Things That Go Hump In The Night (22 page)

"Don't bother trying to shape-shift," he advised. "It takes too long if you're in a fight. Call upon your wolf for added strength and speed, but don't let her take over."

By the time Mark was finished with her each night around 11:00 p.m., leaving her bruised and tired, Nicole had just enough energy to take a shower before falling into bed.

More often than not, it was a bed shared with Gabriel in his full blue glory. He had stopped wearing his glamour when they were in private.

Weirdly, the mark she had made on his throat hadn't faded, though it no longer showed in his human disguise.

She saw him touching it from time to time, with a small, satisfied smile, and the sight of it made her wolf very happy.

Nicole herself wasn't sure how she felt about leaving a permanent scar on her boyfriend, especially since it seemed to carry some kind of deeper meaning to both her wolf and to Gabriel. But since Gabriel apparently didn't mind, she tried not to worry about it too much.

Nicole fell asleep in Gabriel's arms nearly every night, surrounded by his wonderful, masculine scent. She found she missed him with a visceral longing on the occasional nights they spent apart, and she slept poorly on those nights.

In the morning, he'd serve her strong coffee in bed, with a side of sweet, hot sex. That alone qualified him as a "keeper," in her book.

Nicole wasn't sure what she'd done to deserve someone this perfect for her, and she sometimes wondered if Gabriel would eventually get tired of her, but for now, she was enjoying the hell out of being his girlfriend.

She just wished she had more hours in the day...and that she wasn't always covered with bruises from sparring with Mark.

The one time she dared to complain to Mark about that, he rolled his eyes at her with a disgusted sigh.

"You gotta do this stuff over and over again to build muscle memory. That way, when the shit hits the fan, you don’t freeze up and get killed. You just do what you gotta do, no thought required."

Mark folded his arms across his chest and looked her up and down with his icy gray eyes.

Nicole glared back resentfully. They'd been doing hand-to-hand combat drills for over two hours now. She was sweaty and breathing hard, and he didn't look like he'd been doing anything more difficult than a few warm-up exercises.

"Gabriel tell you that I worked my way up through the legionary ranks from grunt to centurion?" Mark asked.

Nicole nodded.

"You gotta understand, we centurions were the guys who kept things running on a day-to-day basis," Mark said. "And one of the things I did was to train and drill the legion's new recruits. They started off as farm boys, spoiled brats, and petty criminals, and by the time I was done with 'em, they were
soldiers
, part of the best and most disciplined army in the fucking world."

"I had a vine-stick, back then," he continued in a reminiscent tone. "And I used it to beat those lessons into my newbies until I was damned sure they could do those drills in their sleep. Because that's how I made sure my boys would survive their twenty-year enlistment, collect their retirement bonuses, and end up fat and happy with a wife and a pack of kids. Those were worth a few bruises from their centurion, don't you think?"

Nicole stared at him, wide-eyed.

"We may be living in a kinder and gentler age now," Mark finished with a sneer, "but if I catch you being a lazy-ass, I can and will get myself a vine-stick and use it on you until you can repeat those moves in your sleep, when shit-faced drunk, or if you're taken by surprise.
Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir," gulped Nicole, unable to meet his now-golden eyes.

Mark Aquila was
not
the kind of man to make empty threats.

"Good. Now, get into position, and this time, put some real muscle into that kick."

* * *

If I hurry
, Nicole thought, as she drove home at the end of a long week of really long days at Archangel,
I might have enough time for a quick shower and some makeup before I go meet Gabriel.

It was finally Friday, and Mark had given her a rare night off from training.

Gabriel had made reservations at Chiang Mai, a new high-end Asian fusion restaurant near his loft. Nicole was looking forward to spending some time with him when she wasn't completely exhausted or covered in fresh bruises.

On Monday afternoon, Betty's QA team had discovered serious bugs in the latest build, thanks to a last-minute addition of a set of new features.

Rafe had protested vigorously when he was told about the additional features, but Gabriel had insisted that they were needed to close a huge deal by quarter end.

Their argument had been epic, conducted behind closed doors, but at a high enough volume that the entire product development and QA staff could hear every word being exchanged...at least until the brothers switched to Greek.

Twenty minutes later, Rafe had emerged from Gabriel's office, his eyes nearly incandescent with rage.

The normally laid-back VP of Product Development had been snarling when he called an emergency meeting of the Archangel 2.0 team.

Cowed by their boss's unusual display of bad temper, the team had spent the next three hours in a huddle, scribbling diagrams and ideas on the conference room whiteboards as they discussed how they were going to create and incorporate the new features into the existing code line...without missing the original delivery date for the product.

Prakash's return from India had been delayed by a family emergency, so Nicole had pitched in to help fix bugs while Rafe conducted code reviews of all the new code and fixes.

Nicole knew she'd probably have to spend Saturday afternoon and most of Sunday at the office if the bug fixes were going to make it into the Monday noon build, but at least she'd get to spend tonight and tomorrow morning with Gabriel.

She parked her Honda in her driveway and got out.

As she climbed the porch stairs to her house, she tried to decide whether she wanted to get up earlier to cook Gabriel breakfast tomorrow or tempt him to stay in bed with her as long as possible.

"Hello, Nicky-pet," said a deep voice that had haunted her nightmares for six years.

A tall man stepped out of the shadows of her porch.

Erik Asura was now a Nordic blond, a beautiful man with a chiseled jaw and the profile of a Greek god, but she would have recognized him anywhere.

Nicole didn't think, just reacted in the way that Mark had drilled into her: grab the pendant around her neck, trigger the panic button. Then kick Erik in the stomach with all her werewolf-enhanced strength.

Mark's gonna be proud of me for putting some muscle into that
, she thought, as Erik flew backwards and hit one of the supporting columns of her porch. He folded over and dropped to his knees with an explosive grunt.

Then she turned and ran like hell.

She almost made it to her car before he shouted something in a guttural language. The words resonated in her head as the air turned to ice around her, immobilizing her with invisible bonds. The familiar scent of cold magic surrounded her.

"You treacherous little bitch," growled Erik as he stalked toward her. "You caused me a great deal of inconvenience when you ran away."

With satisfaction, Nicole saw he was moving stiffly.
Good. I hope I ruptured something.

"In my day, we knew how to punish runaways. You belong to
me
, Nicky, and I'm going to ensure you don't forget it."

Paralyzed by whatever spell he had used on her, Nicole couldn't make a sound as he picked her up with effortless strength and carried her to the van he had parked nearby.

Chapter 16 – Taken

Gabriel was waiting in the dimly lit bar at Chiang Mai, sipping a Scotch, when his phone shrilled with an alert. His heart turned to ice as he pulled the noisy, vibrating device out of his pocket and stared at the screen.

It confirmed what he had already guessed.

Nicole's panic button had been pressed, and the location was her home.

Ignoring the glares of the quiet restaurant's other patrons, he threw a $50 bill on the bar and ran for his car with reckless preternatural speed.

He had just unlocked the Tesla's door when his phone rang again.

It was Mark. "I'm on my way," he said coolly. "Meet you there. ETA?"

"I can be there in seven minutes," snapped Gabriel. "Is she okay?"

The momentary pause before Mark answered confirmed Gabriel's worst fears.

"She's been taken. We'll find her and get her back." Mark paused again. "I've already contacted Rafe. He said he was getting a lock on the geo-tracker's signal and that he'll call us when the rest of the footage from her security cameras has been downloaded. Should only be a few more minutes."

* * *

Gabriel drove as fast as he dared through the crowded city streets to Nicole's neighborhood.

Mark had already arrived when Gabriel pulled into Nicole's driveway, just behind her old red Honda.

The stocky shape-shifter was kneeling on the porch of the old house, carefully examining something that lay on the floorboards.

With a sinking feeling, Gabriel recognized Nicole's large combination purse and laptop bag, some of its contents spilling out onto the scarred wood. Her wallet was still there, as was her smartphone...and the slim, silvery rectangle of her laptop.

"I got the bastard's scent," Mark said, as Gabriel climbed the porch steps. His tone was calm and controlled, but his gray eyes had turned golden. "It was one of the Asura clan."

The news felt like a spear through Gabriel's heart.

"Nicole
knew
this would happen, and we talked her into staying. Damn it!" he exploded. "I wish I'd insisted on a bodyguard..."

"Yeah, and who'd take on
that
job?" Mark said with sharp sarcasm. "One of my mortal staff? Against a guy who can kidnap a shape-shifter that
I
trained? Or did a Child of Lilith suddenly become available for guard duty?"

Gabriel looked at Mark, shocked.

Mark sighed and shook his head. "What I'm trying to say is, don't beat yourself up, kiddo. We took every reasonable precaution, and Nicole probably did everything I trained her to, but this guy is really old and extremely powerful."

Gabriel had rarely felt so helpless in over a century of life. And it pissed him off.

"All right," he snarled. "Erik Asura may be an ancient, powerful son of a bitch, but I have the resources of Archangel Security Networks to draw on and a shitload of the latest technology. And you and Rafe."

"So what do you want to do now?" Mark asked, smiling a little, as if Gabriel's reaction pleased him.

"Now we track the SOB down, retrieve Nicole, and make him sorry he ever fucked with any of us," Gabriel said.

* * *

"What do you mean, you lost her signal?" demanded Gabriel. "What the fuck was the use of giving her that pendant if we can't track her with it?"

He and Mark had returned to Archangel's headquarters just a few minutes earlier, in hopes that Rafe would be able to extract some useful information from the tiny security cameras installed around the perimeter of Nicole's house.

They were now planted in Rafe's messy office, which was overflowing with stacks of technical books, printouts of specifications, and items that Gabriel categorized as "random pieces of junk" but which were probably vital to his brother's latest bout of tinkering.

Rafe looked up from his computer, scowling.

"Geo-trackers have limitations," he said defensively, "especially since you can't put a decent satellite antenna on a tracker and still plausibly make it look like a piece of jewelry. Ever wonder why you have to mount a car's GPS unit right under the windshield? Anything blocking the unit's line-of-sight—like sheet metal—means no signal."

"Shit," said Gabriel, still intently watching the security feed from the cameras installed around Nicole's home.

In the HD video, Nicole flinched away from the tall, blond-haired man confronting her, grabbed for her pendant, and then kicked the man in the stomach.

He flew back out of range of the camera.

"Good girl," murmured Mark, who was peering over Gabriel's shoulder. "Looks like all of those drills paid off."

"Except for the part where Asura still manages to throw her into his van and drive off with her," Rafe observed in a sarcastic tone.

"And we can't track her?" Gabriel asked, racked by desperation and fear on Nicole's behalf.

He thought of something and touched the mark on his throat—a mating mark bestowed by her wolf. Then he used his rudimentary magic to search for her, hoping the bond they now shared was strong enough.

He got only the sense of cold, and dark, and Nicole's terror. But she was alive. That much was good news.

On Rafe's monitor, camera footage showed a light-colored van pulling away from the curb. The angle made it impossible to see the license plate.

Rafe sighed, frowning. "Believe me, I hate this as much as you do, Gabi." 

Gabriel knew it was true. Nicole was the closest thing to a friend that his brother had made among the mortals in this city.

"Look, as long as Nicole is still wearing her pendant," Rafe continued, "we'll be able to find her when she gets out of the van, as long as there's a cell phone tower nearby. That bastard can't hide her from us forever."

No, but he can hide her long enough to hurt her,
Gabriel thought, his deepest fears rising to the surface.

Mark put a comforting hand on Gabriel's shoulder. "We'll find her, kiddo. And we'll get her back. I swear it."

Rafe had looped the feed from the cameras, so Gabriel and Mark watched the entire sequence several times, trying to glean any clues that would assist in their search

"I got a blip...just for a moment," Rafe said, his eyes gleaming with excitement. "Lost the signal almost immediately, but it looks like Erik is heading up State Route 37 through West Ohlone County."

"He's heading for Árboles Grandes State Park?" asked Gabriel. 

"Close," answered Rafe, his fingers flying over his keyboard with a chattering sound. "Look, if he follows the same MO he used in Massachusetts, then he's taking Nicole to a house in an isolated location...I'm thinking Bosque Oscuro or thereabouts."

"That would make sense," Gabriel said, feeling a bit of hope piercing his black despair like a ray of light. "I've been there. It's mostly vacation houses and cabins on wooded lots, not a lot of year-round residents."

"So he's taken our Nicole to the little house in the big woods?" murmured Mark dryly.

"Not for long. We'll take the Tesla," Gabriel said. "It's big enough to hold all of us and fast enough to go like a bat out of hell. And I just charged up, so we're good to go for 400 miles."

"I have my Hunter's kit in the trunk of my rental car. We'll need that if we're going after one of the Asura," Mark said. "I'll meet you by your car in five minutes."

"I'm coming, too," Rafe said, not unexpectedly. "I'll bring my laptop, but the modifications I made to your car's GPS should pick up on Nicole's geo-tracker once she leaves the van.
If
all those fucking trees don't block the signal—I fucking hate redwood forests right now."

* * *

Frozen by Erik's icy spell, Nicole lay helpless in the dark, windowless cargo area of his van and struggled just to breathe.

They were on a highway or freeway, driving at a constant speed, no sharp turns or slowing for signals.

The long drive gave her far too much time to think.

Over and over again, she relived her epic failure to defend herself.

And now her worst nightmare had come true. Erik had found her, and all of Mark's training hadn't been enough to get away from him.

She heard Mark's voice in her memory, sharp with contempt:
You're a fucking disgrace to shape-shifters.

Oh, God, he had been so right. Mark had tried so hard to bring her up to speed, and she had done her best to learn from him.

And yet, here she was.

Though it had been damned satisfying to land that kick in Erik's gut, it hadn't made much of a difference. He'd still managed to whammy her with his magic and throw her into the van like a bag of groceries.

Mark was right. I'm a massive failure as a shape-shifter. I wish I'd listened to my gut and gotten the hell out of Dodge
.

But then she wouldn't have had the chance to date...to
love
...Gabriel.

Until tonight, she had been having the best month of her life, working at her dream job with the best product development team she'd ever had and with a dream boyfriend. No longer haunted by her past, and free of the red string bracelet at last.

Was it worth it?
she asked herself.

Hell, yeah
. Even if she was completely screwed now, it had been
so
worth it to become Rafe's friend and Mark's student, as he showed her how cool it was to be a shape-shifter. And, most of all, being Gabriel's lover had made her very happy.

She was only sorry that it hadn't lasted longer.

One month. One fucking month of happiness, that's all I get?

Gabriel will find us,
her wolf said unexpectedly.
He is our mate, and he will always find us.

If only Nicole could believe that, alone and in the dark as the van sped steadily away from the city.

* * *

Eventually, the van slowed and made a left turn. When they resumed driving, it was at a much slower speed.

Gradually, Nicole became aware of the scents of fresh grass, bay leaf, sage, and rosemary filtering in, tainted by Erik's musky scent. Soon those scents were replaced by the distinctive vanilla-and-pine aroma of redwood bark.

The van turned again, this time more sharply. She heard the crunch of gravel as they left the paved road. The next few minutes were spent driving very slowly up what felt like a bumpy dirt road, gravel crunching loudly under the van's tires.

Erik stopped the van and turned off the engine.

Tensely, Nicole waited, surrounded by the scents of redwood and the sound...of nothing. No traffic, no music, just the gentle sound of wind moving through tree branches.

They must be north of the city and pretty damned far away from civilization, she realized.

Scream out here, and no one will hear you.

This time, it wasn't funny. She strained at her invisible bonds and discovered that they held her just as tightly as ever.

The van's rear side-panel sliding door began to open. Nicole saw Erik's dark shape looming just beyond.

"Come on out, Nicky," he ordered, and she felt the bonds of his spell loosen their hold on her.

Nicole loosened her control over her wolf as Mark had taught her.

With a snarl, she leapt up and hurled herself out of the van in a flash, her teeth bared and aching with the transformation that had lengthened them into long, sharp fangs.

She couldn't see much in the darkness, but she knew damned sure where Erik's throat was.

Her wolf thirsted for the taste of his hot blood in her mouth.

But Erik's spell slammed back into her before she reached him. Nicole's limbs and mouth froze into immobility.

She crashed into him, unable to change direction and utterly unable to attack.

He staggered backwards under the impact of her body against his.

Then he began to laugh as she fell to his feet with a jarring thump and sprawled in the gravel, unable to move.

"Oh, Nicky-pet, you've become a naughty little wolf," he crooned, stooping over her. "Time for a little retraining, I think.

He scooped her up in his arms with little effort, surrounding her with the scent that had haunted her nightmares for years.

She shuddered at his touch—possessive, smothering,
evil
.

Erik carried her into the house, which was dark and cold. As they walked through the living room, Nicole caught glimpses of furniture silhouettes and smelled the traces of old wood smoke from a large, empty river stone fireplace.

He took her upstairs to a large room that she guessed was the master bedroom.

There, Erik dropped her feet-first onto a carpeted floor, with an impact that jarred her teeth, and turned on the lights.

At first, blinded by the sudden brightness after being in the dark for so long, Nicole couldn't see anything.

Then she saw that the room was carpeted in the same cheap beige wall-to-wall carpet she had seen in every rental apartment she'd ever lived in. It was furnished with a large four-poster bed made from a wrought-iron frame.