Marked (6 page)

Alec
hung up on her and then turned back to Donovan. "Get me someone
important in the Del Rio pack and then get started directing traffic
out there. We've almost waited too long if we're going to make some
of those intercepts work. I kept hoping that we would be able to get
in contact with more of our people, but it can't be helped now. Once
we have all of the intercepts in motion we can go back to trying to
contact whoever we still haven't heard from. I doubt we'll be able to
use them to set up any more intercepts, but maybe they will be able
to tip the odds further in our direction at some of the fights we're
already committed to."

Donovan
nodded and began pulling up the number Alec had asked for. Alec gave
me a tired smile. "They are going to need your help on the
phones, Adri, if we're going to make this work. Just hang in there
for a few more hours and things should calm down enough that we can
start rotating people out for breaks."

"I
know, don't worry about me. I'll call as many people as I have to."

Donovan
looked up and pointed at Alec's headset. "I'm putting you
through to a hybrid named Tiffany Marks. The last information I got
out of Del Rio is that she's the one calling the shots right now."

I
walked back over to my laptop and slipped on my headset as Alec
adjusted his boom mike.

"This
is Alec Graves. Am I talking to Tiffany Marks? Good, I have a
business proposition for you. No, I don't care about your supposed
neutrality. You're going to listen to me. Why? Because I'm the reason
you're in power right now. Without me your whole pack would still be
under Lori's thumb."

Alec's
voice was completely emotionless. It was like nothing I'd ever heard
out of him before and it was driven home to me once again that Alec
had grown up in a very different world than I had. I was completely
lost when it came to high-stakes negotiations, but Alec was perfectly
at home in a world where showing the wrong emotion at the wrong time
could result in people getting killed.

"I'm
sorry, but a simple 'thank you' isn't going to balance the ledger
between us. Yes, you could hang up on me, but if you do that I'll
burn your entire pack to the ground and salt the earth as I leave
town. Don't tell me that you don't think I could do it. We both know
I wouldn't even have to see to it myself."

My
hand was hurting, but I didn't understand why until I realized that
it was clenched around the red coffee mug that I'd filled with water
hours before.

Alec
continued on, oblivious to how much distress he was causing me.

"No,
you're right, on the face of things, that's not very much in keeping
with my public persona of justice and mercy, but I know something you
don't. You see, I'm fully aware that you've kept Everett locked up in
a cage since shortly after you realized that he and his daughter have
spent the last ten years playing you all for fools. I know that
you've kept Lori in a drug-induced coma for weeks now, and that you
killed Everett's right-hand man when he protested against what your
little cabal was doing.

"How
is that relevant? It's relevant because your entire pack has done
enough wrong over the course of your coup that I'm sure I can find a
pretext for executing you and the rest of the ring-leaders once I
come to power. You have a choice—you can hang up on me now and
hope that the Coun'hij succeeds, or you can do me a favor in exchange
for leniency after I come to power.

"I
want Lori, Everett, and anyone else you can spare on a plane to Utah
in the next ten minutes. You have exactly one hour and forty-eight
minutes to have Lori on the ground in Nephi, Utah and she needs to be
awake and able to use her power against the Coun'hij enforcers who
will be rolling into town five minutes after your arrival.

"I'm
fully aware what that will mean. I suggest you leave half the pack
behind to start packing. You'll want to be out of town before the
Coun'hij can reposition one of their strike teams to come after your
people.

"You
don't have the option of sitting on the fence and we both know it.
Right now you're down three hybrids, and without Lori you don't have
anyone who's capable of playing the kinds of diplomatic games that
have allowed you to stay neutral up until now. It was only going to
be a matter of time before you were going to have to pick a side. All
I've done is move up the schedule a little bit."

I
didn't get a chance to listen in on the end of the conversation
because my headset started ringing as Donovan finally got the
outbound call details fed into the queue.

Adriana Paige
Interstate 15
Western Montana

The next two hours were every bit as much of a nightmare as I'd expected
them to be. On the one hand it was good, because Donovan kept me busy
making dozens of phone calls to reroute our people to the ambush
sites that Alec had picked out, but it was exhausting to project an
air of calm assurance while knowing just how fragile Alec's solution
really was.

I
caught bits and pieces of what was going on around me. When we
stopped for gas, Mallory tried to change over to our RV from the
other one where Alec had assigned her when the calls had first
started coming in. She wasn't happy when Alec told her there wasn't
room for her inside of our vehicle, but she didn't have Donovan's
computer expertise, she couldn't take over as the driver, and both
Vik and I were in the middle of calls so she couldn't kick either of
us out.

I
heard Alec try to call Shawn and Ulrich at least two or three times
to no avail. I got the impression when he finally got ahold of Jaclyn
that she was too far away to be of any help. Alec asked her to go to
Chicago instead and see what she could dig up on Ulrich's people.

That
would have been depressing enough all by itself, but I also got the
feeling that neither Tasha or Grayson had gotten back to us, which
meant that everyone I was sending toward Nephi at varying speeds so
that they would all arrive in town at the same time was probably
headed into a gigantic trap.

The
worst was when Daphne came up on my queue. I took a deep breath and
then pushed the dial button.

"Hello?"

"Daphne,
it's me, Adriana Paige again."

"Oh,
thank goodness. I have to admit I was starting to get worried after
so long without hearing from you. I called back in to let you know
that I'd turned around as you instructed, but your bodyguard refused
to let me through to talk to you."

"I'm
sorry about that, Daphne. We got you headed north, which was the most
important thing, so there were some other…issues that needed
handling before I could get back to you. We're going to have you meet
up with several of our people in a little town called Nephi. Do you
still have enough gas to make it there?"

Apparently
something in my voice gave me away—even over the phone. Daphne
was quiet for several seconds and then sighed. "You're going to
have to work on that, Adriana. Even good queens have to keep secrets
from people. I hope you don't mind some unsolicited advice from an
old woman who's way out of line right now, but you need to spend some
time with someone you trust practicing the art of misdirection. How
bad are things, really?"

"Pretty
bad. You aren't the only one who is being followed by enforcers. Alec
is redeploying people to try to ambush the Coun'hij teams, but we're
awfully spread out and some people had a lot less fuel in their tanks
than you did when they realized that they'd picked up a tail."

"Is
there actually anyone waiting for me in Nephi?"

"Yeah,
there will be, but most of them have tails of their own. Alec is
trying to get one or more of our powerful hybrids down there to give
you all the edge that you'll need to come out on top, but I'm not
sure if they are going to make it there on time. Stay in your car for
as long as possible and if push comes to shove change shapes and make
a run for the location I'm texting you right now."

It
wasn't much, but it was all that I could offer her, and we both knew
it. After my call with Daphne, things slowed down enough that I was
able to catch more of what was going on, albeit in a second-hand
manner, but for some reason it refused to integrate into any kind of
cohesive picture. All I registered was fragments of information,
pieces of scenes.

At
one point Donovan looked up from his computer, hand pressed against
his headset to make sure he could hear what was being said.

"The
first ambush was a success. Louis reports that they drove off the
enforcers with only three casualties."

Alec
didn't even blink. "What was our loss ratio and how many of them
did we kill? I need to know if we're losing ground to them."

"We
lost two wolves and a hybrid in return for three of their hybrids."

"Fine,
that means the odds shifted slightly in our favor. Tell Louis to get
everyone there consolidated into the largest three or four vehicles
and get on their way. They can bandage each other up while they are
driving—we need them at the next site as soon as possible or
the Coun'hij will beat them there."

I
was on the phone for the next fight. I'd been guiding one of our
wolves who was having a hard time finding the industrial park where
we were staging the next fight. I'd just asked him if he could see
the rendezvous site coming up on his right when he swore and floored
the car. Two seconds later a terrible crash was the last thing I
heard before the line went dead.

I
didn't find out until later that the Coun'hij had correctly guessed
his destination and tried to set up a counter-ambush. They'd
underestimated how many of our people Alec had waiting there and the
numbers were almost even right up until our guy slammed his car into
one of the Coun'hij's hybrids. The driver ended up with a concussion
and all of our people got injured in one way or another, but that
time we managed to kill two hybrids before being chased off by the
arrival of the car that had been tailing the wolf I'd been on the
phone with.

They
were going to be in for a long, tense drive, but they had a full tank
of gas, which meant that they had time before they could be forced
into another fight. Alec moved them to the bottom of the priority
list and started scrambling for another way to fill in the hole that
had been created by our not managing to leave the ambush site without
a tail.

I
watched the clock slowly count down to the time for the ambush in
Nephi and my insides clenched tighter and tighter with each passing
minute. I was so focused on the impending massacre in Southern Utah
that I completely forgot about the fact that we'd been headed to
Idaho with the intention of setting up an ambush designed to save the
other half of our people.

It
took me completely by surprise when the massive RV gently shuddered
to a stop. Alec was at my side before I even managed to get out of my
chair.

"I
want you to stay inside the RV, Adri. This should be a quick, easy
fight, but there's still no reason to risk you."

I
wanted to argue with him, wanted to tell him that I belonged by his
side, but I knew exactly how tight our timing was on this particular
operation. I couldn't bring myself to argue with him, not this time,
not when I knew doing so could end up costing lives.

"Fine,
I'll stay inside, but I want you to take Vik with you. If things go
badly I want you to have all the help possible out there."

"Okay.
I'll take Vik and Donovan can stay here to drive the RV in case we
need to bug out quickly."

"No,
take Donovan out there too. I can drive the RV."

Alec
wanted to argue with me, but I could see the same understanding in
his eyes that was in the forefront of my mind. We simply didn't have
time to waste, not if we were going to save our people. I got a short
nod and then the rest of the shape shifters started filing out of the
vehicle.

I
worked my way up past all of the laptops and settled into the
driver's seat, unrolling the passenger's window so I would be able to
hear what was going on.

Whoever
had picked this location for the ambush site had been nothing less
than brilliant—it was that perfect. We were situated in some
kind of low, natural amphitheater in the middle of a lava field. We
were parked on a large stretch of blacktop that seemed to indicate
someone had been planning on building something out here at some
point in the past, but if so they'd never followed up.

Paul,
Alec's bodyguard, had parked our vehicle so that we were facing back
the direction we'd come from, but I noted that only because it meant
that I wouldn't have to turn the beast of an RV around if we did have
to leave in a hurry. The other RV was parked just to the left of me,
and I looked over expecting to find Mallory sitting behind the wheel,
but the driver's seat was empty.

A
few seconds of searching let me find Mallory, who was obviously in no
condition to be in the middle of any kind of fight. That didn't seem
to be stopping her though and even Donovan's beseeching looks in her
direction didn't seem to be having any kind of effect on her. She had
some kind of pistol hanging from the end of her arm and seemed to
know how to use it.

"I
want everyone to spread out in an arc. Stay far enough back that you
don't get caught up in the area of effect of my ability, but if
something goes wrong be ready to jump in and help out the new
arrivals."

Alec's
orders got a round of nods and then everyone turned towards the
entrance of the amphitheater. A few seconds later I was able to hear
it too, an engine under hard acceleration. The white subcompact that
raced into view caused Alec and Donovan to look at each other in
astonishment.