Invisible Recruit: Invisible Power Part 34

Vaverek shook his mangy head, s...o...b..r raining every direction. The Weres were shooting closer.

Recedo nunc.

He s.h.i.+fts, he changes, he blends The Werebison lowered his ma.s.sive head and shoulders. Another ten feet and the Weres would beat him to me.

Defluo modo I change as he, to fit my need.

Hooves to ground he started pounding. A ma.s.s of muscle, speed and menace tearing toward me. I licked my lips and sucked in a deep breath to say the last lines, holding one hand out as if it'd stop the Weres almost on top of me.

Recedo iam My corporeal self you can not see.

I thee will it, so mote it be!

Magic washed against me, staggering me back hard enough I stumbled and fell, landing on my backside.

Thank whoever watched out for fools and inept witches, my less-than-graceful tumble meant the Weres raced right past where I'd been.

The d.a.m.n Invisibility spell worked.

I was so busy giving myself a mental yippie-kayee I almost forgot about the one-ton monster barreling down on me.

Almost.

With a choking cry I rolled away from Vaverek's hooves, so close I could feel the clods of earth pelting me as he chewed past.

Too near.

But we weren't done fighting yet.

I looked over to where Bran stood, hands stretched toward Van, freezing my brother and the two handlers with him. Good.

Jaylene, Mandy and Vaughn were not having as easy a time of it as they danced in and out of a pack of Weres attacking them. The Weres had not morphed, probably because they'd be too visible to any Council members looking out from within the building. A quick glance in that direction and I could see shadows at the second floor window.

Yup, my hunch was right. Van's drugged state was to look like a s.h.i.+fter run amuk and attacking humans. Which made it necessary that the Weres didn't reveal themselves. Except Vaverek already had. How was the Council going to ignore a raging bison?

Their problem. Mine was still stopping him. Now. He might no longer see me but that didn't mean he wasn't still lethal as h.e.l.l and looking for a new target.

Which meant Bran and my brother, or my team.

I ignored my body screaming in protest as I lurched to my feet. That's when I noticed the bullet of black-banded fur race past me.

"Dad?" The cry escaped me before I realized he couldn't see me.

The wolf paused a heartbeat, shook his head then continued to bullet toward Vaverek. Of course, wolves used to be one of the few threats against bison, but that had been when wolves hunted in packs and they attacked a young calf or ill animal for food.

Dad had already reached Vaverek, launching himself to latch onto the bison's nostrils. s.h.i.+fter wolves were larger than their pure wolf brethren, which meant Dad was a good two hundred pounds of snarling, ferocious killing machine, using his forty-two teeth to exert over two thousand pounds of pressure to tear into Vaverek.

Made me want to be a s.h.i.+fter myself just so I could have done the same.

But right now I needed to get to my team.

Staggering across the gra.s.s I was glad I was still invisible. That way I wouldn't have to live it down that I basically limped into the fray. But I was there and I'd do what I could.

Thank Stone for teaching me enough Krav Maga. A key thrust here, sideways kick there, and a few sweeps of my invisible legs to an attacking Were here and there. It didn't take long for them to start turning on one another.

Punch. Smack. Kick, Thrust.

I felt the reverberations up every bone of my body but at least they weren't getting powerful return hits on me. Weres at the best of times are a wary lot, fighting something they couldn't see just messed with their Were-sized brains.

With a jerk of his thick neck one Were, who must have been the most Alpha one fighting, growled, "Retreat."

Yes!

Not one of the other Weres hesitated. And it couldn't have happened a minute sooner. Vaughn was curled on the ground but alive. Jaylene and Mandy were leaning against one another, blood streaming from one's nose, the other cradling her still healing arm.

My hard-pressed team a.s.sumed Kelly had been at work since she wasn't visible anywhere. Which made me wonder where she'd disappeared to.

I didn't have time to say anything as I heard the sharp crack of a rifle shot.

As if in slow motion I pivoted and watched Bran as his arms were flung out before him. Then he toppled forward, red blooming along his side.

I was running before I realized it, racing to his side, pressing my hand to staunch his blood flow, to make sure he was still alive.

He was. Barely. But his eyes were open, his lips moving. I leaned forward, rea.s.suring him, "Don't worry. I'll get you out of here."

I didn't know how. But I'd do it.

He shook his head. Even here he didn't trust me. Then I made out the word he kept repeating over and over. "Van."

Too late I looked up to see my brother less than five feet away, his wolf lips pulled back in a silent snarl, his fur bristling, his body crouched and ready to attack.

CHAPTER 68.

I raised my hands before me, using my voice to try and reach my brother's human part, if he had any left. "It's me, Van. Alex. I won't hurt you."

He maintained his crouch, his yellow eyes narrowed, focusing. Good news; he hadn't immediately attacked. Maybe I could connect with him.

"I want to help you. Protect you from the people who did this to you."

The same people I'd seen scampering off the second Bran's containment spell broke. One of them, the doctor who'd been with Philippe Cheverill the night he'd died, paused long enough to shake his head before he disappeared through the shrubbery toward the parking lot.

Cowards the lot of them.

Behind me I could hear my father still attacking Vaverek. Another sound reached me. A barking dog.

Francois? Finally. If I ever got out of here Fido and I were going to have a few words and not of the hey-how're-you-doing kind.

But right now I had to keep my brother from going ballistic.

"It's me Van," I repeated, my voice not betraying the terror racing through me. Bran needed help. Now. "We can all walk away if you just go easy, Van."

Usually not a problem, of my brothers, Van was the calmest, the most controlled in wolf form or human. But I couldn't see an ounce of humanity in the raging-yellow eyes staring at me.

Not at me. At my bloodied hands in front of me. Talk about stupid with a capital S. The invisibility spell had held, except for where my hands had touched Bran's blood. So here I was, speaking in the voice of his sister but not looking like her, holding bloodied hands in front of a rabid wolf as if I were a hunk of raw meat.

I had to turn visible.

Now.

My lips were so dry I croaked as I started the reversal chant.

Animadverto, percipio, specto.

See and be seen. I thee seek.

As I was, so make me be.

Intellego aspicio sentio.

The magic flowed around me, strong enough to fluff the hair along Van's back and there I was, hands beneath the blood, arms attached to the hands, attached to me.

At last, something went right.

Until I realized popping back into visibility solved one problem only to create another. A more lethal one.

I'd surprised Van and the last thing you wanted to do to an angry wolf was startle it.

He made no sound as he sprang forward, all hundred and ninety pounds of him slamming me to the ground, his teeth piercing my shoulder.

CHAPTER 69.

Bran rolled to his good side, sucking in a deep breath as the pain from near his ribs spiraled through him. But he had to do something.

A voice shouted. He had to move.

Bracing one hand against the ground, the sounds whirling around him became more distinct as clarity returned to his sight.

But what . . .

Alex was tumbling across the gra.s.s not far from him, her arms locked around the throat of a wolf, its muzzle covered in blood.

If he cast another containment spell now he'd freeze both together in a death struggle. If he didn't act, she'd die.

A bellows nearby echoed across the lawn. Van paused in his attack, both Noziak siblings glancing in the direction of the cry.

Bran didn't have to twist to see a large dark-haired wolf rip into the side of Vaverek, savaging the bison, pulling entrails until the large animal's legs gave out and it shuddered to the ground.

Alex used her brother's distraction and thrust her knees to her chest, wedging her feet against the belly of the wolf and catapulting him toward Bran.

Brilliant.

Before Bran could rise to his feet he stretched one hand toward Van and uttered the chant, feeling the magic pull from within him, channel down his arms and through his fingers.

The wolf froze in mid-leap. Alex curled into a fetal position and Bran sank to the ground, crawling toward Van.

If he could save Van he'd save Alex.

Using elbows and knees he pulled himself until he was almost on top of the wolf, who lashed out at him.

Too weak to hold the spell solid, he had given Van just enough juice to lunge toward him. Now Bran was the one fighting for his life, rolling over and over through the gra.s.s and gravel.

CHAPTER 70.

I sank to the dirt, burning pain ripping through my shoulder where Van had savaged me. Blood streamed from between my fingers, the ones I pressed to stop the flow.

Useless. As useless as trying to save him in the first place. The beast that attacked me was not my brother. Not even human.

Screams and shouts echoed around me. My back was against the crushed gravel of a walkway, the soft blue of a French sky overhead. I could lose myself in that sky, let it waft me away on one of those big puffy clouds.

That's when I noticed the contrails intersecting the expanse. The form of a cross. Well I'll be d.a.m.ned, Jaylene had been right. Beware the sign of the cross.

If it didn't take so much energy I'd have laughed.

But it hurt too much. Way too much. It was easier to just lie there. Feel my life seep away, my breathing become shallow, my heartbeat slowing.

Fight. Don't give in.

The voice slashed against me. I ignored it.

In a minute I'd move . . . figure out what to do, help the others.