Terraformed Skies

by Anna Lewis

  Now is not the time, Solace, she thought.

  “There was a man looking for you,” she said, then shook her head at her tactless delivery.

  “A man?” Ethan said, perking up and putting his feet on the floor.

  Cam moved, too. He grabbed a backpack out of the closet and tossed it to his brother, then took the other one and put it on his back without bothering to get dressed.

  “Well, who was he?” Solace asked, watching as Ethan shoved his shoes into his backpack.

  Ethan looked at the window, then quietly pulled it back so it was an open as the safety lock would allow. It wasn’t much, but it was wide enough to let Ethan pass through.

  “What are you doing? You can’t jump from the third floor. Who was that guy?”

  “He’s a bounty hunter,” Cam said, and Ethan sucked in a quick breath.

  There was a squeal of tires and an engine revving in the distance, but they couldn’t see the parking lot from Ethan and Cam’s hotel room on the backside of the building.

  When there was a crash of glass and metal and the building shook, Solace couldn’t believe what was going on.

  “He’s ramming the building,” Cam said, grabbing her hand and pulling. “Come on, he’ll kill you, too.”

  “Me? Why?”

  But Ethan was already at the window and Cam was dragging her that way even as she tried to pull out of his grasp. The towel dropped and she caught sight of his round, tight ass but she was too focused on where he was pulling her to enjoy the moment.

  “I’m not jumping out the window,” she shrieked as Ethan threw himself through the flimsy screen and into the dark night.

  “Trust me,” Cam said.

  He pulled her onto his back and she wrapped her arms tightly around his neck a second before he jumped. Her legs straddled his hips and she closed her eyes, too afraid to make a sound as they fell through the air. She squeezed her eyes shut and said a quick prayer, hoping that hitting the ground wouldn’t be too painful.

  When she heard a sound like an umbrella popping open and felt her descent stop suddenly, she couldn’t bring herself to open her eyes. There was shouting far behind them, and the squeal of an engine that had been left running even though the truck was trapped in the rubble of the broken security window and office.

  The wind brushed her face and she felt lighter than air even though they should have hit the ground by now.

  “I’m dead,” she said out loud, waiting for Cam to tell her otherwise, but he didn’t say a word.

  She opened her eyes, looking at the backpack beneath her hands, then letting her eyes take in his shoulders in the nearly pitch-black night. The sight before her wasn’t making sense, so she reached out and touched his back, then recoiled in horror as her hand slid across leathery skin until it brushed the base of something that should have been his shoulder blade.

  A large shadow moved beside her rhythmically, seemingly attached to the man beneath her body. All at once, the images slammed together and painted a picture she wasn’t ready to see. She covered her mouth with both hands, trying to hold in her terrified shrieks. They came out as tortured whimpers as she watched the lights below them grow smaller and smaller.

  She was flying, and the man beneath her wasn’t what she’d thought him to be. She was on the back of a dragon, and that dragon was on the run.

  ***

  Garrett Thompson ran out of the hotel lobby and into the parking lot, but he was too late and much too far away to get a shot off. Besides, they had the girl, which meant that Garrett had to be careful. He couldn’t risk injuring her, even if she was an obvious fool.

  “Damnit to hell,” he said, kicking a chunk of concrete across the parking lot and getting into his truck.

  He backed out of the building slowly, then floored it so the debris would fall off his hood and onto the ground. The building seemed fine, though the bulletproof glass and the wall it was installed in hadn’t faired so well.

  Garrett shrugged. The girl should have let him in instead of playing games. He saw it in her eyes; they were there and seeing them fly off into the night proved it. He had been so close. If only the hotel had had some rooms available. He could have rented a room and the girl at the front desk wouldn’t have known what was going on in time to save the twins.

  Several people came out of the hotel, shouting at him as he sped away, but he knew he was out of sight and too far away from anyone to get a license plate number and cause him problems. That was good, because Garrett didn’t have time to deal with the police and the Smith twins were getting away.

  He followed them for as long as he could, but they were too far ahead, and the dense Texas clouds made it impossible for him to track them visually. He lost them about an hour away from the New Mexico border, and with the clouds as dense as they were over the quiet desert, they could have gone any direction. After following them for more than three hours, he’d lost them.

  He followed the dark highway for a few miles, trying to find them, but it was no use. They’d given him the slip, again. He was going to have to stop somewhere before he fell asleep and crashed and get some rest. He was no good at his job if he was exhausted, and he wouldn’t find them tonight.

  Tired and angry at himself for missing them in Foxwood Flats by such a narrow margin, he drove down the road several miles and stopped at the first hotel he saw.

  He mumbled his way through the check-in, giving the man behind the counter a fake ID with a matching credit card. Barely eighteen if that, the kid didn’t seem to care about much, and in no time, Garrett was unlocking his room and throwing his bag on the chair beside the bed.

  Opening up his laptop, he kicked off his shoes and laid back on the scratchy comforter and the rock-hard pillows. The laptop hummed and the internet connected with the hotel’s wi-fi right away.

  Garrett logged onto the Dragon Hunters Anonymous website with his screen name and posted on the main chat board.

  Looking for twin dragons in the Texas/New Mexico area, he wrote and within moments, several dialog boxes popped up.

  He gave the stats on the two men and the girl who was with them. When a voice chat window popped up, Garrett chose the voice only feature, leaving the video dark so that the person on the other end couldn’t see him. In his line of work, you couldn’t be too careful, and he never knew who was actually trying to help and who was gathering information to protect the runaway dragons. He hoped this was the former, but he wasn’t going to get his hopes up.

  “Did you say they have a human with them?” the digitally altered voice asked.

  “I did,” Garrett answered.

  “Do you have a description on the woman?”

  “Black. Long dark hair and brown eyes, curvy and a little on the shorter side. Maybe twenty-six years old,” Garrett said.

  He didn’t mention that the woman was stunning, or that her eyes sparkled when she smiled. Dragon hunters ran the gamut from ultra-ethical to just this side of depraved and malicious. He couldn’t risk the life of the woman behind the desk, even if she was a traitor. Chances are that she didn’t even know the men were WereDragons until they’d sprouted wings, and by then, it was too late.

  “Is she in danger?” the man pressed.

  “Doubtful,” Garrett answered, and he meant it.

  He’d been chasing this particular set of dragon twins for a long time and they hadn’t killed a soul while they were on the run. He couldn’t say anything about their behavior prior to that, but as fugitives, they had been model citizens.

  “Is there a reward for the girl or just the dragons?”

  Garrett had a bad feeling about the voice on the other end, but he shook it off. It was nearly sunrise and he was exhausted, and he imagined the other hunter was as well. What Garrett was hearing was probably colored by his exhaustion and the creepy sound of the computer altered voice on the other end.

  “There’s a reward for information leading to the safe recovery of all three,” Garrett lied.

&nbs
p; “What are the dragons wanted for?” the man asked, and Garrett hesitated.

  If he shared this, the man on the other line would know that the bounty was in the millions and not just a paltry sum. But he needed information, and even if he ended up giving some hobby hunter ten percent of his hard-earned bounty, it was worth it. Catching the Smith twins was life-changing money, and Garrett would be able to retire a wealthy man. He needed to find the twins no matter what.

  He sighed, bracing himself for the reaction he was bound to get from the man on the other end when he realized just how high the stakes were for Garrett.

  “They are wanted for murder.”

  ***

  Solace held on tight as the dragon’s feet touched down and he stopped abruptly. She slid off his back and swayed on her feet, still feeling the motion after so long in the air.

  She took a few steps and sat down on a fallen log, looking around in the gray light of early morning and shaking her head.

  “What the hell?” she muttered.

  She watched the dragons melt away, revealing the two men she’d met in the hotel lobby. They were naked with only their backpacks on their backs, but Solace was too tired to turn away. One of the twins looked at her as if he was waiting for her to do just that, but she arched an eyebrow at him.

  “If you wanted privacy you shouldn’t have kidnapped me and destroyed my hotel,” she said, arms crossed.

  “Kidnapped you?” the darker haired twin asked, incredulous. “Lady, we saved your life.”

  “My life wouldn’t have been in danger if you weren’t on the run. I’m in this mess because I saved you.”

  He scowled at Solace, but the other twin was already pulling on a pair of pants from his bag and buttoning them as he walked toward her.

  “Ethan, get dressed. I’ve got this,” the twin she now knew was Cam said.

  Cam walked forward with an easy gait, sitting beside Solace and putting a hand on her thigh. She felt her body respond but she ignored it. She was mad, and now wasn’t the time to be looking at his flat stomach, or his broad, smooth chest. She had to focus, and she had to stay mad or she had a feeling that these two would walk all over her.

  “I don’t know what you think you have, but it sure isn’t me,” Solace said, shaking her head.

  “I’m sorry that we scared you, and I’m sorry you got caught up in all this,” he said, his voice gentle and soft.

  Solace stayed rigid, but it was hard to be mad when he was taking responsibility for his part in her crap night and his hand was so warm through her thin trousers.

  “You’d better be sorry,” she said for good measure. “I have a paper due and now it’s not going to get done in time.”

  “A paper?” Ethan said from a few feet away. “Are you serious right now? Your life was in danger and you’re thinking about college work?”

  “Chill, Ethan,” Cam said.

  “Yes, I’m pissed about my work,” Solace shot back, her anger rising again. “I’m studying to do something phenomenal with my life. Something that matters and makes the world a better place. I didn’t ask to be dragged out of a third story window. And I sure didn’t ask to fly around on the back of a dragon for hours on end only to stop in the middle of the woods with no sign of civilization in sight and why didn’t you tell me you were dragons?”

  She was breathing hard, the reality of her situation too much for her to bear.

  “This can’t be happening,” she muttered under her breath as she tried to get herself back under control. “I have to be dreaming.”

  “You’re not dreaming,” Ethan said.

  “It’s not a dream,” Cam reiterated, though his voice was softer and less annoyed than his brother’s. “Take a deep breath and relax. It’s going to be okay.”

  Cam’s hand was on her back, rubbing as she bent forward and stuck her head between her knees to keep from passing out.

  “We don’t have time for this, we have to go,” Ethan said, pacing a few feet away.

  “No way,” Solace replied, picking her head up. “I’m not going anywhere else with you until you tell me what’s going on. I’m not some damsel in distress that you’re rescuing. I’m a grown woman with a job and a home that you took me from.” She paused, then amended. “I used to have a job. I’m not sure if I have one anymore thanks to you two.”

  “We don’t have time to rehash this now,” Ethan insisted. “We have to stay on foot until darkness unless we want to get caught.”

  Ethan was sitting on a rock, pulling on shoes he’d pulled from his bag, then putting on a shirt.

  Cam was still naked from the waist up, leaning against her and rubbing her back to try and calm her.

  “So, what, we’re going for a hike now?” Solace wondered.

  “We have a friend that lives here in the forest. The sun is almost up and flying the rest of the way in is too risky,” Cam said.

  “Where is here?”

  “Gila National Forest,” Ethan said, still sounding irritated.

  Solace was getting annoyed at his behavior, and when their eyes met, she didn’t look away.

  “Look. I didn’t ask you to bring me here, and if it’s too much trouble, then you can just take me to the closest road and I’ll find my own way home.”

  “We can’t let you do that,” Cam said from his spot beside her.

  “You’re not letting me do anything. Let’s be clear on that.”

  “Call it what you want, but you need to stay with us until we can fly out of here tonight.”

  “Why?”

  “Because we can’t risk you being found while we’re still here. We’re going to hike to our buddy’s cabin in Wolf Hollow on the mountain and hole up for the day. Once it’s dark, we’ll fly you to the nearest town and give you money to get back home and to compensate you for your time. I wouldn’t go back home, but Cam and I aren’t going to stop you. But we have to leave you in a big city so we can get away, and right now, the only city for miles is too small. We’ll be found right away, and our lives are at stake here.”

  “Your lives? What did you do?”

  “We need to go,” Ethan said. “We can’t talk about this with you. The more you know, the more at risk you are for being killed.”

  “Killed?” she said, shocked. “I didn’t do anything.”

  “You helped us escape,” Cam said, squeezing her affectionately. “And we are so grateful. We couldn’t just let you get killed after you saved our lives.”

  “Thanks,” she said.

  “Do you regret it?” Cam wondered.

  She shook her head.

  “I don’t.”

  Cam nodded and stood, holding his hand out to her. She took it and stood on legs that were sore and still a little weak from the long ride. Cam took a pair of socks and shoes out of his bag and put them on, but he didn’t put on a shirt. Solace caught Ethan rolling his eyes and she almost laughed. It was obvious how their dynamic worked and under any other circumstances, Solace would have been amused watching them. But they were on the run, and there was something the two of them weren’t telling her.

  She would get it out of them, but now wasn’t the time. She would have to wait until the right moment. Until then, they needed to get going before the sun finished rising and the campers started venturing out. The fewer people that saw them, the better. No matter what they were running from, she knew one thing. By helping them, she’d put herself in danger. If going into the woods and hunkering down until darkness was the only way to get herself out of that danger, then she would do just that.

  The twins weren’t the only ones who could keep secrets.

  ***

  “I’ve got it,” Solace said, but she took Cam’s hand anyway.

  She climbed up the large pile of boulders in the middle of the trail, her tennis shoes slipping as they tried to grip the smooth surface. When she reached up to take Cam’s other hand she lost her grip, stumbling backward toward the edge and a short, but rocky drop into an emerald pool of wa
ter.

  “Gotcha,” Ethan said, catching her from behind and steadying her on her feet.

  His arms were around her, her face buried in his chest. Taking a minute to compose herself and forget the fact that she’d almost fallen over the short cliff, she inhaled the scent of him and let his strength steady her for a few seconds before she pulled away.

  She sighed, lamenting the crap circumstances that found her in the middle of the wilderness with these gorgeous twins with no time to act on her fantasy. They were only living her wildest dream of being alone in the woods with two gorgeous men, but now wasn’t the time and she doubted they would have been as amused by her sexual fantasies as she was.

  “Are you alright?” Ethan said softly in her ear.

  “I am,” she said. “I’m just tired. It’s been a long night and an even longer day. I’ll try to be careful.”

  “It’s not your fault,” Ethan assured her, setting her at arm’s length and smiling at her. “You’re doing better than most would in this situation. You should be proud of yourself.”

  Solace couldn’t help but smile. Ethan had been gruff and aloof the entire time, but this side of him was something she hadn’t seen even a hint of. He was caring and kind, but unlike Cam, he didn’t joke around all the time, and seemed a little more reserved than Cam was. She’d taken his outward behavior as dislike, but now that he was opening up she was starting to wonder if he was just one of those people that was slow to warm up to new relationships.

  She scoffed at the word. Relationships. As if this was something more than just a group of people on the run from a crazy bounty hunter.

  “You never did tell me why we’re running from that man. Well. Why you two are running. I guess he wasn’t really after me.”

  The smiled slid off Ethan’s face and he was back to his serious self. Solace almost regretted asking as he helped her up the boulders again and this time, she managed to grab both of Cam’s hands without slipping. She scrambled over the edge, then sat on the highest boulder and caught her breath while she watched Ethan climb up the boulders as if it was nothing.