Dual Release (12 page)

She grabbed the forest-green blanket and laid it across the car, covering as much of the hood and windshield as possible. She gathered a couple of downed branches and laid them on the roof and leaned them against the rear, being careful to spread them for maximum coverage. As fast and as neatly as possible, she did her best to cover the car’s tracks leading into the trees. Lastly, she covered Dour with the dark-brown blanket. Now if anyone scanned this area, she hoped nothing stood out too drastically that they’d send someone over to investigate.

Jenny used the binoculars. The compound seemed quiet. From what she saw, the guardhouse contained two people. The gate was kept closed. There were at least eight mounds, signifying underground bunkers to her. But there could be more. Her heart sank. What was she going to do? She looked at Dour’s lifeless form. She couldn’t leave him here and go for help. What if they found him? What would they do to him? Worse, what could she do to stop them? Tiredness made her legs shake as she walked over to him.

Not sure why she did it, she hugged him, wrapping her arms underneath the blanket. Her cheek pressed to the stone center of his chest. A faint sound thumped in her ear and it scared her. She pulled back without releasing her hold to his waist. Was that his heartbeat? Nah, it couldn’t be. Just to make sure, she listened again with her ear snugly pressed in the center of his chest.
Thump.
Thump.
A steady beat told her he definitely lived inside this strange tomb of sorts.

She stepped back and stared. Without a doubt, this was the oddest case she and Cait had ever dealt with. She glanced in the direction of the compound. And it was the most dangerous. Jenny returned to the car, leaned inside and disconnected the bulb from the overhead light.
Should’ve thought of that sooner.
Leaving the driver’s side door open, she laid the seat back, got as comfortable as possible and ate a protein bar she retrieved from the backpack along with a bottle of water. She’d made fun of Cait for keeping this thing stocked, but now she was damn glad her best friend had the foresight to do so.

Jenny picked up the cell phone and checked for a signal just in case. Nothing, but the battery was getting low. She attached the car charger and plugged it in. Everything ached with tiredness. Her eyes grew heavy as she clutched the phone to her chest and wished for a miracle. Though she was determined to remain focused on the compound, exhaustion won the battle and forced her to succumb to sleep.

Pain shot through Dour’s chest and he thought he’d crumple to the ground. Heat sizzled, filling him with the sensation of being on fire for a split second then disappearing, taking his freedom with it. The last thing he saw was Jenny’s surprised look as she met his gaze right before darkness surrounded him.

How could this be? Wasn’t he free from the curse? Dour struggled to break from the solid wall that bound him. Frustration bounced around his brain, threatening his sanity. Nothing responded to his mental commands. His limbs did not obey. His eyes could not see and his mouth did not speak. Yet he had the ability to think and reason.

He willed himself to relax and work out this puzzle contrived of twisted magic. There had to be a reason the curse returned to him. Had it also taken Donnell? Panic threatened his deductive process as an image of his twin locked in stone flashed inside his head. Though he prayed Donnell was free, he instinctively knew the truth. Both he and Donnell were entombed.

Not if he could help it. Dour concentrated on the events of their release. There had to be a logical reason for what happened. What changed? He cataloged his thoughts, trying to deduce an answer.

First he and Donnell were awakened after a two-hundred-year nap by a stunning older redhead. Second they did one of their favorite things, they got in a fight. The memory would have made him snort if he could have as he considered the episode as not much of a brawl. Not like the ones he and his
brathairs
… Dour paused.

Were any of his other
brathairs
free? Had they all been cursed? It saddened him to think the others suffered the same fate as he and Donnell. He prayed they’d enjoyed long, happy lives and mourned the loss of him and Donnell by seeking revenge against the person behind this curse. He struggled to clear his thoughts of his family. But one by one, their faces flashed behind his eyes. Gavin. Ian. Padon. Struan. Aiden. And his one and only
piuthar
—sister—Akira.

What became of them? The woman hadn’t mentioned any of his
brathairs
when she freed them. Then again, she didn’t have much of a chance to tell them anything. They’d been tossed right into the middle of a brawl.

Dour desperately tried to clear his thoughts of his loved ones’ images. It tormented his soul, knowing he’d never see them again. He needed his mind focused on the current issue if he was to determine the way to true freedom for him and Donnell.

What if there was no path to freedom? What if the one night was all they got? Dour shook those delinquent thoughts from his mind. He refused to retreat into the negative and suffer the mental torture of being awake yet asleep at the same time. Then it struck him.

The one night.

That was the difference. They had been awakened at night.

The woman claimed she set them free. He worked through what she’d said.
There were constraints.
What sort of constraints did she mean? She would not have stated she’d set them free if she hadn’t. Would she have? They didn’t know her. What if she lied? Dour studied her words in his head. No. The way she’d spoken to him and Donnell was with such conviction, such honesty, she believed she’d given them a way to freedom.

Yet one with constraints.

Constraints. That word tumbled through his brain. What sort of ties still wove around this curse keeping them bound? Dour thought back to the moment he’d felt that first tingle. What changed that brought the curse on again? What was he doing when it started? A stroke of the sun’s rays brushed his cheek and had him meeting his first sunrise in many years. He’d only gotten a brief glimpse when…

Dour smiled inwardly. The answer beamed as bright as a beacon of sunlight. He was giddy with hope he’d figured out the constraint of which the woman spoke. This freedom came with a restriction. Come nightfall he and Donnell would be free again. That idea sparked a sense of relief and gave him a light at the end of his tunnel. He might be wrong but refused to allow negative thought to overrule his momentary joy.

That sliver of hope was all he had to keep him sane. That and the images of a beautiful woman who traipsed through his mind and gave him something else to think about and enjoy while he waited. Dour liked the vision of Jenny sitting perched on his shaft. He couldn’t help but laugh inwardly at the memory of their coupling in that tiny car. Each bumped something somewhere and still they gave each other pleasure. It didn’t matter his legs cramped and she’d knocked her head against the roof several times.

Dour struggled to contain the laughter rolling through his mind. But image after image of their difficult first time set his spirits on high. He liked that Jenny was an adventurous woman. The memory of how she felt wrapped around him soothed any lingering angst as he relished the idea of sampling her glorious attributes once again come nightfall. The sensual imagery came to a screeching halt.

Jenny was alone.

This hit him like a solid blow to the jaw in a brawl. This long, lean creature was unattended in a situation of severe danger. What if the people from the compound found her? What if they took her hostage?
No. Don’t think like that.
He tried to focus on the good as he prayed for her safety.

She was a smart woman. Jenny would be safe until he woke to help her. This he tried to convince himself was truth. He would wake again. It was the only thought that gave him a miniscule amount of hope and that was all he needed to survive. He was determined he’d awaken again at nightfall and have the chance to hold Jenny once again.

He prayed he was right.

“Trust me, you imbecile Draven,” Leod stated tersely from behind his desk, knowing the man bristled at being called nothing short of stupid. He did it on purpose to show he didn’t fear Draven. “You’ve brought me a MacKinnon.”

The ringleader from the warehouse grumbled in return, “How can you be so sure? One minute the statues were there, the next they weren’t.”

Leod laughed. He limped around his desk and took a seat. He brushed the hood from his head, letting it pool around his shoulders. Leod’s once-handsome appeal had been marred at the hands of a MacKinnon. He sighed, brushing his fingertips along the misshapen flesh that had been burned. Now he used it to his advantage. It gave him a more frightening appearance when it came to his lesser-minded followers. The disfigurement to the left side of his face and ear startled most, but not this oversized buffoon.

Draven’s gaze hardened when Leod met his eyes. Mind tricks didn’t work on this one. He’d acknowledged that the first time he attempted to control Draven when they met three months ago. He’d accepted the man for what he was, a hired killer, nothing more. His worth had been proven when he shared his newly acquired lair, this underground compound, with Leod and his small band of misfit-magical-wannabes.

The few stragglers they’d gathered from the lowest bowels of London’s alleys had no true potential. But he’d needed followers. Idiots who’d believe anything if they thought they’d gain a buck for their efforts. Draven and his men, on the other hand, were more precise in their needs, their abilities to function as a group of thieves. Leod admired Draven’s talent for molding his men and had given him the task of transforming his meager group into a more
productive
task force for him to use against the MacKinnons and eventually the world once the book was in his hands.

He glanced at Roy, his right-hand man. It pained him to see the scars Roy had obtained in their most recent skirmish with a few of the MacKinnon brothers. What should have been the fiery demise of his adversaries trapped in a burning dock house ended with a lucky arrow shot into a boat with a leaky fuel line, which instantly produced a fireball. If it hadn’t been for Roy’s quick actions, Leod would have suffered more than an injured hip. But it cost Roy some hair, an eyebrow and burns that would take time to heal.

Doc hadn’t been so lucky. Not being able to swim, he’d drowned. According to the newspaper article, the authorities discovered the body of a disgraced London doctor floating facedown in the river. It was listed as an apparent suicide. Leod leaned comfortably back in his chair. Doc had been a useful tool. Shame to lose such a dedicated fool.

Looking at Draven, he knew the only thing this man understood was money and power. Both he’d been promised in exchange for his services. Leod grinned inwardly. The joke was on him. Leod had no intentions of sharing the
Book of Shadows
.

“Roy, what time is it?” Leod asked.

Roy retrieved an old watch from his pocket. A thick gold chain attached it to his belt loop. The antique had been Roy’s reward for saving him from a fire that broke out at a nightclub. Leod rolled his eyes. That had been another failed confrontation with the MacKinnons. But now it was his time to win. Heat filled his soul and the familiar sizzle of the burn flowed through his veins and itched to escape his fingertips, but he refrained, keeping the heinous desire to destroy something buried for the time being. He’d get his chance to incinerate at least one of the brothers…soon.

“It’s seven in the morning, sir,” he reported, then returned the watch to his front pants pocket.

“Ahh, the sun has most definitely risen.” He grinned directly at Draven. The idiot had gotten his hand broken and had it wrapped in what looked to be a torn bed sheet. A strip of the fabric had been tied into a sling of sorts, which hung around his neck. Too bad Doc was dead. He could’ve set that for him.

“What the hell has the sun got to do with anything?” Draven practically growled in a demanding tone.

“Everything,” Leod replied calmly as he tapped a few keys on his laptop. His grin broadened as he lifted his gaze once again to met Draven’s dark-eyed glare. Slowly he turned the screen to share what he saw. “Take a look at your captive now. Tell me what you see.”

Draven’s eyes widened and his brow pursed tightly. He grabbed the laptop and lifted it for closer inspection before he looked at Leod. “How the hell did that happen? I don’t understand. Where’s the man I took hostage?”

Roy snickered as if his question were stupid, and Draven scowled at him. The air thickened between the testosterone junkies, as it usually did. Neither liked the other and even though Leod soothed Roy’s angst several times about his placement, Roy still showed no trust toward Draven. It was a point Leod kept tucked in his mental file for future reference for when it came time to dispose of Draven. Roy would gladly handle the deed. Leod interjected before the two came to blows.

“The statue is the man. It seems their release is temporary. It looks as if the twins haven’t been given the means with which to break the curse entirely. At least, this one hasn’t. Consider this a stroke of luck for us.” He grinned widely. “We’ll use him as bait to lure the others here. What better way to end Clan MacKinnon than by fire and suffocation.”

Draven’s eyebrow arched. The deadliest smile Leod had ever seen twisted the man’s lips. If he didn’t like the look, it surely would have scared a lesser man. “How many are we considering taking out at one time?”

“If my calculations are correct and all the brothers come in search of this missing soul, four plus this one and the other twin if he shows will be a total of six MacKinnons and whoever else might be lost in the explosive cave-in.”

“I’m liking those numbers. But how do you expect them to find us?”

“Did you not tell me that bumbling idiot Crosby was left behind?” He nodded and Leod continued. “Then I’m quite sure by now he’s given the authorities everything they ever wanted to know about me and my operation. Prepare your men for what might be coming our way.”