"What were his theories, Az?" Tristan turned the conversation back on track.
"He thought that taken with the right amounts of vitamins and herbs it could do more than to disguise scent. The day before it all ended, he came to me and asked me to run experiments on it. I never got started and for obvious reasons when the shit hit the fan--oh, sorry Faith." Az's cheeks turned red as he realized he'd cursed. She waved a hand of dismissal.
"Go on."
Az shrugged. "I guess it's just obvious why I neglected to do any assignments he gave me after that.
"Did he think it could make you invisible?" A vision of the bullet that almost killed her but she couldn't see filled her mind. Thank god Theo had been there. Her eyes filled with tears she blinked away. No time to cry. She would get Theo back. They wouldn't lose like this, not to Kendrick, not ever.
Azriel sat up straighter in his seat. "He did."
Faith turned to Tristan. "I believe there are wolves all over this island. The ones Kendrick and Claudius made. The bad kind. We can't see them or smell them because of this stuff. Maybe Ashlee can make a spell to counteract it. Be careful if you leave the compound, they're going to take pot shots at anyone who goes into the woods." Faith paused and chewed on the thumbnail of her left hand. "Do you think Cullen has a name for us yet?"
Tristan nodded as he took his sunglasses off his wolf eyes. It would be obvious to anyone he was furious. "I would count on it."
Chapter Thirteen
Theo banged hard on the oak front door of the palace in Tucson, Arizona where his father had relocated.
"So stealth is entirely out of the question, then?"
Gabriel's voice startled Theo and he spun around. Leaning against one of the ostentatious Greco-Roman pillars that adorned the outside of the clearly-out-of-place-for-the-Southwest colonial house was his older brother.
What was Gabriel doing here?
"Did you think Tristan wouldn't know you were leaving? And did you honestly think he'd let you go alone? It was all I could do to convince him not to send the whole pack after you."
"I'm not going to be responsible for what happens to you." Theo whirled around and pounded on the door again. "Faith is in there thinking she's a demon. She's my first priority."
Gabriel cleared his throat and walked forward in the easy manner that Theo always associated with the second oldest Kane son. It was deceptive. Out of all of them, Gabriel was lethal, a trained killer, the most like their father's former second Cullen than anyone else in the pack. Except that Cullen was methodical and Gabriel just seemed to instinctually know how to get the job done.
"Tell me something, little brother." Gabriel pulled a cigarette out of his pocket and Theo stared dumbly at it. When had he started smoking? It wasn't like Gabriel could die from the habit; not until he was mated anyway, but still he couldn't remember the last time he watched a shifter smoke. Gabriel lit the cigarette and took a drag. "What happens to all of you when you mate? Tristan was ready to drop it all and follow Ashlee back to New Jersey. Cullen suddenly went soft. Derek runs around with his tail between his legs and Stefan is always humming to himself. What happens during mating that makes you all so insane? Explain it to me because I'm afraid I cannot begin to understand what would make an otherwise normal shifter bang on the door of our lethally inclined patriarch's door in the middle of the day thereby depriving us from any chance of a surprise attack, a fact I'm sure he would have been aware of only days ago before he found his mate."
Theo snorted. Leave it to Gabriel to make him laugh. "You know we don't discuss the specifics of the mating ritual."
I think he's in pain.
His canine self was right. At what point had his wolf become a psychiatrist? Now he was going to have to deal with that possibility. He shook his head. Not now. At the moment, there were more pressing things to do.
Stomping out the cigarette, Gabriel moved forward to stand next to him at the door. His older brother reached out and turned the handle and the door creaked open. "Since you've announced our arrival, I figure this saves us some time, don't you agree?"
Nodding, Theo strode through the door first, ready to kill any wolf or human who got in his way.
"It's amazing that Dad has spent so much time setting up locations in such hot venues. We were raised in what practically amounts to the arctic north. It's like he got old and needed hot air for his achy bones."
"Most of the time I appreciate your joviality Gabriel, but right now I'm a little focused."
If she's totally shifted to a demon, how will I recognize her?
It was Theo's biggest fear. What if it was necessary to kill a demon to get the book and the demon he killed was Faith?
In the unlikely event that situation actually occurs, I will be more than happy to kill myself tonight to follow her. It's time we got our mate back.
Leave it to his wolf to put it that succinctly. Whatever happened, he would get Faith back. He hoped. Would she still want to follow him even as a demon? Theo ran a hand through his hair.
He knew more than anyone how cruel fate could be and he didn't believe for a second that just because they had been brought together meant they would always be together.
"Whatever you're thinking about put it away. I don't like how quiet it is here. My wolf is going crazy. I can't smell a damn thing."
Neither could Theo and that bothered him too. Moving forward, Theo had the strangest sense of deja vu. He'd spent very little time in his father's Institute in Mexico but this house was designed in a very similar fashion. Fluorescent lights illuminated the hallways. Strange pictures depicting decapitated cats and dogs lined the walls. The floor was wooden and shone as if it had recently been refinished. All in all, it was a combination of Kendrick's Institute and a mad house found most likely inside of a gothic novel.
"So if we don't know where we're going, are we just going to wonder through the house until someone either jumps us or we miraculously find the gold-covered spell book?"
"I guess that's the general idea."
A loud clank reverberated in the hallway and Theo turned around to see a door, which had not been there earlier, lower with a thud to the floor. Any escape they would have made was now blocked off. Theo raised an eyebrow. That answered three questions for him. First, it meant that his father and minions were fully aware of their presence in the house. Second, there was no turning back--literally. Finally, it answered the question that not everything about his father had changed over the years.
When they'd been children, he'd pushed them all into adulthood differently. They never discussed what happened. It was too humiliating. At twelve years old, Theo had been brought to a carnival and left to wander for hours in the 'funhouse.' Only it wasn't so much fun and he'd been terrified. To this day, if he thought about it, he could still remember the feeling of hands coming out of the walls to grab and assault him. Much later on, he discovered his father had specially commissioned the 'coming of age' experience.
Was the son-of-a-bitch thinking he could do it again? Boy did he have news for him. In no way was he still the same scared little boy. Fully grown and mated, he would take whatever the man dished out and give it back tenfold.
Let's go kill him.
Theo nodded. He loved the idea and for once he and his wolf were in complete agreement.
"What is this?" In front of them, another wall fell as mirrors opened up on the walls. Yes, he had read his father's intentions correctly.
"Shift, brother. We have work to do."
Easily changing into his wolf form, he saw the white light of his brother's change behind him.
This must feel normal to you after spending a year like this. Gabriel said.
Nothing feels normal and never will again if I don't get Faith back immediately.
Damn, I never want to be mated. I'll take the single life, thank you.
Theo paused. This wasn't the time for this type of discussion but damn. You're a liar but I'm going to let you get away with that, f
or now. How much should he tell Gabriel? This appears to be a re-do of the test Dad put me through when I was twelve. I hated it then, and I hate it now.
Theo put his nose to the ground. This was one of their father's tests, which meant there was a solution. They just had to find the exit.
He sent you to a fucked-up funhouse? Hell, he left me in the woods to starve for a week. I had to hunt and I couldn't even shift yet. First time I ever killed anything.
It took me hours to get out. I was terrified of the darkness and things reached out to grab me the whole time. Finally, after the panic, I was able to ignore the creatures and get myself to the exit.
Ironically, this probably helped you.
How do you figure? Theo could only assume Gabriel was losing touch with reality.
You had to fight your fear and beat back monsters that wanted to attack you. For over a year now, you've had a demon growing inside of you and yet you have for all intents and purposes you beat it back so it couldn't control it. Even if that meant staying a wolf for most of the time. I love Faith, she's my sister now, but it wasn't two days she had that thing living in her before she sprouted wings and took off for the skies.
Theo growled. While he appreciated the compliment, he wasn't going to hear one bad word said about his mate. Gabriel backed off two feet and dropped his head in a sign of submission.
I meant nothing disrespectful towards Faith. Why should she know how to do it? She never had to go to a funhouse to prove herself worthy of love.
That was true and the discussion of Faith made him focus on the task at hand. In the back of his head, he became aware of a change in the scent of the air. Somewhere, there was cool air blowing. That meant there had to be a vent and where there was a vent, there was a way out--he hoped.
Closing his eyes, he sniffed, a long hard breath and was rewarded with clarity. Above them. The way out was on the ceiling. Lifting his head, he saw Gabriel follow his gaze. They had to get that vent open. Theo took a running jump and whacked the air opening with his tail. It moved slightly. Gabriel followed suit and after three attempts, they knocked it slightly loose.
With as much lift as he could muster, he leapt at the vent and pulled it off. Growling, he threw it across the floor feeling satisfied when it made a large screeching nose as it scratched across the wood floors.
Gabriel shifted back into his human form. Theo shook his head. What was Gabriel doing? You could only shift so many times before you simply collapsed from exhaustion. They needed him tough.
"Here." Gabriel leapt up and pulled himself into the vent. Leaning down with his feet still above in the ventilation tube. "Jump, I'll pull you in."
Theo did as his brother instructed and Gabriel yanked him inside of the vent. It was hot and stuffy but the cool air moved between them being blown from some air conditioning unit in the building.
"You know he's watching us." Gabriel didn't sound at all concerned about this; it was if he noted the color of the grass or the temperature of the day. "I've never accepted all of the fate stuff you all take at face value but okay, let's say that I've seen enough to not doubt all of it either."
Okay, Gabriel, we're in an air conditioning tube. Is this the time to talk about this?
"I'm trying to explain." Gabriel shook his dark hair out of his eyes. "If there is any shifting to do, let me do it. It's much more important that you be one hundred percent. Obviously, this is going to be your fight. If you don't kill Kendrick Kane today, I'll get him another day." Gabriel paused and shrugged. "Or not."
There were aspects to his older brother he would never understand, and glad not to. Most of the time Gabriel was the biggest hothead in the pack and yet here he was speaking about fate and the potential that they wouldn't kill their dad like it was no big deal.
Not sure what to say, Theo decided that in this case less was more. Thank you for being here.
"Uh-huh. Let's move."
Theo led the way and Gabriel followed him. Eventually, as the duct dipped, Theo caught a scent he recognized. It was his father. There was no trace of Faith but if she was still in her demon form, there would be no scent to distinguish her. Somehow he could guess that where his father was, his mate would be too.
Another sniff made alarm bells go off in his head. He swung around to look at his brother, who had just caught the scent. In his human form, Gabriel's eyes went wolf with anger.
Rex?
"I scent him too."
"Do you think he's here of his own volition?"
"Only one way to find out." Gabriel shifted fast and banged at the vent by his feet, pushing it open. Theo had a moment to raise his eyebrows at the fast, uncouth manner that Gabriel performed the task before following him down in the room.
Landing easily on four feet, he swung around to take in the scene. His father stood, surrounded by his newly made, unwell wolves who would all be dead within weeks. Faith's friend had once stood like this and silently he promised himself that whatever happened he'd fulfill Faith's desire to achieve retribution for her pseudo-brother's life.
A troop of demons lined the ceiling watching him closely. Just days earlier, the sight of the demons would have played havoc with his mind but now he knew what they wanted and it was no longer a concern. He would free them or die trying.
Gabriel growled and crouched down until the front half of his body was lower to the ground than his back. Showing his teeth, he backed up until he stood right next to Theo. It's just Dad and the demon monsters. No sign of Rex.
Ah, and the fifty or so made wolves surrounding them. If Gabriel didn't consider them a problem then he really did have a heightened sense of his own superiority.
Swinging his head from side to side as he searched the room, he growled again. What wolves? I can't see them or scent them.
Damn. It was like the woods all over again. His demon parts were letting him see things the others couldn't. All right, at least this time he knew he wasn't nuts. You're going to have to take my word that they are here and they are dangerous. I'm counting around fifty and they're spread out all over the room.
Gabriel's wolf mouth grinned at Theo. Did you ever see the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid?
"So my two sons are here, completing the trio I've longed for." Behind Kendrick, who Theo had to admit looked so much like Tristan it was startling, a door opened and two of the demons brought out Rex, beaten and tied to a chair. One of his youngest brother's eyes was swollen shut, and his jaw was clearly broken. Gabriel hissed in a breath and Theo snarled. They'd obviously done something to prevent him from shifting or those wounds would have healed immediately.
Gabriel called the shift onto himself and Theo watched as he regained his human form. Quickly, he assessed the situation. One brother was broken, but not dead, the other one quasi-insane in his desire for this fight, as well as fifty wolves, invisible to everyone else, and a line of demons along the ceiling. No matter how good he was at fighting in his canine form, perhaps it would take his human ingenuity to get out this situation, get the book, and rescue Faith.
Bringing on the shift, Theo let himself enjoy the warmth of the white light for a second before he stood in front of his former Alpha, the man who had helped to give him life, and then had destroyed everything he believed in.
"We're not here for a family reunion." Theo's voice sounded gruff, even to his own ears. "I don't know how you got Rex but we're not leaving here without him and without a few more things we came for." Inadvertently, his eyes scanned the fire demons. Was Faith among them? Had she made the shift to completely look like them now? Somewhere inside did she still hear his voice and know who he was?
"You're here because it is exactly as I planned it to be."
Gabriel laughed, a long, mirthless sound. "What did I tell you Theo? Fate, fate, fate? We're here because that's what we chose to do today. We could have stayed home and washed our socks. Your dictates have nothing to do with it."
Kendrick walked from the wall he leaned against t
owards Rex and placed a hand on his shoulder. Such a simple gesture but Theo was sure he'd never seen anything so threatening in life. The subtext was clear, his hand was right near Rex's jugular, and one bad move or wrong statement and Kendrick would snap their youngest brother's neck as if it was no more than a twig.
"Everything that has happened so far has happened because it is what I wished to have occur." Kendrick's eyes were in their wolf form and Theo wondered if they were like that all the time or if that had ceased when he'd lost his position as Alpha of Westervelt and now it was back because he was mad. "You think I care what happens to your beaten down pack?" He shook his head. "No. What I care about is you three boys."
Theo rolled his eyes and Rex, still tied up in the chair, snorted. Gabriel remained stiff and unmoving at Theo's side, surprisingly unsarcastic given what was going on. "How did we manage to be so lucky?"
"You were the three who understood that there are shades of grey in life. Your brothers Tristan and Michael are so damn good all the time...I have no idea where they get it from. Even your mother, who you all remember as sainted, was never that pure. Azriel lives in his own damn head so much, I never know what he is thinking." For the first time, Theo appreciated the decision Az had made as a child to keep quiet and maintain his own council. Evidently smarter than the rest of them, it now seemed brilliant to have kept Kendrick at bay.
His father wasn't finished. "I created a dynasty with my boys. You've all lived up to your talents beautifully, better than I could have anticipated. Let Tristan and Michael have the leftovers. You belong here with me."
Theo fisted his hand at his side. "Sounds to me like you're in denial. I somehow recall hearing after you butchered Ashlee and Summer's family that you wanted the pack back or you would start murdering our lost women. What's the problem Dad, can't find them? Plan not working so well?"