Chasing Victory (The Winters Sisters) (15 page)

FIFTEEN

The meeting with Logan and Noah was successful. The two men located one weakness in the security grid. They updated Tristan and set in place their escape plan for if and when the need arose. Tristan in turn relayed all the information he had acquired. He was heading back to the compound and glancing down at his watch. With any luck he would be back in time to join Victory for dinner. Suddenly terror flashed through his mind and gripped his heart.

“Tristan!”

It was Victory. She had made contact and she was terrified.

“Victory, what’s wrong. Talk to me.”
He was already changing direction and heading into the forest.

“Tristan, can you hear me?”
Tears coated her words. He never heard her so distraught before.

“Yes, I hear you. Where are you? What’s wrong?”
Tristan responded without breaking his stride.

Victory laid deadly still, her mind feverously searching for a connection to Tristan.
“I’m out in the forest, something ominous is stalking me.”
She wasn’t sure Tristan could hear her or understand what she was telling him. Each time she listened for a response, all she heard was a loud buzzing in her head. Was that Tristan, maybe he could he hear her.

Tristan was running full out, but he wasn’t sure exactly where she was. He knew that as soon as he was away from the compound he would easily pick up her scent, but for the moment there was a flurry of odors, simply too many other scents to pick her out. She wasn’t responding to him, which probably meant that she was not able to understand his thoughts, but he heard her.

“I’m trying to send him away but he keeps coming. He’s something very intelligent and I can’t steer him away. Can you hear me Tristan?”
Victory felt panic begin to overtake her. She couldn’t let that happen, she had to stay in control in order to try to get through to Tristan. Panic would trigger her adrenal glands and give off a stronger scent to the approaching predator.

Tristan finally put enough distance between himself and the compound. He stopped, cleared his mind and filled his lungs with a deep breath taking in all the scents of the forest. He caught her scent cone, but there was something over the top of it. Animal or man, he couldn’t figure it out. This was impossible, he could distinguish everything by its scent. The only explanation was that there was both animal and man somewhere close in the area. The two scents were so intermingled that he couldn’t separate them. This meant they had to be right on top of one another; maybe someone else was stalking this animal. He turned toward Victory and ran as if her life depended on it.

Victory could hear limbs breaking and the sound of rustling vegetation as someone or something slowly moved through the forest. A cold sweat broke out on her body and a single tear ran down her cheek.

“I could run,”
she thought to herself, but didn’t realize that Tristan had heard her. A blanket of warmth wrapped around her, grounding her, urging her to stay put.
“Tristan?”
It had to be him. She couldn’t understand the thoughts he was trying to send her, but she understood his meaning. He was trying to comfort her, to let her know that she wasn’t alone and to keep her from running. She knew that, knew she shouldn’t run. Whatever or whoever it was would be on her in an instant. He, she was sure now that it was a he, was cunning and very intelligent, and trying to flush her out. She felt that for certain, but still the need for flight tugged at her.
“Please hurry.”

The terror in her mind tore at Tristan’s heart in a way nothing ever had before. He needed to be there soon, or this thing would be on her. He could smell the scent strongly now, but was still unsure of what it was. What he did know was that it was only approximately ten yards away from Victory. Tristan stopped. She should be here. Where was she?

“Victory, where are you?” He whispered into the wind. Tears and fright were filling her mind, he might lose her connection any minute from the complete anxiety she was feeling. “Victory, focus, listen to my voice. I need to know where you are.”

“There’s a large tree covered with moss...”

The tree was right in front of him, where was she? Her scent permeated the air around him, yet still he couldn’t locate her. He caught a slight movement on the trunk. She almost completely blended in with her surroundings. He never saw (or not saw) anything like it. He reached out and grabbed her with one hand at the same time covering her mouth with the other so she would not scream.

“Thank god, Tristan,” she gasped.

“Use your mental link. We’re not out of danger yet.” He breathed the words in her ear. Had he been alone, he would have turned and faced the oncoming threat. But right now his only thought was to get Victory out of the path of danger. He picked her up and headed for the river. Using his keen sense of smell he honed in on the approaching predator. It was closing the distance quickly. Then he saw the river and as if on cue the sky opened up and dumped sheets of rain, and the air was split with the boom of thunder as a jagged bolt of lightning went to ground.

Something howled. Was that a man, or some kind of animal? Tristan placed Victory on her feet and looked around for two long pieces of reed.

“What are you doing?” Victory asked, shaking uncontrollably from fear and the chill air.

“I’m looking for a couple pieces of reed. Our best chance is to get in the river and wait for that thing to pass us. The water will block our scent,” he said.

“Perfect! What a great idea. Taking a dip in the river, in the middle of a lightning storm,” she said trying desperately to lighten the mood.

That was a good sign, Tristan thought. At least she still had her sassiness. “Here,” Tristan thrust a reed in her hands. “Stay close,” he said as they waded out into the river. Victory started down into the water. Tristan refocused on the predator’s scent cone so that he could gauge how long they would have to stay under. That was impossible, that thing was only steps behind them. “Victory wait,” he said pulling her up by her arm.

Victory pulled the reed out of her mouth. “What’s the matter, tell me it’s not too late?”

He pulled her back up towards him. “Listen, and tell me what you hear.”

She listened carefully blocking all the sounds around her except for the predator. “He has turned back and is heading away from us.”

“That’s what I thought; it, he is moving away from us,” Tristan confirmed.

“Why. Not that I’m complaining, but he seemed pretty persistent,” she said.

“He’s moving away. I don’t know why, but let’s take the cue and get out of here. We should head back to the compound from the opposite direction.”

“I can’t see three feet in front of me with this deluge of rain pounding down on us,” she said.

“I can get us back. I have scouted out the entire surrounding area. We should reach the compound in slightly over an hour in this direction.” Tristan pointed off to his left, the totally opposite way from where they came.

“Okay, I want to get back and soak in a hot bath for hours,” Victory said.

The rain didn’t let up for their whole walk back, and the wind started to kick up as they were reaching the compound. There wasn’t a soul in sight as they entered through the back gate.

“Let’s get you back to your room and out of these soaked clothes. I’ll go back to my room, take a quick shower and then head to the dining room and pick us up some dinner,” Tristan said.

“You don’t have to do that, I can go to dinner,” she said.

“No, you can’t. You’re white as a sheet and you might be going into shock.”

“I’m fine, really,” she protested.

“Victory, trust me. We don’t know what or why that thing was stalking you. We don’t know if someone sent it out after you. You need to rest and recover your strength before facing anyone.” It was beginning to look to Tristan as if there were more experiments taking place here than only Victory’s.

* * *

It pinned her against a wall of solid rock. Its eerie, yellow eyes glowed, blood dripping from huge canines. Victory let out a blood curdling cry.

“Victory, Victory. Wake up. You are having a bad dream.” Tristan gently shook her shoulders, trying to break the nightmare that had her in its grip.

Victory’s eyes flew open. She felt Tristan hands shaking her, his violet eyes swimming with concern. Without a second thought she threw herself into the warmth and security of his arms.

“Oh god Tristan, it was awful.” She wept openly.

“Shhh, it’s okay. You’re safe now. It was a dream.” He rocked her gently. It felt so natural having his arms wrapped tightly around her.

“It was a terrible nightmare.” She sniffled into his shoulder. She lifted her head and looked around the room. It was pitch black save for the small desk lamp. “Did you bring dinner? I needed to rest.”

“It’s about 1:30 in the morning, Victory,” Tristan said.

“What? It can’t be. I just laid down. I was waiting for you to come back with dinner.” She looked over at the desk again and by the glow of the lamp saw covered plates.

“I came back around 7:00 and found you fast asleep. I thought you needed the sleep more than dinner.” He couldn’t stop himself, he ran his hand down her silky hair. It felt as soft as it looked.

“So you’ve been watching over me the entire time?” she asked, feeling a little stronger in the warmth of his arms. She wasn’t a woman that needed a man, but this felt right.

“I slept in the chair for a couple hours. It’s not that bad.” Tristan shot her a sexy little smile.

“You didn’t have to stay. Sleeping in the chair, you’re going to regret that in the morning,” she said with guilt in her voice.

“Believe me, I’ve slept in much worse places. I wanted to make sure you were going to be okay.” He looked into her eyes. They reminded him of stunning emeralds, flawless and unique. He was beginning to be able to read her moods by looking into those unique eyes. He could see bewilderment and uncertainty shining through those wondrous gems. “I should go and let you sleep.” He stood up and headed toward the door.

“Tristan,” she said uncertainly. He turned back to look at her, waiting. “Would you mind staying with me the rest of the night? You can sleep here next to me,” she said as she patted the side of the bed. When he didn’t move or say anything she stumbled on. “I guess the occurrence in the forest affected me more than I thought.” She dropped her gaze to her hand lying at her side.

“Occurrence.” Tristan frowned. “Victory, you are one extraordinary woman,” he said with a laugh. “Only you would refer to a near-death experience as an occurrence.”

He walked back to the far side of the bed. He sat down and took off his shoes. He pulled the pillows out from under the bedspread, and stacked them under his head. Stretching out on the bed and sliding his arm around her shoulders, he pulled her close to him. Victory resisted for a second, then melted into his side. “Yes, you’re right,” he said.

“About what?” she asked.

“This is much more comfortable than the chair.”

In only minutes they were both asleep. It was the fastest Tristan had fallen asleep in a very long time.

* * * 

Tristan walked into the lab carrying two lattes and a couple of scones. He had woken up in her room, in her bed, alone. “Morning doc,” he said nonchalantly.

She looked up from her microscope and gave him a shy smile. “Good morning sleepy head. You looked so peaceful I couldn’t bring myself to wake you this morning. Besides, I have a massive amount of research to recheck.” He handed her a latte and scone. “Thanks, I didn’t get any breakfast.”

“That’s exactly why I brought you some,” he took the lid off of his latte blew on it and took a drink. “So, where’s our subject?” he asked as he tilted his head toward the empty chair on the other side of the glass in the exam room. “And where’s Max?” he said looking at the corner of the lab and empty chair that Max usually occupied.

Without looking up from her work she answered, “Apparently, there is something more interesting monopolizing Mr. Max. As far as our subject, I was told he was going through some health tests. Not that I believe it for an instant,” she said.

Tristan glanced over at Victory. She surprised him more each day. These guys weren’t pulling anything over her. For the remainder of the morning they worked side by side, like a real team. They were so busy and involved in their studies that they worked straight through lunch.

Tristan yawned and looked up from his computer. “Hey, we missed lunch,” he said looking down at his watch, “You hungry? I’ll make a run to the deli.”

“Hmmm. Oh sure, I could use something. I’m not picky, get me whatever you’re getting,” she said without stopping her work on the computer. She was so engrossed in her research she never heard him leave.

A few minutes later she heard the door open. “That was quick,” she said as she looked up and saw Max walk in leading the test subject. He looked as if he had been in a bar fight. He was covered with cuts and scrapes on his face and up both arms. His clothes were rumpled, like he had been wearing them for at least two days. “Oh my! What happened to him?” she asked. Then she looked into his face and saw pure malevolence.

“He got to take a run last night, he needed to stretch his legs,” Max muttered, pushing the man farther into the lab.

“You mean he was out running in the forest. I thought he was having health tests done.” She said never taking her attention off him. She was trying to make a mental connection with him but kept picking up a red haze of random thoughts.

“He did have an exam this morning after I brought him back. Mr. Braxton wanted to see if there were any physical changes.” Max took him into the next room and strapped him into the chair. “He should be gentle as a kitten for now. The doctor gave him something to calm him down,” Max said.