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Feel what? Kougar asked in reply
It sounds like we’re getting close to a power station
I don’t hear it, Kougar said He and Lyon hadn’t heard the voices, either
With aEstevan’s trail through the ht path this tio, they’d come upon a lake they hadn’t seen before on their perpetual loop around the htly hopeful they’d finally penetrated the mountain’s mischief
But that hope did little to lift their spirits Several hours ago, Ariana had felt one of herand Fox Assuroup had coar to them, but she’d been unable to find any of thee of tension, worried their friends were no longer alive The only thing that kept hope fro was the fact that Ariana was certain Melisande still lived even though she could neither find her nor communicate with her If she was lost, but alive, so, too, they reasoned, were Jag, Fox, and Olivia
All they could do was keep going
It was h in a sky dotted ispy clouds, the day warh Wulfe had spent the entirein his fur The as the best tracker of them all If anyone could follow Estevan’s scent, it should be hi with them
I sense one of mine
Shit The voices were back
That’s not possible The Ferals killed them all
Not one of those This is different Blood calls to blood
The voices faded away, the sa Wulfe more perplexed than ever And far more disturbed Who had the Ferals killed? And they’d killed them all? What did that mean? They certainly hadn’t killed all the evil Ferals Perhaps all those with true evil inside? But they’d only killed two of them If he’dbarked in the distance, a fa down from the rise above A bark the Feralstelepathically wasn’t necessary, or possible
Relief swept through Wulfe as he followed the direction of the sound to find Jag and Olivia starting down the slope
Where’s Fox? Lyon de replied I’ll tell you oddess
All three Ferals shifted into hu and Olivia joined theainst his side
"What happened?" Lyon sounded alh Wulfe knew that was an illusion The Chief of the Ferals was practically shaking with the need to continue forward, to snatch Kara out of the ene told them "The two Ilinas burst into flame on contact Fox body-slammed the blond bitchI mean Melisandeand somehow took the fire for himself Phylicia’s dead I’, but I felt her death the ht?"
"Fox is hurting, but he’s okay Melisande is injured, I think She’s ey like a nuclear reactor, and she can’tjust fine" He pulled Olivia against hi to frickin’-ass find you for hours, to warn you to get your Ilinas off this ar squeezed Ariana’s shoulder, then released her "Go"
"Take Olivia," Jag said
Both feh, scowled at theirhauled her around to look at hi powerful, you’ve seen that We can usually get through warding in our anio up in fla your lives" He turned to Ariana "Find Hawke and Falcon and let the on Have them continue to patrol the periphery, but stay off the et word to Feral House if they think backup will do us any good"
Jag kissed his frustrated mate, and she kissed him back after only a ar kissed Ariana She pressed her hand to his cheek, then handed him the backpack with Wulfe’s and Lyon’s clothes A moment later, the two Ilinas and Olivia disappeared in mist
The four Ferals shifted back into their aniht of worry lifted a little bit, knowing Fox and Jag were fine But Kara was still in the hands of the eneone Deeper into the mountain’s sorcery?
Less than a asp as he stared at the sight below In the valley, hung a curtain of shi and flaring as if the door behind it had been left open on a windy day
To his surprise, his three companions continued forithout comment A chill ran down his spine
Don’t you see that? he asked all three at once
See what? Jag replied
Daed his skin,steadily stronger
The cougar gave him a quizzical look What exactly do you see?
And suddenly he knew The warding The curtain stretched as far as the eye could follow in either direction, curving back on the ends as if enclosing the
Why in the hell was he the only one who could see it? Why was he the only one hearing the voices? He didn’t like it, not at all Then again, it was probably a good thing soht of the warding, he started forward, leading the way down the hillside The buzzing grew ot, until he was less than a body length away
Where is it, Lyon deht in front of us
Lyon leaped through it with a single bound Kougar and Jag followed, Wulfe bringing up the rear But beyond the first warding curtain, he saw another not a dozen feet away
There’s another one, he told his friends And, like before, they leaped through it, one after the other, Lyon leading the way
What the fuck? Jag exclaimed
Wulfe understood a inia any more Instead, they stood on a cobblestone path between two high stone walls A short distance ahead, an opening in the wall offered a choice
Kougar and Lyon shifted into ar alone was able to carry through the shifts