Leopard Moon (28 page)
She was in the middle of boxing up some leftovers when Janice told her there was a phone call for her. She asked Janice to finish them up and run them to table seven and went to the host stand to take it.
"Good evening, Kess. Hope the dinner crowd is tipping well." Sek's voice was calm, with a hint of gloating in the background. "Now don't say a word to your lupine friends--I wouldn't want them to spoil our fun. Just listen to me."
Kess felt around for the pad of paper usually kept at the stand for messages. A lump had formed in her stomach, a ball of cold dread that grew the more Sek spoke in his pleasant tone. "I have a friend of yours here. He's a bit the worse for wear, so if you don't want anything else to happen to the young man, you will get in the car waiting outside for you and you won't mention a word of this to anyone."
"How do I know Cormac is still alive?" She was trying to control her breathing in an effort to keep the panic at bay.
"Silly girl. You don't."
"Where am I going?"
"Now you're just being stupid. I'm not going to tell you anything you can pass along to your doggy friends. Get in the car, Kess." He hung up.
Kess scribbled a note addressed to Griff--it read simply Sek has Cormac--and left it at the host stand where Janice would see it and hopefully deliver it to him. Then she walked out the front door. A black Hummer was idling right in front. The back door opened and she stepped in.
Sek was waiting. He leaned back into the leather upholstery, looking very pleased with himself. Bomani was in the front seat, sitting beside a driver Kess didn't recognize. He was holding his cell phone, which he put back in his pocket.
"Excellent timing. I trust you didn't speak to anyone?"
Kess didn't say anything, just trying to find the seat farthest from her brother as the car started moving. Sek moved so he was sitting next to her. She knew that if she moved he would keep following her all over the car, and while it might have been amusing in other circumstances, she didn't want to anger him. Not with Cormac's life in the balance.
"Where is he?" She kept the fear from her voice, striving for calm. Sek didn't need any more weapons in his arsenal against her.
"You'll see him soon enough. We're going someplace more private to hash all of this out. My men are bringing your pet there now." His voice sounded strained, as if he were having a problem keeping his temper in check.
Kess decided to try a different tactic. Cormac was in danger so long as Sek had him in his sights. If Kess could distract her brother, perhaps she could make sure Cormac got out of this in one piece. She was trusting that he was still alive, hoping this was the case. She lowered her voice, trying to draw Sek closer to her. "Why do we need to do that? You've already got what you wanted—I'm here aren't I?"
He looked at her, clearly weighing if what she said was true. "You are." He paused, and Kess couldn't tell what he was thinking.
"So? I thought you wanted this? That you wanted me?" She lowered her eyes, unsure if she could do this, if she could be convincing.
Sek slid closer and she felt his hand under her chin. She met his gaze and he was smiling a deeply unpleasant smile. "Do you think I'm stupid, Kess?" When she tried to draw back, he grabbed her jaw, forcing her to stay where she was. His fingers dug into her cheek. "Do you think that I would believe you'd be willing to leave with me?" He moved closer until they were nose to nose. "You'll leave with me, that much is true. But only after I've dealt with your boyfriend."
Kess tried to jerk away, but he held her tight. Then he forced his mouth against hers, painfully prying open her jaw. She pushed against his chest, shoving him back and he let go, subsiding against the seat. He was in control of himself, calm and assured. She was afraid of what he had planned for tonight.
"You'll never have me if anything happens to him," she warned. The car was off the main road now, she could tell by the ride of the car. And they were climbing. They were headed into the mountains.
Sek looked at her, eyes glittering. But he said nothing and they rode in silence. Kess stared out the windows, but could see nothing but blackness. She knew why he had struck tonight--the sky was dark. It was their time, when they would be at their strongest. Her wereblood sang to her, longing for the change, and it would be singing in him too, making him crueler, more animalistic.
The car was slowing, following a winding road. Sek rummaged in a bag by the door and pulled out a silver knife. She eyed him warily, not liking the look of this. Silver wouldn't hurt her, but it was poison to werewolves. He turned to her. "I can't have you interfering. You've upset me and I'm afraid you need to be punished for that."
"Sek, no," she began, her voice breaking. "Please, I'll go with you, I'll do whatever you want. Just forget about this, please."
An arm circled her throat and she felt the sting of a needle as it entered her neck. She tried to struggle, but the arm around her neck made it hard to breathe. As whatever drug they'd dosed her with entered her system, she felt her limbs grow heavy and her thoughts slow.
"You made your decision," he reminded her. "Let's see if you can live with it." She saw Sek lean forward. "His pelt will be your wedding dress," he whispered in her ear as she went limp in Bomani's arms.
Cormac came to awareness slowly. Pain was all he felt at first, limited to a few locations. First, and most distracting, was his head. He had a vague memory of leaving the library and being jumped by someone near the old gym. After that there was just blackness.
Second was the dull ache along his side. It felt like he might have some cracked ribs and he wondered what had been done to him while he was out. He felt upholstery beneath his cheek and heard the low rumble of an engine--he was in a car. He opened his eyes slightly, but could only dimly make out his immediate surroundings, which were the floorboards of the back seat of a large SUV. He found it painful to move his neck.
This brought him to the third locus of pain: his neck. This was slight in comparison to the pounding in his head which, combined with the motion of the car, was threatening to make him sick. There was something digging into his neck--not metal, more like stiff leather or something like it. It made it hard to move his head and it definitely made it harder to breathe.
Cormac kept quiet, letting his other senses work. His nose picked up the scent of two men, ones that he had never smelled before. They must be in front. He took greater stock of the state he was in--his arms were bound behind his back, but his legs were free. He saw his backpack was lying on the ground beside him. His cell phone was in there, but he knew he couldn't get to it, let alone dial anything without his hands and without letting the men up front know he was awake.
He heard the two men talking in low voices from the front seats. He couldn't make out what they were saying. He switched his focus to the car, more specifically the sound of the tires. They were on a paved road, but not going very fast. He thought that the driver was not familiar with the mountain roads and was taking his time. He had no way of knowing how long he'd been out or how far they already were from campus. He had been due to meet Finn after class and then they were meeting Burke at the Barn, but he didn't know if Burke and the others had missed him yet.
He heard the change in pavement--they were on a rutted road, unpaved with a little gravel. The steep incline meant they were climbing into the mountains and the way the car slid around the ruts, he didn't think they were in a populated area, like a resort. Probably headed toward one of the many private vacation homes that dotted the mountainside.
They were on it for maybe ten minutes before they stopped. Cormac kept his eyes closed. Perhaps he could gain an advantage by playing possum, though he doubted it. He already wasn't at his best with the moon being in a phase unfavorable to werewolves. The knock to the head just made it worse. Still, he planned to be ready if an opportunity to escape presented itself. If he could make it into the woods, he was sure he'd have a fighting chance until he could get some help--these mountains were his home and they had yet to fail him.
The door opened. He lay still, trying to be as unresponsive as possible. Rough hands grabbed him, dragging him out into the freezing air. He opened his eyes to see who held him and get an idea of where he was. Two men, darkly tanned and enormous, were next to him. One was talking on a cell phone, the other was holding him up. He noticed Cormac eyeing him and turned away to check the woods. They were in front of massive house done in the Tudor style, but no lights were on. There was no sign of Sek.
The second man ended the call, and gestured to the other one. Each of them took one of Cormac's upper arms and forced him to walk away from the house and into the outlying woods surrounding the property. Cormac lost an idea of how long they walked—the pounding in his head getting worse, the nausea harder to manage. He knew he had a concussion and it was all he could do to stay upright and not revisit his dinner.
When they reached their destination, they threw Cormac against a tree, where he was content to sit for a few minutes and catch his breath. The thing around his neck chafed and he could feel blood trickling down his back from where it cut into his skin. He tried to get some slack in the ropes that bound his hands, but they were tied well. He had to be content with watching his captors and waiting to see if a chance to escape presented itself.
He knew escape was unlikely, especially since he couldn't change. The ropes he could probably deal with, but whatever was around his neck would probably strangle him during his transformation. And that was without the Alpha's edict forbidding him to change until the month was up. When his dad gave him his punishment, he had used the Alpha voice, effectively binding Cormac to obedience. He couldn't disobey, at least not without incapacitating pain.
Cormac heard the sound of someone coming nearer through the trees. Sek walked into the small clearing, followed by the man Kess referred to as his right hand. That made four wereleopards and Cormac knew the likelihood of him making it out of here without help from his pack was effectively nil, especially when what Sek carried with him caught the light. He held a long silver knife in his hand and when he saw Cormac looking at it, he smiled.
Kess' brother beckoned his men to bring Cormac closer. He struggled when they hauled him up, which only earned him several vicious punches to his midsection and a hard cross to his face. He spat out blood and was forced to stand face to face with Sek.
"I'll never understand what my sister sees in you." Sek circled Cormac, venom in his voice.
"Where is she?" Cormac demanded, fear icing through him at the thought of what he would do to Kess. "What have you done to her?"
Sek punched him in the kidney, sending him to his knees. He panted for a moment, then staggered back up. Sek was in his face, hissing, "She is no longer your concern, dog. She's back where she belongs now and it's going to stay that way."
"Whether or not she wants it? How do you plan to keep her with you when you know that she despises you?" Cormac paused, weighing his next words carefully. "It must really be pissing you off that she ran as far as she could from you, only to wind up with someone like me."
Sek hit him again, this time in his jaw. Cormac's head snapped back, the collar digging in to the flesh at his neck. "She'll be made to see my side of things." The undertone of something dark and twisted in his voice made Cormac shudder. "But there's still the problem of you."
Cormac felt the shirt he wore rip as the two men who held him up tore it in two. He shivered involuntarily as the frigid air hit his skin. Sek came closer, brandishing the knife. "My sister has formed an unhealthy attachment to you. It clouds her judgment and she needs to be taught the error of her ways." He smiled a hangman's smile. "I'm afraid that will be extraordinarily painful for you."
Sek slashed with the knife, opening up a long gash in Cormac's chest. He cried out, the pain from the silver weapon burning like a brand along his skin and down into his blood. Silver wasn't fatal to his kind, but it was painful and poisonous to them, weakening them to a dangerous degree. He saw Sek smile, the expression perverse as he took great pleasure in the agony he caused.
The wereleopard stepped back, surveying Cormac in way that made his blood run cold. "It's a pity I can't force you to change," he mused. "I had promised Kess your pelt as a remembrance." He stepped in, slashing again. Then he grabbed Cormac by the hair, pulling his head up at a painful angle. Cormac forced himself to meet the maelstrom of Sek's eyes, as he said, "I suppose your head will have to do."
Kess didn't know how long she lay there, half in and half out of a twilight state of consciousness. She knew somewhere deep inside her that something was wrong, that she needed to move, to go. But a languid heaviness filled her limbs and she seemed unable to muster up the physical energy for the urgency that battered at her mind.
But there was something else in her mind, something apart from the human fear and worry. There was a need crouching there, an instinct that twitched muscles she didn't have, an other that had waited for weeks and now knew that its time had come to act. Kess understood on a deeper level what it was, and that it was her only hope of surviving this night and she gave herself over to it completely.
