Keri Arthur - Circle Of Fire

He nodded and stepped away. Mack thumped on the door. The only reply was the unmistakable sound of a rifle being loaded.

"Who is it?" a voice called.

"FBI. Open the door, Steve."

"Put your badge against the window."

Mack muttered something under his breath, then glanced back at Jon. "The man can be a pain in the backside, but it's good to see he's being this cautious."

Jon bit down on the urge to smash past Mack and the fool with the gun. "Caution won't save Evan or Maddie. Hurry up."

Mack slapped his badge against the window. After a moment, the door opened.

"Who's your friend?" the bear-like figure asked, pointing the rifle in Jon's direction.

Mack pushed the weapon aside. "He's helping with inquiries. We need to talk to your son, Steve."

The big man shook his head. "He's asleep, and I don't want to wake him."

Mack's sharklike smile flashed briefly. "Neither do I, but we have no choice. Which room?"

"Second on the right down the hall." Steve eyed Jon with distrust then swung his gaze back to Mack.

"I'm coming with you."

"Fine. Just don't interfere, or I'll have you hauled up on charges so fast your head will spin."

Steve blinked in surprise, then nodded. Jon glanced at his watch again as they walked up the hall.

Twenty-five minutes left.

Mack knocked lightly on the door, then opened it up and switched on the light. Evan shot up in bed, his face screwed up in fright.

Steve pushed past them both and walked across the room, placing a reassuring arm around his son's shoulders. "It's okay, Evan. The police just need to talk to you again."

Evan nodded, but his wide, amber gaze was aimed directly at Jon. "Why haven't you rescued her? You promised."

Jon ignored Mack's raised eyebrow. The teenager's gaze was full of fear. He knew, or at least suspected, why they were there. "I did. Eleanor took her again." He hesitated, then added softly, "She wants to exchange Maddie for you."

The teenager shrank back into his father's arms. Steve held him tight and glared at the two of them. "You can't seriously be thinking of complying."

"Of course not." Mack's voice held a soothing note. "But we do need Evan's help to locate his aunt."

"For God's sake, he's just a kid. Why don't you leave him alone?"

There was a desperate edge of denial in Steve's voice, and his fear curled through the room. Jon smiled grimly. Steve didn't want his son to be different. Didn't want him to be gifted, like his aunt.

But it was fools like Steve who had put Maddie through hell for so long. Anger shot through him, but he held it in check. "Like it or not, your son has inherited psychic abilities similar to his aunt's. Denying it won't change anything. It might even make it worse." Might eventually make him kill someone because he'd been forced to deny his gifts too long. "But that's not what we're here for, either."

"I can't find her," Evan said, a tremor of fear running through his soft voice. "There's some sort of wall between us."

"I don't want you to find her." Jon took the ring out of his pocket. The light sparked the panther's eyes to life, shooting pale red rays through the room. "This ring belongs to Eleanor. If you touch it, she'll know we've found you and will tell us where to meet her."

Evan shrank back against his father again. "She'll come here?"

"Only as a wraith, a ghost. She won't be real, and she won't be able to hurt you."

"This is ridiculous," Steve growled. The fear in his eyes was almost as bright as the fear in his son's eyes.

"Be quiet or leave." Mack moved to stand halfway between the two of them, as if he feared some sort of confrontation. "Go ahead, Jon."

Jon kept his gaze on the teenager. After a moment, Evan nodded and held his hand out. Jon placed the ring in the middle of Evan's palm, and the boy closed his fingers around it. Nothing happened for several heartbeats, then smoke began to curl through his fingers.

Evan yelped in surprise and would have thrown the ring away if Jon hadn't clamped his hand around the teenager's.

"It's okay," he soothed. "It's only smoke. It won't hurt you."

Evan licked his lips and nodded. It was a gesture so reminiscent of Maddie that Jon's gut twisted painfully. Time was running out, and he was no closer to finding her now than he had been nearly two hours before.

The smoke twisted and turned and finally found shape. Eleanor's malevolent gaze swept across the four of them. Steve and Mack made surprised noises, but Jon kept his eyes on the wraith—just in case it tried anything.

"I've kept my end of the bargain, Eleanor."

She smiled. It might well have been a cat snarling. "So you have, Shapeshifter. And just in time. Your poor, dear girlfriend was turning a little blue."

It felt as if someone had grabbed his heart and squeezed tight. "The deal's off if she's dead, witch." His voice sounded amazingly detached considering he was barely resisting the urge to smash the wraith's face in. Not that it would have done him any good. The wraith was as insubstantial as a ghost.

"Oh, she's not dead. Not yet." The wraith eyed him in amusement. "Come to the old cave up on Maxus Peak and see for yourself. Just be here by sunset with the boy or she'll pay, Shapeshifter."

"We'll be there."

He watched the wraith dissipate then uncurled Evan's fingers from around the ring and took it back.

Though he didn't think it was possible for Eleanor to transport the kid away from them using the ring, he wasn't about to take any chances.

Evan stared at him, fear in his eyes. "You're not going to make me go with you, are you?"

Jon smiled. "No." Not when Maddie had worked so hard to free him. "But I do need a lock of your hair."

"This witchcraft business is getting a little out of hand," Steve muttered uneasily. "I really think you had both better leave."

Jon kept his gaze on the teenager. In some ways, the son was much wiser than the father. "Eleanor has placed her mark on you, so I have to convince her I have you with me. If I tie a lock of hair around the ring, she might be fooled long enough for me to rescue Maddie."

"Enough—" Steve lurched to his feet.

Mack stepped forward and placed a calming hand on the big man's arm. "If you want to save both your son and your sister-in-law, go get the scissors, Steve."

Steve hesitated, then glanced down at his son and nodded. But Jon could tell by the flashes of red that ran through his aura that it wasn't for Maddie's sake that he complied. If Evan hadn't been involved, Steve would have let Maddie rot in hell before he helped her.

Jon wondered how the fool was going to cope with a son who had inherited the same abilities that he hated—and feared—in Maddie.

He stood up and walked across to the window, but it looked south, not north. He couldn't see the mountain that held the witch and Maddie.

"Don't think you're going up there alone," Mack stated quietly.

Jon closed his eyes. He just wanted it all over with, one way or another. But Mack was right. He couldn't go up there alone. Not if he wanted Maddie to walk free from this mess.

"Fine," he said remotely, watching the wind whip the branches of the old pine. "It's not a good day for flight, anyway." But it sure as hell was a good day to kill.

The little man was back in her head, pounding away on his infernal drums. Maddie shook her head, but that only made the pounding increase. Sweat broke out across her forehead and bile rose up the back of her throat. She swallowed heavily, but the metallic taste in her mouth made her stomach turn. She groaned and squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the rolling sensation to go away.

After a while she became aware of a breeze running chill fingers past her legs. She shivered, suddenly realizing her whole body felt cold—so cold her bones ached with it.