Lance turned away, blocking those images from his mind. Death was all around him, it circled and followed him. As long as he could not control the beast he became, he was a danger to anyone who crossed his path.
Lawler and his entourage had taken him as far as a private air field. Lance had felt the headaches coming more and more frequently, and he knew the signs now, knew what signaled the impending change. He was just glad it had happened before they'd gone up in the jet.
He had shifted in the car just as the driver had turned the corner to the field. Lawler's face, now that made him smile. He'd been making small talk with Lance, acting as if all were well, as if he weren't essentially kidnapping him until he'd turned to look at Lance and Lance had seen the sudden terror in his face. He'd enjoyed squeezing the life out of Lawler. He couldn't say the same for the rest, and the destruction he had left behind, well, that couldn't be traced back to him.
But he had single handedly killed nine men.
He moved to the small refrigerator he kept in his office and, reaching behind the beverages he stocked there, found the vial of serum he was looking for. This was it; this was the last of it. He would go after the girl after taking this dose.
Preparing a syringe, he gripped the edge of his desk and pressed the tip of the needle into his arm.
"Fuck!" he said through clenched teeth. The process wasn't painless. It was as if the serum itself were too aggressive to pass into the system quietly. But he managed, prepared for the pain, for the rush that would run through him, the surge of power. He then switched on the small television in his office while he collected the spare set of clothes he kept there. He was on his way to the bathroom to shave his face when the reporter came on. He stood riveted to the television as she first described the massacre at the air field. But what put a smile on his face was the news of a similar killing spree in another part of the country. Three bodies had been found by hikers near New Orleans. Three mutilated bodies left to decompose, necks torn by the jaws of some sort of animal. The camera cut into a scene at the woods where Lance glimpsed the suit one of the men wore when the wind picked up the tarp that covered his body. He recognized it immediately and knew Dennison's men had located Rachel Maren for him. So they had done some investigating already, likely through his notes and samples. But it didn't matter. He would get to her first. She had her own wolf protecting her; at least one of the two he had seen in his house was with her. He didn't want to fight the animal, but he would do what he needed to do to take her.
* * *
Marcus's cell phone rang and he climbed out of the bed. Rachel groaned her disappointment and sat up. He walked naked to the living room and answered the phone. When he came back inside still listening to what was being said, his expression had changed.
"All right. We'll head to the airport now, leave the car there. Hold on, Elijah," he said, then turned to her. "There's a pen and notebook in the top drawer, can you write this down?" he asked her.
She nodded, the intimacy of a few moments ago gone altogether. "Ready," she said, holding the notebook.
"United 89 to Tucson. Leaves at 8:30 tonight."
"Got it," she said.
"I'll take care of a car when we get to the airport," Marcus said. He listened. "No, we're getting out of here now. I don't want to take a chance the bodies are traced back here."
"They found them?" she asked as he said goodbye and hung up.
Marcus nodded, picking up her discarded clothes and handing them to her before finding his own. "I took them far enough away that they shouldn't be able to trace it back here, and I moved the car, but it's all over the news. That and another killing," he said as he pulled his shirt over his head and turned to find their overnight bag.
"Other killing?" she asked.
He spared her a glance but was busy packing up their bag. "Yes. At an airfield nearer your house. Some sort of animal is what they said."
"It's Lance, isn't it? It's what I felt yesterday," she said, slipping on her shoes.
He nodded. "What they described doesn't sound like any other sort of animal. Not at an airfield anyway. You ready to go?" he asked, zipping the bag.
She nodded. "To Tucson?" she asked.
"Elijah booked a ticket for us. The flight isn't long and it's not somewhere anyone is likely to look for us. We'll leave the car at the airport, we would have dumped it anyway. Dennison's men knew more than I thought."
She shuddered and he put an arm around her shoulders, pulling her to him for a moment.
"It will be all right, Rachel. You'll be safe with me."
She nodded, her eyes wide and wet. "I hate this. I hate this so much."
"Me too. Let's go, the sooner we're out of here the better."
The two walked out to the car. Marcus settled her into her seat, then went around to his side. He pulled out onto the road and headed back onto the highway.
Forty-five minutes later they parked at the airport. "Shoot, I forgot the notebook," Rachel said. "I left it on the nightstand."
"It's okay. I remember the flight number. Let's go inside," he said, locking the car and putting one arm around her, keeping her close as he led the way.
* * *
Lance drove through the night and most of the next day, somehow not completely exhausted, until he came to the spot the bodies were found. He parked the car and climbed out. A piece of the police tape still hung from a tree, but there was no one in sight. He imagined the detectives would have collected all the evidence they needed as soon as the bodies were discovered. He inhaled deeply, his senses so much stronger now, even in human form, that he was able to pick up the scent of blood that had dried on the earth. He followed it. It was slow going and he wished he could shift into the beast now, but he could not; it controlled him, not the other way around. He hadn't even felt the pain of the initial headache yet. He followed the trail for over two miles until he reached the edge of the woods where a house stood alone. Well, alone except for the two dark Volvos with their tinted windows parked outside.
Lance hid and watched. It looked like the men were finishing up.
"They're on their way to Tucson," the one called out.
"Anything else?" another one asked.
He knew without a doubt these were Dennison's men.
"Nothing. I'll call ahead, get some men out there," one of them said. "Let's go, there's nothing to see here."
Lance waited until the men filed into their cars and they drove off. Only when they were completely out of sight did he venture toward the house. That was when the first headache came, when he picked up her scent. He stopped and closed his eyes, paying attention, listening. It was faint but he could hear it. Hear her. It was a jumble of thoughts but there was an undertone of fear. The headache came again when he opened the unlocked front door and her scent washed over him. She'd been here just recently. He forced himself to breathe deeply and felt a low growl rise from his chest when he walked into the bedroom. The bed was unmade and smelled of sex. Her scent and that of another mixed together there. Lance fisted the bed covers and pulled them back, bringing his nose to one of the pillows. It was her. Without a doubt it was her and it stirred sensations so base in him that the aggression frightened him.
He walked out of the bedroom, scanned the kitchen, and found the scrap of paper that showed the flight they had taken to Tucson. He left the house as quickly as possible and went back into the woods, retracing his steps to the car and heading out onto the highway to find and recollect Rachel Maren before Dennison's men had a chance to.
* * *
Rachel lay in bed thinking while Marcus showered. They had taken a room in a hotel along the outskirts of town. She was feeling on edge, almost angry, when she thought of Marcus at the moment.
She didn't agree with Marcus' plan. They had discussed it to death yesterday and she still fumed every time she thought of it. He had balked at her plan altogether, calling it ridiculous and refusing to entertain it even for a moment.
He and Elijah wanted to go after Dennison after dealing with the threat of Lance. He wanted to find a hiding place for her, then go back after Lance, leaving her behind. Her plan was to let her put herself out there, to let her become the bait to hook Lance. Lance was coming after her. He could track her. She could make it easier for him to find her, and Marcus and Elijah would do what they needed to do.