An amused rumble worked through his chest as his arms banded around me. Isaac took a running start, using the street as his own private runway, and leapt several yards high. Thrusting his wings hard to catch the wind, he lifted us up and up until we soared over the town under the double crescent moons.
The roughness of his skin abraded my forehead where I rested it on his shoulder, but I couldn’t watch. I didn’t have the stomach for another air show, and I was willing to bet we were about to experience turbulence.
Sure enough, Isaac dipped left, and my stomach plummeted straight down to earth. I tightened my arms and my legs and started praying under my breath, which startled laughter out of him.
“Don’t mock me.” I groaned. “You break every bone in your body, spend three weeks on bedrest, and then we’ll talk.”
“I won’t drop you,” he promised. “Not this time.”
“I don’t blame you for what happened.” I pressed a kiss against his chilly neck. “There was nothing you could have done.”
Rilla had too much experience. She’d planned her attack too well for him to counteract her in time.
“I should have—”
Impact knocked Isaac sideways, and I squeaked as we started losing altitude. Frantic to stop the fall, I climbed up him until he couldn’t see for my boobs mashed against his face.
“Pull up, pull up,” I chanted. “Why aren’t you pulling up?”
Muffled noises rose from my cleavage. I couldn’t tell if he was suffocating, motorboating or trying to communicate, so I shimmied back down around his middle.
“There are too many of them.” He braced one arm behind my shoulders then looped one around my hips. “We’re taking this fight to the ground.”
To keep from yelping as he swooped lower, I rolled in my lips and pressed down until they tingled.
“Open your eyes,” Isaac ordered me. “You need to run for cover.”
I hadn’t even realized I’d shut them. “Okay.”
Landings were tough, and he didn’t stick his. Not by a long shot. I bit my tongue when he hit, and I barely had time to register the taste of pennies in my mouth before he dropped me inches above the damp earth. His momentum knocked me sideways, and I landed on all fours in the grass. Before I caught my breath, he whirled to face the Aves flocking right to us and bellowed a primal roar that made my ears ring.
The wolf thrashed in my middle, but I didn’t have the time or the strength to change. I had to do this on my own. Groping around in the weeds, I located a short stick with a tapered end and shoved to my feet. Isaac was already tangled up with two birdmen, so I moved in to cover his back.
I counted seven more circling, waiting on their chance to strike. One loud crack preceded another as Isaac used his brute strength to crush their necks. He dropped their limp bodies then thundered a challenge that the others were quick to accept.
Four dive-bombed him in concert, knocking him off his feet. I didn’t get to see what happened next. The other three had noticed easier prey and rushed me. There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, so I stood there with my stick pointed skyward, legs braced for the fight to come.
I skewered one birdman, and he had the bad manners to bleed all over me. Hot and sharp, the scent set my stomach rumbling. I punched the second in the jaw, and his beak sliced my knuckles open, causing my own blood to perfume the air. When that one stumbled back to regroup, the third went airborne. I heaved a sigh of relief right up to the point where he sank his taloned feet in my hair and lifted me up with him.
A primal scream tore past my lips as he struggled to gain altitude. The second Aves shook off his cracked beak and joined us, curling his toes in my hair and beating his wings in tandem with his friend. Tears burned my eyes as I kicked them, and I swore my scalp was peeling free of my skull when a furious snarl poured over my shoulder.
The Aves squawked panicked noises at each other, and I almost imagined a familiar word here or there that boiled down to oh shit.
Isaac reached me before my guts turned to water, but all the relief he could offer was to grip me around the middle and match their pace to ease the strain on my head.
“Cut off my hair,” I panted. “I don’t care.”
Hair I could regrow, a new head if they flew off with this one would be harder.
“Their talons are in too deep,” he growled. “I can’t cut your hair without taking skin with it.”
Locking me against his chest, Isaac used one of his granite claws to slice the Achilles tendon of the nearest Aves. The creature screamed in agony, his foot going limp over my head. Three more quick cuts, and the first Aves fell away. Only one remained, and he had the sense to get his good leg out of Isaac’s way before he lost it too. The coward flew off squawking back to his mistress.
“I’m going to land.” He cradled my skull in his wide palm. “I need to examine your wounds.”
“I can handle the pain.” I crushed my eyes shut. “We need to catch up with Theo before the Aves regroup.”
With reluctance, Isaac adjusted his hold on me and corrected our course. Pain throbbed behind my eyes, but it lessened with each beat of my heart as my warg healing kicked in. Blood trickled down my nape only to get blown dry by the cool rush of wind, which made it impossible to hold a conversation.
Lack of sleep caught up with me, and I cuddled against him, trusting him to keep me safe until we touched down among friends.
Chapter 9
The thing Theo failed to mention about Monahans Sandhills State Park was the truth in advertising. It was nothing but rolling sand dunes. No water. No shade. No cover. Just miles and miles of sand in all directions.
I was wiping the sleep from my eyes as I made this observation, followed by the realization it was actual sand clogging my tear ducts. At some point, I’d gone rag doll on Isaac, and he’d ended up cradling me in his arms so I wouldn’t slide down his body and drop like a stone. When he sat me on my feet, I sank up to the ankle in warm sand.
“Tell me you have a plan.” I glanced around in case I’d missed a pertinent detail. “There must be more to this place than meets the eye.”
“Uh, no.” Theo, who was sitting on a nearby dune, sifted grains through his fingers. “I memorized a map of the area, but there was no time to do the usual research. I expected less…desert.”
Isaac released his gargoyle aspect and rolled his shoulders. Between our run-in with the Aves and the flight over, he must be sore. “From a place called Sandhills?”
“Seemed like a good idea at the time?” Theo touched his cheek to draw attention to the bruising on his face. “I was probably suffering brain damage when I mentioned it. Not my fault you listened to me for once in your life.”
“I spotted a building on the way in.” Isaac gazed off in that direction. “There’s probably a concession stand, gift shop, something. They’ll have water at least. How could they not in a place like this? We can stay the rest of the night here, let the Huntsman recover, and then move out in the morning.”
I turned a slow circle but didn’t notice him or the hounds. “Where is he, anyway?”
“This way.” Theo stood and dusted off his pants. “You’ll love this.”
We hiked over two dunes and came to a standstill on top of a third. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Holes rapidly refilling with sand covered the area. Several hounds were still digging, battling against the inevitable. But what drew my eyes was the mound in the center. From this angle, all I could see was the clump of knotted braids capping the peak, the ends trailing down the sides like someone had dropped a tangle of roots on top.
Isaac gave Theo a look that I had no trouble interpreting. I might not have any siblings, but I’d grown up with enough of them to read their expressions well enough.
The hounds had buried the Huntsman like kids playing at the beach with their father.
Breathing must be optional for the big guy, ’cause those puppers weren’t playing.
“What
?” His brother failed at hiding his grin. “They were bored, so I gave them something to do.”
Giving up on chastising his twin, Isaac walked a circle to inspect the problem. “How are we supposed to get him out?”
“The same way he got in.” Theo crossed to one of the hounds and patted her on the flank. When she lifted her head, he waved her over to the Huntsman and scooped a few handfuls of sand aside. The hound yipped once then started digging, and the others joined her. “There.” He dusted his hands. “That wasn’t so hard.”
“They understand you?” I was half wolf, and their thoughts made no sense to me even when I was hooked into their pack bond. “Can you talk to them?”
“They’re not dogs.” He crossed to me and tapped the end of my nose. “They’re bits of regurgitated dead fae molded into this form and given life by the Huntsman. Think of your god using Adam’s rib to create Eve. It’s like that. They retain some of that sentience.”
“Huh.” That cast the Black Dog’s origin story in a new light. “So they’ll accept orders?”
“Not while the Huntsman is conscious to control them, and they work best with visual aids.”
“Dell and I are going to secure our lodging for the night.” Isaac took my hand and started leading me away. “You can bring your new best friends with you once they finish the job.”
We made it a few dozen steps before Isaac chuckled.
I nudged him with my elbow. “What’s so funny?”
“You didn’t think seeing the Huntsman buried was worth a laugh?”
“Yeah, but I laughed back there.” I swung our joined hands. “Are you suffering a delayed reaction?”
“No,” he admitted. “More like I don’t want to encourage my brother.”
“Are you guys okay?” I hadn’t gotten a chance to ask earlier. “He dropped a bomb on you last night.”
“We’ll get there.” He brought my hand to his mouth and pressed a kiss between my knuckles. “He has this whole other life that I’m not a part of, and it makes you think. How much of what I know about him is a lie?”
“I spent most of my life pretending to be something I’m not.” I had never been submissive, but I had put on a good show for the sake of survival. “All I can say is we all have our reasons for wearing masks, and most of the time it’s not done out of malice, but either to protect someone we love or ourselves.”
“Your mother…” He stalled out on the one topic we had yet to really discuss.
“Momma wanted me to be safe. That’s how it started. She thought forcing me to act submissive would protect me from the males who would see my dominance as a threat. Her pack was sick. The Chandler pack wasn’t much better. The Chandler wargs are mostly good, but Bessemer is broken. The longer he’s alpha of that pack, the worse things will get until one day he’ll piss off the wrong wolf, and they’ll kill him.” The howling wind made it easier to pretend the words wouldn’t carry back to Isaac, that he wouldn’t judge me for my past the way he was struggling to absolve Theo. “But then things changed. My father left, and it destroyed Momma. She never recovered, never tried to heal, and she got mean. Swearing it was for my own good, she’d turn me over to men who got off on taming dominants, but what she wanted most was to hurt me the way she’d been hurt.”
Isaac tightened his grip on my fingers. “You don’t have to tell me.”
“I’d rather you know it all now.” I blinked away tears from the sand battering my face. “Worrying you’ll overhear the rumors and walk out on me later… I can’t deal with that. I don’t want to be another Theo for you.”
“You’re not going to scare me away,” he soothed. “I’m here. You can’t get rid of me.”
“I love you, so much I can’t imagine life without you, but I have to give the idea headspace.”
“Slow down.” He pulled on our linked fingers when I plowed too far ahead. “Explain it to me. Please.”
“Momma committed suicide. I found her in our cabin dressed in her wedding gown with a knife through her chest. A knife she plunged through her own heart.” I broke free of him and kept going. “There was blood everywhere, but what I see when I close my eyes are the names. She wrote the name of every lover she had after my father on her skin. There were so many, I barely recognized her underneath.”
“Dell.” He caught me around the middle and lifted me off the ground when I couldn’t stop my legs from pumping. “Dell.”
“The best gift you gave me was walking away,” I whispered. “I had to know I could survive. Now I do.”
“You didn’t need me, Dell. You never did. Not like that. Not as a lifeline.” He hooked his chin over my shoulder and pressed our cheeks together. “You carved out your place in the pack all on your own. You fought your way to the top, and I’m so proud of your strength and independence.”
“Fear I’m going to be just like her is always bubbling in the back of my mind, and I don’t know how to shut it off.” The fight drained out of me, and I hung limp in his arms. “That’s what you’re mating.” I sighed when he set me down again. “That’s why I get Theo keeping his secrets. It wasn’t just that he wanted to protect you, though I’m sure that’s how it started. I’m betting he wanted you to keep looking at him like he’s your brother and not some screwup or a lost soul in need of saving.”
“We all have pasts, Dell.” He spun me around to face him. “Learning more about yours doesn’t change the way I feel about you, about us. I’m glad you told me you’re struggling. I want to be here to help however I can, even if it’s only cheering you on from the sidelines while you battle your own demons.” He reeled me in close. “I’ll do the same for Theo, if he’ll let me.”
“You’re pretty great, you know that?” I sniffled once and then smiled. “For what it’s worth, I’d pay good money to see you shake your pompoms.”
A flush stained his cheeks that forced me to kiss each one to savor the burn.
“Either I’m seeing a mirage,” he said, clearing his throat, “or we’ve arrived.”
I twisted in his arms and spotted the promised building hugging a road that led past a guard shack. “Let’s cross our fingers and hope for the best, huh?”
Breaking in took all of five minutes when you didn’t care much about the breaking part. Isaac completed a partial shift and slammed his stone fist against the knob. Under normal circumstances, I would scold him for destruction of property, but the last thing people did while the world was burning was go on vacation. I doubted there was anything of value in the building. If we stumbled across more than the water and lodging we required, we’d figure out a way to seal it up before we left.
Just as expected, we found a small fridge with plenty of supplies to see us through what remained of the night. We had no luck with sourcing blankets or pillows, not that we expected fully outfitted suites, but a futon would have been nice. There were enough rooms to give us each privacy, and that was a blessing.
The wolf had just staked claim on the break room, no surprise there considering wargs thought with their bellies, when Theo backed through the front door, hauling the Huntsman across the threshold by his wrists. Sand sprinkled from his clothes and hair. The hounds trotted after them, dusting tracks on the linoleum as they trailed their unconscious master.
“Are we sure he’s not dead?” I toed him as he was hauled past. “He’s not very responsive.”
“He does his Santa routine once a year,” Isaac mused. “He’s been patrolling the area outside the rift for weeks, and he still sifted time to reach us and get us to Wink.”
“He looks worse now than he did before we left.” I glanced to Theo. “Four hours didn’t perk him up. Are we sure four more will do the trick?”
“Guess we’ll have to wait and see.” He settled the Huntsman and his hounds then returned to us. “I’ve spent time around elder fae. Some of them shut down cold when they burn out their reserves.”
I massaged the back of my neck. “Wouldn’t he know the signs?”
&nb
sp; “You’d think.” He leaned in and sniffed me before I could react. “Unless he did something real stupid, like share his power with someone.” He cut his eyes toward Isaac. “Or someones.”
“He took the flesh-of-his-flesh thing literally,” Isaac allowed. “I take it that was a bad thing?”
“Old fae start believing their own propaganda. The Huntsman in particular isn’t meant to absorb members into his pack. He creates them. Odds are good he thought he could feed you two kabobs and walk away from it whole since it’s a variation on what he does to create his hounds, but that’s not how power sharing works. Not when we’re talking about the primary link being between him and—I’m guessing—Dell. She’s not fae. Her magic isn’t Faerie born.”
“So what do we do now?” I anchored my hands on my hips. “We need him to get us back to Butler.”
“What we ingested has been digested by now.” Isaac turned a tad green. “It’s not like we can just throw it up and slap it back on his arm. The cuts healed before our eyes.”
“Again, his magic doesn’t work that way. Magicked bits of his flesh are shelf-stable.”
“Are you saying we have to wait around for it to pass?” My hand found its way to my stomach. “We don’t have that kind of time.”
“The elevator goes up and down,” Theo said helpfully.
No one enjoyed tossing their cookies, but at least it was a biological function we could force.
“You better have more than chocolate chip granola for me to eat when I get back since you’re costing me all the chicken I ate in Wink.”
“I’ll hunt,” Theo volunteered. “I could use the exercise.”
Isaac gripped my elbow while looking at his brother. “Be careful.”
“Always.” With a cocky grin, Theo melted into a writhing mass of sleek, dusky coils that filled one entire corner of the room.
“Is that a basilisk?” I yelped. “I watched Harry Potter. I know how this ends.”
The giant snake hissed at me, careful to keep his eyes averted, and I rushed to hold open the door while he slid through. I was happier to slam it shut behind him. Broken knob or not, it made me feel safer having even a hollow core door between us.
Over the Moon (Gemini Book 6) Page 9