Chapter 14

14

“ W hat do you mean? I just saw her a few hours ago. She’s with you having pizza.”

“She never made it.”

Four words that alone meant nothing, but together turned his bright future into an apocalyptic nightmare. Moving through the condo at top speed, he reached through the bond he shared with Nat only to find a thick black vortex of nothingness blocking him from touching her mind.

Out the door and into his SUV in seconds, he yelled into the phone, “Can you see her? Do you know where she is? I can’t feel anything.”

“Rafe, what’s wrong?” Gil voice burst through his mind at the same time that Max jumped into the passenger seat.

“The bastard’s got Nat!”

Feeling his brother’s fury on his behalf, Rafe focused on Max as he pointed out the windshield and instructed, “Get on the highway. Head west.”

“Did you hear that?” He asked into the phone and mentally.

A unanimous, “Yes,” sounded loud and clear as he took the ramp onto the highway at top speed, rubber squealing against asphalt as he worked hard to keep the tires on the road.

Thankful there was no traffic in the early morning hours, he tossed the phone to Max and shouted, “Talk to Angelique.” Then to his brother, he demanded, “Is Abe with you?”

“I’m here,” came the oldest of their Force’s gruff reply. “I can see a funnel of black magic being conjured about fifteen clicks straight in front of you.”

Trusting his Brethren to lead him in the right direction, he slammed the accelerator to the floor just as Ben chimed in with, “You’re gonna exit the freeway, take a left, and head straight into a huge industrial park.”

“You’re gonna need to check for booby traps,” Oz barked. “From what we can see, most of these warehouses have been abandoned for more than fifteen years.”

Not surprised that in his distress he’d called out to the four men who’d save his ass more times than he could count, Rafe kept his eyes on the road and listened to their instructions. Tuning into Max’s conversation with Nat’s grandmother, he demanded, “Can she pick up anything? See anything? Hell, even if it’s bad news, it’s better than goin’ in blind.”

Liar, liar, she will be fine. She will be fine. She will be fine…

Holding the phone in his hand between them, the King pressed the microphone on the screen to turn on the speakerphone just as Angelique’s clear, concise voice clipped, “Wherever she is, it’s dark and dank. The scent of wet earth, mold, and mildew is almost suffocating, but somehow separated by brick and mortar from where Donatella is being held.”

Cursing under her breath, she added, “And there’s fire – tiny flickering flames in a circle around a table or something just enough off the ground that she can see their light and smell their fragrance but not exactly what’s making the glow.”

“Candles.” He and Max growled in unison with the King continuing, “He’s performing the ritual.”

Coming up on the next exit with the needle of the speedometer pushed well past a hundred-and-twenty-miles-per-hour, Rafe jerked the steering wheel to the right, flew down the off ramp, pushing the SUV to its very limits. The sound of steel scraping concrete filled the air as he whipped the wheel in the opposite direction and the passenger side of the vehicle lifted into the air. One more jerk of the wheel and the SUV landed with a bone-crushing thud.

“Ya’ alright?” He shouted towards Max while careening down the road, blowing through red lights, and following the directions his Brethren were firing off.

“Next light, left then right through the gates,” Ben, always their techie and in charge of direction, was the voice of calm.

“The evil is growing,” Abe snarled. “Your mate has unknowingly erected shields, but if the magic this asshole is conjuring gets much stronger, she’ll not be able to hold it off.”

“Roger that,” Rafe grunted, running the SUV right through the ten-foot high military grade chain link gates.

“Now, that’s how I taught you to do it,” Oz roared just as Ben continued, “Keep straight, left at the dead end, right at the next dead end, and then you’re gonna have to leg it.”

“Copy that.”

Forcing the steering wheel as far left as it would go, the front of the SUV lurched to respond. Loud screeches echoed off the abandoned buildings as the metal of the passenger’s side was forced against the six-foot by ten-foot concrete embankment.

Any other time, watching the King of the Big Cats, a usually incredibly reserved, suave, and debonair diplomat, jump into the backseat via the console between the two front ones as he bellowed curse words in his native language would’ve been funny, but with Nat’s life hanging in the balance, Rafe barely noticed. He would save his mate, or die trying. It was as simple as that.

Almost immediately, he jerked the wheel to the right, focused on the embankment in front of him, and mere seconds before he would’ve rammed headlong into it, he slammed on the brakes. The back of the vehicle fishtailed. Tires squealed. And with mere inches to go before being reduced to a pile of steel and rubber, the SUV came to a complete stop.

Out of the car and racing towards an unfenced, overgrown wooded area, he could hear Max’s footsteps following his as he shouted telepathically, “Where Ben? Where the fuck is she? Why am I in the fuckin’ woods?”

“I’m lookin’. I’m lookin’,” Ben yelled in response. “There’s a labyrinth of…”

“Underground, Rafe. Underground,” Abe roared a split second before Oz bellowed, “Metal circle with a thin T-shaped handle. Think manhole cover in the fuckin’ woods.”

Opening his senses wide, his magic rammed into the King’s before comingling and using its strength to boost his own. Running so fast the landscape was a whizzing blur of green and brown, he and Max zigged and zagged around trees, jumped over thick brambles, and ducked under low-hanging limbs until a roar of frustration burst through his chest and flew from his lips.

Daring anyone to chastise him, he growled, “Three seconds to scales.”