Dane scanned the photo. Long scratches scarred the bark of the tree that stood next to the horse. “Can you take us there?”
Chapter Nine
The saddle creaked as Aura bent down to miss a branch that flexed low under the snow. The mountain trail was barely six inches wide with thick bushes and trees to her left and a steep bush-covered decline to her right. She couldn’t quit thinking about Zeb and how he had called her a filly the last time they had spoken. Did he know the truth about her and his ex-wife?
She had to believe Zeb didn’t know, or he would have never let Ryan talk him into letting them borrow the horses and travelling onto the mountain. At the very least, Zeb mustn’t have known anything of the truth of the reason for their ride. Regardless, she was thankful to get the chance to finally investigate Natalie’s last known location.
The black gelding she rode laid its ears back. It huffed as she sat back up. Since she’d worked with Dancer, it was easy to tell Pat had been at his old ways and Aura could feel the resentment and hatred seeping up from the horse’s flesh. Dancer yearned to be free — to run without reins, without a bit, and without a master. She stopped the horse and stepped down from the saddle, careful not to slip on the wash of ice-covered stones that littered the trail.
The gelding snorted impatiently, hating to be left behind from its herd. The horse Dane rode on neighed back, answering with its own impatience.
“Shh … ” she whispered, running her hands down the horse’s neck. Its nostrils flared as it took in the scents around them. “It’s okay, Dancer,” she crooned.
Aura ran her fingers up to the horse’s white forelock and rubbed slowly, letting her energy seep through her fingers and into the horse’s mind. It only took a few seconds before his eyes glazed over.
Have you seen my sister, she’s a horse-shifter — a pretty bay? Aura thought. Her name’s Natalie.
The horse stared at her. Yes … We ran together. She was scared.
Of what?
A man …
Aura tried to control her excitement. They were close — they would find Natalie. They had to. She rubbed her fingers under the front of the horse’s mane. Who?
Her mate.
What did he look like? Aura tried again.
Dancer drew back from her fingers, breaking the connection. She reached up again, but the horse stepped back and looked around her.
“Aura?” The sound of Dane’s voice broke her concentration. She turned to see him sitting high in the saddle on the trail in front of her. He smiled brilliantly, the picture of a stunning cowboy as he sat on the beautiful roan mare. “What’re you doing?”
She dropped her hand and smiled. “Nothing. Just needed to stretch my legs.”
“You, the woman who seems more comfortable with horses than humans, needs to get off the horse to stretch her legs? Ryan told me about what you did with Pat and that horse.” He looked at her with disbelief.
He and Ryan must have been talking. At least it was an improvement from the way Dane had seemed to instantly dislike the young man. She couldn’t decide whether it was because he was a possible, but unlikely, suspect or if Dane disliked him for the air of sexuality that seemed to come off Ryan.
“Hey, you guys coming?” Ryan pushed past a tree and stopped his horse next to Dane. “We’re running out of daylight.”
Aura slipped her foot into the stirrup and pulled herself back up and into the saddle. “Let’s go.”
Ryan turned. “It’s not much further.”
If they had any luck at all they could find evidence of exactly what had happened to Natalie, but thanks to Dancer the circle of suspects had grown a little smaller. There were only two men that were involved in her sister’s life — the man that led their group and Shawn — the man’s voice in the video. Shawn had to be the one responsible for Natalie’s disappearance. Maybe he had been upset that she’d gone with Ryan. Maybe he was upset about her leaving him. Or maybe they’d had a fight, Natalie had accidently filmed it, and she and Shawn had made up — maybe they had simply run away.
The chills ran up her spine like a trail of spiders. Natalie wasn’t okay. She was being stupid to think that Natalie was anything less than in mortal danger. The only thing she could hope for was that her sister was still alive — that she wasn’t like those girls lying in the morgue, being poked and prodded by the little gloved hands of the brunette that seemed to have had a thing for Dane. She shivered in her thick down jacket.
Dancer snorted nervously. His body tensed beneath Aura’s legs. Something was wrong.
The brush rustled ahead of Ryan. His horse’s nostrils flared as it snorted and its ears pointed at the rustling bush. A black form slunk through the brush, barely visible.
The horse jerked under Ryan’s legs and he tried to calm her, but it was no use as the horse danced around, trying to get out of the danger zone.
A black wolf jumped out from the scrub, its teeth gnashed together as a deep snarling growl rippled from its throat. Its ribs were visible beneath its ragged, mangy-looking coat as it moved in front of Ryan’s horse and lunged toward the horse’s throat. The mare’s front legs rose from the ground as it reared back. Ryan tried to hold on as the horse lurched beneath him. The mare reared again, catching him off guard, and its head connected with the bridge of Ryan’s nose with a blood-chilling crunch. The man slumped.
The horse stomped at the wolf, its violent action throwing the unconscious Ryan around in the saddle like a ragdoll.
The wolf moved to Aura’s left and moved behind Dane’s horse and lunged toward the horse’s hamstrings. The horse kicked, just missing the wolf’s snarling mouth. Dane twisted in the saddle as he looked back to her. The horse kicked again at the wolf, upsetting his balance. A look of terror filled his eyes.
“Dane!” she cried.
His body moved to the left, away from the wolf, toward the mountain as the horse leapt to the right. The wolf lunged again only upsetting Dane further. His left foot slipped in the stirrup as his body slipped from the saddle. His body fell back as his hands grasped the air for something to grab to stop his fall. He grimaced as he flew downward. His head bounced off the flagstones that lay next to his horse’s hooves and his face went blank. The mare jolted, pulling him underneath her belly. His foot was caught in the left stirrup. If the mare moved — if one solid footfall struck him — he would be gone.
“Whoa,” Aura said, trying to send calming energies to the animals that shifted and circled around her. She jumped down out of the saddle. The wolf stopped and stared at her. She could feel it watching the pulse of her carotid artery, waiting for the perfect moment to strike the woman that had put herself in the prey zone.
She stared the beast down. Why hadn’t she brought a gun? She looked over at Dane, searching for his gun. The firearm was out of sight, pinned too far out of reach.
“Shhh … ” She slid her body toward Dane. Maybe she could reach the gun if she tried.
The black wolf eased its front paw off the ground and stepped forward, lowering its shoulders, stalking her. Her heart thundered in her chest, but she forced her body to stay under control. She couldn’t run. She had to stay and fight — and protect Dane.
“Hey, baby … ” She said as she put her hand on the horse’s rump to let it know she was there. Reaching down, she pulled Dane’s foot from the stirrup. The wolf stepped closer, its yellow eyes gleamed with anger. Behind the look of fury there was also a hunger, like she and Dane were simply tasty morsels of flesh wrapped in inconvenient clothing.
“No,” she said, letting the word come up from the depths of her being, channeling her innermost alpha. “You will not touch him.” She leaned down and lifted him by his arms and, with the strength that comes to mothers whose children are in peril, she moved him up the hillside and out from beneath the horse.
Dane’s hor
se spooked and took off running up the trail. Ryan’s mare followed closely at its heels, with the limp Ryan still in the saddle. “Whoa!” she yelled, trying to get the horses to stop, but it was no use — instinct had taken over.
The black wolf took the opening and ran at her, throwing its full weight against her chest. Her hands slipped out from beneath Dane’s arms and she reached up to tear at the wild beast’s throat. It latched onto her arm, ripping at her like she was a chew toy rather than a demi-god. She reached up with her free hand and grabbed its ear.
Stop! Now! Stop or I will kill you!
The beast stopped thrashing, but kept her flesh in its clenched teeth.
What? the beast thought, befuddled by the sudden invasion of its mind. Shut up.
It writhed again, trying to rip her flesh from bone. The pain coursed through her like a million needles as her nerves fired with pain. She pushed it back, letting the adrenaline that flowed through her system take over. Fight. Kill. Live.
I will kill you!
She showed no fear as she held onto its ear, refusing to break the bond.
Look, beast woman, you and your friends are going to die. Let go! The wolf pulled back, but she gripped tighter. The beast yelped with pain.
She jabbed her thumb into the wolf’s eye and he jerked his head, but refused to let go of her arm. The pain radiated up from her arm, but she ignored it.
Dane groaned from the trail behind her as she played tug of war with her body. Down at his waist was his sidearm. She reached down and, unclipping the gun, pulled it from the holster. She pushed the tip of the barrel against the beast’s forehead, right between his eyes.
Why did you attack us? Her finger trembled on the trigger. She pressed the tip harder against the animal’s unyielding skull.
You’re prey. You’re nothing. A growl rippled from the wolf.
The words “you’re nothing” echoed in her mind. Zeb had said those same words.
She pulled the trigger and the shocked beast released its jaws.
The gun clicked. Empty.
She let go of the wolf’s ear and pulled back the slide as she loaded a bullet into the gun’s chamber. The wolf leapt back. The wolf’s back feet lost traction on the steep ice-covered decline. Fear filled its eyes as it scrambled to regain its footing. The rocks tumbled down the hill as the wolf kicked wildly. The animal’s back feet slipped out from underneath its body. It slipped down the hill, only its head above the edge.
Aura lunged forward, grabbing the wolf by the nape of its neck. “You won’t get away from me this easily.” The wolf yelped as she pulled it to the safety of the narrow trail.
She let go of the beast’s hackle and it turned on her, its lips turned up in what looked like a boxer’s bloodied and victorious smile.
She lifted the gun as she staggered backward up the icy hillside. Dancer screamed as the wolf stepped toward her. The wolf turned just as the horse dropped its head and charged the enemy. With a well-placed stomp, Dancer smashed the beast to the ground. The wolf yelped, its sound a mixture of surprise, pain, and unbridled anger.
Dancer brought his feet down with a sickening thump. The sound stopped as the wolf’s bloody body slipped over the edge of the trail and disappeared.
Chapter Ten
Tiny alarms sounded in his head. Warning … Warning … The cold jagged rocks poked into his back and his head throbbed. What had happened?
Dane forced himself up onto his elbows and looked down the narrow mountain trail. Aura and Ryan were gone. Were they okay? Had something happened to them as well?
He jumped to his feet. The alarms in his head turned into the throb of long wailing distress calls, like the tornado warnings he’d once heard in the Midwest. The world spun around him, twisting his stomach and forcing a roiling sickness to wash over him. He sat back down and dropped his head between his knees. He would be fine in a minute. He could get up and go looking for them.
What if something had happened to Aura?
Scarlet-red blood was splattered over the well-trodden white snow of the trail. On the downhill side there was a long smear of the sticky liquid which disappeared off the cliff. Where was Aura?
The nausea sucker-punched him in the gut, forcing him to drop his head back down between his knees. Aura was strong. Ryan would take care of her — unless Ryan was the man they were really looking for. Was it possible that Ryan could be the man responsible for the murder of Angela and the other unidentified woman? Ryan seemed innocent, and normally Dane’s intuition was right, but what if he was wrong? A new sense of urgency took hold. He pushed to his feet, swaying slightly.
Dane reached down to his waist, instinctively checking his gun. The holster was empty.
“Aura?” His voice sounded reedy, like a young man desperate to find his lover.
He stumbled up the trail. The horses had stomped in the blood-colored snow, sending red slush splattering around their feet — making the trail look like that of a scene from a badly written horror film.
His body begged to stop, to find relief instead of pushing on, but Aura needed him. She was in danger.
The trail wound up the hillside like it had been drawn there by some sadist with a death wish. Each step was a struggle, but he moved one foot in front of another, silently hoping that he would get to her in time.
The path in the snow switch-backed. Forcing his body to climb higher, Dane came around the bend. Standing beside the horses, was Aura. Her blonde hair was disheveled, and her arm was caked in drying blood. His gun was tucked in the waistband of her jeans.
“Aura?” He rushed to her. He’d never been more relieved. He glanced down at her bloodied arms and a new fear rose within him. “Are you okay?”
His body begged to touch her, to make sure that she was really there standing in front of him — that she wasn’t just some kind of apparition.
“I’m fine. What’re you doing up? You shouldn’t be moving,” she said, sounding like an overly anxious nurse. “I didn’t want to leave you, but I had to go get the horses … I was just on my way back down.”
He waved her off. “Where’s Ryan?” If the bastard had anything to do with hurting her, Dane would personally make sure his ass rotted in the basement of the state prison; the only light he would see would be the stars that flashed inside his head when he took another prisoner’s beating.
“Ryan’s fine. I just got him away from his mare. He’d fallen out the saddle when she spooked. It looks like he might have gotten dragged a little ways — his face is pretty beat up. Plus, I think he broke his nose and maybe his left ankle.” She motioned to the horses. “He hasn’t woken yet, I’m starting to get worried.”
“He didn’t touch you, did he?” Dane dropped her arm. “What happened?”
“Don’t you remember?” She lifted her hand to his forehead, taking his temperature like he was a child. Her little Danish. “We were attacked by a wolf. The horses spooked.”
He pulled back from her hand. All he had was a bump on the head, he would be fine. “Where is it?” He scanned the area looking for the beast.
“He won’t be a problem again.” She reached down and pulled the gun from her jeans.
Had she been hit on the head too?
“You shot the wolf with my gun?” She had to be kidding.
She shook her head. “I just don’t understand it. Wolves don’t normally just attack people.”
“Have you read Call of the Wild?” He thought back to the book, in which the men huddled around the campfire as wolves circled around them. “They sure as hell do attack people.”
• • •
The stunned look on Dane’s face spoke more than any of his words. He must have thought she was stark raving mad — like a woman who’d spent too much time out in the Arizona sun. How could she explain to him that she could tele
pathically communicate with animals? Then he would think she was really crazy.
“I mean, I assume we were in their territory.” What had she done?
Ryan moaned. A sense of relief came with the sound. Maybe Dane hadn’t noticed her slip of the tongue.
She stepped around the horses, turning her back on Dane and the mistake she had made. For a cowboy, Ryan had taken the fall from the horse surprisingly hard. He’d been moaning in his sleep ever since she’d found him.
Dane stepped toward the cowboy that lay on the ground on the other side of the horses. A little droplet of blood slipped down out of Dane’s hair and dripped down the side of his neck.
“Come here.” Aura beckoned him with her finger. “Let me see your cut.”
He touched his fingers to the blood and pulled his fingers away, smearing the trail. He looked down and grimaced. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. I just cut my head when I fell. No biggie.”
“You know you don’t have to be tough all the time. I want to help you. Just let me take a look.”
He paused for a minute then turned his head so she could see the bloody patch of hair where his head had hit the ground. She sucked in a breath as she pulled back his hair to reveal a little jagged cut. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” He pulled away from her. “We need to find the bear tree. Did Ryan say how much further it was from here?”
“Before we were attacked, he said we were close. It can’t be that much further now.” She looked over to where Ryan lay. “But we can’t leave him. And I don’t think either one of you should be riding the horses.”
Dane looked up at the sky. “It’s getting late. Even if we started out now, we’d be trying to pack out in the dark.”
Aura glanced down at her watch — it read 5:30. It would be dark in another hour. Dane was right. But what would it be like spending the night up on the mountainside with Dane and the injured Ryan?
The Nymph's Curse: The Collection Page 28
