Part 72 (2/2)

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.”

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