by Leela Ash
There was only one problem. “If he had magical proof that we were Mates, wouldn’t he tell me?”
“Not necessarily. He’s a guy, remember? You’d be shocked by what they can fail to mention.”
As they laughed, the casual, easy laughter two women could share, a sharp whistle rang out from behind the pool shack.
Both of them jumped. “Oh my word, those kids!” Paige grumbled. “Scared the pants off of…”
SueSue barreled around the corner of the house at a dead sprint, a pace shocking for an elderly woman.
“SueSue! What’s wrong!”
Aiming straight for the shed, the Rat ignored her. “Pups!” she hissed. “What do you see?”
The two littlest boys, Sam and Nate, crouched behind a pile of life preservers. “There was a light out there. Like sun on metal.”
‘A car’ was Ash’s first thought. Yet Rex’s estate was a long way away from the road. “Probably a beer can or something,” she suggested.
From one of her many overstuffed pockets, SueSue retrieved a pair of binoculars. As the Rat scanned the desert around them, the last three children came trotting up.
Surrounded by a small sea of pale, frightened faces, Paige smiled. “False alarm, guys. Sam and Nate just got spooked by a…”
SueSue’s squeal cut her off. “Bug out, Pups! Bug out! Not a drill!”
Children exploded away from the shack, running for the house as fast as they could.
Fear froze Paige’s smile into a grimace. “What’s going on?”
Despite the panic around her, the Rat’s reedy voice never shook. “Three vans out by the road. At least six men with guns and assault rifles. No sign of anything heavier.”
Nothing heavier than… an assault rifle? Ash’s stomach tied itself in a knot.
“Guessing there are more inside. Twelve to twenty total. They…”
SueSue froze, staring intently at the scene Ash couldn’t see. “Someone got a phone call. Now they’re stubbing out cigarettes and getting ready to roll. Ladies…” The Rat tucked her binoculars away, her pinched face grim. “We have three minutes. Five max. Plans?”
“Um… do what you did the last time we got attacked?” Paige suggested.
“Too many people. My traps were great against one man, useless against twelve.”
When SueSue’s beady eyes shifted to Ash, she gulped. “How about ‘Defer to the Rat, who seems to be the only sensible person here?’”
The Rat cackled. With her buck teeth, it made her look like a delighted hamster. “I think I like you. Okay, here’s my plan. The kids are getting our supplies. We head out back, into the desert. I’ve got some mountain bikes cached out there and a bunch of traps set up. We can…”
“You booby-trapped my backyard?” Paige winced. “Why?”
“Cuz stuff like this happens. Listen. We run these Fangs across those traps. We hide. We snipe.”
“Snipe? With what?” Ash certainly didn’t have a gun.
“With the rifles I hid near the bikes.”
Poor Paige looked like she’d been whacked with a baseball bat. The Fairburns needed to do an inventory of their backyard, soon.
“We can’t take ‘em all out… but we don’t need to. All we need is one hour.”
“What happens then?”
“The cavalry arrives. The moment those Fangs threatened Ms. Hall, Mr. Fairburn knew it. Can’t mess with a Mate now that there’s magic in the world again! Right now, he’s turning around and heading home. He’s an hour out so that’s our Worst Case Scenario. Figure this’ll set a fire under his tail, though, and maybe he can shave some time off.”
“And he’ll be able to find us, no matter where we are.” Paige nodded slowly, as she saw the Rat’s logic. “True Mates can do that.”
Wouldn’t the Fangs know that? No, Ash realized with a start. They probably didn’t. She couldn’t imagine that there was a lot of true love among the Fangs.
Still, an hour was a long, long time. “They’re going to have Jeeps.”
“So we head for terrain they can’t drive over.”
Exactly what she’d done, down by Yuma. Scary as the plan was, it made sense.
“Unless anyone’s got a better idea?” Both women shook their heads. “Right. Let’s grab the Pups and run, then.”
Children were already scampering out of the house carrying backpacks stuffed with food and water. ‘Bug Out Bags’, preppers called them. Ash knew the term but had never met anyone who owned one.
Until now.
As the Rat handed the heavier bags to the adults, Ash’s unease grew. She couldn’t shake the feeling that they were missing something. Something important. Something critical.
“Paige, why are the Fangs attacking you? Is there something in the house they’re trying to steal?”
“No, nothing I can think of.”
Yet the Fangs had set an elaborate ruse to draw away all of the Shifters, then mounted a large, well-armed assault.
Why?
“Maybe they think the Aegis was left here?” Surely the Fangs didn’t think their enemies would do something that silly?
“Who knows? Who cares?” SueSue grumbled. “No sense wasting time wondering why a bad guy’s misbehaving.”
She wasn’t sure she agreed. If you didn’t understand your enemy, you were fighting blind.
Blind.
Why did that word disturb her?
Was she being blind? No, that didn’t feel right. She wasn’t blind, she was…
You can see me. How odd.
Her mother’s words came back to her, surrounded with the chill of a mausoleum. No, not Mom’s. Those words may have fallen from her mother’s mouth, but they belonged to the otherworldly spirit that possessed her.
“I know what they want.” Sick, Ash felt the blood drain from her face. “They want me. I can see these spirits, these ‘Darkborn.’ I know when they’re possessing someone. No one else, not even in the Sedona Warren, can do that.”
How long had she yearned to have some gift, some psychic talent? Something that would force her mother and the Hares to acknowledge that she, Ash Anderson, was valuable?
Now she had what she’d always wanted.
And it might well kill her.
“Who cares? It doesn’t matter what they want.” Paige’s defiance filled Ash with a calm, melancholy courage.
An emotion SueSue didn’t miss. “Matters a lot. You know it, too.”
“I do. Paige…” Ash drew a deep breath and handed her backpack to the Rat. “I’m not going with you guys.”
“What? Don’t be crazy!”
“They want me. If they get what they want, they’ll leave you and the kids alone.”
“You don’t know that!”
But she did. It was the key that made this whole mess make sense.
“It’s suicide!”
SueSue laid a withered hand on Paige’s arm. “Sometimes a Nest has to scatter. It’s not pretty. It’s not fair. But Life isn’t pretty nor fair. Scattering makes sure someone gets out alive.”
“No. I can’t let you kill yourself. Not even for my children!”
“It’s not suicide.” That might be a lie – but if so, it was a lie Paige needed to hear. Life had beaten SueSue, made her hard and practical. Her new friend still couldn’t make those difficult choices – so Ash would make it for her. “If I get a chance to talk, I’ll pretend that I did something to let myself see the Darkborn. Some ritual, some spell they need to know about.”
“Oh heavens don’t do that! They’ll torture you!”
Ever the voice of ugly reason, SueSue shrugged. “A tortured Rat is a live Rat! Can’t torture the dead.”
“That is not reassuring!” Paige snarled at her babysitter.
“It should be.” The Rat bowed to Ash, honoring her sacrifice. “One hour, girl. That’s all you need to survive.”
“Rex won’t know where she is!” Paige wailed.
“Won’t need to. Her Wolf’ll find her.”
Wait. SueSue hadn’t been there when they talked about Lucas. “How do you know that?”
The Rat huffed, swelling with indignation. “I’m no Pup. My eavesdropping skills don’t need polishing!”
Even as Ash laughed she made a mental note never to hire a Rat to watch over her child. Her friend, however, didn’t find this funny. “Are you really going to bet your life on that? You don’t know that Lucas is your Mate. He and Casey could have found you a dozen other ways.”
In the end, it all came back to love.
Did Lucas love her? Was the connection they shared ‘love’? True love. The stuff of fables and children’s stories. A passion that would bind them together for all times. One that could twist the laws of nature and let him find her, protect her, no matter where she was.
Put like that, the question depressed her. True love was a myth. No one possessed it.
Except Paige and Rex… Casey and Lily…
If they had found real love, surely others had?
Even… she and Lucas?
On the surface, that seemed silly. They barely knew each other. Hell, Lucas couldn’t even force himself to say they were ‘friends.’ How could that be true love?
Because Paige may be right: guys have trouble with words. I may not believe in ‘love at first sight’, but we’ve been through a lot in a few short days. Dangers that reveal a person’s true character. Maybe we know more about each other than couples that have been married for decades.
Maybe, just maybe, Fate existed. Maybe there truly was one person out there made for you. Someone you were meant to be with.
Was Lucas that person, though?
In her mind, she pictured him. Not that powerful, handsome body of his. Him. His honesty. The fierce, unthinking way that he leaped to her defense. Only a week ago, he thought himself a monster, destined to die alone and unloved. How much he’d changed, in only a few short days. Ash longed to stay, to walk beside him on the rest of his journey. To make him see that he was a hero – her hero – not a beast.
How terrible to think of a world without him in it. At some point, she realized, the idea of fleeing with him to Montana had stopped sounding crazy.
Was that love? Needing someone. Feeling joy every time they were around. Wanting to build your life around them, no matter what the cost.
It sure sounded like love to her.
Paige still waited for her answer. Ash smiled as she reached for her car keys. “Yes, I’m sure that he’s my Mate.”
Now if only he felt the same.
There was only one way to find out.
Chapter 24.
Heart pounding, Ash slid behind the wheel of their rental car.
Somewhere behind her the others headed out into the safety of the desert. She couldn’t see any sign of them – and blessed SueSue for that fact. She also blessed her for the gun that sat on the passenger’s seat. One last chance if she got cornered.
Only a vague, slipshod plan stood between her and torture: drive as fast as she could through the badlands. Her goal was the paved road. If she could reach it, she could circle Cortez and stay ahead of her enemies until Lucas and the other Shifters arrived.
Sadly, her plan died three minutes after it began.
Casey had chosen this rental car for its comfort and pick-up… not its clearance. It didn’t fly across the rock-covered scrubland as she’d hoped. It banged. It rattled. Rocks pinged off it, leaving a score of gouges and dents in the sedan’s lovely black paint. Ash found herself jolted from side to side, shaken to the core.
And she wasn’t even going that fast. Behind her, two of the three vans peeled off to follow her. One, however, continued on to the Fairburn’s house.
At the sight, a sob of despair slipped past her lips. She’d risked her life, played bait to buy Paige and her children enough time to escape… and in the end, her sacrifice didn’t matter?
Of course not. Because they never cared about me. I’m only Kin. Why did I ever think that I would matter?
That third van screeched to a halt in front of the house and six armed men spilled out.
Storming the mansion. Not following the others.
In case I’m not in this car…
Holy crap. She was right! The Fangs were trying to capture her!
And they were doing a good job of it. With their high clearance, the vans sped after her, kicking clouds of dust into the air. Half of her lead had already vanished, after just a couple minutes!
Faster! Ignoring the flying rocks and terrible bangs, Ash stepped on the gas. Obedient, the car surged ahead. Sage whipped past, dust flew… and then the ground dipped without warning. It was a little drop, an old rain channel no more than a couple feet deep, hard to see amid the scrub and glaring sun. But suddenly the car slammed against the earth, crunching its fender. She pitched forward, her head bouncing off the steering wheel. Something in the undercarriage made an awful groan.
Yet she didn’t lose her grip on the wheel and the airbag didn’t deploy. For one moment she clung to the hope that she could pull this off.
Until she hit the far side of the shallow trench. Wheels spun in the loose dirt as the car dragged itself up and…
Metal grated against stone as the car stopped dead in its tracks. Ash stomped on the gas, sending pebbles and dirt flying into the air. The car’s roar rang out across the desert. But the car didn’t budge.
Back up! Get out!
Frantically she threw the car into reverse. More squeals, more sand thrown into the air.
And no movement. Whatever snag held her, held fast.
Then the Fangs were there, skidding to a halt at the edge of the gully. Through the cloud of dust she saw doors fly open. Men scrambled out and took cover behind them. The last thing she saw before the dust cloud swallowed them was the glint on sunlight on their rifles.
Ash threw herself flat across the seats and winced, expecting bullets to riddle the car at any moment.
Now I find out if I get a chance to stall them – or if they just want me dead.
No shots rang out. Could this plan actually work?
SueSue’s gun had fallen to the floor. Heart pounding, Ash scooped it up.
Let’s see how many of them I can take out before I’m captured.
A brave thought. If she had the courage to kill someone.
Shoes crunched over gravel, striding closer through the thick dust cloud. Ash clicked the safety off, took a moment to calm her jangled nerves… then she threw the door open and leaned out, pointing her gun at her unseen enemy.
From the dust, a familiar figure emerged.
Her mother.
Even as her finger twitched she jerked her hand wide, sending the bullet flying out into the desert.
Mom – or the thing possessing her – caught the car door. “I knew you wouldn’t damage these clothes. They’re important to you.”
That’s not my mother! That’s some horror from the Other Side! If I don’t shoot her…
But she couldn’t. Not even in the leg. Because this was her mother. Any blow she struck against this thing, Mom would bear.
Not-Mom held out her hand. “Give me the gun, Ashbaline. We need to talk.”
Laughter welled up within her, crazed and hysterical. Even possessed, Mom couldn’t let go of that awful name.
The dashboard clock warned that only seven minutes had passed.
Fifty-three minutes for the heroes to arrive.
I better talk a lot.
Despite Not-Mom’s words, no one seemed anxious to chat.
The Fangs dragged her back to the Fairburns’ home and then kept her under armed guard in the living room while they swept the house for traps. SueSue’s reputation preceded her.
The good news was that they didn’t seem interested in the Fairburns. They just gathered them all in a room and kept an eye on them.
The bad news was that they didn’t seem particularly interested in her either.
So why were they here?
Wh
ile the others handled physical security, Not-Mom painted runes on the floor of the entry hall. Ash didn’t recognize the spell, though it was clearly a trap. Whoever walked through the front door would step into a terrible mess. A chilling thought. Maybe she wasn’t the Fangs’ target after all…
A scruffy man with a Blu Tooth snapped to attention and yelled, “Status report!”
Not-Mom cracked the front door open before striding back. “Yes?”
“Vehicle has entered Cortez.”
“Any sign of the Dragons?”
Dragons? Plural? They must have called in help from the First Flight.
“No. Forces have split. Forward observer confirms that Dragons continued onwards.”
“Estimated arrival time on the Dire Wolves?”
Ash’s confusion deepened. What the hell was a ‘Dire Wolf’?
“Ten minutes.”
“Excellent!” A fierce, predatory smile twisted her mother’s features. “Any sign of the Aegis?”
“No.”
“They have it, don’t they?”
That last question was aimed at her. Defiant, she glared at her mother. “I’ve got nothing to say to you.”
“It doesn’t matter. We’ll find out soon enough.”
What were the Fangs playing at? Ash wracked her brain, struggling to make sense of this attack.
A decoy ‘assault’ drew all the Shifters away. Lucas and company took a car, the Dragons headed straight across the desert – meaning the two groups probably couldn’t speak to each other. Once a real attack yanked Rex back home, the Aegis was separated from the Dragons, its two strongest defenders.
That part made sense. But why lay traps in the front hall? The Bear would know his Mate wasn’t home. Paige should be pinned in the living room as bait, not her.
Unless…
Ash swallowed hard as understanding dawned on her. “You knew Lucas was my Mate, didn’t you?”
“Of course,” Not-Mom said. “Your mother was blind not to see it. We are not so foolish.”
Lucas. The guardian of the Aegis. He’d come to save her – and walk straight into a trap.
