Moon - New Moon Part 61

"The executive summary is that she's the woman we saw through the doorway when we were fighting that monster in the bas.e.m.e.nt of the Castle. She helped us kill the d.a.m.n thing."

"I was upstairs getting Kevin and Erica free. But Megan told me all about it."

"Rinna is a shape-shifter-from a parallel universe. She can change into either a white wolf or a white hawk. And she has other powers as well. But this guy has already crippled her abilities to some extent, and I think he'll do more if has her for any length of time."

"Okay," Ross answered in a perfectly deadpan voice, and Logan appreciated that he wasn't having any trouble dealing with the strange facts. Not like the cop.

As they talked, Lance climbed out of the car and joined them. Logan clasped his shoulder. A few hours ago they had been fighting. But now he knew that his brother and his cousin were there for him.

"We need to track her," Logan continued. "And I know she was at the convenience store recently. The portal to her world is at the back of the store. From what a confused cop told me, I'm betting that the bad guy and some soldiers came through last night, and that they were using some kind of invisibility shield."

"It's kind of inconvenient if they're still using it," Ross muttered.

"Let's a.s.sume that they can't hide a large group of soldiers like that for long."

Ross nodded.

"We can leave that problem for now. We have to find Rinna. I think the bad guy started tracking her as soon as he came through."

"And he caught up with her?"

Logan clenched his hands into fist. "I think she went back to him-to keep him away from me. She used her power to plant the idea in my head that I should go for help. When I got to Lance's house I realized that she sent me away, leaving herself totally unprotected. If he's got her, they're going to be between here and my house."

"Okay."

"I was thinking that we could go as wolves to the convenience store and start in the direction of my place."

Ross nodded, then asked in a perfectly conversational voice. "And when we find the b.a.s.t.a.r.d who's got her, do we attack as wolves? Or as men?"

"Wolves. We'll change here, and I'll show you where to find the store." He started toward the woods, then stopped as he thought about the kind of danger he was getting his brother and his cousin into. "He's not alone. He's got soldiers from his private army with him. Maybe we'd better not attack until we see what we're up against."

"We'll play it by ear," Ross said. "So maybe we need to be prepared with clothing."

"I've started carrying stuff in my car," Logan said, "but I don't have any way to take clothing with me."

"I have a couple of backpacks," Ross said. "We'll put as much as we can in there. And we can wear whistles so we can communicate."

"Good idea."

"They each have a different call," Ross explained. "I'll be a dove. Lance can be a cardinal and Logan can be a blue jay."

They all spent a lot of time in the woods, so they all knew the calls.

They got the packs ready, then moved into a tangle of brambles, where they changed to wolf form.

When they were ready, they started toward the convenience store.

Logan stopped at the edge of the woods, when he saw Jake Cooper standing in front of the Easy Shopper. Lance had been right; the b.a.s.t.a.r.d hadn't wasted any time getting back there.

And apparently searching the place. The area in front of the building was roped off with familiar yellow tape. As Logan watched, two men emerged and shook their heads.

Cooper's features hardened as he stepped toward them. He turned his back on the crowd, and talked to the men, exchanging information in low voices. The men walked back to a police car. Cooper stayed where he was.

So what was he doing, looking for the portal that he'd said flat out he didn't believe existed?

Or did he think this convenience store had a tunnel in the back where drug smugglers were coming in from the next county?

Yeah, that was probably it! Logan gave a bark of a laugh. And the drug smugglers had sprayed the area with a hallucinogen, so Cooper thought they were invisible. That would work as a rationalization. Logan was sorry he hadn't suggested it to the detective instead of that wild story about alternate universes.

A crowd of people, including the clerk who had ratted him out, were standing in back of the yellow tape, staring at the store.

Cooper folded his arms across his chest and stared at the building.

As Logan watched the scene, he knew something was wrong. Something he wouldn't have been able to articulate even if he'd been in human form. He felt a thickening in the air, a building pressure that he didn't understand. But on a subliminal level, he knew something bad was about to happen.

Beside him Ross growled. Lance pawed the ground, and he knew that they felt it, too.

He looked from one of them to the other, then dashed out of the woods. Skirting the crowd, he ran toward the detective, who glanced up in astonishment as he saw a wolf-or maybe a German shepherd heading straight toward him. A wolf wearing a backpack.

Logan made a yipping sound.

As Cooper stared at him, he grabbed the man's sleeve, tugging at him, tugging him away from the building.

Come on. Come on, he silently shouted. But the words stayed locked in his throat.

Someone in the crowd gasped. Then more gasps and screams erupted as two other wolves joined the scene. One of them got behind Cooper and pushed. The other one grabbed his free arm and tried to move him away from the building.

Logan felt as though time had slowed down. Each second was like the frame of a movie held in suspended animation on the screen.

Somewhere in the neighborhood, he heard a dog howl, then another.

"Get the dogs off him," someone shouted.

"Those are G.o.dd.a.m.ned wolves," another voice called out.

Some people backed away. Others moved in closer for a better look.

"Turn me loose. What the h.e.l.l are you doing?" Cooper shouted, trying to wrench himself free.

Luckily Ross had his right arm, because that kept him from going for the sidearm in his shoulder holster.

A man left the scene and ran toward his truck, and Logan hoped to h.e.l.l he wasn't coming back with a gun. Would he be stupid enough to shoot into the middle of a crowd if he got to his weapon?

Every self-protective instinct urged Logan to turn and run. From Cooper. From the crowd. But he knew he couldn't abandon the detective, even if he didn't understand exactly what was wrong.

He found out in the next second as an enormous clap of thunder split the air.

Screams erupted from the onlookers, as the building exploded, sending a shower of debris into the sky, which rained down around the crater where the store had been.