INVISIBLE POWER BOOK TWO: ALEX NOZIAK (INVISIBLE RECRUITS) (15 page)

CHAPTER 34

Jeb heard his son’s shout. The cry of a wolf in agony. Wolves are silent hunters, no growls, no snarls, no yips. The fact Van was howling meant something was wrong. Terribly wrong. He started running down a street that seemed far too long, Pádraig nipping at his heels.

The younger man cried out, “That didn’t sound good.”

“It isn’t.”

Jeb skidded around a corner and spotted the green space on his right. The park? Here?

The scream came again. Somewhere deeper into the grassy area. A couple of people were running toward the street, away from the sound, looking over their shoulders.

“Van,” he shouted. “Van, where are you?”

A man shrieked, the sound cut off suddenly.

Jeb crossed the street, skirting parked cars and ran toward the nearest pathway.

“You sure this is a good idea?”  Pádraig panted beside him. “Shouldn’t we wait for the police?”

Jeb shook his head, scanning the area, but he couldn’t see anything. Three men and a woman were running toward a group against the far edge, near a statue
. Four or five men huddled together, but it wasn’t clear what they were doing.

“Sir, we really should wait.” Pádraig’s voice sounded high and winded.

“My son’s here. Somewhere.”

Jeb stepped onto the grass. Better to get a wider view.

The huddle of men in the back broke open just as the girl who looked like Alex running toward them was tackled by a dark-haired man behind her.

That’s when he saw Van. In his wolf form.

CHAPTER 35

“Let me go,” I screamed as Bran tackled me, grinding me into the gravel. “He needs me.”

“He’ll kill you.”

Bran pressed against my back, blanketing me. Couldn’t he see what was going on? That was Van. I could recognize him in human or wolf form, which he was in now, in spite of this being a public place. The men had Van wrapped in chains. I had to get to him.

I rocked back and forth but Bran was too large, too strong, and wasn’t budging an inch.

“Van,” I shouted, clawing the ground to break free.

The group of men huddled around Van peeled away, as if a circle opening. In the middle Van was huddled over, his wolf form struggling against chains, desperate to get free. Wolves were silent predators. They didn’t make sounds except to warn others off. But Van’s cry had been something else. Anguish. Rage. Desperation.

One man’s body lay stretched across the path, an arm torn from his torso, his blood too red in the glaring noon light. No wonder Van was frantic. What idiot would wave red meat in front of a wolf?

Van’s wolf nature had taken over and he needed calming. But the men were doing just the opposite. One was lashing him with what looked like a whip. Another pulled the chain around his throat tighter
. I could smell the scent of singeing fur from here.

“I have to help him,” I cried, but it was useless. Bran pinned my arms to my side. When I got free I’d kill him
.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” he growled against my ear. “Hold still.”

“You. Don’t. Understand.” My words came in short gasps. Bran didn’t understand. He didn’t know wolves. He didn’t know Van.

“That’s my brother.”

“Not now he isn’t.”

Van was Van though. He always had more control over his wolf than any of my brothers. He needed my help. If I could get those men away from him, I knew I could save him. I was the only one who could.

Then I smelled them. Weres. Several of those encircling Bran were Weres.

You can do this
. It was the woman’s voice. From yesterday. You have the power. Use it.

Of course, how stupid could I be?

Adeo. Adeo. Agero. Adepto.

Come. Come. Increase. Acquire.

I started the chant. The one I used yesterday morning. The one that sucked power from the others around me. As long as I pulled back, not using it in full force or with Bran’s magic too, I could stop the Weres around Van and free him.

“Don’t, Alex,” Bran whispered, as he had done in the street, only there was a threat behind the words now. “Don’t do it.”

The woman’s voice washed against me
. Listen to me. I’m here. You’re not alone.

“Mom?”

Van’s wolf roared.

I reached for him, willing him to see me, to know I was there for him.

Suscipio. Solvo.

Receive
. Break free.

“Alex.”

Ignore him. He only seeks to stop you.

I was struggling to do just that when Bran clamped his hand across my mouth.

Noooooooo!

I thrashed and kicked and tried to bite him, but it did no good. Bran’s hand smothered me. Tears leaked from my eyes and I didn’t care. I was useless.

Van.

Then I heard it. Another sound. Another wolf’s growl.

Twisting my head—I couldn’t lift it very high but
I spied the cinnamon coat I knew so well. A black band of fur striped his tail as he raced past me, sparing me only one quick wolf glance.

Dad? Here?

It couldn’t be.

Where I lay, sandwiched between Bran and the gravel biting into my skin, my face, I was powerless but I could listen.

I heard when the attacking wolf reached the group of men.

“
Merde
,” Bran swore. I doubted he even knew he’d said the single word aloud.

What was happening? I sagged, using my ears to tell me as I couldn’t see. Why wasn’t Bran doing something to help Van?

Male shouts in French. Some screamed what sounded like an order. Then the last thing I expected. The snarls and thudding of two wolves attacking one another.

Van would never fight Dad. But was that Dad I saw? Great Goddess what could I do?

A sudden zzzzzz whir. A quick animal cry.

Then only Van’s growl
. A yelp. Then nothing.

Bran eased up a smidge as I stopped fighting him, instead focusing on what was happening deep into the park.

I could finally raise my head. The wolf that had sped past me was on the ground, curled in a fetal position.

“Dad!” I shouted.

They’d killed him.

CHAPTER 36

“He used a binding spell on me!” I shouted, even though
François
was only a few feet from where I stood, hands clenched, muscles tensed to fight, back in the warehouse space I’d left only hours ago. A space that seemed larger earlier and now couldn’t contain the anger pulsing through me. “He bound me and he did nothing to help my brother. Not lift one pinky mage finger to stop what was happening.”

I marched over to where
François
leaned against one of the partition walls, his arms crossed, his face neutral, though I could tell he was holding on to his temper.

Willie was hustling up some food in the kitchen area beyond a counter dividing half-wall. Staying out of the direct line of fire no doubt. Or maybe he was a smart charmer. Or just a smart Were.

Not me. I was livid and looking for a target. But it wasn’t
François
as much as he wished he were anywhere else.

No. I knew who I wanted to throttle.

Back at the park I’d had a quick glimpse of my dad but before I could do anything Bran had cast a spell on me that rendered me speechless and powerless. It was the last part that stuck in my craw. That and his caveman way of yanking me to my feet only to swing me across his shoulder in a fireman’s hold as the wail of emergency response vehicles drew closer and closer. Then he jogged over to a car that
François
had collected and drawn up to the curb.

I might as well been a sack of potatoes. Couldn’t move, speak, or help. And how the last part acid etched me from the inside out.

And now Bran had vanished. Not in a conjuring way but in a drop me off on the couch, say something to
François
and Willie in French, and walk out, knowing it’d be a good twenty minutes before the spell wore off.

But not before he left another larger containment spell wrapping the building. This was a warlock who could bring a person back from the dead, so when he didn’t want someone to leave a building, there was no getting out of it. I couldn’t even get cell phone reception. Which meant I’d been cut off from my team.

Warlocks could try the patience of a saint and I wasn’t a saint by any definition.

So I faced the next most convenient target and stabbed a finger at his chest. “That was my brother. And my dad. And you.
. ,“ I was so angry I couldn’t even find the phrases I was scrambling for. Fear drives anger in me and I don’t know when I’d been more afraid. Not for me but for my dad and Van.

“You Neanderthals had no right, no right to take me away.” The words were jamming in my throat as I pivoted and strode across the room, not trusting that I wouldn’t do something irrevocable to
François
.

My brothers always said never piss off a witch
.

But
François
hadn’t grown up in the Noziak family. “You ever think Bran did what he did to protect you?”

I whirled on him like a dervish on speed. “I never asked for his protection. Don’t need it. Don’t want it.”

François
’ brows slashed upward. “There are bigger issues at stake here than what you want.”

I wasn’t sure if I was angrier at his calm tone, or his comment as I stormed back across to look him in the eye even as I had to stand on my tippy toes to do so. I growled through gritted teeth. “That’s what everyone keeps telling me. But he was there. Doing nothing
. Van was right in front of me. Alive. And now?” I threw my hands wide, when what I wanted to do was pound them into the walls. “Where is he now? I don’t even know if he’s still alive. Or if my dad is. Because of you three.”

My gaze included Willie in my condemnation. He had moved to the dining bar but stepped back with a who-me expression on his face as I paced toward him. “You’re a Were for cripes sake. You could have stopped those men. But what did you do? Nothing. A big squat nothing.”

He opened his mouth but I gave him my no-bullshit glare. “And don’t try to tell me you’re a recovering Were so were doing the whole non-violence thing.”

“Even if I was?” he mumbled around a large bite of a ham sandwich.

“Bullpuckey!” I snarled, pivoting and walking across the room to give myself some breathing space. How could someone even think of eating at a time like this?

He waited until I was as far as I could get before saying, “Did you have any idea of the power of the Weres in that park?”

“Says you.”

He glanced at
François
who gave a what-can-we-do shake of his head.

“And what about you?” I snapped at
François
. “You’re supposed to be here to help me. Why weren’t you doing anything back there?”

He stepped away from the wall, his nostrils flaring. “And who said I wasn’t?”

“So what did you accomplish? Shoo a few pigeons away?”

“Didn’t have to with you wailing like a banshee. No doubt you scared a few birds from Trafalgar Square you were making such a ruckus.”

I swear the man was cruising for a bruising. I took a step toward him, fists clenched. “At least I was doing something, Fido. Not cowering in the background.”

Willie might be a recovering Were but he was still lightning fast as he appeared in front of
François
, acting as a barrier between me and the MI-6 agent.

François
smashed into Willie’s broader chest as the Were pressed the Brit back toward the wall. Both men might look lanky rather than bulky but I could see the strain in
François
’ face as he pushed back.

Just then the front door opened and like a balloon suddenly popped, all of us turned our attention to Bran strolling in before coming to a sudden stop. “What the bloody hell is going on here?” he growled, looking at me.

Oh, that was choice. As if I were the one at fault. He left me with a wus Were and dog who was as helpful as tits on a bull and thought I was the one causing all the problems.

He had no idea what problems I could cause.

Raising to my full height, which wasn’t anywhere near as tall as any of them, I still managed to look down my nose at them all. “Look what the dog drug in,” I snipped, before glancing at
François
. “Oh, wait, the dog’s already inside.”

The British agent gave me a payback-is-going-to-be-hell look before speaking to Bran. “She’s all yours and you’re welcome to her.”

He then stomped out of the room, brushing past Bran, before he could say a word.

“Have your panties in a twist, Alex?” Bran closed the door behind him as he strolled over to where Willie remained frozen, his gaze sling-shotting between Bran and I as if trying to time the explosion.

As if I’d stoop so low.

I crossed to one of three bar stools set near an arched window and shoved myself up on the nearest one, surprised the flimsy wood didn’t splinter beneath my grip.

“You want me to leave?” Willie asked Bran.

“Might be safer for you.”

Oh, that was ripe. I was the least powerful of anyone in the room, the one who’d been trussed up like a turkey, and had no say in being caged in the warehouse, and now everyone was acting like I was the threat?

But I held my tongue, waiting till the Were scooted out the door, leaving his sandwich behind. That showed how wary he was.

And he should be. Bran had a lot to answer for.

But as I turned my full focus on him I noticed what I’d missed before. He looked drained, the kind of weight-of-the-world-on-your-shoulders spent, with strain bracketing his killer-blue eyes.

This was not the Bran I knew. The take the world on and then some, king of his universe, mover and shaker. This was a man fighting on one too many fronts and bracing himself.

What had he been doing? Where had he gone?

Even his tone sounded different, less in-your-face and more give-it-your-best shot as he picked at the sandwich before looking me in the eye. “Well, Alex, I’m here now. You want a piece of me? Take it.”