Legacy Lost

by Jillian David

  Throughout the woods, a second prickly, weird feeling developed on the back of her neck. Nothing specific, nothing she could mention. Just . . . strange. Like a sensation on the edges of her vision, like seeing something out of the corner of her eye. But it was a mental shadow, not a visual one.

  She shook her head. After the stressful past few days, her nerves were frayed. This mission didn’t help any, either. Blinking hard, she pinched her nose, trying to lessen the headache that increased with every passing minute.

  “Do you need to take a break?” Eric called from his horse, exactly fifty yards behind her.

  She coughed. “No. It’s easier if I maintain a bead on the guy. We have to keep going.”

  “Sure you don’t want to rest, sis?”

  “I’m okay. Let’s get this over with.”

  “Any idea of the distance?” Kerr asked.

  “You know that I’m not that good. Hopefully not too far.” Five hours was an eternity in Search and Rescue. The victim could be miles away by now.

  The terrain became rough, and the horses slid in the snow and on uncertain footing.

  “Here’s where we stopped.” Kerr got off his horse and tied the reins to a tree branch.

  Shelby did the same. She and Eric still had their Search and Rescue packs on.

  Kerr pointed toward some tracks. “I thought he went that way. But I couldn’t find him. What do you think?”

  Taking a deep breath, she dropped her filters and opened her mind. And got a face full of Eric’s churning thoughts. She staggered and grabbed onto a tree trunk.

  “Can you go over there, please?” she asked him. “Sorry, but I can’t think with you, uh, thinking.”

  With a backwards glance, he shoved his hands in his pockets and stomped away. The swirling ideas abruptly dropped in volume. Good guy, keeping it under control.

  Kerr grinned. “So, did you two kiss and make up?”

  “Not exactly.”

  “Is there hope?”

  “Dim.”

  “Better than none.”

  She snorted. Once again able to concentrate, she opened her mind up to locate the hunter. All of the sensations narrowed down to an area down a gully.

  How strange. The guy wasn’t anywhere near where the tracks led. Had he backtracked, or were the tracks from one of the other men?

  “This way.”

  Kerr raised his orange eyebrows. “You sure?”

  “Ok, seriously? You bring me out here for the one thing I’m really good at—finding people—and you ask me if I’m sure?”

  “My bad, sis. Little prickly today, huh?”

  She raised her gloved middle finger and started walking in the direction of the mental signal.

  Chapter 26

  The mental radar indicators became stronger as Shelby scrambled down a damp, rocky gully. Snow had settled in irregular patches. If they were lucky, more snowfall would hold off until after they got the hunting guest, Troy, out of here.

  What the heck had happened to him? Why had he gone down here?

  It wasn’t so steep that he couldn’t get back up if he tried. Was he injured? Dead?

  Her footing slipped as a wave of panic caught her unawares. Eric’s big hand appeared beneath her arm, supporting her. Right behind her. Yeah, he’d ignored her mandate to stay back.

  “Don’t care,” he had said. “I’m staying close. You’re not getting hurt.”

  Too damned late.

  But his sincerity and concern for her safety pushed front and center in his conscious mind. He wanted to protect her. Damn him for being nice. She didn’t deserve it.

  A burst of his frustration and pissed-off thoughts flew out and nailed her just as a blast of panic from down in the ravine hit her, knocking the air out of her.

  Would it be too much to ask if the mental onslaught from the hunter and Eric could take turns battering her mind?

  Before she could catch her breath, another image from Eric shifted anger back into raw interest in her naked body on his bed, rising up in time as he drove into her. She swallowed as heat grew between her thighs. Holy crap, the memory of being laid out beneath him as he covered her with his body made her vagina pulse again.

  And weakened her knees. She stepped wrong and slid off a rock.

  Careful.

  His pupils dilated as he studied her. Did guys really think about sex this often? Exhausting. How did they get anything else done?

  As she opened her mouth to—do what? Yell at him? Kiss him?—another wave of panic from the target grabbed her attention. She spun around, pulled like a piece of metal toward a magnet.

  “You two done down there?” Above them, Kerr moved much slower with his artificial leg.

  “Quit snooping,” she snapped as she tapped her temple. “You,” she glared at Eric. “Simmer down those thoughts.” Motioning with her hand, she said, “I’ve got something here.”

  “Troy?” he asked.

  “Think so.” She skidded down wet rocks as her brother cursed from above her.

  As she reached the bottom of the gully, the panic pulled her to the left along a line of rock. Rounding a boulder, she spied a flash of blaze orange.

  The client, Troy.

  And a black shape.

  The furnace blast of fury blew by her, like a hot poker burning her face. She staggered and blinked.

  A howl and a gunshot rang out, and Eric shoved her sideways into the hillside, covering her body with his.

  “Geezus. Troy’s shooting at us.” he cursed. “And what the hell was that big, dark thing?”

  Touching him set all of her nerve endings on fire. Fine, so he liked having his body pressed against hers. Like she couldn’t tell based on his hard groin shoved into hers. The image in his mind was redundant, at this point.

  Besides, she had way more important things to deal with right now. “No,” she whispered. “That was like the thing we saw on the ranch yesterday.”

  “What?”

  Turning her head to scan the area, she gently pushed him back. A quick check with her ability to scan the area for other sources of emotions, and she said, “It’s gone. We’re okay for right now.”

  “The hell we are,” he muttered.

  “Troy?” she called in a soft, hopefully nonthreatening voice as she set her backpack on the ground. “Kerr and Eric and I are all here to help you.” She shook off Eric’s arm. “Can you put down the gun, Troy?”

  “No way, ma’am,” the hunter said. The tip of the rifle wavered in her general direction.

  “Shelby, move away from him.” Eric’s metallic fear for her life tainted her own thoughts.

  She put a hand out to hold Eric back. “Come on, now, Troy. Just set the gun to the side for a minute so we can help you. Okay?”

  The man whimpered. The guy wasn’t being a wuss. Judging by the air sawing in and out of his lungs, he was flat-out terrified. He placed the gun a foot away from him. Still within reach.

  It would have to do.

  Inching closer, she talked to him. “Troy, I’m Shelby, Kerr’s sister. We’re going to get you out of here, got it?”

  Eric’s presence behind her gave her confidence to keep moving forward.

  Crouching next to Troy’s huddled body, she placed a hand on his arm.

  He recoiled, screaming and slapping her hand away.

  Troy grabbed the gun.

  Eric shoved himself in front of Shelby and kicked the gun out of the guy’s hand. “Hey, now. We’re here to help you, man.”

  The man froze, his face twisted up, his eyes staring through her. “He was here. Oh, God, right here. He was going to kill me.”

  “Who?” she asked.

  Had Troy hit his head? She slipped off her gloves and brushed her hands over his head and neck, checking for injuries. Nothing. His terror pounded away at her brain as she sucked in a harsh, wheezing breath, trying to stay calm.

  “Evil. Here.”

  She frowned. “Look, let’s get back to camp. Anything hurting
? Arms or legs? How about your back?” Patting down his extremities and spine, she watched for any grimace of pain on his face.

  He flapped a hand then curled back into a ball and started shaking. “Oh, Christ.”

  “Did you fall?” Eric asked.

  “No,” Troy said. “I came here to hide.” His voice dropped to a whisper. “But it didn’t work. He still found me.”

  “Who?”

  The man’s bulging eyes darted back and forth. “Evil. The worse kind.”

  A chill rolled through her, and that sensation of being watched fluttered at the edge of her perception. She looked around. Forest, streams, and patchy snow. Nothing unusual out there. Maybe she was picking up on Troy’s paranoia?

  Flinching at the nonstop panic pounding on her senses, she turned back to Eric and Kerr, who had joined them. Eric put a pulse-ox on the man’s finger. The reading showed a normal oxygen level but elevated pulse, explainable by his fear. He listened to heart and lungs with a stethoscope.

  “Clear. No pain over his chest or abdomen.” His sandy brows drew together. “The guy’s literally frozen in terror.”

  “Why?” Kerr glanced at the man then to Shelby.

  She shook her head. “That thing from the ranch was here.”

  Kerr reared back. “What?”

  “I’ll explain it later. We can’t fix that now,” she said. “Let’s move him back to the camp and then we can decide what to do from there.”

  Kerr and Eric heaved the man to his feet. Clinging to them, Troy shuffled toward the gully, still mumbling and shaking so badly at times that he had to stop and hang on to one of the men. He kept looking back over his shoulder.

  Even Shelby’s neck tingled. He had seen the dark creature. Had it chased him to this location? The emotions in the guy’s mind battered her. Fear of dark, looming evil, sucking the air out of him until he almost blacked out. The desire to run far away from here. No place to hide. Impending disaster.

  She pressed her hand to her head and bent over double.

  “What?” Eric’s voice, close by her. Steadying. Replacing pain with familiarity and concern.

  Casting a glance over the benign, quiet forest, she rubbed her sternum. “Something’s not right out here.”

  “I could have told you that,” Kerr muttered. Then he turned to Troy. “Come on, man, keep working your way up this hill. We’ll be at the horses real soon.”

  The man followed Kerr up the damp, cold gully. Troy might be terrified, but he showed no signs of stopping until he made it back to camp.

  When Shelby was nearly to the top of the gully, another sensation stopped her in her tracks. Like a child crying out for help. Desperate. Pitiful. Needy.

  “Did you hear that?” she asked, whipping her head back and forth as she tried to find the source of the sound.

  “Nothing. What is it?” Kerr asked, extending his hand to Troy to pull him up the last few rocky feet.

  Eric shook his head and frowned. “I can’t see anything here.”

  “Maybe I’m imagining things,” she said, climbing up as Eric trailed behind her. On top of the hill, she peered through the trees and hills.

  There, a movement off to the side. A deer? Bear?

  Again, that sensation of a child’s wail that she hadn’t heard as much as felt. Tears pricked her eyes. She had to find the source. Sensations of fear, cold, smallness, and vulnerability attacked her mind.

  “Shel?” Eric’s broad face entered her field of vision. His eyebrows rose. “What the hell? You’re crying. Are you hurt?”

  “No.” She grimaced. “You can’t hear that, either of you?” Silence. “Damn it.” Taking a halting step toward the sound, away from the horses, she paused when Kerr called out to her.

  “We can’t stay here, sis.”

  “I know. Let me take a look. I’ll meet you back at camp.”

  Eric crossed his arms over his chest. “The hell you’re going alone. This is a bad, bad idea, Shel.”

  The need to find whatever was out there ate at her mind, consumed her. “I know.” She gasped. “I have . . . to. Have to find it. It’s important.” Her feet moved on their own. One step. Then two. Toward the childlike whimper.

  “Come on, Shel,” Kerr said, gesturing toward the shaking Troy.

  “Go back to camp. I won’t be far behind.” She held up her hand. “Don’t know why.” Another step pulled her, despite her fighting the compulsion. “I have to. Please.” She looked back at Kerr, but her feet forced her to go in a different direction.

  “I’ll stay with her, man.” Eric’s tone came out tight, unhappy. The images and thoughts in his mind echoed that sentiment. But his presence behind her provided an anchor. Something to keep her head from completely fogging up with single-minded need to find the source of the sound.

  “You have the radio?” Kerr’s mouth compressed into a thin line. Unhappiness and concern flowed from him. Understandable.

  Eric patted his belt. “Got it. We’ll be right behind you.”

  Kerr pulled his coat sleeve up and checked his watch. “Four o’clock now. It’ll be dark in an hour. You need to head back by then.”

  “Got it. We’ll be in communication.”

  “This idea is about as dumb as a rubber crutch,” Kerr said.

  “I know. Can’t. Need to go. Something’s going on.” Like a hand reached down and grabbed her chin, her head swiveled back in the direction her feet were moving.

  Another cry, this time in pain, hit her mind. Whatever was out there suffered. It needed help. Shelby had to help it.

  Her head throbbed. Damn it, she had to keep moving. Had to find it.

  The snow and leaves crunched under her feet as she hiked away from her brother.

  Chapter 27

  What in God’s name was Shelby doing? Again. Eric’s disbelief at her boneheaded choices had become a theme over the past few weeks.

  He followed the sway of her slim hips, while keeping his hand on his sidearm.

  “You can stop that any time,” she called over her shoulder, her voice clearer than when they started this stupid side trip.

  “What?”

  “Thinking about my butt.”

  “I can’t stop thinking about your butt any more than I can stop breathing.”

  A hitch in her step, and her neck above the backpack turned red. Good.

  “Yes, but I can’t concentrate on my target.” When she spun around, her golden scowl almost made him laugh.

  Good. If she couldn’t concentrate, hopefully, she’d give up her quest soon. They’d been walking for more than a half hour. They hadn’t seen or heard anything.

  Only the whoosh of wind whipping through the trees as they walked on the top of a rise with a steep rocky drop on one side.

  Nothing evil going on out here. Time to leave.

  He flipped the collar of his coat up. “It’s getting late, Shel. Nothing’s out there.”

  “You might be right.” She turned and faced him.

  The cold had brought out pink on her freckled nose and cheeks. If it weren’t for that murderous glare, he’d kiss her but good.

  “Stop it,” she said.

  “What?”

  “Thinking that stuff.”

  In the absence of doing anything besides trailing behind her, he said, “Easier said than done.”

  Maybe he could break her line of thoughts and get her to leave.

  He threw out an image of panting, screaming, sweaty desire that involved some physics-bending maneuvers.

  When she spun around, the gold and brown irises had compressed into thin disks. Good.

  “You can’t do that,” she panted.

  “Why not?”

  “It’s. It’s . . . distracting.” She licked her lips. “I can’t think.”

  He brushed his gloved finger over the moisture, loving how the pillow of her lips compressed under his thumb. Loving how she didn’t move while he touched her. “Maybe you don’t need to think. You don’t need to analyze anything.
Just feel.”

  “Out here? Are you nuts?”

  “The main reason I’m not throwing you on the ground and stripping your clothes off right here has to do with the risk of hypothermia.”

  “Dude, we’re tracking . . . something.”

  “I see nothing to track. And we should go back to camp.” He leaned close and growled. “But here’s what I would do if it were warmer and we weren’t crunched for time.”

  Conjuring one of his best fantasies about Shelby, a medium-sized tree trunk, and a lasso, he sent the image right to her, complete with her screams of ecstasy and bark burns. He didn’t care if it shocked her. Didn’t care if it repulsed her. He was done hiding what he wanted out of life, and what he wanted out of Shelby. He couldn’t control much in his world, but he could be crystal clear with his intentions toward her.

  If they didn’t have a future, then he’d sure as hell find some comfort in the present.

  “Oh my God.” Her jaw dropped.

  “That’s exactly what I would want you to scream, over and over.” He cupped her butt and pressed her to his hips.

  “I can’t live like this. With your mind inside of mine.”

  “In a state of perpetual arousal from the images my mind kicks out when I think about you, look at you, or catch a scent of you?”

  She bit her lower lip. “Long may it last, right? That’s the problem. When it all comes crashing down, I’ll know in painful detail the minute everything changes.”

  “You think I could get tired of thinking up new ways to make both of us very happy?”

  “I’m not so stupid to think this can go on forever. Nothing ever does.”

  “Shelby, come on now—”

  Raising her hand, she cut him off. The woods around them had gone dead silent. Even the wind had stopped.

  No noise from small animals scavenging.

  No movement.

  Silence.

  Not normal. Maybe she had been right.

  Sweat turned icy on his forehead. A new priority hit him in the gut.

  He needed for both of them to be away from here. Now.

  She spun around, broke free of his embrace, and started walking. Her gait was stiff, like a puppet’s jerky movements.

  “Shelby?” Nothing felt right. Even the shadows looked strange as they moved and shifted.