Forever Claimed Read online

  At that he sighed. “Sometimes I am not so fond of logic.”

  “It’s true, though.”

  “I cannot deny it.”

  Rising, he went back to the door. “Creed, Dani is staying. Just take Terri and Yvonne. Keep guard on them along with Chloe.”

  Then he closed the door and faced her, his expression grim. “You had better dress, little wolf. And dress warmly. Now it begins.”

  Chapter 11

  Before she and Luc left Creed’s for the morgue, Dani got in touch with her mother.

  “We’re in human form right now,” Lucinda said, “but the others seem to be circling in on the morgue. Your friend Terri is gone, right?”

  “Creed’s taking her and his wife up north right now.”

  “Why didn’t you go?”

  “Mom, can you honestly promise me that the pack wouldn’t turn on Luc and Jude?”

  A few beats passed, then, “No. I can’t. I can try, but if we get into a fight the blood lust will rise. They might not distinguish.”

  “They will if I’m there to stand between them.”

  “Ah, Dani! They might hurt you, too.”

  “I stand a good chance. I’m part of the pack.”

  “And you smell like vampire!”

  “I’m still their sister and cousin. And you’re the alpha. But it might take both of us to protect two vampires.”

  Lucinda sighed. “You were always too brave.”

  “It’s part of being lycan, Mom.”

  Finally her mother laughed unhappily. “Stay close. Remember, the pack works together.”

  “I remember.”

  When she put the phone deep into her jacket pocket, Luc reached for her hand. “Tonight we fly across the rooftops, little wolf. And I think your mother isn’t happy.”

  “She isn’t. No one’s happy right now. Where do we meet Jude?”

  “Not too far from the morgue. He’s found a place from which he can keep watch. The danger lies in getting there without being spotted. They can see me no matter how fast I move and if they found the one I killed they surely have my scent. We must try to make it look like I am taking you to feed on you.”

  “How do we do that?”

  “You’re going to have a very uncomfortable ride any time I smell a threat. Your family?”

  “They’re in human form right now, keeping an eye out.”

  “They can’t protect themselves in human form.”

  “They can shift swiftly and will. They can smell a vampire as far away as you can. Maybe farther.”

  “I would believe farther,” he admitted. “There is surely a purpose to a nose so long.”

  A laugh escaped her, and she thought he was probably right.

  He put her on his back again, with her arms around his neck and her ankles locked around his hips. They stepped out onto Creed’s terrace and then the amazing began.

  With a single leap that left Dani blind because of the cold, cutting wind caused by his speed, they landed on the next rooftop. He paused a moment to sniff the air and let her get her bearings, and then they were off again.

  She barely had time to register when they landed before they once again leaped. On the occasions when he gave her a chance to see where they were, she marveled at the distance they had covered.

  At one point he settled her into a corner on a roof, surrounded by a chest-high parapet, and vaulted himself up onto the top of the barrier to taste the air. She could hear him drawing deep breaths through his nose and exhaling them through his mouth.

  Then he was crouched beside her again. “We’re getting close. I can smell another of my kind and I don’t recognize the scent. Oddly, it’s not one I tasted on the air the night I met you.”

  “A new ally? Or a newborn?”

  “I’m not sure. The smell is not so different unless the newborn is blood drenched. So far I don’t detect any blood in the air.”

  She nodded and swallowed. The brave words she’d spoken only a little while ago now sounded foolhardy. But then her spine stiffened. She did want payback, the lycan part of her admitted. She craved it. And then there was Luc, as well. However strong he might be, however well he might be able to stand up to a vampire, the pack had a true advantage in numbers, and their strength was huge.

  “We need to keep this fight on the ground,” Luc muttered.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Only that your pack can’t be of much help if we carry the battle up to the rooftops.”

  “How can we prevent that?”

  “I’m thinking. I suspect Jude and I may have to expend a lot of our efforts to keep these rogues from climbing walls once they know your pack is involved.”

  “I wish we could move it to the countryside. They’d have far less advantage out there.”

  “Ah, but the attacker always has the advantage of choosing the place.”

  “Unless we can lure them somehow.”

  She saw him nod slowly, clearly thinking about it. “Perhaps into the morgue, if we can get the humans out.”

  “Some plan, huh?”

  He smiled at her and cupped her cheek briefly. “We’ve known from the start we might not be able to choose our ground. In that, they’ve always held an advantage.”

  He stood up, sniffing the night again. “Let’s go.”

  He reached for her, then paused. “I think I had better start carrying you over my shoulder. It won’t be comfortable, but it will create an impression that I’m abducting you if anyone sees. I will try not to jar you too much. And you can watch my back.”

  “If I can see anything,” she said a little drily. She was glad she had managed to sound so casual when she was beginning to feel icy fingers of fear clawing inside her. Surely she had to be nuts. Everyone wanted her out of this, and she had put herself dead center. But once again even a moment’s reflection reminded her of her reasons. They would just have to trump her fear. They had to.

  With the padding of her winter parka, the ride wasn’t as bad as she anticipated. And Luc seemed to make an effort to keep his stride even and to land softly when he leaped.

  As for watching his back, most of the time the world was receding too quickly, although she found that if she could focus on one thing, it became clearer.

  Then he stopped again, tucking her into a corner between some vents that rose above roof level. “We’re here,” he murmured close to her ear.

  For the first time she realized the wind had picked up. It was not all Luc’s speed, and snow crystals stung her exposed cheeks where they could find them.

  “You can’t smell anything,” she said. “The wind.”

  “Only from one direction. Let’s get inside quickly. So far I don’t think we’ve been spotted.”

  He lifted her again, carried her to a roof access door and let them inside.

  At once she smelled the musty staleness of an abandoned building. Even the cold couldn’t stifle the odors of a place that was probably rotting from the inside out. It was also pitch-dark. Which didn’t bother Luc in the least. What amazed her was how fast he could take the stairs without a light to guide him.

  Then they emerged into a room and he set her on her feet.

  Tall, filthy windows let in some light from the surrounding city and she saw Jude, unmistakable in his long leather coat, over by one of them.

  “Anything?” he asked.

  “The wind has picked up. I smelled someone at a distance briefly, but now I am getting scents from only one direction.”

  “They suffer with the same limitations.”

  “Have you seen anything?”

  “No. I caught wind of them back when I called you. I circled around and got the sense they were gathering, but nothing since.” He looked at Dani. “You shouldn’t be here. But since you are, have you talked with your mother?”

  “They’re out searching the streets. I can try to check again, but if she’s shifted to wolf, she won’t answer.”

  “I understand. Just try. We need
some intelligence before they attack the morgue. At least I assume that’s their plan, since their newborns aren’t emerging from the place.”

  “Maybe,” Luc suggested, “they’re expecting some of them to emerge tonight.”

  “Possible, I guess. But why gather? They don’t want to control them. At least I presume not.”

  Dani had pulled out her phone and now called her mother. “Any news?” she asked. “We’re here near the morgue.”

  “We’re getting some mixed information. They began gathering, but some seem to be dispersing. Maybe eight or ten of them right now.”

  Dani passed the information to Jude.

  Luc stiffened. “Do you suppose they have realized the newborns aren’t there? And that neither is your wife? They might be hunting up near your office.”

  “Mom? Can you track them?”

  “Do you need to ask, Dani?” Her voice was gently chiding. “I’ll tell the others, but I think they’ve decided on something else. I’ll let you know the instant we learn anything.”

  “Thanks, Mom.”

  She looked at her companions. “My pack is going to try to track them. But where would they have gone?”

  “The damn problem here,” Jude said, “is we don’t know how much they know about us. We know they’re after me, personally, they might know Luc’s involved or maybe not. If they know much about me, they probably know that Creed has been a friend for years and sometimes works with me. What if they go after Creed first?”

  “Well, he’s not there.”

  “Of course not. But if it’s him they’re after…” Jude fell silent. “They could know a lot about him, too. Just knowing who we are feeds them information, while we have no handle on who exactly they are. And even if we did, they’re on the move. They have no hindrances, no humans to worry about. We can’t pin them down.”

  “My pack can,” Dani said. “If only they would gather somewhere away from tall buildings.”

  Jude straightened. “I’m going to take a sniff outside. Wait here.”

  Luc stopped him. “I think I have a plan.”

  “Probably the same one I do. Just let me check first. I don’t want the people working in the morgue to become victims.”

  Jude turned into an almost invisible streak of black in the dark room and vanished.

  “What’s your plan?” Dani asked.

  “You said something about luring them. It caused me to think. We can lure them out of town. It may be they don’t especially want their reign of terror before they get rid of Jude and possibly the rest of us. Perhaps they were relying on the newborns for most of that. It is impossible to know.”

  “Yes.”

  “But since they want Jude and most likely are able to calculate that he might be behind what happened to the newborns…well, it is as Jude said. They know who he is and could learn a lot about him, including his relationship with Terri. So they gather here, find there are no newborns, few if any have been born elsewhere, but they can also tell easily enough that Terri isn’t there.”

  “Yes, I found out just by asking.”

  “Exactly. So they would then next move to Jude’s office. Nothing there. And if they know of Creed, then they would go there next. But what if they have been able to learn that Creed owns that cabin?”

  “Oh, my God! But how would they find out?”

  “I don’t know. Property records?”

  “But most of those offices close shortly after dark.”

  “They wouldn’t need the offices to be open. You forget, most property records are online now.”

  Fear now clawed its way right up Dani’s throat. “We can’t wait.”

  “We can’t act until we know something. If they don’t know about the cabin, we don’t want to lead them there. We need some indication of where they are going.”

  In a burst of frustration, Dani said, “This is impossible!”

  Luc once again cupped her cheek briefly. “Ma belle, very little is impossible. This is annoying and troublesome, yes, but sooner or later to accomplish their goal of killing Jude, they will have to emerge. That much is certain. They are flouting his rules with their killings, but it may be they are not ready to begin the reign of terror I feared. Certainly there may not be enough of them, especially without the newborns. So…” He shrugged in that French way. “We know their objective, which leaves us less than blind.”

  “Slightly less than blind.” Her phone rang and she tugged it out of her pocket just as she felt the wind of Jude’s return. By the time she opened her phone he was standing over by the window again.

  “Yes?”

  Lucinda’s voice poured into her ear. “They have passed Jude’s office and are now moving in the direction of Creed’s. Definitely a northward movement. Ask your bloodsucker friends if they might be able to follow Creed from his building. I gather he took the women in a car.”

  Dani asked the two of them.

  “He would have taken a car,” Luc answered promptly. “He could not carry them both that distance without them suffering too much from the cold.”

  “And yes,” Jude said quietly, “they would be able to follow the fresh scent of the exhaust. Once they detect his departure with the women, they would move on. They might well know he owns the cabin.”

  “Dawn grows nearer,” Luc reminded him. “Would they risk being in the open to try to follow? It is my guess they will not. So possibly we can corner them in the next two hours, or we will have to wait for tomorrow night.”

  He looked at Dani and nodded.

  “We’re going to try to corner them at Creed’s,” she said into the phone. “In the parking garage, I assume, because if they go to his condo they’ll find him gone.”

  “There’s one advantage to that,” Luc said as he swung her up onto his back. “If we can keep them in the garage, they won’t have anywhere to run.”

  Almost before she knew it, Dani stood on a rooftop several blocks away from Creed’s. Even at this distance she could identify his balcony and see that there was movement on it. Evidently Luc’s eyes were even better.

  “They’re there,” he said. And just as he spoke, snow began to fall. “We need to meet with your mother. Plan. Now.”

  So Dani pulled out her phone again. There was no answer this time, and she felt her heart sink. “They must have shifted.” She clenched her mittened hands and wondered whether she was cold from the winter night or from fear.

  But a few minutes later, her phone rang. It was Lucinda. “Do you know how hard it is to answer a phone that I’m wearing on a collar?”

  “Sorry, but Luc says we need to plan. There are some vamps on Creed’s balcony right now.”

  “Put that bloodsucker on with me.”

  She passed the phone to Luc. He took it as if it might explode. “Hello?”

  Dani listened, wishing she could hear both sides of the conversation.

  “We’re downwind, they can’t smell us,” Luc said. “Your smell is not that distinct from other canids, so no. They shouldn’t suspect. We’re mortal enemies, after all.”

  He listened, nodding slightly. “All right. I doubt they’ll come down the stairs, but regardless of which way they go to check the garage, once they’ve entered it, getting back through the security doors or elevator will be impossible without a key. I’ll get closer and let you know.”

  He passed the phone back to Dani. “Mom?”

  “We’re going to set a guard at the base of the building. What we need to know is when those bloodsuckers go into the garage and can’t get out except by way of the entrance and exit. Luc is going to watch and let us know. Give him your phone so he can keep in touch with me.”

  “I’m not staying here alone! And I’m not letting him go alone.”

  “I know his scent. We’ll protect him. You stay safely away.”

  “Damn it!” Dani swore as she closed the phone. “I guess I’m just baggage to be carried around. I need to be there.”

  Luc looked at her almo
st ruefully. “If I take you over there, your mother will shred me. Is that what you want?”

  “No, but…there has to be something I can do!”

  Luc and Jude exchanged looks. Jude sighed. “She’s your problem, my friend. But I’ve found it can be costly to deny a woman what she wants.”

  “Ah, you are so helpful,” Luc replied sarcastically. He looked again at Dani. “So you don’t care if I get shredded by your pack for exposing you?”

  “I care if you get shredded by my pack because I’m not there. Even my mother admitted that if they get into a fight and the blood lust rises, they may attack you and Jude.”

  “Lovely,” remarked Jude from where he leaned against a parapet.

  “I have to be there,” Dani insisted.

  “It’s not just my safety that concerns you, is it, little wolf?” Luc’s voice had turned gentle again.

  She flushed and hoped he couldn’t see it. Although the damn vampire could probably smell it.

  “I understand,” he said after a moment. “All of us sooner or later must prove something to ourselves. The problem I am facing…”

  Jude cut him off. “While you two discuss this, I’ll just go see what’s going on at Creed’s, why don’t I?”

  Luc swung toward him. “They know your scent.”

  “We assume they do. But with all the comings and goings of vampires lately from my office, they may not. Yours could be equally identifiable. Just let me go keep a watch. I’ll stay downwind and get back to you shortly. In the meantime you can settle your, ah, differences. Need I remind you that dawn isn’t that far away?”

  Then he was gone.

  Luc turned his attention back to Dani. “I understand,” he said again. “I do. But what I question is how you can help, other than to protect me against your pack. You surely haven’t forgotten what those vampires did to you.”

  “No. I haven’t.” The memory, when she allowed herself to touch upon it, was still fresh, raw and painful. How helpless she had felt, how overwhelmed. How terrified.

  “You fought them once, Dani. You don’t need to fight them again.”

  “But I do. I have to be able to live with myself, and frankly, Luc, that hasn’t been terribly easy at any point in my life since childhood.”