Blackthorne (The Brotherhood of the Gate Book 1) (39 page)

The only thing that kept the investigation low key were the eyes of the beautiful woman with auburn hair acting as the sheriff’s attorney. She also acted as the town’s public relations officer throughout the aftermath, soothing and charming the reporters who showed up to report on the mess. They went away with blissful expressions and the boring story of a drunken brawl in a town that had many years before been the capitol of drunken brawls. The entire incident had simply gone away in the eyes of outside authorities. In town, however, the stories were told nightly down at the Dancing Elk and embellished upon regularly.

“If you think you are going to marry me, you might want to start being a little more supportive of my goals, Nick,” Pam replied. “I’ve been trying to win this damned race for five years and I’m going to have that trophy this time if it is the last thing I do.”

Rhi grinned at Nick. “You do know that you’re marrying one scary woman. With a dragon as a pet, no less.”

“Now, that
is
something we do need to talk about, girls,” Nick replied. He jogged a bit to bounce his daughter-to-be on his shoulders. Katie screamed with laughter. The night flights of the dragon with Pam on its back hadn’t been witnessed yet by anyone other than a few night owls who didn’t trust their eyes or their minds.

“Jethro stays right where he is, Nick,” said Pam. “You might want to give some thought to building me a bigger barn. And make it fireproof while you’re at it. And I’ll need a herd of cattle or sheep…buying sides of beef for my baby is getting pricey.”

“Woman, you do realize that I’m unemployed, don’t you?”

Rhi shook her head, knowing that Nick Boyd was suffering about as much as a prince in his family’s kingdom possibly could. The sheriff did not find being unemployed overtaxing because of a generous family trust fund started by his great-great grandmother. He also knew that as soon as things died down, the town fathers would put him right back into his job. The temporary sheriff would insist upon it. The new man had already tired of the position, being more interested in hunting down the few remaining demons that had escaped into the mountains.

In the meantime, Nick amused himself with guarding the peace and privacy of the shell-shocked women of Horse Thief Gulch day and night. During his exile, he had become close to Pam Douglas and her daughter, a fondness that had culminated in a marriage proposal two weeks beforehand. The most traumatizing part of the entire thing for Pam was that Pearl had taken over planning the wedding, since Pam’s parents were busy rebuilding their farm.

As Pam and Nick’s romance blossomed, Rhi wandered the hills alone, ghostlike, and locked herself in her cabin for days at a time with her books. Molay called on a regular basis to check upon her and to report on Blackthorne’s recovery from the battle, but other than that, the Brotherhood and Rhi’s healing husband stayed away.

“Nick, there is plenty of room out here for him to roam about without anyone getting a look at him, and Jethro obeys Pam like a trained police dog,” noted Rhi. “It’ll be fine. If he gets too big, I’ll take him somewhere ‘else’ and Pam can visit him. I’m keeping an eye on him too.”

Nick rolled his eyes. “Yes, keeping a dragon is fine. Pam’s dad doesn’t like it any more than I do.”

“You’re wrong, Nick,” his fiancée informed him archly. “Daddy was nervous with him at first. But any animal that took out the thing that burned his house and killed Gary and Juanita is okay with Dad in the end. Are you listening to me?”

He was looking over her head toward the other side of the intersection. “Looks like my replacement’s here,” he said, changing the subject. He snickered. “And it looks like
she
made him give her a ride.”

One of the police department’s Ford Broncos had appeared at a blocked-off street. A uniformed Bobby Wayne Beaufort hopped out of the driver’s side door. He quick-marched to the other side of his vehicle, opened the door, and stood at attention as Pearl alighted. Rhi was surprised he didn’t jerk off his shirt and lay it out on the street so that she wouldn’t get her driving moccasins dusty.

Pearl was dressed impeccably as usual, in tan slacks and a designer long sleeved silk tee. An off-white scarf was wrapped a la Jackie O around her head and huge sunglasses hid her eyes. She looked as glamorous as a woman could look on a street filled with sweaty tourists and donkeys.

Rhi had a sneaking suspicion she knew why the madam hadn’t left with the rest of the Brotherhood, after the cleanup and the messing with the susceptible minds of outside law enforcement was done. She was waiting on Rhi.

I am not one of these people. They pulled me into this. They killed my dog and they can all kiss my ass.
The angry thoughts ran through her mind as she squared her shoulders and prepared for the approach of the madam. For a second when her eyes were closed, ice blue eyes flashed at her along with a devilish smile. They swirled away down into the corridors of her memory when she opened her own eyes again. He was always with her, a presence that made ripples of anticipation run up her backbone on a regular basis, right before she remembered that he was gone. She hadn’t seen Blackthorne for six months, not since she fled his hurt gaze on the battlefield of Mt. Pisgah Cemetery.

Pearl stepped past the barricade to cross the street with Bobby Wayne following behind her like an obedient puppy. She paused for a moment at the pedestal marking the center of the intersection. A life-sized bronze statue of a huge red bloodhound stood at attention atop a square marble column. The long ears and soulful eyes were too real for Rhi, who ached every time she looked at her dog’s honorarium. A similar column and a bronze likeness of Houston, cowboy hat and all, marked the intersection at the other end of the street up the hill. The local police had only one problem with the statues: vandals regularly left bottles of tequila and shot glasses at Houston’s feet.

“Oh, look, you’ve got Martha.” the madam exclaimed as she approached. Pearl patted the donkey on the head gently and the little burro reciprocated by nuzzling her sleeve. “She’ll do nicely, Pam.”

Pam’s eye took on a wicked glint. “Do you know
every
man, woman, child and donkey in Cripple Creek, Granny?”

“How is the cleanup going?” Bobby Wayne asked Nick, wisely changing the subject. “Catching anything up near the girls’ places?”

“Don’t worry, Bobby, there will be plenty of demons left in the hills for you to hunt. There are a few good old boys, like Earl and Clay, who are getting one or more a day, but I suspect we’ll be exterminating these things for a while.”

A pleased expression on his face, Bobby Wayne seemed about to return to his truck when the sight of a large figure emerging from the alleyway behind them froze him to the ground. He wasn’t missing this reunion for all the C4 in his basement.

∙
•
∙

Blackthorne saw her back first, small and straight and dressed in a “Donkey Derby Days” T-shirt. Her face, turned to the side to better examine her donkey, was pale and thin. At that moment, Rhi resembled her past self more than she ever had before.

She turned toward him and Blackthorne felt his heart constrict, like it always did when he looked into those dark eyes. He held up his palms in a placating manner.

“Rhi, let me talk to you for a minute and then, if you want me to, I’ll go away forever, okay?” He would never understand how she had managed to get such a tight grip on his soul, but her hold was absolute, whether she was with him or not.

The dark eyes never left his face. Rhi’s square little jaw set itself and she nodded her head stiffly. “What?”

Take a deep breath, Jack. And beg.
The last few months had been hell without her, knowing that she was alive and alone and needed him but was too angry and proud to allow herself to love him again. “I know that this has all been…horrible for you. You had built up this peaceful, serene existence and it all got blown literally to Hell in a week. I can’t live like this, knowing you’re here, alone. I’ll give up everything and get a job as security in one of the casinos or as a Wal-Mart greeter. I’m stinking rich, I’ll buy you a castle or take you around the world but please, be with me and make me whole again.”

The corner of her mouth lifted ever so slightly. “A Wal-Mart greeter? You’d scare the crap out of people.”

∙
•
∙

Rhi’s voice shook slightly when she managed to answer. She had felt his eyes on her back and had known it was Blackthorne because of the goose bumps that had risen immediately on her neck. It took all that she had not to run and jump into his arms.

Pam grabbed her by the elbow. “Think before you make him move to the suburbs, Rhi,” she whispered in her ear. “A sheep or a tigress. The next 500 years in a tract house or saving the world…I know which one I’d pick.”

“I think you’d probably kill someone if you tried to work in my world,” she said to him and stepped forward into the curve of his arm. “How about I try to fit into yours? For a while, anyways. Until you leave your underwear on the floor one too many times.” She paused and took a deep breath. “I didn’t tell you this when I left you in the pit and that was wrong of me. I love you too and will love you with whatever part of my being manages to continue to exist until the world spins down.”

Blackthorne’s smile and the crinkles in the corners of his eyes were all Rhi needed to see before he leaned down to kiss her deeply. He held her in his arms in an iron grip for a moment before turning to Pearl.

“Molay needs you to get back to work, woman,” he said, still not releasing Rhi. “He says you’ve dawdled long enough.”

Pearl tossed her head and pursed her lips into a sensual red pout. “I knew everything you idiots are doing would go to shit without me. What’s imploding now?”

As Pearl and Blackthorne began to bicker, the race official motioned for them to line up. Rhi patted Pam on the shoulder. “Let’s do this.”

At the other end of Bennett, a commotion had ensued and several members of the crowd had climbed over the wood barricades to gather in the street.

“They can’t protest the race yet, we haven’t even gotten started,” said Pam, who squinted up at the crowd. There was a flash of red gold in the center of the group and Crazy Betty could clearly be seen. The woman had worn a gigantic formal race-day hat, adorned with daisies. She had dressed for the event with the same care that she would have for the Kentucky Derby.

Pam was cut off by an amazing howl. It was the long, deep-voiced, melodic call of a full-grown bloodhound. The shocking sound silenced the group and almost brought Rhi to her knees.

A huge red dog loped down Bennett Avenue, dragging Crazy Betty along with her, who lost her hat in the sprint.

The dog’s long ears flapped behind her like sails and the hound’s gigantic paws made her look gangly and clumsy as she ran.

“Ellie?” Rhi whispered.

The big dog skidded to a stop in front of the group as the donkey shuddered and began to pull at its rope. It hadn’t signed up for a giant dog encounter.

Ellie Mae hopped happily in a circle before jumping up to her full height and placing her paws on her mistress’ shoulders. The hound ran her tongue down Rhi’s face, leaving a sticky trail of slobber and then dropped down to demand hugs with pleading brown eyes.

As the locals in the crowd began to cheer, Rhi got down on her knees to wrap her arms around the dog’s neck. Katie demanded to be released from her perch and joined Rhi in hugging the animal. The dog’s cable tail was wagging dangerously fast.

Pam handed her donkey’s lead to Pearl. “Hold my ass, would you?”

“How’s this possible?” Blackthorne asked in wonder.

Crazy Betty handed off the leash to him and stepped back to watch the reunion in satisfaction. “I told you Hell could not hold or hurt the pure of heart. One of the bigger Hell cracks in the mountains was all I needed to call her from the depths. I had to sit out there in the woods for a long while but it was worth it.” She ran a blue veined hand over the dog’s head. “Poor doggie. She was in pretty bad shape, having wandered the paths of Hell for days. I decided to tend to her and see if she was going to live before I told you that I’d found her. She might be a bit of a Changeling herself now… I’m pretty sure she ingested some demon blood that didn’t kill her as it would have most animals. That dog should never have healed like she did.”

“But how did she survive the explosion?” Rhi asked wonderingly, running her hands over the dog’s fur. “Wait…” She grabbed Katie and pulled her back. “She’s radioactive!”

“No Rhi,” Pearl told her, “The skull was empowered and she was within its protection, obviously.” She looked disapprovingly at the old woman. “Betty, you old witch, you know this is against the rules, don’t you?”

The other woman sniffed in disdain. “Like you’ve ever followed the rules, Pearl.”

Blackthorne looked down at his wife and her dog fondly. “Is Ellie Mae coming with us to save the world?”

“Well, the world is a fine place and worth fighting for. Besides, there’s nothing good on Animal Planet anymore,” she replied from her seat on the sidewalk.

“Paraphrasing Hemingway are we?” Pearl looked at the dusty lead in her manicured hand with distaste and handed it to Bobby Wayne.

Pam, who had plunked down on the sidewalk beside Rhi to get her share of bloodhound slobber on her clothes, elbowed her friend. “She
slept
with Hemingway, you know.”

»»•««

Above the town the sun mixed with the aqua blue sky and the tops of the stone mountains were tall enough to put gashes in the clouds. The top of one mountain in particular had a curiously large pile of ash and meat that had lain frozen throughout the winter. Upon the spring thaw, a small creature had discovered the bounty of the dead dragon and feasted upon the decaying flesh daily.

He had escaped the eternal torment that he had been condemned to for thousands of years. Now it was time to feed and grow in strength, hidden away in the solitude of the mountains of Colorado. Vengeance would have to wait… but only for a while.