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snapped.
 Why can t we just kill him? the first whined.
He heard the unmistakable sound of flesh hitting
flesh followed by a grunt of pain.  Because then it
might be traced back to my brother and his damn herd,
you idiot.
If the other man responded, they d moved too far
away for Casey to hear. Okay, so it didn t sound like
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they d taken Caspian, too, just him. And it had
something to do with the second guy s brother. So who
the hell was that and why did the brother want him out
of the way?
Unable to even hazard a guess, Casey wriggled a bit,
testing the strength of the rope. It had a little give.
Maybe it was enough to work with. He d been
exhausted, beaten, and malnourished from six months
of living alone on the streets when the wolves had
captured him and sold him to the scientists the first
time. Not so, now. His friends had worked hard to bring
him back from the brink of despair.
Gritting his teeth, he began to work the ropes,
twisting his wrists, tugging steadily. He had a reason to
live this time, people to get back to, a very sexy
vampire that needed him just as much as Casey needed
him. He hadn t told the man he loved him yet, and
Casey would be damned if he died before getting that
chance.
Another shimmy of his body and Casey had the
ropes just loose enough to wriggle his ass through the
loop his arms made, so he could bring them to the front.
His shoulders screamed at the new position, but Casey
ignored the feeling as best he could. Sitting up, he
forced his quickly numbing fingers to work the knots
on the rope around his wrists. It was tedious and
awkward, but due to the space he d given himself, he
got it done.
The blood rushing back to his fingers had tears
flooding his eyes and he had to take several shuddering
breaths before he could move his hands enough to work
the knots holding his legs. Once his feet were free, he
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climbed to his feet and stumbled to the covered
window.
He inspected it carefully, tugging the board gently in
different places, trying to find a weak spot. Finally, he
found one, but it was near the top. Due to his short
stature, he tried to decide if he d have enough time to
rip the plywood away, shift, and get through the hole
before his captors investigated the noise.
Looking around the room, he searched for something
that would give him a little more leverage. Or maybe if
I m taller, he thought, when his gaze fell on the cot.
Walking over to it, he grabbed one side with each hand,
relieved with how narrow it was, and lifted. Never had
he been more grateful that a shifter s increased strength
was much greater than an average human s, otherwise
he didn t think he d be able to move this without
making tons of noise.
He carefully set it down under the window, ignoring
his screaming joints and throbbing hip. He could worry
about injuries after he got out of here. Stepping onto the
bed, his new position gave him an extra foot of height.
Just enough to be able to yank off the board, shift into
his bunny, and leap through the window.
As he pulled off his clothes in preparation, he prayed
his thigh muscles were up to the task.
Taking a deep breath, he gripped the edge of the
loose top corner and slowly pulled, hoping to keep the
noise level down. But the splintering crack of breaking
wood filled the room, dashing his hopes and filling him
with panic. Casey tugged hard, tearing off a large piece.
He gripped the piece below it and pulled off a bit more.
Then he initiated his shift. The world around him
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expanded as his body shrank. Tendons popped and
bones cracked. His ears grew, fur sprouted, and his
body realigned. The scrape of a key in the door s lock
sounded loud to his now sensitive ears, telling Casey
his time was up. He put everything he had into his leap
and lunged for the hole.
He managed to get his front legs over the lip, but his
back legs scrabbled for purchase. The door slammed
against the wall, followed by the shouts of at least three
men, and he struggled to get his back legs through the
window. Pitching forward, he flopped the rest of the
way through the hole, the broken wood scraping his
legs, splinters embedding deep.
Twisting his body as he fell through the air, Casey
managed to land on his back and not his head. For
several seconds, he couldn t breathe, and he feared that
he d done serious damage. His lungs heaved in a deep
breath, filling him with much needed oxygen. He
looked up and saw two faces peering down at him, and
he realized he d seen them before. The dark haired man
was one of the wolves that had caught him and beaten
him the first time around. He knew he d seen the blond
guy before, too, but Casey just wasn t completely
certain where or when.
Dismissing his thoughts, he clambered to his feet
and sprang forward. He scampered down the alley and
veered into another, all the time using his heightened
hearing to listen for pursuit. It wasn t a long time in
coming. At least three of the shifters he d scented on
the other side of the door were wolves, which meant
they could probably track much better than he could.
And since his hip and thigh were already screaming at
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him, Casey needed to find a place to hole up.
The grate of a gutter beckoned, and he dove toward
it. He had to wriggle and lie flat, his powerful legs
stretched out behind him, but he managed to get
through the hole and drop into the bowels of the sewer.
His shoulder took a hard hit on cement, and he almost
slid into water, barely managing to hang onto the six-
inch wide lip. The smell of refuse, feces, and stagnant
water assaulted his senses and burned his eyes. Casey
knew that if he d been in human form, he would have
puked.
Again he tried to reach out to his mate, mentally
calling desperately for Caspian. Nothing.
Unwilling to give up hope, Casey struggled through
the mire. He carefully hopped forward, mindful of the
debris, the slick stones, the pooling water, and the fact
that he couldn t really swim very well in this form. In
the distance he heard water splashing. He sat up on his
back legs and lifted his ears. It took a few seconds to
realize the sounds were feet sloshing through the water.
Since he couldn t feel his mate, Casey turned and
hopped swiftly along the embankment. The stench
made it impossible to know the identity of those
coming, but that also meant they wouldn t be able to
scent Casey. He rushed on, slipping and sliding in the
muck. He spotted a chipped hole in the rock wall ahead
and raced toward it, praying it would be deep enough to
hide his little furry body.
It wasn t nearly as deep as Casey had hoped, and he
paused, wondering if he should keep going or try it
anyway. The sloshing steps were growing louder, and
his window of opportunity to decide closed. He dove
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Charlie Richards
into the tiny space and wriggled around so his good hip
was facing out in case he needed to strike out with his
powerful hind leg. Just as he settled, he spotted the
bloated carcass of a raccoon floating nearby.
Making a snap decision, he crawled forward,
grabbed the sopping hide in his mouth and dragged it to
the opening of his tiny hide-a-hole. He gagged at the
feel of the slimy fur sinking between his teeth, but
managed to fight the bile back down. To his relief, the
bloated body easily covered the crevice he hid in, and
as long as he breathed through his mouth, he could fight
down his desire to gag.
He remained tense and silent in his niche as he
listened to several men move past him, their boots
slogging and squelching through muck, cursing the
stench and Casey s hide. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]