“What are you doing?” Creed reached out to steady her. All of them were far more worried about the broken girl who had been difficult to revive after being shocked than the damaged coydog.
“He needs me,” Meg answered simply, “and I think I need him, too.”
With as much grace as her exhausted body could muster, she moved to stretch beside the creature and curled her arm under her head as a makeshift pillow. Gently she draped her other arm over the barrel chest of the large, wounded canine—carefully hugging her frame to his.
The coydog huffed contentedly.
“Thank you for finding me.” She locked eyes with Creed briefly before they started to close of their own volition. “I’ll stay right here with him. This just feels right.” She inhaled Maze’s musky scent and felt a flash of recognition in her heart.
The others traded worried looks before climbing back into the SUV themselves.
All except Alik, who couldn’t stop smiling. He whacked Creed on the back good-naturedly. “Thank you, Creed. This whole night could have been the start of something horrible for all of us if it weren’t for you leading us to her when you did.”
“It’s not me,” Creed shrugged. “She’s the one with the gift, whether or not she realizes it.”
“Yeah, but you had to be willing to help her connect. She’s probably going to need a lot of time to adjust to all of us—to her life.”
“She can have all the time she needs. I’m not going anywhere.” The boys exchanged looks of deference before climbing into the SUV. Alik sat in the front passenger seat, next to Farrow who was poised and ready to drive.
Creed moved his large frame to the very back row of seats so he could keep watch over Meg. Evan sat beside him, leaving Sloan and Cole the middle row.
“Mom. We need to call Mom,” Alik turned around and looked at his little brother excitedly. Evan had already grabbed Alik’s phone from the center console and was waking the touch screen to life. “I’m way ahead of you big brother.”
Chapter 9 Fragile
Margo’s heart was broken.
“Where could he be taking her?” she mumbled as she patted her nose with her sleeve. The tissues had run out a while ago, and she was too proud to ask Theo for more.
“Probably back to Germany, but he may assume we’d think that and have a different destination in mind,” Theo answered miserably.
“What is he doing to her?” she had asked this question no fewer than a dozen times since hearing from Alik two hours earlier.
“He’s always wanted their blood so he could recreate the original serum,” his voice was small with exhaustion.
“What does Senator Arkdone want with my children?” She stared at her dead legs hopelessly.
“He’s a powerful man. There’s talk in the news circuit that he’s the lead in the nomination for his party’s presidential hopeful. Maybe he just wants more power.”
“By collecting our children?”
“I don’t know, honey.” Theo held his pounding head. He’d been trying to console Margo for so long and he was dizzy with his own grief.
They sat in dejected silence for a while, letting the fears and anguish over the fate of their children curl around them like smoke.
The sound of a key in the lock of the front door didn’t stir them, though they heard Greg Burns enter the room.
“I got your message.” Burns looked between his best friend and the woman in the wheelchair.
“I’m really sorry to hear about Meg, Dr. Winter,” he started.
No one said anything, too lost in their individual depressions.
Greg looked back and forth between the two people in the room and felt a surge of anger at their despondent body language.
“Shit, Theo!” the retired cop barked, having spent the entire sum of his gentility in the first thirty seconds in the room. In the good cop/bad cop ruse, he was always the bad cop. It was just his nature.
“Don’t just sit there! We need to come up with a plan! Your kids are out there and feel as if they can’t come back. That is no effing—excuse me Dr. Winter—way to live!”
The retired detective stood and paced the room, rough hands parked on his hips. He left his post as a detective to join Homeland Security nine months ago. They had been trying to recruit him for years, but Burns didn’t want to leave his duties until he had solved some nagging cases. The missing children’s cases gnawed at him.
But things came up that moved beyond his control. He had to pass his cases to another cop and take the badge being offered to him. He decided it was a matter of being proactive in his fight rather than reactive. He was going after the Big Dogs now.
“What do you want me to do, Greg? We’re dealing with some pretty powerful people here.”