Wild Keepers

by Dee Bridgnorth

  He watched her for a moment, trying to decide. Then he heard her breathing regulate, and her jaw slacken against the pillow. She had fallen asleep. Just like that, as if she was switching off a motor. He hadn’t even finished his sentence.

  He stood up, approaching her. She didn’t move. She had fallen deeply into sleep within a matter of seconds.

  He studied her carefully. Her silky light brown hair was spread out over the pillow. Her sprained ankle was still aloft on the pillows he had propped under it, but she turned to the left, so that it fell slightly. In sleep she looked like the vulnerable woman that she really was, underneath the surliness. The hard, impenetrable expression she wore like a shield as he spoke to her.

  She had obviously decided that silence was her best defence. She hadn’t spoken a word to him since she had blurted out that Julia wasn’t her friend. When he had asked her why, over and over, she refused to answer him. Or any of the other questions he had asked. He had no doubt that if it wasn’t for her injured ankle she would have bolted out the door so fast she would have left a trail of smoke behind her.

  What was he going to do?

  Zach sighed, turning away and staring out the window. He couldn’t watch her as she slept. It was…creepy, somehow. And he already felt like a kidnapper. He had taken her against her will to this cheap motel room. What he should have done was dropped her at the nearest hospital or simply left her somewhere. She hadn’t been willing to tell him where she was staying, so he couldn’t take her there, which was where she should be.

  And she was claiming that Julia wasn’t her friend. She didn’t want to be taken to her. Zach was perplexed. Why was Julia seeking her, then? She had acted as if Sienna was dear to her. He shook his head, trying to work it out.

  He should leave. He had fulfilled his brief. He had found her, just as he had been asked to. She didn’t want to go to Julia. The rest was none of his business. Sienna Carter was a free agent, and she was unhappy that he had taken her here. He should walk out of this room now, pay the bill on the room so that she could rest her sprained ankle, and forget all about her.

  He sighed, watching the passing parade of people scurrying on the street below. All intent on their business. Two women clung to the street corner, dressed in clothes not suitable for the weather. Short skirts, low cut tops, high stilettos. They smiled and called out to men passing by, twirling their hair between their fingers. Zach could see flashes of their bright red lipstick.

  This was Sienna’s business, too. Although she had managed to escape the streets to ply her trade. She had secured herself a comfortable, exclusive arrangement with a rich and powerful man. What had gone wrong? Why was she so desperate to escape him?

  He turned back to the bed, staring down at her. She was still sleeping. She didn’t look a thing like the two women on the street corner. He would never have picked her for a working girl in a thousand years. Even though she always wore a defensive, street smart look, there was just something about her that he couldn’t quite put his finger on.

  She was different somehow. Zach frowned. He was responding to her as a man, there was no doubt about that. She was beautiful. Perhaps it was clouding his judgment, just a little.

  She stirred in her sleep, and her face clouded imperceptibly.

  “No,” she said, firmly, with her eyes still tightly closed. She sat up, abruptly, and her eyes flew open. “No!”

  Zach held his breath for a second as he gazed at her. Was she awake? But her opened eyes were wide and unfocused. She didn’t even glance at him. She was talking in her sleep. He let out his indrawn breath, watching her.

  Suddenly, she swivelled her head around and stared directly at him. Her tossed hair was wild, streaming behind her.

  “You are slowing down,” she said softly, her eyes still focused on him. “You have been running, but it is too much. Your legs are weary. Your hunter is behind you.” She fell silent for a second, as if she was listening to something. “You have heard your pack, but you must not howl.” Her eyes widened. “You mustn’t.”

  Zach felt the hairs on the back of his neck prickling. What on earth was she saying?

  “You must fulfil your destiny,” she continued slowly, her eyes never leaving his face. “You are weak, but you mustn’t slow down. He is coming.” Her eyes widened. “He is coming.”

  Zach shivered, staring at her. Suddenly, she collapsed back onto the bed, breathing heavily. He could see sweat beads on her forehead, clustering around her hairline. She cried out, as if in pain.

  He approached her cautiously. Was she awake now, or had she fallen back into sleep? Or whatever state she was in. It didn’t look like any normal sleep to him. And what had she been saying?

  None of it made any sense. None of it.

  She shuddered, turning to her right side. Her face was so pale she was almost as white as the sheet that she lay upon. She lurched forward, retching violently.

  She was going to be sick. Quickly, he grabbed a wastepaper basket and placed it beside the bed. He was just in time. She heaved, her head in the basket, for a few minutes.

  After it was done, she sat up. She was shaking and still very pale, but it looked like the worst of it was over.

  “Sienna?” he said gently. “Are you feeling better?”

  She blinked rapidly, trying to focus. Her eyes fell on him in confusion, as if she couldn’t quite remember who he was.

  “Who are you?” she whispered, staring at him. “I know your face, but I haven’t seen you before.”

  Zach gazed at her, not knowing what to say for a second. He felt a shadow fall over him. She spoke the truth. He knew her face, too. As soon as he had seen her in that photo, he had known her. And yet he had never met her before in his life.

  “You’ve been sick,” he said slowly, pushing her silky hair away from her face gently. “And you were talking in your sleep. You said some odd things.”

  She gazed at him, her liquid brown eyes clear and guileless for the first time since he had met her. He drew in a quick breath as if he had been punched in the stomach.

  She didn’t reply. She kept staring at him, until he was forced to look away.

  Another shadow fell over him. He recalled her words to him, replaying them in his head.

  You have heard your pack, but you must not howl.

  She knew. Somehow, she knew he was a wolf. But how? And what had she meant when she had told him that he mustn’t slow down?

  Zach shuddered again, her final words falling like smashing crystal into his mind.

  He is coming.

  Chapter Five

  Sienna stirred the sugar in her coffee, staring down into the brown liquid as if she might discern the meaning of life within it. She picked it up, taking a sip. It was good. She needed the caffeine. Her head was still swimming with the after effects of the vision that she had experienced while she had been sleeping on that cheap motel bed.

  The recovery was getting harder. Every time it happened now she felt weaker. As if the visions were draining her life’s blood, somehow.

  Her eyes darted towards Zach, sitting across the table from her. He had persuaded her to accompany him to this diner in a different district. He had offered to buy her breakfast, and she was hungry. She told herself it was as simple as that.

  She had fallen asleep again after being sick, and the next time she had awoken, it was the next day. She could see the sun rising through the tattered white curtains on the motel room window. For a minute, she didn’t know where she was. And then it had all jolted back into her mind.

  She had needed to go to the bathroom, and stood up, gingerly testing her ankle. It was almost better; she obviously hadn’t torn any ligaments. Where was the man called Zach? Had he left her in the night?

  But then she had seen him. He was sleeping on the floor, covered in a thin blanket. She stared at him, not sure what to do. Her face softened slightly. She still didn’t know what his game was. She still didn’t trust him. But he seemed like a decent gu
y. And she hadn’t met too many of them in her life, so far.

  He hadn’t taken her back to the man. Did that mean that he was telling the truth—that he didn’t work for him? That Julia had hired him to find her?

  Sienna had stared hard at him. Her ankle was better, or at least improved. She could walk out of this motel room now, leave him sleeping on the floor. It was what she should do. And yet, she hadn’t. She still didn’t know why.

  She had shaken him awake, and he had jumped, bleary with sleep. Her heart leapt just a little, looking at him. Even with eyes gummed with sleep he was still the handsomest man she had ever laid eyes on.

  And now, she was sitting across from him in this diner, waiting for food. Again, she knew that she shouldn’t have done it. He might have phoned them, and they could be waiting to pick her up when they walked out that door. He might have fed her an elaborate pack of lies. She knew all that.

  But she wanted to see if she was wrong.

  She studied him, covertly. The dark complexion and those intense brown eyes. He smiled suddenly, noticing. She glanced down at the table, confused.

  Their food arrived then. He had ordered the works: a big breakfast of eggs and bacon with a pile of hash brown on the side. He grinned as the waitress placed the two plates on the table.

  “Hope you’re hungry,” he said, his eyes widening. “I know I am.” And he proceeded to devour the food as if the plate was about to be snatched away from under his nose.

  Sienna picked up her knife and fork and started eating. She was hungry. Ravenous, in fact. It was hardly surprising. She hadn’t eaten since breakfast the previous day, and she hadn’t been eating that much since running away, anyway. Her body was crying out for nourishment.

  It was good. As she ate, she felt herself starting to relax, just a little. Wouldn’t it be nice if life was always like this? Nothing to do but sit in a diner eating food with a handsome man. She grimaced at the thought. She knew life wasn’t like that. Her life, at least, would never be like that.

  But it was fun to pretend, just for a little while, that she was just a normal twenty-two-year-old woman, having breakfast with a normal man. An extremely handsome, but normal, man. A fantasy that she could flirt with.

  She finished her food, pushing the plate away. What now?

  He had finished his food, too, and was staring at her again. He looked unsure, as if he didn’t quite know how to proceed. As if he was having a lot of trouble working her out.

  Sienna stared at him. She was having a hard time working him out, too. If he was telling the truth that Julia had hired him to find her, that didn’t explain why he was still here. She had told him that Julia wasn’t her friend, and she had no desire to go to her. He should have just left her. Instead he had slept on the floor of that motel room, as if he was guarding her, and bought her breakfast.

  She bit her lip. Maybe he just wanted to make sure she was okay. Maybe he was just a decent guy. She had such little experience of them it was hard to tell.

  “Sienna,” he said suddenly, pulling her out of her reverie. “What happened to you last night?”

  Her eyes narrowed. “What do you mean? I was sick. You saw me being sick.”

  He nodded, hesitating, then plunged on. “Yeah, you were sick afterwards. But I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about the fact that you were talking in your sleep and saying some strange things.”

  Sienna forced a smile onto her face. “Really? What was I saying?”

  He hesitated again. “You told me that I needed to keep running,” he said slowly. “That someone was hunting me. And you told me that I shouldn’t call to my pack. You said that I shouldn’t howl.”

  Sienna felt a prickle of uneasiness. She didn’t remember what she had said to him. She could barely remember the dream. She had been soaring the skies as the bird…and then what? She had seen a wolf running and had known that it was being pursued by something…

  She closed her eyes, trying to recall it. But it was vague and hazy in her mind. When her visions came, they usually happened when she was awake. She had no trouble remembering what she had seen, then. It was why the man had kept her around for so long, so that she could tell him what she saw.

  It was unusual for her to see something within a dream, while she was asleep. Perhaps it had been just a dream? She knew that normal people had them, after all. And while they were sometimes bothered by them, and wanted to talk about them, they held little significance. It was just the unconscious mind going a little haywire. Perhaps that was all it was. Even though her mind worked differently than other people’s, it was probably nothing more than that.

  But she had spoken to Zach. And told him something. It had been directed at him.

  She shrugged it off. It was just a dream, she told herself, fiercely.

  “I don’t remember,” she said slowly, staring at him. “I have no idea what I said, or even that I talk in my sleep. It means nothing, I’m sure.”

  He nodded, but he looked unconvinced. “You were just so…definite. Staring at me as if you needed to tell me something.” He grinned, picking up his coffee cup. “But you are right, of course. You were dreaming and talking in your sleep, that’s all. It happens. It just spooked me a bit.”

  She gazed at him levelly. “You didn’t have to be in that room. You could have left. If what you told me is the truth, you had no reason to stay. Why were you watching me sleep?”

  “I wasn’t,” he said quickly, frowning. “Look, I know I should just accept what you say and leave you alone. You don’t want to see Julia, and that’s your choice.” He hesitated. “But I need you to tell me that you are going to be okay. That you aren’t in any danger.”

  Sienna kept gazing at him. “It’s none of your business. If I am in danger, what’s it to you? I don’t need rescuing.” She took a deep breath. “I’ve looked after myself for a long time, now. I have a few friends, but not many. And that’s the way it’s going to stay.”

  He frowned. “Are you in trouble? Julia told me that you just disappeared. That the man you…worked for is searching for you.”

  Sienna picked up her coffee, staring at him over the rim. “You don’t need to pussyfoot around it. Yeah, I was working for the guy. But I decided we needed to part ways. You don’t need to know any more about it than that.”

  Her heart sank as she stared at him. Obviously, he thought that she was a hooker. Julia had decided not to tell him what had really happened. That she wasn’t employed by him—she was his slave. That she was forced to live with that man as his pet psychic. And that Julia herself had handed her over to him. She had been paid a pretty penny for it. But that was all that Julia lived for anyway. Money.

  Sienna felt her breath quicken. Anger washed over her. What game was Julia playing? Acting as if she was the concerned friend, eager to see her, make sure she was okay. And she had deliberately withheld information from Zach.

  “Did she mention Lola?” she said suddenly, her heart quickening.

  Zach frowned. “Lola? No, she didn’t talk about anyone but you. Who is Lola?”

  Tears sprang quickly into her eyes. “Lola is my friend,” she said slowly. “One of my only friends. She is missing, too.” She frowned. “Lola lives with Julia. She works for her. But Julia hired you to find me, not her. Why?”

  Zach stared at her, frowning too. “I don’t know. Julia never mentioned her.”

  Sienna laughed, but it wasn’t a happy sound. “Either Julia doesn’t care, or she’s been told to let it go. Lola is just one of many, after all. That’s how much Julia cares about her so-called friends.” Her voice was bitter. “She’s a piece of work, that one.”

  Zach leaned back a little in the booth, as if stunned by her tone. Then he slowly reached for her hand across the table.

  “Sienna,” he whispered. “What’s happened to you? What is happening?”

  She reefed her hand away as if she had been scalded. This was wrong. She had already told him too much. She didn’t know this
man, and she didn’t trust him. She was being stupid, as always. When was she going to finally get it, that no one was ever going to be on her side? Or not many people, anyway. She could count on one hand how many people were her real friends.

  Her eyes narrowed, staring at him. He was acting like a concerned guy who wanted to help her. But the truth was she didn’t know him from a bar of soap. He might go to Julia and report back everything that she had said. In fact, he probably would. She had hired him, after all.

  “How much is she paying you?” she hissed, her eyes glittering. “To find me and bring me to her?”

  Zach’s eyes widened. “Sienna, you don’t need to be like this…”

  “Like what?” She took a deep breath. “What are you anyway? A small-time private eye, looking to make some cash on the side, or is it your full time job?”

  He was silent for a minute. She felt anger coiling through her, like a snake, ready to strike.

  “I’m going to level with you.” He took a deep breath. “I’m not being paid. This is a favour to Julia. One of the guys I live with used to know her, years ago. She came to him asking for his help to find you. He’s busy, so he asked me. And I said yes.”

  “A favour?” She raised her eyebrows disbelievingly. “Julia just decided to approach a guy she used to know to find me? You aren’t a private eye at all?”

  He slowly shook his head.

  “Crap.” She abruptly stood up. “You are full of it. And I am out of here.”

  She fled the diner, reefing open the revolving doors. She had to get away from him. She had to get away from this city, period. She should never have come back here. She should have jumped on the first bus she had seen and left it all behind, once and for all.

  ***

  Zach ran down the street after her, but she had disappeared so completely it was as if she had never been there. As if she had vanished in a puff of smoke.

  “Hey, buddy!” A man in a cook’s white uniform spun him around so suddenly he almost staggered. “You didn’t pay your bill!”

  Zach nodded slowly. “Sorry. My friend ran off and I forgot. How much do I owe you?”