by Fran Tullo
Braydon shook his head, struggling to get up. “No way, Lex… you need people here.”
“I have people here. Jace will be back, and the doctor from the helicopter will be staying to start doing first aid while we wait. This is non-negotiable, Braydon. You will be going back first. If the docs give you a clean bill, you can help out at the clinic.”
Braydon snarled, but leaned against the wall with a huff. “Fine, but I’m going under protest.”
Lexi smirked a little; giant pouting snow leopards were adorable. She turned back to Jace, who was just about done putting his clothes back on. “All right, get outta here. The sooner you’re back, the sooner we can be done here.” He nodded and gave them both a kiss on the cheek, murmuring something in Braydon’s ear before he left.
As Braydon settled back to the floor, Lexi got to work dragging the witches’ bodies over to a far corner of the cavern, away from everyone else. She needed to strip the corpses, putting anything that felt like magic to her into a separate bag. An older gentleman who looked far more at home in the Alaskan wilderness than any of the others from the compound walked over to lend a hand. “You… you’re a Red, aint’cha?”
Lexi nodded, offering him a small smile. He had a low, soothing tone to his voice, despite the exhaustion she could hear. “I am. And you are injured and should probably be relaxing for now.”
He shook his head, grabbing the male witch and rifling through his pockets. “I’m fine. I’ve been through worse. Not gonna say I ain’t sad to see those bitches in pieces, though.” He huffed, handing over a smile pile of jewelry and trinkets. “Ain’t never seen a Red robbin’ a corpse before, though.”
She snorted, taking the trinkets and sorting them out. As she slid the magic ones into her bag, she glanced over at him. “Ain’t robbing them. The ritual this coven was using is old, powerful and dangerous. Any magical piece they might have on them has the same possibilities.” She took her time going over the coven leader, not surprised when she found a variety of strong, hidden magics on her body. “What’s your name?”
“I’m Jonas DuBois. Most people just call me-”
“Rev.” Lexi smiled as he looked at her in surprise. “Jace and Braydon have been helping me since I landed. They said good things.” She blinked as she went back over the coven leader, feeling more magic and a buzzing in the back of her head. Something was trying real hard to stay hidden. “How’s your daughter?”
“She’s all right. So’s Charlotte. They were making a lot of plans to get Braydon out of the compound, but you got here first.” He looked down at the body, then back up at Lexi quizzically. “What’re you doing?”
“There’s something else here. Something bad. It’s… hiding, I guess.” She heard Braydon come up behind her, resting a hand on her shoulder.
“What do you mean, hidden?” He crouched down, grunting a little with the exertion.
“I can feel the magic on her, but it’s not centralized. It’s actively trying to hide its presence… and I’m pretty sure it’s nasty, because you’d only hide something like that if it was powerful, nasty, or sentimental.” She eyed the corpse with annoyance. “And frankly, she didn’t strike me as sentimental… but I could just be judging from her habit of kidnapping, murder, black magic, and almost killing you.” With a huff, she tugged a knife from her boot and sliced through the hideous purple and green sweater to reveal her chest underneath.
“Gods above, Lex! Shouldn’t there be some… I dunno, respect for the dead?” Braydon looked at Rev, who just shook his head.
“Braydon, child, I think this… person… lost any respect she was entitled to a long time ago.” Rev shrugged, not helping Lexi pull her clothes away, but definitely not stopping her either.
“Where is it…?” Lexi put her hand on the coven leader’s throat, dragging it down slowly in a search for magically camouflaged jewelry. As she got to her sternum, she stopped and whipped her hand away, cursing. The smell of burnt flesh wafted from her hand as she shook it out. “Motherfucker’s protected too? That’s just rude.” Using her knife, she followed the same path, nodding at the soft clink of metal on metal. Using the knife, she hooked the amulet up off the body, smiling as it suddenly became visible. “There you are, beasty…” She frowned, twisting the knife a little to check the emblem on the chain. It was familiar, but she wasn’t sure how. It certainly didn’t feel like any magic she’d ever run across before.
“Braydon, give me the leather bag on my belt.” While he was looking under her coat for it, she grabbed her ax and looked at Jonas. “If I were you, padre, I’d move.” He blinked for a second before understanding dawned. With a grimace, he shifted back and she brought her ax down in a sharp arc, severing the head from the body. The amulet dangling from her dagger pulled free of the corpse and she slipped it into the leather bag that Braydon held open.
“That needs research. There’s something strange about it.” It didn’t take her long to go over the rest of the bodies, breathing a soft sigh of relief when no other surprises presented themselves. “They probably have another hideout… I don’t see any sleeping areas or extra stuff, and they’ve been out here a while. We’re gonna have to search this mine a little more.” She glanced at the group of scared people. “Later. Let’s see about getting some water going while we wait for the chopper.”
Braydon nodded, accepting Lexi’s hand to help pull him back to his feet. He was still moving slow, and she worried about internal damage, but there wasn’t much she could do at the moment. She motioned to the fire in the center of the cavern. “Rev, could you stoke that up a bit? I know it’s warm in here, but we’re gonna need it to melt the snow. Braydon, we’re gonna go collect as much snow as one of these tarps will carry.” As she spoke, she grabbed their waterproof camouflage and motioned for him to follow her.
“It probably won’t be the best tasting thing in the world, but at least it’ll give them something.” She rubbed a hand along his back, knowing the concern was evident on her face. “If you’re not up to this, you can go rest. If there’s something… I dunno, broken or bleeding in there, you won’t be making it any better….”
Braydon shook his head, wrapping an arm around her shoulders with only a slight wince. “I hurt, love, but I don’t think anything’s broken. Bruised to hell, but not broken.”
“Bruised to hell might be internal bleeding, Braydon. Just because you heal really fast doesn’t mean you’re immortal.” She shivered a little as they stepped out into the cold after the overly warm cave. “Lay the tarp down over there. This won’t take too long.”
Chapter 21
Lexi
It took Jace almost two hours to get back. By the time he did, the captives were all settled, drinking from little pieces of the other camo tarp that Lexi and Braydon had cut up. She bemoaned the sharpening time it would take to get her knives back in worthwhile shape, but it was worth it. Jace carried all three of the snowmobile bags in, staggering a little at the weight that left him off-balance. He dropped them into the middle of the cavern before plopping down at Braydon’s side, curling against him and checking him over.
“Call’s made, chopper should be here in less than an hour. There’s a doc on board, and they’re bringing more food. For now, I figured we could split what we have in the bags among everyone. Did you get the triage done?”
Lexi nodded, grabbing the bags and emptying them to find the food and first aid kits. “Yeah, we have five going out on the first trip, including Braydon. That leaves us two, plus the doc to bring back on the second. If the clinic docs give him a clean bill of health, Braydon will come back on the second trip to help grab the snowmobiles. If not, the one that’s here can stay here, and someone can come get it later.” She handed a pack of food to each of them and they got them opened. As they separated the larger three-person meals into smaller meals for seven, Rev came over and picked them up, handing them out to the other captives.
She looked over at Jace and Braydon, sighing a little. “I
need to go bury her body before I can go back to the compound. I also need to call the Cleaners for this place… there’s enough magic residue in this cave to attract a real bad element if it doesn’t get dealt with.”
Jace shivered a little. “I don’t like Cleaners… cold bastards.” He rested his head on Braydon’s shoulder, frowning. “They won’t come to the compound, right?”
Lexi shook her head and smiled gently. “No… they’ll remove all the magical traces from here, but they won’t venture into populated areas unless they absolutely have to. Calling on them in the city is a gods damned nightmare.” She shook her head with a snort. “And fuckin’ expensive. But they’re worth it, so just stay out of their way. We’ll be long outta here before they show up. It’ll be fine.”
Jace and Braydon both nodded and Braydon leaned back against the wall, yawning. It didn’t take him long to fall asleep, and Jace stayed snuggled against his side until they heard the sound of the helicopter blades outside. He gently woke him up as Lexi got to work getting the first group situated and ready to leave. A few minutes later, a voice sounded from the mouth of the cave.
“Yo, anyone in here?” A cough followed, then, “Ugh, anyone alive in here?”
“Back here, doc,” Jace called. Lexi smiled at the same doctor that had fixed her up at the clinic, walking over to him.
“Thanks for showing up. I wanna get this group out first, including the stubborn kitty in the corner. Can you get them flight ready?”
The doctor nodded, doing cursory examinations on the five captives Lexi pointed out before moving on to Braydon. “Ok, they’re not in great shape, but I don’t see any reason why they can’t make the flight back to the clinic. We have people already waiting to get them sorted out and back to their families as quickly as possible. What about the rest of them?”
“You’re gonna stick around, patch up anything that needs to be fixed and then go back with the second group.” When he nodded, she looked at the group and smiled. “All right, folks… everyone onto the chopper. The sooner you get moving, the sooner you get warm, proper food, and real beds.” The first group started moving to the cave entrance and Braydon stopped by Lexi and Jace, giving them each a quick kiss. “I’ll be back with the chopper. Don’t leave without me.”
Lexi narrowed her eyes. “You’re only allowed back if the docs say it’s okay. If you come back fucked up, you’re gonna wish that witch killed you. Don’t screw with me on this, kitty cat.” Jace grinned and nodded as Braydon held up his hands in surrender.
“I promise, I’ll even bring a note, ok?” When Lexi nodded, he grinned and headed out with the group, scooping Charlotte up with a soft groan to help her.
Chapter 22
Braydon
Braydon stared at the cave entrance as the chopper turned to head back to the compound. He didn’t want to leave, didn’t want to admit how sore he was. Lexi needed him. He could practically feel her putting walls up again, and he didn’t exactly know why. Something happened during that fight, or maybe while he was unconscious, that messed her up. He knew she had to be ‘The Red’ in front of the captives, but there was something else he couldn’t make out. It was making his tail twitchy, quite frankly.
Charlotte looked up at him, petting his cheek. “You’re growling, Braybray. What’s up?” She was only twelve, but cats tended to notice emotions quicker than any other species of shifter he’d ever come across.
“It’s nothing, Char. I’m just worried.” He dragged his gaze away from the quickly disappearing cave and looked down at her. “Adult things, little kit. You’re safe now.”
She huffed and glared at him. He was surprised and more than a little nonplussed to see how much the time in that hellhole had changed her. “More ‘adult’ than getting starved? Or told they were just waiting for you to poke your nose out before they killed me? Or hurting Aimee to make me behave because ‘she didn’t matter anyway’?”
“Shit… okay, kit, you’re right. That was a lame excuse. I’m worried about Jace and the Red. I don’t like leaving them behind, even if it is safe now. Happy?” If he was shifted, he’d have his ears pinned back. Not completely surprising… the females were almost always more powerful than the males, except physically. Charlotte was going to be a leopardess to be reckoned with.
“No, but I guess it’ll do. The Red was scary. But like, in a good way? Does that make sense?”
“Yeah, Char, it does. She is definitely scary in a good way.” With her thoughts confirmed, the little snow leopard settled back against his chest and he stared out at the horizon, hoping he could convince the doctors at the clinic that he was fine to return. He knew Lexi would be going back to bury that… creature she claimed was a Red, and he needed to be there. Something was seriously wrong.
Chapter 23
Lexi
Watching the chopper take off and head back towards civilization, she turned to Jace. "Make sure the others have food, and then pack our stuff up. I wanna be ready to move as soon as we get the last of the injured onto the chopper. It’s already gonna be dark by the time we get there as it is.”
As she turned to go back inside, Jace grabbed her arm, halting her movement. “That’s fine, sweetheart, but there’s something else riding you. Bray’s worried, and so am I.” He gently pulled her back to stand in front of him, running his hands up and down her arms. “What’s going on in that head of yours, hmm?”
She sighed, looking away. “I’m not… I don’t…” She stopped, taking a deep breath before continuing. “There’s something going on, but I don’t know what, or why. It’s been going on since we killed the other Red. I need to find out what it is before I can even try to explain it.”
He nodded, pulling her into a brief, firm hug. “You will. And we’ll help. You’re not alone, Lexi. I know it’s gonna take a bit for that to sink in, but you’re not. We’re here, and we will back your play, okay?”
“Even if my play is leaving? I can’t stay here, Jace. You have to know that. Even before you consider the weirdness that’s been going on, my job isn’t exactly a nine to five, see ya at dinner kinda gig.” She stepped back, but could admit to herself that she was a little sad he let her.
“We’re not leaving you, Lex. So you can stop the martyr shit, because that ain’t gonna fly. The last time I saw Braydon this head over heels, it was at our mating pledge ceremony, when we were fifteen. And he was looking at me. So just let us be here, because I’ll be damned if I let you hurt him because of your stupid lone wolf bullshit.”
The stern look in his eyes caught her off guard and dragged a smile out of her. “I don’t know if that’s even…” She took a deep breath, then nodded. “We’ll discuss it later. I’m not leaving tonight, so we have some time. Let’s just make sure Braydon isn’t seriously hurt, and finish up here. Then… then we’ll see, okay?” She hesitated for a second before taking a step forward to rest her head against his chest. The knot in her stomach loosened a little as the fox’s arms came back up around her, rubbing her back. He pressed a kiss into her hair before resting his chin on her head.
“We’ve got you, sweetheart. And… you do know that unless the docs strap him down, Bray’s gonna be on that chopper when it comes back, right?”
She chuckled a little, giving him a gentle squeeze before stepping back and nodding. “I know. I just wanted to make sure he didn’t need to be strapped down before we started a long trek through the woods with only one snowmobile.” She chewed her lip for a second, before nodding. “Okay. Going with the assumption he’s on his way back, put all the gear on the snowmobile. One of us will drive that back to the others, and can start setting up a camp. I don’t think we’re gonna finish until it’s full dark, and as much as I love hotdoggin’ it, I know better than to do that in pitch black in a place I’m not familiar with. It’d be pretty ridiculous to survive all this and then die by plowing into a tree.”
Jace snorted and nodded, motioning for her to head into the cave ahead of him. “Yeah… that sounds
like a solid plan. No tree to face collisions. You should be the one who goes ahead… You can take our clothes and Bray and I can shift. We’ll probably get there shortly after you do, instead of going at your pace.”
She seriously tried to find a hole in his logic… it didn’t feel right to leave them alone, but it did make sense. After a minute, she nodded once with a huff. “Fine… if Braydon comes back, that’s our plan. Unless he’s told he can’t shift, then he’s taking the snowmobile and I don’t wanna hear any bitching about it.” She stuck a finger in his face, and laughed when he playfully bit it.
Chapter 24
Lexi
As Jace predicted, Braydon was the first one off the chopper when it landed again. He was at least clean, and had time to change his clothes, so Lexi wasn’t going to make too big of a deal out of it. Especially when he wagged a piece of paper in her face. “Told you I’d bring back a note. Docs said I’m banged up, bruised to hell and it’ll take a bit for my healing to fix it all.”