by Sandy James
Fuck the Amazons.
Fuck the SOGs.
Fuck everything.
He was going home just as soon as he could find how to get out of this three-ring circus. Then he’d find a way to fix the Toy. Or better yet, he’d hunt down its missing mate, destroy it and make sure that damned general at the Department of Defense realized exactly how close someone had come to starting a world war with a jazzed-up cell phone
* * *
Gina shoved at Richard again, but his fangs were still in her neck. If she pushed too hard, he’d rip her throat out. At that moment, she wasn’t sure she’d care if he did. The horrified look in Zach’s eyes would haunt her forever.
“Let me go, Richard.”
He only hummed in response.
“I mean it. Let me go. Now.”
His fangs left her skin, and he gave her an affectionate kiss as he always did when he was done feeding. As he moved away, her hand shot up to cover the small puncture wounds, checking to see if they were still bleeding. Throwing him a frown, she hurried to the door.
Richard’s hand shot out to grab her upper arm as she brushed past him. “What’s wrong, Gina? I didn’t hurt you, did I?”
She shook her head and tried to shrug out of his hold.
“Then why are you rushing off? I figured we’d go get you some juice or some ice cream or something. I didn’t take too much, did I?”
His consideration pissed her off. She wanted to be mad and Richard was close at hand. Zach had seen Richard feeding and probably assumed he’d stumbled across a lovers’ embrace.
She had to find him and correct that stupid assumption before it fixed permanently in his mind. “I’ve gotta go.”
Gina picked up her pace after she walked out the door. By the time she got across the compound to Zach’s cabin, she was running.
She’d kept him in the dark for far too long, only giving tiny glimpses of the magicks all around them. Her motives had been pure. That tactic backfired. If he would have known that Richard was only feeding, he wouldn’t have looked so devastated.
The time had come to show Zach her world—her entire world. It would be easier for the Amazons to protect him if he knew what to look out for. All she could hope was that he wouldn’t hate her and that he wouldn’t be so shocked by what she revealed to make whatever blossoming feelings he had for her wilt and die.
She opened the door. A hand reached around her and slammed it shut again.
“Just leave it be, Gina. It’s best for everybody,” Richard said, his rapid breaths from chasing her falling hot on her neck.
She hadn’t heard him behind her, but then again, she’d been distracted. He sure didn’t appear surprised that she’d headed right to Zach’s cabin. In fact, he sounded like he knew exactly where she’d gone and why she’d gone there.
“Son of a bitch.” She whirled to face him, seething with indignant fury. “You knew. You knew Zach would see you feeding and what he’d think when he saw us. You set him up.”
Richard shook his head but stared at the porch’s floorboards. The guy couldn’t lie to save his life.
“That’s why you grabbed me in the sand pit—why you kissed me. You wanted him to think we were a couple. You’re probably not even going to California. Are you?”
He narrowed his eyes at her as if he had a right to be pissed off. “No, I’m not. But I just found that out a while ago. So what? It’s time someone stopped this—this—infatuation. You’re an Amazon, Gina. He can’t be with you.”
“I can’t believe you’d do this to me. You’re supposed to be my friend.”
“He’s not the right guy for you.”
“That’s not for you to decide. It’s none of your fucking business,” she insisted.
“I want it to be. You know damn well I want it to be.” Richard put his hands on her shoulders.
Before Gina could respond to that ridiculous statement and shrug his hands away, the door opened. She turned back to see Zach silhouetted in the light coming from his cabin.
He folded his arms over his chest and leaned a shoulder against the doorframe. “I didn’t realize I’d get a rerun of your little...show.”
“Zach—”
He cut her off with a sneer. “Don’t bother. I saw what I needed to see.”
“You didn’t see anything. Honest.”
“I saw plenty.”
“C’mon, Gina.” Richard tugged at her. “Mr. Wizard here thinks he’s got it all figured out. Let’s go.”
She gave her shoulders an exaggerated roll to try to get him to release her. He didn’t. “Turn me loose, Richard. Or so help me...”
“The lady said to let her go, Dick.” Zach’s voice was low and definitely threatening.
Richard shook his head again. “She’s coming with me.”
When he gave Gina another tug, she stumbled toward him.
Zach released a growl that sounded like an angry wolf. He moved as swift as one too.
Hands clenched in Richard’s shirt, Zach heaved him off the porch.
Richard rolled and was right back on his feet. “That’s it, pretty boy. I’ve had it. Come down here and take the beating I’ve been dying to give you since we met.”
“Yeah, well...” Zach jumped down and landed in front of Richard. “I’ve been itching to smack you around too. No holding back this time. No training. Just my fists buried in your fugly face.”
Gina stood on the steps. “Guys, don’t. Please don’t do this.”
“Stay out of this, Gina,” Richard scolded. “I’ll be fine.”
“You’re wrong, Dick. You’ll be black and blue and sleeping for a very, very long time.” Zach took a fighting stance, but he raised his fists this time, clearly putting his tae kwon do aside for some bare-knuckle brawling.
They weren’t listening to her, and there was entirely too much testosterone flying. For all the attention they were paying her, she might as well have been some annoying gnat buzzing around them.
They wanted to beat each other up?
Fine.
Gina sat on the step, breathed an aggravated sigh and hoped the macho bullshit would burn itself out quickly.
Richard took the first swing. Zach blocked it and got in a good punch to Richard’s gut. After that, the blows kept coming. So did the grunts and groans.
Men. Fucking stupid, immature men.
Putting her elbows on her knees and propping her chin on her hands, she watched them fight. At that moment, she was furious with them both. Richard—for setting her up and never listening to her tell him over and over that their relationship was merely friendship and would never be anything but friendship. Zach—for not giving her the chance to explain what he’d seen, for not trusting her and assuming the worst.
When they were done with the machismo—when they were both bruised and exhausted—maybe then they’d sit still long enough to listen.
Punches. Jabs. A knee to the groin. A fist in the face. Neither was fighting with the finesse she knew they both possessed. No planning attacks or trying to block. Just pounding each other as hard as they could.
The sweat, spit and blood flew. They’d be black and blue tomorrow, and Beagan and Dolan would surely put enough stitches in them both to make a patchwork quilt.
Zach shoved Richard back hard, and the two men panted from exertion. The air suddenly crackled with a familiar flash of blue glowing between Richard’s fingers.
Damn him.
He was going to fight dirty, and Zach would never see it coming. A third shock would kill him.
One giant leap took her from the step to the narrow space between the men. When Richard’s splayed hand went flying toward Zach’s chest, Gina was there to take the shock. His palm connected with her sternum, and the electricity jolted through her body.
Agony ripped through her, worse than anything she’d ever felt. Her limbs jerked and tingled as though they were being poked with thousands of pins and needles. She tasted blood from where she’d bitten her tongue. Then her legs lost t
heir strength as she sagged to the ground.
Zach caught her before she hit.
Scooped up into his strong arms, she tried to keep her eyes open, but they refused to focus. “Zach?”
“It’s okay, love. I’ve got you.”
“Richard?”
Richard put a hand over hers.
She wanted to smack it away, but she couldn’t seem to make her body respond to her commands. Things were getting kind of fuzzy, too.
“I’m sorry, Gina. I’m so—”
“You—you would’ve killed him.”
“Gina, I—”
“You—you touch him again, I’ll—kick—your—ass...”
Richard hung his head. “I won’t. I won’t hurt him.”
After his promise, and after knowing Zach would be safe, she gave up the fight and let herself fall into the darkness and blessed relief.
* * *
Zach cradled Gina against him. He had no idea what Richard had done to her, but he knew she took a hit intended for him.
“Get Rebecca,” he snapped at Richard as he turned to carry Gina into his cabin.
The door had been left ajar, so Zach nudged it open with his foot. Striding to the bed, he stopped and blinked. His twin mattress, the one he’d joked was too damned small, was gone. How and when the queen-sized bed appeared, he had no clue. Nor did he have time to dwell on the strange happenings around him. He laid her on the blue quilt.
Running his hands over her arms, he tried to see what might have hurt her. He hadn’t seen a weapon, and she hadn’t acted like she’d been shot or stabbed. Her reactions had been more like a seizure. Like she’d been...shocked. Had Richard been hiding a Taser?
Oh, God.
Richard could shock people, probably like the guys who’d hit Zach.
There was a scorched hole in her shirt, directly between her breasts. Ripping the hole wider, he revealed burns on her bare skin. Richard had burned right through her shirt. She hadn’t been wearing a bra. Debating whether he should take her shirt off, Zach was relieved when Rebecca came hurrying into the cabin.
“What in the hell happened?” She shooed Zach away from Gina’s side.
“Richard,” was all Zach knew to answer. “She’s burned,” he added when Rebecca tugged at the place he’d opened in Gina’s shirt.
Richard followed Rebecca into the cabin. She shot him an angry glare. “You did this?”
He nodded then fixed his gaze on the wooden floor.
Her eyes narrowed, and for the first time, Zach saw a fierce temper behind those soft brown eyes. Rebecca had seemed so motherly and down to earth. Now, she looked as if she wanted to kick Richard’s ass but good and like she had the power to do so. He startled when the wind suddenly stirred up, blowing hard enough to slap the branches of the maple tree outside his window against the glass.
“Why would you hurt her?” she demanded.
“I didn’t mean to. I was aiming for him.” Richard jerked his thumb toward Zach.
“You missed. Make yourself useful. Go get Sarita. She’s in the nursery with Darian,” Rebecca ordered like a drill sergeant.
Richard left, slamming the door behind him.
“I’m sure he didn’t mean to hurt her,” she said as she eased off Gina’s boots. “Sarita will help her.”
“Don’t you dare defend him to me. Not with Gina lying there like—like that. What did he do to her?” Zach hadn’t realized he’d been clenching his hands into fists until he forced himself to relax. “We need to get her to a hospital.”
Rebecca shook her head and covered Gina with the kaleidoscope afghan that had been resting on the foot of the bed. “She’s an Ama—Um...she’s a quick healer.” Standing over the bed, she smoothed the brown hair away from Gina’s forehead with a sisterly caress.
For the first time, Gina’s locks held no highlights, no vivid color, and that scared the hell out of him. His gaze darted around, looking for a cell phone, a landline, anything that he could use to call 911.
“She’ll be okay,” Rebecca added. “Sarita’s exactly what she needs.”
Was she trying to reassure herself or him?
“Unless she’s a doctor, there’s nothing Sarita can do. Let me take Gina to the hospital.”
This time when Rebecca shook her head, he growled at her. He didn’t need her permission. Gina needed medical help, and he would see she got it, even if he didn’t know where the hell this camp was.
Just as he moved back to Gina’s bedside, Sarita came hurrying into the cabin, followed by Beagan and Dolan. The two little men carried some clean clothes, towels and a jar of that pungent goop Gina had put on his burn and Beagan had smeared on Zach’s cheek. They pushed Rebecca and Zach out of the way.
Rebecca laid a steadying hand on his shoulder. “Let them take care of her.”
“She needs a doctor, damn it.”
“Sarita’s a healer, and Beagan and Dolan are better than any doctor. Trust me. They’ve taken care of many, many people—including my kids. If anything is ever wrong with Bonnie or Darian, I’d rather Beagan and Dolan care for them than any doctor.”
The men both turned and favored Rebecca with enormous smiles before they went back to helping Sarita work on Gina.
Zach had seen Rebecca with her kids and knew how protective she was of them. If she trusted her son and daughter to Beagan and Dolan, Gina was in good hands. But Sarita? She could fight well, but was she really a healer?
“Gina,” Sarita whispered as she sat on the bed next to her sister. “I’m here. I’ll help you.”
“This is ridiculous.” Zach ran his hand over his sweaty face. “She needs a doctor.”
Sarita glared at him, a look that held threat despite her tiny stature not being able to back it up. “Be quiet or get out.” The command in her voice brooked no refusal.
He sighed and nodded.
She gave him a curt nod and turned back to Gina.
“I’m here, sis.” Sarita placed her right palm over the burn. But that was all she did. No medicine. No ice. No burn ointment.
What was she? Some kind of faith healer?
So fixed on thinking of how to get Gina out of there and to a hospital, Zach was surprised by the hum—a low-pitched drone, like a tuning fork struck against a hard surface. The sound grew until he couldn’t help but look for the source. About to ask Rebecca if she heard it too, an orange light caught his eye.
Zach stared in stunned disbelief. He’d expected some crystals or other new age treatments. He hadn’t expected Sarita’s hand to glow. As she smoothed it over Gina’s burns, the puckered skin spontaneously healed.
Shit, he’d seen some strange things since Gina brought him here. Her ability to jump so damned high. Megan’s magician’s tricks for making fire. Sarita turning a soda ice cold by holding the can in her hand. Rebecca’s almost impossible accuracy with a bow and arrow. But Sarita’s hand as bright as a neon light, healing Gina’s wounds right before his eyes?
He’d officially entered sci-fi hell, as if he’d just discovered every comic book he’d ever read was based on real life.
Sarita finally pulled her hand away, her skin having returned to its soft café au lait color. She smiled at Rebecca. “She’ll be fine, Guardian. A little rest and she’ll be good as new.”
“Good,” Rebecca replied. “When Megan got hit by a SOG, she slept for a good ten hours.” As if suddenly realizing Zach was standing next to her, she stared at him wide-eyed. “I meant when Megan got shocked. You know, on a—a live wire—or—or something.”
Sick and tired of them treating him like a child—one who was too young or too stupid to understand—he shook his head. “I heard what you said the first time. It was a SOG. Richard’s a SOG, and he did this to Gina with some kind of power.”
“I forgot Gina said you’ve got a photographic memory.” The concern in Rebecca’s eyes was plain. He just didn’t know if she was concerned for Gina or concerned that Zach would remember her words. “Look, Zach—”
&
nbsp; He stopped her with a wave of his hand. “There’s some weird shit going on here, but all I care about is getting Gina well. I don’t know what you did, Sarita. I’m not sure I want to know. But will Gina be okay?”
Sarita nodded. “She needs some sleep and, knowing Gina, some ice cream...probably a caramel sundae...when she wakes up.”
“Extra caramel,” Rebecca added with a lopsided grin.
“Thank you,” Zach said. “Whatever you did for us, thank you.”
“Us?” Sarita repeated, glancing at Rebecca.
Rebecca’s reply was a stiff nod.
Turning back to Zach, she said, “You’re welcome.”
Then Sarita moved toward Richard. Before anyone could react, she pulled back her fist and punched him so hard in the groin he doubled over. “You bastard. You never use your powers on one of the good guys. Never. You’re no better than the other stupid SOGs.”
He coughed hard as his face flushed a cherry red. “S—s—sorry.”
“I don’t give a damn if you’re sorry or not. You hurt my sister.” Sarita’s hands were still clenched into fists, as if she was going to hit Richard again. From the scowl Rebecca threw at him, Richard would be in the doghouse for a good, long time.
“He was aiming for Zach,” Rebecca said to Sarita as if trying to calm the firecracker of a woman.
“Then he would’ve killed him,” Sarita snapped back. “Gina was hurt bad—almost too bad for me to help her. A mortal would’ve died.”
Mortal?
“I’m sorry,” Richard said, still doubled over but no longer coughing. “I—I wouldn’t hurt Gina for—for—anything.”
“He used his power on Gina?” Megan asked from the doorway. She was holding her daughter against her hip and bouncing her gently. Her glare at Richard could only be described as scorching. “Man o’ man, Gina’s gonna be royal pissed at you, Richard. So’s my mom. And Ix Chel will—” She cut her words off and cleared her throat. “I wouldn’t be looking to feed anytime soon.”
Rebecca set her hands against her hips. “And don’t even think about asking one of us. That well just ran dry, brother dear.” The last two words dripped with disdain.
“I—I don’t need to. Not for a long while. Gina...took care of that.” Richard wouldn’t look any of the women in the eye.