Did he just say what I thought he— “Are you nuts?”
If HQ learned we’d helped Galen and Leta, it would be fiery punishment all around.
His hands closed over my shoulders. “I’m not saying we come clean to the investigators. We’ll talk to your friends and colleagues here in camp. Let them help hide us. We’d be hiding in plain sight. It’s the only way.”
I could see one big problem right off the bat. “What about Thaïs?”
Galen swallowed. I could tell he was warming to the idea. “All except for Thaïs. No one tells him anything anyway.”
That was true, but my mind swam with everything that could go wrong. “It’s too much of a risk.”
Galen’s hands slid down my arms. “We don’t have a choice. We need their help. Besides, I trust them. Don’t you?”
“Mostly.” All except for Thaïs. “In case you haven’t noticed, I have a hard time with trust.”
He took my hands. “Then trust me.”
I stared at my fingers, entwined with his. Galen always did know how to pull off the seemingly impossible. I didn’t want to kick him out if Leta’s condition was going to put them both in danger. And our small unit always did pull together in a crisis, especially in matters of life and death.
His lips brushed my forehead. “People care about us.”
I savored it for a split second before pulling away. “There is no
us
.” I ran a shaking hand through my hair. “I suppose they’re going to find out anyway.” Nothing stayed secret for long around here.
He was getting too close. This entire situation was threatening to veer right off the cliff. It was against my control-freak nature to include the entire camp, but I wasn’t sure I had a choice at this point.
I couldn’t believe I was actually considering this, much less ready to organize it. “If we do it, I get to handle how the news comes out,” I told him. Damn. That sounded like agreement on my part.
Was I just crazy, or was it that Galen made me agree to do crazy things? Still, I had to have at least some concession to my mental health. “I’ll call a meeting. Tomorrow night at the rocks.” I stood facing him, hoping he’d listen, frightened out of my mind at what might happen between us if he didn’t.
He stared at me for a long moment, as if he knew how weak I felt. “Then we’re settled,” he finally said, “until tomorrow night.”
“Yes,” I said, wondering what exactly I’d just promised.
chapter eleven
As anyone would have guessed, word spread fast.
It still made me nervous—to tell the entire camp about Galen and Leta. But Galen was right. We needed help if we were going to pull this thing off. And so far, we’d kept it under control. I’d informed key people: Shirley, Rodger, Father McArio. We’d put up signs around camp, announcing the rendezvous.
What I couldn’t get was why people kept winking at me. I noticed it the next morning. By nightfall, I didn’t know what to think.
Yes, I’d asked everyone to meet me at the rocks at midnight. It was a logical, out-of-the-way place. I didn’t see what all of the snickering was about. Or why soldiers I’d hardly spoken to before—all men—were eyeing me like I was the last pork chop on the plate.
I’d just finished up my rounds in Recovery when Marius caught me. He lowered his chin, which made his sharp Roman nose look even more pronounced.
“Is it true?” he asked, as I signed out at the desk by the door.
I handed him the pen. “You’re going to have to get a little more specific than that.”
He hissed out a breath before drawing close. “Your group thing,” he said, glancing behind him, “at the rocks.”
Good. He’d been asleep all day and had managed to find out. “I’m glad you’re going to make it,” I said, opening the door for both of us.
It was chilly outside, but not terrible. Hopefully, we’d have good weather for the meeting tonight.
And that our revelation wouldn’t end in disaster.
The vampire looked stunned. “I’m not going.” He grabbed my arm and pulled me away from the torch-lit path, to the side of the building. “You’re not going either.”
“Hello, Marius. Grown woman, here.” I extricated my sleeve from his grasp.
He didn’t even notice. “This is completely out of character for you. I don’t care what is going on in your personal life, that”—he flung an arm in the direction of the rocks—“is not the answer.”
“Says you.” There was nothing else I could do. Second guessing would only make me more tense. “If it’s going to happen, I might as well take care of the whole camp at once.” I headed back for the path, making him follow.
I steered Marius toward the officers’ tents, waving to a group of clerks catching a smoke outside the supply tent.
The vampire was turning red around the ears.
I placed a hand on his arm. “Come tonight.”
Marius about choked.
“You need to, Marius. It’s important.” Did he feel like that much of an outsider? I gave him a gentle squeeze. “I really want you to come.”
The poor vampire had gone purple. “No!” he said, his voice pitching up an octave. His hands flailed, as if he could somehow pick the words out of the air. “I have had … concubines in Macedonia, a harem in Persia, countless orgies with beautiful mortals, but I am not going to take this coming from you. You are better than that. You are my friend. Even if you were the least bit attractive, I would absolutely, positively not get naked with you and—”
It hit me like a slap to the side of the head. “You think I want to have
sex
with you?”
“And the rest of the camp,” he barked. “What has gotten into you?”
It was disgusting and unthinkable and, “Ew!”
For seven years, everybody had thought I was a prude. I’d had a total of two boyfriends for about five minutes each and now this? This was what happened when I stuck my neck out.
Now Marius thought I was coming on to him? Well, I had news for the wannabe sex stud vamp. “I don’t want to sleep with you!”
“Good. Because I don’t want to sleep with you!”
That’s when we noticed people staring.
We started walking. Fast.
“Who told you this was an orgy?” I demanded, voice low.
He gave a strangled cry. “Ken, Frances, Emilio, Tonya, it’s on the camp bulletin board, for Lilith’s sake.”
“I don’t believe it.” I turned around and charged the other way, with Marius on my heels.
“Oh, for Pete’s sake,” he snapped before turning on his lightning speed.
“Lover’s quarrel?” A voice echoed from the path on the other side of the courtyard.
“Can it, Lazio!” I stopped next to the flagpole, hands on my hips.
I couldn’t believe I had to deal with this. I mean, really—an orgy? I invite the entire camp to the rocks for a surprise and their minds immediately go to a giant no-holds-barred sexcapade?
I narrowed my eyes at the shadowed forms of Lazio and the rest of his buddies, guffawing at something or other.
Okay, maybe it wasn’t as surprising as I’d originally thought.
Dust swirled and torch flames blew sideways as Marius shot up next to me, flyer in hand. “See?”
I took it to the nearest torch, careful not to set the parchment on fire. In looping script, it said:
Meet Petra at the rocks
Midnight tonight
For a special surprise
Campwide fun! Everyone is invited.
“This isn’t so terrible,” I said, defensive. It looked like Rodger had written it.
Naturally, someone had scrawled “Bring your own condoms!” along the bottom, but this was the same crowd who snickered the one time we had All You Can Eat Sausage Sunday.
I held the flyer up for Marius to see. “This is about a meeting at the rocks. Not sex. It’s not like Rodger asked anyone to bring a pillow.”
The vampire squinted at me. “You really need to get out more.”
I folded the flyer and stuffed it into my pocket. “We have an announcement to make. You’ll see.” The meeting was in an hour anyway. I crossed my arms over my chest and sighed. “Maybe the possibility of sex will get more people there.”
Marius stared at me.
“Just looking at the bright side,” I pointed out.
Who knew the vampire could be such a prude.
“Hey!” Rodger waved from across the way. “Who’s in the mood for an orgy?”
Marius and I scowled at him.
Rodger planted his hands on his hips. “I was only joking, but I take it back—both of you really do need to get laid.”
Marius turned on his heel and left.
“See?” I said, pointing to Marius’s retreating form. “You scared the vampire.”
“We’ll talk to him later,” he said, handing me a torch. “Come on. Galen and Leta are already there with Father McArio.”
It was going to be interesting to see how the camp reacted to hiding Galen and Leta. This wasn’t your run-of-the-mill prank. We were up against bloodthirsty investigators, even if they were wound up in their own red tape.
Still, I had to believe we could pull this off.
The alternative was unthinkable.
Up ahead, I caught the faint glow of torches, and behind us, more. Good. Hopefully, we’d have a decent-sized crowd.
By the time we’d reached the last of the hulking mounds of junk, I smelled chocolate chip cookies. Father McArio had baked. Good man. Smart man.
He gave out fresh cookies every Sunday after mass, and let me just say, they were amazing. It was how he got the minor gods to attend.
Shirley stood at the crossroads as we exited the minefield. “Welcome to the party. We’re just getting set up.”
The three of us headed for the rocks. “Thaïs isn’t here, is he?” I asked. He was the one person who would rat us out.
“Nah,” Shirley said. “He didn’t want to have sex with you.”
“Good.”
We could hear the party at the rocks before we could even see the light of the bonfire.
“They’re making s’mores.” Rodger grinned.
That was fine. “As long as they’re not getting naked.”
Thank goodness they hadn’t had enough time—or most likely enough booze. We walked up to a full-out party in progress. There were at least seventy people down there—talking, laughing, listening to Kid Rock’s version of “Sweet Home Alabama.”
It would have been like every lakeside party in high school. Well, if we hadn’t been in the fourth quadrant of limbo.
The rocks were in a slight valley, which was the only reason we hadn’t seen the huge fire from a mile away.
“Where’s Galen?” I scanned the crowd for him.
“Father’s got him stashed until you make the announcement,” Shirley said.
“Gotcha,” I said, trying to locate the priest.
Red rocks jutted from the desert floor, which is how the place got its name. There was a sort of cave near the largest rocks. Lord knew what was going on in there. The rest of the rocks stood like a messy Stonehenge.
My gut twisted a bit. “They’re burning the old officers’ showers.” I shouldn’t have cared.
“They got part of your old lab too,” Rodger said.
With a start, I realized he was right. Flames licked the boxlike structure that had acted as my lab bedroom, my haven, my port in the storm. Of all the … “That was
mine.
”
Light played off Rodger’s stoic features as we watched it burn. “You gave it up.” He clapped me on the shoulder. “You moved on.”
I did.
“Oh, hell,” Rodger said, his voice flat.
A light shone off to the side of us. As it drew closer, we could see it was Father McArio. He had someone bundled in the crook of his arm. I couldn’t tell who was under the dark cloak and hood.
“A priest and a monk walk into an orgy,” I began, but stopped when I saw the look on the padre’s face. He drew the hood off his companion. It was Leta. Her eyes were haunted, her expression feral. Dang. Galen wasn’t kidding when he’d said she was on the edge. She shook as Father held her hand.
“She’d better not be about to shift,” I said under my breath.
“I can’t do it.” She choked, her breath coming in pants. “The pressure. It’s too much.”
“Oh, this is bad,” Rodger muttered.
“I’ve got you,” Father McArio soothed, glancing at us, worried. “Where’s Marc?”
“I don’t know.” Frankly, I’d been glad not to run into him today. “What’s wrong with her?” He’d had her flying. He was treating her medical issues. She should be getting better, not worse.
The last thing we needed was to convince the camp to harbor an AWOL dragon, and then have her go crazy, shift, and eat half of them.
Marc came up behind Father. “What’s the problem?” He gave me a pointed glance, then noticed Leta.
“I can’t calm her down,” Father told him. “She won’t listen to me.”
“I’ve got her,” Marc said as she sank into him.
“What can I do to help?” I asked, watching him squeeze her shoulders from behind and murmur something in her ear. But Marc either didn’t hear me or he didn’t want to shift his attention from the other dragon.
“It’s a shifter thing,” Rodger said.
“Yes. That I get.” It still didn’t explain what the hell was going on. Marc began leading her away. I was tempted to go after them.
“Let them go,” Father said. “He’s doing his part. You need to do yours. Come,” he added, “let’s get you to the party.”
“We’ll be there in a minute,” I told him, unable to move from that spot. We sure as hell didn’t need any surprises tonight. I glanced at Rodger. “We may have made a big mistake.”
“I’d like to blow sunshine up your butt, but”—Rodger glanced at the departing priest, then back at me—“she needs a dominant right now or she’s going to lose control.”
Lovely. “So how close are we to being screwed?”
We watched Marc and Leta’s lantern fade into the darkness. “In every pack, we have one person who maintains control. Physical control. Ours is our pack alpha. He says to fight and you fight. He orders you to stand down, you stand down.”
“That’s so dumb.”
“Thanks a lot.”
“Okay, sorry. But you have to admit, this is strange.” I treated shifters all the time. And Marc hadn’t led a single one of them down a darkened path before.
Rodger ran a hand through his wild auburn hair. “It’s like this, Petra. You’ve got a loose cannon and it’s a dragon. This is why shape shifters can be so scary. Because as an army, we can act as an overwhelming force. When the alpha says ‘Go,’ you go.”