One of the dogs, a wiry-haired terrier and the smaller of the two, jerked away from its handler and streaked past both Lillian and the pooka with barely a glance. Nose to the ground, it leaped over an old, rotted stump and vanished down the path leading toward Gregory. The last Lillian saw was its short tail wagging hard enough to snap off.
Its handler cursed, flexed his fingers like he was checking to see if they were all accounted for, righted his jacket, and then glared at Lillian as he stomped past like it was all her fault.
“Gregory,” Lillian reached for his thoughts, “a small dog is coming up your trail, and his handler will be not long behind him. Watch yourself.”
A mental chuckle was his only reply. Lillian didn’t have time to interpret his mood. The other dog was alternately sniffing, barking, and lunging at the pooka in a way that had Lillian worrying for its little doggie life.
For his part, the pooka was playing the role of spooked pony too well. He bolted in a half-circle, dragging Lillian along for the trip. He slammed his shoulder into a large, bearded man with a really big gun pointed at the ground. His fatigues registered on her senses a moment later. Next to the soldier, the surprised dog-handler fell backward with an astonished expression. Lillian spotted RCMP on the shoulder patch of his dark jacket. The pooka spun around, pinned his ears, lowered his head, and kicked out at the next closest human.
With a yell, the man dodged to the side. He stumbled into the man next to him before finally coming to a painful-looking stop by slamming into a conveniently located tree. While the newcomers fell like dominos, she felt the itch of the pooka’s magic, confirming the source behind all the chaos.
Swearing, Lillian turned to the pooka in time to see him strike the police dog. The blow glanced off the dog’s flank, leaving a mark in the fur and probably a nice bruise come morning. But it wasn’t a killing strike. That told Lillian the pooka was playing nice. The dog rolled away with a yelp but circled around, coming at the pooka from a different direction. The pony swung his neck to face the still-barking dog. A wash of the fae’s power slid along Lillian’s skin, then on by her, to where the dog continued his mad barking.
Lillian knew the exact moment the pooka’s magic impacted the dog. It jerked its head to the side, tucked its tail so far between its back legs it was a wonder she didn’t see the tip between the front two, and loosed a mournful whimper before belly crawling back to its handler where he was picking himself up off the ground.
The pooka snorted, shook his mane out, and then trotted back over to Lillian’s side, entirely too pleased with himself. Belatedly, Lillian’s shocked mind realized several sets of eyes, both human and canine, were focused on her.
“I’m so sorry!” She rushed the words together as she pulled the pooka over to a tree where she proceeded to tie him up. He snorted with displeasure, but she didn’t care and tightened the knot.
“You should have used a quick release knot,” he whispered in her mind.
“Shut up! You’ve done enough damage. I’ll be lucky not to get charged for assaulting a police officer with the stunt you just pulled.” Lillian ignored the pooka’s angry snort and faced the humans. Her face burned with heat, and her body was bathed in a nervous sweat. She would have preferred to meet one of the Riven—at least they would not make her fill out paperwork.
“Hi,” Lillian ventured into the silence. “Sorry about the fuss. Your dogs frightened my pony. He’s worked up over getting loose and losing his way in the forest. He can be a touch reactive on a good day. Is everyone okay?”
Grumbles and cursing echoed in the forest. A gruff cough was quickly followed by a clipped, “Miss, this is a quarantined area. You don’t have authorization to be here.”
Lillian glanced at the speaker. It was the big guy with the sunburn and black beard she’d noticed earlier, the one the pooka had slammed with a shoulder, and the man didn’t look happy.
“Oh! Sorry.” She faked a nervous, fearful squeak in her voice. “As I said, something spooked my horses, and they both bolted into the forest. I’ve been trailing them for the last four hours. I just found one—well actually, he found me. But the grey is still missing. I was about to go back and get my brother, some flashlights, snacks, and a few bottles of water before resuming the search.”
“You’ll have to come back with us, ma’am. I’ll radio about the other missing horse.” The soldier didn’t break eye contact as he pulled a radio from one of many pockets and raised it closer to his face. “You can stand down. The dogs were tracking a horse. We found the owner and one of the animals.” The soldier continued to give a description of Lillian’s appearance, including her hair color, height, weight, and clothing.
His exceptional attention to details registered on Lillian’s mind and worry flashed to life. He had no reason to relate her description with such detail. It occurred to her they might be looking for someone fitting her description. And if they were interested in someone matching her description, then they must know something more than Gran had suspected. And it didn’t bode well for either Clan or Coven.
“You’re Vivian’s granddaughter, aren’t you?”
“Yes, may I ask how you know that?”
He smiled, but it wasn’t the type to put one at ease. “She has pictures of you and your brother on her mantle. When I was there, I noticed them. I never forget a face.”
“Oh.” Lillian laughed but didn’t relax. “Gran always plasters our pictures on just about every surface she can find. It’s embarrassing.”
“Must be difficult to find the real estate for pictures with that extensive sword collection she has on her walls.”
Lillian swallowed the next bit of fluff she’d been about to spout and frowned as she juggled several possible responses. “Some of those have been with the family for generations—Gran didn’t start the collection. She is more a curator of sorts.”
“I thought she said you and your fiancé were still up in Kirkland Lake for the rest of the summer.”
Lillian’s mind scrambled to keep up with the soldier’s rapid change in topics. Trying to follow his logic was as dizzying as trying to track a chipmunk jacked up on an energy drink. His quick change of subjects must be some method to catch her in a lie, and if it was, she was already a suspect.
Damn and double-damn. It was just her luck. Of all the soldiers she could have run into in a forest, it looked like she’d tripped over a military interrogator or something similar. Her usual luck.
“Yes, we were there looking into some property. Gran wants to expand the family business, possibly opening a chain of resorts. Anyway, our plans changed when we heard about the rumors. We just had to come back and see what all the media frenzy was about. Now I wish I hadn’t, you know, not with all the talk of monsters and aliens. Can you believe people?”
With another gruff chuckle, the bearded man glanced over Lillian’s shoulder, out beyond the dark trees. “I never believe people.”
“Ah.” Lillian floundered for some response.
The soldier snapped his intense gaze back to her as quickly as he’d taken it off. “Have you seen monsters in the forest, Lillian?”
His question so caught her off guard, she had to snap her jaws closed, and could only stand there and look upon him with utter disbelief.
“Monsters?” She cleared her throat. “I’ve seen the news and heard all the rumors—terrorists, cults, monsters, and aliens. I have to say I’m on the side of those who believe it was some kind of twisted cult, or an elaborate hoax gone wrong.”
“The way those bodies were torn apart and scattered around the forest was no hoax,” the soldier said in a clipped tone.
Lillian’s stomach dropped as a cold wave of fear slid across her skin, followed by a swift blanket of gooseflesh.
“We need to get out of here.” The pooka’s voice in her mind was calm, though he had started to jerk on his lead rope, likely as fearful of a trap as she was. “These humans know more than the other fae believed. The soldier wouldn
’t otherwise mention any details about an ongoing investigation. He’s fishing. We need to retreat and regroup before your gargoyle comes crashing through the forest to rescue you. I can’t stress how unfortunate such an event would be.”
Lillian swallowed as she met the soldier’s gaze. “You mean it wasn’t a cult murder-suicide like the media believes?” She cast a nervous glance over her shoulder purely for show. “Are you saying there is something or someone hunting in the forest and it killed those people?”
“The investigation is ongoing—we’re still analyzing evidence.”
“Is that code to say you’re hunting for urban legends like the rumors suggest? Sir...” Lillian gave his fatigues a once-over, looking for a name or something with his rank, but realized she still would not have known what the bars and badges met anyway.
“Major Resnick, CFB Petawawa,” he supplied. “And no, I’m not hunting for a yeti.”
Lillian’s chuckle sounded nervous to her own ears. “Glad to hear it. I wouldn’t like to think I’ve been exploring the forest for all these years when there might have been something else studying me in return.”
“However, while I have you here,” he said, a glint of something in his eyes that hinted he was fishing for more than just random information. “Have you ever seen or heard something out of the ordinary in all your exploring? Anything at all? It might not have seemed like much at the time, but anything you remember might have importance. We’ve been interviewing many of the locals.”
While he used the word ‘interviewed,’ Lillian imagined ‘interrogated’ would have been a more accurate one. She frowned and pretended to think for several moments. “My family runs a spa, and we’ve had some unusual patrons from time to time, but I can’t think of having seen anything out of the ordinary.”
If you don’t count a gargoyle and numerous Clan and Coven members.
The pooka nickered.
“However,” Lillian continued with more authority. “I saw some signs of bear, a mother and cub by the tracks—the bears might have been what spooked the horses in the first place. And I certainly don’t want to lose the one I just found...so if you don’t have any more questions...”
A rustling in the underbrush along the path saved Lillian from having to continue. The small, wiry-haired terrier burst out from behind cover and bolted between Lillian and Major Resnick and then proceeded to run full-out, all four legs churning at maximum speed. Two seconds later, the dog was well up the path and out of sight.
Everyone stared after the dog for a few seconds more, then turned to look the way it had come. Lillian turned too, fervently hoping not to see Gregory pursuing it.
He wasn’t.
She released the breath she’d been holding. All her plausible lies would have been for nothing if there had been a gargoyle galloping up the trail in pursuit of the dog.
The terrier’s handler jogged up the path, cursing as he came. He stumbled into their midst holding his side and sucking back deep breaths. “Something big spooked Socrates. Didn’t get a good look, but it was a damned big son of a bitch.”
“Bear,” Lillian commented nervously, but for different reasons than the handler. Gregory must have finished with his spell.
“Gregory,” Lillian sent, “I assume you intentionally just scared a year off that man’s life on purpose.”
A grumbling huff answered Lillian’s mental comment. All the humans twitched, and their hands darted to their weapons in a way that made Lillian genuinely nervous.
“Don’t come any closer. The humans are twitchy enough as it is. Let me handle this.”
Gregory’s thoughts touched hers, confirming what she feared. “I do not care for the emotions I’m picking up from the humans. Extract yourself now, or I will deal with them myself.”
“Dammit. You might be the other half of my soul, but you can be such a pain in my ass! At present, I’m not in any immediate danger.”
“Yes, you are. Their leader is thinking of taking you to a secure site where there are many more of his kind. I can see it clearly in his thoughts.” Another huffing rumble issued from the darkness behind her.
“Stay out of this. I’m leaving. They don’t have any reason to hold me at the moment. Don’t give them one.” Out loud she hissed, “Bear!” loud enough to draw everyone’s attention away from the area where Gregory was making a tree shake. She bolted for the pooka and worked loose the knot that tied him to the thick branch.
The pooka arched his neck and sniffed at her fingers. “In the future, I’ll instruct you on how to create a proper safety knot. You wouldn’t be having trouble if you’d done what I told you.”
“Stop fussing with the pooka and get out of there now,” Gregory injected from an unknown location.
“Quiet! Both of you.”
Lillian jerked on the knot until it came free and then she hauled the pooka around by his head, uncaring if she was rude. As she and the pooka made it past Major Resnick’s position, she glared at him. “Tell your men to fall back. It’s probably the same mother bear I saw earlier. Don’t order your men to shoot the poor bear just because she’s protecting her young.”
She didn’t wait to see what they would do. Instead, storming on down the path that led to civilization, and probably more uniformed military types, but she didn’t have any choice. Not if she wanted to find a peaceful end to tonight’s outing.
“Let her pass,” Major Resnick called. “Everyone fall back, nice and slow. Get the other dog out of here, and then bring up the tranquilizer guns.”
The forest around Lillian came alive as a second military team she hadn’t even known was there eased out of their hiding spots. She didn’t even try to hide her shock, it probably looked innocent enough. Beside her, the pooka started trotting, his motion more up and down than forward in his excitement. Lillian didn’t think his agitation was an act. She had the impression of big guns, night-vision goggles, and more camouflaged fatigues.
As Resnick continued to call out orders, the military unit split in two. Four men spread out to take up the rear and guard the others’ retreat, always keeping themselves between the main group and Lillian’s ‘bear.’ Presently, her ‘bear’ was following a few paces behind the last human. While Gregory was actively cloaking himself in shadows and magic, he didn’t bother to hide his presence or his simmering displeasure from her, and she had a difficult time keeping her eyes forward.
Gregory worried for her safety, and she, in turn, worried for the humans should he decide they were an immediate threat, or they were simply too close to her.
“They most certainly are too close, my Sorceress.” Gregory’s annoyance came clear across their mind link. “You said you would extract yourself from them.”
“I tried. They followed. They’re not going to just let me walk off into the forest. They’re like burrs or gum; I think I’m stuck with them.”
“Find a way.” Gregory’s thoughts were almost a shout.
She covered her flinch by pretending to swat a mosquito, then she directed her thoughts back at him. “Something else is wrong. I know if I were in immediate danger, we wouldn’t be having this conversation, and the poor soldiers wouldn’t know what hit them. They’re not the enemy; they simply have a job to do. But you know that, or they would already be smoking-black smudges on the forest floor. What’s really bothering you? Are they leading me to a prison cell?”
“No.” His short answer told her nothing useful.
“Then what?”
“Earlier, some of them watched you.”
“Watched me? They were probably bored out of their minds after tromping around the forest day after day for the last three months.”
“Their thoughts were not the thoughts of a ‘bored’ male.” His clipped tone told her much more than his earlier one-word answer.
Oh boy.
The pooka loosed a distressed whinny. “Merciful Mother, he’ll annihilate them. My Lady, your gargoyle is enraged by their lack of respect. He’s never
had to deal with people who do not know to respect the Avatars.”
She didn’t need the pooka’s commentary to tell her how bad the situation could get. “Gregory, it doesn’t matter. It means nothing.” Lillian kept walking, she and the pooka doing their best to keep the soldiers to a fast pace. The sooner they could part company, the safer everyone would be.
“It is not nothing! Their leader still thinks about detaining you, taking you back for more questioning, holding you against your will. That they would hold such disrespect for the Mother’s Avatar, Her mortal vessel!” Gregory roared.
Every gun jerked up as the soldiers reacted to the unknown danger.
“Bear, my ass,” Resnick said, then started shouting orders. “Get the civilian and her pony out of here. Daniels, call for back-up. I think we found something.”
Hoping to distract the snipers, Lillian loosed a terrified shriek, but the pooka one-upped her, and bolted forward, knocking into the soldier directly in his path. She kept a tight grip on the lead rope and allowed the pooka to drag her along.
“Your gargoyle seems to be in a bad mood today,” the pooka said as he rolled an eye in her direction. “But at least Gregory knows how to get the humans thinking about something else other than taking you in, I suppose.”
She might have found the pony’s comment humorous if she wasn’t worried about Gregory being riddled by bullets. “Dammit, Gregory! Was that really necessary?”
“Yes!”
Chapter 8
GREGORY GLOWERED AT the humans circling his lady, blocking him from going to her side. Even the pooka, a creature he’d usually dispatch long before it could even scent his Sorceress, was presently closer to Lillian than he could manage. His rage building, he sent his magic outward. It rustled in the leaves and caused branches to moan. The humans twitched badly, and he smiled.
The Complete Gargoyle and Sorceress Boxset (Books 1-9) Page 32
