Beauty and the Brute [Werescape III] (4 page)

Just moving settled my nerves. Running might set him off. On the hunt.

Whispering grass at my back noted he followed.

"Where will you go?” he asked.

Why did he bother asking? “It doesn't matter. My family is dead. That's why I was here. Yale adopted me when my parents were murdered.” And I had no idea what his true intentions were. Stupid girl.

"He's set a bounty on your head."

I bet. “What's the prize?"

"Lady June's hand in marriage?"

Ludicrous. I spun to his impenetrable mask. “He was saving her for some political marriage to solidify connections between the new cities."

"Apparently, he fears the aliens more than New York or New Boston."

An almost inaudible ring sounded.

From where? Overhead? From the city? Or behind me in the trees?

My skin crawled.

"I hear it too,” he said, scanning the trees.

This was wrong. All wrong. “We've got to go,” I snapped.

Orange fire shot down through the clouds beyond his shoulders.

The alien's beam. “Run, Brutus.” I whirled and stretched my stride for the forest.

That something nagging at the back of Brutus's subconscious came crashing to the front. The beauty's warning and reaction was enough to kick Trance into a full gallop in her wake.

Toward the old burn line from the last time Pittsburgh was exterminated. The only other place less than a foot underground offering hope. If we could reach the tree line, we were most likely to escape the vaporization ray.

She shot the most terrified glance back toward the city.

And slid her gaze to me. If she thought I would run the other way, into the extinguishing light, she was mistaken.

Protect. Wolf snarled.

Shit. I couldn't leave her behind. Wolf growling or not. I reached down, hooked my around her waistband, heaved her slender form up over the saddle, and kicked Trance's ribs.

Quietly, she watched what unfolded behind us. “Faster,” she howled.

Trance burst between the closest tree trunks into the forest's old growth.

"Go,” Lorelei yelled.

Her boot slammed into a trunk.

"Keep your head and feet down.” I'd be lucky to keep her in one piece if we survived. But stopping to avoid slamming her against trees would be risky. The beam damned sure wasn't aimed at the same spot it was last time. Only fools would believe such stupid things.

"God, it's coming,” she shouted.

How much farther would we have to run?

"Stop. It's over,” she barked. “Let me down."

I pulled Trance to a halt and slid her body to the ground. She gaped at the scene behind us, rubbing her ribs.

The orange glow slowly seeped back to its point of origin.

What went through her mind? Did she realize she was free of Yale?

She took a couple steps toward the dying nightmare.

Not so wise. “Don't go that way. If Yale or his goons made it through the sweep, they'll be coming for you."

She paused, the slim form of a woman any man would fight to possess.

Concealed only by her backpack. Did she have any weapons? Not likely. The way she feared

I'd come to drag her back to Yale, she would have used whatever she had on me. A man's got to pity a Normal turned on by the rest of her kind. In a nutshell, she wasn't safe here.

She turned around, gripping the straps of her backpack harness with fists, staring almost blankly at the leaves and grass on the forest floor. Her knees buckled.

She plopped onto the ground.

"You can't stay here.” Surely she realized that much.

She rubbed her face with both palms.

"You need to go, Lorelei.” I studied the now bare earth as far as I could see.

She just sat there, holding her face in her hands.

Hell. They'd find her for certain. I slid out of the saddle and knelt by her side. “Lorelei?"

She dropped her hands into her lap and stared at the devastation.

Get up, woman. “Why are you sitting here?"

She waved a hand at the barren land and lonely buildings. “I killed them."

Not so much as a wince graced her aware expression. I'd just have to enlighten her. “They were going to kill you. It's a dog-eat-dog world, Lorelei. Get up and start walking in case any wild dogs lurk nearby."

Protect, Wolf snarled.

One was closer than she thought.

She locked a stare on me that could have exterminated my ass.

Maybe I deserved it. But she had to get up. Start walking. I rose and extended a hand.

Would she accept the help?

Slowly she glided a palm across mine.

Warm. Soft. Silken skin.

Wolf began to pounce, leaping back and forth.

Sit. Dammit.

She stood, pulling on my hand, studying the ghost town of New Pittsburgh.

Calm. Beauty was oddly calm. She needed to release my hand before my Gods-be-damned

Wolf clawed through my ribcage.

Her gaze slid to mine.

Like she wanted to say something.

She was dead out here alone.

Protect, Wolf said.

I couldn't let them kill her before. I wasn't now. Damned dog. “You better come with me."

Holding Brutus’ hand was the strangest sensation. Wasn't he the Shifter who despised

Normals? Why would he take me along? For trade? Women were hot commodities. And his poker face revealed nothing.

"You can't stay here, Lorelei. You're dead out here alone. I'm heading west. That's away from Yale. You better come with me."

He spoke a lot for a man who had little interest in Normals. But he made valuable points. And if I deserved to die for my hand in killing New Pittsburgh's community, Brutus could certainly see to that punishment for me.

His strong tug led me to the stirrup where he stepped into the saddle, and extended his palm again.

Those brown eyes of his. Unreadable. What danced within them so obscurely? His inscrutable gaze guaranteed one thing. I had no choice but to go with him. Or maybe that was what gnawed at me the most. I had nowhere to go. With him, I had a chance to find a place to escape him.

He pulled me behind the saddle to straddle his demon horse's barrel-shaped haunches and headed west.

Sitting behind his broad shoulders was in itself strange. He seemed to be protecting me. But how could anyone believe a Normal-hating Shifter would safeguard a Normal without payment of some kind? What did he want?

His mount sidestepped with a hop.

The world shook.

I grabbed at Brutus’ solid back, snaking my hands around the curve of his steely ribs.

He got the horse back on track and shot me an indefinable glance. “Scoot forward. Hang on. I

don't need to worry about a woman with an injury."

Thanks for the insult. I scooted forward anyway, dropping my hands along his sides. No fat on his hard waist. Unlike Glover who shoved me against a wall and pressed his disgusting soft belly body against me. The pig.

The horse jolted into a trot.

"We're moving fast now. Hold on,” Brutus barked over his shoulder.

That was the last thing he said to me until stopping for water at midday.

Sunlight danced upon the mercurial surface like piercing white light.

Forcing my eyes to squint. To block the blinding reflection of the hot sun directly overhead where I stood and tried to stretch the kinks out of my screaming leg muscles. At least four hours had passed since Brutus kicked that stallion of his into forward ho. Four mind-numbing joggling torturous stretches of eternity that had to equate to, let me see, sixty minutes times four hours is two-hundred-and-forty minutes. And one minute is sixty seconds. So, that's twohundred—and-forty times sixty. Hell. Too damned long on a horse moving faster than a rocking walk. I planted my palms against my lower back and leaned backward as far as possible.

Enough to stretch out the kink in said back. How many humans left on earth had been taught to even calculate with simple addition? They were all dead. My tutor. June's cousins. The people who made me who I am. The people who made me laugh. Who...

Brutus bent over next to his black stallion and ran his palms down the horse's monster front leg.

Slowly. Almost tenderly by the look of the careful motion. Checking for something. His fingers splayed as if he enjoyed the feel of the beast's rippled flesh. As if they were lovers.

Measured, premeditated movement that reflected a special relationship tied them together.

Like mates.

Brutus reached the leg's shiny black hoof and moved on to assess the rear haunch before squatting beside me.

"Did you bring food?” Brutus asked.

The glistening water jigged near my brown hiking boots and the grassy edge of the river.

Food? From New Pittsburgh? People ate food. I killed all of them. And he wants my crackers. I

don't deserve their food. But it's all I have. “Yes.” I didn't look at him.

Didn't want him to know I felt guilty. Felt greedy. Ridiculously possessive with a few crackers.

He'd saved my life. Hadn't he? I owed him the damned crackers. I pulled the backpack off and foraged in the main cavity for the tin while fighting the urge to slide my gaze up the green-and-brown-tones of his camouflaged pants covering his thigh.

The legs that obviously didn't mind squatting after riding for hours on horseback. I'm in so much trouble. So out of my element. The only weapon I had was a Shifter who despised what

I was. And I had to clutch his chest for how long before I found some place safe enough to eke out an existence without him and his mount?

My fingers wriggled past my soft extra clothing inside my pack and bumped the hard tin.

His meal. I suppose as the female here it was my place to produce a meal. How odd since before last night's party I was never expected to step foot in the kitchen. So much for my new place in life.

My gut flopped.

It probably could use a cracker. I popped the tin's rectangular lid and offered the golden rounds to the camouflage-covered thigh beside mine.

He plucked one circle from the pile.

Nothing. Not one word. No thanks. I stuck the smooth edge of a cracker between my teeth and bit off a dry piece.

Buttery. A little salty. Cook always made them the way I liked them. Like fattening up the holiday turkey. Fate somehow saved my neck from the falling axe last night. Why? And what did Brutus have to do with my future? I scanned the opposite bank's mixture of tree trunks with the cracker pinched between a finger and thumb. “Where are we going?"

"The Wild."

Excuse me. But isn't that where we are? I turned my gaze to find his studying me.

Still the unreadable poker face. Strangely attractive. By his steady brown gaze, the kind that could see right through a person, I knew he could tell I found his squared jaw and perfectly sculpted mouth appealing. I choked down the somewhat moist bite and turned back to the blinding sunlight reflecting off the water. “Aren't we in the wilderness?"

"Not even close."

Well, at least he answered. It was probably easier to think about something other than sex when a female wasn't hanging onto his body behind the saddle. How did my life come to this?

I'm a murderer. Nothing more than a womb now. Air. I needed air. I placed the tin in the grass and rose.

His lancing gaze bore through me.

But pacing helped me shake the queasiness in my gut. I stuffed the cracker between my teeth and tongue and focused on chewing the dry melt-in-your-mouth flatbread.

"We need to go,” he said.

Why did my future look like Hell? I turned to the enormous black horse and my savior's broad back.

The solid back reeking of power that had become my rock, my anchor, in this whirlwind of change.

He turned that penetrating stare on me.

Again.

A chilling wave plowed through me, making every cell in my body shiver.

Why? Was this another one of my premonitions? At least, now I didn't have to worry about anyone learning about them among the superstitious Normals. Just get on the horse.

He stood beside the stirrup with the shiny silver tin extended to me. “How much longer can you ride?"

It's ride or die. I shot back at him the most penetrating mask I could muster. “As long as I

have to."

Those six words Beauty uttered could have made my heart stop, but my inner wolf was restless.

Mine, Wolf said.

Shut up and play dead. The brainless animal couldn't control himself. Who could with the way the woman stared a man down.

My heart fluttered.

For a Normal? Not just any Normal. One ousted by the others. Sentenced to a life far worse than those left to huddle for security behind barbed-wire barricaded cities. She was no longer one of them. Weak. Excommunicated. And if Yale had survived, she was the fox on the run.

Or maybe it was Wolf's heart doing the fluttering? I climbed into the hard curve of the saddle and extended a hand to her.

She zipped her backpack then stared at my palm.

Was she second guessing her position? “We need to go, Lorelei."

Her gaze flicked to mine.

Just for a moment before something snapped the flicker away. What? She knew my reputation. Did she consider me the animal?

She glided her palm across mine.

Soft. Warm. The skin of a woman preened for a lord.

Mine, Wolf growled.

Shut up!

Her fingers curled around the side of my palm. She stepped into the stirrup. I yanked. Her negligible weight settled in behind me.

Thank the Gods the rise of the saddle's seat kept her crotch from conforming to my ass. Wolf would have had his way with her before we made it out of the Pennsylvania Territory. Mating only meant a costly delay. Deadly in her case. And I'd be cursed if I caused her any pain after what she'd been through. Well, within reason. I was saving her tail now. For the greater good of something insane. I turned Trance's head back upstream. “Tell me when you need to stop,

Lorelei. I can't read your mind. And you need breaks from riding."

Her hands slid around my waist.