Alpha Blood Box Set(89)

My face drooped. “Which means what? We’re about to be attacked?” I guessed.

“I’m not sure.”

I glared at him. “Then what are you sure about?”

“There are old scents here, but their tracks don’t leave this place,” he revealed.

I started back and glanced around the area. “So that means that whoever made those tracks haven’t left?”

“Or disappeared with the de-scent formula,” he suggested.

I inched closer to him and our backpacks bopped together. “You know, for once I’d like it where we could walk through these regions without having to worry about fighting every Tom, Dick, and Hairy Creature.”

“We can oblige,” a voice spoke up.

Out from the rocks stepped a man of about forty who was without smell, but his yellow eyes told me he was of our kind. He wore black, tight-fitting clothing complete with jeans, a turtleneck shirt, and a jacket. A patch of stubble covered his chin. The man strode toward us with the confidence of an assassin. Luke pulled me behind him, and Emily and Adam stood at the edge of the creek. My mate curled his lips and growled at the stranger.

The stranger stopped and smirked. “I wouldn’t do that.” He held up a finger and the signal brought forth two dozen men dressed in similar attire. Several of them had guns, the barrels of which they pointed at us. “Now you’ll tell me what you’re doing here and why you’ve caused so much trouble for Connor’s men.”

“How did you know about that, and why do you not have a scent?” Emily questioned him.

The man’s eyes flickered to her. “Answer my questions and I will see if it’s worth wasting my breath answering yours.”

I peaked out from behind Luke. “You’re not with Lance?” I guessed.

The man’s grin fell off his face and he narrowed his eyes. “No. We follow only Callean.”

“Callean is why we’re here. We wish to see him,” Luke told him.

“Not until you tell us your names, and why you wish to see him,” the stranger insisted.

“I am Lord Laughton of the Wildlands region, and this is my mate and our friends. We wish to see Callean because we need his help against Connor,” Luke explained to him.

The stranger raised an eyebrow. “How did you know to find us here?”

“Burnbaum of Wolverton informed us Callean had hidden himself in this region,” Luke answered.

“You are either very good at lying with truths, or you speak the truth,” the stranger mused.

Luke looked him straight in the eyes. “I swear on the honor of my family and Sanctuary that I am speaking the truth.”

The stranger looked at Luke for a long, tense moment. Then he visibly relaxed, and at another finger raising his men lowered their guns. “I will believe you, but one false step and you will be as dead as any of Connor’s men who we have found.”

Emily folded her arms and glanced around at the group. “How are we to know you’re not with Connor? None of you have a scent. Hell, we don’t even know your name,” she pointed out.

“You can call me Tracker, and as for the scent, we have people along the fence who have stolen something very valuable from the guards,” the stranger replied. He apparently trusted us only so far as to lower the gun barrels. “As for knowing the trouble you caused, we have ways of communicating without the messages being recognized for what they are.”

“That is one of the reasons why we need Callean’s help,” Luke spoke up. “Connor is making more of the substance and he intends to use that and another formula against our kind to start a war with the humans.”

Tracker stiffened and put a finger to his lips. His eyes flickered over the woods and his men tensed. My ears picked up on the sound of a bird softly cooing. “We must move. The patrols are searching for you and your scent is leading them here.” He reached into his jacket and pulled out two vials. He tossed one to Luke and the other to Emily. “Each of you drink half the contents and follow us.”

Emily popped the cork on the vial and took a sniff. She pulled back and glanced at the stranger. “This has no smell.”

“It’s the drink we stole from Connor’s men. Drink it or stay here. It’s your choice, but Connor’s men should be here in two minutes and I’m betting they won’t want to catch up on old times,” Tracker told us.

Luke pulled the stopper from our drink and took a swig. I smelled his scent slip off him as though he were in a shower and the water was washing his smell away. It wasn’t pleasant to be beside a male and not know by scent that they were my mate. After a pause he handed the vial to me. “Quickly,” he whispered.

I swigged the rest of the contents and had the familiar loss of scent as I’d felt at Sanctuary when Alston had given Abby and me that strange gum. Emily and Adam took their drinks, and in less than a minute we were as scentless as those around us. Tracker grabbed our arms, and pulled us in the direction away from the fence and into the arms of his men. They hauled us away from the cooing birds and into the deep grass of the fields of Prospera.

We were pushed and pulled across several miles of fields until I wondered if the region’s main export was bunch grass. At god-awful-late in the morning we arrived at a dirt road, and on the road stood a convoy of black Hummer.

“Pair up and get into a vehicle,” Tracker ordered us. Luke grasped my arm and we were shoved into the nearest Hummer. The windows were tinted so dark we couldn’t see out. Tracker slid into the seat beside us while two of his men took positions at the wheel and in the front passenger seat. The non-driver aimed a pistol at our heads and handed Tracker two pieces of thick, dark cloth. “Put these over your eyes or we leave you behind.”

Luke grudgingly took the blindfolds and gave one to me. The last thing I saw before I put the cloth over my eyes was the rising sun in the east. I hoped that wasn’t going to be the last thing I ever saw. Tracker tied the blindfolds behind our backs and the Hummer sped down the dirt road to our next exciting vacation destination.





20





I don’t know for how long we traveled in that bumpy Hummer, but judging by the soreness in my rear I’d say about half the region. The Hummer stopped and my ears caught the sounds of dozens of men talking, laughing, and barking orders. We were pulled from the vehicle and marched, still blindfolded, through the crowds.

“Laughton, you still there?” Emily called to us.

“Yes,” he replied.

“Don’t speak until the blindfolds are removed,” Tracker ordered us.

I heard a door open and felt the change in air as we were shoved over the threshold of a building. The air smelled stagnant and had a hint of male body odor, and the noises outside were blocked almost completely when the door was shut behind us. Someone grabbed my blindfold and tore it off. I blinked against the harsh, artificial light of fluorescent bulbs that hung overhead. The four of us with Tracker stood side-by-side in a large, metal-sided barrack complete with curved roof and tiny square windows. In the far back lay a row of tables piled with papers and maps, and surrounded by chairs. More chairs were scattered about the room, and in the far right corner away from the door was a plain wooden bed with silk sheets and a red pillow.

Behind us on either side of the door were two of Callean’s bodyguards. Their black sunglass-covered faces looked straight ahead, but I knew their eyes were on us and their hands twitched at our slightest movements. The guards each had a pistol at their side, and I didn’t doubt Callean could afford to give all his men silver bullets.

Seated on the bed with his legs over the side was Callean. His hair was a tangled mess and there were dark patches under his eyes, but his eyes were otherwise alert and glanced from our little group to Tracker. “Where did you find them?” he asked our guide.

“Near the border of Manutia. They said they were looking for you,” Tracker explained.

Callean stood and strode over to us. He stopped in front of Luke. “I know you, Laughton, but how did you know we were in Prospera?”

“Burnbaum told us,” Luke replied.

“And why didn’t Burnbaum send a message over the radio to warn us you were coming?” Callean questioned him.

“The old code isn’t safe anymore and they’ve had to switch to another. They might be sending messages that you can’t detect,” Luke told him.

Callean turned and paced the floor in front of us. “Why has the code changed?”

“Lance has Stacy,” Luke revealed.

Callean stiffened and looked over his shoulder at Luke. “Are you speaking the truth?”

Emily scoffed. “This Boy Scout doesn’t know how to lie.”

Callean frowned and glanced at the ground. His face hardened and he shook his head. “She knew the risks, and she would agree that I cannot risk all my men to save only her.”

“They also have her dad, Baker, and Alistair,” I spoke up.

Callean glanced at me. “I have no love for her father nor the other two, so what does that mean to me?”

“We need your help to rescue them and stop Lance,” Luke explained. “Lance is located in a research station in the southern end of Scientia. He intends to move out soon and take the formula for his invisibility drink with him to mass-produce it in the safety of his region.”