Wolf Creek Enforcer (17 page)

She needed to be far enough away from him so that she could travel without him latching on to her.
 

His back was to her as he walked away through an archway leading to another room.  She was stunned, her brain frozen as to why he would leave her alone.  Fight or flight? 
Travel now or get outside first?  While her mind struggled to comprehend what was happening, her legs were already moving to the front door.  Wrenching it open, her foot was on the threshold about to push off and run when she felt a sharp sting in her shoulder. 

“Sorry darling, I can’t have you fighting me.  I expect we’ll have company soon and I have things to do before your fri
ends arrive.  I’m afraid you might be somewhat dangerous if you’re conscious,” Braeden caught her as she slid to the floor.

Melanie tried to push him away, but her body wouldn’t obey her commands.  As her head rolled back, she could see what looked like a feather sticking out of her shoulder.

“You, tra—tranked me?” She could hardly form the words, her tongue felt so heavy, like a lump of blubber.  She imagined she looked like an infant, drool running down her chin.  Hanging her head, she rubbed her tingling lips on her shoulder to remove the slobber.

If she could just stay awake,
she could communicate with Ian when he arrived, assuming he’d heard her before the vortex took them.  Knowing he would be coming for her, she smiled as a black curtain dropped in front of her eyes.  Passed out, she never felt him lift her into his arms, cradling her against his chest.

* * *

Robert transported Ian to the spot on the island where he had first run into Braeden.  “I’m going back fer them, scout out the house, but don’t go in on yer own.”

Before Ian could nod
his acknowledgement, Robert was gone.  Crouching down in the sand, he studied his surroundings, sniffing the air.  Not picking up on her or Braeden’s scent in the area, he stood and made his way over to a huge live oak and started climbing, happy to see the tree had been spared from Hurricane Ike.  Now above the ground foliage, his view was unrestricted.

Ian could still see some of the d
estruction from Ike which steamrolled the island in 2008.  Some homes had been rebuilt, but he knew it would take years for the plants and trees to repopulate the island.       

There were some houses further away, but one standing alone caught his attention instantly.  It was built up on stilts
like most beach homes for protection from the oceans surge.  The home was round, with tan siding to blend in with the area, not your typical colorful beach house.  With a porch surrounding the structure, the house was a beautiful vacation home.  The large windows were made for viewing from any direction. Underneath the house, a winding staircase was centered in the middle of the platform.  No cars were parked on either side of the staircase, making it look as though no one was home. 

Ian glanced back to see the rest of his team had arrived. 
Devlin had a Glock and David had a rifle strapped across his shoulders. 

“I canna stay,” Robert said.
“My Queen hae been calling fer me, I hae ta get back ta Faerie.  I already left one pissed off female at yer house, I doona need another.”

“Go, we can handle this,” Ian told him. 

Robert nodded and was gone. 

Ian wasted no time, “David, climb up here and check out this
house.  I need to know if you can shoot that bastard from here.”

David strode over and jumped to wrap his arms around the closest limb. 
Muscles straining, he swung his legs up and pushed to reach the next branch.  Once high enough to see the house, he found a spot where he could lean back against the tree with his rifle in his hands. 

Checking the chamber, he prepared his weapon and looked through the scope.

“Yeah, I can hit anyone who moves in that house.  Nice of him to leave the curtains open for us, the smug bastard.  I don’t see any movement, but this is definitely his place.  There’s dark magic surrounding it.  So, how we gonna play this?” David asked. 

“Simple, Devlin and I are going through the front door.  If he’s there and we don’t get to him first, shoot to kill,” Ian calmly told him.

He was tired of waiting around, fearful of what the wizard would do to Melanie.  He didn’t have the time to set up a swat type sting operation.  Having tried to reach her mentally and getting no response, Ian was anxious to find her.  Not knowing what the wizard wanted from her, he didn’t want to wait around to find out.  Having no background information on Braeden, his only hope was that he would have brought her here. 

“I’ll take lead, watch your back,” Ian said.

Devlin rolled his eyes, “I’m not a pup bro, I have stalked prey before.”

Ian
glanced up at David to see the man perched like a statue, his rifle steady in his hands. 

Moving stealthily through the foliage, they made their way to the clearing at the edge of the home.  Ian could feel a residual of magic clinging to the air around them.  Reaching his hand out, he pushed through a slight force field with ease. 

“Why does it feel as easy as pushing a curtain aside?” Ian asked, puzzled. 

“He has to know we’re coming for her. 
It takes a lot of energy to maintain wards, he’s probably storing his up,” Devlin growled. 

“Yeah, something’s off.  Stay close,” Ian murmured. 

They both moved quickly across the open grassland, making their way to the bottom of the stairs. 

Devlin was looking over his shoulder, checking for an ambush.  He could see th
e large oak tree where David hid, but no movement except for the swaying of leaves from the gulf breeze. 

Ian placed his booted foot on the first wrung and waited expectantly.  Nothing happened.  Making his way up the winding staircase, he stopped on the landing while Devlin got into position.

Using hand signals, they took their place on either side of the door.  Devlin held his weapon ready, while Ian gave a silent countdown.

On one, Ian kicked the
wooden door, instantly breaking the lock.  The door flew open, banging against the wall.  Charging through the door, Ian moved to a position behind the sofa, while Devlin crouched in the doorway, covering the room. 

Scanning the area, they waited to see if anyone came out from one of the bedrooms.  There was no shouting or yelling.  No sounds could be heard from anywhere else in the house. 

Signing to Devlin to search the other bedroom, Ian moved to the door closest to him.  It didn’t take long to come to the conclusion that no one was home.  Bedrooms, bathroom and closet were all empty. Personal objects were still in the bathroom, while clothes still hung in the closet.  

Ian punched through the wall nearest him, anger and frustration rolling off him in waves.

“I can smell her here and it’s strong.  They haven’t been gone very long,” Ian growled. 

Devlin went to the windows, slowly shaking his head from side to side to let David know she wasn’t there.  He
signaled for David to come to the beach house so he could help search.  He wanted to scour the house for info now that they knew no one was there.

Hearing a roar, Devlin looked over to see Ian pick up a chair and throw it through the glass window.  The shape of the chair made a wide opening in the front window as the glass slo
wly crackled around the hole.  The remaining glass looked like a spider web, branching out from the break in scraggly lines. 

Devlin casually leaned back against an undamaged pane.  “You know, this would really suck if we had the wrong house.”  He straightened and went over to Ian, who was in the midst of destroying the room.  “Come on, we have work to do.  He didn’t have a lot of ti
me to plan, so go search his room.  Check his desk, underwear drawer, whatever.  I need documents, anything he may have hidden in his sock drawer.  Come on Ian, pull it together so I can get on my computer and figure out where he would go.”

Ian ran his hands through his hair, roughly jabbing his fingers through the tangles in his frustration.

Nodding sharply, he marched into Braeden’s room and over to his dresser.  Jerking out the first drawer, he dropped the wooden piece to the floor, kicking it over and dumping out the socks before moving to the next drawer. 

David whistle
d as he entered the house, “What the fuck?  Man, it looks like a hurricane made its’ landfall in this room.  You need to get your brother under control so we can find my sister.”

Devlin shook
his head, “His wolf is tearing him apart inside.  Don’t worry, he wont rest till he finds her.  I haven’t found anything useful in the guestroom.  As soon as we get home, I will use every bit of technology I know of to find him.  I’ll learn everything I can about that son of a bitch once I’m online.”  He left to help Ian search Braeden’s room.

David wen
t into the kitchen and checked the refrigerator before opening the freezer.  He knew that many people thought criminals wouldn’t look in their freezer for valuables.  Next he started rifling through the cabinets and drawers.  He yelled for them from the kitchen, “I think this may be useful.”  David sat down at the table and opened the laptop he’d found. 

“Don’t open any folders!” Devlin shouted as he moved to prevent David from touching anything.

David sighed, “I’m not a moron, you know.  If this is Braeden’s laptop, it’s going to have a hell of a lot more protection than just a password.”

“Sorry man, that was just an automatic response.”  Devlin quickly scanned the screen, then closed it and spoke to Ian.

“I need to break this down without setting off any traps, before he realizes he left it behind.  If it’s booby trapped, or spelled, I’ll figure it out and hopefully save the data.  Where did you find it David?”

“Kitchen drawer, it was shoved under the towels at the bottom,” David replied.

David stood as Devlin took the laptop, “Come on then, I’ll take us back to your house.”

“How does this work?  It’s not like going back in time to rescue someone,” Devlin asked.

“I can move around through time whenever I want, although I don’t joyride, I use my abilities when necessary.  I only need to move us back a few minutes and that will prevent us from running into ourselves from when we left an hour ago,” David answered. 

“Which means Melanie didn’t have an opportunity to travel and get away from him,
or she would have,” Ian growled.  “Let’s go, this is confusing as hell and we need to figure out where he took her,” Ian snarled in irritation.

They each took hold of David’s arm to travel once again.  Devlin tucked the laptop inside his shirt, placing his arm across his body so he wouldn’t lose it in the vortex.  The trip lasted seconds, much faster than their first journey.

Arriving back in the castles great room, Devlin went to the bar, placing the laptop down on the granite counter.

Rafe, Lisa and Melissa jumped up from the sofa, relaxing when they saw
there was no danger.

“You didn’t find her?” Lisa cried, having been apprised by Melissa while they waited. 

Ian and David followed Devlin to stand behind him as he opened the laptop back up. 

Ian stared at the laptop as if it had all the answers in the world.  “No, she was already gone, but they’d been there.”

Rafe stood behind Ian, staring over his shoulder at the innocuous looking laptop.  “Is that Melanie’s?”

“Braeden’s, we think.
  It may have a trap, so I can’t do anything until I can disable it without losing the data.  I need an incorruptible flash drive,” Devlin was muttering under his breath as went to his office. 

“It gave me a slimy feeling when I pulled it from the drawer,” David said.  “We’re going to have to counteract the dark magic.” 

Lisa walked over and grimaced, “Yup, it’s oozing bad tidings.  Let me see what I can do.”

“No!” Rafe shouted, pulling her back and placing her behind him.

“Sheesh, I wasn’t going to touch it.  I just want to try and get a feel for it.  Come on Rafe, we need all the help we can get if we want to find Melanie,” Lisa implored him.  “If it were me, you would use any means necessary to find me.”

Rafe growled, staring
at his mate.  “Did anyone wonder why he would leave his laptop?  He could have done this on purpose to slow us down.”

“I don’t believe so,” David said.  “We weren’t far behind him when we left, so he didn’t have time for some outlandish plan.  Keep in mind, he wasn’t expecting us to show up at that cave either.  I think he panicked
when he took Melanie, knowing Robert could get us back to his house.”

Ian went to his brother, “I don’t want Lisa hurt either, but I need her help.  I’m counting on her being able to
use her magic the way Robert taught her to.”

Sighing, Rafe pulled Lisa close and leaned his forehead against hers.  “Put up the strongest shield you can and promise me you won’t take any chances.  I know you
, little witch.  Back off if you feel the magic is too dangerous,” he demanded. 

Lisa crossed her heart, and vowed, “I will wimp out at the first sign of any wizard dastardly deeds.  Hey, try saying that three times really fast.  Damn, I’m good,” she preened.