That was when the silence hit her. No more growls. No more howls. Nothing.
Olivia crept toward the door, or rather, as far toward it as her invisible cell would allow. “Shane?”
No answer.
She bit her lip. She wanted to scream for him, but a scream would just give away her location. Right, like the werewolves can’t smell you!
Her nose twitched then, because she’d just smelled something. Something that smelled a whole lot like…fire.
She whirled around. Saw the flash of flames right outside of the cabin’s window. That flash grew, grew…and suddenly, fire was eating up the side of the cabin and rushing toward the ceiling.
She opened her mouth and screamed as loud as she could. “Shane! Shane, I—”
A werewolf leapt through the fire and came straight at her.
Chapter Nine
Shane shoved back the werewolf who’d just gone for his throat. He heard bones crunch when the wolf hit the ground, but he didn’t care.
Ambush.
They weren’t just facing off against one or two wolves. Not just that bastard David or the warden…a whole pack had attacked them. A pack that had closed in quickly—a pack that wasn’t stopping.
Connor was in werewolf form. Fighting fiercely. Biting. Clawing.
Duncan was near his brother. Slashing with his own claws and protecting Connor’s back.
Holly was outside. Firing silver bullets at the beasts and Pate—
“Fire!” Pate roared.
Hell, yeah, Shane knew about the fire. He could smell it, too. The pack had come in from the east, and they’d torched the med cabin first. Duncan had gotten Holly out of that place with a bellow of fury.
The wolves who’d been foolish enough to try and hurt Holly were dead on the ground.
“Shane!”
Olivia’s scream reached him over the fury of the flames. He whirled and saw the fire shooting up from her cabin. No!
Two wolves tried to take him down.
They were the ones to fall, and they didn’t get back up.
He kicked in the door of the cabin. “Olivia!”
She was on the floor, backing away from two wolves who stalked toward her. One was a big, hulking white wolf. A wolf with bright eyes that were fixed solely on Olivia. The other beast was a heavy, muscled gray wolf with bright, blue eyes.
The white wolf was familiar to Shane. He’d seen that beast on Purgatory. That beast had been hunting them both there.
David. The bastard had tracked Olivia to the mainland.
And the fire was spreading around the cabin. Too fast.
“Get away from her!” Shane lunged for them.
The white wolf sprang away from Olivia and came at Shane with his fangs snapping. Shane caught the beast’s mouth, slammed its jaws shut and then threw the wolf right toward the flames.
The white wolf—David—howled in agony, and rolled, trying to put out the flames that spread on his fur.
“Stop!” Olivia’s cry. “Stay back!”
Shane whirled. She had a broken chair leg in her hand and she was shoving it against the gray wolf. But the beast wasn’t stopping.
Above Shane, the ceiling gave a low, long groan. He looked up and saw the flames rolling overhead. Shane knew the ceiling was going to collapse. Shit, Pate had said something about djinn and fire. Blood and fire?
He used his strength and raced toward Olivia. He caught her, shoved her back, but a force field seemed to rip her right out of his hands.
The markings on the floor… the fucking bottle cage that Pate had set! It was still trapping her. “Olivia!”
She was on her hands and knees.
He shoved away the markings, smearing them in a frantic fury.
The gray wolf locked its mouth around her leg and hauled her back toward him, just as the ceiling gave way and fire rushed down on them.
“Olivia!”
Eric Pate heard the guttural cry and he leapt into the flames. He hated fire. Such a pain in his ass.
Shane was burning. Flames were on the vamp’s clothes. Rippling along his skin, and the fool was trying to go deeper into the fire.
Eric grabbed him and tried to drag the guy out of the cabin.
Fire could kill a vamp. Damn easy. Too—
Shane tossed him aside. When Eric crashed onto the floor, he was pretty sure that he broke his left wrist and dislocated his shoulder. He coughed as the smoke thickened around him. He was near the cabin’s door. Shane had almost thrown him through that door.
But then he was being jerked to his feet. Duncan McGuire was in front of him, and the flames were everywhere.
“Pate, are you all right?” Duncan demanded.
Eric fumbled for his weapon. He hated to do this, but there wasn’t a choice for him. “We have to…get Shane out.” There were only a few people he considered to be his friends in this world. Shane was one of those precious few.
He and Duncan headed into the thick of the fire. Shane was clawing at part of the ceiling—the ceiling that had fallen down on the bed and now covered half of the floor.
The vampire was so frantic. Eric knew there was only one reason he’d react that way.
Olivia was under that collapsed, burning ceiling.
The fire was blazing in hot, angry bursts, and the flames were eating everything in their path. If they didn’t get the vamp out, in the next five seconds, Shane would be dead.
Duncan grabbed Shane. The vamp whirled, snarling, “I have to get her, I have to get—”
Eric shot Shane. A wooden bullet straight to the heart. A guaranteed way to stop a vamp in his tracks. Shane’s body shuddered as he collapsed, and Duncan dragged the vamp out of there.
They all barely made it outside before the cabin seemed to implode. Fire shot toward the sky in big, wild streaks of orange and gold.
Duncan dropped Shane to the ground. The vamp wasn’t moving. Stiff, hard—dead. For the moment. He’d stay that way until Eric dug the wooden bullet out of the guy’s heart.
Eric turned his head and saw that a big, white wolf was pacing a few feet away. The other wolves had assembled behind the beast. They weren’t attacking, not yet.
What are they waiting for?
Then Connor jumped in front of Eric. Connor was bloody, battered, and in human form, but claws sprouted from his fingertips. “Who wants to try and go through me?”
The white wolf snarled.
Then the wolf whirled and ran into the woods. All of the other shifted werewolves followed him. They left their dead behind.
The cabin kept burning.
Connor rushed forward, as if he’d go after them.
“No!” Eric shouted. “That’s what they want.” He shook his head. “It’s a set-up. Hell, it always has been.” No one should have been able to access this safe house. No one.
I thought the traitor was in the FBI. Because that had been the Intel he’d received. Intel that hadn’t revealed the full truth about the traitor. I didn’t realize he was the one running the whole damn show. He’d made the connection with Senator Quick too late. With his resources, the senator would be able to discover all of the secrets that the Para Unit possessed.
“We need to get out of here.” Eric ignored his throbbing wrist and shoulder. “Now.”