All hell broke loose. The vampires bolted, taking the gem with them and leaving Mel, Krista, Bob, and Tina to fend for themselves. Of course, the lions were blocking their way. In the blink of an eye, someone shifted from human to cat and pounced, landing on Vladimir. He used the cat's momentum against her and flipped the huge feline, pushing her aside.

For one horrible second Mel thought about running. She could take off and be out of the state before any of Luke's people knew she was gone. But Krista and Bob would be at his mercy. As far as she was concerned, he could have Tina.

"Give me the card," she told the older witch.

Tina didn't argue, she handed the note over to Mel and turned away, her form blurring into the night.

"Really?" Scorn filled Krista's voice. "I don't even know why I'm surprised."

There was nothing important in the house, but Mel was the only one who could leave on foot and hope to get away. "Bob?" She asked, "Assessment." They only had another minute before the lions were on them. They needed a plan.

"Six lions, three in human form, two shifted, one partial. They came in two trucks, both still running. Same model and dirt splatter as the one that vampire brought. He probably stole his from them. I suppose they're after him and that little rock." Bob looked at Krista, "No juice at all?"

Krista closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Mel could feel the tiniest hint of power. This was the scary kind, deep and dark and deadly. "Not much, and once I use it I'm down for the count."

He nodded and looked at Mel. "You better full shift or partial?"

"I can give you claws," she told him. "What do you need?"

"I can get Krista and myself out, but you're going to need to make a run for it." He turned to Krista, "Can you do something to disable the cars? Blow up the engines or whatever?"

Krista smiled. "I've got something."

Bob put a hand on Mel's shoulder and squeezed it quickly. "Don't worry about us once we get to the trees." Mel looked over. It was a hundred feet at least until they reached to forest with angry werecats and vampires in between. But Bob kept talking. "We meet in Illinois. Two days."

Mel took a deep breath and grinned, adrenaline flowing through her veins. "Let's do this thing."

They didn't need any more words. Mel ran the distraction while Bob and Krista got the hell out. They'd played this game a hundred times before, and Mel was happy to be working with people who understood exactly how to get out of a bad situation.

She stuffed the wooden box in her pocket and let claws grow out of one hand. Fighting wasn't her preferred response, but she could hold her own when necessary. She only shifted one hand so that she kept the dexterity of her fingers in the other. She needed to be able to pick things up and grab. Claws could prove bothersome.

Krista's hands glowed with a blue light as she chanted. Mel's ears popped and Krista slumped over, her magic exhausted. Each of the cars in the driveway let out a loud pop and one started shooting flames from under the hood. Krista had done her job - the cars were disabled. Bob picked up Krista and took off at a slow jog for the woods. Something about his magic helped him blend in. Mel had no idea why he would be safe once they reached the woods, and she wouldn't ask. Since he wouldn't answer, it all worked out.

But they had distance to cover and she needed to make sure that they weren't intercepted.

She headed straight for the roaring lion.

Some might have called it suicidal. But instinct drove her. The only person she needed on the battlefield was the alpha. The man she had just escaped who, for all she knew, was coming back for her in a rage.

She cleared the distance between where she'd been and the battlefield in a few seconds and dived straight for Luke, swiping at him with her clawed hand. That got his attention. Wordlessly, she took off, running in the opposite direction of Krista and Bob. The lion alpha followed, she knew that he would. Something told her that he couldn't resist.

Luke wasn't completely shifted, and because of that, she thought she might survive. Like her, he only had one hand full of claws, though he also had long fangs growing out of his mouth. Mel didn't have the time or the skill to mimic his shift. But her goal wasn't to fight him, it was just to get him far enough away, to distract him.

Fallen branches and brush were no obstacle for her as she broke into the forest opposite from where Bob and Krista ran to. Even in the dim light she could see well enough and at her speed she relied more on instinct anyway.

For a moment, she remembered her childhood, running through the forest with her parents. They always stayed in human form since she was too young to shift. But every week they walked through some of the densest woods on their land. As a child it seemed to go on forever. And they always ended up at that old well that had been boarded up long before she was born and had been overgrown with moss and ivy.

Mel pushed the thought away, in the midst of a chase for her life, for her freedom, she couldn't bother to remember shit from before she was old enough to remember almost anything. She could feel Luke closing in behind her. She was fast, but his longer legs and familiarity with the terrain worked against her.

But Mel had never met a problem head on when she could approach it sideways.

She jumped up, grabbing for a branch with her claws and swung herself up into the trees. She didn't care if Luke saw her. It wouldn't matter.

The branches were thick enough that even in her clumsy, human form she could move among them, covering less ground, but well hidden. Luke finally caught up to her, pausing only a few feet before she would have pounced on him. He crouched low, better to get her scent, but they'd left her trail behind.

Mel held completely still. She didn't even breathe until he moved once more. He circled the copse of trees slowly, trying to figure out where she went. Her heart pounded, excitement singing through her veins. This was even better than her stint in Biloxi where the owner – former owner – of one of the finest collections of antique Bavarian wealth charms caught her outside his building while her bag was full of his collection.

It seemed like Luke had that effect on her.

But even though a part of her wanted to dart from the tree, tweak his ear, and take off running again - wanted to make him chase her, and catch her, and all of the fun that could go along with that - despite all that, she still kept her sense. The roar that he'd bellowed had been far too intense for one little thief. And while she loved risk, she had no desire to end up dead.

She just had to wait for Luke to doubt himself. Right now he knew that she had to be where she was, but she knew that if she waited long enough, he would convince himself that she had gone another way, that his senses were wrong.

After an interminable length of time he walked away, his senses caught by some far off sound. Mel let out a relieved breath, but still she didn't move. She couldn't until she was sure he couldn't chase her.

A snapped branch was her only warning half a second before Luke launched himself at her, jumping from a nearby tree. They crashed through the branches and down to the ground. Everything hurt when he landed on top of her, but nothing was broken. Her only advantage was that he hadn't been able to pin her clawed hand. She had her claws dug into his thigh, blood seeping hotly around her fingers.

"Where is she?" he bellowed, teeth flashing. He didn't seem to care that she was ripping his muscles apart.

Mel struggled for a moment, failing utterly to move the enraged alpha. She couldn't fight him. He was too strong, too big. "I can't say I'm surprised we ended up like this, but I thought I'd be lying on something a lot softer when I had you on top of me," she practically purred. For a moment the image crystallized in her mind, but she shoved it away before arousal could take hold.

Luke placed a hand on her throat, letting a claw grow out of his index finger. She felt it prick at the sensitive skin of her neck. "You will know pain unlike anything you have ever experienced before if you don't tell me what you did with her. Five seconds before I rip half of your throat out."

He was utterly serious. An experienced liar could recognize the truth like that, especially when it came to threats.

Mel didn't remove her claws, but she stopped digging in. "Who are you talking about?" But as she asked the question, she had a sinking feeling that she knew who it had to be. After all, she had only met two women at Luke's compound, and Maya wouldn't need an alpha to risk his life to rescue her.

"Your scent was all over the garage, I could smell her in your room." He growled. "I know you kidnapped her, so where is she?"

"Get off of me and I'll tell you everything I know." Honor was for good people, Mel was a survivor.

He didn't get off, but he did remove his hand. An improvement. "I don't believe you. You're a liar, a thief, and you would have done anything to escape." He was beyond reason. An alpha defined himself by the people he ruled and protected. Cassie was Luke's weak point. If Mel wanted to hurt him, she knew exactly where to hit.

She removed her claws and pushed at his legs, she got her hips free. It gave her more room to maneuver even if she didn't want to fight. "I'm a thief," she bit out, "But I'm not an idiot." She pulled her hand up, brushing against a spectacularly smooth rock on her way to push against his chest. He didn't budge. "Think about it. What would I gain by kidnapping Cassie? I wanted out. Why would I give you another reason to chase me?"

That gave him pause. Confusion flitted over his face. But he steeled himself after a moment and pinned one of her hands to the ground above her head and the other to her side, right over that rock. "Her scent was in your cell! Don't lie to me."

It wasn't a rock. Mel ignored the man on top of her and tried to curl her fingers around the teleportation charm that Krista had given her. In the frenetic run, she'd forgotten that she had it. All she had to do was break it and she was home free. But she didn't quite have the leverage. She spoke while she tried to move, keeping him distracted. "She wanted me to take her. She knocked out your guard. All I did was tie her up. I didn't need her to escape."

But Luke was too far gone to pay attention. It didn't matter anyway. Mel had the charm in her fist. She crushed it with all her might, shattering the glass and releasing the magic and thinking of someplace safe. After a pregnant second while the magic swirled around her, she dissolved into smoke with the hope that Krista's charm wouldn't kill her.

She heard her alpha roar into the void.