by Susan Bliler
“Grace, any fool can see that you’re scared of me. It’s understandable. Everyone is. I’m a big guy. But I promise you my only intention is to get you where you need to go. Dell is good friends with my boss and I’m out here because I was told to be. Period. If there is something I can do to make this short trip more easy or tolerable for you, tell me.”
“Do…do you have a cell phone? Can you call Dell?”
He let his head fall back and his jaw clenched. Fuck! Hell no he didn’t have a cell phone! Skin Walkers didn’t need them, but he sure as hell couldn’t explain to this human that he was a different species that could communicate with his own kind telepathically. He could contact Monroe or any other Walker he knew at StoneCrow, but that wouldn’t help now. “Sorry,” he whispered. “No cell phone.”
He watched as Grace’s delicate brows spiked. A flash of annoyance and disbelief took her features. It was a relief as some of the fear that wafted through the vehicle lessened.
“Who doesn’t have a cell phone?” She challenged. “That doesn’t make sense.”
“Do you have a cell phone?” He queried knowing she must not if she was asking for his.
The scent of her fear almost evaporated completely as the sweet spice of anger took its place. She righted herself in her seat and finally fastened her seat belt. “No,” she bit out. “I don’t have a phone.” She pointed to the road. “Just drive.”
Thank the Gods for small victories. Baymac didn’t hesitate as he put the truck in gear and pulled away from the curb. One bouncy u-turn—thanks to four wheel drive—and they were on the road.
Silence stretched between them with the miles and after a while when her anger subsided and the scent of her fear began to grow again, Baymac struggled to think up some topic of conversation to keep her mind off things. He never did small talk. In fact, he rarely did actual conversations, so this was proving difficult.
Grace’s soft voice saved him when she asked, “So do they call you Mac?”
“Who?”
“Your friends.”
“Don’t have any.”
The admission was the truth but he regretted it when he saw her fidget nervously in her seat before silence reigned again.
Nice one numb nuts! He was trying to drum up some mundane topic and was trying to think of things he’d heard other Walkers converse about, but he realized he hadn’t paid much attention because he hadn’t cared. If the topic hadn’t been about training, battle, or a direct assignment, he didn’t pay it any mind. Now, he was regretting it. He could feel Grace glancing at him from time to time and knew their awkward circumstance was being made more so by his lack of civility.
Clearing his throat, he drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. “Road’s bad.” No shit, Einstein! He chanced a glance at Grace and she just murmured a noncommittal, “Yeah”.
“So.” She turned to him timidly. “What do you do?”
Kill Skin Walker enemies. Ok, he couldn’t say that. “I’m a Sentry.” Her cute little nose crinkled and he realized how dumb that sounded, so he amended. “Security. I work in security.”
“Oh!”
Surprisingly, the revelation seemed to lighten the weight that seemed to be pressing on her. “What do you do?” He asked.
“I was a teacher.”
The admission sounded sad and when he glanced at her he saw that her brows had tugged down. “Was?”
“Yeah. I decided it wasn’t for me.”
The lie tainted the air.
“Like Aerosmith says,” she continued as she watched herself play with her own fingers. “You gotta lose to know how to win. Decided to move on with my life and try something new.”
Another lie. It sounded like she was trying to convince herself and not him.
“Couldn’t waste my life stuck in a crummy little town, ya know?”
For some reason she was hiding something, and while he wanted to know what it was, he didn’t know how to get to it. “Did you like it? Teaching, I mean.” He wanted to pat himself on the back when her eyes lit up.
“I loved it! The kids were great. All of ‘em. So innocent and eager to learn.”
As she went on and on about how great the kids were and how much she’d adored teaching them, he scented the truth in her words, which meant she hadn’t been lying about teaching, just about deciding it wasn’t for her and moving on to try something new. He could work with that.
She was rattling off a story about some kid who’d glued his hands together when Baymac felt the mental nudge indicating a Walker was trying to contact him through the mist, the Skin Walker’s telepathic means of conversation.
“What?”
“Nice!” King Mulholland, Chief of Security for Stone Crow Estates snorted. “Just wanted to let you know they’ve closed the road. You’ll have to hole up until the plows can get through.”
“Hole up? I’m in transit with a package!”
“Hardly a package,” King scoffed. “This isn’t a mission, Baymac, it’s a favor for the Blackbird pack and you’d do well to remember it. Monroe needs this to go well, so put on your friendliest face and deal with it. We need Grace delivered safely, which means you hole up until the storms over!”
“Grace?” Baymac’s jaw clenched. “You knew I was being sent to retrieve a female?”
“Yeah,” King sounded bored. “But why in the hell Crow chose you I’ll never know.”
Baymac wasn’t insulted by the statement. He too was having a little trouble figuring out why he—of all Walkers—had been selected.
“And I couldn’t get his hands apart, no matter how hard I tried. He used the whole stinking bottle of glue,” Grace continued.
He glanced at her and nodded as if he were listening to her story. Everyone knew he was anti-social and had a hard time with humans. He didn’t like them, but females could be tolerated if the need arose, and it wasn’t sexual need either. No, human females didn’t affect him that way. He was saving himself for a Walker female, a sturdy badass who could handle herself in battle and who wasn’t fragile and weak.
“And just where in the hell am I supposed to take her?” he asked. “White Sulphur is shut down, we can’t go back!”
“The Blackbird’s have a cabin in Limestone Canyon. Dell says the key is under the door mat.”
No. No. No! “I am not secluding myself away in some cabin with this woman!” Just because he didn’t socialize with the other Walkers didn’t mean he was blind to the happenings at the Estate. He knew damn well what happened to Walker males who “holed up” with human females in secluded cabins. Affliction. That damned cursed urge to claim a mate. And that shit wasn’t happening to him! He was saving himself for a Walker female, damn it!
King chuckled. “Aww, big bad Baymac intimidated by one tiny female?”
“No!”
“Good. Have fun!”
Just that quickly, the communication was lost, and Baymac snarled and fisted the steering wheel in a grip so tight the wheel creaked. He was not going to tuck himself into some small cabin with a female that was terrified of him.
It took him a second to remember that he wasn’t alone and then another second to realize that Grace had suddenly gone silent. When he looked at her, she was staring at him with terror filled eyes as she clutched her little purse to her chest like a shield.
He cleared his throat. “Sorry. Hit an icy patch. Didn’t want to lose control.”
She nodded mutely. But the scent coming from her was gutting him. Typically he enjoyed the scent of others’ fear, but not hers. Hers twisted at something inside of him and made him sick to his stomach.
“Sorry if I frightened you. Don’t usually travel with passengers.”
She nodded again and for reasons he couldn’t explain, he wanted her to fill the cab again with the tinkling sound of her voice and the scent of her joy as she spoke of these kids he’d never meet.
“Finish your story,” he commanded and wiggled his fingers on the steering wheel, forcing himse
lf to calm.
She nodded a third time and relaxed a little. After a few breathes, she lowered her purse back to her lap and leaned back into the seat. “Well… Where was I? Oh!” Then that smile took her lips again. “It was lunch time and I was telling the kids their options, going down the list ya know?”
Shit! Apparently she’d finished her story about the kid and the glue.
“I told them they could have peanut butter sandwiches, ravioli, frozen burritos, or grilled cheese. Little Anne looks at me and asks why the burritos have to be frozen.”
She giggled and even though he hadn’t heard the entire story, Baymac smiled too.
“Cute right?”
She turned her glee filled eyes on him and he nodded. “Cute.” A word he swore he’d never uttered in his entire existence until now. Part of the mission, he reminded himself when he wondered at how this slight female had elicited such a lame word from his lips.
Grace kept on talking and truth be told, her stories did seem to make the miles pass more quickly. The best part though, was that the scent of her terror slowly eeked from the truck and was replaced with the warm scent of Grace. For some reason, Baymac couldn’t stop inhaling the scent of her. Like when you were at home and swore your nose caught the scent of something and you couldn’t place it so you just kept sniffing and sniffing until it triggered something. He’d already broken down the mingled fragrances. She smelled like roses, brown sugar, and fucking sunshine, but still his inner beasts weren’t satisfied. Nope, they kept right on inhaling and picking each molecule of her bouquet apart.
“You okay?” Grace cut in on his thoughts as she rummaged through her purse and came out with a Kleenex which she held out to him. “You aren’t getting sick are you?”
Her question made him want to laugh. If she only knew. Skin Walkers were immune to illness, so no, he wasn’t getting sick. The scent of her worry though kept him from immediately denying her question. Well, that and the fact that he didn’t have any real response other than, ‘Yeah, sorry. I’m able to shift into multiple animal forms at will, which gives me permanently heightened senses and my inner beasts are memorizing your scent so that we never lose you.’
He accepted her Kleenex and dabbed at his nose with a mumbled, “Maybe” before his hands were back to strangling the steering wheel.
Chapter 4
Several miles later, Baymac was pissed that he’d ignored King’s advice and had passed the turn off to the Blackbird cabin. He knew where it was. A fellow Walker, RedKnife KillsPrettyEnemy, had shown him once, but he was determined to get Grace at least as far as StoneCrow Estates, regardless of what King said. There was no way they’d make it to Glacier in these conditions, so StoneCrow would have to do. He’d get her to Monroe and the Dominant could deal with her from there. Something was odd about her. It was obvious she wanted to speak freely, and when she allowed herself to do so her voice was filled with warmth and her words with joy; yet, every so often, she caught herself and chanced a glance at him. She was almost head-shy that her talking was bothersome to him, which it wasn’t. This was the most any one being had talked to him in…well, ever! Still, her frequent glances pissed him off because they spoke of someone else, another man probably, who’d made her think that talking like she was doing so freely now was a bad thing.
He was trying to put his finger on what it was that could make Grace so vibrant one second and so edgy the next when they hit a patch of black ice. The truck fishtailed and he slammed a hand against Grace’s chest to hold her in place as he tried to right the vehicle. He knew better than to slam on the brakes, so he pumped them slowly as the truck skittered along the road. A few moments later the truck was righted, and he was back in control. Poor Grace, he could feel her heart racing beneath his palm even as her hands clutched onto his forearm. Looking over he couldn’t help but thin his lips into a grim line when Grace whispered, “Holy shit!” She started laughing a nervous little laugh. “That was scary.”
This mission was the worst! He felt like he was failing miserably. Getting the package to Glacier clearly wasn’t happening, and he realized now they wouldn’t even make it to StoneCrow Estates either. He was on the road because of his pigheadedness and it was putting Grace in jeopardy. He’d most likely be fine if they wrecked, but she was tiny as a twig and looked fragile as fuck. Dumb dick!
He pulled his hand away from Grace’s galloping heart when she lowered her hands that had lifted to cover his. Slowing the truck, he took the next road he came to.
“Is…is this the way?” Grace leaned forward and tried to eye the distance through the whiteout.
He didn’t respond, just flicked on his high beams which only slightly helped cut through the snow. The fog lights came on next and they helped but only minimally. The last thing he needed or wanted was the scent of her fear filling the cab again, so he just drove and prayed they’d run into a house. One thing about rural Montanans was that most of them were really great people, eager to help out and happy to lend a hand. He was confident that they’d find a place to hole up for the night.
A few miles later and the sun was just a ghost on the unseen horizon. He eyed the gauges on his truck and saw he was at half a tank, which meant it was do or die time. He either needed to find a place for them to hole up now, or he’d have to turn around and head back to Dell’s cabin.
“Look!” Grace pointed. “I see lights!”
Baymac narrowed his eyes and looked where she was pointing. She was right, and relief was swift. Light up ahead meant people up ahead, and it wasn’t long before he was pulling the Raptor to a stop before a large farmhouse. It was painted white and if the warm glow of light hadn’t shone through the windows, they’d have probably not seen it at all.
“Wait here!” He opened the door and closed it on Grace’s protest.
****
Grace fidgeted as she watched Baymac cross in front of the still running truck. She startled when he lifted his hand and the doors of the truck locked. A little warmth unfurled inside her that he was so concerned with her safety. Her eyes drifted heavenward as she watched the storm dump endless snow. Normally, she loved the snow. She loved winter in general because it reminded her of Christmas, but this blizzard couldn’t have been more ill timed. Her gaze darted back to Baymac as he stalked to the door of the farmhouse without stopping. She knew this wasn’t where they were heading and wondered what the plan was. An old man that looked a hell of a lot like Santa, just in Carhartt’s and a thermal shirt, stood in the opened doorway and spoke with Baymac. Watching the exchange, Grace fidgeted and wondered if she should jump out to see if the stranger would let her use his bathroom. She desperately needed to pee, and there was no way in hell she was squatting in the snow in front of Baymac. Somehow she knew he wouldn’t let her too far out of his sight in this blizzard.
“Baymac,” she muttered letting the odd name roll around her mouth. She’d never heard the name before but it suited him perfectly. “Maybe less talking,” she whispered to herself as she went over their ride up to this point and realized she’d hogged the conversation. In her defense she always blabbed when she was nervous, and this trip was off the charts tense.
Suddenly the locks clicked open and Baymac was climbing into the driver’s seat. He settled before turning to her.
“Well?” she prodded.
“It’s just the farmer and his wife.” He nodded toward the house. “Real religious types but nice enough. Say they don’t mind letting us stay the night.”
“O-kay.” Worry blasted through her though at the look on Baymac’s face and she could tell something was off. “So, what’s the problem?”
Baymac scrubbed a hand down his face. “He asked if we were hippies.”
“Meaning?”
He shook his head. “Look, they’re religious and it’s obvious you and I aren’t related. So…”
“So what? Mac, just tell me.”
“They think we’re a couple.”
She felt her cheeks singe. “L
ike dating?”
“No. Married. In the eyes of the Catholic church single men and single women don’t go out in storms like this together unless they’re…you know.”
She blushed even brighter.
“I assured him we’re a good married couple and that we won’t cause any problems. Just heading home and need someplace to ride out the storm for the night. Said we’ll be on our way come morning.”
She turned to eye the house.
“But it’s up to you Grace. If you don’t want to stay, if you’re not comfortable with the lie, I’ll turn around right now.” He leaned forward and eyed the sky. “But it’s gotta be right now cuz I’m not exactly sure how to find the place we’ll be going in the dark.”
She flicked a glance out her window and knew that wasn’t an option. Okay, die in the blizzard or pretend you’re married to Baymac. Turning she eyed him and felt herself blush all over again.
