Marshal of Hel Dorado (11 page)

 
    
A rabbit froze in his path and he showed
the desert bunny his teeth and it fled. Despite his rumbling stomach, he wasn’t
interested in hunting for food. He could eat when he returned. Sour sweat stung
his nose and he fought the urge to sneeze. Horses nickered to each other as he
crept.

 
    
His belly sliding lower to the ground.

 
    
Even downwind, horses seemed to know when a
predator was close. His brothers told him that his wolf form was huge, bigger
than his wilder brethren and that his legs were thicker, more bear than wolf.
Cody didn’t care for the descriptions, his sandy blonde fur stood out
everywhere but the desert. His size gave him considerable advantage in fights
and even ranchers thought twice about shooting him if they came across him in
the course of his wanderings.

 
    
No one touched his wolf body, despite
craving physical affection, he only allowed the brothers and Scarlett to get
that close and only with Scarlett would he lay like a pup at her feet, her
fingers stroking his fur.

 
    
The hair on the back of his neck bristled
again. Leaving Scarlett tortured him. He wanted to get back to her. A flash of
red hazed his vision. If he slaughtered the posse they could just turn back.

 
    
But there were twelve riders and they were
all armed. If they spread out more, he could pick them off.

 
    
Or maybe he only needed to kill one of
them.

 
    
As though conjured by his thoughts, the
wheat haired leader of the group rose to stride out into the gathering dusk.

 
    
Cody’s lips curled back into a wolfish
smile and he crept onwards, circling wider, on a course that would bring him
upon their pursuer. Maybe he only needed to take out that man.

 
    
Then they could go back for his Scarlett.

 
    
A flare of red and blue scattered the
darkness, then narrowed to a thin orange light. Cody found his target sitting
atop a large rock, a rifle leaning comfortably against one arm, smoking a
cheroot that smelled of tobacco leaves and cherries.

 
    
Fighting the urge to sneeze, Cody circled
further, studying the boy. The darkness was no obstruction to his vision,
flattened and two-dimensional, as it seemed in his wolf form.

 
    
“Hello.” The greeting surprised Cody into
stillness. His ears flattened against the side of his head and he hunched down,
his muscles preparing for the spring. “You find out everything you needed to
know about us yet?” The man, no he was more of a boy, younger than Cody by at
least four years, maybe more. His voice, though deep, still carried that faint
hint of quavering that suggested a late change, a late bloomer.

 
    
The scent of his cheroot interfered the
boy’s scent. Top notes of horse and sweat were strong, but below that,
something teased Cody’s senses. He couldn’t label it.

 
    
“I know you’ve been watching us. I know
you’ve been following us.” A hint of laughter shivered his words as he exhaled
a long stream of smoke. He’d abandoned his Stetson to sit on the rock next to
him, and despite his casual posture, there was wariness to his muscles, a
preparedness that warned Cody to stillness.

 
    
“So I’ll say it plain. We’re not going to
stop until we get the gold back. You’re not going to lose us as long as you’re
slowed by the gold. So leave the gold in the canyon. If I find it there in the
morning, we’ll take it back to Dorado. You can go your way.” A flick of the
cheroot sent smoking ash to the desert floor. “You don’t leave it. We’ll stay
on you. We’re going to get faster, you’re just going to get slower. We catch up
to you. They’re going to hang you.”

 
    
Cody cocked his head to the side, staring
at the boy. He rose from his crouch, stepping forward until he was certain the
boy saw him. The young man’s eyes widened. He curled his lips back, giving the
boy a very good look at his teeth.

 
    
“Okay. Maybe they’ll just shoot you.” The
tone was conversational, but the scent soured with a hint of fear.

 
    
The bland delivery amused Cody despite his
irritation with the boy, even as the rough scent of fear calmed him. He cocked
his head, ears flicking forward. There was more to the boy than his appearance
suggested. He was young, but his gaze carried the weight of years.

 
    
They stared at each other, waiting. Cody
knew the boy wasn’t done talking. His urge to listen was surprising, but he
waited, nonetheless.

 
    
“You should go. They’ll send someone over
to check on me. Can’t lose me or my Pa would shoot them. They’re not a bad
bunch, but they don’t like thieves. I meant what I said about the gold. Leave
it. We’ll take it back.” The boy shifted, but it was slow, every move
telegraphed carefully. He was setting the gun aside. Laying it on the rock.

 
    
Cody’s ears flattened as he watched. The
boy was putting down his only measure of defense. If Cody pounced now, he could
snap his neck before he got off a sound or could scrabble to reclaim the gun.

 
    
 
Why?
 

 
    
Not for the first time, he wished he could
communicate in a manner that humans would understand. But he would have to
shift to do that. He wasn’t going to shift in front of the stranger.

 
    
“Look. I don’t know if you really are
understanding me or if I’ve gone completely sun struck, but you left that girl
behind in the vault. My brother’s the Marshal. He arrested her and was going to
send for a judge. If I don’t get that gold back, they may string her up for
your crime.”

 
    
Cody growled, rising to all four feet. His
fur did more than bristle now. They were not hanging his Scarlett. He’d kill
them all first.

 
    
“Yeah, I thought that might get your
attention. So leave the gold. I’ll take it back. Don’t let that girl hang for
what you did.”

 
    
How the boy recognized Cody could even
understand him, he didn’t care. He glared at him. That was the second time he’d
threatened the hanging. Red hazed the edges of his vision.

 
    
Teeth bared, he lunged and the boy
scrabbled backwards, but Cody had already turned and raced into the darkness,
giving in to his body’s desire to run.

 
    
He wasn’t followed.

 
    
If the boy was true to his word, he would
wait for the first light of dawn to check the canyon for the gold. Cody loped
through the desert, scattering rabbits, snakes and startling the coyote bitch
from her hunt. He ignored them all, stretching his body out for speed. It still
took him a half hour of racing over rocks and circling the escarpments and
canyon drops to reach the brothers' camp.

 
    
The fire was quiet, banked in the darkness.
He scented them all and let them see him before he trotted to his saddle and
bags. The shift was a slow process, but his fur retreated and his body twisted,
bones grinding on bones and his skin snapping back into place. They wouldn’t
watch him.

 
    
None of them liked the change.

 
    
He was on his knees, panting when he was
done. Sweat soaked his fever-heated skin. The flushed pink color of his skin
would fade, but the heat would linger. It always did. The change was brutal to
his body. He breathed through the pain as the last of his bones snapped to
where they should be.

 
    
Buck squatted in front of him, handing him
a canteen. Cody guzzled the tepid water. The brothers moved closer, saying
nothing as Buck passed him dried jerky. Cody tore into the food, hunger a
driving force after denying himself the hunt earlier.

 
    
He could feel the weight of their stares.
Expectation hung like moist air before the storm.

 
    
“They’re not going to stop until they get
the gold back. And they do have Scarlett.”

 
    
Silence met his declaration. They knew he
wasn’t done. Interrupting him or pushing him this close to the change was just
as likely to piss him off. So they waited. Buck handed him another piece of
jerky and he bit into it, the dried meat not remotely what he wanted, but it
would do. He chewed, washing down the bites with more water and finally reached
for his britches.

 
    
He jerked them on over bare legs. The rasp
of fabric stinging the sensitive skin.

 
    
“They’re going to hang her.” He stared at
Buck. “Have you been able to reach her?”

 
    
“No.” Buck was Quanto’s son by blood and by
skill. Like the Shaman that raised them, he could walk in dreams, communicating
over long distances. “Father reached for us though. He said Wyatt will be
leaving tomorrow to meet us in Dorado.”

 
    
The collective in drawn breath around him
suggested that Buck had reserved that news for Cody’s return. Cody sighed.
Wyatt shouldn’t leave the mountains. He needed to be with Quanto. Wyatt rode at
the side of death, if they couldn’t reclaim Scarlett before Wyatt got there…

 
    
…Dorado would be losing a lot more than
their gold.

 
    
“What do we do?” Jimmy stood a few feet
away, his arms crossed. His yellow jacket his only deference to the cooler
night air in the desert. He wore three guns and carried a fourth in his saddle.

 
    
“We leave the gold in the canyon. Their
leader said they just want the gold back. If we return it, Ike can follow the
boy. Buck, dream walk to Quanto. Ask him to delay Wyatt.”

 
    
“And Scarlett?” Rudy asked the question
from the shadows next to their banked fire.

 
    
He’d been moody and silent throughout their
flight. He blamed himself for leaving Scarlett behind.

 
    
Cody was fine with that. He blamed Rudy,
too.

 
    
But not as much as he blamed himself for
letting her come along in the first place.

 
    
“We’re going back for her.”

 
    
They nodded. Noah rose silently from where
he sat next to the bedrolls. He clapped Ike on the arm. “We’ll take the gold
down into the canyon now.”

 
    
“Is that a good idea?” Jimmy looked from
Cody to their brothers. He trusted no one.

 
    
“It’s the only idea we have. They aren’t
backing off and unless you want blood on your hands, we’re going to have to pay
them off. Scarlett is more important than the gold.” Cody glared at Jimmy,
daring him to challenge the decision.

 
    
Buck ignored the tension passing between
the two to walk over to the bedrolls. He stretched out on one, eyes closing. He
would drop into a light sleep and reach out to their father across the desert
miles separating them. He would seek Quanto’s wisdom and…

 
    
“Buck,” Cody pitched his voice low, knowing
that Buck could hear him even as he drifted into that netherworld he traveled.
“After Quanto, reach for Scarlett again.”

 
    
His brother didn’t answer. He didn’t have
to. Cody padded barefoot away from the flames. Ike and Noah were loading up
Scarlett’s horse with the gold. The gentle mare had carried her load with
aplomb despite the absence of Scarlett. The rider less horse taunted him,
fanning the quiet fury that gnawed at his insides.

 
    
“We’ll get her back, Cody.” It was Jimmy
who followed him. Cody nodded, letting the warm desert floor sting the bottoms
of his bare feet. He needed to calm the beast that still rode him hard inside.
The beast that wouldn’t be satisfied until Scarlett was back with them and
those that threatened her were savaged.

 
    
God help them all if they hurt her.