“Just sleep.” He turned onto his side and dropped an arm across her waist to snuggle her against him. “I’m in no condition for anything else. However, once I wake up…”
She laughed. “I think you’re being a bit optimistic.”
“Overdrive, remember?” He grinned at her. “Tomorrow I’ll be myself again and raring to go.”
There was something new in his eyes, an odd shining look. He slid down a little and nestled his head with a contented sigh into the curve of her shoulder. Her insides melted with tenderness. She wrapped her arms around him, holding him close.
“Reece was here,” he said.
It figured. “That man has a genius for being around at all the right moments.”
“He likes you too. Told me what you did. It was you, wasn’t it? You were the one who opened up that gap in Arrhan’s defenses.”
“It was the only way I could help.”
“My Mouse with fangs,” he murmured on the drowsy breath of a laugh.
She felt him slide into sleep—natural sleep, not the almost-coma of the healing fever. She hugged his head to her and fell into sleep herself, her lips against his hair.
When she woke, he was gone and the blanket was draped over her. She sat up in a wild panic.
“Hey,” he said, coming in the open end of the cubicle. “Rise and shine. It’s past two.”
“You’re walking!”
“Told you I’d be raring to go in no time.” He grinned at her. “Nick went and got his Jeep and a change of clothes for both of us. Hurry and clean up, then we can go home.”
“Not yet,” said Asha sternly behind him. “You’re not leaving until I’ve looked you over. The kind of overdrive you went through is not to be taken lightly.”
Ian sighed. “If you weren’t a bear…”
So that explained her height and size, thought Sierra, who had wondered. She felt as if there should also have been angel wings attached to the lady. She had kept Ian alive.
“But I am a bear.” Asha grinned. “And you really don’t want me getting cranky. We’re dangerous when crossed. Go and wash and have something to eat, Sierra. I’ll send him over when I’m done.”
Sierra was just finishing her coffee when Ian came strolling up an hour later. He was walking with care, but without the stiffness that came with pain. He wasn’t hurting inside any longer.
“Got the all clear,” he said with satisfaction.
“You’re still a little shaky on your feet,” she said worriedly.
“Won’t be in a little while.”
“The fever leaves you hungry, doesn’t it? You should get something to eat.”
“I just finished a steak. Asha let me eat while she was checking me out. She’s got more sense than Doc. Prettier too.”
“Should I be jealous?”
“Women who can crush me like a bug scare me.” He grinned then gave her a half-lidded, sensual look. “But feel free to be jealous.”
She couldn’t help laughing. They both looked around as a sudden surge of noise came from outside the tent. Ian went to the tent flap and pulled it aside to look out. She hurried after him and he dropped an arm across her shoulders to steady himself.
A lot of Shifters were milling about in the clearing. Sierra saw Thorvald’s huge form looming over all of them, with Kurt and Reece beside him.
“What’s going on?”
“The clan leaders have made a decision about Arrhan’s troops.” Ian was watching the bustle intently. “Thorvald told me about it a few minutes ago. They’re going to be sent back to their own dimension. Iseya’s going to open the Gate for them. Thorvald talked her into that. She’s being surprisingly cooperative.”
Iseya was sitting with an odd, graceless angularity on the fur-covered boulder Arrhan had used as a throne, staring blankly into space. She looked like a puppet whose strings had been cut. In a way, she was. Her whole being had been centered on Arrhan. Now he was dead, she seemed to have stopped as well.
Doc’s anesthetic would have worn off by now and Iseya would be able to use her powers once again. If she chose to turn her magic against them, not one of them had the ability to fight back. But there seemed to be no anger in her, just a bone-deep apathy.
“She doesn’t care anymore now that Arrhan’s dead,” Sierra said, wishing there were some way to comfort her. “She loved him.”
Ian glanced down at her. “Is that the way it was?”
“Yeah. With her, it was always what he wanted. Now that he’s dead, it’s like nothing matters to her. I thought she might want revenge for his death. She’s still a mage. She could fry us or hit us with God knows what kinds of spells. But look at her. It’s like we don’t exist. Or like she doesn’t exist anymore,” Sierra finished under her breath.
Ian’s lips compressed. “I can empathize.”
She turned her head to rub her cheek against his collarbone. “So can I. I’d have wanted to die if Arrhan had killed you, Ian.”
His arm tightened about her. “Sierra…”
There was movement on the other side of the clearing. Shifters still deep in the healing fever were being brought out on stretchers to join the walking wounded in the containment area.
“Kihain!” Sierra exclaimed. “We have to tell him he can go home if he wants to.”
They found him in a cubicle of the allied tent. His wounds were only partially closed and the fever was still working in him, but he was alive and conscious. His poor, battered face lit up when Sierra bent over him.
“Lady…”
“How are you doing, Kihain?”
“I will mend. I killed them,” he said proudly. “All three. I fought…”
“I saw.”
“I fought for the Way. As I should have done before. I finally found the courage. Forgive…”
“You’re forgiven, Kihain,” she said gently. “I couldn’t have made it to Iseya without you. You redeemed yourself when you did that.”
“No,” he sighed. “Never. Too much ill done. Honor lost. Cannot regain it, can only try to make amends.”
“By making amends, you regained it.”
He shook his head fretfully. “It is not that easy.”
Then his gaze went past her and his eyes widened. Sierra looked over her shoulder and saw that Kurt had come up behind them.
“You’ve redeemed your honor, boy,” Kurt said quietly. “There is a place for you in the Lowe pride if you wish it.”
“Oh,” said Kihain on a lost breath.
Sierra touched his hand to regain his attention. “But Iseya will be opening the Gate any minute now. So you can go back to your own world if you don’t want to stay here.”
“There is nothing for me there. I would rather stay. If…if you will permit it.” His voice was disbelieving and his hesitant upward glance begged for reassurance as he looked from her to Kurt.
“This might be your last chance to leave,” Sierra warned. “Once Iseya’s gone, there won’t be anyone in this world who can open the Gate.”
“I no longer have a home there and I do not wish to return to the life of an outcast.”
“You have a home with the Lowes. Or with us,” said Ian. “We’d be glad to have you.”
“After…what I’ve done?”
“It’s all forgotten,” Sierra said gently. “The good and bad balance each other out. You can start fresh.”
His lips trembled. “You will not regret it this time. I swear it!”
Ian reached down to thump his one uninjured shoulder. “Do you remember saying your life is mine? I’m holding you to that. Stray off the Way again and you’ll regret it.”
“You are too good,” he whispered.
Sierra bent and kissed his cheek. “You’re our friend, Kihain. You belong with us.”
The fever had weakened him. Tears welled up without his volition and he blinked them back frantically.
“Come to us or to the Lowes once you’re healed,” said Ian brusquely, pretending not to notice. “There’s no hurry to decide who you want to stay with. We’ll be glad to see you either way. Come on, Sierra. I want a look at this Gate of theirs.”
They left Kihain lying with his hand against his cheek where Sierra had kissed him, his eyes squeezed shut to hide his emotion.
“You were right,” Kurt said to Ian as they exited the tent. “Fundamentally, he’s a good boy.”
“Given the chance, he’ll make a fine man. He’s had a rough time of it so far.”
In the clearing, things were getting underway. Iseya had just finished drawing a complicated symbol in sparkling blue powder on the grass. She straightened up then raised her arms and began to intone strange words.
White light flashed blindingly, right up into the sky from horizon to horizon. Then a glimmering rectangle opened in the middle of the clearing.
After that flash, the Gate seemed an anticlimax, a faintly shimmering image ten feet high and six wide superimposed on the air, wavering a little as if with heat haze. Within that rectangle, strange when seen against the green grass and the trees of the clearing, was a vista of blue sky and empty golden plain rolling away into the distance. Iseya had chosen an apparently deserted spot in the other dimension. Nothing moved there except for the wind bending long grass burned dry and yellow with heat. They could hear the rustling of that grass and the thin, high shriek of some distant bird.
“Right,” said Reece in a flat, implacable voice to Arrhan’s followers. “Pick up those stretchers and move on out. Get out of our world and don’t come back. If we see any one of you again, we’ll kill you on sight.”
A resentful stir went through them and for a moment it seemed as if they would resist. But this world’s Shifters closed in on them, fangs flashing, and the impulse faded. Sullenly, they moved toward the Gate.
“Stop,” said a cold voice.
A man was standing within the Gate. He wore the ubiquitous black leathers. But on the left side of his open vest was a symbol picked out in red and gold—a paw with its claws extended.
“Who the hell are you?” Reece demanded.
“A Guardian, one of those who keep the peace in our world. As such, I cannot permit these outcasts through the Gate. They are not welcome here.”
“Fuck that,” snarled Reece. “They came from your world. We don’t want them in ours. They’re your garbage. It’s up to you to dispose of them, not us.”
Thorvald shouldered his way to the front, Kurt right behind him. “Reece is right. They are your responsibility. A man called Arrhan set himself up as pride-lord and brought them here where they don’t belong. We want them off our soil.”
A fleeting look of uncertainty passed across the Guardian’s face. “Where is Arrhan?”
“Know of him, do you?” snapped Reece. “He’s dead. We took care of him the way you should have. Don’t see why we should be stuck with this scum. Kill them, imprison them, do whatever your laws demand. We don’t care. We just want them off our land.”
Forms slid up behind the Guardian—men and women in the black leathers with the red-and-gold symbol on their vests. It seemed he had backup. Everyone on this side of the Gate visibly tensed.
But other forms were also flicking into existence out of the thin air, one moment not there, the next solidly present. They wore open-sided silken tabards belted over their leathers and they all had white hair and an overwhelming presence. Mages.
One of them stepped forward to set a restraining hand on the Guardian’s arm. The Guardian glanced around then stepped back.
“Are you the authority in your world?” the mage said to Thorvald.
“Among others.”
The other clan leaders were pushing their way to the front. The mage looked them over thoughtfully.
“We must speak. In the interim, send the outcasts through. We agree that they are our responsibility. But first…”
He looked over to where Iseya was standing. She met his stare calmly, her arms hanging passive at her sides.
“Come,” he said to her.
Iseya moved forward without protest, her face blank. Mages closed in upon her as she stepped through the Gate, then she and they vanished.
“What will they do to her?” Sierra whispered to Ian.
Even though they were standing some distance away, the mage heard. He turned to look at her.
“We will not harm her, only remove her powers,” he said. “Mages are forbidden to involve themselves with the battles of the prides and the packs. By obeying Arrhan, she has broken many of our laws and must pay the penalty.”
It was justice. But Sierra couldn’t help feeling for Iseya.
“This incident with Arrhan shows that we have been remiss in neglecting your world,” the mage said, addressing the clan leaders. “Such an event must not be allowed to happen again.”
“Damn straight,” growled Reece. “But we prefer neglect. You banished us to this world and never bothered with us after that. Maybe you hoped we would die out here, abandoned among the humans. But we’ve prospered. We don’t need you and you have no claim on us. This world is ours. Take these rejects of yours and go.”
“Wait, Reece,” said Thorvald and Reece scowled.
“For thousands of years, they chose to forget that we exist! Are you yearning to return to the fold? I’m not!”
“They’re aware of us now. That means that more intrusions like Arrhan’s could happen. We have to discuss measures of prevention.”