The Gunslinger's Gift

by April Zyon

  “Guardians, sir.”

  Billy slowly turned back to her, his eyes wild and his grin so big it looked more like a snarl. “Time to kill your lover. Sorry, former lover. I’ll be right back,” he told her, kissing her hard, biting her lips enough to draw blood. Leaning away, he licked his lips. “Damn, you are too tasty.”

  “You’re freaking crazy.” She tried to jerk away from him. “He won’t be so easy to kill.” She was confident that James would come for her. “He’s going to put you down,” she said, with a nod. “And I’m not your lover. Never will be. I would rather kill myself first.” She spit at him and whispered, “Monster.”

  She never saw the hand coming, but she definitely felt it. Her head snapped to the side as he backhanded her. “You will learn, Sophia. You will learn soon enough that you have no choice. Now, lay there and prepare for what’s to come. I might even let you enjoy a little of it.” He straightened his holsters and headed for the door. “I’ll be back soon, sweetheart. Then, we’ll have one hell of a grand party.” Laughing, he was out the door before she could say anything in return.

  Sophia watched it close and shook her head. She couldn’t think that she was going to be his. She couldn’t allow herself to believe that James would ever leave her to this monster. She glanced at the door then the bonds that held her wrist. She took a deep breath and wiggled again, once more trying to stretch enough to get her mouth to the knot, forcing her mind away from her stomach that wanted to empty all its contents and focusing on getting free.

  A tapping noise came from a window. Ignoring it, she kept working. A louder, harder tap sounded. Turning her head, she blinked when she saw Eric there. He looked her over and lifted a brow, his face turning turbulent. He put a hand on the glass then a finger to his lips. With a smirk, he turned slightly and threw his elbow back, shattering the pane. “You okay, kid?” he asked as he cleaned the sill of the chunks.

  Sophia nodded and jerked on the bonds. “Please, get me free? Where’s James?” She knew he was there for her. He would never leave her. “It’s Billy. He’s the one who took me, and he’s absolutely crazy. Nuttier than a freaking peanut farm,” she grumbled. “The idiot thinks I’m pregnant.” She snorted. “Please, get me out of here so that we can destroy the creep and I can go home and puke. Again.”

  Hopping over the windowsill, Eric pulled out a short blade and cut at her bonds with care. “Uh, the idiot is actually right,” he said, moving to do her feet. “You are pregnant. It’s why you’ve been throwing up each and every morning like clockwork. Doc Janet told James before they came after you. He’s kind of scary right now, kid. I mean, way scary. According to Alex, he’s back in ‘the mode’,” he told her, using actual finger air quotes.

  “What?” Sophia went dead still. “I’m—?” She turned her head, ready to throw up. “Oh God, I’m so going to puke.” She bent over the side of the bed and vomited while Eric worked on her ankles. She couldn’t help herself. When she flopped back on the mattress, she closed her eyes and panted. “Oh God. Poor James,” she whispered, and then opened her eyes. “I have to get to him.” She didn’t want to think about James being in a killing mode. It made her heart hurt too much.

  “Here, rinse your mouth out then let’s get out of here.” He held out a small bottle of water to her with a sympathetic look on his face. “Sorry, kid, but the only place you’re going is into one of the trucks. It’s protected, so as long as you’re in it, no matter what the condition of the vehicle is, nothing Evil can get to you. You have to think about the baby. Plus, if James finds out that I let you out onto the killing field, he’d fucking shoot my medallion for kicks.”

  “What?” She shook her head, and when he mentioned the baby, she put her hand to her belly. “Are you sure? That I’m pregnant?” She couldn’t wrap her mind around that. “We only had sex twice before I was on birth control. That’s not possible, right? I mean, the tests can be wrong, can’t they?”

  She felt ill all over again and closed her eyes to fight it. “Crap. Are you sure that James is okay? You promise me you’ll watch his back? Who else is with him? Who will keep him from getting hurt?” She had faith in James, but she was worried that Billy would push the wrong buttons with her man.

  “Alexander’s out there kicking ass and taking lives.” Eric moved to the window and held out a hand to her. “Come on, kid. Let’s get you tucked away so that I can go and kill some of these fuckers. Jason should be on the ground by now with a squad of Marines. Other than that, it’s just us good old boys backing up your man. I think that’s how he phrased it, sort of. Well, it’s the cleaner version of what he said.”

  A crash close by had him reaching for her. “We have to go now.” Slipping out the window, he looked around before turning to haul her through. Setting her on her feet, he took her hand. “Stay close, move when I do, and be absolutely silent. Got it?”

  Sophia nodded and licked her lips. “Got it,” she whispered to him and moved so that she was as close to him as she could get. She ran when he did and stilled when he did. She didn’t speak, simply moved and prayed.

  Once they made it to the truck, she looked to Eric, “Hasher, is he okay?” She couldn’t believe that she had only just then thought about him. “I was trying to stem the blood flow when I was hit on the back of the head. Is he okay? Please tell me he is.”

  “Gaius got to him. He was still breathing, if barely. Last I heard, he was in surgery. Been a little busy since then,” Eric told her. Jerking open a door, he pushed her into the vehicle. Then, he spun, whipping up his sword, and taking the head off a monster that had come racing at his back. “Get in, buckle up, and do not come out until we come for you. No matter what. Got it?”

  Sophia nodded and did as he had instructed. She locked the doors, too, simply because the thing that came at Eric next terrified her. She closed her eyes and screamed. She couldn’t help herself. She had never seen anything so terrible before. The exceptionally tall and willowy beast had teeth like a shark and looked to be covered in oil. It was too much for her. Way too much.

  A knock on the window next to her had her screaming again. “Really?” Eric shouted, though she only heard it in a muffled sense. “You women are way too sensitive. Don’t move,” he ordered. With a roar, he raced out straight for another of the Monsters, this one short, bulky, and built like a tank. A gunshot off to the side had her attention turning.

  James, it was James, and he looked so very different from the man she knew and loved.

  Sophia stared as he came closer. She struggled to get out of the seat belt then opened the door. “James,” she whispered and stepped away from the safety of the truck. She had to touch him, needed to know that he really was there, that she wasn’t dreaming in that monster’s bed.

  Billy came into view then, but thankfully, he wasn’t looking her way. He was entirely focused on James. He was speaking, but she couldn’t hear the words over the roars of the Monsters that were fighting Eric, Alexander, and Jason. The Marines were laying down serious cover, hacking away at the Monsters with their highly concentrated gunfire.

  James tucked his revolver away, his hand resting on the butt of the weapon, as he and Billy faced off. They were talking, and from what she could see of Billy, he looked to be getting mad, while James only seemed to get colder and more distant in appearance.

  Sophia reached up to James, wincing when he stepped away from her. That step cut her, deeply. “James? What’s wrong?” She watched the tick in the side of his jaw, one that signaled he was seriously pissed off, and she had no idea why. She turned when she heard Billy’s laugh and moved in closer to James. “You? Seriously, why hasn’t someone shot you, yet?” she muttered. “You are a delusional asshat.”

  “I was telling James all the things we’ve done today while waiting for him to come to his death. He’s rather upset with you. Thought you were his. But we both know that you’ve only ever been looking for your Billy, haven’t you, Sophia?”

  James never took his eyes
off Billy. The other man was boasting now, his posture relaxed. He lifted a hand to adjust his hat, and that’s when James drew. The gunshot was loud. Before it even finished echoing, he grabbed Sophia, wrapping himself around her. She felt the jolt to his body, his grunt, and then they were falling. The entire way to the ground, he protected her so that she didn’t even touch the dirt.

  Sophia grunted and then her brain caught up with what was happening around them. She put her hand to the earth and shot her energy through it. Trees sprouted where none had been before, piercing and impaling the monsters that swarmed in angry blurs. She was crying as she looked down at James. “James,” she whispered and leaned into him. “Please be okay,” she begged him. “Don’t you dare die on me. I mean it. I will be very, very unhappy when I track your butt down in the ever after and give you a piece of my mind.”

  “Not dying,” James groaned. “Damn well feel like I am, but I’ll live.” He turned his head, his gun tracking with his line of sight. Then, he relaxed, the barrel going to the ground as he let out another groan.

  “You got him,” Eric said as he came up next to them and knelt down. “He got a shot off, but he was already terminal by then. You got his medallion. Amazing shot.” Eric moved Sophia to her feet and began to check over James.

  “Only time I’ve ever beaten him,” James said. He was panting hard as Eric rearranged him.

  “Shit, you’re bleeding like a stuck pig. Alex!” Eric bellowed. “Get me the med kit. I need to plug him up until we can get him back to base. And you—” Eric turned a glare on her. “What the ever-loving fuck were you doing getting out of the damn truck? What part of ‘stay in the fucking vehicle no matter what’ did you not understand?”

  “Don’t yell at her,” James growled.

  “Shut it,” Sophia said at the same time. “Seriously.” She shook her head and looked down at James. “Second man to bleed on me today. I don’t like this day. Can we please go back to bed and skip this day?” So, she was freaking out in the weirdest of ways, but she was holding herself together from screaming and crying like she wanted to.

  James caught her hand and held on. “Are you okay, Soph?” he asked, his eyes filled with worry. “Ow! That fucking hurts, you motherfucker,” he snapped at Eric.

  “Suck it up,” the big redhead muttered. Alex dropped a med kit down next to him then came around James’s other side, nudging Sophia up closer to her man’s head.

  “Soph, honey, are you okay? Did he do anything?” he asked again, between winces, as Eric and Alex tore his shirt and slapped gauze over the wound.

  Sophia shook her head. “He tried to kiss me and then slapped me because he was a big, fat coward,” she murmured. “Moronic twit.” She sat down so that she could take his head into her lap, to offer him some sort of comfort, she hoped. “He seemed to think that he was my soul mate. He’s an idiot. You’re the one that I’ve painted and waited for all my life. I might have called you ‘Billy,’ but that’s only because that’s what many others had called you.” She shrugged.

  “You’re mine, and I’ve known it since I met you. You know that, right?” She was worried that the things that Billy the Kid had said to James might have gotten him to thinking she wasn’t his. “Oh crap, are we? I mean—?” She was going to be ill again. “Was he losing it when he said I was pregnant?” Both Billy and Eric had said it, and now, she had to hear it from James. Him, she would believe. No one else.

  “Good gods, even I’m confused by all that babbling,” Alex muttered.

  James shot the other man a dirty look before turning a smile up to her. “Soph, honey, lean down here for me, will you please?” When she leaned in, he put a hand to her neck and squeezed the nape gently. “You are mine, always have been, always will be. William was trying to get to you. It’s what he did. He liked to get his targets riled up with that cocky attitude of his. Anything he said, disregard.

  “Although, he was right about one thing. We are pregnant. The doc said you’re six weeks along. She also wants to do some tests and make sure both you and the baby are okay. Which I’m going to insist on, after today.”

  “That would mean—” Her cheeks heated. “Oh God, that means that we would have gotten pregnant the first time, for the most part.” She heard some coughing and laughing and shot an angry look over her shoulder. “Seriously?” she muttered. She looked back to James and added, “No looking over me until you’re okay. I mean it. For the love of God, you were shot, and yet you’re worried about me seeing the doctor? James, what in heaven’s name am I going to do with you?” she asked, with a smile on her face. “Besides loving you for the rest of time, that is.”

  “Yeah, but it’s already healing.”

  Eric and Alex were both nodding when she looked to them. “It’s true,” Alex said. “Once we start to clot, the healing kicks into high gear. By the time we get back to The Mountain, he’ll be mostly healed up. The bullet was a through and through, right into meat and not much else. At least Billy’s aim was off. I’m pretty sure he was aiming for her head.”

  “Heart,” James murmured. “He was aiming for her heart, knowing it would kill her instantly.”

  “Given where he was hit, he’s right,” Eric agreed. “Okay, everyone up on your feet. Let’s get out of here. Since he’s not dying, we’ll drive him. The Marines can burn the Monsters then take the chopper back.”

  “Wait, what?” She looked with wide eyes to James. “He was going to shoot me? Why? Why would he shoot me when he had it in his stupid brain that he was going to have me as some kind of gift? I don’t understand.” She had never once thought about her safety, only in getting to James. “Oh, God.” She felt dizzy.

  “I’m ready to go home, and I don’t think that I’m going to go back outside ever again,” she whispered. “Mercury will just have to turn something into a massive greenhouse for me, so that I can get my fix of nature.” She looked down at James and touched her fingers to his cheek. “You saved me,” she whispered in awe. “Thank you.”

  “We’ll get you some plants,” Alexander piped up as he stood. Between him and Eric, they got James to his feet. Alex held him up as they walked to the truck, Eric carrying the medical bag with a hand on her back. “I’m sure we could turn one of the rooms up top into a solarium for you. We just take out the roof of that cavern, put in some bulletproof, double thick polymer to let in the light, and there you go.”

  “I like that thought.” Sophia was nodding as she moved. “That way I can have both nature and safety. And you’re sure that my protection detail is okay?” Hasher. She needed to remember his name, because he had saved her too. “Hasher. He’s okay. Right?” They had told her that he was, but she was just trying to fill the space with chatter. It was what she did when she was nervous. She talked about the oddest of things, even if it was repetitious.

  “No word,” Eric told her. She caught the look he shared with Alex when they were getting James into the truck. Both men appeared concerned, which meant that things were not looking good for the Marine. Alex helped her into the back with James before he went to the driver’s side and climbed in, while Eric settled into the passenger seat.

  Sophia linked her hand with James’ and leaned her head on his shoulder. “Mercury should save him,” she stated, without hesitation. “His Guardians have dwindled, and he needs to refill the ranks, so to speak. And Hasher is a hero. He died keeping me safe, if that’s the case, and he should be saved.” She hoped that made sense. She was so upset right then that she found she was talking in circles.

  “Agreed,” James said. His cheek was resting against her hair as he squeezed her fingers. “Eric, call Merc and find out his status. Let him know our thoughts on this,” he told the big man. “Soph is right. Hasher took a bullet for her. Did his best in a really bad situation.”

  Sophia nodded. “Thank you for understanding,” she whispered to James. “Are you going to be okay, really?” she asked and moved her thumb over the back of his hand. “And are you going to be okay
with us having a child?”

  Oh crap, I’m going to be a mom! That thought raced through her mind and made her feel more than a little dizzy. She didn’t know how to be a mom. She had thought she would have plenty of time, time to be able to spoil her nieces and nephews and learn from them. She never dreamed that she would be the one having a baby first.

  “Oh, crap.” She looked up at Jason and said, “When you tell Viv, please make sure that there are no weapons anywhere close?” Vivian loved her, and Sophia knew it, but she was still having trouble accepting James as Sophia’s other half, and Sophia had no idea why.

  James pulled his hand from hers, but only to loop his arm around her shoulders. He did so with a wince, but let out a breath as he hugged her close. “I’ll be fine. The medallion is already doing its thing. I’m no longer leaking all the stuff I need on the inside. As to our child, I’m actually kind of excited. Terrified beyond all belief, but also excited.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead and gave her a squeeze. “As for Vivian. Sorry, sweetheart, but I intend on being inside the bunker, armed to the teeth, when you tell her about us having a baby.”

  “Wait, what? I was hoping that I would get to hide out with you while Jason told her,” Sophia said, with wide eyes. “I would much rather hide away with you, please?” She was teasing him. She loved being able to tease him, and it felt good to be able to do so, even in the shadow of what they had just gone through. “I’m happy,” she whispered very softly then, for James alone, with her hand over her belly, wonder in her tone.

  “I like that plan even better,” he agreed. Nuzzling at her cheek, he slid his free hand over hers, lacing their fingers together, and let out a breath. “Can’t believe I managed to get you pregnant practically on the first go,” he murmured. “How are you feeling? I know you weren’t doing so good earlier. I could tell from how pale you were. Better now?” he asked, rubbing his nose along her jaw.

  “Yes, much better now, thank you. I was feeling more than a little sick. At least now I know that it’s not the flu.” They were pregnant. Holy balls, I’m going to be a mom. “Are you going to be okay with us having a baby so soon in our relationship?”