“That’s not possible,” Kat finally stammered, her voice filled with confusion. “I got out of that protective circle Marko put me in on my own. I got away on my own.”
“Did you?” Davina asked softly. “You think a warlock as powerful as Marko, who wiped out your entire coven and subdued you and bound your body into a cat’s form without breaking a sweat, botched a simple binding spell so badly that you were able to slip out a paw and smudge the protection circle?”
“But…” Kat said, looking so helpless, it hurt. “Why would he do something like this?”
Davina shook her head. “I’m not sure why he let you get away. Maybe because he had something bigger planned for you right from the start.”
“Like using Kat to access the ley lines?” Connor asked. He’d never felt so completely out of his depth in his life. Even with all the supernatural creatures the Pack had dealt with over the past year or so, he still felt unprepared for this magical stuff. He yearned for a situation he could punch or claw his way out of. “Are you’re saying Marko was planning the murders all across the southwest and the kidnappings in Dallas more than four years ago?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” Davina told them. “Though I doubt he knew then that it would all come down to Dallas, I think he let you slip away so you had time to recover from the familiar spell he used on you, then he kept an eye on you until you found a reason to stop moving, so he could put the final phase of his plan into action.”
Kat paled, and Connor slipped a comforting arm around her. If he knew her—and he did—she was probably blaming herself for those five murdered kids right now, thinking that if she’d never stopped moving, Marko would have never had an opportunity to kill them.
That was all crap, of course. If Kat hadn’t found him, she would never have stayed in Dallas. So if anyone was to blame, it was him.
“But how did Marko even know I had stopped running once I reached Dallas?” Kat asked, still looking lost and devastated.
“Marko took some of your blood to perform the familiar curse, didn’t he?” When Kat nodded, Davina continued. “If he had enough, he could have set up a nearly permanent Find Me charm on you and then sat back and waited. It’s probably no coincidence that the murder of that boy in Gail, Texas, was about a month after you and Connor met. Marko would have waited a while, making sure you were going to stay put, and then he started building the ley lines around you and Dallas.”
“And if Kat leaves Dallas?” Connor asked. “Then what? Marko won’t be able to complete his mad scheme. He’ll have to what, start over somewhere else?”
Connor’s tone was a little harsher than maybe he’d intended, but the idea of Marko slipping away to kill other kids, simply because they’d failed to confront him and end this now, didn’t sit right with him.
“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” Davina answered. “And yes, I know how bad that sounds. But you need to realize that if Marko gets his hands on Kat and finishes whatever ritual he has in mind, it’s very unlikely that the Pack will be able to handle him. Hell, if these lines make him as powerful as I think they will, we could throw both the Pack and every agent STAT has at its disposal at the man and still lose. The best we might be able to hope for is to simply keep him from getting that strong. It would be a win for us. The only one we might get.”
Connor couldn’t even consider that they might be so outmatched in this fight. That had never happened before, and it wasn’t going to happen now.
“You seriously think our only chance is depriving him of the opportunity to get to Kat?” he demanded. “There has to be another option. I refuse to believe that there isn’t.”
Unfortunately, according to Kat and Davina, Marko had no weaknesses.
“I mean, I guess you could always take him out from long distance,” Davina said. “Kat mentioned that you’re sniper qualified. I’m sure you could do it.”
Connor wanted to think she was kidding, but something told him she wasn’t. “You think he’s really going to let me get a clear shot at him like that?”
“Probably not.” Davina was silent for a moment, then sighed. “Connor, could you give us a moment?”
He hated leaving Kat, but when he glanced her way, she nodded. “Go ahead. I’m okay.”
After giving her hand a squeeze, he got up and slipped out of Gage’s office, closing the door behind him. He wandered across the bullpen area to the far side, doing his best not to eavesdrop on the conversation Kat and Davina were having, but he couldn’t completely shut it out.
“You’re stronger than you realize,” Davina was saying. “You’d have to be, to survive what Marko has planned for you with the ley lines. If you decide not to run, then you need to figure out how to access whatever gifts Marko’s familiar ritual provided you with. If you can’t, you and Connor won’t make it through the coming fight.”
Connor couldn’t listen to any more. He appreciated bluntness as much as anyone, but the stuff Davina was saying was unbelievably harsh. When Kat came out a few minutes later, it was obvious she was as upset by what the woman had said as he was.
“Everything okay?” he asked.
Kat nodded. “Yeah. Let’s go home.”
Chapter 19
“Maybe I should leave Dallas,” Kat murmured as she rested her head against Connor’s chest, listening to his heart slowly come down from the rapid drumbeat it had been only moments before.
Connor didn’t say anything, his left hand busy making little circles on her upper back. His touch was so warm and soothing, she never wanted him to stop. She wondered if he’d even heard her since she didn’t doubt that his mind was a million miles away.
After leaving the SWAT compound, they’d come straight home to regroup. Connor had spent some time trying to reach Jenna at her cell number, and when that hadn’t worked, he’d called a friend at DFW International who’d been able to confirm that his sister hadn’t flown out of that airport or Love Field at any point in the past twenty-four hours. While that was good news for the most part, it still left Connor wondering where the hell she’d ended up. They’d tried to call a few of the local hotels, but that had been a waste of time. Not only were there too many hotels in this town, but few of the ones they talked to seemed unwilling to tell them whether Jenna had checked in, even when Connor had tried to pull the cop card. Driving around and trying to ask in person wouldn’t accomplish much more than the calls had.
So, after hours of frustration, Connor had given up and accepted he’d hear back from his sister only when she was damn well ready to talk to him. Kat only hoped it was before she left to return to California.
