He suddenly realized just how dangerous this moonshine was. Not only did he have no idea what he’d gotten up to the night before, but he felt no regret. The anger and violence he felt at the top of his drinking spree had turned to happiness so quickly that it was forgotten almost entirely until he sifted through the deeply buried memories of the night. There he was, dark, angry Grey, ready to punch Larissa in the face and feeling completely justified in the action. He shuddered at the thought.
He picked up his glass and looked around. He didn’t see anyone else, but he did see what looked like a brown stick poking out from behind a different tree. No, it wasn’t a stick; it was a leg. A deep brown leg with a pale white leg draped on top of it. He walked the glass over to a little crate stuck on the side of the now closed and shuttered bar and then quietly made his way over to the pair of legs.
There, on the other side of a large tree, he found Larissa and the bartender. At some point, Larissa had shifted back to her female form, and now she was nude in the grass with a naked young woman on top of her. Grey leaned down to touch Larissa’s shoulder, but as he got close the human girl woke up and looked at him.
“Hey, get outta here,” she grumbled at him, then turned back to her lover. To her complete surprise, she found a woman down there and let out a little shriek.
“What the…? Who are you? Where did that handsome guy go?”
Larissa, now awake, put her hands behind her head and shrugged. “You’re looking at him.”
“But…but I don’t understand. You were…last night, you had a…oh, you shifters! Just get out of here!”
She stood up and crossed her arms, glaring at the two of them. Grey helped Larissa up, and she brushed off her curvy limbs and buttocks while he waited. His companion seemed to be in no hurry at all, and that just made the situation much more awkward.
“Go, already!”
Larissa turned to her one night stand and gave her a smile. “Thank you for a lovely evening. You were wilder than I’d ever dreamed you could be.”
That comment made the human girl blush and look at the ground. Larissa chuckled a little at her discomfort and then strolled off, Grey following her lead.
“You leave any clothes behind?”
“Yes. They’re over here by this little pond. Somewhere.” The two of them looked for the shirt and shorts that Larissa had abandoned in the throes of passion. They found them flung off to opposite sides, and the fossa quickly dressed to get back home.
“Well,” she said, pulling her shirt on, “we have quite the story to tell your girl, don’t we?”
“Uff. She won’t believe it.”
“She will,” Larissa countered. “You forget, little bird. Your girl was raised human. They’ve seen every form of evil you can imagine.”
The two walked off back to their branch of the forest and left the bar behind. Grey silently vowed to do everything he could to get the place shut down. Better yet, he reasoned, he should find the makers of this horrible substance and see to it they never made another drop of that liquid evil. He didn’t know how he was going to do it, but he needed to do it soon. When the cash hiding under mattresses and stuffed into tree trunks ran out, all of those men he had seen upending their drinks would start to get desperate. And desperate men were dangerous.
They walked over to Larissa’s tree so that Grey could be certain she was home safe, though she insisted no such move was necessary. As they walked, Larissa suddenly stopped. She sniffed and crinkled her nose up, shook her head at the awful scent that hit her.
“Some pregnant woman has been peeing all around my tree,” she said out loud. The fossa turned to Grey. “I don’t suppose you know which pregnant lady that might have been?”
He grimaced. “Sorry about that. Someone told her about a secret little hiding place that boy Marcus had at the base of your tree. She wanted to come out here and find it. The baby must be pushing on her insides a little more. Pregnant females always have to relieve themselves.”
Larissa rolled her eyes as if carrying a child inside one’s uterus was nothing more than a bothersome notion. “I think she’s close,” she informed her friend. “Let’s take a look around.”
Soon, the two of them were following the same path that Harper had taken. Fossa Larissa crawled low to the ground, while Grey in bird form flew over it. Both found their way to the other side and the tight circle of trees.
They shifted to humans again and called to Harper. No answer. Grey started to panic.
“What’s happened? Is she inside there? Please, help me!”
“Wait.” Larissa held him back a moment. “I smell someone else. Someone passed by here, along the border of the fence. A man, I think. But I smell Harper as well. She’s shifted but she’s not in danger.”
She gently pushed the trees open and there, on the other side, found a naked Harper deep asleep.
In the night, Harper had found several things. A ripped up blanket, a mallet, and a book with only a few pages remaining with a drawing done on the back. She held them all in her arms as she dozed, protecting them like priceless jewels. Her lover and friend walked up to her and gently shook her awake. She blinked her eyes open and smiled, then realized where she was and balked.
“What? Why am I here? Didn’t I make it home?”
Grey smiled at her and pulled his shirt off to give it to her. “Nope. Looks like you camped out here.”
“Darn it! I fell asleep again.” She stood and collected everything she’d found into her arms. “I want to take these to his family. I’m sure they’ll want them.”
Grey nodded silently and held his hand out for her to walk with him. Together, they took the long way out of the clearing and back around to her home. She was a bit delirious from a lack of food and water, and Grey wanted to get her safe as soon as possible.
Done with the both of them, Larissa quickly shifted and scampered up her own tree and promptly forgot about the whole night.
Chapter Seven
The Alliance
Later that day, Harper woke up sweating and with the sensation of having her eyelids glued shut. She forced her eyes open to see Grey standing over her table, examining what she had found.
First was a little homemade mallet, sticky with fruit juice. The next was a few old bills, corners torn and the face of Bachmann crossed out in a child’s scrawl. Then there was an etching of a monster outline on a flat piece of scrap wood. An old, blue blanket barely held together by its bare threads and a torn T-shirt completed the collection.
Grey gently touched each item without picking it up. He seemed unwilling to hold a dead boy’s things in his palm. Though it required a huge effort, Harper slid out of bed and walked over to him, her back killing her from her night on the forest floor.
“Thanks for letting me sleep a little. I don’t know about you, but I had a rough night.”
“Of course.” He put his arm around her and kissed her temple. She gave him a big smile.
“So,” she said, stretching up and back in a big, sweeping movement, “what did you find out at the bar?”
“Let me get you some water first. Have a seat.”
“I’ll take the water. But don’t worry. I’m refreshed from my nap, I can stand.”
Grey’s eyes lingered over her belly, which was increasing in size every day. She snapped her fingers in front of his face.
“Hey! You can’t babysit me. You have to let me live my life. If I get tired, I’ll let you know.”
His shoulders drooped down, but he relented. He poured a cup of water from the big, unvarnished jug in the kitchen and brought it to her. “Here you go. At least you can admit when you’re thirsty.”
She stopped short of drinking, holding the cup in front of her chest. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“It just feels like…I don’t know, like you’re trying to be so strong and tough. But Harper, you’re pregnant. You don’t have to pretend to be anything, just relax.”
Her mouth opened in
to a little ‘O’ as she listened to him. She shook her head back and forth. “Wow. You really think this is all show?” She knocked back her water, gulping it as if to show Grey just how capable she was of drinking huge amounts of water at once. “Look,” she set the cup down with a loud noise on the table, “I’m not feeling weak or tired or anything. If I were, I would do something about it, like I did last night. Today I feel great. I feel ready to tear this whole house down and build up a new one for me and my baby. So, let’s get to work.”
“Your baby?”
Grey went a little pale with the realization that he had not been included in the child’s parentage. He swallowed and waited for Harper to explain.
“It’s mine. Yes. If I feel like you can’t be her father, then that’s that. I need a partner, not a boss.”
She crossed her arms and raised her chin, awaiting his rejoinder. He didn’t speak, but rather walked to her and put his hand on her shoulder.
“You’re right. You need a partner, not a babysitter. I’m sorry. Let me tell you what happened at the bar.” He pulled a chair out for her, and she accepted, graciously. He filled her in on all of it – the cash exchanging hands, the mention of secret money stashes around the forest, the booze.
“What was it, though? A vodka, a gin, anything you recognized?”
Grey shook his head. “Sorry. When I used to drink, I would just grab a bottle. I didn’t know the first thing about the different types of alcohol. All I know is it’s made from the local fruit, and it has no smell or flavor. It’s a bit thicker than water but not much, and it’s completely clear.”
“How did it make you feel?” she reached out for him as she asked, biting her lip in anticipation.
“At first, I was incredibly angry. Convinced that the entire world was out to get me,” he explained as he held her hand. “But after my first drink, a kind of happy stage set in. Suddenly, everything was silly and wonderful. I couldn’t get enough. I remember a wall in the bar bouncing up and down with me, and I think at some point myself and all the guys may have rolled around in the grass like kids. I can’t be certain; the stuff made me black out.”
Harper sucked her teeth. “Oh no,” she stood and looked down at him. “You must be hungover like crazy.”
He shook his head. “That’s actually the worst part. I’m fine. Not even a headache.”
She arched her eyebrows. “The worst part?”
“Yes.” He pulled her back to sit with him again. “Think about it; a crazy good drunk with no regrets, no symptoms the next morning, no memories. Something like that can do a lot of damage while feeling harmless. Who would worry about an alcohol that helps everyone have fun and forget themselves with no consequences? Let’s do it again!”
Harper closed her eyes and nodded. “I got it. It’s the perfect setup for some serious addiction.”
“Exactly.” Grey slumped back into his chair, his hands on his strong thighs. “I have to shut this down. But I have to find the people making it. They’re demanding cash, but it’s all just coming out of tree knots and spare shoes. No one actually makes money anymore. We’re bound to run out. Then, well, I hate to think about what would happen next.”
Harper fell back against her own chair, equally deflated. “Oh, my gosh. We’ll have a whole village of drunks. Desperate drunks. But Grey!” She sat up, her eyes flashing, “I think I know who would want that to happen.”
“What? Who?”
She grabbed his arm. “Come with me. We have to find Alex.”
Leaving all of Marcus’ things on the table behind them, the two went out and down on the lift. She told him about Alex’s last visit, the time he wouldn’t leave, just hung out on her porch and spoke in riddles.
“I’m sure he’s mixed up in this. He had that look in his eye, like he had a big secret he was just dying to blurt out. And he was anxious for me to help him.”
“But why?” Grey rubbed his forehead as the ground approached. She took his hands away from his brow and held them to her chest.
“I don’t know what his plan is just yet, but only the Alliance would do something like this.”
He looked deep into her eyes and let out a big breath at the sight of the assuredness he found in them. “Okay. If you really feel like this is the right path, let’s see where it leads us.”
They walked east, away from the large trees and watched the forest get younger and thinner. The sun beat down on them as they strolled, neighbors waving to them and occasionally stopping them to touch Harper’s stomach. A few humans twisted their faces up at the thought of a mixed baby, but Harper was over their unspoken judgements. This child was hers, and she was already fiercely proud of it. She wouldn’t let anyone’s opinion ruin this for her.
The two continued, leaving their beloved forest behind and moving into the ruins of the city that nature had chosen to leave in place. Only blades of grass and little pink flowers carpeted the ground that had once been a broad avenue. The Alliance lived together and eschewed the tree houses that Grey had designed. Harper had once heard Alex claim that they were too “separatist” and that groups needed to “cohabitate in order to truly bond.”
She could still feel that sticky, sick feeling in her stomach when she first listened to him spell out his philosophies on life. Somehow, everything he believed felt so dark and treacherous, no matter how much of a spin he put on it.
Whatever his intentions, Alex had managed to get a mixed group of humans and shifters to live together away from the main population. Altogether, they made up about forty individuals and only came to the edges of the forest for food and fresh water. The building they had claimed as a home had once been an airplane hangar and then a large living space for the humans of the city. From the outside, the building looked like sheets of paper stapled together at the edges and then draped over a flimsy frame. How did it not fall during the massive earthquakes or during a rainstorm?
They walked up and saw the guards right away. The Alliance never went a day without posting two guards outside of their big, metal doors. The kids in the forest thought this was hilarious and often pestered them when they needed a fun, new game, much to the frustration of the Alliance. It was just another instance of them not being taken seriously.
The guards were sitting on opposite facing fences and chatting when one of them noticed the couple on the path to their building. The two jumped up and stood at the top of the path. For weapons, they had roughly made spears with sharpened obsidian for blades. Harper had encountered such a blade only once in her life, and she knew that they sliced through skin as easily as a ripe piece of fruit.
Neither guard spoke as they walked up hand in hand. Grey smiled at them and tried to ask permission to pass.
“Gentlemen,” he said politely, “we really need to speak with Alex. May we go in?”
No response. Both young men looked over at Harper, who drew in a slow breath and silently prayed for strength. She put a hand on Grey’s shoulder and turned to him.
“I think I have to go in on my own. Alex came to me. I’m the one he wants.”
She turned to the two guards. “May I go in, please? I believe I can help Alex with a plan of his.”
The two spearheads raised and pointed at the sky. The guards stepped apart and planted their staffs into the ground with a forceful movement.
“She has to go in alone,” one of them said, his eyes steely as they glared at Grey. “You’re not welcome.”
“But…” Grey stepped forward to reason with them, but the spears swung forward in a quick motion. Harper grabbed his shoulder as the tips of the black blades pointed right at his stomach.
“It’s okay. Don’t worry.” He turned to her, and she forced a smile. She lowered her voice a little. “This is all just a show. Alex just wants respect. If you wait out here while I have a chat with him, we’ll be fine.”
Grey looked at the guards who were still in fight mode. Their faces were as hard as the stones they used to threaten him. “I don’t
like this, sweetheart.”
“Just stay close, okay?” She gave him a little kiss on the cheek and they hugged for a moment. She let him go and gave him another nod to help him stay calm. She turned to the guards and stepped forward.
“Please take me to Alex.”
They raised their spears again and stepped aside so that she could pass through and then followed her down the path while Grey stayed put and watched. He had a hard time seeing her walk up to the big metal door and knock on it with her tiny fist, but he did see the massive entrance swing up from the ground on a pivot. A little flash of movement told him that Harper had gone inside. The door closed and the guards returned to keep an eye on him while the love of his life was hidden inside a massive metal structure. He crossed his arms and gave himself a reassuring hug.
She’s tough. She can do this, he told himself. The guards took their stations again, not sitting or chatting this time, and Grey settled in for a long wait.
Inside the hangar, Harper looked around in surprise. She had expected the interior to be sad and destitute, the polar opposite of the green and lush forest. However, here was a place that had been expertly designed and cared for by the people who inhabited the space. She looked around slowly and took it all in, her mouth open as she did so.
First, she noticed the upper level. It was a kind of loft workshop that was open to the rest of the space. It had large work tables and tons of resources that the Alliance must have scavenged from all over the ruins. One corner was dedicated to books only, and the shelves they had built from scrap metal were packed with reading material all the way up to the ceiling. She could see some younger shifters and humans having what looked like a class with a human female who was encouraging them to connect some odd metal parts.
Briar on Bruins' Peak (Bruins' Peak Bears Book 7) Page 57
