The Catalyst (23 page)

Cole led his group of wolves, and the witches through
the portal, glad it was still a day until the full moon, making it
possible for everyone to control the change. The wolves and panther
were in human form and would stay in human form until Cole gave the
signal. After all, there might be a talking part before the
fighting part.

The demons followed, all invisible, including Jane.
She hadn’t loved the plan of being off the grid like this. She
wanted to confront and tell Anthony off, but this plan was
better.

The address on the slip of paper Z had given them was
a big warehouse close to the border of Cary Town. Cole reached for
the door, but an invisible hand grabbed his.

“Jane?”

“Yeah. Cain said I should stay with you in case you
need me for something. I just wanted you to know I’m right here so
I don’t freak you out.”

He chuckled. “Good plan.”

Inside the warehouse, there was a platform up on a
second level on one end, with doors that looked like they led to
offices. On the main level stood large several large crates.

“Send the demons to check the inside perimeter. Make
sure nobody is hiding and waiting to ambush us. If anybody is
there, see if they can quietly take them out,” Cole whispered.

“Okay,” Jane whispered back.

A spotlight came on over the platform, a door opened,
and out filed ten vampires, heavily armed, followed by Anthony, who
was also armed. Then a couple of sorcerers.

“Cole! Nice to see you. How are things?”

“Shut up, Anthony.”

“Hmmm, should I consider that a treasonous
offense?”

“Let’s get one thing straight,” Cole said. His voice
was a low growl, but he knew with the acoustics that it was
carrying just fine to the vampire king. “You do not own my
wolves.”

“I own Cary Town. Are you not in Cary Town?”

“Not often.”

“Ah yes. And that’s the problem. You see, therians
aren’t allowed to leave Cary Town without permission from the
border patrol, and yet, your wolves move in and out of the city.
That’s a problem for me.”

Cole was startled by that bit of intel. He’d thought
he’d been clear with the pack about not going into town. With Blake
left in charge, things must have gotten lax. He wiped any evidence
of surprise at the revelation off his face.

“Boo-hoo,” he said. He needed to stall for Jane and
the others to get a chance to see what was what on the ground
floor, though riling Anthony was always fun. “Maybe we’ll just move
out of Cary Town altogether.”

“I’m afraid I can’t authorize that action. Besides,
there’s only so far you can move. Do you think I’m stopping with
Cary Town?”

“Well, now I don’t.” Though Cole had always suspected
the power hungry vampire had dreams of world domination while
others dreamed of sugarplum fairies.

Anthony held something in his hand that looked like a
detonator. Cole fought to remain in control and keep the rage
inside. His eyes panned up to the vampire’s bland expression.
Anthony stretched his hand out and pressed the button.

“NO!” Cole lurched forward, his hand outstretched as
if he could magically stop whatever Anthony had just set into
motion.

But nothing exploded. Instead a large screen lit the
back of the warehouse. It was Fiona in a well-furnished room with
the pup. Cole’s eyes filled with tears, seeing his pup for the
first time. Both of them looked healthy. The woman was throwing a
ball for him.

“I am so sick of seeing our pup on a screen,” Jane
whispered from beside him.

The screen captured a couple of vampires standing
guard off to the side. Fiona appeared to be talking to someone who
wasn’t visible onscreen, but Cole couldn’t make out her words.

Anthony clicked the button again and the screen went
black. “Now,” he said. “You see that they are unharmed. I have no
burning urge to hurt anyone. All I want is to know the location of
the hive. That’s it. Tell me where you live and how you get past my
border patrol, and everybody gets to go home tonight.”

Z growled and shifted, not content to wait for a
signal. Seeing Fiona under lockdown had been all the signal he
needed.

Anthony laughed. “I take it that’s the
boyfriend?”

Cole pressed on. “And if we don’t tell you? What will
you do to them?”

“What do you think? Werewolf blood is strong and
delicious, and so is witch blood. Both will make fine meals. It’s a
very simple choice. What’s more important, your child or your
pack?”

“And if the question were reversed? Your coven or
your mate?”

“My mate. Always my mate without question,” he
answered. “The coven could go fuck themselves.” A few of the
vampires on the platform raised eyebrows, but that was all. They
must be low enough on the totem pole for him to get away with
saying that without an uprising. Or maybe they were his inner
circle, his trusted advisers. Whoever they were, Cole wanted to
stake them all out in the grass and wait for the sun to rise.

“I need to talk to you,” Jane whispered. “Buy us a
few minutes.”

Cole kept his eyes straight ahead toward Anthony so
as not to give her presence away. “Do you mind if I confer with my
pack for a moment?”

“Not at all,” Anthony said. “I’ve got all night.”

The alpha turned toward the pack and motioned them
all to gather around as if they were in a football huddle to shield
who he was speaking with.

Jane kept her tone low. “The perimeter down here is
clear. He’s got his whole group up there on the platform with him,
which means he thinks it’s just a bunch of therians, not demons.
The magic users may sniff us out soon, which is why I need you to
distract them so I can slip out the back door. I know where he’s
keeping Fiona and the pup. That’s his penthouse. I recognize it
from the weird little windows. I stayed in that building during the
coven tournament. If I go in invisible, I can take them out and get
Fiona and the pup to safety.”

“No, I think it’s a bad idea,” Cole said.

“And what do you suggest?” Cain’s voice.

“It’s too dangerous,” the alpha growled.

“I’m not human anymore, Cole. I’m immortal. The worst
that can happen to me is being locked up somewhere by a spell. If I
don’t show up, you guys will come after me.”

“Don’t downplay that risk,” Cain said.

“Hey, I’m trying to get him on my side, here.”

Cole wasn’t convinced that was the worst that could
happen, but having a conversation with invisible people was giving
him a headache, so he growled and said, “I’ll stall. Be careful. I
love you.”

“Wait. Take a portal charm. It’ll be safer to get
them back to the demon dimension than looking for a portal point,”
Cain said.

There was some fumbling around as one invisible demon
handed a charm off to the other invisible demon, then Cole felt
warm lips against his mouth, and she was gone.

He turned back to Anthony. “How do I know you’ll
release Fiona and the pup if I tell you where the hive is?”

“Well, your other option is to fight, and we
outnumber you. We’re up here on this platform, you’re down there on
the ground. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel. And oh look, we
have guns.”

Stall, stall. What else can we talk about? Oh!
“How did you find the pup? How did you know he was mine?”

Anthony made a condescending sound somewhere between
a snort and a sigh. “You know, Cole, just because I only own Cary
Town, doesn’t mean that I don’t have eyes and ears everywhere. I
am
the vampire king. And a few of your wolves liked to
wander around the Cary Town forest. Some of them have big mouths. I
also had a top sorcerer until the other day.” He pierced Z with a
glare, and the panther growled in response.

The vampire continued, “We discovered you were
running in Golatha Falls, but what was more exciting… Jane was
pregnant. We didn’t expect to find the pup. We considered taking
members of your pack until somebody talked, but that can be so
messy. This was a more elegant option. Once we heard rumors of a
wolf pup in his fur, we figured… jackpot.”

One of the sorcerers on the platform moved up next to
Anthony and whispered in his ear. The vampire’s eyes narrowed and
he nodded.

“Are you ready?” Tam whispered to Anna on Cole’s
right. “That’s our cue.” Tam tossed some strongly scented herbs
around them.

“This is very interesting,” Anthony said. He was
trying to maintain a calm composure but it was clear he was
spooked. “One of my magic users tells me that he senses the magical
signature of more than what it appears.”

“That
is
interesting,” Cole said. “What do you
know that can be invisible?”

Anthony paled. “How many?”

“Count for yourself,” Cain said. One by one, the
demons materialized.

Anna and Tam joined hands and began to chant,
“Líberi et ab aliis verbis. Líberi et ab aliis
verbis. Líberi et ab aliis verbis…”

Energy buzzed around them. A shimmery film cloaked
the therians and demons, then blended into the background. Though
it could no longer be seen, it was felt: a strong protection
against any magical barbs thrown their way.

Anthony didn’t seem to care about the protection
spell; he was too preoccupied with the presence of the head demon.
“C-Cain is here? I thought you didn’t get involved in petty
infighting between Preternatural species. I thought you were above
all of that.”

The demon shrugged. “Cole and I are friends.”

“No, there’s something more.”

“Release them or we’re fighting. The boyfriend is
getting restless,” Cain said.

Z growled, still in panther form, stalking back and
forth, watching Anthony like he was a meal.

“Shoot the witches!” Anthony said.

Tam let go of Anna’s hands and bullets went through
her. At the same time, Tam closed her eyes and must have channeled
the power Luc had lent her, because the bullets went through her as
well.

“What the hell?”

“That’s right. Waste some more ammunition,” Cain
said.

Cole shifted, and the other wolves followed his lead.
Z didn’t wait for another cue. He took a flying leap onto the
platform and batted the gun out of Anthony’s hands, fangs
bared.

***

Jane raced full speed through Cary Town. It took a
lot of energy to maintain invisibility. Being a new demon, she
needed to feed more often. She’d needed to feed earlier, but it
felt like such a stupid time to have sex. She hadn’t been in the
mood. All she wanted was her kid back and this whole nightmare to
be over.

It was like being hungry but nothing looking good.
She just hoped she had enough energy to see her through this.
Either way, she felt strong enough to take on a couple of vampires,
especially if they couldn’t see her, and she didn’t intend on
giving up that advantage no matter how much energy it took from
her. As long as they didn’t have a witch with Fiona and the pup,
she was home free. If there was a witch, she wasn’t sure what she’d
do.

The Cary Town Luxury Apartments were a shining beacon
rising up in the middle of the downtown area. She slipped into the
lobby behind a couple so the door wouldn’t appear to open by
itself.

The guardian at the front looked in her direction. He
seemed to see her—or at least sense her. He stared for what felt
like forever, but then he shrugged and went back to reading his
newspaper. Jane let out a breath and moved toward the elevator.

When she was sure nobody was looking, she pressed the
button. She couldn’t go straight up to the penthouse. For that, you
needed a key. But she had another plan. The elevator stopped on
five, one floor below Anthony’s place, the same floor she’d stayed
on for the tournament. At the end of the hallway was a window.
Because the building was old, the window opened. In a newer model
hotel, it would have been sealed for a hallway like this. Safety
first.

But since the guardians looked the other way while
vampires brought meals up to their rooms, Jane was thinking
safety first
wasn’t one of their mottos. It was hard to
fathom the clueless humans who lived here. She pushed the window up
and took one last look down the hallway.

It was empty, so Jane materialized. If she
shape-shifted into something that could fly, she could zip up to
the roof and get in through the door, even if she had to use brute
strength to rip it off its hinges. Though that might blow her
element of surprise.

She closed her eyes and focused on a memory of a
raven she’d seen after a fresh snow one winter. It had been eating
berries off an otherwise scraggly and bare tree. It wasn’t working.
Dammit!
She didn’t know how long Cole could stall. She’d
been fast, but they must be fighting by now.

Jane moved down the hall, holding her hands out,
hovering over the walls and doors…
Somebody be feeling amorous
tonight. Anybody.
She sensed two humans in one of the
apartments and the beginnings at least of flirtatious energy. She
could work with that.

She knocked on the door of 5G. A woman answered, an
irritated look on her face. “Who the hell are you?”

Jane’s lips turned up in a friendly smile. “I’m not
here. You don’t see me. You want to climb your boyfriend like a
tree and fuck his brains out. You can’t stand for another moment to
go by without him inside you.”

The woman went back inside the apartment, the command
fresh in her mind. The man showed up then. “Hey, what’s going
on?”

“I’m not here,” Jane said. She was about to put a
suggestion in the man’s head, but the woman needed no additional
help. As the two writhed on the kitchen floor like they were in
heat, Jane’s hands hovered over them, soaking in the sexual energy.
How she wished she’d just inconvenienced Cole for twenty minutes
before they’d left for Cary Town. This was… more inconvenient.