Keeton smiled. His blocking skills seemed to have improved beyond his imagination. He was still a great distance from the suspended wolf. Even the woman hadn’t flinched from her spot on the front line fighting the fire. So, Jaxon wasn’t able to send her any thoughts either.
Perfect.
Fuck. Goddamn it. Shit. Jaxon was pissed. Especially with himself for not having noticed the trap. He’d been so damn worried about scanning, he hadn’t paid any attention to where he was walking.
For a moment, he’d assumed the trap had been left by some random hunter, which would have been a very bad thing. Hunters had a tendency to kill wolves when they caught them. Of course, he did have the option of shifting into human form to avoid being shot, but then he’d have the difficulty of explaining why he’d been traipsing around in the forest, in the fall no less, butt naked.
No. This situation reeked of McKinney. Especially since all efforts on Jaxon’s part to communicate with his brothers had been to no avail. He was fucked.
And pissed.
Sergius had explained McKinney’s ability to block the brothers’ telepathy last spring, but none of them had expected something like this. Where was that bastard?
And more importantly, how was he managing to control the wolves from a distance?
Struggling in vain, Jaxon twisted around in every direction. He didn’t want that fucking bloodsucker to catch him off guard. The least he could do was notice which direction McKinney approached from. And he had little doubt by now it would happen.
Calm yourself, Jax. If you expend all your energy before the guy gets here, you’ll be useless defending yourself when it really counts.
Jaxon took deep breaths. He squirmed only enough to scan the area in every direction—repeatedly. Meanwhile, he tried again to connect with his brothers.
“Serg? Mic?” The last thing he wanted was to disturb his mate. He wouldn’t attempt to contact her unless the situation grew dire. She might lose concentration, and the woman was busy fighting an out-of-control forest fire.
Nothing. Nada. Not even a twitch to indicate he’d gotten through to either man. Time was of the essence. The longer he went without reaching his brothers and managed to stay alive, the greater the chance the two would grow concerned and come looking for him.
So now he just needed to distract McKinney when he made his presence known long enough to give Sergius and Micah a head start.
Suddenly, McKinney stepped out of the trees, a huge smirk on his face. “Well, well, well. What have we here? Did the big bad wolf fail to pay attention to his surroundings?”
Jaxon grit his teeth and narrowed his gaze. His stomach roiled as though he’d eaten something bad. Directly below stood Keeton McKinney, pacing nonchalantly under Jaxon and taunting him with his stance.
Jaxon had no intention of engaging the fucker any more than absolutely necessary for survival.
“Perfect. And kind of your sheriff to blab your location on the radio. Made my work so much easier.” The vamp smirked up at Jaxon. “Let’s see. How shall we play this out?” McKinney thumped his lips with one finger, pondering what to do next. As though the asshole hadn’t planned the entire day before he’d gotten out of bed—if he even slept.
The vampire strutted around beneath Jaxon in a figure eight, glancing up at his victim. Suddenly, without warning, he lurched out and swiped a long knife through the air. Jaxon hadn’t even seen the machete-type weapon until that split second.
With a howl of fear, Jaxon tumbled to the ground. Instinct kicked in, helping him right himself so he landed more or less on all four paws. His immediate concern was injury. A quick survey of all his limbs showed little damage to himself.
He was, however, still trapped by the sack-like arrangement of ropes. Intentionally. McKinney grabbed the long end of rope and tugged. “Shame that fall didn’t kill you. Now I’ll have to do the dirty work myself.” He turned and began to pull.
Jaxon growled and dug his paws into the ground. He was caught in the rope contraption, but that didn’t mean he had to be helpful where his abduction was concerned.
McKinney turned toward him. “Listen, little doggy. We can do this the hard way or the easy way. You choose.” He nodded down the hill toward the fire. “If you insist on fighting me on this, I’ll leave you here to rot in hell and watch while I head on down the hill and take that sexy little blonde you seem so fond of for myself. Which will it be?”
Jaxon froze. How dare this motherfucker threaten his mate?
“Do you think she’ll scream while I suck her dry? Or perhaps she might enjoy herself while I fondle her pussy. They usually do. It’s amazing how much pleasure I can give my victims with just a touch while they succumb to my alluring qualities. Many women actually moan in delight while I bring them to orgasm, never knowing that their life is slowly leaking out of their necks and into my mouth.”
Jaxon narrowed his gaze. Goddamn this bastard. He knew where to hit and how hard.
“Your choice. You’re dead either way. If you want to take the blonde down with you, that’s fine. In fact, I think I’ll sequester you in the cave I have arranged for your funeral and let you watch while I fuck that sweet little number right in front of you.”
Jaxon growled, the lowest snarl he’d ever heard coming from his mouth. He was well and truly screwed. The best he could hope for was to buy himself as much time as possible while McKinney dragged him to the unknown destination. Perhaps if he managed to waste enough time, his brothers would catch on to his plight.
Trouble was, the brothers had no set arrangement when it concerned checking in. It could be a while before one of them tried and failed to contact Jaxon. By then, it could be too late.
Jaxon ducked his head, a sign of submission. He had no choice. He wasn’t about to shift. It was way too cold out this morning for him to survive as a naked human. His best chance was to remain in wolf form as long as possible.
“That’s what I thought you’d choose. Good doggy.” McKinney cinched the saclike contraption tighter.
This was the closest Jaxon had ever been to the vampire. He was surprised how normal the guy looked. Granted, he seemed rather old world, but other than being a bit too pale for his obviously Native American heritage, he appeared average. Black jeans, black boots, black tank, black leather jacket. The man liked black.
McKinney cut a long length of extra rope from the trap with his knife. After he sheathed the long blade behind him, he stared Jaxon right in the eye.
Jaxon nearly cringed. The man’s eyes were even black. And eerie. Not normal.
“We’re heading down this incline now. If you cooperate, I might consider going lenient with my plans. If not…well…let’s just say, the more grief you cause me before you die, the more grief I’m going to cause that sweet blonde after your death. Got it?” He raised an eyebrow.
Jaxon seethed with anger. He’d never in his life been in such a predicament. His blood boiled. If he’d been in human form, he’d have been beet red. Baring his teeth, he gave McKinney a look he hoped conveyed what he thought of the vampire’s threats.
If that vampire so much as considered laying even one finger on Brianna, Jaxon would come back from the dead personally and slaughter the motherfucker.
“Now, now. There’s no need for all this posturing. I’m sure you’ll be plenty compliant.” McKinney jerked on the rope trap and tugged. Jaxon slipped onto his side, losing his footing.
He had no idea what might disable the vampire. Hell, he didn’t even know the man’s strength. The best course of action for everyone right now was to comply and let McKinney drag him. There’d be a hole in his plan somewhere along the line, and Jaxon would be able to get the upper hand.