by Alisha Rai
“Your leader will be angry with you when he learns you let me get away, once you explain my strengths and what I can do. I would be a handy weapon.”
James shrugged. “He’s going to be more interested in your blood than your muscles, since it could hold the key to an antidote. So am I. But if you don’t recognize the fact that you could honestly help people by coming with us, I can’t force you into doing anything you don’t want to.”
Jules wasn’t quite as ready to give in. “What will you do? Where will you go?”
“Away. I’m not sure. As long as I am alive, I fear someone will be coming after me. I will not fight you on Carrie going to Raven.” He took a deep breath, and a crack appeared in his composure. “It is best that you get her away from me. If it is known that she is the slightest bit like me, that you are the slightest bit like me, you would both be chased as well.”
“So, what, you’re going to pack your bags and go hitchhike? Steal a car?”
“Actually,” James interjected quickly, before Jules could give the man any further ideas, “he could take your van.”
“It’s broken down.”
“I might be able to fix it. We have to head back that way anyway. If that doesn’t work, we can give you a ride to some other transportation.”
“You’re helping him?”
James squeezed Jules’s hand. “What army could stop him? And he’s right. If he won’t come to Raven where he can be protected, we have to get him far away from Carrie and you. As far as Cheyenne knows, the two of you are nonentities to be concerned about. Hell, as far as Cheyenne knows, you may not even exist. He’s the target.”
Erik studied him for a pregnant pause. Then he glanced up at the ceiling before cutting his gaze to Jules. “Well said. You will make sure the girl is taken care of?”
Jules’s jaw tightened, but she nodded, reluctant. “I promise. The first minute she’s ill-treated, I’ll take her and run.”
Erik smiled. The skin around his light eyes crinkled. Warmth spread over his whole face.
Fuck. Even half-Shadow, the bastard was still good-looking.
Choke that jealousy back.
Since it didn’t mesh with his vow to end his resentment of the man, James didn’t hold on to Jules when Erik swept her up. Jules hung there for a moment, stunned, before she responded, burrowing her head in his massive shoulder.
Erik’s voice was muffled. “I am sorry I ever doubted you, Jules. You managed to free us in a few hours when I couldn’t do so in years. Thank you for not giving up on me.”
James scratched his nose, his envy melting away. He had to clear his throat around the happiness he felt for Jules. He knew how much those words would mean to her.
Finally, Erik returned her to her feet and stepped back. “I will grab some extra clothes from the closet upstairs. They fit me well enough.”
“You will have to be the one to tell Carrie you aren’t coming,” Jules warned. “She knows you a lot better than me or James.”
Erik looked like he wanted to argue, but he nodded. “Very well.”
“Okay then.” James squeezed Jules’s hand. “Let’s be on our way.”
They readied their things fairly quickly. Carrie was still too weak to walk on her own, so James was the one to carry her. The girl was too furious with what she saw as Erik’s desertion to even consider allowing him to touch her. Erik had found a pair of sunglasses in the closet of the house’s former occupants, so Jules’s pair was perched on Carrie’s delicate nose.
They walked out the back door and crossed the yard. James had fetched his car and parked it behind the shed the evening before. He waited patiently with Carrie while Jules came abreast of him.
“What the hell did you do to your car? You destroyed it.”
“I wouldn’t say destroy, exactly.” Though the beat-up vehicle, with its cracked windshield, shattered driver’s side window, dented fender, half-broken side mirror and numerous dings from flying bullets, wouldn’t be winning beauty contests anytime soon. “In my defense, I haven’t driven a car in a long time, and it wasn’t a leisurely trip.”
“This is going to get you back to America?” Erik asked, the first words he’d really spoken since he’d come striding, grim-faced, from Carrie’s room.
James studied the car. It was no longer a cocoon. But if there was one thing he’d learned, physical barriers didn’t mean jack shit when it came to getting hurt. Despite the cracks in it, the car had kept him safe on his journey. He’d grown rather fond of it. “Yes.”
“Maybe you should drive, Jules.” Doubt was written all over Carrie’s face.
“No kidding. I’m driving the first shift. Maybe all the shifts.”
“I got here in one piece, didn’t I?”
“By the grace of God.”
“True enough,” James conceded cheerfully as he settled Carrie in the backseat and helped her arrange the pillow she had carried under her head.
“I want you to sit next to me,” Carrie said clearly, all snotty teen. “Not Erik.”
He winced for the other man and glanced over his shoulder to where Erik was putting their knapsacks in the trunk. The hybrid didn’t so much as betray a flicker of regret or emotion, though he must have heard.
Deciding it wasn’t worth arguing over the matter, James slid in next to her and closed the door. Jules climbed in on the driver’s side and adjusted the seat and mirrors to fit her shorter frame. A smile crossed her lips when she found the pile of torn-up paper from her makeshift breadcrumb trail on the center console. He had carefully smoothed out each page and laid them flat.
She glanced over her shoulder at him. “I stole the book.”
“I can see that.”
“So if a library fine hits me in twenty years, it’s all for you, güey.”
Using the GPS and James’s guidance, Jules was able to navigate back to her van by midday.
The problem with her vehicle, it turned out, was fairly basic. James had the manual for his identical battery neatly tucked in his dashboard and was able to jump hers using his.
When the van was purring again, Erik returned to the car and opened the back door. “Carrie. Goodbye.”
Her mouth was set in a tight line. She looked away. From where she stood next to the vehicle, Jules’s heart ached.
Erik hesitated. His mouth firmed and he reached in, pulling the girl to him for a hug. Her stiff anger persisted for a moment before she relaxed against him, her body shaking. “I’ll seriously never see you again? You’re sending me off alone, just when I’m getting better?”
“You aren’t alone. Jules will watch out for you.”
“You’re going to be alone!”
He smoothed his hand over her head, his touch gentle. “I will be fine. This is for the best.”
“Take me with you.”
“No.” His tone brooked no disobedience. He leaned down and whispered something in her ear. Carrie stilled.
Jules strained to hear what he was saying, but no luck. After a long minute he straightened away.
“Promise?” Carrie asked tremulously.
“Yes.”
Whatever he had said, it calmed the teen. They hugged again, and though fat tears slipped down her face, she did not resist when he drew away.
Erik shut the door and turned to Jules. They had already spoken of everything that needed to be said, so she only hugged him. The embraces seemed to be coming easier to the man, which made her happy to see.
“You have a strange habit of rescuing young women,” she half-joked.
“Indeed. Hopefully Carrie will never have to rescue me.” He gave her one last squeeze and stepped away.
“I’ll take care of her,” she reassured him again.
“I wouldn’t leave her with you if I wasn’t aware of how much you’re capable of. Be well, Jules. And happy.”
“You too, cuate.”
He walked away from her, but Jules couldn’t stand to stick around and watch. She hurried and got into Ja
mes’s dinged car, on the passenger side this time. Her tear-fogged eyes wouldn’t let her drive.
Erik drove out of her life with a plume of dust, headed back north. Jules said a quick prayer for the man under her breath. He had suffered enough. Let him find some sort of happiness.
James got in behind the wheel. With one glance, he seemed to grasp her tumultuous emotional state and picked up her hand to squeeze it.
They backed up, turned around and started driving in the opposite direction.
“Will Gabriel be very upset when he hears we let Erik go?” she asked quietly, too low for Carrie to overhear.
“Yeah,” James admitted, using the same almost-whisper. “Until I tell him I gave Erik your van.”
She frowned at him, not understanding. What did her van—?
Her van. Which James had tracked to find her.
She swallowed. He looked so sweet and intellectual and quiet. But he was brilliantly devious. “We can find him.”
“If we need to. If his captors go after him, I want to be able to get to him. Or if we have problems later…” He shrugged. “I’m keeping our options open, is all. I’m surprised he didn’t realize that was why I was giving it to him.”
“We never said how you found me.”
“Yeah. But it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out. I’m guessing once he thinks about it, he’ll ditch the van. But hopefully we can track him for a while before that happens.”
“Smart man. So I guess we have a long ride ahead of us.”
He glanced at the GPS. “If you don’t mind, actually, I’d like to stop and see some friends of mine.”
“What friends?”
“You’ll see.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Their ride to Raven was uneventful enough, with both of them taking turns at the wheel. That way they only needed to stop for necessity’s sake or to give Carrie a rest when she suffered motion sickness.
She and James had both agreed it was best to speak with the doctor at Raven before discussing Carrie’s not completely human status with her. Other than her eyes, Carrie was exhibiting no further hybrid-like side effects and was recovering quickly, already able to sit upright and eat solid food. She was solemn, but after her illness and saying goodbye to her long-time companion, that was to be expected.
Jules didn’t get nervous until they drove up to the high gates protecting the entrance of Raven Rock. James had driven for the past few hours, both because she was exhausted and he knew the way better, and also because she figured he secretly worried she would bolt if she was in control of the vehicle.
James leaned out of his broken window and pressed the small button on the intercom. “It’s James Bennett. Can you let me in please?”
Static sounded before a deep male voice blared, “Jesus Christ, Bennett. We’ve been worried since we lost contact. Thank God we could keep tracking your car.”
“Hey, Marc. Sorry about that. Had an accident.”
“Or eight,” Jules muttered, which made James smile. The gates were clanging open.
“Let the truck behind me in too, okay?” James said to the intercom.
“Uh. Sure.”
They drove through the gates, the granite walls of the mountains stretching high around them. Jules held her breath as James continued to drive straight toward the largest mountain in front of them. With a loud screech, the gray rock face moved, exposing a steel door. That, too, opened up to welcome them.
If she hadn’t been watching it, she would have missed the exhale of breath James gave as they entered the hidden door. The lines of tension around his mouth and eyes eased, and he subtly relaxed.
He was comfortable here. She remembered what he’d said, about feeling safe within the bunker, and she was abruptly grateful that she hadn’t demanded he go elsewhere with her. Oh, she knew he would have made it work—his strength of will wouldn’t demand anything less—but he wouldn’t have been truly happy.
They drove through a narrow tunnel carved out of rock and lit by dim emergency lights.
“This is crazy,” Carrie whispered, suitably awed.
Jules agreed. The tunnel widened until they reached a car park. He stopped amidst a small row of other vehicles similar to his.
“We have to walk from here,” he murmured.
She nodded, too intimidated to speak. Sanctuary was large, but it was, at heart, a military base. This was a super-secret underground command center, stretching miles below the surface of the earth, a place built during the Cold War. And now she was standing here, about to go inside and meet some people who were the last remaining survivors of the group specially selected to receive protection in the event of worldwide disaster. Her, a former drug addict from one of the poorest neighborhoods in L.A. Crazy was right.
She went to the trunk to get their bags while he picked up Carrie. The two occupants of the truck spilled out, road weary and rumpled. Ben looked around with a frown on his grizzled face while Rose patted her hair and quivered with excitement. Jules knew the other woman was starved for companionship, particularly since she’d been chattering since they’d met.
Their trip had been delayed by a day when they’d stopped at the couple’s place. James had told her that he owed the elderly pair, and he hated to think of them living all alone out there forever.
Jules had liked them on sight, especially since, other than a few questioning looks at Carrie’s coloring, they hadn’t quizzed them about it. Her guy had tried to convince Ben to return with them while she and Carrie had rested, but to no avail. Finally, while eating a delicious dinner, Jules had won the battle of wills with a single question: “If you die, who’s going to look out for Rose?”
“Well played,” James had whispered, as the old man had stomped off to ready their luggage.
“Amateur,” she’d whispered back.
So the couple had come with them, bringing their own vehicle packed with their precious possessions. The extra wheels had been an added safety net for all of them, in the event that James’s vehicle gave up the ghost.
Jules followed him as he picked his way to an unobtrusive elevator. It was almost too small to hold all of them. “It’s best if we all meet Gabriel first,” he said.
Ben grunted. “So we can run if we think he’s shady?”
“Basically,” James agreed. “You can run at any time. Actually, you can walk at any time. No one will stop you.” After emerging from the elevator, they walked to the door at the end of the hall, their footsteps clattering on the stone floor. Jules could see Carrie’s wary gaze taking in the place. James didn’t have to knock. The door opened for them, and they entered.
One man was seated at the desk, while a younger, extremely handsome man stood behind him. Military, Jules thought, judging from the way the younger guy held himself.
Though she had never met him, she instinctually knew that the seated man was Gabriel. His appearance wasn’t nearly as impressive as she’d imagined. He was of average size, in his forties, with salt-and-pepper hair and a lined face. But Jules had an inkling that those world-weary green eyes missed nothing. They flicked over her and Carrie. Jules felt like they’d been assessed and judged in one fell swoop.
Gabriel’s gaze shifted to Ben and Rose. “I thought you were going after one person, James.”
It wasn’t a question, but James answered. “Yes. But plans change. Let me introduce you to Carrie. She was held in captivity by the same people who captured Jules.” He lifted the girl in his arms. She swallowed before giving a feeble wave, which Gabriel returned. James tipped his head to Ben and Rose. “And this is Ben and Rose Reardon. They were kind enough to offer me hospitality on my journey, and I offered to let them stay here if they wished it.”
Gabriel inclined his head. “It’s a pleasure to meet all of you. My name’s Gabriel, and this is Marc. He handles our small military.”
Rose gushed. “What a pleasure to meet you! My, this place is amazing. And to think, you’re like the president—”<
br />
Gabriel cut her off. “Ma’am, if that’s what James told you, he’s sadly mistaken. I’m nothing more than a wrangler.”
Ben grunted. From what Jules had gathered, that was the man’s favorite method of communication. “Titles don’t matter anymore. Actions do.”
“I fully agree,” Gabriel said softly.
The two men studied each other, and Ben seemed to come to a decision. He gave a short nod. “I can hunt really well, and I’m a fair shot with most firearms. We can pay our way.”
Gabriel shook his head. “We’ll worry about your skills later. Let’s get you settled first. We have barracks at Camp David, but we also have some apartments. The latter have more privacy, so you might be more comfortable. The apartment probably won’t be very big, but…”
“That’s fine,” Rose interjected. “Will we have neighbors?”
“Yes, indeed. On either side.” He leaned forward and picked up a radio. “Kev. Can you please come in here?”
“Yes, boss?” The voice behind them made Jules jump. Talk about efficient. She turned to find a young man behind her. Young, pierced and blond, he had a giant smile stretching his rubber-band mouth.
When Ben and Rose moved aside, he saw James. With a whoop, and ignoring the girl in his arms, Kev leapt to James and hugged him. “You’re back!”
James had to quickly adjust Carrie so she wouldn’t get smooshed. “Hey, Kev.”
“We missed you.” Kev vibrated with excitement, not very different from a nervous puppy. “Oh wow. You brought lots of people.” He took in the ragtag group with a mercenary eye. “How are any of you with technology?”
“Not now, Kev,” Gabriel warned.
The guy finally registered Carrie’s presence, and his attitude changed at being confronted with a female around his age. “Hey.”
“Hey,” Carrie said shyly.
“What’s up with your—?”
“Kev,” Gabriel interrupted. “Could you please take the Reardons to one of the empty apartments at the base? I understand they brought their stuff in their own vehicle, so maybe they could follow you.”
