Around her.
But… He closed his eyes, dragged the air in, tasted it, rolled it around on his tongue… The smell was not on her, but it was damn close.
She hadn’t been tainted…yet. But there was something very, very wrong. And it was close. Far too bloody close and on his land too.
Ren’s gut clenched and he had to do it—had to risk it. Bracing himself, he lowered his mental shields. He was prepared to feel an onslaught…from her. And while he felt something, it wasn’t the sheer rush of madness he’d been expecting. Pushing past that, he reached farther—a mental net, casting it far and wide.
What he came up against had him all but snarling in fury. The bizarre, unexpected hunger of a few moments ago forgotten, he looked back at the woman, trying to figure out just how in the hell she was involved in this…clusterfuck.
That was the only way to describe it. A clusterfuck.
“Did you just tell me to run along?” she said, completely unaware of his impending mental explosion.
“Did I? So sorry. My apologies. If you’d like to stand in the middle of the road while my dog growls at you, please…feel free.” Ren bared his teeth at her. Although, my dear, you’re not going anywhere, he thought mentally. “Have a care though. If you hold out your hand to pet him, he might bite it off.”
“Where in the hell did you come from?” she asked, eyeing him suspiciously.
“I was out hiking,” he said, gesturing toward the hill. He lifted a hand and whistled. “Me and my sister.”
Mandy peered down at him from the top of the incline a minute later. He could see the disgust in her eyes and if he wasn’t so disturbed by the ever-darkening ripples he could feel moving through the air, he might have been amused by the silent fuck-you he saw in Mandy’s eyes.
“Your sister. Hiking.”
“Hmmm.”
She started to back away, eyeing him like he’d grown an extra head and razor sharp teeth. Ren acted like he didn’t notice, but he mentally commanded Pan and the dog obediently padded forward and placed his bulk in front of the door of the car. She couldn’t go traipsing off. Somehow she was in this mess up to her pretty neck, which meant she was in danger. He couldn’t have that, even if he wasn’t feeling strangely, almost insanely protective of her.
“Why would you hike around here?”
Now that he could answer.
“Oh, because I live around here, that’s why.” He flashed her a grin, tried to temper down the raging maniacal edge and pretend to be friendly, perhaps even charming. Did he remember charming? No. He was quite sure he didn’t. He didn’t know if he’d ever known charming. Well, other than a prince, of course. Still, he really didn’t want to show the crazier side of his nature. He needed to keep that under wraps.
“Just over the rise, a few miles down.”
Up said rise, Mandy was swearing as she started to make her way down. Tripping, too and not particularly happy. But as she moved to the busted, uneven road, she fell silent, picking up on something.
The mortal wouldn’t pick up on Mandy’s tension, but Ren had spent months with Mandy and he knew her well.
Well enough at least.
The look in her eyes was one of fear…and resignation.
She was staring not at the woman though.
She was staring just past her, at the car.
Ren shifted his gaze, focused on the car.
Yes…there. There it was, he realized. He lowered his shields, and that was when he sensed what Mandy had sensed.
That black, nasty vibe.
Something shuddered, twisted from the car.
Could a whisper have a stench, a feel? Could it make the air quake and wrench around you?
It seemed so.
“What have we here,” he mused, narrowing his eyes.
The whispers grew louder—an ocean of them. They flooded his mind, flooded his soul.
The darkness… It was all but reaching for the woman, trying to wrap itself around her like a boa constrictor.
Like hell, Ren thought.
He extended his gift, touched one of the distant minds in his territory. It was a bear cub, perched high in a tree and trembling, shaking. There was a smell in the air the cub didn’t like and Ren understood why.
There was a car drawing closer to them that had some unpleasant bastards in it. They looked human on the outside, but that was it. Soul-sucking monsters. Orin. They fed on souls, stank of death and evil.
He watched through the cub’s eyes for a moment and then returned to himself.
“Holy fuck.”
Reaching up, he touched the leather band he wore around his wrist. It held a silver medallion in it. Under his touch, it pulsed once with an answering warmth, but he didn’t know if that was any sort of reply. Two women with him, and his animals. One of the tomes.
And it seemed this woman had orin trailing after her. Either her, or the book. Perhaps both. Ren wasn’t sure and there was no way for him to know. The minds of the orin were too alien for him to connect with, and they had nothing that even remotely resembled human emotion.
It made his skin crawl to think they might be after her directly.
They can’t have you, he thought, his mind teetering dangerously close to that dark, dark edge. Too close.
What in the hell? He pulled himself back under control.
He needed to focus, needed to think. Needed to get these two women someplace far safer than here. Back to his home. They’d be safe there and he could deal with this mess. Then he could figure out what was going on with—
Later. Problems now, woman later, Ren.
“Mandy, love, we’re going to have company. Rather soon,” he murmured, pitching his voice low.
Still, the woman heard him.
Standing just a few feet away and staring at the dog that still blocked her path, she froze.
“What?”
Ren looked up and met her eyes. “Beg your pardon, my dear?” He gave her an absent smile and shook his head, like he wasn’t sure what she was asking about.
“What did you just say about company?” she asked, forcing it between gritted teeth.
He blinked and reached up, scratched at his chin. “Company…did I mention company?” He looked at Mandy. “My dear, did I mention us having company tonight? Did you say we were having company? Why didn’t you tell me that you’d invited a friend? We haven’t set the house to rights or anything.”
Mandy didn’t smile.
She was too afraid, although she did a fine job of hiding that.
Chapter Three
He was insane, Aileas realized. She might have thought he was an idiot, but there was a biting intelligence in those eyes.
No. He was just insane.
That’s what it was.
He was insane.
And looking at him made her knees go weak. Made her heart race. Looking at him made her feel strangely like crying and laughing. She wanted to throw herself against his chest and just wrap her arms around him and sigh, because she knew, she just knew, everything would be okay now. Everything…
Which meant she was probably as crazy as he seemed to be.
She’d cracked under the strain of her brother’s death.
And this guy… Well, hell. He’d cracked under something.
No other way around it.
She’d clearly heard him say they were going to have company.
And then he was off and rambling about whether they were having company, picking up the house? All the while there was a light in his eyes, the light of a warrior. The light of a man preparing to go to battle and commit bloody mayhem.
Open the book. Just open it. Once you do, he can’t hurt you.
She flicked a look at the man. Hell, he wasn’t going to hurt her. He might be a little…weird, but he wasn’t dangerous.
Well, not to me at least. She wasn’t sure how she knew that, but she did.
Wind came blasting down the road just then and she shivered, rubbing her arms.
Shit, she was cold.
She needed to get out of here.
Now.
Forget the crazy guy—even if he was kind of hot—forget the woman. She needed to be gone, and now.
Although her heart screamed at the thought of walking away from him. Her gut pitched at the idea of leaving him and her spine crawled as though it recognized that walking away from him meant nothing more than certain death.
Stupid, stupid. He’s just a guy and he can’t help you any more than anybody else.
She went to back away. She needed to get out of here.
He looked up.
His dark gaze met hers. Black brows settled low over his eyes and he sighed, shook his head. The strange, almost unbalanced light in his eyes faded and he gave her a sad, tired smile. “Sorry, lamb. It’s too late for that.”
“Too late for what?”
“For you to run. If you run, they’ll just find you again.”
Then he glanced at the woman with him. His sister? Yeah, right.
Abruptly, she realized what he’d said. They.
She stiffened. “What are you talking about?” she whispered, her chest tight and aching, her voice raw.
He shifted his gaze back down the road. “Them.”
It just wasn’t right, Ren decided.
Orin driving in a bleeding Lexus.
They should be in a fucking hearse.
Absently, he tugged the sleeve of his shirt down, making sure the leather cuff on his wrist was concealed.
Wouldn’t do to give away the surprise and all.
“Mandy,” he murmured.
She slid him a nervous look. He beckoned to her and waited until she was close before he murmured into her ear.
“I need you to get her back to the cabin. Away from this, and do it fast.”
If at all possible, he wanted Mandy away from this fight. She was too frail, too mortal. Too easily broken.
And this other woman… Well, Mandy might break, but at least she could fight. This other woman though. She was mortal. Simply mortal and had no idea what was coming for them. And the thought of seeing her broken was enough to enrage him. And that was never a good idea. Ren and rage—never a good mix. He did bad, bad things when he was enraged.
He didn’t have time for a quick cool off either.
He watched the anger, the denial, the fear, dance across Mandy’s face.
“You want me to leave you here? Alone?” she demanded.
When she pulled away, she was shaking her head. “You’re nuts,” she said flatly. “Just insane.”
“Yes, very often. But not right now. Not yet, at least. Right now, I’m just being realistic.” He tapped a finger on her nose and then looked at the car as it crept closer, inching along at perhaps five miles an hour. Why the fuck were they taking so long? “You’re mortal. So is she. I’m not. They aren’t good enough to end me, and you know it. They’ll find it out soon enough. I’ll cover you long enough to get her safe and then I’ll get away.”
Mandy hissed in a breath between her teeth and glanced at the woman.
“Fine,” she snarled. She stormed over to the woman and reached out, grabbing the woman with a steely, unrelenting grip. “Come on—we do not need to be here right now.”
The woman stared at Mandy as though she’d lost her mind.
No, not yet. Mandy was still entirely too sane and she’d stay that way for a while. Pity. Was easier to this job if you had a few screws lose, in Ren’s opinion anyway.
The woman jerked away from Mandy. “Oh, you’re dead right. Don’t want to be here, thanks. But I think I’ll drive.”
Mandy smiled and then reached into her back pocket.
The blade flashed in the dappled light filtering through the trees. The sound of the woman’s gasp rang in Ren’s ears. For the briefest moment, he felt stirred to catch Mandy’s arm, and what foolishness was that? He knew what she was about. It would take too long to drive to his cabin—the car might move faster, but he’d deliberately built in a spot that wasn’t easily accessed by a road.
They could be there in minutes on foot, if they knew the way, which Mandy did.
Trying to drive there, without knowing the way? That could take hours. Days. Never…
Mandy straightened and met the woman’s gaze. “You’re not driving. We’re running, and we’re doing it now,” Mandy said, her voice flat, uncompromising.
“Are you fucking crazy?”
Mandy sighed. “No. Not yet,” she said, echoing Ren’s thoughts a little too closely for comfort. “He is though. Come on. We do not want to be here… Fuck.”
Ren heard the strangled tone in Mandy’s voice and whipped his head around and stared.
She was doubled over, gripping her stomach, her face pale, sweaty, her eyes almost glassy.
He knelt in front of her, cupped her face in his hands. “What is it?” he asked quietly, forcing her to meet his gaze.
She blinked, her lids lowering over her eyes. “I…I think I might have just screwed us. Or me and her, at least. It’s not just the one car, Ren, and it’s not just the orin. They’ve got… Oh, fuck.” She shoved him away and puked, emptied her guts in one violent, endless stream. “Empath. They’ve got somebody like us with them. He’s been blocking us out. That’s why we didn’t feel them coming. It’s not just the one car. There are more, and they are too close.”
As the Lexus slowed to a stop behind the woman’s car, Mandy straightened and grabbed her blade. Then she reached inside Ren’s jacket, pulled out the bladed weapon he’d gotten from a friend a few months back. “Will the animals fight if you aren’t here?”
Ren glanced around, studied Pan. Although they had yet to emerge from the shadows, other wolves awaited his summons. “For a bit, love. But it’s a moot point—I will be here.”
“No.” She shook her head. “If I hadn’t gone and slashed one of her tires, we could put her in the car and just track her down. But now you have to get her out of here.”
The her in question stood by, staring at the Lexus, an odd, frightened look in her eyes.
They hadn’t opened the door, hadn’t climbed out.
Waiting, Ren realized.
Just how many others were there?
A chill raced down his spine. Reaching down, he closed his hand around the leather cuff on his wrist and sent another silent summons. Come on, you wanker. Get your arse down here.
Mandy reached up and touched his cheek. “Take her, Ren, and go. Get her to your place. They won’t take you on there, will they? They know better.”
“If they could find it… Well, it would depend on how badly they want her,” he murmured. Then he glanced at the car. Was it her? Or the book? The fucking book. Had to be one of them. “I can’t leave you, though. You’re not ready to take on one of them, much less…”
“I know that.” Terror flashed in her eyes. “But I can come back. I have that option. I’ve got the choice and you and me both know I’ve already made it.”
She looked at the other woman.
The mortal.
The innocent.
An innocent woman who’d somehow had a book fall into her lap. And she’d resisted it. The demon tomes weren’t that easy to resist—the evil was a stain, one that leeched out and infected damn near everything after a time.
“I can come back,” Mandy said. “She can’t.”
“Not like this, damn it.” He could feel them…too many of them. Bloody hell, too many. Another car was drawing near too. He could hear the low purr of the motor. “No, Mandy. You’re not ready for this.”
“I’m not ready for this, but I am ready for that choice.” Her voice shook as she added, “It’s my right to make it, and you can’t take it from me.”
Then she shoved him and started to spin the staff, warming up her arms. “Now get the hell out of here, or she’s dead meat. They are getting closer…”
Grief.
It had been ages since he’d felt true grief.
But it tore into him no
w like jagged, gnawing teeth.
Staring through the mist, he watched.
He knew what awaited.
“I can’t just watch this,” Will said softly.
The voice that answered wasn’t just spoken. It was felt.
It is her choice. Free will, my son. Free will. You cannot take the choice from her.
“Free will,” he bit off. Spinning away, he pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes, as though that might help block out the vision of what he knew was coming. “She’s choosing to die in a very bloody, painful way—is that what you’re telling me?”
She chooses to become more. It is her choice.
“No. There’s an easier way for her,” he muttered. He lifted a hand. He could go to her. She was just a mortal, after all. It was an unfair match. He’d help—
He froze.
Literally. His entire body was frozen by an outside force.
If you go now, her fate is sealed. You will save her life, but she will never again have the chance to become what she has chosen to be. She will never be as she should have become. Would you take that choice from her?
Then, as simple as that, Will was free.
Sagging to his knees, he stared at the floor.
White hair fell, shielding his features.
“It isn’t right,” he whispered.
But what good did it do to rail against it?
Slowly, he forced himself to his feet and made himself watch.
If she had the courage to die like this, then he would make himself watch. He would be no less courageous than her.
Ren turned away from Mandy, vicious, horrid anger raging inside him. With one punch, he shattered the glass of the woman’s back window and he reached in, grabbed the cloth-covered lump in the back seat.
A discordant song rang in his head when he touched it, and he wanted nothing more than to drop it, soak it with gas and burn it until not even ashes remained.
And he would do that—later.
But for now he looked at the woods and sent out the summons.
Animals came.
From the ground, snakes slithered.
From the trees, birds flocked.
From their dens, bears and foxes crept.
Crazed Hearts: Grimm’s Circle, Book 3 Page 2