Nocturne 040 – Scions 02 - Patrice Michelle - Insurrection (22 page)

Stomach tensing, Kaitlyn curled her fingers tight around the flashlight and drew comfort from the indentions Landon had left behind on the hard metal. Even though he wasn’t there, the knowledge he’d made sure she was protected kept her focused and strangely calm. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Caine peer around the corner of the brick building. She didn’t react or acknowledge him in any way as she stepped onto the crumbling sidewalk and then approached the area where Remy waited.

Turning the flashlight on, she walked into the pitch-dark under the tracks.

“Show me that you have the phone,” Remy demanded as her phone began to ring.

She pushed her keys out of the way and pulled the cell phone out of her pocket, shining the flashlight on it to let him know she’d brought it. She checked the caller I.D. and saw it was Ron’s cell.

“I can’t believe it. For once, you listened,” Remy said, when she came to a stop ten feet away from him.

“You didn’t give me any choice.” She flashed the light his way to make sure he wasn’t holding a weapon. His arms lay casually by his side, as he snapped a cell phone shut and her cell stopped ringing. The cell phone in his hand was weapon enough for her. She did not want him making any calls about her mother. Her jaw tensed.

Remy basically looked the same: medium height, short blond hair, except he’d been working out. She could tell his shoulders and chest appeared wider under his coat. But the calculating look in his brown eyes was very different. “I can’t believe that you killed Ron and you’ve threatened my mother’s life. You’ve changed a lot in two years.”

His eyes narrowed. “Much as I would like to take credit, I didn’t kill Ron and the other cop…Wayne, was it? Kent did. As far as I’m concerned, I haven’t changed. I was always the same. You were just too busy building your career to see the ‘real’ me.”

She really had been obsessed with work. Somehow his comment made her feel a little better about her misjudgment of him. She’d been right about Ron and Landon. And apparently her initial sense about Kent had been right on, if Remy was referring to her partner Kent as the man who killed Ron and Wayne.

Kaitlyn tried to stay focused and keep him talking so Caine and his guys could canvas the place for other men. “Then it’s a good thing I was oblivious or I’d have dumped your ass long before then. You’re so wrapped up in these Garotters. They have you stealing guns from Tacomi, issuing murder threats and now blackmail. They’ve warped your mind.”

“The cops’ deaths were a small price to pay for protection. The guns were needed. You’d have to be dead not to have heard the news. Two burned vampires were found in an alley. The vampires are back, Kaitlyn!”

Before she could respond, he took a breath as if to calm himself.

“Enough of this. Hand over the cell phone,” he snarled. “If I don’t call my man in—” he glanced at his watch “—seven minutes, your mother is gone.”

Kaitlyn’s heart rate ramped. She stalked toward him, stopping a couple feet away. “You lying son of a bitch! That wasn’t our deal.”

He held out his hand for the phone and gave a deadly smile. “Let’s just call it a little insurance.”

Kaitlyn started to put the phone in his hand when a heavy thump sounded over their heads. A pulsar gun rattled to the cement from the tracks above them, quickly followed by sounds of men fighting and grunts of pain.

“You bitch!” Remy grabbed the cell phone out of her hand and swung his fist toward her face.

Kaitlyn ducked and swiveled, jamming the end of the flashlight into Remy’s side as he spun out of control.

The cell phones scattered across the cement. He howled in pain and charged her, throwing her against the brick wall.

As air whooshed from her lungs and pain splinted up her spine, Remy grabbed her neck and squeezed hard.

Panicking, she dropped the flashlight and tried to pull his hands off her neck, digging her nails into his skin. Her vision blurred, but she managed to knee him in the groin.

Remy flinched and his hold slipped a little, allowing her to take a breath. She was about to knee him once more when he was suddenly ripped away from her and thrown across the street, where his body collided with the other brick building.

Roman and Laird were in her face, their expressions full of concern.

“Are you okay? Can you breathe?”

She saw Remy try to take a swing at Caine from his hands and knees position, but Caine slammed his fist into his face, sending him to the ground.

Kaitlyn knew how strong and deadly the weres could be. She managed to croak, “Don’t let Caine kill him.”

Laird shot across the thirty-foot distance, capturing Caine’s fist before it came back down on Remy, who was struggling to get up. “Easy, bud. She wants him alive.”

Kaitlyn approached Remy and stood over him. Blood trickled from his busted lip. He blinked several times, trying to stay conscious as he leaned up on his elbow. A triumphant smile tilted his swelling lip. “Your mom’s time is up.”

Rage consumed her, turning her stomach. “You’re going to call off your man!” Kaitlyn growled and reached for Remy’s jacket. He jerked away from her grasp and fell back onto the pavement. “Too late.” He laughed before his eyes rolled back in his head and he passed out. Kaitlyn immediately ran back across the street to retrieve Landon’s cell phone from the cement. Her throat constricted as she flipped open the phone. Locking gazes with Caine, she called out in a curt voice, “Your number.”

While Caine rattled off his cell number, she quickly dialed. When the phone finally started to ring, she sent a silent prayer that Landon had reached her mother in time.

The phone rang and rang and rang until the voice mail picked up. Caine walked up beside her and she shut the phone. “He’s not answering.”

He turned and barked orders to Laird and Roman. “Get the two men we took down, as well as this prick.” He gestured to Remy’s unconscious body. “There’s some rope in the back of the truck. Tie them up and keep them quiet until we return.”

Nodding to Kaitlyn, his expression hardened to grim lines. “Let’s get to the hospital.”

Kaitlyn let Caine drive her car so she could continue to try Caine’s cell number as they drove to the hospital. She quickly discovered werewolves’ fast reflexes came in handy. Caine flew down the roads so fast, she didn’t dare look at the speedometer, let alone the objects zooming past in a blur of dark shadows; buildings, cars and streetlights. Something Landon had said about being created by the vampires came back to her when she glanced Caine’s way. “You’re not really Landon’s little brother, are you?”

He smiled and shook his head. “No, but it was the best way at the time to explain me breaking his door down. I thought he was hurt. He’d let out this wailing howl—” Caine stopped speaking and cleared his throat.

“Well, anyway. Landon might not be my flesh-and-blood brother, but he’s been a wonderful mentor. I would follow his lead any day over that idiot Nathan.”

His comment surprised her. “Landon’s not your leader?”

Caine shook his head as he parked in front of the hospital. “No, he’s not Alpha, but he should be.”

Kaitlyn’s thoughts shifted back to her mom as she jumped out of the car and ran toward the hospital. Caine zipped past and held the hospital’s glass entrance door, waiting for her to catch up.

She reached the door and said, “Mom’s on the fourth floor. Room fourtwenty. I’ll be there as soon as I can. Go!”

Caine was gone in an instant, so fast he was just a dark blur speeding down the hall. Only the door to the stairs slowly closing told her where he’d gone.

As Kaitlyn took the cement stairs two at a time, she considered alerting hospital security, but she didn’t know what they’d encounter up there in her mother’s room; human or panther bad guys. She didn’t want to endanger any more people than necessary, not to mention exposing Landon and Caine if their werewolf half was called on to protect her mother.

When she reached the fourth floor, Kaitlyn pulled her gun from the holster around her ankle, then quietly opened the stairwell an inch. A strong antiseptic smell wafted her way, making her nose itch. She peered through the crack. Early morning quiet and fluorescent lights shone down the deserted hall. The nurses’ station was empty. Tucking her hand and the small gun inside her sweat jacket’s front pocket, Kaitlyn opened the door. She walked briskly down the hall and was going to zip past the desk when she saw the nurse’s rolling chair overturned next to a lateral filing cabinet. Paperwork was everywhere. Heart pounding, Kaitlyn ran up to the desk and peered over the edge. A nurse with short blond hair was lying on her back. Blood pooled on the carpet from a wound on the side of her head.

Rushing around the desk, Kaitlyn knelt next to the young woman and felt for a pulse on her neck. She had one, but it was sluggish. Kaitlyn stood and quickly grabbed the phone. Dialing zero she waited for the man at the front desk to answer.

“Front desk.”

“This is Kaitlyn McKinney. A nurse on the fourth floor has been injured. She’s lying on the floor behind the nurse’s station. Tell them to hurry. She’s lost a lot of blood.”

“Sweet mercy. I’m on it!”

After he hung up, Kaitlyn dialed 9-1-1. Once she’d called the incident in, she rounded the nurse’s station and ran down the hall to her mother’s room. One person poked his head outside his room door, then quickly shut it as she zoomed past.

Kaitlyn’s throat seized as she entered the room. It was in total shambles. The tray table was bent in half and the chair that usually resided beside her mother’s bed was across the room, broken apart in two pieces. Marbles were scattered everywhere and the glass vase was broken on the floor at the foot of the bed.

Caine stood, fist in the air, over a dark-haired man who was either passed out cold or dead. Her gaze quickly locked on her mother, who lay quietly with her eyes shut.

Dear God, please let her be alive. Pushing marbles to the side with her shoes, Kaitlyn rushed to her mother’s side and lifted her limp hand. Her mother’s face was in deep-sleep repose. Kaitlyn pressed her thumb to her mother’s wrist and waited to feel a pulse.

A steady thump rushed under her thumb as Caine said in a soft voice beside her, “Landon got here in time. They were in her room but didn’t get a chance to touch her. I’m amazed she slept through all the ruckus.”

“It’s the meds she’s on for the pain. They make her sleep deeply.” She touched her mother’s salt-and-pepper hair and her heart ached. Turning her attention to Caine, she frowned.

“Where’s Landon?”

Caine’s expression hardened and he jerked his chin toward the window.

“He went after the panther.”

Kaitlyn followed his direction. The room’s window had been completely shattered. She’d been so caught up in making sure her mom was okay she hadn’t noticed the cooler night air flowing into the room, or Landon’s torn, bloodstained T-shirt on the floor below the window. Her stomach tensed. “You think he’ll be okay?”

“He’ll be fine.” Caine grinned. “He’d howl if he needed me.”

Shaking her head, Kaitlyn pulled the extra blanket at the bottom of the bed up over her mother’s legs and upper body and tried to not worry too much about Landon.

She glanced at the man still lying on the floor. “Tell me he’s still breathing.”

Caine snorted in disgust, then nodded.

Relieved, Kaitlyn swept the room, looking for the notepad that usually resided on her mother’s tray stand. When she saw it underneath her mother’s bed, she retrieved the pad and found the pen on the floor next to the mangled tray stand. That’s when her gaze landed on the automatic handgun under her mother’s bed.

“It was his,” Caine sneered, jerking his gaze to the man on the floor. Kaitlyn kicked the gun across the room, then began to scribble a note on the paper. “I had to call the police. A nurse was attacked down the hall. You need to go. Get back to Laird and Roman.” She tore off the paper and put the note in his hand. “Deliver Remy and his men to the front door of the precinct, along with this note. Then take off. Don’t stick around.”

Caine crumpled the note slightly and glared at the guy on the floor. “I should stay with you.”

Her eyebrow rose. “He’s human, isn’t he?”

“Much to my disappointment.” He sounded annoyed. “Landon was fighting them both, trying to keep the men away from your mom when I came in. Once the Velius saw he was outnumbered by two weres, he jumped through the window.”

Loud voices and radio squawks echoed outside in the hall. The police had arrived. Kaitlyn’s pulse raced. She shooed Caine toward the door. “Go!”

He shoved the note in his pocket and shot past her.

Turning, she called out, “Not that way…” but he was already diving out the window. She ran to the window and barely caught a glimpse of him as he zigzagged around several cars, a shadowy blur in the dark night.

“Show-off,” she muttered.

The sound of a man groaning drew her attention. Kaitlyn turned at the same time the dark-haired man on the floor rolled over, holding his jaw. Fists clenched, she moved close when she realized who he was. The partner Ron had assigned her. Ron had trusted Kent with his life; had believed him to be an honorable man.

“My jaw,” Kent moaned and curled onto his side, holding his face. “I think it’s broken.”

“I doubt it. Though if it is, it’s no less than you deserve, you murdering bastard.”

He growled and swiped for her ankles. She jumped into the air, avoiding his hand. As her feet landed, she brought her fist straight down on his cheekbone, knocking him out once more. “That’s for trying to kill my mom!” she gritted out and shook her hand to dissipate the pain splintering through it. Damn, his face was hard.

After she’d tossed the broken chair out the window to explain the window’s condition, she restrapped her small gun in her ankle holder, then balled up Landon’s torn shirt and tucked it next to her keys in the front pocket of her sweat jacket.