Night's Captive (16 page)

Just as she thought her head would explode, she touched upon someone’s mind as he thought,
“The master will harm these paranorms, too.”

It had to be the butler as he had referred to Dawson as the master earlier. Although any of Dawson’s help could call him the master.
“I cannot bear to see another paranorm murdered,”
continued the thoughts of the person her mind had touched.

She focused on the person and the image of the butler came strong and sure to her mind.

“Timmons,”
she called to him.
“This is the woman that the master brought in earlier. Can you hear me?”

Silence for a moment.
“Yes—yes, I can, miss.”

“I’m in the basement.”
She pushed out the thoughts and her head ached even more.
“I think Dawson called it his control room.”

“Yes, miss,”
Timmons thought.
“That is where his control room is.”

The ache in her head made it harder for her to tell him what she needed.
“Please come here,”
she thought.

She felt his confusion, the question in his mind.

“Please,”
she begged him.
“Come here.”
The last two words she put emphasis on, like she was attaching a rope to him and pulling him toward her.

The effort made her mind spin. She tugged harder.
“Come here, Timmons.”
This time she put a command in her voice instead of begging him to come.

“Miss—”
Timmons thoughts began.

Loni felt her world go dark as she tried to cling to what the butler was going to say. Pain exploded in her head and everything went black.

Chapter 19

Alec scampered in mouse form toward the front door and was relieved to see none of Dawson’s men inside the entryway. It would make it easier to get to the men with HKs in front.

He glanced around him then shifted.

A shifter was at his most vulnerable when transforming from one form to the next, unless he or she was incredibly fast. Fortunately, Alec usually didn’t have a problem shifting to a human from animal form. It was transforming from human to animal that usually took him a little longer.

When he was back to himself, he unsheathed his dagger. He would open the door, catch the sorcerer’s men by surprise, and slit their throats.

He gripped the door handle and opened the door.

The men with HKs were turned around, facing the door, their weapons pointed directly at Alec. Behind them were Petra and Erick, each with a gun pointed at their heads by one of Dawson’s men. Rider was nowhere to be seen.

Petra looked apologetic and Erick looked pissed. “They have some kind of chemical spray,” Erick said. “Neutralized our abilities.”

“Shut up.” One of Dawson’s men hit the back of Erick’s head with a gun. Not hard enough to knock him out, just enough to hurt.

A crawling sensation traveled up Alec’s spine.

“Are there anymore of your friends hiding about?” the sorcerer said from behind Alec.

He kept his face expressionless as he turned and looked at the bastard who had kidnapped Loni and who had murdered his father.

“Where’s Loni?” Alec demanded in a low growl. “I want to see her.”

“Isn’t it interesting that you are in such a vulnerable position, yet you are making demands.” Dawson took a step closer to Alec. “Why don’t you answer my question first? Are anymore of your friends outside?”

Alec narrowed his gaze. “No.”

The sorcerer studied him. “I cannot say that I believe you.” He nodded to the man beside him. “Take Mr. Page’s dagger and his weapon’s belt, Harper.”

The man called Harper stepped toward Alec who growled and clenched his fists at his sides.

“Don’t play games, Page.” Dawson sounded annoyed. “If you try anything I will kill your friend the witch first.” He nodded in Petra’s direction. “The shifter will be next.”

Alec ground his teeth and let Harper take his dagger and his weapons belt, leaving him feeling almost naked without them.

“Now.” The sorcerer smiled. “We shall have some fun.”

* * * * *

“Miss?” Timmons’s tentative voice roused Loni and after a moment the blackness melted away and she could see again through her wide staring eyes. “What is wrong with you, miss?”

“Timmons,”
she said in her thoughts.
“Please touch my hand.”

The butler looked puzzled and uncomfortable. “Touch you?”

“Please,”
she said, but she put a command into the word, too.

Timmons looked like he’d never touched a person before and she imagined that outside his family—if he had a family—he probably hadn’t. It wouldn’t have been his place to do so.

“Now,”
she projected more firmly.

The butler reached out and touched her hand with the tips of his fingers.

Loni dropped, her body going completely limp. Timmons caught her before she hit the floor. He helped her to sit up and she put a hand to her woozy head. Her eyes were dry from being open for so long and she blinked as a few tears wet her eyes.

“Thank you.” She took a deep breath. “I owe you, possibly my life.”

“No thanks are necessary, miss.” Timmons backed away to a respectable distance.

“Please help me up.” She stretched out her arm and he moved closer again, took her hand, and assisted her in getting to her feet.

Impulsively she hugged the butler and kissed his cheek. His thin, pale face flushed bright red as she stepped back. “You’d better get out of here before Dawson finds out that you’ve helped me.”

“Yes, miss,” he said with a nod.

She thanked Timmons again then jogged to the room’s open door, leaving the butler to follow behind. When she exited and was on the landing, there was a set of steps that went down lower and she wondered where they led. She stepped onto the stairs that led up.

The noise grew louder as she headed up the steps to the main floor. She carefully moved through the house, doing her best to stay out of sight.

The front door opened, the sound loud as it slammed against the wall.

“Timmons!” the sorcerer bellowed. As she pressed herself against a wall she saw the butler speed by her, faster than she imagined he’d ever moved before. “Where are you?”

“I am here, sir.” Timmons slowed to a sedate pace as he started to round the corner so that he didn’t look like he’d been running. “What can I do—” He cleared his throat. “For you and your guests?”

“You are amusing at times, Timmons,” Dawson said dryly. “The witch, Carter, is dead and Richmond is injured and unable to perform his duty. I will require your assistance with some delicate tasks.”

“Yes, sir,” Timmons said.

Loni’s heart raced as she looked for a place to hide. She scrambled under a table that held a vase of flowers, hoping that the sorcerer would not see the flowers move when she bumped a table leg. A white lacy tablecloth hung partway down and didn’t completely hide her. So if Dawson looked in her direction he’d see her.

She held her breath as she watched feet go by. She couldn’t see clearly but she was certain she saw legs encased in black leather and boots in the midst of several people wearing jeans and assorted types of shoes.

Slowly, carefully, she peeked from behind the tablecloth. Her heart clenched when she saw Alec, hands cuffed in magic rope behind his back. Erick and Petra followed.

Loni let the tablecloth settle back in place. Her mind raced—what could she do? There had to be something…

She huddled under the table as the procession walked by, led by Timmons. She watched until they had headed around the corner to the stairs that led down to the basement and below, and then they were gone.

Where was the sorcerer now? She wanted to peek but didn’t dare move until she figured out where he was located. Then she saw another pair of shoes walk by her table. She recognized Dawson’s perfectly pressed black slacks and his polished black dress shoes.

He paused in front of the table and she held her breath. She slowly exhaled as he moved on. He was headed toward the stairs leading down and she knew he would soon discover that she wasn’t where he had left her.

When she couldn’t see him any longer, she crawled out from under the table and scrambled to her feet. She had to get out of here before he discovered she was gone. She hurried to the front door and brushed the door with her fingertips. She closed her eyes and focused on touching the minds of anyone who might be on the other side of the door. In her mind she saw men with guns, guarding the house.

Dawson’s bellow of anger rose up from below. She was certain he knew she was gone.

It’s now or never.
She swallowed, yanked open the door, and ran straight between the two guards.

Time stopped for everything around her. The two men didn’t move or speak. One of them had been stopped in mid gesture and his mouth was open.

Loni didn’t pause. She needed to get as far away as possible so that she could figure out what to do next because right now she had no ideas. None whatsoever. Even finding the other Enforcers was an impossibility because she had no idea where she was. She saw a glimpse of city lights and they were so far away.

She ran down the driveway, everything eerily silent and unmoving around her. Even the trees and bushes didn’t move and the clouds above seemed frozen in place.

A closed gate was straight ahead and a guard stood to either side of the gate. Each guard was completely motionless like everyone and everything else. She unlatched the gate and shoved it open. She slipped through the opening then pushed the gate shut behind her.

Chapter 20

Damn.
Alec kicked the concrete cell wall, really wanting to punch it instead. He went back to the lone metal door that only had a slot to see through when it was opened and another slot at the bottom of the door, presumably to shove trays of food through. It was dark in the cell, but he still had his keen Enforcer sight.

He tried the door but again a shock like a bolt of electricity traveled through his arm to the rest of his body, causing his limbs to weaken. He stumbled back but kept his footing. He’d had small hope for different results, but he couldn’t give up like some laboratory rat would.

The cell seemed to be soundproof. He would have thought he was alone in Dawson’s dungeon if he hadn’t seen two of his teammates thrown into cells like his own.

He shouted, “Petra. Erick. Can either of you hear me?” The only answer was his own voice echoing off the walls.

“Alec, are you there?”
came Petra’s voice, loud and clear in his mind.
“I can’t hear anything.”

“I’m here,”
he responded.
“Are you all right?”

“Yes.”
As she answered, he pictured her nodding.
“Rider managed to avoid detection, I think.”

“There aren’t a lot of winged marauders,”
Alec replied,
“and they usually aren’t associated with the right side of the law. So it’s not surprising Dawson’s men didn’t sense him.”

“True,” Petra said. She paused. “Earlier I think I touched Loni’s mind.”

“Is she all right?”
Hope surged in Alec’s chest.

Petra paused before answering.
“I think she was in trouble, but there was nothing any of us could do.”

“What do you mean?”
Anger replaced hope that Loni was okay.
“Why didn’t you say something?”

“I didn’t have time.”
Petra sounded apologetic.
“Dawson’s people sprayed us with that chemical and I lost what little connection I’d had.”

He closed his eyes and rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger.
“Where is she now?”

“I don’t know,”
Petra said in his thoughts.
“I’ve tried to touch her mind, but I hear nothing, sense nothing. It’s like she’s not there anymore.”

A sick feeling settled in his gut. What if the sorcerer had killed her?

“We need to get out of here.”
Alec heard the frustration and anger in his words as he thought them.
“We have to find Loni.”

“Agreed.”
Petra gave a mental sigh.
“Have any ideas how?”

He kicked the wall again.
“No, dammit. Can you talk with Erick and Rider?”

“I will try,”
she said.
“And then I’ll be back.”