Wolf Tales 11 (26 page)

The stage was littered with guitars and other musical paraphernalia left when the band had scattered at the first sound of trouble. Thank goodness Keisha and the president had escaped under cover of darkness. If there was anyone else after the man, they’d have a hard time finding him now.

AJ spun around when he heard Luc growl. One of the security guys was trying to check on Anton, who still lay
unconscious in front of the stage. “Excuse me.” AJ shoved through the crowd and went to Anton’s side. He tapped the guard’s shoulder. “Thanks for checking on him. He’s one of ours. I’ll take care of him.”

The man nodded and returned to the others. Anton’s eyes slowly opened, but he was obviously confused.

“Hey, boss. How are you?”

Anton blinked and stared at AJ. Then he slowly shook his head. “I don’t know.” He tried to sit up. AJ slipped an arm behind his back and helped him until he was able to lean against the stage. “Where’s Keisha? Is she okay?” Slowly he shook his head. “I can’t hear her voice. Can’t hear any voices. Nothing. No links, no connections.”

AJ squeezed his shoulder. “I think you might have fried a brain cell or two. I know you fried a few of mine. Beth said you shut down the entire city. It’s just now beginning to come back up, but the president is safe. I stopped the bastard you told me to go after. Beth was right—he was armed and he got off a couple of shots. Keisha got nicked but she’s okay. Lisa and Tala are safe. The babies are safe.”

Anton’s hand came up at the sound of Keisha’s name. AJ grabbed it and held on. “She’s fine,” he said. “Bullet grazed her shoulder, but Logan will be with her shortly. By the time you see her, she’ll be healed and probably madder than hell at you for scaring her like this.”

Anton nodded and leaned his head against the wall. He closed his eyes, obviously still rattled from the huge burst of energy he’d handled.

“Stay with him Luc, okay?”

The black wolf dipped his head as AJ returned to the small group of men holding the assailant. This all felt so strange, for him to be taking charge, but Luc was in wolf form and obviously couldn’t do his usual job, Anton was out of the picture for now, and that left AJ. He usually hung back, let others take over. He glanced around, hoping
like hell he didn’t screw up, but no one had planned for Anton being out of commission. It looked like he was their only choice.

Other security people arrived. They held the crowds back and kept the media entirely out of the area. Worried, AJ glanced at Anton. He appeared to have passed out again. The man would hate for anyone to see him this way, but AJ couldn’t leave. Not yet. At least Luc was sticking close, guarding him from curious eyes as best he could. AJ grinned. Luc was a very large wolf. Anton was barely visible behind the huge beast.

AJ dealt with security as quickly as he could and set up a time to meet with the one leading the investigation. They’d go over everything tomorrow. By then he hoped Anton would have some way to explain the power outage, because AJ didn’t have a clue how they were going to deal with that.

It appeared they’d been successful, though little had gone as planned. He still had a dull ache in his head from Anton’s power surge. He hated to think what the wizard must be feeling right now. Damn. How long was all this going to take?

He needed to connect with the rest of his team and see what, exactly, had happened.

Then he really needed to connect with Tala.

Mik’s terse message, that she was fine and they’d caught the three men holding the women, was a huge relief, but it wasn’t enough.

Not nearly enough.

AJ stretched out in the big bed, tucked Tala against his chest, and hugged her close. Then he reached across her waist and rested his hand on Mik’s hip. It felt right, the way it was supposed to when they went to bed at night. He needed this sense of unity, of the three of them together, more than ever. He’d begun to wonder if they’d ever get home, but after what felt like hours of questioning, the feds had finally turned them loose to return to the renovated old mansion where all of them lived in the Sunset District.

This late in Tala’s pregnancy, there was no talk of sex, though he and Mik often made love before falling asleep. Not tonight. Tonight all he and Mik wanted to do was hold Tala close and revel in the fact she was safe.

Igmutaka, glorious in his puma form, slept on the floor at the foot of their bed. He’d insisted on remaining close to Tala’s daughter, but not as a man. He chose to guard her in the form where he felt strongest, and the big cat had remained an unobtrusive shadow once they’d gotten home.

Tinker and Lisa were just down the hall. Poor Tink had been a wreck until he finally held Lisa in his arms. AJ knew exactly how the big guy felt. Even after Mik had assured him that Tala was safe, he’d needed to see for himself.
Then he’d insisted Logan check her to make sure she was really okay. Even Mik had teased him about that, but Mik had been with Tala for hours before AJ finally got to see for himself she hadn’t been harmed.

He never, ever wanted to go through anything like tonight again. Not as long as they lived. He honestly didn’t think his heart could take it. He still wasn’t sure how well his mind had come through everything. His head still ached and he sensed weird echoes of the thoughts of others. Not enough to really disturb him, but something was different, and had been since he’d linked with Anton.

He wondered how Anton was doing. He still hadn’t had a chance to talk with him. Logan and Jazzy had stayed at Tia and Luc’s where Logan could keep an eye on the wizard. He’d been unconscious when Tinker picked him up out of the SUV and carried him like a child into the guest room. Keisha had been so calm that AJ worried about her, but she said she knew Anton would be fine, and then she sent them all on their way.

Keisha would know, wouldn’t she? He took a deep breath, pulling in the scents of Tala and Mik. They were both so damned precious to him. If anything had gone wrong …

Tala pressed her face against his chest and practically burrowed into him, clinging as tightly as her huge belly would allow. Mik was curled around her back, his forehead touching AJ’s.

“Guys?” There was a definite quiver to her voice.

“What’s wrong, sweetie? Are we crowding you?” One of the babies kicked hard enough that AJ felt the pressure against his belly. An unexpected surge of emotion closed his throat and his eyes burned. They’d come so close today. So damned close. He ran his fingertips along the firm swell of her hip, then rested his fingers on Mik’s waist. Damn, he’d been so afraid for her today.

She laughed, but it sounded like the beginning of a sob.
“Never. But today, when I thought about the chance I might never get to do this again, I realized how much I love you both.”

Mik’s arm went over Tala and he grabbed AJ close, squeezing them tightly together. “Don’t even go there, baby. You’re safe, the president is safe, and they caught the ones who planned this. You and Lisa were so damned brave today. I don’t know any other women who would have taken risks like you girls did.”

Tala sniffed.

AJ kissed the top of her head. “And if you ever scare either of us again like you did today, I swear we’ll both paddle your butt.”

She giggled, hiccupped, and sniffed. Then she yawned. “You’ll have to wait until tomorrow. I’m really sleepy.”

AJ chuckled. “Works for me.”

Mik merely grunted. It was the last sound AJ heard as he drifted slowly off to sleep.

Anton felt as if he might be floating, but his head wouldn’t stop pounding and there was a strange sense in the back of his battered mind, that maybe things hadn’t quite gone as planned. He needed sleep to heal, but he couldn’t relax. Not until he knew for sure that Keisha was all right.

What did AJ say? She’d been shot? No. That couldn’t be. He would have known it. Their link was so powerful, so complete, he would have sensed her pain. Would have known if she was injured.

Wouldn’t he? Then why couldn’t he sense her now? He’d tried searching, but there was nothing. No sense of Keisha. No background noise of the other packmates who so often inhabited his mind. No, all was quiet. Calm, and very, very quiet.

“Anton? Ah, my love. What have you done this time?”

He blinked. The room was dark, but he wasn’t in the
auditorium anymore. Strange. He didn’t remember coming home, but… He wasn’t home. He was in the guest room at Luc and Tia’s house. “Keisha?” He tried to lift his hand, to touch her face, but it wouldn’t move. It was much too heavy to lift.

Something warm, wet, touched his cheek. He frowned. Tears? “Why are you crying?” He reached for her mind. Nothing. “Why are you blocking me?”

She shook her head, sobbing openly now. The tears fell faster. “I’m not. I’m not blocking you. I’m wide open. I’ve been calling to you since I got back to the hotel with the president, but you weren’t there. You weren’t in my thoughts where you belong. I thought you were dead. I still can’t feel you.” Her palm swept along the side of his face. He turned and kissed her, nuzzling into her warmth, reveling in the fact she was here and alive and apparently unharmed.

“AJ said you were hurt?”

She nodded. “Just a graze across my shoulder.” She laughed, but once again the sound ended on a sob.

“Keisha?”

Smiling, sniffing, she wiped her streaming eyes and then she kissed him. “I ruined the First Lady’s dress. Hard for her to explain a bullet hole in the shoulder, and the bloodstains probably won’t come out. She was very understanding.”

“I certainly hope so.” Incensed, he tried to sit up. Nothing. “What’s wrong with me? I have nothing. No energy, nothing. My mind feels …” He blinked, trying to remember something terribly important. “AJ? He’s okay?”

“He is. He caught the guy before he could get off a clear shot. The one that grazed my shoulder was meant for the president. AJ saved both our lives.”

Anton blinked, remembering. “He saved mine, as well.”

“How?”

“I called the energy to me. Too much.” He tried to smile,
but it was halfhearted at best. “Once again I let my ego get in the way of common sense.”

“You?” Keisha pressed her hand to her heart in a melodramatic gesture. “Never!”

“Cut it out.” This time he knew his smile worked just fine, because his beloved mate returned it. “Our Chanku have no concept of their own strength. They not only created their own sexual energy, they somehow made it work through my link with them. All of them feeding off each other, making the energy grow exponentially. When I called it, I got more than I expected.”

“So that’s how you managed to shut down the entire city of San Francisco? I wondered about that.”

The whole city? Now, that was something he’d need to think about. He had no idea he’d drawn that much power, no idea he could wield that kind of strength.

Because normally, he couldn’t. It should have killed him. Might have, but AJ …

Keisha was nodding. “Yep. Streetlights, cell phones, land lines. Everything went dead for at least a couple of minutes. The nightly news is still trying to come up with a reason for the massive power failure. It’s unprecedented to have everything fail. Even generators. Luckily, within about a minute, emergency procedures were able to override the failures around the city and no deaths have been attributed to the loss of power, but no one can explain it. It’s making people crazy.”

“I guess we’ll just have to let them wonder. Is AJ here? I need to thank him. To ask him how he knew to save me.”

“I don’t understand. You told him to stop the shooter. How else would he know the guy had a gun?”

In spite of the tremendous pain, Anton shook his head. “No. Not that. When I called the power, AJ linked with me. How did he know I needed him? If he hadn’t linked, hadn’t been there to buffer the energy, I think it would have killed me.”

Keisha sat back. Shook her head. “I don’t know. He’s in the other room, with Tala and Mik. They got here a while ago from their place over in the Sunset.”

Anton squeezed her hand. “Call him, please? I would, but I can’t seem to send or receive.”

“I know.” Her eyes sparkled, amber glowing through unshed tears. “I can’t feel you at all, my love. It’s as if you’re lost to me.” She leaned close and kissed him. “I want you back.”

Then she left the room. Anton lay back against the pillows and once again tried to reconstruct the night he’d almost lost.

AJ kissed Tala and left her snuggling with Mik on the couch. It was hard to walk away and leave her, even though he knew everything was fine and she was in great shape this morning, but he couldn’t help looking back as he followed Keisha to Anton’s room. There was so damned much to do, when all he really wanted was to go back to their apartment, crawl back into bed with Mik and Tala, and hold both of them close.

Instead, he needed to spend a little time with Anton, and then he had to head over to the Fairmont. There was a meeting planned with the president and his regular security forces, as well as members of the local law enforcement agencies that had been involved in last night’s attempted assassination.

The media was all over the story, but so far everything they reported was mere speculation. No one was saying anything specific, not until they cleared details with AJ and Luc. Thank goodness Luc was planning to go as the head of Pack Dynamics—though he couldn’t offer any information. The fact he’d been there as a wolf was known only to the president and his wife.

AJ checked the time and hoped Anton wouldn’t want him for long. He had to get moving. Beth and Nick were
already at the Fairmont, but they’d stayed the night in the presidential suite.

No one was getting near the First Couple. Not with the two of them on watch.

Keisha stopped him at the doorway. “He’s fallen asleep. My gut feeling is to let him rest for now. Why don’t you come back after your meeting, when you’re not as rushed?”

He leaned close and kissed her. “Perfect. I really do need to get over there.”

Keisha stopped him with a light touch to his hand. “Thank you, AJ.”

He frowned. “For what?”

“Anton says you saved his life. That if you hadn’t linked with him at the moment he called the power, it would have killed him. He wasn’t expecting such a huge burst of energy. He said you buffered it and that gave him the chance to work it.”