New Species 03 Valiant (11 page)

the clear and deep impressions the truck tires had left in

the long grass. He knew Rider and Brass followed him

closely. They probably were under orders to make sure

he didn’t slaughter the human males when he found

them. Two Species males wouldn’t be enough to prevent

that from happening if they’d done anything bad to

Tammy. Tiger should have brought a dozen males with

them if that was his intention.

Valiant located the truck and smelled Tammy right

away inside the back of it. He leapt into the truck bed and

discovered blood. He crouched down, sniffed, and only

calmed slightly when he realized it wasn’t hers. He closed

his eyes as he took a few breaths to memorize the stench

of the males. Pure rage coursed through him because he

could smell Tammy’s fearful scent along with those who

had taken her. He stood and jumped out of the truck.

Tiger and the two security officers watched Valiant,

waiting for his assessment.

“Two of them had her in the back of the truck.

There’s blood but not hers.”

Tiger nodded. Valiant walked to the open driver’s

door. He stopped and sniffed, moving around it to the

busted side mirror. He growled as his entire body tensed.

“What is it?” Tiger moved forward but the answer

was there as he inhaled. “Blood.”

“Hers.” Valiant threw back his head and roared. “Her

blood is on that broken mirror so they hurt her. I’ll kill

them for this.”

Brass cleared his throat. “She fell here and ran away

but they followed.” He stood about ten feet from the

truck near the tree line of the woods.

Valiant lunged forward. The four of them sniffed the

area and studied the tracks on the ground. The small

impressions were harder to detect at night. “It’s not old.”

“That’s what the sheriff stated.” Tiger confirmed.

“They took her about an hour ago. Do you think she got

away from them?” He stared at the smallest tracks—a

female running. He glanced at Valiant. “How physically fit

is she? Do you think she could outrun her attackers?”

“No,” Valiant snarled. “She’s small and no match for

four males.”

“We better find them fast,” Brass growled.

The four men ran. They stopped where Tammy had

been tackled and the signs of where clear to each of them

that she’d impacted the ground. Valiant roared again

when he discovered more of Tammy’s blood.

“Easy,” Tiger snarled low. “We’re all allowing our

animal sides to rule but we’re dealing with humans.

Control your instincts while we hunt. They aren’t deer.

Keep that in mind.”

Rider growled where he crouched, examining the

disturbed leaves. “One man is carrying her. His track

impressions show the added weight.”

“He’s dead when I reach him,” Valiant promised.

“Let’s go.”

* * * * *

Tammy woke and softly cursed. Her shoulder, arm,

back, and head hurt. She stopped listing what ached and

tried to concentrate instead on what didn’t. Her feet and

her ass were fine but that was about it. She forced her

eyes open to stare at a blazing campfire. She rested on

her side facing it, a few feet away from the flames. She

turned her head, only to instantly regret it.

Four men sat on a fallen log glaring at her. One of

them, Terry, had his cowboy boots off. Dried blood

stained his chin and shirt. She’d head-butted that one.

A nother one had strips of his torn shirt stuffed up his

nose that seemed to be actively bleeding, while another

one had his hand clamped over his arm where bloody

claw marks from her fingernails assured her he’d been

one of the jerks in the back of the truck with her. The

fourth man appeared unhurt.

She looked away from them and glanced at the trees

surrounding them. She had been placed on grass but as

she tried to lift up, she couldn’t move her arms. She

tugged and realized they were bound behind her. She

glared at the men.

“My leather belt is wrapped around your wrists, you

little hellion. You just stay down.” It was the unhurt man

who spoke in an angry tone. “I still say we should just

kill her. Look at all the shit we’re in because of her. She

broke Ned’s nose when she kicked him in the face on her

way out of the truck.”

Surprise registered to Tammy. She didn’t remember

doing that but hid a smile, happy it had happened. She

vaguely remembered using her feet to help kick off to

shove her upper body from the bed of the truck. She’d

thought she’d used the floor to do it. The fact that it had

actually been his face made it better.

“I think two of my teeth are loose. She slammed her

head into my mouth,” Terry said and grunted while he

glared at her. “I say I take my belt and blister her ass

with it.”

“Stop all of that whining,” the guy with the scratched

arm ordered. “We need her help. You heard what our

informant on the inside of that animal land told us. One

of those animals grabbed and carried her off. We need to

convince her to go public and tell everyone what he did

to her to gain support for our cause.”

“Like that bitch is going to do that.” Ned paused.

“Right. She broke my nose. She’s as much of an animal

as they are. Did she come with us peacefully the way a

real lady would? Hell no. She fought as though she were

an animal. Now here we are stuck in the woods without a

truck. That car followed us and I’m pretty sure that guy

went for help. He probably got the license plate. We

probably have half of the state searching for us because

she wouldn’t just be reasonable.”

“We should have waited, Paul.” Terry frowned at the

guy with the scratched arm. “He ordered us to wait to

take her when he arrived. You’re the dick who thought

she’d be easy enough to grab. You said it would be as

simple as eating pie. The boss is going to be here in a

few days and he’s going to tear you a new asshole and us

along with you since we were dumb enough to listen to

your screwed-up plan. You know the boss wants her bad,

he told you he has big plans for her. He said he could

talk her into doing whatever we needed her to do but

now it’s all turned to shit.”

Paul cursed. “I can fix this. We can convince her to

tell the press what we want but it just might take a bit

more time.”

“We don’t have that,” Terry ground out. “Our boss is

going to have all of our asses for this mess. We screwed

it up bad.”

Paul glared at Tammy. “A ll you had to do was come

peacefully. We’re human, damn it. We’re your kind. What

did that animal do to you when he carried you off? Did

he rape you? Did he take a bite out of you? Did he try to

turn you into one of them? Tell us the truth right now!”

Tammy glared at him. “He was a gentleman and

brought me tea. A fter that, he asked me how my day

was,” she lied. “He didn’t toss me into the back of a truck

and crush me into near suffocation, nor did he drag me

out into the woods and use a belt to tie my hands behind

my back. He was actually intelligent and polite.”

She hoped she wouldn’t go to hell over stretching the

truth because while Valiant was intelligent, the polite part

would be considered a little shady.

“They are animals.” Terry glared at her. “You’re

sticking up for them?”

“You’re calling them that? That’s priceless coming

from four thugs who kidnapped me.” She snorted loudly

and rolled her eyes.

“Bitch!” Ned yelled as he lurched to his feet. “You

broke my nose. I’ll show you what kind of animal I can

be.”

Paul gripped his arm. “Sit down.”

“She’s asking for it,” Ned whined but he sat.

Terry sighed. “She’s never going to do what we want.

We should just get rid of her and tell our boss she

accidently died when we grabbed her.”

“You don’t go against the doctor’s orders ever. I told

him I’d make this happen and that, in the end, he’d get

her alive when we were done with her.” Paul shot a

frightened look at his men, seeming to be in charge of

them. “Trust me. That’s one man you never want to

disappoint. He is allowing us to get a taped statement

from her but after that, he plans to use her for one of his

experiments. Our informant believes something sexual

happened between her and the animal who took her. He

overheard a conversation between Justice North and one

of the security animals. They said she could be hurt and

they wanted a doctor to check her out but she refused to

press charges against the animal for rape. They didn’t say

attempted rape. He was clear about that.”

Tammy knew the color drained from her face.

Someone had leaked information to a hate group,

someone close to Justice North. She’d never met him but

she’d seen him in interviews on television since he was

the most well-known New Species. His people had voted

him into leadership as though he were some kind of

president. He made most of the decisions for them.

Someone obviously was spying on him and telling these

men what was being said. Worse, they knew about her

and Valiant. Not good.

Four pairs of eyes studied her. Tammy glared back.

She guessed the only way out of the mess would be to

convince them they had the wrong information. She

could only hope they wouldn’t kill her.

“I don’t know who you’ve been talking to but it’s

bullshit. That never happened,” she bluffed. “I’d find

someone more reliable if you’re paying that person to

feed you information. Maybe you should hire them to

write fiction since they seem to be good at making up

stuff. Is your informant some reporter for one of those

gossip rags? Did an alien attack me too?”

“She fucked one of those animals?” Terry sounded

stunned as he stared at her as if she were something he’d

never seen before, something disgusting. “You screwed

an animal?”

She closed her eyes, counted to five, and opened

them. “Listen, cowboy. Did you just hear me? Whoever

told you this crap is full of it.”

“That’s what we were told,” Paul confirmed. “He

hauled her up off the ground and carried her away. Our

informant heard the conversation between the head

animal and his security dog.”

“I think his head of security is a cat.” Ned shrugged.

“Does it matter? Dog? Cat? What’s the difference?”

Terry snorted. “They are animals that walk around on

two legs thinking they are as good as us but they aren’t.

They are nothing more than test rats that grew brains.

I’m so sick of them breathing and seeing idiots on the

news praising those abominations for what they are

doing by setting up their own living environment. It’s like

patting a bird on the back for making a nest in their cage

with newspaper bits. They are tainting our country and

now they are putting their dirty paws our women. We’ve

got to stop them.”

Ned stared at Tammy. “Maybe he brainwashed her.

We know it’s possible.” He leaned over, staring at her. “Is

that why you’re protecting your animal lover? Did he

torture you into submission? Maybe he bit her and

infected her with some disease that makes her one of

them. Is that it? A re you infected? Have you started to

grow a tail or fur?”

Tammy couldn’t believe she’d been kidnapped by

such morons. It made her almost feel ashamed that

they’d succeeded. “Why don’t you come over here and

take a look?” She wanted to kick the son of a bitch since

legs that weren’t tied down.

He stood and walked toward her. Tammy tensed.

When he was close enough she twisted and kicked him as

hard as she could in his shin. He screamed, jumped back

and fell on his ass.

“You bitch!” he yelled.

“You moron!” Tammy shouted back.

“Enough,” Paul demanded. “Stay away from her.

She’s obviously sick in her head if she let one of them

touch her. We’ll have the doctor take care of her. He’s a

vicious son of a bitch.”

“It’s a good thing those animals are shooting blanks