Tales Of The Sazi 05 - Moon's Fury (4 page)

When the handle finally clicked, he turned off the switch and slid the nozzle back into place. Once the cap was on again, he paused to deeply inhale the sweet scent from the bush. He was just taming when a voice sounded next to his ear and he suddenly, without warning, couldn't move a muscle.

"Smell sort of like grape Kool-Aid, don't they? Mountain laurels are native to these parts, you know.”

He reacted instinctively, pushing back against the power that engulfed him, struggling to free himself. But the pressure on his body was incredible—as though an invisible hand was squeezing, compressing his flesh against his bones. There was no doubting there was a Sazi behind him, one powerful enough to withstand his best attempts to move. Even Josef had to struggle a little to hold him still, but this …his effort had all the effect of throwing a bucket of water against the Hoover Dam. Laughable and futile. So he stopped trying and remained still.

"What an
unexpected
surprise to see you here in Santa Helena, Mr. Mueller. Especially since you had strict instructions not to show up until the council gave you the go-ahead." The words were quiet, no more than a whisper, but there was slow death in the tone. He still couldn't see the man's face, since he couldn't even move his eyeballs, and there was no scent to guide him. Nothing at all, which meant his assailant was with Wolven, at a minimum.

He found himself turning, although he wasn't the one in control. But the movements were so natural and delicate that no human, even if standing right next to his truck, would be able to tell that he wasn't moving of his own volition. Viv had all the liveliness of a store mannequin, which shouldn't be possible if the same person was holding them both. But she was absolutely still in the cab, except for the slow movement of her chest. The slight smile on her face was belied by the panic deep in her eyes. It was obvious she was trying to fight the hold, and was failing just as he had. But unlike him, she would wear herself out fighting, rather than conserving her strength in case she needed it later. While the voice hadn't brought any recognition, the man's face certainly did. Adam's eyes would have widened if they could have. It wasn't often an average Sazi came in contact with the council representative for all of the werewolves in the world. No surprise he could hold them both. Hell, Lucas Santiago could probably simultaneously hold the entire Minnesota pack and make them play hockey against one another. For decades he'd been the alpha male of one of the largest wolf packs in the world, in Boulder, Colorado. Gossip claimed he was second in power to nobody but the Chief Justice. Adam felt his body lean back against the truck and his arms cross over his chest in just the way he would do himself if chatting with a friend. With a nearly audible pop, he felt the magic loosen around his head and throat.
Just
his head, while the rest of his body was trapped as securely as if embedded in concrete.

"Now then, Mr. Mueller. Would you care to explain yourself?" That same light, quiet tone was combined with mild curiosity on Santiago's permanently tanned face. He didn't appear angry, but then—

who really knew what he thought?

Adam had to cough more than once to get any moisture back to his mouth so he could speak. He lowered his voice to a hoarse whisper, knowing the other man could easily hear him, but keeping to neutral words in case any humans overheard. "My greetings to you and your family in Boulder, sir. I mean no disrespect, but I'm confused. I was
instructed
to come down here and recon the area for my family.”

The man's brows raised and he pursed his lips in interest. "Really? Well, that certainly is worth discussing in more suitable surroundings." Meaning more
private
surroundings. "I'm staying at the La Vista Motel at the other edge of town, Room 118. I'll expect you and Ms. Carmichael to be checked in in half an hour. Room 117 is available.”

"But we're already staying at the Super 8—”

Santiago turned and walked away without removing the magic on either of them, nor responding to his statement. Instead, he turned his power up a notch until Adam's skin began to sting and burn like he was rolling on hot sand. He got the point. It wasn't until the elder man's rental car disappeared from the parking lot and another two minutes had passed that Adam could move again. After he finished paying for the gas and returned to the truck, Vivian was still rubbing her arms to ease the pain. He fought the urge to do the same thing.

"Who was that?" she asked, once he was seated behind the wheel once more and had started the truck. "What did he want?”

"Lucas Santiago, the council rep for the wolves. He's never visited our pack and damned if I know what he's doing in Texas. I only recognized him because Josef has a picture of the two of them in his office.”

Vivian's voice was approaching panic. She never did deal well with confrontation when the threat was real. "We need to get out of town. Right now. Go somewhere he can't find us.”

He found himself chuckling at yet another absurd thought. "Jesus, Viv! He knew our names, for crying out loud! You saw his car leave while we were still statues. He wanted us to know that he could find us, kill us without even trying, pretty much anywhere if we tried to skip. I don't know what the hell we did wrong, but I'm sort of fond of breathing, don'tcha know, so I'm headed to the motel like he instructed. How about you? You want me to drop you at the bus station? Think you'll make it a dozen miles before he crushes your windpipe from the comfort of his room?”

Her voice lowered to a whisper and she started to rock slightly under her seat belt. "I don't want to go. I don't want to talk to him, Adam.”

Part of him felt sorry for her, but mostly he was annoyed at her cowardice. And she wanted to be a
pack leader.
What a laugh. "Oh, for God's sake! Get over it. You're an alpha werewolf. You'll heal from anything short of death. The man can't be a psychopath and be on the council. They don't put up with that shit. Hey, if we screwed up, we'll get bloodied a little. That's part of life. Hell, there's no saying we're not
all
going to have to fight for our position in this new pack, so get used to the idea. Now borrow me a pen so I can write down the room number before I forget.”

Vivian didn't respond, which was fine with him. She did hand him the pen so he could write down the motel name on the back of an old envelope, then followed him quietly to gather their things at the hotel. The new place was a few blocks over and they checked in, as instructed, next door to Santiago's room. She twitched a little when Adam knocked at thirty minutes on the nose, and her scent was thick with ammonia. But she didn't bolt.

Santiago answered without raising his voice, "Come in.”

They walked through the door and Adam took in the surroundings at a glance. The decor pretty much mirrored his room, with turquoise paint starting to peel on the plastered walls, and obvious wear fraying the edges of the floral print curtains and bedspread. Viv's room was little better. She'd been assigned an adobe pink room that she'd quietly proclaimed hideous. It seemed surprising to find a council member staying in little better than a dump, considering there were better accommodations in town. Adam realized the older Latino was on the phone, and from the muffled voice on the other end of the line, he was talking with Josef.

Relief flowed through him and the air suddenly felt a little cooler.
Good. That should settle the
issue.

"I appreciate your time, Alpha Isaacson. I'll let you know what I decide." Santiago pressed the button to end the cell phone call and closed the cover with a nod of acknowledgment to them. "Please have a seat. I'd like to ask you both a few questions. I'd appreciate it if you'd wait until I'm done with one of you before the other jumps in. But first, you probably should know that I won't be questioning you as your council representative. There's a new person representing the wolves on the council.”

Adam glanced at Viv, but she didn't grasp the significance of the statement. Maybe it was the cop inside him, but the question just popped out of his mouth. "Then can I ask in what capacity you'll be questioning us?”

The older man's mouth twitched a bit and he leaned back in his chair—obviously one borrowed from another room or the lobby, since it didn't match the two they sat in. He crossed one ankle over the other knee and clasped his hands over his stomach. "You can. I've taken over as head of Wolven for the time being." He motioned with his eyes to a file folder on the bed. Adam hadn't looked at it until that moment, but the words, "Mueller, Adam David" on the label surprised him. "I understand you were an agent before you joined the Minneapolis police. A good one, according to your records.”

That took
not good
to a whole new level. "So, our being here was a Wolven matter?”

"Is
a Wolven matter," Santiago corrected blandly, which shook Adam to the core and fluttered his chest a bit. Despite what he said to Viv, there
were
worse things than death in the Sazi world, and getting worked over by the head of Wolven was definitely on the list. "Let's start with a simple question, Mr. Mueller. Why are you here? Start from when you heard the announcement from the council. What did that announcement say?”

The tone and wording was familiar. He'd been on the asking side too many times, with too many suspects. And there was no way Santiago was going to give up a bit of information about his conversation with Josef. He might as well just relax and answer the questions. He had nothing to hide. He took a deep breath, licked his tongue across his teeth, and leaned back into the chair. "Two weeks ago, our pack leader, Josef Isaacson, called a surprise meeting of the pack—”

"Well, it really wasn't a surprise to all of us." Viv interrupted with her usual running commentary.

"I'd heard rumors o—" A cool wind of raw power raised the hairs on Adam's arm and he glanced at Vivian to discover she had been cut off mid-word and was now frozen in place. He fought not to chuckle at the elegant simplicity of the Wolven chief's solution to interruptions.

"You were saying, Mr. Mueller?" Adam pulled his eyes away from his pack mate and met the eyes of the other man, who was now holding a notepad and pen, waiting patiently for a reply.

"The surprise," he began, with a significant look at Viv's frozen form, "was that Josef asked for a
full
meeting, including human family members. He doesn't do that often. I arrived early, to help set up the chairs, and Josef called me into his office to discuss the situation, in case reactions got out of hand.”

Adam waited while Santiago finished scribbling and asked a question. "So you both expected there might be problems when people learned the council had voted to split the pack?”

He snorted and shook his head angrily, remembering his initial outrage at the sheer audacity!

Leaning forward aggressively, he spit out a reply with clenched fists. "Hell yah! Wouldn't
you
be concerned about problems when people discovered they were being uprooted from their homes …exiled against their will?" The moment the words left his mouth, he was sorry and embarrassed. He really didn't expect Santiago to answer, and didn't need to antagonize the man. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and leaned back into the lumpy cushion. It took long seconds before he could relax his fingers and respond calmly. "Sorry. I didn't mean to imply …I mean …yes. We expected there could be negative reactions.”

If the older man was annoyed, he hid it well. His tone remained calm and measured. "And what did you…or should I say, what did the
pack leadership
do, to address the concerns of your people?”

He shrugged. "What
could
we do? The council's word is law. Josef explained he'd done his best to change the council's mind. He told us all how he'd had long meetings with the wolves' representative on …the—" His brows furrowed as the realization hit him, just as the other man's raised significantly.

"Actually, what he told me was he talked to…
you.”

More scribbling on the pad gave Adam a moment to watch him. He couldn't smell anything over the secret Wolven cologne that masked the scent of emotions, but just watching his body language revealed a growing anger. But he didn't know who it was directed at. "He mentioned me by name?”

"He did. Can I ask who our representative is, and how long you've been running Wolven?”

Santiago ignored the question. "Was anyone else in the room while you were discussing this?”

He shook his head. "No, sir. Josef doesn't have an alpha female, at least not a permanent one.”

"Did Alpha Isaacson discuss his efforts to change the council's mind with the pack?”

Adam thought back, trying to remember. "I don't think so. Not unless it was after I left.”

The pen paused over the pad, and Santiago locked eyes with him. "You left the pack meeting before it was over?”

"Yes sir. I had to go on shift. I didn't think my watch commander would find the reason
acceptable
if I was late.”

Santiago nodded and actually gave him a small, lopsided smile that went all the way to his eyes.

"No doubt. So, who brought up the idea of you coming down here to …what did you call it—
recon
the area? Was it at the public meeting, or in your private discussion beforehand?”

He glanced around the room to see if there was a water pitcher. It was getting a little close in the room, both from the humidity and Santiago's crackling power, which raised the small hairs on his neck. Even being on the other side of the room didn't help much. He was almost afraid to stand up for fear of getting shocked.

As though reading his mind, the other man put down his pen. "There's pop in the fridge next to the bathroom. You might as well get us each one. Hope Coke's okay. It was all they had in the machine outside.”

Adam stood up and eased past the other man, glancing sideways at him a little nervously when he said casually, "And yes, it is humid today. It's not just me.”

After pulling three cans from the tabletop refrigerator with a fake wood door that didn't want to seal when closed, he tried carefully not to think about anything at all. When he handed one can to Santiago, he was surprised to discover there was no ache when their skin touched. He'd managed to swallow all that power, leaving only the light scent of ozone—the calm after a storm. There was now no sense at all that the other man was anything more than an ordinary human. That took more talent than he could even imagine.