Page 10 of Alice Worth and the Elite Death Machine

Sean flexed his fingers on the steering wheel. I reached over the console and rested my hand on his thigh. He covered my hand with his. His tension crackled painfully on my skin, but I didn’t pull away.

When we were about thirty minutes from Landers, Malcolm spoke. “So, I guess we all know what we’re up against. Anything else you can tell Alice and me to help us fight this thing?”

Sean flicked a golden-eyed glance in the rearview mirror, though he couldn’t actually see Malcolm. “I suppose if I asked you and Alice to let us take the lead that you’d just ignore me?”

“What was that?” I cupped my hand to my ear. “Speak up. Couldn’t hear you over your manly alphaness.”

Ben tried to cover his chuckle with a cough.

“Yes, that’s what I figured.” Sean sighed. “Theúlfheðnarandfaoladhare larger and faster, but they aren’t immortal. And to my knowledge they have no magic, so they can only fight with teeth and claws like any other shifter.”

“But demonsdohave magic in addition to weapons,” I said. “So if any show up, Malcolm and I will take them. Strategy-wise, we’re a better matchup than against theúlfheðnar.” Plus I had the demon blade I’d taken from the hotel room sitting at my feet. My instincts had told me to bring it and so I did. I was no great whiz when it came to fighting with weapons, but I could get the pointy end into a bad guy if it came down to that.

“And if nobody who smells like rotten eggs rolls up, all the better,” Malcolm put in. “Then we can all just pile on the Elite Death Machine, or EDM, as we call it.”

“I’m not calling it that,” Jesse said gruffly.

Malcolm grumbled.

“Where are the Blue Valley wolves gathered?” Ben asked. “Do we know?”

“Not yet.” Sean indicted his phone, which showed driving directions to Landers. “When we get close, I’ll let Lucas know and he’ll send us GPS coordinates in code. He’s got most of his pack with him, but he scattered others at various locations around Landers, trying to throw demon mercenaries and theúlfheðnaroff their track. Even so, they figure it’s only a matter of time before they’re found.”

“How will Conor find them?” I asked.

“That’s a little less clear.” He smiled wryly. “It seems afaoladhalways finds their charge. Unfortunately, the same can be said of anúlfheðnarand their target.”

“So it’s a race to see who can get there first.” I exhaled. “Once Conor has Noah, what then?”

“They’ll leave the area,” Sean said. “No one will know where they are or have any contact with the child until he’s grown and can protect himself.”

No one said anything for a long time after that. What the others thought about I wasn’t sure, but my mind went to eight-year-old Noah, hiding with his pack from converging killers. He probably knew the best outcome he could hope for tonight was to be taken from his family to be raised not by his parents but a total stranger. Simply because he was what he was, he’d have no choice in the matter.

Three quiet growls filled the SUV. I didn’t have pack bonds per se, but everyone in the vehicle could tell what I was thinking about anyway. I probably smelled like anger and grief.

“Alice.” It was Sean’s turn to reach over the console and take my hand. “It’s okay to be upset. Take a minute.”

Ben put his hand on my shoulder too. We’d become very close after I’d saved his life, but even before that he’d instinctually backed me up in the same way Sean’s betas had his back. I appreciated his warmth. I’d suddenly gotten cold, and it had nothing to do with the temperature in the SUV. My case, which only hours ago seemed so interesting yet ordinary, had become unexpectedly very personal.

Unfortunately, I knew exactly how terrible it felt to know at age eight that not only did people want you dead simply for living, but that your destiny didn’t belong to you because you were born with powers you didn’t even understand yet. Growing into that understanding didn’t make the grim reality any better, either; you simply became even more aware of the cruelty and injustice of your existence. If you were lucky you managed to survive long enough to take back your life, like I had.

Someday, if he survived, Noah might be damn near invincible, but his life would never be his. That hit me like an uppercut. And right now he was just a little kid in a monster’s crosshairs.

I cleared my throat. “Anyúlfheðnarwho ever comes within a hundred miles of our pack boundaries dies.”

My flat tone and words startled the others, but Sean squeezed my hand. “Her word is mine,” he said.

And that was all that needed to be said on that subject.

Sean didhis damnedest to ensure nothing and no one followed us once we got close to Landers.

The GPS coordinates we received from Lucas Stone eventually led us to a two-story home built partly into a hill so the lower level had no access from the back. The house was surrounded by woods, offering plenty of cover for anyone doing counter-surveillance. From the roof, however, watchers—especially ones with sharp nighttime shifter eyesight—could keep a lookout for movement in all directions. My first guess upon seeing the house was that it had at least one safe room built into the ground and that was where Noah would be.

Once Sean parked in the garage and we made it into the house, I had no trouble figuring out which of the half-dozen men in the home’s living room was Lucas Stone; like Sean, his status as alpha made him the first person I noticed when we walked in. The room and everything in it seemed toleantoward Lucas. I’d been so intimately involved with Sean for so long that I tended not to notice that he had the same effect on his surroundings.

When Sean and I came in with Ben and Jesse in our wake, the room’s energy changed noticeably, from a single gravitational pull to something more like twin orbiting stars. Two alphas of near-equal dominance couldn’t share a small space for very long, even if they were good friends. Everyone’s anger and restlessness made the atmosphere even more tense. I rubbed my arms to ease the painful prickling of shifter magic and barely suppressed rage.

Lucas Stone was as tall as Sean but all lean muscle, as rural shifters tended to be because they ran in wolf form more frequently and for longer distances. I figured the tall blonde woman at his side holding a newborn infant was his wife and mate Mariah. To my surprise and dismay, next to them stood a boy of about eight who looked like a shorter version of his father. So much for keeping Noah in a safe room. I tried not to let my reaction show on my face.

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