Hell or High Water (Gemini Book 3)

by Hailey Edwards

  “She cries and sleeps.” Nathalie rubbed the crease between her eyebrows. “I cleaned her up, and it doesn’t make sense. Her hands and body were soaked with blood, which I can see if she tried to help Jensen, but there was none near her mouth.” She swallowed hard. “I saw the bite marks. Someone gnawed on his bones. Bianca wasn’t in her right mind. Why clean her lips but not her hands?”

  “You don’t think she killed him.” Doubt thickened my voice.

  “No.” She rubbed her hands up and down her arms. “I don’t.”

  “I hope for her sake that you’re right.” I pocketed Isaac’s phone in case Enzo got the urge to be helpful a second time. “Though if Bianca is innocent, that means Charybdis has another person under his thrall. Someone with sharp teeth and inhuman strength. Possibly another warg.”

  Our run through the woods had been frantic. Any one of the others could have branched off and circled back as I had, found Jensen and killed him. As much as I wanted to believe we would have felt a pang through the pack bond, we hadn’t registered Jensen’s death. He hadn’t cried out to us for help. Neither had Bianca.

  Recalling that icy blackness surrounding Bianca’s thoughts, I expected that answered the question. Charybdis had strangled the bond and taken his victims in silence.

  “Get word to Haden.” I needed to get back to my laptop. This kind of information had to be shared, and I was hoping Thierry might have some insight for me into the Faerie angle. “Have him tell the others—in person—that the pack bond might be compromised.”

  A flicker of panic tightened Nathalie’s features, and instinct guided me to rest my hand on her arm.

  “Moore will be swinging by in a half hour.” Relaxing a fraction under my touch, she thrust her shoulders back. “I’ll get him to babysit while I spread the word.”

  “I’ll be in Aunt Dot’s trailer if anyone needs me.” I showed Theo out the door. “Let’s try to keep the mental chatter down to a minimum. We don’t want to tip our hands.” Though if Charybdis had his foot in the door, it didn’t matter how quiet we kept our brain radios. “Stay a few more hours, and then I want a new guard posted, okay? Ask Job or Moore.”

  Zed was new to me, but Dell trusted him to have her back while she watched Graeson’s, and that was all the endorsement I required. I wanted him right where she had him. Protecting my mate.

  Mouth tight, Nathalie expelled a sharp breath. “I think that would be best.”

  Avoiding the path that led past the tent, I hustled back to Aunt Dot’s trailer before the temptation to visit Graeson took root. Theo followed me without comment and sank back into Aunt Dot’s recliner with a phablet he removed from his pants pocket. While he handled his business, I set about mine. I hauled the overnight bag I’d packed off the bench in the kitchen and removed my laptop. I settled in my usual spot from the mornings when I joined Aunt Dot and Isaac for breakfast, and sent Thierry an email with the Garzas’ prophecy and an update on the night’s events.

  I was tapping my fingers on the touchpad when my phone started ringing. “Ellis.”

  “Comeaux here.” The marshal sounded tired, but we all did these days. “We put a rush on those results.”

  My grip tightened on the shell. “And?”

  “I wish I had better news.” A sigh blasted the microphone. “We found nothing suspect. The techs ran their tests based on your samples in the conclave database. All biological and magical materials appear to belong to you and your family with one exception, but the anomaly might very well be explained away by your mating to Mr. Graeson. We can’t know for certain unless he’s willing to submit a hair sample.”

  “There was warg DNA found at the scene?” I massaged my forehead. “Never mind. Of course there was. Isaac gave Dell and me a ride home from the airport in his truck.”

  “She was human at the time?”

  “Yes.” Fanged-out wargs were hardly TSA-approved passengers. “What exactly did you find?”

  “Four black hairs.” A tapping sound filled the background. “The driver’s side window was open, and the hairs were discovered on the plastic lip near the rubber seal.”

  “Hairs could have been transferred from our clothes.” My aspect had black-tipped fur. The fur could be mine. “Wargs shed. A lot. Matching a warg to the sample would be difficult, especially since we’ve cut ties with the Chandler pack, and there’s a good chance the fur came from one of them.”

  Aisha, of course, popped into mind, but she had been chased out of town after her mate banished her. Not to mention the fact Isaac had witnessed our first meeting and the bloody aftermath of it. He might have hesitated where Harlow was concerned, but he wouldn’t have trusted Aisha enough to allow her to lean in his window.

  “Speaking of the Chandler pack,” I interjected, “did you happen to get a call from Bessemer for assistance?”

  “No.” Frustration stung across the line. “Should I have?”

  “We found my aunt’s truck. Someone parked it on Chandler land and cast a fire spell on it. The explosion caused a few injuries, nothing serious, but that type of magic is self-contained. The woods weren’t in any danger from the sprites munching on the metal.” Thank the gods. In a dry summer, that type of massive fire could have devoured the entire forest. “I doubted Bessemer would reach out since he was certain the trouble would follow us when we left.” And it had.

  “Did you find any…?” He cleared his throat. Remains. He wanted to ask if there were any remains.

  “No,” I rasped. “The fire was too involved to get close.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  I nodded like he could see it while my throat squeezed tight. Aunt Dot was alive. She had to be. I would accept nothing less.

  “I’ll write up an incident report.” The low buzz of a weather radio reporting hummed in the background. “There should be a corroborative record in case it’s needed in the future.” I listened to the warning about a severe thunderstorm punctuated by beeps while he made his notes, but the conversation never recovered. “Sounds like we’ve hit a dead end.” He made a clicking sound behind his teeth. “Our techs got nothing. Any evidence the humans missed was sterilized by the erasure spell.”

  “Back to square one.” I closed my eyes. “I’m glad you kept me in the loop.”

  “I’ll give you a call if we turn up anything else.”

  “I’d appreciate it.”

  We made more awkward goodbye noises, and the call ended.

  The freebie prophecy might have been one step forward, but the lack of evidence had set us two steps back.

  Chapter 10

  I jolted awake on a gasp, heart pounding from the tendrils of a fading nightmare. Dark waters. Sharp teeth. Crimson waves. Shivering, I scrubbed at the drool crusting my chin and fingered the indents pocking my cheek from where I’d slumped over my keyboard. Unsure what had jarred me from my sleep, but too familiar with my grim dreams to believe I could have escaped one alone, I scanned the darkened living room.

  A smile quirked my lips when I spotted the figure slumped in Aunt Dot’s chair. Theo must have drifted off too. Rubbing my eyes, I straightened my spine with a wince and stretched until several vertebrae popped in rapid succession.

  Wiggling my mouse, I woke my laptop and checked for a response from Thierry. I found one, but the subject line coaxed a growl out of me. The message was an autoresponder. She was out of the office and would be for the next few days. So no help from that quadrant for a while.

  I knew what I ought to do, what I needed to do. Go to Butler, Tennessee. I had to follow the clues Charybdis had planted to their end. But Graeson… I couldn’t abandon him while he was vulnerable.

  A sharp howl pierced the night and set my scalp prickling. I reached for the pack bond, and it flooded my head with images of gore and the flush of excitement.

  Quietly as possible, I let myself outside and located the pack. The wolves formed a tight circle near the dried creek bed. In the center, two wolves battled, blood spraying t
he thirsty soil. My fingertips burned, the tips of my claws eager to pierce my skin. I smelled copper and tasted elation as the wolves jockeyed for position, frantic to enter the ring and have their mettle tested.

  Flesh gone tight, I fought off my she-wolf’s attempt to rise and dominate. Pinching the pack bond closed, I backed away as a snarling beast who might have once been blonde before the crimson soaked her fur howled her victory and beckoned her next contender.

  I wandered aimlessly until I found myself back on the walking track. I made it two steps before I sensed him. “Graeson.” Abram’s warnings forgotten, I rushed to his side and looped my arm around his waist. “What are you doing out here? Are you crazy? Do you want to be attacked?”

  He grunted. “That’s why Doc pushed me to my feet. The others need to see I’m healing.”

  This close, with his skin sweaty from the effort to get this far, I smelled the bitter tang of fae magic as it seeped from his pores. He wore a loose T-shirt and cut-off shorts made from old sweatpants.

  “I twisted my ankle on a root,” I lied in a clear, steady voice. “I was going to sit on one of these benches for a minute before heading back. Would you mind keeping me company?”

  Graeson laughed softly and winced for it. “Whatever my mate requires.”

  My nape prickled with the sensation of being watched, but screw it. Graeson was hurting, and he needed to rest or all his show of strength would accomplish was prove he was still as weak as a kitten. I could protect him, but it would diminish him, and we couldn’t risk that. Not until the pack had time to settle.

  We sat on the cool plank bench and listened to the snarling and snapping echo through the early morning.

  “We need to talk.” He took my hand and placed it on his thigh.

  “I don’t like how you said that.”

  “You’re leaving,” he said on a soft breath. “Your thoughts keep running on a loop through my head, and I want to be angry, but you’re making too good of an argument.”

  “I’m sorry.” I winced. “I didn’t realize I was projecting.”

  “Your mind was hazy when I touched it earlier.” He smiled crookedly. “You must have been sleeping. That’s probably why your worries slipped through the cracks.”

  “Is that why you’re really here?” I pegged him with a frown. “Tell me you didn’t get out of bed for me.”

  “The ground is hard and wet.” He smirked. “Trust me. It’s no hardship to get off that pallet.”

  “I’m being serious. You are not allowed to endanger yourself for me. Especially when I can’t be there to make sure you don’t do something stupid.” I amped up my scowl at his confused expression. “I’m worried about you, okay? It’s eating me alive. Abram said I can’t show it, and I get that predators attack weakness, but you’re also human, and I—”

  Faster than I could finish rambling, Graeson pressed his lips to mine. His tongue swept across the seam of my mouth, and I parted to grant him access. A moan rose up my throat, and I dug my fingernails into his thigh until he withdrew with a satisfied hiss.

  “I like that you worry about me.” He grinned at the crescent-shaped marks on his upper legs. “I like when you mark me up too.” His amusement slipped. “But Abram is right. We have to be strong for our people, and that means we have a hard choice to make.”

  A lifetime of insecurity bubbled to the surface, and I couldn’t breathe through the hurt. “It sounds like you’re getting rid of me.”

  “Ellis, you’re mine.” He cupped my face. “I know you don’t trust that yet, but I’m going to keep saying it until you do. You are mine. The decisions we make for our pack, for your family, are not a reflection of us. We are solid. We are fine. These troubles will pass. One day soon I’ll get to show you exactly how much you’re loved.” His thumbs slid down my throat, fanned across my collarbones, and my breath caught on his promise. “But until then, we have work to do.”

  The pack bond hummed to life, and the rush of devotion he fed to me filled me up from my toes to my crown. “Okay.” I shuddered when his hands slid down the crease in my arms, trailing along the sides of my breasts. “What did you have in mind?”

  “You’re making a trip to Butler where you’re going to follow up on the clues Harlow left.” Blinking out of his haze, he eased his hands down my sides and tugged me closer. “And I’m going to stay here and get us organized.”

  I leaned against him, careful of his injury. “Sending away your mate at a time like this seems dangerous to me.”

  “It is and it isn’t.” He rested his chin on top of my head. “I’ll make the rounds this morning, convince everyone I’m okay, and then we’ll announce your trip. That I’m willing to let you go is a sign of strength, and the others will understand that what you’re doing isn’t just for your family, but for our pack too.”

  “I still don’t like this.”

  He rumbled out a laugh. “I’ll be fine. Do you really think anyone could get through Dell?”

  “Wait.” I drew up straight. “You’re not sending her with me? I don’t get a babysitter this time?”

  “I’m afraid not.” He shook his head. “She’s going to be my beta by sundown, and in a healthy pack, that means her position is here with me.” His lips pursed. “I’m trusting that Theo can protect you.” He bit the inside of his cheek then amended, “I’m trusting that he can watch your back.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “Who are you and what have you done with the real Cord Graeson?”

  “I want us to work.” He went serious. “You’re a strong, independent woman, and I can’t keep you in a bubble and not expect it to burst one day.”

  My vision went hazy, and I blinked rapidly. “What if Charybdis attacks while I’m gone?”

  “I don’t think he will.” Deep lines bracketed his mouth. “All of this is a show. Why put on a performance if you don’t have a front-row seat?”

  I worried my lip with my teeth. “He knows if he hurts you or the others that I’ll come running.”

  “It’s worth the risk.” Resolve deepened his voice. “We have to break this cycle before it breaks us.”

  “Since your mind is made up, and I know how stubborn you are, I’ll start researching flights.” I stood and raked my gaze over him one last time. “Are you sure this is what you want?”

  “No. It’s not what I want.” He took my hands. “I want you to stay with me, glued to my side so I can protect you. This is…what I think you need. This is me being straight with you even though I wish I could rewind the last fifteen minutes and wipe this conversation from your mind.”

  “Now that sounds more like the overbearing Graeson I know and love.”

  “Love,” he all but purred as he rose to his feet, yanking me closer. “Maybe I should get stabbed more often.”

  Barely restraining myself from jabbing him in the chest, I flattened my palms on his abs. “Don’t even tease about that.”

  A pleased-as-punch grin hovered on his lips. “Just promise me one thing?”

  I let him link our fingers and reveled in the warmth of his grip. “I can do that.”

  “Be careful.” His mouth crashed into mine once more, so hard our teeth clacked. “Come home to me.”

  “I can do that too.” I smiled, lighter now that the decision to go had been made for me. Maybe having a bossy warg around would come in handy from time to time, not that I would ever admit that out loud. “Do you want me to walk you back?”

  He was already shaking his head. “You go ahead. I’ll give you a head start.”

  Lips tingling from his kisses, I left my injured mate alone on the dark strip of pavement, an act that curdled my gut. Marrying a fae might have been easier, the learning curve shorter, but a flickering memory of the faded plastic flavor additive bottle he carried in his pocket had my lips curving in a goofy smile.

  This thing between us just might work after all.

  Chapter 11

  Theo and I made our exit before the last dominance battle e
nded thanks to a perfectly timed flight leaving from the local airport. I didn’t get to say goodbye to Graeson. I spotted him walking, his stride fluid and gait easy, with a bruised and battered Moore, and decided a quick mental touch would have to suffice.

  Over the years, I had experienced many types and several degrees of loss. Lori vanished in the blink of an eye, her death a rock skipped across the smooth surface of my life, its ripples echoing to this day. The severing of ties to my parents had been more gradual. I felt them withdraw, little by little, until one day they dropped me off for a weekend visit with Aunt Dot and postponed my pick up in weekly increments until I was eighteen. Isaac and Aunt Dot’s disappearance stung, a raw nerve exposed by the uncertainty of their situation. But stepping into the cab Theo had called and watching the campground grow smaller in the rearview mirror, that scooped out my heart and made me feel like I’d left a piece of my soul under a plastic tarp in the woods.

  I must have bought a ticket at the counter, and I got on the plane at some point, but the first moment of clarity I experienced after putting Chattanooga behind me was stepping into the lobby at Tri-Cities Regional Airport. Theo set to work securing a rental car, but I was a million miles away. Not until we arrived in the town of Butler, and I stepped out of the car, did the fog vanish.

  “I’ve been here before,” I murmured as nostalgia teased at hazy memories. An old plywood sign stood across the street, its faded paint a welcome message. Block letters across the bottom spelled out their motto. I read it out loud. “The town that wouldn’t drown.”

  “We used to pass through here on the way to Cherokee National Forest.” Theo nodded at the ancient general store. “Mom used to buy us all Cokes in glass bottles from there. We always grabbed rock candy and those old pencils with bark still on them.”

  Rock candy. One of Harlow’s clues.

  Vertigo swept through me, as if all the answers I sought whirled tornado-quick around me, the debris clicking together like puzzle pieces that formed brief glimpses of the total devastation before swirling apart.