Carpathian 06 - Dark Fire

man.
    Tempest turned and ran to the door, rushing outside, running around the building toward the marina. The riverboat was still tied to the dock. Men were laughing and shoving one another as they moved up the pier to board the boat. She had no idea exactly what she was looking for. They all looked like normal partygoers to her. She stood very still, trying to see one thing that jangled, that jarred. The revelers continued to board the boat, their jokes lewd, a lot of playful pushing and shoving going on. Most of the men looked as if they'd already indulged in a great deal of partying before they arrived.
    She shook her head and moved away from the bushes toward the marina store. Almost at once she felt a sharp object poking into her back. Thinking it was a branch, she started to turn. She saw a blur coming at her head, nothing she could identify, but she had no chance of getting her arms up to protect herself.
    Whatever it was smashed against her head, hard, and she was falling.
    Inside the building Darius froze in place. Not a muscle moved. It was as if he stopped breathing. Then he was moving, far too fast for the human eye to see. He burst from the building, the beast raging for release. He felt it growing stronger and more lethal within him. He let it consume him, reaching for it, so that the thin veneer of civilization was gone. The savage predator was loose, and there was not one shred of mercy in its soul.
    Tempest. Her name was a whisper of sanity in his mind, the only thing keeping him from a berserker's rage. He could not kill everyone who crossed his path. He had to stay focused. She had been taken from him. But because she did not answer his call did not mean she was lost to him forever. He would know if she was dead. His soul would know. No, they had knocked her out in some way, made it impossible for his mind to reach hers. They had baited a trap, and in his arrogance, he had fallen into it. Thinking Desari the ultimate target, he had concentrated his protection there. Cullen had been right all along. They wanted Tempest.
    Julian, they have taken Tempest. Stay and protect Desari and Syndil. Alert Dayan and Barack. I Witt go after her.
    It is a trap.
    Of course it is. Why else would they grab her when we were all here far the taking? They are using her for bait. I will go.
    Darius moved swiftly away from the crowds, needing the open spaces. He sent a call to the night, sent a wind seeking his answers. It brought the scent of his prey, sharp and pungent, to his nostrils. Darius took to the sky, shape-shifting as he did so, his body becoming that of a winged night hunter. Below him he saw the winding ribbon of highway, the car speeding over the mountain road. They would be taking her somewhere close. Leading him into the trap.

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    Darius plunged straight down, streaking through the sky toward the windshield of the car, his huge expanse of wings spread wide. The bird completely eclipsed the glass, and the driver screamed and instinctively ducked. At the last moment Darius pulled up and disappeared as if he had never been. The car swerved wildly, fishtailing dangerously close to the cliff. The rear end swung around, smashed into dirt and rock, bounced off, then slid several feet before the driver could regain control of the vehicle.
    Brady Grand swore as he clutched at the seat in front of him. "What the hell are you doing, Martin? We almost crashed. Slow down if you have to. Wallace says she has to be alive. We need information, and the only way to lure one of them to us is through a woman."
    "You didn't see it?" Martin wiped the sweat from his face. "It was an owl. The biggest damned owl I ever saw."
    "There wasn't anything there," Brady snarled. "You're just chicken. All you have to do is drive." Brady swept back the red-gold hair falling across Tempest's face so he could examine the ugly cut where Martin had hit her with the billy club. "You hit her too damned hard. She's bleeding like a stuck pig back here."
    A gust of wind hit the side of the car, blowing it several inches into the other lane. Ahead of them ominous black clouds gathered from out of nowhere. Veins of lightning zigzagged from cloud to cloud.
    Thunder crashed so loudly, it shook the car. Martin ducked again and swore out loud. "This is getting out of hand, Brady. I say it's a warning of some kind. If something's doing this, I don't want to challenge it.
    Let