Wolf’s Princess (42 page)

She shifted her gaze slightly to look over his shoulder at Katelyn and Terry, wanting to gauge how much attention Terry was paying to what was happening behind him. She saw Katelyn do an incredibly brave thing. Askup had her on the bed and was kneeling above her, trying to catch one of her flailing wrists to attach the handcuff. The girl let him pin that hand and grabbed a handful of the man’s hair with her other hand. She jerked his head down so she could sink her teeth into his throat.

Terry gave a gurgling shout of pain. Blood washed over Katelyn’s face in a crimson stream. Tony made the mistake of forgetting about Rose for a moment when he snapped his head around to stare at his uncle. All the lessons Taye had given her crowded into Rose’s head. Her knife was sharp, but she didn’t have enough room to put much force into her strike. The blade could bounce off of a rib or his breastbone. Her best target was his belly. Just as she had practiced hundreds of times, she pulled her knife from the inner sheath and plunged it sharp side up into his side. With all her strength she dragged it diagonally up across his belly.

One thing training hadn’t prepared her for was the warm gush of blood over her hands. Dummies didn’t scream or punch her. They didn’t stagger or go down on one knee or use both hands to try to keep their guts inside their skin. Rose’s hand was slippery on the hilt of the knife. It took effort for her to pull the blade free. She thought dimly that it must’ve caught on his rib. Oh, God. Was she going to throw up?

No, she had to go help Katelyn. Tony was trying to grab her around the knees, gurgling about his brother, but that left his intestines unattended. She stepped back and kicked him in the face as hard as she could, then turned and rushed to the bed. Askup had both hands around Katelyn’s throat, squeezing with single-minded attention. He never even saw her coming. Rose leaned down, slipped the bloody knife over his shoulder to his throat, and slashed right over the bite marks Katelyn had inflicted.

Katelyn continued fighting and crying even when Terry Askup’s body fell over her. Rose took a minute to lean over and hurl the contents of her stomach onto the cement floor. When she was finished, she wiped her mouth on the back of her wrist and made herself look around. Tony Askup was still alive, but he was too busy trying to gather his guts together to cause any trouble right now. Terry Askup must be dead. Katelyn was covered in blood from the top of her head to her waist. Rose brushed at the blood on her own shirt and jeans. Fighting in real life was not as pristine as practice made it seem.

“Katelyn!” Of course Katelyn couldn’t hear her, and with all that blood on her face the other girl couldn’t see Rose either. Rose tried to shove Terry off the other woman, but he was too heavy. She grasped Katelyn’s arm and tried to pull her off the bed. Poor Katelyn was so terrified and confused that she fought to get away. Rose paused for a few moments to let her pounding head settle down, then she took a firm grip on Katelyn’s arm and dragged her off the bed. She let go and leaned her back against the wall, panting while she waited for Katelyn to calm down. Finally, the other girl wiped enough blood from her face to be able to open her eyes. Under the blood her skin was bone white, and her pale green irises, which had always seemed eerie to Rose, were almost totally eclipsed by her dilated pupils. Rose waited until she looked up, and forced a reassuring smile.

“Katelyn,” she said forming her words carefully so the other girl could read her lips. “We’re okay. The bad men won’t hurt us anymore. We have to get out of here. Okay? Can you walk?”

“Yes.” Katelyn struggled to her feet and stood wavering for a minute before staggering toward the door. She picked up the lantern and turned the knob. “Hurry!”

That sounded like an excellent idea. Rose hurried. The hallway was dark and spooky, like something from a haunted house. She looked left and right, trying to decide which way to go.

Katelyn caught her arm. “Lock the door,” she said urgently. “Lock the door so they can’t come after us.”

Rose didn’t think either Askup would come after them, but she found the lock by the light of the lantern Katelyn held up and slid the deadbolt home. When it settled into the locked position, Katelyn let out a long, deep sigh.

“Let’s go home, Rose. I don’t want to be here anymore.”

“Me, neither. Here, hold my hand so we don’t get separated.”

Like frightened little girls, they gripped each other’s hands, Rose holding her knife in her free hand and Katelyn carrying the lantern. Rose looked down each end of the hall and started walking to the left.

“It’s a maze,” Rose said after they had walked for what seemed like an hour, although it was probably only ten or fifteen minutes. She released Katelyn’s hand long enough to scratch at the dried blood flaking off her blouse. She wanted a shower. She wanted to be home at The Limit. She wanted to feel Sky’s arms close around her and hold her close. “Every time I think we’re getting somewhere we hit a dead end.”

“There’s not much oil left in the lantern,” Katelyn whispered. “I’m scared. I don’t want to be in the dark.”

Rose didn’t tell her that she wasn’t the only one scared. She took Katelyn’s hand again. “Sky and Paint won’t stop looking until they find us. No wolf would stop looking until he found his mate.”

Katelyn cocked her head as if listening, laying a hand on the wall. “I feel something. Like footsteps above us. Is it someone looking for us? Paint?”

“Maybe.” She didn’t add that the someone could be Terry’s other nephew. She concentrated on Sky. Her finding magic zeroed in above them.

Relief bubbled up in Rose’s chest and threatened to come out in a fountain of tears. “It’s Sky and Paint! Yell, Katelyn. Yell as loud as you can!”

Their screams were answered by frantic wolf howls. But before the wolves found them, somebody else did.

*

Sky had never felt the fear-fueled fury he felt at this moment. He had brought his mate to Omaha and now she was in the hands of his enemies.
Don’t let her be dead
, he silently begged. Wounded, scared, or even raped, but not dead. The wolf inside him was frantic to find Rose and kill her kidnappers. Sky held him back by strength of will alone.

Tracker got up from his examination of the ground in the park behind The Limit. “The ladies were here,” he confirmed. “Katelyn was walking on her own power. Rose was dragged. There was a wagon. See the wheel impressions? Looks like the wagon came and went, over a period of several hours.”

“Waiting to make a pick up,” Paint growled. “Then driving off when they didn’t show.”

Sky clenched his fists. “And coming back again and again to see if they were here yet.”

“Wagon went this way.” Tracker started off in his long-legged lope. He stopped at the edge of the park, where it joined the paved street. “After this, I don’t know. Too much traffic, and too many smells. Since the ladies were in the wagon instead of touching the ground, I got nothing after this.”

Shadow growled a curse he’d learned from his mate. “Joe said a name. Do you know where this Terry Askup lives?”

Sand quivered, hate twisting his face. “I am going to kill him,” he promised.

Sky didn’t argue, but he figured it would be first come, first served, and he intended to get to Askup first. “Yes. Follow me.”

The unrest in the streets had built even more since he’d come this way earlier. Groups of men walked in irregular formations down streets, apparently intent on finding something or someone to fight. Mounted City Guardsmen patrolled, offering targets to the braver—or more fool-hardy—city men. The scent of smoke lay heavy in the air, testifying that buildings were burning downwind. Sky hoped desperately that he had left enough men behind with Taye to guard The Limit. Several people in the street recognized him and tried to catch his attention. He lifted his hand in greeting a few times, but didn’t stop except when he saw Dean Erikson, and then only long enough to inform the captain that Rye Thomas was on his way to his parents’ house. The captain nodded thanks, saying he would head over there as soon as he could.

The men of Omaha must have guessed Sky was on urgent business, or maybe the sight of five wolf warriors running with grim purpose dissuaded them from trying to stop him. He was glad. He wanted to give them all the support he could, but nothing was more important than finding Rose. Just thinking her name wrapped ropes of horror around his heart. She was in danger. He and his wolf were in complete agreement: they had to find her.

Terry’s house was on the same block as the mayor’s, but on the opposite side. Their backyards shared a fence. Even running full out, it took almost an hour to get there. If the streets had been empty and if they hadn’t had to detour around some fighting, it would have taken less.

Sky thrust his hands through his hair to straighten it, and took a moment to tighten his tie before ringing the bell at the gate.

Shadow gave him a shove. “Why are we ringing? Idiot, we can jump the fence.”

Yes, why was he ringing? But the guard came out then and, standing behind the bars of the gate, politely asked their business.

“Sky Wolfe and family to see Terry Askup,” he answered crisply.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Askup is out until tomorrow.”

“Hog wash,” Shadow roared. “Open the gate or I’ll twist your head off.”

The guard swung his rifle up, but Shadow grabbed two iron bars and pulled them wide enough for Sky to reach in and grab the weapon away. It was easy to do, since the guard was gaping, bug-eyed, at Shadow.

“Open the gate,” Shadow snarled. The guard visibly debated. “Open the gate or I’ll tear it down. Then I’ll rip your head off and stuff it up your ass.”

The guard opened the gate.

“Ask him if he’s seen a wagon,” Tracker suggested mildly, when they had gone through.

The guard didn’t hesitate. “One came in a little over an hour ago.”

Paint pushed forward, his face a mask of rage made even more frightening by the patch that hid his empty eye socket. “Did you see the women?”

“No.” The man seemed just as intimidated by Paint as by Shadow. “I only saw two men in the wagon. I didn’t check the back.”

“Fool,” said Sand. “How did you know enemies weren’t hiding in there?”

Tracker’s voice was cool. “Because he already knew what was back there. I reckon this isn’t the first time a wagon with a stolen woman has come through this gate.”

“Oh, God.” Something in their faces or posture terrified the man so much he lost control of his bladder. “Oh, please, I need this job.”

“We’re wasting time,” Sky snapped. “Come on, let’s find Rose and Katelyn.”

Shadow made quick work of tying the man up and tossing him into his little guardhouse by the gate. They all took off at a dead run for the house at the top of a slight rise. A wagon wouldn’t stop at the front door, so Sky led the way around back and was rewarded. Tracker stopped near the back door and sniffed.

“Here,” he said in his light, terse voice. “Katelyn’s scent is here.”

Paint quivered and froze like a setter when it sees a pheasant. They paused while Tracker followed the scent to the back door. They didn’t bother ringing this time. A blow from Shadow’s fist broke the door off its hinges. He lifted it and threw it into the yard.

Askup’s house had a floor plan similar to that of The Limit. The back door opened immediately to a mudroom, with a door to a basement on the opposite wall. Tracker ran to the door, opened it, and sniffed before shaking his head. He continued inhaling deeply, following a scent deeper into the house. They hadn’t gone very far when two men charged out of the kitchen, each armed with a knife.

The pitiful fools thought two knives would prevail against five wolf warriors searching for their stolen women? Tracker, who was in the lead, easily dodged a slash at his face and shot out a hand to fist in the taller man’s shirt. He slammed the man’s head into the edge of the door and grabbed the knife away. Shadow picked the other man up by the throat and shook him like a rat. Sand neatly caught the knife the moron dropped. Dazed and disarmed, the men slumped against the wall.

Shadow bent to put his face in front of the shorter one. “Where’s my brother’s mate?” he snarled.

The men exchanged glances. A fierce and bloody desire to kill them choked Sky, but he forced it back. “My wife,” he clarified. His wolf was so close to the surface, his voice almost didn’t form words.

“Where’s Askup?” Sand demanded.

“We don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Both of ’em carry the ladies’ scents.” Tracker flipped one of the confiscated knives over and over in his hand. “Reckon we can cut the answers out of ’em.”

Paint lost patience altogether and let his wolf out with a scream of rage. Sand followed suit. They tore into the men. A very slight smile lifted one corner of Tracker’s mouth. The two wolves, still wearing remnants of their jeans and T-shirts, might have appeared comical if they weren’t killing two cowardly woman stealers. The men tried to run, but there was no outrunning an enraged wolf, especially in the confined space of a house.

Tracker watched the execution coolly before remarking, “We don’t need them to find our women. Scent’s going that way.”

Sky leaped after him, and Shadow followed, calling to Sand and Paint to hurry up. The house was silent. Was Rose even here? What if Askup had taken her somewhere else? She had to be all right. He didn’t know what he would do if she wasn’t.

Tracker wandered briefly in the living room, circling to find the scent, and then headed down the hall and through a parlor. Sky strained to catch whatever scent his older cousin followed. Shadow laid a large, heavy hand over his shoulder in a quick moment of brotherly understanding. The comfort of the touch made Sky realize what he had missed by staying in Omaha all this time. No more, he vowed. Once he had Rose safe, they would leave Omaha for the sanity and safety of the Clan.

But first he had to find her.

They passed through a sitting room, three men and two blood-coated wolves, all intent on finding Rose and Katelyn. Tracker led the way through a series of rooms. He paused at the staircase that led upstairs. A slight frown on his face showed his confusion. He went up a few steps, sniffing the air and the carpet on the steps, and then came back down.