took out some guy on the porch.  Wow, he's fast."

"There goes another
one," Clytie called, her hand slapping down on desk making Cassandra
jump.  "Someone pulled that hairy one up to the roof."

"Shawn," Cleo
said.  "He attacks from above.  Guy was dead before he cleared the
porch."

***

Shawn laid the body down
and ran off the roof, shifting to hawk in mid jump.  He circled around the
house until he was sure no other lookouts had been posted and then entered
Clytie’s studio from the balcony.  He shifted to naked man and backed into the
shadows.  Logan would work ambush tactics around the edges while the others
were busy taking out the decoys.  They would be coming this way fast, but until
they arrived, he would see that Clytie didn't lose anything important to this
fight.

***

"I don't like this
shit.  I'm telling you there's no one here.  The intel was fucked."

"Jones, secure that
room there, and shut the fuck up."  The voice of authority was taller than
the other four men on his team, but they were all highly trained and handpicked
by him for their cool under fire and pure viciousness.  Something about this
job had them spooked and that was rare.  Benton had been led to believe this
was a simple divide and conquer.  Get the female, and kill the three wolves
that would be with her.

Now he wasn't so sure.  He
could smell at least one cat shifter lived here, and something else he couldn't
identify, but it sure as hell wasn't wolf.  Jones was right about one thing,
the intel was fucked, and if he hadn't been so blinded by the promised bonus
for fast service, he would have taken the time to verify himself.  Too late
now.  They'd have to deal with what came at them; at least the cannon fodder
rampaging downstairs would be enough of a warning when the enemy arrived.  He
moved to the next room in the hall.