They left without Kayden and were at the Enclave in no time. During the car ride over, the commander activated a Wrath team and had them prepare to move out. The Wrath was an elite group of warriors trained to deal with the more dangerous situations that faced the vampire kind. If the warriors were like a cross between the police and the military, the Wrath was a cross between the human Navy SEALs and a police SWAT team. They were a deadly force. From what Koren told her, Dani got the impression nobody wanted to have the Wrath come down on him or her.
Dani concentrated on gathering every detail she could from Christopher, while his voice faded in and out. Christopher had no telepathic ability and hers was too new to her to be very reliable. She repeated everything Christopher told her so that Gage could hear, and Koren wrote it down on the back of an envelope she found in her purse.
The Enclave was a buzz of activity, and Dani absorbed it all in silence while she spoke to Christopher. When she finally focused on the commander's directions she realized she was going to be left behind while they took her notes and searched the area near the wharf that they believed matched Christopher's description. Oh hell no!
"All due respect, sir, but I'm going with you. I can't stay here and wait." She stepped into the commander's path with her hands lodged firmly on her hips. She would not stay behind. The room grew quiet and the men waited for the commander's response to her dictate.
"Look, Danielle, I commend your effort to help retrieve our victim, but you have no training. You would be a liability to our mission," he explained kindly and patted her on the shoulder. He tried to step around her but she blocked him again.
"In my admittedly limited experience, the closer to a person I am the better the, for the lack of a better word, reception, is for me. I may be able to lead you directly to him without the need to search each and every building in the area. Doesn't it make more sense to take me along for that reason? We don't have time to waste." She held his stare while he considered her reasoning. Finally he shook his head and reached around her for a flak jacket. He handed it to her, looking grave. Koren gasped.
"I agree that we need to find him as quickly as possible. Let's get you geared up. You can go on the terms that you remain in the vehicle at all times and do exactly what I tell you when I tell you to do it. Is that understood?" he asked her firmly. Christ, the man was scary as hell when he was in warrior mode. It was hard to believe this was the same male who spoke so gently to his mate.
"Yes, sir. I understand." She backed up.
"Have someone get us the smallest fatigues we have," he shouted and looked her over. He shook his head and muttered as he walked away, "They'll still be too big."
"I just tried to reach Kayden again," Koren told her, looking concerned. "Maybe you can try to reach him telepathically," she suggested.
"I thought of that too, Mrs. Paris. I'm afraid if I try it I'll lose my link to Christopher. I just don't understand it, or have enough practice to know if I can reach two people at once yet. It's too risky to experiment right now."
"Please call me Koren. No need for formality." She smiled gently. "I agree. You shouldn't take the chance of losing Christopher." Koren's eyes filled with tears. "If anything ever happened to my son." Her voice cracked. "I just can't imagine what the Staffords are going through."
Dani held on tightly as the truck sped through town toward the waterfront. When they reached the area where she believed they would find Christopher, the teams slowed to let her concentrate. "I can feel him, Gage. We're close. This is it! Christopher is in this building!" Dani pointed to an abandoned warehouse by the docks.
"Are you sure? Maybe we should circle the area again." Gage surveyed the street and surrounding buildings.
"I can't explain it. But I know he's here, and something is going on in there. He needs us now!" she shouted and tried to get the door open while the truck was still rolling.
The Wrath warrior named Garrett grabbed her around the waist and planted her back in the seat. His partner, Troy, rolled his eyes in annoyance and gave her a look that promised consequences should she try it again. The truck she rode in carried a standard six-man Wrath team, plus she and Gage, who drove. Two other teams followed in separate vehicles.
Most of the warriors were wary of having a civilian female on a strike, but Garrett and Troy seemed to have adopted Dani as a little sister. They taught her how to gear up properly in her flak jacket and thigh holster. While the rest of the teams gathered, they'd taken her into the firing range for a quick lesson. Good thing, considering she'd never held a gun before, and she wasn't sure she could pull the trigger on a person.
"You're staying here. We'll handle this. You stay out of sight in the truck. Do you understand? I have never lost a person in my charge, and I'm not going to start today." Gage telegraphed his insistence with his eyes in the rearview mirror.
"Yes, sir." She sagged back into the seat, defeated. Dani wanted to go in. She wanted to help find Christopher, not sit there like a scared little girl, but she'd promised to stay in the truck. She'd done all she could to help find him.
All the warriors entered the building as a fierce unit that she hoped would never come looking for her. Every one of the large men was a nightmare in black. The truck sat parked on the corner at an angle that allowed her to see two sides of the building. Not thirty seconds after the team disappeared into the building, a door on the other side opened, and three men emerged. Two men dragged a guy with his arms and legs bound. A beat-up dark gray sedan sped around the corner and stopped just long enough for everyone to get in.
"Shit! They're getting away." The car sped past the rear of the truck, and she knew she couldn't sit there and wait. If she lost him, they wouldn't find him again. Dani jumped behind the wheel and forced the truck into reverse to go after Christopher. Trying to keep the wheel steady at a rate of speed she'd never think of driving on the street, Dani grabbed the comm unit that was left in the truck and called Gage.
"This is Dani. Can anybody hear me?" It seemed like the voices of every male on the mission came back at once. "Christopher was brought out a side door, and they're moving out fast in a car. I'm following them in the truck," she said, spitting out the names of the cross streets she passed. She had to catch them before they got out of the industrial area. It would be impossible to drive like this when they were in civilian traffic.
Gage came over the radio. "Stand down! Stand down! Do not pursue! We're heading out!"
She ignored him, dropping the device. The bad guys drove toward the water. She knew they would have to circle back on the only other street that came away from the water. When the bad guys turned up ahead before they hit the water, she turned down a narrow alley between two buildings, racing to block their escape. She asked Christopher how many streets they passed before turning. His answer came loud and clear. Dani sent a fierce mental command for Christopher to brace himself for a collision, and she wished that she'd put on a seatbelt. It was going to be close. They hit the intersection at the same time, and the getaway car plowed into the front driver's side of Dani's truck. She flew forward, cracking her head on the windshield and banging her still-aching ribs against the steering wheel. It took her a minute to shake off the impact.
Two of the bad guys tried to get Christopher out of the car, and he fought them. The third slumped in the front seat. She felt the blood running down her face and the knot on her head, but she had to get out of the truck. Dani put all she had into a telepathic command to STOP! The abductors froze in place. "Move away from the car," she told them, and they both backed up and stared dumbly into the distance.
Cautiously, she crept over to free Christopher from the car. Thank God, he'd been wearing a seatbelt and wasn't injured badly. She would never have forgiven herself if her stunt had killed him. With the men disabled and Christopher out of the car, Dani grabbed the knife holstered along with the gun Gage had given her and cut the tape from his hands and feet. They supported each other, staggering back to the truck. She tried to back the truck out of the tangle of metal and shattered glass when another strike vehicle pulled up behind them. The Wrath jumped out with their guns drawn, ready for a fight. The last thing she remembered was leaning against Christopher in the front seat, while he thanked her and tried to get a look at her injuries.
After all that, she just wanted to sleep, and the annoying, constant beeping wouldn't stop. Her head felt like she'd cracked it against a windshield. Oh yeah, she had cracked it against a windshield. Slowly, she pried her eyes open to find Mrs. Paris holding her hand. Kayden's mom ran out to the hall and called for help. The beeping that had woken her was a heart monitor. Mrs. Paris came back with a big smile and kissed Dani's cheek.