Riven (18 page)

The map already
had four dots on it in a loose cordon around the building in
question, but Jaclyn went ahead and pointed them out as she named off
the team leaders for each location.

"Rex, Brutus,
Alexei and Wyatt will each have a couple of wolves under their
command. Dominic will be on the north team with Alexei. You wolves
will be responsible for intercepting any runners, but remember that
if we are up against cats that they'll probably be faster and
stronger than you, so don't be heroes. Slow them down, lock them up
just long enough for the rest of your team to get there and help you.
Depending on how bad things are inside the building, we'll try to
send someone after anyone that leaves the building so that you'll
have a heavy numerical advantage."

Carson made some
kind of gesture at Wyatt, but Jaclyn was talking again so I focused
back on her.

"Grayson and
I will each take a team into the building from here and here and try
to neutralize everyone in the building. If we're up against cats like
we think we are then we're going to try and capture as many of them
as we can. Focus on anyone that Grayson hasn't incapacitated first.
Once we're confident that we've subdued everyone and there aren't any
runners then the four teams on the outside of the building will bring
the cages in."

Rex held up a
hand. "What if it's not a bunch of cats that we're up against?"

"If it's
vampires or werewolves then we kill them all, as quickly as we can.
Honestly, the worst-case scenario is pretty much that we're up
against a large den of werewolves. If that happens then the interior
teams will be fighting a delaying action while we wait for the
perimeter teams to collapse in and help."

Jaclyn looked
around the gathered moonborn and nodded at what she saw in our faces.
"Does anyone have any questions before I release you to huddle
up with your team leaders?"

Wyatt nodded even
before she finished speaking. "Yeah, I've got a question. You
told me I was a team leader, but you didn't say anything about
sitting this one out on the sidelines. I want in on one of the two
inside teams."

Whatever Jaclyn
might have said was cut off by Carson's response. "You've got
your orders and you're sworn to obey Alec, which means by extension
you're sworn to obey Jaclyn when she speaks for him. Shut up and
soldier."

"No. Don't
think I don't know that this is your doing. I want in on the action."

Grayson's
expression was cold enough to freeze water. "You're forgetting
your place, Wyatt. Jaclyn is dominant to you in every sense of the
word. If you keep pushing she can defeat you like the child you are,
but if she chooses not to exercise that right then I'll do it for her
and then I'll send you home in dishonor."

It seemed like a
pretty weak threat to me, but it shut Wyatt up instantly. He still
wasn't happy about his role, but I could tell that he wasn't going to
argue anymore. There was something there that I still didn't
understand. It should be clear who was in charge of the terrible
trio, but I could never tell from what day to the next who was going
to step up and speak for the three of them. Today it seemed to be
Carson, but Grayson had backed his play without blinking, which went
against almost every instinct inherent to our kind.

Apparently
satisfied that Grayson and Carson had Wyatt in hand, Jaclyn dismissed
us with a wave. The team leaders started calling out names. I waited
for several seconds for someone to call for me, but then looked up
and found Grayson standing in front of me.

"You're with
me, Nazir. Over this way."

Our team consisted
of Grayson, and Carson from the terrible trio, Arnold from the Tucson
pack, Jasmin, and me. Jaclyn's team was larger, presumably because
her ability wasn't able to drop a dozen opponents at a time like
Grayson's could.

Once we were all
over in one corner of the conference room, Grayson started briefing
Arnold and Jasmin while Carson turned to me.

"Assuming
that we're not up against werewolves, you and I will have the job of
protecting Grayson while the other two deal with anything else we run
up against. While he's immobilizing someone he's vulnerable himself."

"Why me
instead of Arnold?"

Carson shrugged.
"It was Grayson's call. It's his skin so he's the one who gets
to pick his bodyguards."

"He'd have
been better off with Wyatt. After all, I was the one who lost that
match."

Carson shook his
head and then led me out of the room where we wouldn't be so easily
overheard. "No. Wyatt is pretty sharp, but he's still just a
kid. He's never done this, not for real, and a couple of fancy
grappling tricks that work in one-on-one fights aren't much use
against any of the stuff that we're likely to run into tonight."

"I'm not much
older than Wyatt."

"It's true,
but you've done this before. You helped bag those four werewolves
with the Tucson pack, you guys took down a group of vampires just a
few months ago, and after that you got stuck in against that cat that
was after Ash and his girl. You're the real deal."

I felt a flash of
surprise. I hadn't realized that Carson and his buddies were so
well-informed. "I...thanks. I appreciate the vote of
confidence."

"It's no more
than you deserve. If you want, once we're back at the estate, I can
teach you counters to some of the moves Wyatt used on you the other
day."

"Why would
you do that?"

I got another lazy
shrug, but when it became obvious that I wasn't going to let him get
away with that, Carson sighed.

"It's obvious
that Jess isn't yours, and you're not helping your cause by treating
her like a piece of property, but Wyatt shouldn't be sticking his
nose in the middle of all of that. He's...well, he's got
commitments that aren't being well served by getting involved with
anyone here."

**

Getting to the
building where we thought the cats were located turned out to be
every bit as much of a madhouse as I'd expected, but forty-five
minutes after the briefing concluded we were all onsite and ready to
go.

We were waiting
just around the corner of the block, safely out of sight from the
building, when Jaclyn sent the signal to proceed. I'd had my doubt
about the wisdom of splitting the various packs up like she had, but
at least on our end everyone swung into action without a hitch.

Arnold and Jasmin
raced forward on four legs with the other three of us in hot pursuit.
As we reached the building, Carson transformed into his hybrid form
and ripped our door right off of its hinges. Jasmin and Arnold ducked
into the building and I hurried in after them.

I felt a
many-pointed rush of power as Arnold, Grayson and I shifted into our
hybrid forms now that we were safely hidden inside the building.
Carson took up the tail position, putting himself between Grayson and
any attack like he'd done all of this many times before.

We were navigating
a series of dark halls right now, but the blueprints that Jaclyn's
contacts had provided us indicated that we'd be getting to the large,
open center any second.

I followed Arnold
around a bend in the hall and then I was in the middle of what felt
like the end of the world. Nearly a dozen feline forms streaked
through the darkness. They started moving away from us until Jaclyn
and her larger group stepped out of a hallway on the far end of the
building.

All twelve cats
stuttered to a stop for just a split second and then they turned and
headed back our way. The fight was on and Jaclyn's plan hadn't
survived contact with the enemy any more than I'd expected it to.
Grayson stepped out from behind me and cut loose with his power. I
felt the fringes of what he hit them with and I was incredibly
grateful that he was on our side as six of the cats went down in
writhing, hissing heaps.

Carson swore and
pushed his way past Grayson. "The six that are left are going to
be the most dangerous."

A split second
before the unaffected cats hit us, Grayson redirected his power. It
was spectacular, but it almost wasn't enough. This batch really was
the more dangerous, that or maybe Grayson was just tired from
temporarily dropping the first six. Whatever the reason, Grayson only
managed to affect three of the ones closest to us.

Jaclyn's people
caught up with the first six, who were back on their feet and
predictably unhappy, and then the three most dangerous cats hit us. I
caught a glimpse of Arnold and Jasmin engaging one, heard Carson
tackle another, and then it was my turn.

My guy was fast,
nearly as fast as Anton had been when we'd fought him with Alec's
power slowing him slightly. I saw him set his back legs and knew that
I wasn't going to be able to keep up with him so I guessed that he
was going to make a try for Grayson.

I threw myself
forward and to the right and managed to get some claws into the cat's
side as he sailed by impossibly fast. He hit the ground a few feet
short of Grayson and then spun around, tearing furiously at my arm.
He was right, I wasn't a match for him, but I didn't need to beat
him, I just needed to wrap him up for long enough that Jaclyn and the
others could make it over and take him off of my hands.

I closed my fist
with my claws still inside of him and spun him around as I picked him
up and threw him into a piece of heavy machinery. I had the leverage,
but he was still stronger and faster than me. In the last second
before he hit, he twisted around violently. It was nearly enough for
him to tear free of my grasp, but although it failed to free him, it
did manage to turn him enough that he took the impact on his legs.

He still hit hard
enough that he would have had broken legs if he'd been a wolf, but he
jumped away with my hand still lodged in his side as I heard steps
running my direction. I tried to spin him back around so that I could
see who was approaching us, but he dug all four legs in and jerked me
towards him, pulling me off balance.

It was one of
those key decision points in a fight. I needed to let go and make
sure that I wasn't about to be ambushed, but if I did that then he'd
attack Grayson. If Grayson was forced to let the three he was
neutralizing go and they were as bad as this guy then we were going
to lose people.

Instead of letting
go I dropped to my knees as I whipped my left arm around so that it
was between the footsteps behind me and my neck. It was a one in a
million effort but it worked. I felt two-hundred and seventy pounds
of jaguar get tangled up in my claws and then I was on the ground
with two angry cats tearing at me.

I tried to use my
talons to keep them away but I wasn't having much luck. The only
thing that was saving me was the fact that I had hold of each of
them. My grip started to slip on the first shape shifter, but I
forced my hand closed with every ounce of will I possessed even as I
felt his claws work their way up my arm.

He was inches from
opening up the massive arteries along my throat when he started to
convulse slightly. It wasn't the full Grayson treatment, but it was
enough for me to lever him a little further away from my neck.

A split second
later Jaclyn was there, ripping away the second cat an instant before
she hit it with a double shot of electricity. Five minutes later the
cats were all down from one or more shocks courtesy of Jaclyn, and
the first of the cages were arriving.

We were all
bloody, everyone except Grayson, but we'd managed not to lose anyone.
As Brutus threw the last of the cats into a cage, I let my hybrid
form shrink back down and hobbled over to Grayson.

"Thanks for
seizing that last one there at the end of the fight. He had me dead
to rights when you hit him."

Grayson shook his
head. "I didn't do anything. He was the most resistant cat here
and I had to choose between him and the two who were about to kill
Arnold and Carson. I figured you for a goner."

A surge of rage
exploded out from my beast, but I was even less interested than
normal in trying to control its emotions. Before I could say
something that Grayson would have to respond to, Carson was at my
shoulder gently pulling me around.

"Let's get
you out to one of the cars and get those arms looked at. We need to
make sure that they are going to heal okay."

My beast shouldn't
have allowed him to guide me out of the building, not as difficult as
it had been lately, but his manner was so calm that I found myself
unable to resist. We were all the way back to one of the SUVs before
I started worrying that my beast's lack of resistance might mean that
I'd been more seriously injured even than I'd realized.

Carson sat me on
the curb and started taping me up like he'd played nurse dozens of
times before.

"Try not to
let Grayson get to you. He's always a little odd right after he gets
done using his power like that. Don't be surprised if he apologizes
for it later on."

My beast sent out
a little pulse of anger but he seemed to be too tired to get truly
worked up at this point.

"I know what
I saw. One minute that cat was going to kill me and the next he was
jerking around like he'd been electrocuted."

Carson held up his
hands in a 'cool down' gesture. "Look I've been in a few dustups
in my day. It's not uncommon for people to come back with wildly
different versions of what happened, even experienced operators
sometimes get a little stutter in the memory department when the
adrenaline gets really flowing. I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just
saying that you were focused on your little corner and he was focused
on his corner and the important thing is that we're all going to walk
away from this particular mission."

It felt too
dismissive, but I just couldn't seem to muster up the indignation
that I should be feeling. That made me worry once again that I'd lost
too much blood, but when I looked down Carson was already putting the
finishing touches on my arms.