by Chloe Garner
It was the stubborn streak that was holding him to his position, he knew. Shooting the demon would be the moral equivalent of shooting a wild animal for being wild. Man-eaters, sure, you had to deal with them, but ones deep in the woods that didn’t do anything wrong…
He sighed.
“If he ever hurts a human,” he warned. She nodded.
“I will come back with you and we will exterminate him.” She cast a glance over her shoulder to make sure the demon knew she had said it for his benefit, too. “But this makes us better people. Let’s go. I want to get down off the mountains before the sun sets too far.”
The hike back to the car was considerably less interesting. It took them almost a mile along the road in near dark to find the car, and as he got in, he heard Sam say something to Samantha.
“Hey, we need to talk, when we get back.”
<><><>
Sam had asked Jason to wait in the car. Samantha could only imagine that it was important, but she couldn’t come up with anything really going on, and she couldn’t get a good read off of Sam. Which was weird.
“Good day,” Sam said. “I really like working with you.”
“Yeah,” Samantha said carefully. “What’s up?”
“This is a bad idea,” Sam said, sitting on the edge of Jason’s bed. She stayed standing. “It’s been three weeks. Nothing has come after me. I haven’t needed you for the psychic stuff in more than a month, really. I just realized this afternoon that it’s never going to get any easier. I think… I think that Jason and I should move on, tonight, and… you should stay.”
The floor dropped out from under Samantha’s feet and she flung her hand around to find the back of a chair.
“You’re breaking up with me?” she asked, the first words her brain came up with. He smiled sadly and dropped his head for a moment, then looked back up again.
“We were never like that. And we could never be like that. And, while it really isn’t part of this, I’ve met someone, and I want to give that a chance. I love you, but this is the moment for a clean break. You don’t have to worry about us any more… you can do what you need to do, and Jason and I, we go back to our normal lives.”
Samantha opened her mouth, her limbs shaking, but she couldn’t find any words. She agreed with him. She had just known, for all she said about it, she would never be able to actually let him go. And yet. She couldn’t argue with him, as he sat there on the bed with his kind eyes and watched her.
“Sam. You’re free to go your own way.”
And there it was. The words. She fell on her knees, gagging.
“I’ll never forget you,” he said, standing. He rested his fingertips on her head for a moment, then she heard the door open and close.
<><><>
Sam walked down to the car, simple, clean relief washing over him. He had done it. It was the right thing, and he had done it. He got in.
“Where’s Sam?” Jason asked.
“She’s staying,” Sam said, putting on his seatbelt.
“What?”
“We’re going.” Sam paused, nodding to himself. “It’s over.”
“No,” Jason said, starting to get out of the car. Sam put his hand on Jason’s wrist.
“Look, she agreed. Don’t make it any harder. Let’s just go find another hotel for tonight.”
Jason looked hard at him for a long second.
“Sam,” Jason said. “I can’t do that to her.”
Sam kind of resented Jason spoiling this for him. He knew what he was doing, and deep down, he was sure he knew that this was what Samantha wanted and needed, as well. It was going to be a deep wound, but it was necessary. He just wanted to walk away and be clean.
“If you go up there, you’re just going to make it worse,” Sam said. “This was always going to be hard. Now is the time.”
Jason shook his head hard.
“Dammit man, no. What are you doing?”
Sam shrugged.
“The right thing.”
“You’re just going to leave her here? In the middle of nowhere? And say I don’t even get to say goodbye? She’s our friend, man.”
Sam looked sympathetically at Jason. He hadn’t really thought about how this would impact his brother.
“Jason, just…” He sighed. “I need you to drive. Trust me, and drive. We don’t say goodbye. That’s not how we work. You saw her today. She’s happy here. This is the time. This is the place. You have to trust me on this.”
Jason looked at him for a long time, but Sam didn’t budge. Finally, Jason started the engine and put the Cruiser in reverse.
“Dammit,” he muttered. Sam gave him a small, sympathetic smile, then settled back in his seat, putting his hands up behind his head. They drove.
<><><>
Sam sat calmly in the front seat of the Land Cruiser, looking up at the perfect mountain stars. It was beautiful.
Three miles back, curled up in the bathtub, Samantha cried.
END OF BOOK ONE
Thank you for reading Rangers, book one of the Sam and Sam series by Chloe Garner. If you enjoyed this story please come on over to Amazon and tell us what you liked about it. Also be sure to check out the next book in the series, Shaman. Want it all right now? You can get the first four books of Sam & Sam all at once in the Sam and Sam Origin box set.
It gets worse before it gets better.
Sam left her. It wasn’t really Jason’s decision, so he went along with it at the time, but he’s regretted it ever since. Now they have to deal with the consequences. Samantha is back, but nothing is the same and it looks like it may never be, again.
Carly, Sam’s demonic ex-girlfriend, has put him under a spell that’s likely to kill both Sam and Samantha, if they aren’t careful. If they do manage to survive, they still have Carly’s self-absorbed boss to deal with, plus a horde of zombies that Samantha says aren't zombies at all. Samantha may be a shaman with a knack for knowing the right things at the right times, but even she may not be able to get them out of this unscathed.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chloe Garner is, a wanderer with a host of identities in her head fighting each other to get out. Chloe writes about the things that go bump in the night, the future, and all things fantastical. Find her on Twitter as BlenderFiction, on Goodreads and Facebook as Chloe Garner, or at blenderfiction.wordpress.com.
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