Angela Knight - Over The Moon

This story is dedicated to

my wonderful critique partner, Diane Whiteside,

who went above and beyond the call of duty to help me

turn it into something readable.

Thanks, babe.

Rain dripped from Sergeant Lucas Rollings's uniform hat and rolled down his neck in a constant, cold stream. His feet were slowly going numb inside his uniform shoes, which squelched unpleasantly with every step across the sodden leaves. Even his bulletproof vest was wet, and the gun felt slippery in his hand. He ignored the discomfort.

Any chance they'd find the little girl was worth it.

"The dogs have lost the scent in this rain." Beside him, Ray Johnston grimly watched his two big German shepherds work a spiraling pattern through the trees. Though pushing sixty and barely five-foot-seven, Ray was wiry and tough. His angular face looked years younger than it actually was under his thatch of thick, black hair, and his eyes were a piercing Paul Newman blue. "Wish it could have held off." He shot Lucas a look. "You know, you don't have to chase this hunch with me. Everybody seems pretty sure Myer has the girl."

Somebody had called in a tip to 911, saying they thought their pedophile next door neighbor had dragged a four-year-old who matched Jennifer Rosemond's description into his house. The SWAT team went to investigate, and he'd fired on them. Now damn near every cop in Harrisville was parked outside his house while a hostage negotiator tried to talk Jerry Myer into giving up.

"Yeah, but what if he doesn't really have the kid? What if the neighbor called in a false tip because he just wanted to get rid of the bastard?" Lucas, for some reason, had the nagging feeling that was just what happened. And his nagging feelings had an ugly habit of being right. "If you stumble on the kidnapper by yourself, he'll blow your ass away. And the kid would be toast."

Frustration flashed across Ray's face. "I'm tougher than you think."

Lucas eyed him. Why the hell does he want me gone ? It was a troubling idea. Ray was a damn good police K-9 trainer, but he was also a civilian, which is why Lucas had been assigned to ride herd on him. Was he dreaming of a little vigilante justice?

Not that Lucas wouldn't mind beating the shit out of their target himself.

Three hours ago, four-year-old Jennifer had been out playing in the back yard while her mother read on the screened-in porch. Apparently, the dark screen had kept the kidnapper from realizing Tammy Rosemond was there. He'd emerged from the woods behind the house and snatched the little girl right off her swing set.

Tammy screamed and charged out to rescue her daughter. The man had drawn a gun and fired at her. Luckily he'd missed, but as the woman ducked for cover, he'd carried the child into the woods.

Tammy had run to the phone and called 911. Soon afterward, every cop in Harrisville County roared onto the scene, sirens screaming. Lucas, though a city cop and technically out of his jurisdiction, had been one of them. In a case like this, everybody pitched in.

They'd just gone into the second hour of the search when their helpful tipster had called. Now it was getting dark, and everybody but Lucas and Ray was off on what might be a wild-goose chase.

And if it was, the bastard would get away. Unless Ray and Lucas found him.

"Bothers me that this guy snatched the kid in the middle of the afternoon with all those neighbors around," Lucas murmured to the handler as they walked along behind the dogs, scanning the trees for any sign of the kidnapper. "He's not just a pedophile, he's nuts." Thinking about what he might be doing to the child even now made Lucas's belly twist into a sick knot.

"Yeah, I—"

Lucas threw up a hand for silence as a pile of brush suddenly drew his attention. Something about the way the limbs lay around the fallen tree trunk struck him as subtly unnatural. It looked like somebody had stacked them…

The wind shifted. Both dogs began to bark as if they'd suddenly caught a scent as they charged toward the brush pile.

"Ray, shut those dogs up," Lucas snapped. The last thing they needed was to spook an armed man into killing his hostage.

Ray whistled sharply. The dogs instantly went quiet, except for soft whines of excitement. They really were well-trained.

Pointing his nine-millimeter Glock at the pile, Lucas moved toward it. "Come out with your hands—"

A gun barrel thrust through the branches. In the split second that followed, Lucas realized he didn't dare fire into the brush—he'd hit the kid. He dove for the ground to the thunderous boom of a .45, then scrambled aside as the shooter fired again. One of the dogs yelped in agony, and the other howled.

Brush flew as the kidnapper leaped to his feet, jamming the muzzle of his gun under the jaw of the little girl he held in front of him. The child hung limp, head lolling. "Get the hell back, or I'll shoot!"

Lucas leveled his gun, rage boiling through him. "Looks like she's already dead, you son of a bitch!"

"She's just out!" He hauled the child higher until her shoulders blocked the head shot Lucas was contemplating. "Just gave her a little chloroform, that's all. Don't mean to kill her."

"Yeah, right, asshole." Lucas lowered his gun and pointed it at the guy's crotch, just below Jennifer's dangling sneakers. "Maybe I ought to make sure the world's little girls have nothing to worry about."

"And there'll be one less little girl in the world, because I'll—"

Ray's remaining dog suddenly began to bark in a furious salvo, advancing on the thug with stiff-legged menace. The kidnapper backed away, hastily jamming the gun tighter against Jennifer's jaw. "Call off that dog! Now!"

Oh, shit . A movement behind the thug caught Lucas's eye. Ray was circling around behind the kidnapper, using the distraction provided by his dog. His gaze was intent, murderous.

Lucas fought to keep the reaction off his face, though his gut clenched. Ray was three inches shorter than the guy, and he wasn't armed. Somebody was about to get killed—and it was way too likely to be Jennifer.

Lucas jerked his gun skyward and lifted his free handsomething every bit of training he had told him not to do. But he was wearing a bulletproof vest, and if the fucker shot at him, at least the gun wouldn't be pointed at the kid. It'll give Ray his chance —as long as he doesn't shoot me in the head … "Hey, hey—calm down! You win…"

In an eyeblink Ray had disappeared, replaced in an instant by something huge and dark. The kidnapper jerked his gun from Jennifer's jaw and fired at Lucas just as the thing grabbed him.

A bullet slammed into Lucas's hip like a baseball bat. He hit the ground on his back, fighting a scream of pain. Despite the agony, he rolled over, sought to aim his gun at the kidnapper…

And blinked in astonishment. A towering black creature had snatched Jennifer from the kidnapper. The man screamed and pointed his gun at it.

The monster hit him with a casual swat, slamming him into the tree behind him with a crunch. When he hit the ground, his head was twisted at an unnatural angle. His eyes went fixed and dead.

Well , Lucas thought with grim satisfaction, that fucker won't hurt anybody again .

"Aw, man…" The creature moved toward Lucas with an odd, swift grace, carrying the unconscious little girl cradled in his arms. He crouched at Lucas's side, long wolf muzzle tilting to examine him. "You're bleeding like a son of a bitch. I think he hit an artery."