Cursed To Death

Sir Rodney walked away troubled and clasped his hands behind his back, closing his eyes as he spoke, his voice becoming low and impassioned as he tried to make the men around him understand.

“I care, but as a leader, there are tough decisions to be made. Lose an entire village and a garrison, or risk a few civilians being lost, tragic as that may be? The choice is hard but the choice is clear. Right now I need every able-bodied soldier here to make sure we are secured during the night. We have miles of border to camouflage with reverse glamour. First light, I’ll send out a retinue to let the others know how to at least temporarily reverse what’s been done to them. After we are snug as a bug in a rug, we’ll also be investigating-because we need to know exactly which set of dirty spells they’ve used to attack us and our allies. Godspeed to anyone outside these walls tonight.”

The king of the Seelie turned around and studied his men with determination burning in his eyes. “Our enemies have been trying to find our North American fortress to siege and sack for years. I’ll not let that ’appen on my watch!”

CHAPTER 15

“I won’t leave my men!” Shogun said, panting. He spun out of an attacker’s claw rake, ran up the side of a tree, flipped down behind the beast and shot him point-blank in the skull, using the Derringer.

“You have to live to fight another day,” Hunter shouted, unloading a shotgun blast over Shogun’s shoulder to blow back a wolf that had gone airborne.

“I led them into this death trap-I was their alpha leader and should have known better! They trusted me!” Shogun yelled, ru

Hunter made a wide berth around the dead bodies, changing directions to follow his brother.

“This isn’t your battle-fall back!” Shogun yelled.

“One pack, one clan!” Hunter shouted, clearing Shogun’s path with gunshot blasts, reloading on the run with a howl.

Shogun and Hunter pressed their backs to a new tree line, staying downwind from the building, studying for ways to get back inside it. Hunter’s jeep was unapproachable-the parking lot was crawling with Buchanan clan pack members begi

Hunter glanced at Shogun, whose eyes remained steadfastly on the building, trying to figure out the impossible. In war, there were always difficult decisions to be made-survival was sometimes one of them. But he knew where his brother was right now; he was a tortured man with a soul that required peace. Shogun had violated a leader’s sense of responsibility for the safety of his pack; to leave now would not be the way of the wolf… and to let his brother die alone, savaged to death by the enemy without putting up a fight, was also an unacceptable option to him.

“Go home,” Shogun snarled. “Go back to the Shadow packs. Go back to her.”

Hunter growled. “Make me.”

A huge Werewolf crashed out of the side of the building on the floor where Shogun’s men had been. Chin-Hwa and Dak-Ho bailed out behind it, nude, and two more transformed wolves followed them in an aerial lunge. Hunter got off a blast that gave the wolf on the ground pause, splattering the two in the air in a single body shot that penetrated both airborne wolves in the gut. But the shotgun blast also gave away Hunter’s and Shogun’s position.

Shogun’s men dropped to the ground in lithe crouches and then became one with the trees in a flat-out dash, furious Weres in hot pursuit. Somehow, an injured Seung Kwon had managed to exit the building by the door on the roof. Using every martial-arts skill at his disposal, he was a human body against that of a fully transformed Werewolf bouncer. Seung Kwon was losing ground fast.

Insanity propelled Shogun forward to go after his cousin; strategy sent Hunter up a tree in a one-handed pull, shotgun in the other. A blast hit the Werewolf on the roof; a blast toward the ground gave Shogun a few more minutes to live.

“Fall back!” Hunter shouted, bringing his brother to a skidding halt.

Shogun gave him a glance and turned back as Seung Kwon climbed off the roof using a drainpipe.

Out of breath, Winters burst into Fi

Huffing to catch up with those that had wolf in their DNA, Winters pumped his arms and legs as hard as he could, and then, just as he got midway across the street, house and porch in sight, something grabbed him.

Cold claws came out of the night in a lethal grip. His scream was choked by what felt like steel around his neck. He could see Silver Hawk skid to a stop in slow motion. Bradley was on the porch in a robe, waving his arms; Clarissa was screaming something he now couldn’t hear as consciousness ebbed. Doc turned slowly, withdrawing a Glock from the back of his pants, raised the weapon in his direction, and fired.

Suddenly he was on the ground, hitting the asphalt with a thud. A horrible screech and the scent of burning flesh and sulfuric ash stung his nose and made his eyes water. Vomiting from the terror and the offense to his nose, Winters pushed himself up on shaky arms and legs.

“Get onto the porch!” Bradley shouted. “Vampire attack-get onto the porch! The house is invulnerable!”

An old man grabbed him with the strength of a twenty-year-old marine. Winters looked up, still disoriented, as Silver Hawk lifted him over his shoulder like a baby, while Doc covered them, spi

“I only got one,” Doc said, wheezing. “The other one, the redhead, got away.”

“Is that how you thought you’d endear yourself to me, by flagrantly violating a directive to leave the boy for my enjoyment?” Baron Geoff Montague’s eyes flashed coal black with rage as he backhanded his lover. “This is not our fight! We are not involved in this squabble, but we are vested in the outcome!”

Black blood splattered from her mouth and painted the red tresses that fell against her cheek. She backed away with fear glittering in her eyes.

“Sa fina and I were going to bring him to you, Geoff. We thought we were following your orders. You said, ‘If the boy leaves the house, he’s mine.’ Our objective was only to bring him to you.” She held her face and lowered her head in submission. “I swear to you… do not dispense with me harshly. I loved her, too.”

“Tragically foolish,” the baron said through his teeth. “I would have mind-stu

For a moment, neither Hunter nor Shogun could move. Horror filled their eyes as three New Orleans Police Department cruisers careened into the parking lot. It all happened so fast that it seemed like everything was moving in slow motion.