Moon - New Moon Part 72

"Hurry," she gasped. "Hurry through."

The soldiers were more than ready. Like a panicked horde, most of them made a mad scramble to leave this world and go back where they belonged. She watched them fighting each other in their haste to get through the doorway before it closed. A few held back, and she knew some would rather take their chances here than with the Iron Man of Sun Acres. Some rushed for the bas.e.m.e.nt, and she silently wished them good luck.

As she watched, the majority ran headlong into the trees. When the doorway was clear, Avery and Brusco followed.

Brusco disappeared quickly. But when Avery had gained the other side of the doorway, he turned and stared at her, his face suddenly contorting.

"No!" he shouted. He tried to run back to her side of the barrier. But his body jerked, and he grabbed his throat as he sank to his knees.

Falcone stared through the doorway. "What in Carfolian h.e.l.l have you done?" he screamed at her.

"Nothing. It must have been too much for him. Go. Get out of here."

"Not without you," he growled. "You're coming with me where I can deal with you the way I should have in the first place."

When he reached for her, she pulled out the gun that she had concealed in the cus.h.i.+on beside her. "Get away from me. Or I'll shoot you with this thing."

He stopped short, staring at the weapon. "You wouldn't dare!"

"Yes, I would. Get back."

He must have decided she didn't have the guts, because he kept advancing on her, and she squeezed the trigger the way Logan had showed her. But nothing happened.

GREAT Mother, something was wrong. Logan had told her all the things she needed to know to make the gun shoot, but the weapon wasn't firing. Then she remembered-only the Glock worked with the safety inside the trigger guard.

As she frantically looked down at the weapon, Falcone pulled out his own gun.

Before he could fire, a tremendous booming sound shook the house. It took a moment to realize it was outside the building.

"What the h.e.l.l?"

As Falcone focused on her again, a gray form leaped from the darkness and collided with him.

A wolf! Logan.

The gun went off, sending a bullet into the wall.

Falcone screamed and tried to point the gun at the wolf, but two more animals leaped from the shadows. One grabbed his hand, biting down until he dropped the weapon. The other knocked him to his knees.

Falcone screamed again, kicking and clawing at the wolves, fighting them with what looked like more than human strength.

The air on the other side of the portal stirred, and something drifted toward Rinna, tugging at her. She got up and tried to stumble toward the opening, compelled by a terrible force that clawed at her mind.

It wasn't pulling her into her own world. She had lied to Falcone. She had never intended to open a portal to safety. Instead she had found the world of the Suckers. And the mind vampires were trying to drag her and Falcone through. To join the others who had rushed to their destruction.

She'd thought she could get out of the room before they attacked her. But Falcone had kept her close to the portal.

She stared at the doorway. It couldn't stay open for long because she only had enough power to gain a temporary opening. Now the Suckers were making a desperate attempt to grab the remainder of their prey before the doorway closed.

Hurry. Come to us. Before it's too late.

She forgot any plans she'd made about getting away. The seductive call of the Suckers offered her everything she had ever wanted in her life. But as she took a shaky step forward, the wolf she recognized as Logan leaped up and blocked her way. Snapping and snarling at her, he caught her attention, pulling it away from the creatures beyond the portal.

"No!" Didn't he understand? No, maybe he didn't, because she dimly remembered that the Suckers hadn't affected the werewolves' minds the way they affected someone in human form.

Falcone obviously felt the same tug she did. He picked himself up and staggered toward the portal. He was halfway through the opening when one of the wolves grabbed him by his jacket and pulled him back into the room, throwing him onto the floor.

Lance kept her from reaching the opening, moving her steadily back as he snapped and snarled. He pushed her across the room, holding her down as the portal begin to close.

"Nooooo," Falcone shrieked. While she watched in horrible fascination he threw off the wolf and lunged for the disappearing doorway. But it was too late. The opening had shrunk to the size of a port hole.

As it snapped closed, Falcone grabbed his head, crying in agony. He sank to the floor, shrieking as though someone had stabbed him in the heart, and she knew a Sucker had sunk its claws into his mind. The abrupt snapping off of the connection had zapped his brain. Lance had kept her from suffering the same fate.

The door between the worlds had disappeared, leaving the five of them still in the room-the three wolves, her and Falcone.

Lance let her up, and she sprawled on the rug, panting, relieved that the terrible pull on her mind had vanished. Now if only the blinding headache would go away.

The wolves looked at each other. Logan gave some sort of signal, and the other animals ran for the hall. She heard them on the stairs going down to the bas.e.m.e.nt, and she realized they must have come in the back way under cover of darkness and the explosion outside.

Unable to move, she lay against the soft carpet her head feeling like it might split open. Logan nudged her with his muzzle and licked her cheek.

She raised her hand, stroking his fur. "Thank you," she murmured.

He made a sound low in his throat, then began to tug at the pants she wore as though he were trying to tug them off.

He couldn't talk. Yet he must be sending her an urgent message because an idea formed in her mind. She must change from woman to wolf or bird. Change and get out of there before the police came in.

She brought the room into focus, then looked at Falcone lying on the floor, curled up like a child on his side. His thumb was in his mouth and he was sucking it.

The wolf nudged at her again, and she started pulling her clothes off.

When she was naked, Logan s.n.a.t.c.hed up her s.h.i.+rt and pants in his muzzle.

Somehow, around the throbbing in her head, she imagined herself in wolf form. At first nothing happened, and panic grabbed her by the throat. But she struggled to keep her concentration, and her body flowed into the familiar pattern.

She came down on all fours, then followed Logan into the hall, downstairs, and out the back door-into the darkness of the woods.

The wolves streaked through the overgrown backyard and through the woods to a place where land had been cleared but no houses built.

Rinna ran to the other side of Logan's car, changing form where the men couldn't see her.

Then Logan was beside her, taking her in his arms, holding her tight. And she clung to him with a gladness that threatened to burst her heart.

"You did it," he whispered. "Thank G.o.d, you did it."

"I... I sent them to the world of the Suckers. Then the creatures tried to drag me through."

"Yeah. I figured all that out."