Chapter 27
“Shit,” I whispered. “We have to get out of here. Someone's coming.”
Without replying, he carefully made his way to the edge of the doorway, daring to peer around the corner at whoever was coming our way. He was met by the sound of a bullet whizzing past his face.
“Fuck!” he hissed, pulling a gun out from under his jacket. “Ruby, listen to me, and do exactly as I say. When I start shooting, I want you to run for the back fence. Take the dirt path into the woods. Don't stop running until I tell you to or until you find somewhere safe to call the police from. Understand?”
“Yes,” I replied nervously. The sound of falling footsteps had suddenly ceased.
“They're trying to pen us in,” he said softly. “You have to go now.”
Not missing a beat, he angled his gun around the corner and started letting off rounds without pause. Following his instructions, I darted around the corner to find that the path to the fence was clear—thankfully. Not caring about the hazardous barbs at the top, I practically threw myself up and over the fence, landing on the ground on the other side heavily. Alan wasn't far behind me. He'd gotten to the back side of the building incident free, but his clip was empty and the enemy's bullets had started flying again.
“Run!” he screamed at me while he jumped onto the fence, gun still in hand.
Ruby, Scarlet warned, knowing that danger was more than upon us. She wanted to rectify that situation, and terrible as the idea was, I wanted her to. Instead, I ran as fast as I could into the darkness that sprawled before me. While the underbrush snagged my clothes and branches whipped my face, all I could think about was my escape from Utah with Cooper. We had narrowly succeeded then. I wasn't so sure that Alan and I would that night. He was too human to withstand a few bullets.
“They're gaining on us,” Alan called from behind me. He must have reloaded at some point because he occasionally returned fire to drive our attackers back.
His attempts seemed in vain.
“How many?” I shouted, my breath coming hard and ragged while we sprinted toward the unknown.
“I didn't see. A lot. And heavily armed.”
Ruby...
“I know,” I growled just as a bullet grazed my shoulder. “Fuck! I'm hit.”
“Where? How badly?” Alan yelled.
“My arm. I think I'm okay. It's just a flesh wound.”
“Good. Keep running,” he demanded. His breathing was far more labored than my own, and I feared that he would soon lose the rush of adrenaline that he was so clearly depending on for speed. Once that happened, we—or, more pointedly, he—would be sitting ducks.
“Alan, we have to lose them somehow.”
“I know,” he snarled. “There are too many to hide from. I don't know the area, and I don't have nearly enough ammo to keep us safe.” I could hear the frustration in his words. Alan was analytical, tactical, and always prepared. To be anything less was unacceptable to him. In his eyes, he had failed. Failed me, failed himself, and failed McGurney.
I could hear his footfalls slowing behind me. He was no longer able to maintain the blistering pace we had held for so long already. Fearing what would happen if I lost him in the woods, I paused, allowing him to catch up to me. I hoped I could drive him forward to safety, but it seemed already that I couldn't. It was apparent that we were not going to get out of those woods alive if we continued the way we were. We needed a new plan.
“Alan,” I whispered, pulling him over to a large stump. “We can't outrun them. It's not going to work. I have a plan.”
“No!” he snapped, pulling my face in close to his. “This is not time for one of your hare-brained schemes. They get people killed.”
Shots rang out from all around us.
“We're going to get killed either way if we don't do something different. I need you to trust me.” I could see by the look in his eyes that I was asking for too much. I had played that card one time too many with Alan. My second chances were gone. “Stay here,” I ordered, shoving him to the ground and out of harm's way. I popped my head up quickly to assess the situation as best I could in the darkness. The second I did, I saw a red laser flash across my line of sight, and I heard the gunshot ring out. I narrowly avoided the bullet.
My ear burned from where the bullet had just grazed the delicate skin of my upper lobe. However, that sensation was preferable to it taking my face off.
RUBY!
“Is there any other way?” I asked, not caring that Alan could hear me.
Only if you wish the outcome to be his death and potentially yours too.
“Dammit,” I spat, turning to look at Alan's confused face. “Listen to me. No matter what you hear, you stay down.” I turned to run, letting Scarlet out as I did, but Alan pulled me down, an objection on the tip of his tongue.
But that's as far as it got. One look at Scarlet's burning red eyes and he went perfectly silent.
“Do as she said and you will live. I don't need to bring you home in a body bag.”
What are you going to do?
“I'm going to have a little fun, Ruby,” she replied, stepping out into plain view. “And you know how I like to have fun.”
Instantly gunfire was upon us, but it was no match for Scarlet's speed and reflexes. She outmaneuvered the laser scopes with an ease and grace that was something to behold. Every man she came upon met a quick but painful end. Necks were broken. Heads were smashed. Lives were lost.
But not ours.
Once she was finished playing with her prey, she sauntered over to Alan.
“They are dead,” she called out, watching while he slowly stood, weapon drawn. She looked at him curiously. “I think that you underestimate me greatly if you think you would stand a chance against me with only that to protect yourself. Be thankful that Ruby adores both you and your family. I'm far less committed to you than she is. I would rethink your plan if I were you.”
“You killed them,” he said, his voice slightly shaken.
“I had no choice.”
“Where is Ruby?”
“There is no time for questions now. We have to go back and be sure there are no others. Whoever went after your friend is now after us. You saw how well that ended for him. Do you wish the same for yourself?”
He said nothing in response, but he didn’t move either. His weapon remained aimed at Scarlet's chest.
“Are you going to shoot me?” she asked, her voice amused and taunting.
His response rang out through the forest around us.
I couldn't breathe. Burning didn't begin to describe the sensation I felt. It was hotter than that. Hotter than fire, and it bore through me endlessly. Scarlet, unfazed by the wound, was not impressed. In a show of her distaste for what he'd done, she reached into the hole he'd just blasted in her chest and rummaged around, fishing the bullet out with her bare hand. I nearly passed out from the pain.
“Unless that was silver, it won't have any effect on me whatsoever. In truth, I'm not even certain that silver could stop me, though I'm loath to find out. Now, if you're quite finished with your testosterone-driven stupidity, I suggest we go.”
Poor Alan looked like he was in a state of shock, unable to process what he'd seen. I prayed that Scarlet hadn't just broken his mind as someone had broken McGurney's. Annoyed by his inaction, Scarlet walked over to him, took his gun from him, and grabbed his hand, nearly dragging him through the woods on winged feet.
The return trip took far less time, but what they returned to was an unwelcome site. They smelled the smoke long before the flames that burst from the storage unit could be seen. The blaze was so intense that it had already started to engulf the neighboring units.
“No!” Alan screamed, the reality of what was going up in flames seemingly snapping him out of his coma of disbelief. “We have to save what we can.”
Fueled by another jolt of adrenaline, he scrambled over the fence toward the inferno beyond. I couldn't fathom that there was any
thing left worth saving, but he was hellbent on finding out.
Do not let him go in there!
“I am not a babysitter, Ruby,” she groaned, following closely behind him.
If anyone is going in there, it's you, not him. He'll never survive it. You will.
“And you will feel that fire every second that I am in there,” she reminded me, her voice cautionary.
Do it.
“Stay here,” she ordered, grabbing Alan before he could enter the swirling vortex of fire that would certainly take his life.
Walking as though she'd strolled into the flames of hell before, she entered the blazing remains of McGurney's storage unit. Though she seemed able to navigate the fire and smoke without issue, I was blinded by the agony of it. Fire licked my skin, alighting my nerve endings in the most horrid way, while the smoke weighed heavily on my lungs, not allowing them to function properly.
“There is not much left to salvage,” she yelled, her voice dwarfed by the roar of the flames surrounding us.
Grab anything you can. We need it!
Being far more compliant than I could have hoped for, she sped through the room, tearing anything she could from the wall. The boxes were a lost cause; the heart of the fire seemed to emanate from there. She emerged shortly thereafter to the distant sound of sirens and a horrified-looking Alan. Reaching her hand out, she offered him the few photos she had taken from deep within the inferno.
“We have to go,” she told him, looking off into the distance to ascertain which way the authorities and fire engines were coming from.
Alan's face looked horrified when he took in Scarlet's charred, post-fire condition, but he managed to pull himself together quickly, and he started running toward the front entrance and the rental car. My body protested every movement Scarlet made, though there was no sign of her slowing. It was maddening that our body could be so damaged and I could be in such excruciating pain, but it did nothing to hinder her at all. How one vessel containing us both could react so differently based on who commanded it befuddled me, but it was my reality.
I screamed in our mind when she easily leapt the fence in a graceful movement. I could see that my skin had been completely burnt in the fire, but it was already starting to heal, the blackened layers sloughing off while she made her way to the vehicle. Alan seemed to notice too. The wound his bullet had created was fully closed and the least of my worries, but he appeared to be unable to look away from it. Even after he fired up the car, peeled out of the driveway, and headed off in the opposite direction of the caravan of lights converging on the storage facility, he stole the occasional glance at where his bullet had wounded Scarlet.
“I suppose it's a good thing that we have not yet bought return tickets. I don't think we'll be flying home like this,” Scarlet offered, looking at their ragged appearances. “Somehow, I think the TSA would be a tad reluctant to let us through security, though that's just a hunch.”
“We're going to have to drive,” Alan replied, staring straight ahead. “And we'll need another car. If there were any survivors who got away, they'll know this vehicle. We can't keep it. It's too risky.”
Hearing Alan think like a cop was comforting in a way. I was glad that he had snapped out of his shock, but I knew that he was likely buying time, planning his interrogation. And it was slightly off-putting to me that he wasn't afraid of Scarlet. He wasn't exactly handing out thank-you hugs; in fact, he'd shot her as a gesture of gratitude, but he didn't run from her screaming. His concern for my whereabouts seemed to have disappeared entirely.
“I can't let her out right now,” Scarlet said without prompting. “She would never survive the wounds encountered. I need to heal first, then I will make her available to answer your undoubtedly long list of questions.” She turned her blood-red eyes on him in the darkness of the car, demanding his attention for however briefly she wanted it. “I don't answer questions, nor do I follow instructions. I also don't take kindly to being shot for no reason. You're a smart man, Alan. Be sure you make a mental note of that.”
He said nothing in response; instead, he turned his eyes back to the dark stretch of road before him. It was going to be a long night for us all, and an even longer day after we returned. There would be a lot of explaining to do to myriad parties, none of which were going to be pleased with where we had gone or what we had done. Thankfully for Alan, he only had to answer to Kristy. I had a herd of angry males who would be sure to tell me just how stupid and careless I had been―that I could have been killed. It was a speech I had been subjected to many times before.
I wasn't thrilled about hearing it again.
Chapter 28
Under the cover of night, we drove back toward civilization while Alan hatched a new plan. After grilling Scarlet about what she had left in the hotel room, he seemed satisfied that there was nothing there of importance. He then informed her that we wouldn't be returning. Whatever belongings of mine that were in that room were going to stay there indefinitely, which left us with the minor issue of transportation to deal with.
“If you would prefer to avoid renting a car, I could always procure one for us,” Scarlet drawled, as if their discussion was boring her. It probably was.
“When are you going to go away?” Alan asked, finally showing a bit of his frustration with her presence.
“After the burns have healed, I'll be happy to let Ruby out. Believe me, you won't want her before then,” she said, leaning toward him conspiratorially. “She's a bit of a screamer when she's in pain.”
He met her eyes with an intensity that only a true cop could have mustered. Alan wasn't nearly as afraid of her as he should have been, and that fact had me on edge every second the two of them were left alone together.
“What have you done with her?” he asked, his tone cold and harsh.
“I have done nothing to her. You, on the other hand, shot her in the chest with little to no regard whatsoever. If you don't like that I'm sitting next to you right now and not her, you should remember that the next time you endeavor to shoot her.”
“Why didn't it hurt you when you got shot?”
“Because I feel no pain,” she replied, her voice soft and lulling. “Nothing.”
“But she does?” he asked with a dubious inflection.
“Indeed. Lots, in fact. More than the average person could possibly comprehend.” Scarlet wasn't just talking about physical pain; she was teasing him, tipping her hand about my empath abilities, knowing that Alan couldn't possibly understand what she meant.
“Is she okay?” His voice was still brusque, but a hint of concern bled through his hardened façade. I felt it.
“She will be fine. She's stopped yelling, which is a blessing you can't imagine. She's mainly whining now,” she informed him. “You may want to stop and get her something to take the edge off if possible. She's a tad dramatic at times. If you intend to drive all the way back to New Hampshire, you're going to want to sedate her somehow, or she'll be virtually intolerable.”
Bitch...
“It's true, Ruby, and you know it. Don't be so sensitive.”
Alan's gaze shot back over to Scarlet.
“You can talk to her?”
“Of course. We are in the same body, Alan.”
He paused momentarily.
“What are you?” he asked, a mild sense of fear and wonder tainting his previously controlled demeanor.
Scarlet hesitated slightly, which startled me. Normally she would have loved to toy with Alan about just that, but something in her was discordant. Turning her head to stare straight ahead, she answered his question in the most unexpected way.
“I am what nightmares are made of.” Her voice was empty and hollow. She wasn't putting on a show for once. Instead, in a rare moment of purity, she illustrated how she truly saw herself. “I am a plague. A plight. A bane of human existence. To know me is to know death. To cross me is to wish for it.”
“Are you a...a―”
“A werewo
lf? Is that the word you're so painstakingly searching for?” she asked. Her tone was condescending. “Yes. I am. The most deadly of all, in fact. Your little friend McGurney doesn't seem so crazy now, does he?” In the dim light of the car, all color washed from Alan's face, Scarlet's words settling upon him, though he undoubtedly wanted to reject them. But how does one reject such words when they come from a red-eyed, demonic-looking woman who walked through fire and survived being shot in the chest at close range? “You really thought he'd just flown the cuckoo's nest, didn't you?”
“Yes.” Alan's voice was soft and pained, undoubtedly thinking about things that I remembered trying to wrap my head around when I had received my crash course in the supernatural. I didn't envy him at that moment.
“Well, now you can go back to respecting him as you did before. He died for what he uncovered, Alan,” Scarlet cautioned. “Do not think that the same fate won't befall you if you're not careful.”
“Is that a threat?” he asked, gripping the wheel more tightly.
“No. I don't deal in threats. I deal in facts, and that is one that you’d best get a hold of quickly. Whoever went after McGurney did so because of what he found out. You now possess some of that same evidence,” she said, her gaze shifting to the camera in the back seat. “To think that doesn't present a risk to your safety is foolish. Fools are cannon fodder. Luckily, I know that you are neither, so I need you to keep this little outing under wraps. For your own safety as well as that of your family.” She leaned in close to him, her words becoming a whisper in his ear. “There are others who would seek to silence you,” she purred. “Some of them you already know.”
Scarlet...
“Already know?” he asked with curious inflection, but it was an act. He knew what she was getting at.
Time’s up, Scarlet. My turn.
“But you're not fully healed yet,” she said, settling back into her seat. Like I wasn't already painfully aware of that fact.
I don't care. NOW!
STRAYED Page 24
