Mark of the Wolf; Hell's Breed (19 page)

Reluctantly, Lucien broke the kiss and
released her. “We need to get her out of here,” he agreed,
surveying the slaughter surrounding them.

“
I don’t know,” Raphael
said slowly. “I think we need to see if we can figure out what is
going on here—or what was about to go down.”

Lucien frowned.

“
I thought you said you
knew what was going on?” Damien said irritably. “Didn’t you say you
overheard the guy talking to somebody about exchanging Laurie for
plans?”

“
I figured out part of it
from what was said—I think. But I also think we need to see what we
can do to figure the entire thing out while we have a chance. No
time for debate, though,
mes amis.
We need to make it quick. We made a hell of a
racquet coming in. The cops may be on the way now and you guys are
going to have a hard time explaining what you’re all doing in here
naked—together.”

Lucien, Damien, Kane, and Basil all
gave him drop dead looks for the suggestive leer he bent on them.
“I don’t think I like what he’s suggesting,” Kane growled. “I think
I’m going to kick his ass.”

“
Forget it. He just thinks
he’s being funny,” Damien said tightly. “Let’s clean up here. We
can check them out and see what we can come up with at the same
time and then clean up a little so Laurie will be more
comfortable.”

He glanced at her, skimming her
length.

Lucien studied her for a moment and
turned to Kane. “Kane, you’re hurt. Grab your clothes and then you
can stay and keep an eye on Laurie while we take care of taking out
the trash.”

Nodding, Kane left to retrieve his
clothing.

Moving away from the group, Lucien
stopped at the first body, crouched down, and felt for a wallet.
“The name Kent Sloan mean anything to anybody?”

There were several negative
murmurs.

“
Hey!
Mes amis
!” Michel called out. “I
might have something! This guy has a business card for Mellin
Corporation.”

“
And?”

“
The number on the card is
the same as the number on his cell phone.”

“
So?”

“
I think it’s the guy that
was making the calls. Hard to say. Where’s the head?” After
glancing around, he got up and moved to a head and then returned
with it to the body. “Yep. It fits.”

Straightening, he punched the number
on the cell phone.

Lucien leapt at him and snatched it
out of his hand, canceling the call. “I think we need to consider
what to say before we call,” he said pointedly.

Unfortunately, no sooner had he hung
up than the phone rang. Mouthing an oath, he lifted the phone to
his ear. “Yeah?” He listened a minute, staring down at the body.
“Well, he’s a little tied up right now. He wanted me to call for an
update.” He listened again and winced. “Yeah, that’s what I meant.
To give you an update.” He seemed to struggle for a minute for
something to say. “The girl’s ready for delivery. Any word from her
old man yet?”

“
Who the fuck is this?”
yelled a voice on the other end loudly enough everyone heard
it.

Lucien hung up. “Guess we blew that
possibility.”

“
Well, we at least know
that whoever that was on the other end had to be involved. His
number and his reaction points to it,” Damien said. “So … the
Mellin Corporation had Laurie kidnapped for some plans. And Laurie
was witness to a murder involving a Fed. So is there a connection
between the two incidents? You’d think there must be, right? Maybe
that was the first time they tried to grab her—and if there was a
Fed there then the Feds were watching her then. But they hadn’t
picked her up so that points to bait, right?”

Lucien glanced at Laurie. “Your file
says your father’s dead …?”

Laurie glanced around at the men.
“It’s personal,” she said after a moment.

“
Well, is he dead or not?”
Raphael asked impatiently.

Kane slugged him. “Don’t talk to her
like that!”

“
We don’t have a lot of
damned time here! We’re going to have to act,” Raphael said,
rubbing his jaw. “Who’s coming, Laurie?”

“
I haven’t seen or talked
to the bastard since I was about six. All I know is that he used to
work for the government and he was a scientist.”

They all stared at her—turning that
information over in their minds and trying to piece the puzzle
together.

“
Looks like Damien’s
right. We might be getting a visit from the Feds. Do we want to
visit with the Feds? Or do we want to clear out before they get
here?”

“
You’re assuming the Feds
will beat the cops here and we won’t just end up kicking our heels
in jail?”

“
I think the chance is
probably slim to none that they’ll take us to where ever it is
they’re holding her father—assuming you’re right and they do have
him. I agree with Damien. Looks to me like the bastards were just
using Laurie as bait to catch people of interest to them. I’m still
leaning toward trying to make use of the situation, though. Slim or
not, it’s still a chance and the only one we’ve had since we got
here to, maybe, find out
how
we got here and if there’s any chance of getting
back.”

Laurie had listened to Lucien
doubtfully. “Getting back where? What do you mean ‘since you came
here’?”

The men glanced at one another. “To
this world, Laurie,” Lucien said. “We aren’t from here. We were
pulled here—somehow.”

Laurie stared at him blankly, trying
to digest that. All she could seem to absorb, though, was that he
was saying he wanted to go home.

“
I think if there’s a
chance we could find out what you all need to know then we
shouldn’t pass it up—if that’s what you guys want to do?” she said
finally, questioningly because she was hoping Lucien would deny any
desire to go home if it meant leaving her.

Lucien studied her a long moment,
shook his head slightly, and turned away. “We’re going to have a
hell of a mess if the cops or the Feds get here and we’ve got
bodies lying all over the place. Let’s get this mess cleaned up,
double time people!”

Kane returned wearing pants as the
others headed out the door with the bodies of the men over their
shoulders. He handed Laurie his shirt when he reached her. “Put
this on,” he said gruffly. “You’ve got some bodacious tits, baby. I
really enjoy looking at them myself, but I don’t want any of them
froggy fucks staring at them.”

Laurie was more than happy to pull his
shirt on over her skimpy T. Her teeth were chattering. She didn’t
know if it was from reaction or cold, but the shivering began to
subside as soon as she had the shirt on.

Kane noticed the shaking. He frowned,
almost seemed to surge toward her before he checked himself and
looked down at his bloody side and arms. “You cold, baby? I’ll see
if I can find something else to wrap you up in.”

Laurie shook her head and surged
toward him. “Just … wrap me up in you. You’re hurt. You don’t need
to be moving all over the place. Just hold me. That’s what I really
need.”

“
I’m all bloody and nasty,
baby,” Kane objected, curling his arms lightly around
her.

Laurie had been trying to ignore that
fact. “Let’s don’t talk about it,” she said in a voice muffled
against his chest. “What did you mean by froggy? French? From
France? Was that what Lucien meant by y’all not being from
here?”

“
The French developed
them. You didn’t notice the stupid accent?” he said irritably. “But
it ain’t the place you’re thinking and we’re not from there
ourselves.”

Laurie leaned away from him and stared
at him in confusion. “I’m lost. I am so totally confused by the
whole thing! Didn’t Lucien say you guys …. Well, I don’t know
exactly what he said.”

Kane stroked her cheek. “Don’t be
scared of us, baby. We wouldn’t hurt a hair on your head for
nothin’!”

Laurie felt her heart quicken and her
face heat. Conflicting thoughts and emotions washed through her.
The guys had come to represent the ultimate safety since she’d been
with them—right up until she’d seen them change into something
nightmarish, something that shouldn’t exist. “I’m … I’m not,” she
responded uneasily.

“
Yeah, you are. I can
smell fear. We ain’t human, baby. I wish we were—because I’m just
crazy about you and I know that isn’t something that appeals to you
with you being human—but we aren’t and there’s nothin’ we can do
about it.”

Laurie swallowed with an effort,
feeling much of her residual fear disappear. “That’s what Lucien
said and that confuses me. How could you …? This has something to
do with my father?”

“
We don’t know. It
might.”

Impatience flickered through Laurie.
“Damn it, Kane! It’s like pulling teeth with you! Where are you
guys from?”

He snorted. “A galaxy far, far away,”
he said sardonically.

She punched him—lightly. “Be
serious.”

“
I am. They call us GEFUs
where we’re from—Genetically Engineered Fighting Units. We were/are
genetically enhanced lab rats designed to be killing machines. We
were designed and grown for the war. Something weird happened
during the drop on Xeno-12, though. This swirling monster came out
of nowhere—freaky blue, strange lightning, kind of like a tornado
turned on its side except for the strange lights. We’d already left
the drop ship, though, were dangling by our lines. There wasn’t a
damned thing we could do to keep from being sucked into the
thing—especially after the drop ship caught a well placed mortar
round and blew up.

“
Then, instead of landing
on the planet where we were, we landed here. I mean this is
Earth—we know that. It just ain’t
our
Earth.”

Chapter Fourteen

They’d piled the bodies on the boat
the kidnappers had used and moved the boat to the middle of the
river to sink it when all hell broke loose.

Lucien didn’t know if they were
fortunate, or unlucky, that the cavalry had arrived too late to
realize they might be part of what went down in the industrial
park. All he knew was that they were bypassed by the military blitz
that hit the industrial park.

And that Kane and Laurie were
trapped.

And they’d run out of
options.

He hadn’t had a real problem with
being taken by the Feds. He’d figured they might find something out
and that it would be a cake walk to leave when they got ready. The
military was a whole other thing! Especially if they ended up in
the general’s hands.

Going over the side after they’d put
enough holes in the bottom to insure that it sank fast, they moved
to the far bank to watch the action in the industrial
park.

Naturally enough it didn’t take the
soldiers long to secure the location. They were standing around
chewing the fat when the men in black arrived—the ‘secret’
government agents that drove black vehicles and wore black suits so
as not to draw unwanted attention.

Right!

The agents disappeared in the
direction of the warehouse where they’d left Kane and Laurie. When
they returned a few minutes later, Kane was in cuffs and Laurie,
although not handcuffed, looked to be in custody, as well. They led
them to two different vehicles and forced them inside.

Kane didn’t look as if he’d made any
attempt to fight them up to that point, but when he realized they
were going to separate him from Laurie, he abruptly
resisted.

Apparently they were expecting it. One
of the agents hit him with a stun gun the moment he
moved.

Lucien hoped like hell it didn’t set
off his beast. The agents didn’t appear to realize who and what
Kane was or they wouldn’t have been satisfied with the flimsy cuffs
they’d placed around his wrists. He was hoping Kane had enough
sense not to alert them before he and Raphael could spring him. He
hated to think of what kind of deep, dark hole Kane might disappear
into if the Feds figured out he was one of the men at the war games
that went all awry and shit!

Either Kane
actually
was
stunned by the gun or it put him in mind of the fact that he
was too vastly outnumbered to make a break for it. He went limp and
stayed that way as they shoved him into the back of the lead
vehicle. Laurie looked like she might try to jump to his defense
and then subsided and meekly allowed them to place her in the back
seat of the other vehicle.

Lucien was glad he’d asked the angels
to join the party! It was going to make keeping an eye on the black
SUVs a hell of a lot easier.

Particularly when all they had was a
fucking boat.

And two to four legs.

They shucked their clothes and left
them in a pile on the bank. “This is getting fucking old,” Damien
growled.

“
Rescuing Laurie?” Basil
asked tightly.

Damien sent him a startled look and
then glared at him. “Don’t put words in my mouth, damn it! I meant
the damned clothes. I’m thinking of switching to spandex or
something.”