Highland Shapeshifter (15 page)

They had to find the other man. Since the Sifts had taken everything off Bekah, her weapons and the
scientific
device that would allow her to travel to an exact point in time. As long as it wasn’t more than one hundred or so years beyond her own time.

It sounded like dangerous alchemy to him. She said the man—Luke—had one as well, barring he hadn’t also been captured or eaten on the spot.

Col’s stomach roiled. He’d seen gruesome things during his lifetime, but,
by the rood
…

These monsters had to be dealt with. One way or another.

Lenore’s little box she used to talk to people out of the air was also gone, and he, well he’d come out of the shift naked as the day he was born so now all he had was an old tartan and this cursed band burning his neck. He couldn’t shift, couldn’t as easily protect the women.

His palms itched for the weight of a broadsword.

“How are we going to find him?” Lenore snapped, rubbing her head with more force.

“First motel in the yellow pages that begins with K. That’s where he’ll be, if he’s still alive.” Bekah pushed dripping bangs out of her eyes.

~~~

King and Castle Motel. ‘Twas not too far to travel on foot, within the same rundown section of town. It took Lenore less than a moment to sidle up to the desk clerk, flutter her large luminous eyes and the boy was ready to give her any information she asked of him.

Though partly amused at how quick the male fell to her feminine charms, Col found he was also vastly annoyed, wanting her smiles and sly glances turned only toward him. He didn’t like that at all, never felt so possessive of a woman.

But Lenore wasn’t any woman.

And he would soon be leaving her. Discomfort erupted in his chest, a little remorseful twitch. He did not wish to leave her. As simple as that.

They filed into the small room, following the man, Luke, toward the back window. He also looked worse for wear, though at least dry. Bekah immediately embraced him, light head to his dark, drawing back to ask him about weapons and something they referred to as a
Squid
.

What a sea creature had to do with situation he knew not.

Lenore went immediately to the little table between the beds, lifted a strange smooth rod to the side of her face and began pressing buttons on the boxy part still on the table. Her fingers tapped nervously before her face brightened. “Gabe.”

Col raised his brows in understanding. Ah. ‘Twas another of the talking boxes of this time. More of the strange magic of these times, though fascinating. To be able to speak with someone leagues away. Were it possible he would like to bring this magic home.

“Yes, I’m fine. He’s fine, too.” Lenore shook her head. “I need your help. I know. Again. You’re right. Were at the King and Castle on Mulberry. Room Eight.” She paused, listening. “The ‘vettes fine. Relatively. A few windows. I had to ditch it though.” Col could hear the man’s voice raise in pitch. His lips twitched in amusement. The white
car
thus far had been his favorite of all the steel carriages. It rumbled like a true beast, galloping quick and low to the ground.

Glancing up at him, Lenore shook her head. “I promise, it’s not bad. Outside of Charity’s complex, but I think my grandma called in for it to be towed. I don’t know where. Um, you’ll need a set of spare keys. Yes. Okay, just stop about the car already. It’s insured, right?” There was more yelling. That wasn’t taken well at all. “I need you to bring any kind of weapon you have.” More talking spilled out. “The whole butcher’s block then. And clothes… Ah, geez, Gabe. Yes, he shifted again and he’s naked. I am not going there.”

Lenore’s gaze slid down Col’s torso, then danced back up, meeting his eyes and her cheeks quickly pinked. She spun her back to him and Col grinned.

“And clothes for me and another woman as well. I’ll tell you when you get here. Please just hurry. Oh, and cinnamon. As much as you have. Yeah, all right. See you in a few.”

She placed the talking rod back upon the other half and sank down on the bed.

She looked frail and weary. Lowering beside her, Col drew her against his side, pleased when she rested her head on his shoulder.

She felt right next to him as though she fit him perfectly, was molded just for him.

“Good news.” Bekah stood in front of them holding out what he could only describe as a jellyfish taken from the ocean—without the long trailing tentacles. “Luke managed to get away with his Squid intact.”

Lenore leaned forward, eyeing the jellyfish skeptically. “That’s the time-travel device? You call it a Squid?”

“What’s wrong with Squid?” Bekah eyed the bloated blob.

“Part of the time-travel device, yes,” the guy spoke up behind Bekah. He had a bruise on his cheek and dark blood stains down the torn sleeve of his shirt. “Unfortunately the key ingredient is missing.”

“Which is?” Col asked, fearing he already knew. He may be from centuries in the past and everything in this era was strange and confusing, but he could keep up with the workings of a conversation. Mostly. Bekah said it earlier. Toren’s son melded magic with this new alchemy—science.
 
The missing ingredient came from the monsters themselves.

“Sift DNA.” Bekah folded her arms.

Col stood. He was weary and ready to let this be done. If he had to give up Lenore, better to do not prolong the heartache. For either of them. “Let us go get this Dee-un-aye.”

Lenore latched onto his wrist. “Easy, big guy. Gabe will be here soon. I want that thing off your neck before we do anything.”

Softening, Col looked down at her, touched. She worried for him, wanted him to have the advantage of shifting while facing the beasts.

Blinking, Lenore looked away, stabbing a finger at the Squid. Upon closer inspection, it really didn’t look like anything that could live in the ocean.
 
“How exactly does that work?”

Bekah shrugged. “Ask your nephew when you meet him. I have no idea. It absorbs the Sift DNA, changes color and…we ingest it.”

“Ingest it? Eat troglodyte DNA? That’s disgusting.” Lenore’s nose wrinkled.

Bekah frowned. “Tastes worse than you can imagine.”

“It’s the smell and gristly texture that gets to me,” Luke replied unhelpfully.

Col grinned, beginning to like this guy.

Bekah signed wearily and slunk down into the one chair in the room, flipping a leg over its arm. “But it works.”

“Wait.” Lenore’s eyes tracked back and forth across the floor. “If this is the last one and we use it to get Col back to Toren and Charity, how do you plan on getting back to your time?”

Luke and Bekah shared a knowing glance.

“They won’t be able to,” Col supplied.

“We knew before we volunteered that it was a possibility we might not make it back. We were each able to bring one Squid so we had two chances to get it right and one chance to go home.” A small line appeared above Bekah’s nose. “Unlike a sorcerer’s true rifts, with the Squid, material items can pass through. Limited, calculated weight. Clothing, a weapon, and another Squid for us each.”

“And there’s only one left,” Luke said.

“We get one shot at this.” Bekah swung her leg off the chair, stomping her feet on the carpet. “One shot. We go back to two nights ago and you, Highlander, dive into the sorcerer’s rift and go find your moon sifter brother and stop him from destroying our world.

Col nodded. He’d stop Shaw, he would. But he would not kill him. His brother. Not Shaw. He would never do that.

Silence strained between them, coating the air in thick hues.

Lenore lifted the talking rod again. “I need to tell Grandma what’s going on.”

Chapter Nineteen

Lenore propelled herself against Gabe the moment he walked through the door, never in her life so happy to see him. He lifted two stacked pizza boxes out of the way, teetering back on crutches while she wrapped her arms around his waist.
 

“Yes, I know, I have that effect on people. Can’t keep their hands off me.”

“Shut up,” she said without heat and took the pizza boxes from him and placed them on the bed. They smelled incredible. Her mouth was watering before she opened the lids.

“Pizza? Is that pizza?” Bekah practically squealed. “I loooove pizza.” Guess Italian pies were a little hard to come by in frickin happy future Morlock-world. Which was a sad statement about how things had gone. Troglodytes trying to eat you aside, a person should be able to order out for a decent meal when they wanted. That was no way for the human race to suffer.

Everyone, but Gabe, dove into the pizza with gusto. Two large with the works gone in five minutes flat.

“Well hello.” Gabe looked Bekah up and down, lip curling appreciatively. “I’m Gabe. Fighter of monsters.” He tapped the long cast on his leg. “I saved the shapeshifter’s bacon. Perhaps they filled you in?”

“No.” Bekah flicked her gaze over him, sizing him up above the cheesy slice stuffed halfway inside her mouth.

Hobbling closer, he ran his free hand up the back of her short hair. “I could tell you all about it.” Lenore had the feeling he would have earned more points if he’d brought more than two pizzas. Maybe thrown in some wings.
 

She leaned in close to his neck, speaking around a mouthful of crust. “Maybe after I’ve killed a few monsters of my own.”

“She’s way out of your league, you know that right?” Lenore shoved the last bite of her own pizza in her mouth and asked around it. “Where’s the stuff?”

“I have no league.” He tossed her the keys, never taking his eyes from Bekah who hadn’t budged in a sort of he or she-who-moves-first-loses stare-down. “Stuff’s in the car.”

Lenore went out to her Prius, ready to get out of the damp clothes. Pulling the duffel bags from her trunk, she turned and ran straight into Col’s chest. Geez. She hadn’t heard him at all.

He took the bags from her. Always the gentleman. “Your friend, he’s…”

“Full of himself? Annoying? Yeah.”

Col smiled and crazy things started fluttering around in her stomach. “A little…” His face reddened and he shrugged conspicuously. “But loyal.”

She smiled back. “Yeah, he is.” In some ways. But in other ways, not so much. Gabe was Gabe, as long as there were no expectations of anything lasting, he was great.

Lenore tilted her head curiously, realizing the past hurt over Gabe was no longer there, completely absent. Staring into sharp green eyes she saw a different
lasting
, a connection so right and ripe with promise, anything she’d hoped to have with Gabe or anyone else was a pale flicker buried beneath gauze.

Col was her
lasting
. She knew that with a fervency that threatened to sweep her feet out from under her. She wanted that with him.

And she was about to lose it all when he leapt into his brother’s time rift.

The cold hard slap of reality crashed into her, making her head buzz beneath a droning pulsing vibration. She pressed the flat of her hand to his chest, felt firm muscle beneath smooth skin. None of this should be happening. She shouldn’t have to give him up, not when she’d just found him. Less than two days. She’d known him less than two days, and yet she knew as firmly as she knew anything that she would never be the same because of him.

And the way he was going back in time now, he wouldn’t just disappear from this time line. She would remember all of this. Remember him. It already hurt like hell.

Is this how Charity felt about Toren, a man she’d known barely moments? Yet her sister had risked everything to jump back in time to save him.