If I had been close enough for the explosion to knock me flat, why wasn’t I dead? My ears hurting I understood; concussive bursts could easily rupture eardrums. It didn’t take much to damage someone’s hearing. But if I had been close enough for the blast to flatten me, I should have been hit with a lot of debris.
I couldn’t remember any of the details. Making a frustrated noise I couldn’t hear, I pinched my nose, drew a deep breath through my mouth, and attempted to pop my ears. Pain lanced through me, but after shaking my head, sounds began filtering in.
“Well, isn’t that just wonderful,” I muttered, thinking of all of the unsavory words I wouldn’t utter in the Fenerec’s presence. My voice sounded muffled and distorted thanks to the incessant ringing in my skull. “We better get out of here.”
The Fenerec rolled over, tucking her paws close to her belly and stretching out her neck in what I thought was supposed to be a submissive position. Her behavior baffled me, and uncertain of what I had done to either alarm or worry her, I risked working my injured hand under her neck to scratch her behind her ears. If she decided to take another bite out of me, at least I could limit the damage to my left hand. “It’s all right,” I murmured, keeping my tone as soft and gentle as possible. “It’s not your fault.”
The blame was mine for having put my hand near her teeth in the first place. The explosion hadn’t helped matters any.
I didn’t know if blowing up part of Oconee National Forest had been part of the plan; I hadn’t been briefed on the details of the operation, and I hadn’t asked. I left the fieldwork to the trained Inquisitors. I had limited my involvement to driving the truck and checking their silver ammunition. Considering the fact my team was dead, they had either set a timer or someone else had come along behind them and cleaned up. That worried me almost as much as the fact I was going against the Inquisition in order to help the Fenerec sprawled over my lap. She was still lying on her back, her belly and neck exposed, with her tail tucked as though expecting me to beat her for having reacted violently to the explosion.
Watching her cringe when I turned my head to get a better look around pissed me off.
I had no idea what had been used to tear a hole into the forest and destroy the Fenerec den, but it’d been strong; the blast had created a crater in the middle of the forest. Without the typical Georgia spring rain, the entire forest would’ve been aflame from the explosion. My brother hadn’t given me instructions on what to do if the forest burned; then again, I wasn’t supposed to be anywhere near the den in the first place.
I likely wouldn’t have heard the explosion if I had followed my orders. I would have been long gone in the Red Beast, barreling towards Atlanta as fast as the truck could go, with a speeding ticket as my biggest concern. But no, I had chosen to stay.
If I hadn’t, the little wolf would have died.
I sighed, easing the Fenerec to the ground before staggering to my feet. Hissing at the pain of spasming muscles in my back, I stretched away the worst of the kinks. “I’m going to have to carry you,” I warned the wolf in a soft voice.
When she made no attempts to flee, I knelt to pick her up. She whined as I scooped her into my arms, wrapping her in my suit’s jacket. Concern overrode my worry at having her teeth so close to my arm; she weighed far less than I thought she should. I clenched my teeth, hoping that her flinching was from the pain of the gunshot wound rather than abuse.
If someone had given her reason to flinch, I’d make them regret it one way or another. No one hit a lady around me. No one, not for any reason.
I drew a deep, long breath. Once I got her out of the forest and safe from the Inquisition, I’d worry about nursing her back to health and making certain no one lifted their hand against her again. That much I could do. But first, I had to get us both out of Oconee alive. My responsibility for the death of her pack would need to be addressed later—along with facing the consequences for helping a rogue Fenerec I had been tasked with eliminating.
Why couldn’t I do anything the easy way?
Shifting the Fenerec in my arms, I twisted my wrist to check my watch. In less than an hour, my brother would be expecting me with his very, very expensive truck. I needed to figure out how to deal with her before he sent someone after me—or find a way to make him look somewhere else for me until I had a chance to hide the little wolf.
I twisted around to stare at the destruction; I could feel the deaths of the trees, animals, and Fenerec as a chill. I shuddered. Dread cramped my stomach, and I turned away before I caught glimpses of the final moments of the Inquisitors and their victims.
I had more important things to do, which included dealing with the Inquisition and my twin. The Red Beast had more GPS transponders on it than I could easily remove. Even my Inquisition-issued cell was tracked. All I had to do to bring a lot of unwanted attention was break it, which would notify the Inquisition of the phone’s last recorded location. If I wanted to escape my brother’s watch, I’d have to dump the cell and the truck. Until I found a place to hide the Fenerec and make her safe, I couldn’t let my brother find me.
The cell was easy enough. I’d drop it near the truck for someone to find.
But how could I make it so the Inquisition wouldn’t come looking for me right away? That was the real problem. If my twin was being cautious, he was probably aware I hadn’t left the forest.
The first thing I needed to do was make it back to the Red Beast. From there, I’d make a plan. Hopefully, the blast hadn’t been the result of an Inquisition cleanup crew, but rather a planned detonation to make sure the den wasn’t used again. If it
was
a cleanup crew, we were already in a lot of trouble. They’d know the names and appearances of everyone on the team, myself included.
They would know I had, against orders, left the truck. If there was a second team out in the forest, what were their plans for me? I didn’t want to believe my brother would have me eliminated, but it was always a possibility.
Forgive and forget was not a concept practiced by the Inquisition.
Biting back my desire to curse, I marched towards the truck. I needed a little luck, the sort of luck that would ensure there wasn’t a team of angry Inquisitors waiting for me at the Red Beast. Too many questions rattled about in my head as I retraced my steps, setting the Fenerec down every now and then to check the GPS so I wouldn’t get lost.
One possibility worried me more than the rest: would my twin actually betray me to the Inquisition? With a sinking feeling, I realized I didn’t know, not for certain. We didn’t see each other for more than a few minutes each year. I didn’t want to believe it. He’d been grinning with boyish enthusiasm as he had bribed me with the prospect of driving the Red Beast.
The Inquisition itself was a more likely risk. The higher ups serving my brother didn’t like me; they probably feared that my witchcraft would infect my pristine, Normal brother, who couldn’t use any form of magic to save his life. While I had outed myself as a witch at age five, I hadn’t told anyone other than my brother that I could sense the names of the dead. Was my ability enough to warrant my execution?
Probably.
After all, they had sent nine heavily armed Fenerec to kill a rogue pack, including the frightened wolf I carried. Sure, she had given me a nasty bite, but it hadn’t been her fault. The explosion had taken us both by surprise. There was nothing either one of us could have done to prevent it.
Once I made it back to the Red Beast, I’d figure out what to do.
~~*~~
All was quiet when we made it to the Red Beast. Kneeling down beside the truck, I gingerly set the wolf down. With a quiet whine, she licked at my fingers. Several of the gashes still bled, resulting in my hand being so caked in blood it looked like I wore a glove.
Before I could deal with her, I needed to make sure I didn’t bleed to death.
“There are bandages inside,” I informed her. “I’ll get them, take care of this mess, and then I’ll wrap your leg.” There was also a laptop stashed away under one of the seats, but I wasn’t certain if I wanted to risk using it; like every other electronic device the Inquisition owned, it was riddled with tracking software, GPS, and God-only-knew what else. I didn’t have the time to sterilize it.
After I took care of our injuries, I’d decide what to do. Unlocking the truck, I clambered inside, wincing as I managed to pull open another one of the bites. It didn’t take me long to smear blood all over the leather interior. By the time I finished crawling into the backseat of the cab, I had managed to leave several handprints on the cushions, the back of the driver’s seat, and even on the window.
My hand bled enough to both worry and amuse me. I snatched the first aid kit from under the seat, covering it with enough crimson to make it look like a war had been fought in the cab. Hauling my prize back to the front seat, I settled down behind the wheel, set the kit on the dashboard, and popped it open.
The jade-eyed woman stood beside me, perched on the Red Beast’s step, and she said in a husky, soft voice, “Why don’t you let me help with that?”
My heart took residence in my throat, cutting off my ability to breathe. It hadn’t taken me more than five minutes to get into the truck and dig out the kit. It had taken the Fenerec on my team at least three times as long to transform. Swallowing my startled curse, I shuffled to the edge of the driver’s seat, my hand dropping to the gun holstered at my side.
She waited patiently, a slight smile on her lips. Once again, her eyes held mine. It wasn’t until she started crawling into the Red Beast, worming her way onto the driver’s seat with me, that I realized she wasn’t wearing anything at all. Without looking away from me, she reached up and turned on the cab’s overhead light. Her hair was a rich auburn with more red than brown, similar in shade to her fur.
“You helped me. Let me help you,” she murmured, sliding closer.
There needed to be a law against a woman with a smoky voice talking to me while she was nude and we were alone. I tried to swallow back the lump in my throat, focusing my gaze on her tanned nose so I wouldn’t get too good of a look at her. Drawing a shaky breath, I scooted to the passenger’s seat, unable to tear my gaze away. My voice sounded as husky as hers when I replied, “I’d appreciate that, ma’am.”
I blamed the smoke rather than the fact I wanted to know if the rest of her was as tanned and freckled as her nose and cheeks. I would’ve appreciated her putting on the jacket I had left with her, but she had other ideas. Without any indication her leg bothered her, she pursued me to the other side of the cab until she sat perched on the edge of the driver’s seat, her knees pressed against the side of my leg.
I didn’t dare let my gaze drop below her lips.
“Your hand,” she demanded.
Holding out my arm for the Fenerec unnerved me almost as much as her close proximity. I was as aware of her beside me as I was of the fact that she could transform and shred me to pieces if she desired. She could probably overpower me without turning into a wolf in order to take advantage of her sharp, pointy teeth. There was a bent metal rod in the back one of the team had used to prove they weren’t all talk, not that I had needed much convincing.
Her being a woman likely didn’t mean she was much weaker than the males of her kind.
With a gentle touch, she scraped and dabbed away enough of the blood caking my hand to apply butterfly strips to the worst of the gashes. She smeared a liberal amount of antibiotic ointment over the wounds before applying a Tefla pad and wrapping the whole mess up in a self-adhering bandage.
“Thank you, ma’am,” I murmured, determined to be polite even though I wanted to make a very quick escape out of the truck to retrieve my jacket for her before I caught too good of a glimpse. I cursed myself for my weakness.
It’d been too long since I had kept any woman company for more than a few minutes, let alone one as pretty as the Fenerec.
“You cut the bullet out, but you’re with them. Your scent is all over this truck, as is theirs. Why?” Her words were spoken in a growl, which rumbled in her throat. While she’d never be a soprano, her voice wasn’t deep either. Her grip on my arm tightened, confirming my suspicions about her strength.
If I wanted to keep all of my limbs intact, I needed to take care with what I said and learn to avoid staring into her eyes. I was pretty sure that classified as a challenge to Fenerec. If I looked away, however, I’d see more than I should.
I was tempted, and that bothered me almost as much as the risk of her ripping my arm from its socket if I pissed her off.
I was in a lot of trouble.
She growled at me, wordlessly demanding an answer.
“I don’t hurt women, ma’am,” I replied, both grateful for and cursing my response. Fenerec, so far as I knew, could smell lies, and I didn’t want to give her a reason to rip my throat out. Women, however, often didn’t like hearing that bit of truth about me. Since I was already neck-deep in trouble with her, I added, “I don’t hurt the helpless, either.”
When she didn’t say anything, move, or start snarling at me, I shrugged and said, “I try not to lie to a lady. The Inquisition wants you dead, ma’am, and I was sent to help them do it. I won’t. If you want, I’ll take you somewhere safe. Canada, perhaps? One of the packs there would take you in.” I didn’t know as much about the Fenerec as I wished I did in that moment, but I knew enough to understand females were in high demand.
There’d be a lot of competition to have her join a pack. It’d be easy enough to find someone to help her on the other side of the border, where the Inquisition didn’t have a strong influence over the supernatural. I knew the perfect Alpha for her, a longtime friend who’d protect her from the Inquisition.
“I see,” she murmured, leaning closer to me, her knees digging into my leg once more. Heat washed over my face. Without letting go of my arm, she shifted closer. As she moved, I caught a glimpse of her sliding across the cab towards my seat.