Piper LeVine, A Gypsy's Truth

by Eris Kelli

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  We decided that since time was of the essence we’d drive straight through the day and into the night to get back to the community. I don’t know what it was that changed Adriel’s mind, all I know is that I was so grateful it changed. He didn’t talk much as we drove and I didn’t either. I was pretty sure he’d never broken the rules before and was dealing with that end of the stick while I was trying to solve the Baobhan mystery.

  Yew tree, pig’s milk, and werewolf make what? These are pieces to three different puzzles!

  Adriel said we still had a good six hours ahead of us before we’d reach the community when he stopped at a gas station out in the middle of nowhere.

  “Are you hungry?” I asked, eyeing the tiny store. “I could get you a Twinkie or something.”

  “I don’t want any Gaje poison. Just see if they have any fresh fruit.” I rolled my eyes and climbed out of the car. The door made a little chime sound when I opened it, and the clerk glanced up at me and then did a double take. I ignored his attention and continued into the store.

  The restroom was tiny but at least there was one. I was looking at the “poisonous” Gaje food when a peculiar feeling that I was being watched tickled down my back. I glanced over at the clerk, he was still watching me. I shrugged and turned my attention back to the chips. It was then that I noticed there was a young man starting down the aisle toward me.

  He was looking at me, but he halted in his approach a good distance from me, so I decided to ignore both he and the clerk and finish up what I was doing. I picked some orange puffs and I jumped a couple feet when I heard the same guy on the aisle dry heave. It was a painful and an upsetting sound to say the least.

  When I looked at him I decided he was around my age. His dark brown eyes were pouring tears and he was covering his mouth and nose with his right hand. “Are you okay?” He just kept staring at me. I figured he was embarrassed, so I headed over toward the clerk. “Do you have any fresh fruit?” The clerk was watching behind me, probably dreading what he was going to have to clean up when that guy did finally throw up. “Fruit? Any fruit?”

  He still didn’t answer so I set my stuff and two water bottles on the counter. I glanced back to find that same young guy had moved out of the aisle toward the clerk too, but he was greenish looking and I was glad he was a good four feet from me. The clerk rang me up and I gave him my card.

  The nauseous guy looked so bad I felt like I was about to throw up just looking at him making that disgusted face. I grabbed my bag and started for the door when I heard the young guy give a chuckle before he said almost inaudibly, “Pig’s milk.” I stopped walking and looked over my shoulder at him. “It’s starting to wear off though.”

  “So I’ll drink more.” My voice shook, and I gripped the handle on the door. He was solid muscle. He had this raw power that just seemed to pour off of him. I don’t know how I missed that when I’d seen him at first.

  “Please don’t. We’re not going to hurt you, Piper. You are one of us. You just don’t know it yet.” He took another step toward me. “If you’d just come with me there would be no need to involve the gypsies.” I looked through the window on the door. Adriel was putting away the gas pump. “We can’t leave you with those monsters, Piper. You’re going back to see your pet, Nicholas? He is nothing compared to what we can offer you.”

  I pushed the door open.

  “We’ll come get you. Don’t be afraid.” I let the door shut behind me and I ran to the car.

  “Why are you running? What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing. We’re in a hurry aren’t we?” I slammed his door shut for him and jumped in the backseat. “I command you to drive right now.” Adriel swore and floored the gas pedal. I turned around in my seat and saw the young looking Baobhan already standing in the street watching us go. He blurred in my vision and he was gone.

  Don’t be afraid? I’m terrified.

  “There’s no backing out of it now, just drive, Adriel.” I wished I had drunk more of that pig’s milk because there wasn’t time to get any. What if the Baobhans got there first? What if they captured Nicholas or worse, killed him. “You can’t drive faster? We need to call and warn the community. They all need to be evacuated. The Baobhans are coming.”

  We only stopped once to make the call to warn them. Adriel was the one who made the call. I waited in the car trying to come up with a plan. So far all I could think of was to shake Nicholas out of his jealousy and then make a run for it. It was a crappy plan, but I didn’t know what else I could do.

  I didn’t know what a Yew tree looked like, I had already read that it was impossible to grow trees and I wasn’t a werewolf. The way I saw it, Angus had all the keys and he died using them. I didn’t have all the keys, but it looked like I was going to die as well.

  “No one’s told me about any plans for Sidney,” I said when Adriel started driving us again. “She’s being protected, right?”

  “Yeah, she is. Tony is in love with her, he isn’t going to let anything happen to her.”

  “Good.”

  “You want to know about Seraph too don’t you?”

  I had moved up to the passenger seat. “I saw her leave with protectors.”

  “She’s going to go and try to negotiate with the Baobhans.” He looked at me and nodded. “If we have them popping up in the gas stations then I’d say negotiations aren’t going very well.” He wiped his forehead. “And here I am driving our queen right into the mouth of danger. Nicholas will kill me even if you do shake him out of his trance. Seraph is going to have me Marimed.” He laughed a little. “I feel like I’m going crazy. You do know how to kill them right?”

  “I guess we’ll find that out together won’t we?” He glared at me, and I shrugged. “Just tell me if you see a Yew tree alright?”

  “I don’t know what a Yew tree looks like.”

  “Well, that makes two of us.”