Slade (21 page)

“I allowed that bastard Abrahamson to live, though it went against the grain. I want them both dead for what they did to our mother.”

“Could you kill Abrahamson now, in cold blood, the way he is?” Slade asked in a quiet voice. Kate found she was holding her breath, waiting for Grif’s answer.

“You bastard. You know I can’t. If I could, he’d already be dead. You left him an empty shell, Kate, and totally fucked up my revenge.”

Kate was relieved to see the barest hint of humor in Grif’s gaze as he looked at her. She didn’t mind the profanity, though it was a mark of how upset he was that he’d slipped and used such language in front of her. In her experience, though the shifters were rough and tumble, they were also gentlemen when it came to her. They treated her with respect, from the youngest cub to the roughest warrior. None of them used bad language if they thought she was within earshot.

“Sorry, Alpha,” she answered with a shrug of her shoulders. “It was the only way in that particular case. It was what the Lady led me to do.”

“I’m not chastising you, priestess,” Grif said finally, some of the tension leaving his shoulders. “And it will probably be helpful to have Abrahamson around for a while so we can pick his brain and learn everything he knows about our enemy. But the beast
howls for his blood. For vengeance.”

“I think I understand,” Kate said quietly. “At the very least, if we succeed tonight, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that the pair who murdered your mother
has been stopped. How they are stopped and what happens to them afterward is in the Goddess’s hands.”

“I
guess I can live with that.” Grif turned away from her then and spoke in a low voice to his brothers, no doubt issuing orders. Kate turned to Slade as he put his arm around her shoulders.

“We’ll do what we can to stop her, but if it comes down to it, Grif deserves the kill.” His bald statement really drove home to Kate the fact that she wasn’t dealing with regular pe
ople here. These were shifters, with animal instincts only slightly tempered by their human sides. The animal wanted to kill, and she couldn’t blame them for that.

“All right.”

Kate’s attention was caught by Steve, who was transforming back to his human shape. She’d seen him naked before, of course, but not all of him, standing there, twisting and flexing those impressive muscles as he re-dressed in his black commando gear. She saw him slip the earpiece into his ear with practiced ease. He also had a backpack in the truck, which he removed and began rummaging through.

Mean looking weapons began to appear and then disappear just as quickly once he’d checked them over and stashed them on his person. She had to hand it to him, he certainly knew how to disguise the fact that he was armed to the teeth.

Robert stayed in his animal form and Kate realized he didn’t have the same military experience as Grif and Steve. He was probably stealthier—and deadlier—in his beast form. The older brothers though, they were equally dangerous on two legs or four.

So was Slade, for that matter. Of that, she had no doubt.

Chapter Twelve

Only minutes later, Kate found herself walking side by side with Slade, wearing a hard hat and trying her best to unravel all the magical signatures left behind by a multitude of shifters. She couldn’t illuminate the magic the way she’d done in the Redstone’s backyard. No, that would be too obvious. The sorceress would see them coming a mile away.

Slade was tamping down his magic, dampening it in a way she hadn’t known anyone could before she met him. They did a little experimentation and discovered that if she stayed close to him, he could extend his dampening field to include her too. That was handy.

The plan was to walk along the edges of the vast property. Slade had given her a clipboard and pen and from time to time they’d stop and Slade would gesture while she pretended to take notes. He’d taken on the role of site inspector with chameleon-like grace.

“Perimeter breach,” Slade whispered as they walked
. He must’ve heard it over the earpiece he still wore. “Moore’s men on the southeast fence saw her come through. She was moving fast and went straight into the base of the structure. Damn.” Slade switched on the mic and began relaying orders as they changed direction, heading for the north entrance to the steel skeleton of the building. “Get everyone out of there,” Slade was saying in a low, urgent voice as they moved quickly toward their objective.

Even as they entered the building, Kate saw about fifteen workers exiting. They were evacuating, but making it look like they were just taking a break. Only a select few raptors would be left on the upper floors—enough to make it convincing, but none of them were pushovers. All were strong men with years of experience who had volunteered for this especially hazardous duty. They were part of Redstone’s group. They’d known the matriarch
, and wanted to help catch her killers.

“Block the exits and set up a perimeter around the building. Box her in,” Slade said with finality as he stopped and scanned the lattice-like structure above their heads. Only a few floors had partial decking. Most of the place was still bare iron.

He turned off the mic, though she knew he could still hear as the team members reported over the radio. Kate was following his lead. They hadn’t been able to discuss every contingency, but they had touched on a few different things they could try if they ended up inside the building with the sorceress, as had just happened.

Kate had really thought the woman would target her vict
im from outside, but she’d done the unexpected. Thankfully, Slade and the other guys seemed more than capable of adjusting for many different contingencies. Kate was glad now that they’d discussed more than just what she’d assumed would happen.

“What now?” Kate whispered to him as he continued to scan the heights.

“We need to pinpoint her location,” he replied without looking at her. His keen blue eyes were trained on the steel above them. “We’ll try this the stealthy way first, but if we can’t find her in three minutes, we’ll light the place up with magic.”

“She’ll know we’re here,” Kate objected, though on reflection she saw the need for urgency.

“She’ll find that out sooner or later. I’m hoping for later, but we need to flush her out before she can launch her attack. I’d prefer to sneak up on her…” His voice trailed off as his gaze halted and searched one particular area.

“Do you see her?” Kate held her breath, nervous for his answer.

“I think…” Slade moved slightly, still concentrating on one spot, far above their heads. “Bingo.”

He kept his eyes trained on the woman only he could see as he ran for the nearest elevator. Kate just barely kept up with him and jumped into the metal contraption a moment before it started moving a fast clip up the side of the
steel girders. It was an open cage affair, strictly for use during construction. The much fancier, permanent passenger elevators had yet to be installed, though the shafts had already been framed out in several different parts of the structure.

“I have her in sight,” Slade reported
over the radio. “Nineteenth floor. South side. Closing in on the raptors from the floor below.”

Kate looked as they rose higher and could just make out a darker shape against the shadows of the decking. The nineteenth floor had mor
e of the flooring on the south side than some of the other parts of the building. They seemed to be using it as a staging area for materials that would be used as they constructed the upper floors and there were pallets of supplies and the dark silhouettes of equipment dotting the area.

Work lights illuminated the area, strung every ten feet or so. They put off a stark white light that left deep shadows. It was to the shadows that they clung as they got off the elevator the floor below, then made their way up one of the staircases to the nineteenth story.

Yellow caution tape fluttered in the night breeze, the only thing guarding the open sides of the building and the areas that had no decking. Kate had never been up in a building that wasn’t even close to finished. Everything about the situation was scary—from the danger of plummeting to her death, to the idea of facing a cold-blooded murderer.

But Slade was with her. In the short time she’d known him, he’d become her lifeline. Her rock. The only man she had ever felt comfortable in leaning on when she needed a little boost, be it magical, emotional or physical. His presence gave her comfort and strength. She could face anything as long as he was by her side.

They were nearing the woman when Kate felt something very wrong. Very dark. Evil.

“She’s doing something,” Kate warned Slade in the barest whisper she could manage. The noise from machinery and the night wind would make it hard for human hearing to pick up the noise of their approach or any whispering they might need to do, but Slade would hear a lot more with his sharp, shifter senses.

“I feel it too,” he confirmed. He had positioned them behind a relatively large generator that was about fifteen yards away from the woman. The generator was off and the shadows it cast hid them well. “Get ready. I want you to light up all the magic here like you did in the backyard and I want you to do it before she has a chance to strike.”

Kate didn’t question why he wanted her to use something that wasn’t offensive at all. He had his reasons. If nothing else, suddenly
seeing all the magic around her in bright, brilliant color would startle the woman.

Kate nodded at him. “I’m ready when you are.”

“That’s my girl.” Slade winked at her, sparing her a hint of a smile. She realized that he was actually enjoying himself—just the tiniest bit—but he clearly liked this kind of work. And why not? He seemed perfectly suited for it.

He spoke quietly into the radio and Kate felt the building of energy. The sorceress was preparing her spell. “Slade…” she whispered, nervous.

“Okay, kitten. Do it now.”

Kate let loose with her own power and the entire place lit up with magic. Bright, beautiful, shifter magic. And one, disgusting trail of blood red, leading to the place where the sorceress hid. She was fully illuminated to Kate’s senses now—Slade’s too, she was sure.

Kate kept her magic going full force while Slade stepped into the open, drawing the woman’s attention.

“It’s over,” he said in a strong voice that carried. “You’re caught. Might as well give up now, Sheila.”

She jumped at the sound of her name, but otherwise made no reply. Kate felt the dark power ratchet up a moment before the sorceress lobbed a magical fireball at Slade. He shifted shape in the blink of an eye and when Kate’s vision cleared from the intensity of the magic thrown their way, Slade wasn’t in his black leopard form. No, he wore a glowing, spotted white coat and his paws and tail were incredibly bushy.

“You’ve got to be kidding me. He’s a snow leopard?”

Even Kate had heard the rumors—the myths, really. Rarer than rare, snow leopards were like shifter royalty or something. And intensely magical.

That part was proving true as the sorceress’s energy seemed to bounce right off him. Amazing.

Even as she watched, Slade leapt. He covered a huge distance in a single bound and kept going…climbing and dancing along the steel girders and decking toward the fleeing mage.

Kate kept her magic going strong, illuminating the scene as best she could for Slade. To the others it probably looked like she was
simply hiding behind the generator, but to those with magesight, the sorceress’s path was lit with bright, blood red light against the purer colors of the shifter’s magic—and the pure blue and white streak of Slade’s alternate form.

Or his
other
alternate form. Was it even possible for one shifter to claim two different animal forms? Kate had never heard of such a thing, but then again, she’d never met a snow leopard before either. Nobody had. Not to her knowledge.

I
t seemed there was a first time for everything.

She tried to watch Slade’s progress as he chased the sorceress but he was faster than her eyes could follow. So was the sorceress. She was augmenting her
speed with magic in order to stay one step ahead of Slade—and the cougars who had joined the chase.

F
our of the Redstone brothers had joined the fray, ducking the magical attacks of the sorceress by sheer skill and agility while Slade barreled right through them as if they were nothing. In fact those fireballs were enough to kill most other shifters. Or at least knock them off their feet. Or off the side of the building.

Kate saw a series of giant hawks and eagles diving from the upper floors, getting out of the way while the cats ran the mage to ground.
Kate kept a tight hold on her concentration, not allowing the magic to flare too brightly while keeping it illuminated to help Slade track the woman.

She saw the way he directed and worked with the other cats. The cougars were clearly angry. Hell, they were irate. But Slade managed to exert his influence on them, even as he led the small group in a concerted effort to trap the woman between them.

She fled around all the obstacles piled on the deck, faster than Kate would have believed if she hadn’t seen it herself. But the cats were faster. The sorceress threw sickly blood-red fireballs at them, but none made contact. Slade kept himself the main focus of her attacks as best he could, but she took shots at the cougars too.