“Of course. We can stay as long as you need, as long as he needs.”
“I’m not ready to say goodbye to him,” Buck admitted, then he dragged her close and she held on tight.
“I love you,” she whispered.
“I know,” he told her, burying his face against her hair. Then the strong man who’d held her through everything shuddered. Gripping his shoulders, she let him cry his silent tears. She would hold him forever.
Chapter 13
Jimmy, North to Indian Territory
The combination of willow bark and sleep seemed to have worked for Shane. He rode with a silent determination and a sense of maturity he hadn’t possessed before. Facing the darker side of their abilities always changed a person. Shifting his gaze upward, Jimmy scanned the distance. Blue flew out of sight hours before—and remained gone. It made his palms itch and he’d finally taken the rifle in one hand while he rode. The weapon satisfied the rioting need circling in his veins.
The sun edged toward the western sky. They’d covered several miles, pausing only long enough to water the horses before kicking them to a trot again. The last few days of rest had done the animals well, all of them, including the pair he and Shane led behind them, in good condition. Having switched at the midpoint, they kept the horses fresh.
Blue was an eagle.
An eagle.
Wrapping his mind around her ability to transform didn’t prove difficult. How she managed it without the agony Cody endured with every change, Jimmy couldn’t reckon. A dozen questions boiled in his mind, but he could ask none of them. Where was she?
He squinted, pushing his ability to see the farthest he could, and nothing appeared moving along the edge of the blue horizon.
“Did you know she was an eagle?” Shane asked, giving voice to another question plaguing him. He’d seen her bind a spirit, speak to it, and force it to speak. She’d leapt a fire and buried her blade into a man’s chest, then sliced the throat of a second man. Then she turned those death-dealing hands to medicine and helped Shane.
Hell, he’d tasted her sweetness in his arms as she welcomed him into her body. Need donkey-kicked him in the chest. He needed answers, but he needed to know she was all right more. “No,” he said, because the only answer he had was he didn’t have any of the information he needed.
A shaman who could become an eagle—Jimmy, if you do not save the eagle, all of your sacrifices will be for nothing. Quanto’s words echoed back at him. He’d saved the eagle, preventing the two men from shooting her.
Then I let her fly away this morning. Too shocked by the sudden change, he’d reminded her to avoid men with guns before she’d taken to wing. The man they were after was dangerous, and he let her fly. Idiot.
“She’ll be all right, Jimmy.” The tentative offering of comfort from the younger man jerked him from his musings. The kid gave him a faint smile. “She turns into an eagle and she was great with a knife. Maybe she isn’t Fevered, but Fevered are tough, and she acts like one.”
True, she did act a great deal like one of his siblings. Her toughness and determination were to be admired. But…
“From the stories I’ve heard, Mrs. Kane is pretty powerful, too. Would you worry about her?” Mrs. Kane? There were four of them these days, but Jimmy knew he referred to Scarlett. It wasn’t so long ago that he told Cody to let Scar fight, to stop trying to protect her. They had to let her handle what she could, because she could tackle a great deal.
She’d quashed a range fire and dealt with a firestarter.
But Blue is out there alone… As Scarlett had been. Scar could set things on fire, and Blue’s got no defense against gunpowder or buckshot. Jimmy grimaced. “Sundown is soon. I told her to be back by then.” He squinted at the distance. Could eagles see at night? She certainly couldn’t navigate well in the pitch black as human. Flexing his grip on the rifle, he focused on what he could do and nodded ahead. “We need to find a place to make camp.”
With gritty eyes, he scanned the path ahead. They’d left the culvert and traveled over open prairie. If they could find a good dip in the land, a fire would be possible—if they could locate wood or buffalo dung. They had enough food to make it one more meal before he needed to hunt again.
What if she doesn’t make it back before nightfall? Frustrated by the sobering thought, he considered his options. If she couldn’t fly after dark, she’d have to go to ground. Her doeskin dress rested in his packs along with her other gear. Naked and alone were not the options he wanted her facing.
Decided, he cut a glance at Shane. “The horses are good for a few hours yet and, if necessary, we can walk them. Are you up for pushing on?”
“If she isn’t back?” Even as he asked the question, Shane checked his water skin and lifted it for a drink.
“Yes.” Tomorrow, if he had tomorrow with her, she would not range so far ahead. He’d rather lose the doppelganger…Dammit, I can’t lose him. Aggravation and exhaustion left him scraped raw inside. He needed sleep, but he needed Blue like he needed his next breath. The brief smile she gave him that morning before she’d changed in front of him could not be his last memory of her.
The western sky streaked with red, orange and hints of purple when he caught sight of the eagle. Rising up in the stirrups, he narrowed his gaze and tried to judge the distance. The eagle dropped lower and lower, but she was still an easy two miles away. “She’s coming,” he told Shane. He tossed Shane the lead rope of the horse he’d guided and tapped his heels to his mare’s sides. The horse broke into a canter, leaving Shane and the others behind. The younger man already saw enough of Blue naked.
The eagle continued her descent, almost mimicking the setting sun with her sedate pace. When the eagle passed overhead, he slowed the horse and finally brought the mare to a halt. Gazed fixed on Blue, he watched the flare of her wings as she dropped further then sailed toward him. Flinging his arm out, he braced himself. The wind rushed him with the back flap of her wings then she alighted on his arms. Powerful wicked talons poked at his jacket but didn’t dig in. He kept the horse steady with one hand and his other arm braced.
“Hello,” he told the eagle and she canted her head to the side. She blinked with the same slowness she’d flown. “You’re late.”
She made a low, almost sing-song noise in the back of her throat and he grinned.
“You can argue with me later. What do you need to become you again?” Earlier, Blue reached for her medicine pouch. How she could repeat the process without her hands, he wasn’t sure.
Another slow blink flared in her eyes and she spread her wings and hopped from his arm. One flap, then two, and she landed a couple of feet away. Flaring her wings once more, she bowed her head and Jimmy narrowed his gaze. He wanted to miss nothing of the process. One thing he’d learned from Cody over the years was not to touch while the shift took place. Touching could hurt, but if something were to go wrong it was during the transition.
Was it the same for her?
Standing in the grass, she kept her wings outstretched and then seemed to shimmer as though heat rose from the ground beneath her. The desert offered such sights, but he’d yet to see one on the plains. The shimmering continued, then her wings vanished and her arms outstretched wide, leaving him with a clear view of the slender line of her back as she unfolded and finally stood.
Every muscle along her legs and arms trembled, and he heard her harsh breath as she shook her head. Dismounting, he pulled her dress out of the pack and took two steps toward her. “Let me know when it’s safe to touch you, Blue.”
One pivot, and she faced him. Exhaustion filled her eyes and a red cast hazed them as though she’d spent too many hours awake—or perhaps it too many hours aloft. “This one is well now.” The sluggish cadence of her speech made a lie of the words.
Still, he reached for her intending to give her the dress and drew her to him instead. Holding her close, he inhaled the sweet scent of sun, sky, and sweetgrass he’d come to associate with
her. Resting her head to his chest, she said. “This one returned before the sun set.”
“Barely.” He exhaled. “But I’m grateful to see you. We need to make camp. I have your dress…”
When her hands continued to shake, he helped her into the clothes, then lifted her up to the saddle before mounting behind her. She made a face at the leather, but leaned her head back to rest on his shoulder. The near-boneless weight of her so pleasant in light of his concern.
“Ahead,” she said. “About a mile is a place where the stream comes from the ground, cool and hot.”
“A hot spring?”
“Yes.” She smothered a yawn. “And I think I found your person. He traveled alone, and avoided contact with others. He rode a zig-zag path, but seems to be making a straight line.” Another yawn split her jaw, and Jimmy slipped an arm around her waist to keep her steady.
“Sleep, I’ll find the spring, and we’ll make camp.”
“Wake this one before the moon rises,” she said, reminding him of her troubled dreams. She didn’t wait for his promise or even acknowledgement. Her eyes closed and she burrowed closer to him.
The trust rang through him like a bell. Handling the mare, he turned back to meet Shane then led the way in the direction she’d indicated. Shane took one look at her sleeping and didn’t say a word. They rode in near silence, but in the last few rays of the day, he spotted the springs. “About a half mile,” he told Shane and the younger man nodded.
Slowing the horses, Jimmy kept lead. He kept Blue steady while he watched for any treacherous ground. The last thing they needed was an injured horse. At the springs, Shane took over with the horses and Jimmy got Blue into a bedroll. The heated steam rising from one spring helped with the rapidly plummeting temperatures, but he wanted a fire up and to hell with the risk tonight. “Stay armed,” he told Shane and he did the same. He was never more than a dozen feet from Blue while he searched out enough debris to start a fire with. Fortunately the scrub brush grew thicker around the springs. Shane picketed the horses, then carried their gear in before joining him on the hunt for fire kindling.
Between them, they had a stack ready and the fire going. When Shane rubbed at his chest, Jimmy pointed to the pools. “Bathe.”
The younger man blinked, then glanced at Blue. “What if she wakes up?”
“It won’t bother her, and we all need to get clean. I’m sure she’ll want to use the springs when she wakes, so go.” Because when Jimmy did coax her into the water, he planned for Shane to be sound asleep.
Breaking open the food supplies, he took inventory. Some of the meat had already begun to sour. He wrapped it up tightly, planning to bury it the next day. He could try to sear it in the fire and burn the bad parts off, but they had other food. Not all of it had gone bad. Once he sectioned out the good portions of the meat, he got a stew going. Everything went into the pot, including the remains of vegetables Mrs. Turren gave them. By the time Shane emerged, he had eyed his clothes.
“I almost hate to put these back on.” He said, and Jimmy understood the feeling.
“We’ll find a town in the next day or two, see if we can find a laundress. I have enough coin to re-outfit us and get Blue something warmer to wear.”
The kid nodded. His chest looked better, the scorch marks faded to a decided pink.
“How are you feeling? You did good on the ride today.”
“Aches some, still a little sketchy on the inside—a faint buzzing hum kind of feeling now and then. More when I grip something too tight.”
“We have more of the willow bark—”
But Shane already shook his head before Jimmy could complete the offer. “No, I think I can live without it. We may need what little she had with her later.”
Jimmy nodded and waited for Shane to finish dressing before pulling the tack closer to the fire. The leather was wearing in some places, and he had very little saddle oil left. He’d have to make it last. They had four saddles altogether. If he cobbled together the best parts of them all, he could fix two… Blue doesn’t use a saddle anyway.
He’d repaired most of his saddle with parts from a second and had Shane’s half-done when the food was ready. The kid needed to learn more about caring for his gear, but between Shane’s recovery and Jimmy’s current level of exhaustion, he didn’t push it.
“I can take a watch if you want to get some sleep,” Shane offered, but Jimmy shook his head. He’d sleep later, when Blue woke and told him she was fine. He checked the moon’s position. It hadn’t appeared in the sky yet.
“Rest. You can have watch tomorrow.” The last he added only to quell the rising rebellion in the younger man’s expression. Shane frowned, but settled onto his bedroll. Not two minutes later, his rising snores told Jimmy it was the right decision. Healing took a lot from the body, and they’d pushed hard today.
After rising, he stretched and took a short walk around their campsite. A scan in all directions told him they were alone. An owl passed overhead and he heard the occasional rustle in the grass. Rabbits or other ground animals. Most predators would be put off by the fire, but the gun was within reach.
He’d told Blue about his sight, and while it was all true, he hadn’t told her the whole of it. How he never missed, how his aim was so true that he killed even when he intended to wound. Weapons, took on a life of their own in his hands. Whether he used a knife, bow and arrow, or gun, it didn’t matter. He learned a long time ago not to use a weapon if he wasn’t prepared to kill someone.
Returning to the saddle, he checked the fraying girth strap. The fourth saddle had a slightly better conditioned one, but the quality of the leather left a lot to be desired. It would do for the time being and Jimmy would see about stretching their supply run to replace it altogether. Pulling out his whittling wood, he had an idea and went to work carving.
When the first sign of the crescent moon appeared on the horizon, he crossed to the bedroll and ran his knuckles down Blue’s cheek. Her eyes fluttered open and he smiled. “Moon’s up.”
She blinked rapidly, then stretched. “Thank you.”
“I have food and the spring is hot if you want to bathe.” Holding up the wooden comb he’d fashioned, he smiled. “And you can let your hair down. I’ll even help.”
Surprise flitted across her expression and her lips curved into that too rare smile he was rapidly learning to adore. “You made me a comb?”
“Yes,” he said, and he’d make her a dozen more if she needed. “It’s rough, but it will do.” He really wanted to see her hair. “Want to bathe?”
“I should tell you what I found…”
He pressed his fingers to her lips. He wanted to know, but he also wanted to take care of her first. Make sure she was all right, and they had time. “Soon,” he told her. “Bath first. I even saved you the last of the soap.”
Holding her hand, he coaxed her from the warmth of the blankets and led her past the sleeping Shane. The kid’s snores were steady and he’d half-pulled his blankets over his head. Keeping watch, Jimmy guided her to the steamy pool. They’d set camp a little ways away and the natural rock formations gave them good cover and shielded the fire. He’d already inspected the pool, and found it smooth sided.
Blue needed no further encouragement. She shed the doeskin dress and slipped into the water. He went back for the supplies and set them up. The bliss on her expression more than worth any trouble he’d taken. At her beckoning hand, he shed his boots and set the guns in easy reach of the water.
After he waded over to her, she rewarded him by wrapping her arms around him and nuzzling his cheek in affectionate greeting. “Would Jimmy like to take my hair out of the braids?”
“Yes he would,” he said. His body hummed with the need to touch her, but he wanted to see the length of her hair and free it from the confines. The thickness alone filled his fingers as he began to unravel the first braid. The water lapping at his skin and Blue standing so near all acted like a tonic his system desperately needed.
For the first time since she’d left him that morning, he relaxed.
Onsi, Moonlit Pool with Jimmy
True to his word, Jimmy unwound her hair from the braids. His expression as he did so satisfied her senses even more than his touch. Wonder softened the tense lines around his eyes and his grin broadcast his happiness. With one braid loose, he stroked his fingers through until the ends became soaked with water. He paid similar attention to the second braid and, when he’d finished, the dark cloud of her hair surrounded them.
“It’s beautiful,” he said, adding words to what his actions already declared. Not content to only release her hair, he stroked his fingers across her scalp then down. When she released him long enough to dunk her head under water, he waited for her to re-emerge then helped her wash her hair. She returned the favor, washing his chest and arms then urging him to dunk his head.
He scanned the area around them once, sweeping a full circle before he complied. Warriors didn’t relax their vigilance. Understanding the need, she didn’t tease him nor complain about his taking the time. When he emerged from the warm water, the moonlight glistened on the droplets sliding over his arms. She hadn’t truly gotten to appreciate him the night before, but she admired the whipcord lean muscle of his arms and the breadth of his shoulders.
Though his legs were paler than his chest, the sun kissed warmth of his skin told her he worked outside and often. Leaning into him, she rose on her tiptoes and pressed a soft kiss to his mouth. Clean, warm, and safe in the water lapping at them, she reveled in the sensation of being held with tender strength. It didn’t take long for his kiss to turn demanding or for his cock to stiffen with desire.
He stroked his hands over her, caressing and teasing. Everywhere he touched, passion flared to life. Wrapping her legs around his hips, she rose out of the water. He slid his hands beneath her buttocks, supporting her. Surrendering control to Jimmy seemed the most natural act. As with the night before, they needed no words, letting touch communicate their need. When he thrust inside of her, she groaned against his mouth. Heaviness filled her limbs and the connection sizzled with every stroke. The cool air flushed against her damp skin, but every push of his hips to hers stroked her temperature higher.
The Quick and the Fevered Page 20
