by Emma Carter
“That brings me to the next topic,” he said. “You’re not going with me. I’ll get your sister and bring her back. I don’t need to worry about two humans while I am confronting Sinn.”
“Out of the question! There’s no way you’re going without me.”
He got up from the table and casually strolled to the sink. “I mean it, Lilly. This trek is dangerous. We won’t be able to ride all the way there. We’ll have to trek up the mountain. I’m not sure you’re built for this.”
The chair scraped against the floor as I got to my feet to confront him. Was that why he had kissed me earlier because he thought it would make me do what he wanted?
“You’re not going without me,” I reiterated. “No way. I have to be there for her. You’re a stranger and she’s but a kid.”
“If she’s still alive and that is a big if, then she can survive leaving with me. Alone.”
My gasp ended in a sob at his cruel words. My hands fisted into small balls at my side. “She is alive,” I croaked out. “I know. I feel it. I would know otherwise.” I dashed away the tear that fell. “I’ll be ready to leave when you are.”
I stalked off and to the living room where I sat on the long sofa, with my elbows on my thighs and my face in my palms. She had to be alive. She just had to. The truth was that I couldn’t be sure. Usually witches who were of close relation could feel when one of their member was hurt or dying. I’d felt it when both our parents had been executed by the Elders, punished for going after the werewolves when it was forbidden. But, Annie wasn’t a witch and I had no gut feeling to go by. Just my desire to have her back home in one peace.
I didn’t hear the footsteps until they were only a few feet away from me. I removed my hands from my face and sat back on the sofa, refusing to look at Ralf. I encountered the expensive glass furniture and the fireplace of his luxurious home. He must be doing well in the hunting business for him to be able to afford such a place. I had to scrape every last dime my parents had put aside to come up with the ten thousand dollars to pay him to get Annie home. But it was worth it. At least he seemed to know where we could find Annie in less than twenty-four hours.
“Look, I’m sorry about the way I said things back in there,” Ralf apologized. “I could have said it in a more tactful way.”
“She’s not dead,” was all I said in response.
“You don’t know Sinn the way I do. He’ll—”
“I know what Sinn is capable of!” I cried, getting to my feet and confronting him. “I know he’s a heartless and spineless coward who preys on those who are weaker than him.” I stared into his eyes and said in lower tones, “but I’ve heard of you too, Ralf and I know you are stronger than Sinn. If there’s anyone in this world that can take Sinn, it’s you. But make no mistake, I plan to be there when you do it.”
6
Ralf
“Hard-headed female,” I muttered under my breath, slowing my pace so she could catch up with me. It was a day after I’d made the mistake of tasting those luscious pink lips of hers. The day my thoughts became consumed with her and that damn kiss. What had possessed me to do something so risqué? I never mixed business with pleasure. In fact, this whole mission was going the wrong way. I never took innocent bystanders with me to get a job done and yet she had persuaded me to cave in and allow her to go with me.
When we had ditched the motorcycle about two hours ago, I had started off slow, giving her the chance to turn back and head for the main road if the way seemed too steep. When I had reminded her that she didn’t need to go along with me, she had responded by simply walking past me. Her determination was admirable but pure determination alone wouldn’t set her sister free.
The more I found out about her over the past forty-eight hours, the more I respected and even liked her. Not many people I knew would willingly go up against Sinn. Even beings with extraordinary abilities like werewolves wouldn’t go up against Sinn without a small army. While I was impressed by her tenacity, I also knew that if I were on my own, I would have been able to make my way to Sinn’s lair in half the time I’d take with her.
I frowned, deep in thought about the way she was taking everything well. Aside from her initial surprise when we had been surprised by the vampire outside the bar, she hadn’t been terrified when I’d allowed my partial wolf form to appear. She had acted like it was the most natural thing in the world to see a man lower his fangs in the form of a wolf. I was curious to know what was so special about her why she was able to take my world so calmly. From my own experiences, people tended to fear what they didn’t understand so how much did she understand about us?
A shuffling sound to my right penetrated my thoughts. At first, I thought it was nothing but then I heard it again. I stopped, narrowing my sight to let my wolf instinct take over. My first thought was to mark where Lilly was behind me. She saw me halt and understood, her hand already creeping to her side where I had seen her strap her dagger. I loved that about her, that although her eyes were big and green in her face, she still stood her ground. She didn’t run all hysterical on me, alerting whatever was out there to our presence.
A baby deer still on unsteady legs emerged from a thicket of bush. I released the breath I had been holding and let my muscles uncoil. The animal blinked at us with a pitiful expression and I wondered if it had lost its mother. As young as the little one was, he would more than likely not make it past a couple days. He would be the prey of the bigger animals in the forest. We hadn’t run into any yet, but I knew they were out there.
“Oh my, it’s just a baby,” Lilly gushed behind me. “He’s so cute.”
“You don’t know if it’s a he.” I didn’t intend to grumble but I wasn’t caring for the way I was reacting to her at all. To envy the deer she was cooing to was madness and I needed to get my head out of my ass if we were going to make it off this mountain alive.
“I just feel it’s a he,” she replied. She shifted from behind me and approached the deer. She was wearing a pair of skinny black jeans and a green shirt to blend into our environment. The way the jeans hugged her ass was downright sinful and sin was making itself evident in the seat of my pants.
“It’s only going to run away,” I said in amusement, crossing my arms to watch my words come to fruition. I straightened my posture, surprised when the animal didn’t run but move towards her.
“That’s it,” she cooed as though talking to a baby. “I’m not going to hurt her. I just want to give you some love. You can’t find your mama, can you, little guy?”
I’d never seen a deer react to a person the way she was interacting to the animals. They were skittish creatures who ran at the first sight of the unfamiliar but here she was, even running her hand over the head of the animal. More surprising was that the animal pressed even closer to her. Amazing.
“How are you doing that?” I asked, moving towards her. The animal immediately butted her and skittered away back into the thicket of bush and disappearing. My arms shot out to grab her before she could fall. The contact reminded me of before, when I had caught her and we had kissed. She must have been remembering too because she jack-knifed away from me so fast, her head clipped me in the chin. I bit my tongue and tasted the metallic tang of blood.
“I’m so sorry,” she apologized, rubbing the back of her head.
“No harm done,” I lied, swallowing the blood that seeped from the wound in my tongue. “Come on. We better keep moving. We need to reach a spot where we can make camp for the night. Try not to use your witchery with any other animals. We don’t have time to enjoy the scenery.”
“Witchery?” She scoffed, dropping into place by my side. “Surely you don’t believe witches existed.”
I glanced at her. “You believe in werewolves and vampires but not in witches?”
She shrugged. “I don’t doubt they existed at one point, but they’ve not been in existence for a while.”
I only grunted, not really wanting to discuss the matter of witches. I
hated them more than I even hated Sinn. They had taken my parents from me when I was just a teen. I would have wanted to retaliate myself, but the witches responsible had already been executed. Maybe I would have dealt better with the situation if I had closure, but I didn’t. I just knew that judgment had been passed on them and they had been executed by the Tribunal of Peoples with Extraordinary Abilities, T-PEA. I was left not knowing why those witches had attacked my parents.
“Things exists, even when we haven’t seen them.”
“You can’t surely believe there are witches still today?”
“Which brings to question, how did you know that we exist?”
When she didn’t answer right away, I glanced sideways at her. She trudged straight ahead without returning my look. “I’ve always believed things were out there that couldn’t be explained. Call it an overactive imagination but I knew for sure werewolves existed when I saw one. Nobody else believed me but I knew what I saw.”
“And how are you not afraid of us?” I pressed because I was wondering how much of what she said was true and how much was made up.
“Who says I am not afraid?” she asked.
“The way you handled the vamp that night?”
She shrugged. “That’s different. This is family. This is my sister we’re talking about. I would go up against the devil himself just to get her back.”
“Well, you might be getting your wish. Sinn is as close to the devil as any man will get.”
7
Lilly
“We’ll camp here for the night.”
I nodded at Ralf without a word, knowing he had stopped for the day because of me and not because he couldn’t go on. I had tried keeping up with him as best as I could, but I wasn’t used to the physical push of my body to these limits. We were walking for hours, only taking the time to stop for a few minutes to hydrate and then back to walking. We’d even eaten lunch while walking. Looking at Ralf and how composed he still was, he could walk for days before he became exhausted.
I wished I hadn’t looked at him. He released the knapsack he was carrying on his back and dropped it to the ground. He flexed his shoulders, rubbing one hand at the back of his neck. His shirt was damp from sweat and clung to his powerful chest. With his movement, the shirt rode upwards and showed a hint of his flat belly, and a thin line of hair disappearing into his cargo pants.
“I’ll get some woods to start a fire,” he said, and I snapped my eyes away from his crotch and back at him. He had noticed of course where my eyes had been, but he ignored it. He must have been used to women admiring his body. No wonder my near infatuated glances at him didn’t spark any reciprocal feelings from him. At least, I wasn’t certain. There was that kiss between us but since, he had not shown any signs of attraction to me.
He disappeared into the woods and I scowled. My sister was missing. I shouldn’t even be noticing a man at this time but my reaction to him was beyond my control. He surprised me by being easy to talk to. He acted all gruff but beneath the surface I sensed a man who was kind and considerate. It didn’t escape my notice how he slowed down today for me to keep up. I would have let him get Annie alone except that I had to be there in the event something went wrong. Like him finding out who we were and taking out his anger on Annie. Before I had met him, I would have said for sure he would want revenge but as I got to know him, I was no longer certain. He seemed like a fair person, but could he be fair to us when he discovered what our parents had done?
I glanced around me to ensure that he was gone before removing my own small drawstring back from my back. I located a jacket I had brought with me in case the temperature dropped. I searched the top pocket and took out the little pouch. I dropped one of my anxiety pill into my hand and slipped it into my mouth because I couldn’t wait for the attack to happen when I was out here in the night with him. Next, I took some of the dust from the second pouch and with a flick of my wrist, threw it in the air and allowed it to rain down on me.
“Sorcery and magic, ages old,
Powers mine to have and hold
This I choose, relinquish power
And return to me at the appointed hour.”
The air around me shimmered colorful and I inhaled the deep vanilla aroma that replaced the scent of magic on me. Chanting spells and working with potions left a perpetual scent on witches, one that humans wouldn’t be aware of, but a werewolf or a vampire would be able to sniff me out in a matter of minutes.
“Did you see that light?”
I startled and spun around to face Ralf who entered the clearing with an arm full of wood. I stuffed the pouch back into my bag, struggling to find the words to respond to him. How much had he seen? It couldn’t have been much if my head was still attached to my body.
“What light?” I asked.
“Just now. It was…” He trailed off looking at me in a peculiar way. “Never mind.”
We hardly spoke after. There was little to say to each other after all. I moved forward to help him with the fire but he waved me aside, making it clear he didn’t want my assistance. I found a firm spot, with a boulder at my back for support. I scanned the area, noting that the night was falling pretty fast. From the layout of the land, and this little clearing, this was a regular camp spot for others.
“There’s a little spring over there,” he announced, pointing to his left through a set of trees. “That’s why I wanted to stop here for the night. You can take advantage of it. I doubt we’ll get to another water source until we get to Sinn.”
I stood, eagerly wanting to wash up but not wanting to seem like I was abandoning him either to do everything. He was taking out canned supplies to heat up over the fire.
“Are you sure? Wouldn’t you like help with anything?”
He shook his head. “I’m fine. Just don’t wander farther than the spring. All kinds of animals come out at night and they are not looking for a cuddle buddy.”
“Okay, I’ll be quick.”
Despite telling him I would be quick, I couldn’t resist taking my time at the spring. The water was cool and washing my face of the grime and sweat of the day only made me want to wash my entire body. I washed up as best as I could, which took longer than it would have taken if I were showering. I had to pass the cloth over my flushed skin without stripping and that took some careful maneuvering.
At one point, I considered stripping but decided against it. The last thing I needed was to be running around naked when Ralf was so close by. He’d already seen and touched too much.
I was able to change my shirt because I had brought an extra one with me. Cognizant of how much time I took to clean up, I hurried back to our campsite. Ralf glanced up at my approach and I couldn’t look at him. Had he sat there thinking about what I was doing?
“I was about to come searching for you,” he said, rising from his spot at the fire. “I’ve laid out some rations for you to eat. I’ll follow you and see what was so enticing about the spring.”
I ate alone while he was gone, listening to the sounds of the forest. Unlike earlier which had been mostly quiet except for our talking and footfalls, the forest came alive at nights. I could hear the sounds of night animals skittering about. It was enough to make me lose my appetite. How fortunate was I to be on this journey with Ralf? If it hadn’t been for him, I probably wouldn’t have even made it this far.
I was so caught up in the sounds of the forest that I missed Ralf’s entry back into our camp. When I heard the shuffling, I went immediately for my dagger.
“Whoa, easy there,” he said, and I sighed with relief. “Unless you brought me all the way out here just so you could get rid of me. I promise you, I’ll put up a good fight.”
His joking manner put me at ease and I relaxed. I smiled at him despite my apprehension. “I don’t know why I am so skittish.” My face fell. “I only hope Annie is alright.”
“By this time tomorrow we’ll know,” he said, returning to where he had been sitting earlier, just few feet
away from me. “Are you finished eating?”
I nodded, and he shook his head before finishing off my meal. “No sense wasting good food.”
“You eat a lot.”
“Try eating for two,” he said, then paused, staring pointedly at my belly.
I blushed and wrapped my arms around my middle self-consciously. “That’s not something I give thought to. My sister is enough of a handful.”
“All women want kids.”
I rolled my eyes at him. “There’s no truth to that.”
“Are you saying you don’t want children?”
Where is this conversation going? I don’t like thinking about this at all when I was so conscious of how close he is to me.
“When I find the right man, I’ll contemplate it,” I answered.
“Not having the best of luck, huh? Why not? You’re a beautiful woman.”
I tried not to smile at his statement but I couldn’t avoid it, so I ducked my head behind my hair. “Thank you. I’ve just not been interested in any.”
“You’re into women then?”
My head snapped up to stare at him and I found him grinning. I pursed my lips. He was making fun of me. He knew damn well that I couldn’t be interested in women when I’d kissed him back the way I had done. I decided to turn the tables on him.
“Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure, you can. Doesn’t mean you’ll get an answer.”
I shrugged. “Fear enough.”
Silence reigned between us for minutes before I heard him growl beside me. “Well?”
I assumed an innocent wide-eyed expression as I stared at him. I could barely keep myself from giggling. “Well what?”
“I thought you were going to ask me a question.”
