The Black Tide

by Keri Arthur

  “That’s because it is.” Jonas cast a quick look my way. “There are three other such places situated across the breadth of these mountains. While every clan does have healers who travel with them, it’s not practical to constantly move the more intensive medical facilities.”

  “So this facility is manned full-time?”

  “Yes.” He stopped at a door and ran his RFID chip across the sensor. The red light flashed to green and the door opened. It wasn’t an exit, as I’d half expected, but rather a storeroom. “The clans all support the cost of running the four facilities and paying the medical staff. This particular one is currently running with a skeleton crew, as the clans have moved east until the summer solstice.”

  I followed him into the bright room. “I’m guessing it’s no coincidence that we’re here, then.”

  “Actually, it was, as this just happened to be the closest facility to where you were found.”

  He walked to the end of the room and disappeared around a corner. I waited, my gaze sweeping the rows of shelves. There was a fortune’s worth of stock here—the clans certainly weren’t miserly when it came to provisions for these centers.

  Jonas reappeared, carrying a small pillow, a blanket, and what looked like a baby sling. I raised my eyebrows and he grinned. “Meet the new Raela.”

  He handed me the sling and, as I attached it, wrapped the small pillow in the blanket. “This isn’t going to fool anyone for too long,” I said, even as I tucked the wrapped pillow into the sling and then adjusted the sides so that it looked—at least at first glance—like there was indeed a baby sleeping inside.

  “It only has to fool someone long enough for us to get into the waiting ATV and drive out of these mountains.”

  My eyebrows rose. “You think someone will be watching?”

  “I’d rather err on the side of caution.” He pressed his fingers against my spine and lightly guided me to the door. “If there is, then it’s better they believe we’ve taken Raela with us. It’ll take some of the heat off Tala tomorrow.”

  “If she hasn’t got any children, though, suspicions will be raised regardless. And unless you’ve restricted entry into the hospital, it won’t be hard to uncover Raela’s presence here.”

  “Except she won’t be here,” he said. “Tala’s taking her across to her sister's place as we speak. Meryn has eight of her own, and trust me when I say no one is ever going to notice one more amongst their number. They simply do not stay still long enough to count. Heaven help Jarren when they all hit his encampment.”

  I grinned. “I take it this won’t be the first time they’ve all been there.”

  “No—although I think he and his people threw a celebration party when they left the last time.” Amusement tinged Jonas's voice as he held open the next door and ushered me through. “Jarren’s group are relatively young—there’re only a couple of his people who have had children, and they’re all rather well-behaved compared to Meryn’s kids.”

  I chuckled softly. “They sound like my little ones.”

  “Even your little ones are staid by comparison.” We went through another door and stepped into the twilight. The air was warm and the breeze filled with the scent of wildflowers and eucalyptus. We were in what looked to be some sort of old crater. Rough red-stone walls reared upward on either side of us, and the circular courtyard was ringed with trees and bright blooms that nodded gently in the stirring breeze.

  Several all-terrain vehicles were parked to the left of the courtyard, but Jonas guided me to the right, where an older woman waited beside a somewhat decrepit-looking vehicle. She gave me a polite nod before moving her gaze to Jonas. Her expression very much suggested they were more than old friends, and something odd stirred inside me.

  I frowned and climbed into the vehicle, but Jonas stopped and kissed her. It was a cheek kiss, nothing more, and yet there was tenderness there.

  “Thanks for the loan of the vehicle, Franki,” he said. “I’ll try and return this one in one piece.”

  “If you don’t,” she said, her voice holding a teasing note, “I’ll expect a replacement or payment in kind.”

  He laughed, an oddly tender sound that agitated that odd feeling within. “Or both, if I know you.”

  “Indeed.” She lightly slapped his arm. “Go, before I’m tempted to do something a woman my age should not.”

  He grinned, jumped inside the vehicle, and then claimed the driver seat. She slammed the door shut and then stepped back as he started up the ATV. As the vehicle rolled toward the crater’s exit, I said, “Old lover?”

  Thankfully, there was nothing but simple curiosity in my tone.

  His smile flashed. “Some fifty-odd years ago now. We parted when she decided to have children.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “Why would that end your relationship? It’s not like shifters are monogamous, is it?”

  “Well no, but it was hardly fair for the other suitors to have to contend with someone who is a far superior offering.”

  I laughed. “And modest beside.”

  “Indeed.” His smile faded slightly and he half shrugged. “In all honesty, our affair had run its course by then, and I was ready to move on.”

  Was that a subtle warning not to expect too much from him, or was I simply reading too much into his statement? I had no real idea—it wasn't as if I'd ever had to contend with these types of thoughts or emotions before. “How long were you together?”

  “Ten years.”

  I blinked. “Seriously?”

  He glanced at me, eyebrow raised. “You have to remember that while I might only look thirty or so thanks to the rift stopping the aging process, I was in fact over seventy at the time. Even the wildest of us are slowing down by then.”

  “So how many children do you actually have?”

  “Five daughters, four sons, sixteen grandchildren and, I believe—as of this year—nine great-grandchildren.”

  I blinked again and did the math. “You must have started very young.”

  “Most shifters are sexually active by the age of sixteen—”

  “Yes, but we were at war for five of those years, and yet you still had nine children by the time you hit thirty. Presuming you were too busy during the war to chase tail, that’s one kid a year.”

  “I did say it was a very rare for me to lose a battle for a suitor's favor.”

  “I know, but—” I stopped and shook my head. “Wow.”

  He laughed. “Given shifters are fertile well into their seventies and eighties, imagine how many little Jonases there would now be in the world if the rift hadn't made me infertile. It's was probably a good thing, in retrospect.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “You can't mean that—”

  “And that is where you are wrong.” There was a sudden seriousness in his eyes that had my pulse doing that weird little skip again. “If not for that rift, I would not be here with you. I may regret many things that happened both during the war and after it, but I will never regret that.”

  “Thank you,” I said, simply because I needed to say something and it was the only thing that came to mind.

  “For what? Admitting a simple truth, even if it is one that was a long time coming?”

  “No,” I said softly. “For being willing to see not the monster but rather the person. For treating me with respect even when the very sight of me instinctively repulsed you.”

  “I was never repulsed by the sight of you, Tiger. Quite the opposite.” Amusement twisted his lips. “It was a conundrum that caused a lot of sleepless nights, let me tell you.”

  And I couldn't be sorry about that. Not given it had led to this moment, and a future filled with bright possibilities.

  If we survived the present, that was.

  A comfortable silence fell between us as he guided the old ATV through the twists and turns of the rocky mountain road. It was only once the slope decreased and the tree line began to thicken again that I risked taking off the sling and tucking it behind m
y seat.

  “Where are the Algar flatlands in comparison to our current position and Central?”

  “Remember the road we were on when that rift caught up to us?”

  “I'm not likely to be able to forget something like that.”

  “I guess not.” Another of those warm smiles touched his lips. “If we'd taken the left fork that day rather than the right one that took us back to Central, and then traveled for another hour or so through an area known as the red sands desert, we'd have arrived at the plains.”

  “So, we've got a lot of traveling ahead of us?”

  “It'll be an all-night run.”

  “Then I'll take my turn driving.”

  He frowned. “I hardly think that wise given you're—”

  “Jonas, I've been lazing about for two days doing nothing. Trust me when I say that I need neither any more sleep nor further recovery time.”

  She gets irritable if she sleeps too much, Bear commented.

  This is true, Cat said solemnly. I wouldn't advise forcing any more on her.

  Jonas laughed, a merry sound that filled the cabin. I took a swipe at the energy of the two ghosts, but they ducked away, their giggles joining Jonas's and widening my own smile even further.

  “I guess I should not ignore the advice of those who have known you longest,” he said. “We'll work in three-hour shifts. Agreed?”

  I nodded and settled into a more comfortable position in the seat. Silence fell between us again and the night rolled on without incident. I was at the control when dawn started spreading rose-colored fingers across the sky and the blip appeared on the radar.

  I frowned and requested more information. The screen scrambled for a moment as the orientation shifted and magnified.

  There wasn't one blip. There were three.

  I swore softly and touched Jonas's shoulder. He woke instantly and sat upright. “Problem?”

  I motioned to the radar. “Three of them.”

  He leaned forward and hit a couple of buttons. The screen scrambled once more before clearing. He studied the information on the screen for several seconds and then swore. “They're air scooters, from the look of it.”

  “Military?”

  “Possibly.” He glanced out the front window. There was nothing to see but miles and miles of nothingness. “Where are we?”

  “About an hour away from the plains.”

  “Which puts us too far away from the old forest to get back there before our tail catches us.” He scrubbed a hand across his jaw, the sound like sandpaper. “This puts a major crimp in our plans, given they'll surely have warned Longborne by now of our approach.”

  “Any idea where they could have come from? They couldn't have followed us from the Broken Mountains—the radar would have caught them long before now.”

  “They’re probably from Central. It's the closest major city and the only one in the region that has military scooters.”

  “But why would Dream risk sending out either rangers or a military unit after us? Especially when she could simply warn her forces at the warehouse to be ready for us.”

  “Something she's undoubtedly already done. And this is not the first time she's ordered rangers to chase us, remember.” His voice was grim. “If she is on the Council of Lords rather than merely one of their advisors or a government worker, then few in the military would gainsay her.”

  It was still a very large risk, but maybe—given she'd now lost two of her three installations—she thought it worthwhile.

  I glanced out the window to judge the amount of true darkness we had left—an easy task for someone with vampire in their blood. “How long will it be before they catch us?”

  “Given their speed, about twenty-six minutes.”

  We had a good thirty-three minutes left before the dawn robbed me of the ability to shadow without a protective light screen and a whole lot of effort. “What sort of radar system have the scooters got in them?”

  “The scooters are designed to quickly transport a small number of personnel from one place to another, and are therefore stripped to basics.” He glanced at me. “Why?”

  “Because if we're going to do something, we need to do it now, while we've still got the night on our side.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “You've got an idea?”

  “That would depend on whether their radar systems are capable of seeing beyond the surface.”

  A slow smile touched his lips. “I like the way you think.”

  “Thanks. Shall we stop?”

  “Indeed. Let's do this.”

  I stopped the ATV as he climbed out of the seat and moved to the back of the vehicle. The range of weapons he produced out of the storage bins had me smiling.

  Nineteen minutes later, we were ready to rain hell down on our pursuers.

  Chapter Five

  What's happening up there, Cat? I asked, as I struggled to keep my mouth clamped around the plastic breathing tube that was my one and only source of air right now.

  It would have been a whole lot easier to simply shadow, as dawn was still at least eight minutes away, but we had no idea what might wait in Algar. Given it could take every bit of my vampiric shadowing skills to get us both into Warehouse Five, let alone back out, we’d decided to save my strength and go with an old-fashioned ambush instead.

  They're doing a slow circle around the ATV, Cat said. The jets are stirring the sand up, but they're not close enough to reveal either you or Jonas.

  Good.

  Sand trickled past the collar of my shirt and itched at my skin. I resisted the urge to move, knowing it would only cause more sand to fall and possibly reveal my location. Burying ourselves in what amounted to a shallow grave close to the ATV had seemed like a good idea at the time, but six minutes of lying here with the weight of the earth pressing around me and the sand getting into unmentionable places was more than enough.

  One of the vehicles has landed, Cat said.

  The other two?

  Hover.

  Damn. We needed all three on the ground before we could move. It was the only hope we had of taking out all of our hunters without anyone either escaping or having the chance to warn Dream of the attack.

  I continued to draw air from the short plastic tube, my body tense and muscles twitching with the desire for action.

  The door opens on the one that has landed, Cat informed me. Three men have gotten out.

  Are the other two crafts still in the air?

  Yes.

  I silently cursed. Bear, can you go investigate the airborne scooters, and see if it's possible to disable them? Cat, can you check the landed one, and see how many men remain within?

  Already on it, Bear said.

  Meaning Jonas had already asked him. I wasn't entirely sure how I felt about that, which was utterly ridiculous given we were a team.

  In the grounded scooter, Cat said, one soldier remains. Knocking him out would do for the moment, would it not?

  Indeed it would, I said, amused at the anticipation in her tone. But wait until the other men are clear of the vehicle and there’s no possibility of them realizing he’s been attacked. Bear?

  I slipped in through a vent. There is a box of armaments secured at the rear of the vehicle. He paused. The three who walked from the grounded scooter now approach Jonas's side of the ATV.

  Meaning we only had minutes, if that, to make this happen. Jonas, I'm going to shadow and take out that third ATV. Bear, Cat, on my mark, move.

  Ghostly eagerness met my comment, and it was accompanied by a vague sense of agreement from Jonas.

  I called to the gritty darkness of my underground hideaway, and wrapped it around me, inside and out. Then I pushed upwards, the sand falling like a waterfall both through and around me. It was going to itch like hell when I resumed flesh form.

  Once above ground, I did a quick circle to locate the scooters—which were little more than cylindrical tubes with stubby wings—and then raced across to one uninhabited by a g
host. I approached the front of the vehicle warily and looked in through the front screens. Aside from the wash of light coming from both the radar and control screens, the cabin appeared to be relatively dark. Though there were eight seats within the craft, only four were occupied. Better odds, but I’d still have to be fast if I wanted to take them all out.

  I located the air vent, took a deep breath—a useless action in this form, and one that was a definite hangover from flesh—and then said, Right, going in. Hit them, people.

  The thought had no sooner formed than gunfire erupted. I surged through the vent and into the scooter’s cabin. There were two people sitting in front of the control panels—one a sharp-faced woman who was obviously in charge given the rapid-fire orders she was giving—while the other two were unbuckling their harnesses, ready for action. The control board’s blue-and-white light washed across some of my particles, making them sting and stir in reaction, but thankfully it wasn’t strong enough to tear me back to full flesh. I partially reformed, silently drew my weapons, and then shot the two men at the rear of the vehicle before they even realized I was there. The driver was next. But as his brains splattered across the windshield, the commander spun and returned fire. One bullet grazed my arm and the other went straight through my particle chest—a killing shot had I been fully flesh.

  I took her out, then reformed and dragged the driver’s body away from the control panel. Once I’d landed the scooter, I cut the engine, opened the door, and went out into the ever-growing brightness of day.

  Just as I did, the third scooter exploded into a huge ball of flame. I threw myself down, covering my head with my hands as bits of metal, glass, and Rhea only knew what else ricocheted through the air. Heat from the fireball briefly sizzled across my skin but just as quickly fled.

  I pushed upright. Bear? You okay?

  Yes. His energy spun around me, tired but filled with excitement. We should explode more things. That was fun.

  A smile tugged my lips. Cat? Everything okay with you?