“I think that’s enough. Jasmine, you’ve made whatever point you were trying to make.” Alex walked up, pushing his way through the crowd. How had he gotten back so far? I glanced at him and saw Marley at his side.
Jasmine leaned in close, and I tensed. Her breath was hot on my neck, making me want desperately to slap her away, but I didn’t dare move. I was not submissive to that dirty little runt. “You’re done here, little witch. Alex, and this caravan, are mine.”
The movement from her was subtle, and I didn’t react to it, thinking it was nothing, but I felt it instantly. That daughter of a cockless troll stabbed me. Whatever it was, was a narrow blade, and it went in deep, taking my breath away in a gasp.
Pain and shock fueled the already simmering anger.
“That. Is. Enough.” I bit out each word, as the dark magic pooled in my eyes. I let it out in one short burst, slapping her across the face, which sent her flying back at least ten feet. Hilariously, the humans all stepped out of the way, and watched her go down. I could see the red welt on her face from where I stood.
The darkness laughed. Kill her while she’s down or she’ll take you in your sleep. You know it.
The humans shook their heads, and their eyes filled with uncertainty, and worse . . . fear.
“Sage used to slap people like that,” Chris said. “And we know how that ended.”
“Do you think she’s becoming like her?” I heard someone else ask Chris, and that woman whose life I’d saved nodded.
“I’m not Sage,” I gritted the words out as I pressed my hand to my side, feeling for the entry wound. I knew I shouldn’t engage with them but I couldn’t help it.
Alex was the only one who went to Jasmine’s side, helping her up. She had tears in her eyes and she sobbed.
“She hit me, just because I disagreed with her.”
Fuck my life, I could barely breathe, never mind speak.
Alex shook his head. “Pam. What were you thinking?” he asked so quietly, disappointment heavy on the words.
I struggled to stay standing up, but I refused to back down. With a wolf like Jasmine, it would be a sure sign of submission.
“Pamela? Mac, she’s hurt!” Oka said, and then his arm was around me.
“Don’t squeeze,” I whispered.
Mac was careful as he held his arm lower more around my hips than my middle. I leaned into him, my hand over the spot she’d stabbed me. But there was no knife in her hand . . . was it still in me?
“I’m going to kill her,” Mac growled.
“No,” I said.
I just needed them to get me to Nathanda.
Oka led the way, racing ahead of us. “This way.”
Mac helped me walk, which meant we had to go through the group.
“Is she right about the food? Is everything gone?” one of them asked. My palm was coated in warm, wet blood as we moved away. But I couldn’t leave that question hanging there like a bomb.
“Talk to Richard,” I managed to say. And then gasped for a breath. Those around us looked at each other and then to me.
“Pam,” Clint asked. “You okay?”
“Nope, and that does not go beyond you, not one word about this to a soul, or so help me . . .” I said, and then there was no room for any other words.
“Get Nathanda,” Mac said, and Clint took off running.
They led me to the edge of the caravan and settled me in on a grassy area.
I didn’t know if I should even sit down for fear that the blade would do more damage. There was no one to heal me as I’d done for Lynx and Neil.
I slowly peeled my shirt up. The wound was about two inches long and deep. The tang of the blade was there, just under the surface. I knew because I could see it whenever I breathed out. “She went for my lungs and no one even saw her do it.” I kept my breathing as shallow as I could.
Mac leaned in close and unpinned my cloak from around my neck. It pooled on the grass behind me, and I looked into his clear blue eyes as he reached for the bottom of my shirt.
“This may hurt a bit. But we need to get it all the way off.”
Nathanda and Clint ran toward us.
“What happened?” she asked, going into medic mode immediately.
“Stabbed, knife still in,” Mac said.
“Jesus, Pamela, who did this?”
“That new wolf,” Clint said. “Wasn’t it? That’s why you slapped her?”
I nodded, and his face hardened. “Keep this under your hat. The last thing I need right now is for anyone to think me wounded and weak.” I took a pain-filled breath. “Richard needs to remove Jasmine.”
Except that would mean Alex and Marley would have to leave, and I wasn’t sure that I wanted that. Not yet.
“Hold that thought,” I whispered.
Oka paced at my feet.
“Mac is right,” Nathanda said. “We need to get that shirt off. Clint. Off you go.”
“Thank you,” I offered to Clint.
He nodded. “I won’t say a word.” He turned and headed back to the main group.
Mac made as if to pull my shirt over my head.
“That’s a sure way to get the blade in deeper.” Nathanda put a hand over his. “I’ll cut it off.”
“Damn, I liked this shirt,” I said to cover my nerves.
She took out a pair of scissors and cut the shirt up the middle.
Blood had soaked the spot on my side, and it peeled away from my skin, leaving it cold and painful.
I sucked air in through my teeth as Nathanda helped me to lie on my back.
And that was that. I was topless in front of Mac. I’d seen him topless a few times, and it was a beautiful sight to behold, but I was a mess. Bleeding, stabbed by a no-good twat. Needless to say, it wasn’t exactly how I’d pictured the moment.
“This is going to hurt,” the nurse said as she inspected the wound. “There’s no way to do this but pull it back out, and hope we have the angle right so I don’t do more damage. Without surgery . . .”
“I understand,” I whispered through clenched teeth. I closed my eyes. Mac took one hand, Oka lay on the other as I clutched at the grass.
Nathanda pressed around the wound and I whimpered, tears leaking from my eyes. “There. I see the tang,” she said. “Like popping a very large, metallic pimple is all. I’m going to press down to either side of the blade so I can see the angle it’s on, then I will pull it out. You need to hold still, you can’t move an inch or it could go very wrong. Ready?”
Ready, right, like anyone would ever be ready for something like this. “Do it,” I said.
Her hands were gentle as they could be. She pressed down and I bit back the scream that bubbled up.
“Hang on,” she said. “Almost . . .”
My muscles tremored of their own accord, but other than that I kept still, whimpering through clenched teeth as the blade was pulled out of me.
“Done,” Nathanda said, triumphant and leaving me to suck in my breath hard. While Jasmine had missed my lungs, I think it was only by a fraction of an inch or less.
“Well, not really done,” she amended as she held up a needle and thread. I leaned back, Mac cupping my head as Nathanda stitched me up.
“You’re getting faster, I think,” I said. I kept my eyes closed.
“Wish I didn’t have so much practice.”
A few minutes later, after the pinch, tug and pull on my skin, I was as stitched up as I was going to be. I grimaced. The wound was deep and I knew I was lucky no vitals had been hit.
“Here. You wrap her.” Nathanda once more relegated duties to us. I smiled as Mac took the gauze from her, and she left.
“Thank you,” I said. She waved backward.
“Try to not get wounded again. Please.”
Mac held the gauze up. “Turnabout is fair play, I guess.”
Crazy how just a few hours could end up with me laid out, and Mac taking care of me after I’d done the same for him.
His hands
were gentle and swift, working to bandage the wound, and stop the last of the bleeding. It didn’t take long before he’d put the last piece of tape on my skin, and I cringed. That would hurt to pull off later.
He smoothed his hand over the wound. “That could have gone worse.”
“Really?” I arched an eyebrow. “You think it could have been worse than being stabbed with a knife,” I picked it up off the ground and showed him, “and having it left inside me?”
He took the knife and laid it down. “I meant she could have hit something vital. You know, one of those things that keep you on this side of the dirt?”
He looked up at my face, and his hand lingered near my side before he moved it up to my shoulder, sweeping some of my blonde hair away. “I would hate for you to leave me so soon after finding you.”
“You’d have Oka.”
He looked down at her, and for a moment, I thought he might poke her or something. But she was sleeping, or fake sleeping possibly. If it was fake, she was deeply committed to it, and I wasn’t sure she would even crack an eye if he did jab her.
“I’d have Oka,” Mac finally said. “I wouldn’t abandon her. But you’re what holds the two of us together. So, I for one, am glad that bitch has terrible aim.”
He leaned in close to me, and my mind cleared of everything but him, his face, his eyes, his lips. I licked my own as he tipped my chin up.
His lips were soft on mine, and I leaned into him gladly, wanting more, maybe needing more after the close call. His kiss felt like nothing I’d ever experienced before. Warm and full of hope, it felt like . . . home. Different than Oka, he brought to me a different kind of peace.
I grabbed at his shirt and pulled him closer, ignoring the twang of pain in my side. I wouldn’t let this moment go without a fight. Desperate for the comfort and belonging he offered, I grabbed at it, and him, with both hands.
He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me to him carefully. His hesitation was apparent with each twitch of his muscle. He didn’t want to hurt me.
But all I wanted was him, to know that I was with him in this moment, fully.
Oka meowed in her “sleep,” reminding us we weren’t alone, and the moment cooled before I was ready. We both pulled back, faces flushed and breathing a little harder than just sitting in the dirt normally caused.
He pulled back with a satisfied half-smile on his face and brushed a stray hair from my eyes.
“You know, Jasmine is just jealous of you,” he said.
Her words about taking the caravan resurfaced. “Because I help run the caravan? She has no idea that it’s nothing to be jealous of.”
He shook his head. “Because Alex loves you and not her.”
That was not what I’d expected to come out of his mouth. I scrambled to find a retort, but hearing the words out loud stole my breath as if that damn knife was back in my belly. My face rapidly heated and I found myself grateful we weren’t very close to the rest of the caravan.
“I don’t want that from him.” I looked away from Mac, into the trees and then back. “Maybe I did once, a long time ago. But now, things are different. I’m different. I’m not a kid anymore.”
Mac smiled at me. “I’m so very glad you’re not. Or I’d be in serious trouble right now.” He ran a hand from my collarbone closest to him all the way down my arm to my fingertips, a blazing line of heat following his touch. Sure, I was still wearing a bra, but the way he looked at me made me feel naked.
And I didn’t mind one bit.
Oka yawned and stretched. “Let’s see what Richard is up to.”
I blinked down at her. “What?”
“Richard. Leader of the caravan. I know you’re injured and all,” she eyed my mostly naked torso, “but if Jasmine is causing grief with you, she’ll be causing it with him too.”
Crap on soggy crackers, she was right. “I need a shirt. I can’t go—”
“I’ll get one.” Mac was up and gone in a flash. He jogged away from me and I watched him go, a tremor of trepidation chasing through me. Of watching Mac leave.
I wrapped my arms around my middle. No, he wouldn’t just leave. He wasn’t that way.
I needed to clear my head. But was that even possible with Mac and Alex in the same caravan? Add in Jasmine pissing in the waters. It was too much.
“I’d almost rather have some murderous witch chasing after us,” I muttered out loud.
Oka snorted. “We did that already. I’d rather not repeat it.”
“Yeah, but in some ways that was more straightforward than this shit.” I waved a hand as if that encompassed Mac, Alex, Jasmine, the caravan with no food, Stefan behind us and gods knew what in front.
Mac reappeared, jogging back to me with a shirt in hand. Black, it was at least without holes.
“Thanks,” I said as he helped me pull it on. I bit the insides of my cheeks as I lifted my arm on the side where I’d been stabbed. “Fucking runty bitch.”
“You think she knows that runt doesn’t mean runt exactly?” Oka asked.
“I hope she does. I just didn’t want to burn the ears of those a bit more conservative,” I said. Mac picked up my cloak and swept it back over my shoulders.
“She might be a runty asshole, but she’s not stupid. She knows,” he said with a smile. I laughed and then grimaced.
“No laughing.”
“I’ll do my best.”
Once more put back together, I walked toward the caravan. My words to Mac caught up to me.
I’d given my heart to Mac. But I still loved Alex. So was I lying to Mac, or just myself?
Alex had held my heart for so long, could I really give it to someone else? I knew the answer the second I looked at Mac.
He raised a brow over those blue eyes and winked.
“I think I’m falling in love with you.” The words slid out of me and I let them fall, despite the fear they produced that I’d lose him. That I somehow was making the wrong choice. His eyes widened and the look in them said it all. He already knew, the bugger. I held up a single finger. “Don’t let it go to your head.”
“Never. But I’ll be holding it over you for the rest of your life.” He reached over and swatted a hand against my ass. Not hard, but hard enough to make me jump and then wince.
“Well done, you handsy bear,” Oka snapped. “Why don’t you just punch her in the belly while you’re at it?”
I wrapped a hand around my middle. Mac grimaced. “I’m sorry, that was not thought through.”
“No, it wasn’t.” Oka put herself between us. “Don’t make me return the gesture.”
I doubted she meant in her smaller form. I could all too easily see her as a tiger swatting at Mac’s ass. The image made me smile.
A few minutes later, we found Richard pacing near the trucks. Hands on his hips, he kept shaking his head.
“Dick. What’s up?” I put a hand on his arm, slowing his pacing. He turned to me, face grim. Voice low.
“There’s not enough food.”
I nodded. “We’ll hunt this afternoon. It’ll be fine.”
He shook his head. “There’s not enough, Pamela.” He was so quiet, as if he’d given up. “After all this time. Everything we worked for, all we’ve survived. We’re going to starve to death because we were hit not by a group of supernaturals, but by our own kind.” Anger flashed in his eyes, but it was quickly crushed by the weight of the situation.
I looked past him into the truck, unable to see just how much there was, and not really needing too. We knew there wasn’t enough.
“Richard. How are we going to find more food with so many injured?” I said. Not to mention the deaths of so many of the shifters. He met my eyes for the first time. Fear and complete surrender to the situation darkened his gaze.
“I don’t know. Take a look, you tell me how long you think we will last,” He gestured toward the truck.
Mac and Oka followed me as I walked to the freshly anointed supply truck, since the original had explode
d when Stefan attacked us.
I climbed into the back and lifted the tarp over the supplies. A few boxes, some opened and only partially full, but the entire amount didn’t even fill a quarter of the truck bed. This wouldn’t last us more than a week. And that was if it were rationed severely.
“Jasmine wasn’t lying,” I said and my voice wanted to echo in the empty space our food should’ve occupied. I wanted to believe that she’d been lying. “There’s maybe enough food for a week. Maybe.”
I lifted a box, thinking about all those who were injured. “We’ll have to hunt, those who aren’t badly injured. We’ll have to find a way to forage for food. Oka and I did it for years, we just have to do it again.”
I looked down at Oka and she looked right back, her chartreuse eyes unblinking. Because while I was right that we had done that for years, the truth was we’d been at the end of our reserves when we’d stumbled onto Richard’s caravan.
But there was hope. There was food out there just waiting to be plucked out of the wilds.
At least, that’s what I thought.
9
“Plucked out of the wilds, huh?” Richard shot me a look on the third day that we’d had no luck on the river or from the scattered forest. This was beyond anything I’d ever seen.
Oka spoke to me quietly as she leaned over the edge of the bank in her tiger form, unmoving, waiting for something to come by.
“There aren’t even any minnows. No birds, mice, rats, nothing.”
I made my way down to the river edge, checking on the different poles set up, checking with those manning them.
“No bites,” was the refrain over and over.
Richard walked with me. “We’ll have to move again is all,” I said. “A different part of the river has to have fish.”
Just one of those huge fish with razor-sharp teeth would feed half the caravan for a day. And they weren’t that hard to catch. Yet, there was not a single one.
The silence of the woods was almost deafening. Nothing stirred, not even the rustle of leaves as a bird took flight.
Caravan Witch (Questing Witch Book 2) Page 10
