Winter's Scars: The Forsaken (Winter's Saga 5) (24 page)

Cole whistled again, clapped twice and called Maze’s name.

They waited; sure the
coydog would come bounding out of some bush toward them at any moment. 

Chapter 46 Gone

All they heard was the breeze rustling the nearby palm leaves.

“This isn’t good,” Cole said aloud what they were both thinking.

“He didn’t have enough time to get far.” Sloan caught Cole’s worried eyes.

“You go to the house and tell whoever’s there that Maze has taken off.  I’ll start running north and see if I can’t find him.”

“You’re going to run after a coydog?  You’ll never catch him.”

“No, but maybe I can change his mind.”  Cole began sprinting away.  “I have to do something,” he called over his shoulder.

Shaking her head at Cole’s impulsiveness, she began running the last half mile toward the house with as much speed and concern for her form as possible.  Once she rounded the last curve toward the house, she realized she would be running to get help from a woman in a wheelchair and a four-year-old.  No one else was at the house.

Damn it,
she growled at herself remembering the sad, intelligent eyes of the coydog as he walked toward her for a scratch. 
Maybe he was saying goodbye,
she thought now that she remembered the expression on his face.  She had become accustomed to his mournful mannerisms, but his face had looked different. 

The coydog had looked resolved.  

Sloan picked up her pace forgetting everything Cole had just taught her about form.  She flew the rest of the way to the house that sat in a secluded patch of land. 

She hunted for the house key in her sports bra and shoved it in place hurriedly. 

“Dr. Winter?” she called to the quiet house.

“She’s sleeping, Sloan.  What’s wrong?” Evan rounded the corner drying his hands on a dish towel. 

“Oh, thank goodness someone else is here.”

“I just stopped by to pick something up before heading back to the lab.”  Evan offered Sloan a moment to catch her breath.

“Maze, he’s run off again.  Cole is trying to chase him on foot, but we need to get in a car and find him before he gets too far.”

“Shoot.  You stay here
as the point of contact.  Tell Mom what’s going on when she wakes.”  Evan ran to his room and came out holding a tranquilizing gun.

“What’s that for?”  Sloan blurted, taken aback.

“He’s not going to want to come quietly.  He’s looking for his alpha.  He’s a pack creature and is determined to find Meg,” Evan said calmly while his hands checked the cartridges and the safety on the gun. 

“Across an ocean?”

“He doesn’t know where she is, but he’ll follow her scent to the end of the earth.”

Then he reached to grab the keys to his motorcycle and thought twice.  “Let
Mom know I took Theo’s sedan.  I’ll have to put Maze in a car when I find him.  Cole too, for that matter.”  He grabbed the keys to Theo’s older luxury car and hurried out the door.

“Cole’s headed north,” Sloan called after him, but she didn’t have to.  Evan already knew.

Ten minutes later Evan found Cole.  “Hey!  You’re drivin’!” Evan pulled up next to the metahuman and stopped the car abruptly, throwing it into park.  “I’m a better shot anyway,” Evan jumped out of the car, leaving the keys in the ignition.  Cole hurried into the driver’s side while Evan ran and slipped across the hood to clamor into the passenger side.  

Cole had already sprinted seven miles trying to keep sight of the coydog, but however hard he ran, he couldn’t get more than a glimpse of Maze far in the distance. 

“Where did you last see him?”

“He’s a good three miles ahead of us, that way,” Cole nodded his head toward a cluster of palms far in the distance.  Both boys squinted into the dazzling Egyptian morning light.  Their vision far surpassed that of a human’s but neither of them could see anything resembling the silhouette of the determined
coydog.

“Just stay northbound,” Evan mumbled as he double-checked the tranquilizing gun in his hands.

Cole glanced over at what Evan was doing and shook his head in amazement.

“Have you ever heard of such a thing?”

“What do you mean?”  Evan’s voice had taken on a robotic tone.  He was trying desperately not to get too emotionally caught up in what they were about to do.  Over the past three months, life had been very different.  His family’s resentment seemed to grow.  Evan felt like an outsider in his family.

“I mean, have you ever heard of an animal chasing blindly after their master across miles and miles of terrain.”

“I’ve read of several accounts, yes.  And he’s not just an animal, he’s a
pack
animal.  As a canine, he has a strong sense of loyalty to the being he chose as his alpha.  He’s always accepted the rest of us as part of Meg’s pack.  The only other person I’ve seen him act subservient to is Creed.  I don’t think he would be as depressed if Creed were here.  I think he saw them as the alpha pair.”

Evan remembered a little too late to be careful about what he said regarding Creed and Meg, but when he glanced over trying to gauge how far he’d put his foot in his mouth, he saw no hint of pain in Cole’s face. 

“I don’t think Creed’s going to come home until he’s found Meg,” Cole said matter-of-factly. 

“You’re probably right.  Last time Alik and Farrow checked in, t
hey hinted at his distancing himself more and more as time’s worn on.”

“Sounds as though the
Maze and Creed have something in common.”

“Good point.  How much longer will Creed be able to stand being apart from her?  I wonder if we’ll lose him like we’re losing Maze.”

“Maze is going to get sick and maybe not pull out of it if we can’t get him to eat more and stop running off.”

“Farrow did mention Creed was working himself to exhaustion—not resting or eating.” 

Cole was shaking his head.  “Listen, Evan.  I love Meg, too.  I’ve had to learn to love her like a friend—a sister—but it’s still love.  I have kept a positive attitude about us locating her and bringing her home for the past three and a half months, but I have to be honest, it’s getting harder and harder to believe.”

“She’s my sister.  No matter what everyone seems to think, I miss her terribly.”

“Do you really?  You sure as heck didn’t want to join the search for her.”

Evan felt a familiar gut-wrenching wave of nausea.  “I have work I have to do, Cole.  I know you don’t understand.” 

“Whatever, Evan.” Cole stared straight ahead, concentrating on the road more than he needed to avoiding eye contact with Evan. 

Evan bit his tongue hard enough to taste blood and redoubled his efforts to find the heartbroken coydog. 

“Just drop it.  We need to focus on Maze,” Cole mumbled.

“There he is,” Evan pointed up to the top of the hill.  Maze was still galloping at near full-speed, running parallel to the highway.

Cole stopped himself, as he was about to insist on an apology from Evan, to follow his gaze instead.

“What do you want to do?”

“Speed up to pass him by at least a mile.  We’ll park and run the terrain on foot.  I’m hoping we’ll be there waiting for him when he comes along and we can subdue him.”

Without another word, Cole accelerated to 80mph.  Evan watched the coydog while he could out the back glass.

“Okay, stop.  My calculations will be correct if we start running now.”

“If you say so,” Cole grumbled
, pulling over and putting the car in park.  He pocketed the keys and together the boys ran full-speed the mile perpendicular to the highway.  Just when they arrived at Evan’s estimated point of intersection, they saw Maze lope tiredly up and over the sandy hill in front of them.   The boys were standing up-wind so Maze hadn’t had warning that they were there until it was too late.

“Maze!” Evan called.  “Come here, boy.”

Maze stopped running and stayed in place, prancing anxiously.

“C’mon Maze.  Let’s go home, buddy.” Cole held his hand out in a gesture of friendship.

Maze pawed the earth with his raw skin.  Evan’s sharp medical eye could see he was hurting.  The pads of his paws had grown thick calluses, but they were cracked and bleeding so much they were caked with muddied blood.  The dirt beneath his prancing feet was christened with reddish-black droplets, but still the coydog stood his ground.  He’d managed to get burs tangled in his silver coat over the past twenty miles and he was favoring his right side.  His right front ankle was swollen badly.  Evan was afraid he’d been stung by a scorpion or bitten by a snake.  He wouldn’t know until he examined him, but either way, he needed immediate treatment.

“Maze, I know you want to find Meg.  We do, too.  We haven’t given up on her,” Evan glared over at Cole
, nodding emphatically to the coydog. 

“I won’t stop until we find her, Maze.  I promise.  Come on back to the car with us.  I need to check out your leg.  You’re hurt.”

Maze lowered his head and stared up at the boys.  The coydog knew exactly what they were trying to do and wanted none of it.  Maze had lost respect for the people who let his Meg leave.

“Maze?” Evan coaxed.

Then Maze did something he had never done to any of the Winter children, ever.

He stood his ground and growled furiously, barking and snapping at Evan. 
Thick spittle and foam flew from his angry mouth.

He had a wild, crazed look in his usually intelligent yellow eyes that would have been proof to anyone watching
that coydog had crossed a line inside himself.  Maze was absolutely serious about fighting for his right to keep running toward his Meg and if they were going to try to stop him, they would seriously regret it.

“Maze, calm down,” Cole tried to coax, but Evan knew better.  Maze had checked out.   His body was quivering with anger, his shoulders twitching—ready for a fight.  His whole body was poised like a coiled spring ready to burst across the fifteen yards between him and those who dared try to stop him. 

Evan reached behind his back slowly and grimaced at what he knew he was going to have to do.  He wrapped his fingers around the tranquilizing gun and slipped it from his back pocket.  He didn’t even take time to aim.  With the precision of years of training, Evan raised the gun and pulled the trigger.  Maze reacted the moment he saw the glint of metal coming from behind Evan’s back.  He darted off to the side, trying to escape, but he was too late.  Evan’s shot was too accurate.   Maze was caught in midleap.  He let out a plaintive cry when his flank was hit and tumbled to the ground in a pile of matted fur. 

“Wow,” was all Cole could say.

Evan walked carefully toward the coydog that had been hand-raised by his sister and watched as his anxious panting started to slow.  “I’m so sorry, big man.  Honestly, I am.  But we need you safe and healthy for when Meg comes home.  We need you to calm down.”

Evan reached down carefully and patted the strong canine’s side watching his yellow eyes as they struggled to stay open, fighting against the strong tranquilizer.  “That’s right, Maze.  Just rest.  I’ll take care of you.  It’ll be okay.”  Evan didn’t stop to notice moisture in his eyes until he blinked the tears away. 

Maze let out a pitiful series of whines as he fought to stay conscious.

Evan reached to rub his ears just the way he liked—the way Meg would—and the
coydog yawned a sad cry.  There he lay, feeling alone and abandoned by the girl he loved, bleeding and broken, shot by his brother.  All the anger seeped out of him as he slipped his tongue out of his numbing mouth and licked Evan’s hand once before succumbing to the tranquilizer. 

“Do you need help?” Cole’s voice came from over his shoulder.  He’d forgotten about him.

“I got him,” Evan said, sniffing.  He reached under the coydog and lifted him easily.  Evan didn’t say a word the entire walk back to the car.  Cole opened the door to the back seat for Evan.  Though he had offered to help carry the fifty pound dog, Evan insisted on shouldering his sister’s coydog the entire way. 

Once they were back on the road, Cole tried to reach out again.

“Listen Ev, I’m sorry if I offended you before.  I’m sure you want to find your sister.”

“You have no idea,” Evan mumbled and fell silent, staring out the side window of the sedan in silence the rest of the ride home.

Cole shook his head in frustration, but accepted Evan’s silence.  It’s all he’d been giving anyone since Meg’s disappearance.

Once home, Evan reached in the back seat to lift Maze out.  He didn’t say a word, even when they walked inside to find Sloan and Dr. Winter wringing their hands with worry over the disheveled canine.

“Sloan, would you please fill the tub halfway with medium hot water so we can clean him while he’s still out.”

“Of course,” Sloan hurried out of the room.

“Where was he this time?”  Margo asked, reaching her arms out for Evan to bring the beloved family pet closer to her.  She took one of his front paws in her skilled hands and looked closely at the deep, bloody cracks there.  She winced sympathetically.

“About twenty-five miles north of here,” Evan answered.  His voice was gruff with emotion.  The coydog represented physically how emotionally tattered they felt in their search for Meg.  They were no closer to finding her than they were three months ago.  She’d been swept off the face of the earth.

Chapter 47 Shards of Glass

Creed was dressed and ready inside five minutes.  The soldier in him was functioning now.  His face was stone, eyes scanning their surroundings, predator-like.

They had done this before and were practiced at it.

Farrow would climb a tree or get to some other high point and lie in wait, sniper rifle at her eagle eye.  She was their life insurance.  Creed would go through the front and Alik through the back.  The boys would sweep the targeted building in silence.  They tried to avoid engaging anyone so their search was stealthy. If someone on the premises was roused, they were spared every effort to walk away.  Out of the eleven locations Greg Burns had given them as possible leads, Creed had to disarm and subdue three people and Alik two.  No one had been killed, yet.

They never knew what they were going to find when they went to an address.  This night was no different.

The chateau sat far back from the beach, but the scent and sounds of the ocean was thick in the air.  The three metahumans sat in their black rental car and watched the home for the first hour.  Seeing no movement or lights, they decided it was time to begin their search.  Farrow climbed the nearest leafy palm with the agility of a gymnast. A thumbs-up was her signal that even through her scope, everything looked good to go. 

“Okay, Farrow says it’s clear.  You ready Creed?”

Alik had allowed the soldier his silence since their talk earlier.  He knew his brother was hanging by a thread of hope and truth be told, he was a little afraid of what would happen when that thread snapped.

Creed nodded once and pulled his black ski cap over his face.  His gun was loaded and secured in its holster. 
Even so, Creed preferred to handle matters with hand to hand combat.  Alik wondered if he felt it was fairer to the humans they may encounter.

Alik pulled his mask down and quietly opened his car door.  Creed was already out and jogging up toward the side of the front door to peer into the window beside it when he stopped.

Something on the ground caught his eye.

Alik broke routine to sprint to Creed to see what he was looking at.

Glass.

Broken shards of glass were all over the ground.

Both boys looked up and saw a window that had been sitting in the shadows of a cluster of vines that crawled up and around that side of the house.   The window was boarded up.

The boys exchanged a worried glance and ran to the front door together.

After peering in the windows and seeing no movement, Alik went to work on the lock, quickly picking it using the techniques Evan had shared with him years ago.  Once inside, Alik hesitated, looking for an alarm panel he may have to disarm, but Creed couldn’t have cared less if the whole Italian police force was on their way.  Nothing was going to stop him from getting to that upstairs room with the broken window. 

If Meg were held against her will, there would damn well be signs of a fight,
Creed told himself as he took the stairs three at a time.

Finding no alarm, Alik wasn’t far behind him. 

The house looked like it was packed away for the off-season.  White sheets were draped over furniture making them glow bleached and ominous against the boys’ flashlights.

Locating the room wasn’t difficult.

“I can smell her,” Creed whispered frantically.

Alik took a deep breath as they stood in the abandoned room.  “Are you sure?”

“Absolutely,” he said as he walked toward the white, gauzy curtains that hung long and still over the boarded window.  He lifted the fabric to his nose and inhaled. 

His eyes flew open and nostrils flared at what he smelled.  “Oh my God, she was here,” he nearly moaned
when his joy turned to heartache.  “I smell her on these drapes: Lilies and strawberries.  Damn it, Alik.  I smell her blood.” 

Alik took the thin gauzy drapes in his hands and inhaled deeply.  “I smell her, too.  She was definitely here, in this room.  These drapes touched her—probably her hair—that’s where her scent is the strongest.”

“This is the closest we’ve gotten to her, Alik.” Creed’s voice sounded equal parts joyous and terrified.

“It is,” Alik had pulled his mask back from his face and was holding the curtain between his fingers, deep in thought.  “Why was she bleeding?”

“What?”  Creed’s voice nearly broke in his emotional panic.

“You said you smelled her blood.  Why after all this time was there signs of a struggle and her blood?”

Creed’s face went pale.  He hadn’t thought past pushing Alik to use his gift of retro-cognition. 

“Let’s get Farrow in here,” Alik said logically.  “She’ll want to be a part of this, too.”

Minutes later, the three metahumans stood in the room bracing themselves for what they were about to learn.

“Should we call your mom before we do this?”  Farrow asked thoughtfully.