Rhyannon Byrd - Primal Instinct 04 (5 page)

“Pwomise,” she whispered, gripping the cross tight
with both hands, as if she understood just how serious the danger was.

“Good girl.” He grabbed his bag and shoved it onto the
floorboard, closed the door, then turned toward Olivia just as another series of
screeching howls echoed through the quiet night. “Shit,” he growled, glaring
toward the thick line of trees at the edge of the yard. “They’re too close.”

“Too close for what?” she asked, worrying about the
neighbors waking up and coming out to investigate the strange noise.

“There’s no way we’re going to make it out before they
get here. So we go with plan B,” he explained in a low voice, quickly moving
around the back of the car and ripping open the driver’s door.

Following him, she stammered, “What on earth is p-plan
B?”

“You drive, I’ll shoot.” He motioned for her to get
into the car, then shut her door and reached behind him. Olivia’s eyes went
wide as he pulled a heavy black handgun from behind his back, where it must
have been tucked into the waistband of his jeans, hidden beneath the hem of his
shirt.

Silently chanting a mixture of curses and prayers,
Olivia quickly belted herself in while Aiden moved around to the passenger’s
side. He folded his long body inside the compact interior, then sent her a
strange look that would have been funny if she hadn’t been so terrified.
“Christ,” he muttered, “I feel like a friggin’ pretzel in this thing.”

“Fwiggin’ pwetzel.” Jamie giggled from the backseat.

Olivia glared at him and he winced, grumbling something
about small-ass cars quietly enough that Jamie couldn’t overhear him as he
moved the seat back as far as it would go.

“So what happens if we m-make it out of here?” she
asked, her hands shaking even harder than her voice as she looked over her
shoulder and began reversing out of the driveway. At any moment Olivia expected
the monsters to come leaping out of the dark, and she fought to brace herself,
worried she was going to panic and steer the car straight into a tree, or one
of the neighboring houses.

The gun clicked as he checked the clip, his voice
somehow confident and calm as he said, “I need to get you and Jamie to the
Watchmen compound in Colorado as soon as possible. It’s called Ravenswing and
it’s where I live. It’s also one of the safest places there is.”

“We can’t fly there,” she told him, wondering how long
she and Jamie would need to stay at the compound. It seemed so bizarre, the
idea of living under the same roof with a group of strangers. Not to mention
with Aiden Shrader. “Jamie has an inner-ear condition that causes extreme pain
at the kind of high altitudes a plane flies. I’ve heard that there’s a new
medication for children her age that can help, but the prescriptions are just
about impossible to come by.”

“That’s okay. Probably safer right now to stay on the
ground anyway, where we’re in control,” he murmured, making her wonder if he
didn’t care much for flying himself.

Turning the wheel so that they were facing the road
out of the cul-de-sac, she put the car into Drive. “Aiden, I, um, I have n-no
idea what to do.”

“Just make it fast.” His voice was rough, his
expression focused as he started to roll down his window.

Taking a deep breath, Olivia gripped the wheel with
both hands and floored the gas pedal. The back wheels made a god-awful noise,
searching for traction, and then the car finally lurched forward, tearing down
the moonlit road. A scraping, sinister howl sounded from somewhere in the
darkness up ahead, and she shivered, praying she wasn’t going to throw up from
the churning rush of adrenaline and fear.

“What are you doing?” she asked when Aiden turned
around, reaching into the backseat.

“Putting Jamie’s blanket and pillow over her head. The
Marker will protect her from the Casus’s claws and fangs, but she could be cut
by the glass if any of the windows get shattered. That’s why I’m covering her
up.”

“Oh, God,” she groaned, feeling as if she’d slipped
into some kind of horrific action movie that had been horribly miscast,
terrified she would make a mistake that could cost Jamie her life. “Please keep
her safe,” she whispered under her breath. “Please, please, please keep her
safe.”

Continuing to send up the quiet prayer, Olivia flicked
on the high beams and glanced over to see Aiden watching her with a kind of
confused expression on his rugged face, as if he couldn’t quite understand what
she was doing. “What?” she asked, sinking her teeth into her trembling lower
lip.

“You really care about her, don’t you?” It was obvious
from his tone that the idea surprised him.

“Of course I do,” she snapped. Then, in a calmer
voice, she said, “Why do you find that so hard to believe?”

He shrugged his broad shoulders, looking as if he was
almost embarrassed as he turned his attention back to the road. “I just don’t
think a lot of humans feel that way about our kind.”

“You mean I shouldn’t love her because she isn’t
human? That’s ridiculous. I couldn’t care less if she’s human or Merrick, a
mermaid or a fluffy little bunny rabbit.”

“You’d be surprised by some people, then,” he
muttered. “Not everyone feels the same way.”

Anger made her voice hard. “Then they’re jerks. And
brainless ones at that.”

“Can’t argue with you there,” he drawled in a husky
slide of words, and from the corner of her eye she could see his mouth curve
with a wicked, endearingly lopsided grin.

The howls suddenly came again, sounding considerably
closer, and Olivia gripped the wheel tighter, silently cursing the damn road
for being so long. Funny how it had never seemed that way before, and now it
felt as if it stretched out forever, like an endless pathway leading straight
into hell.

“You see anything big and ugly and gray, hit it,”
Aiden instructed her in a low voice. “Just try to avoid a tall guy with auburn
hair, and one whose hair is short and black, if you see them. They’re with me.”

“Both Watchmen?” she asked, wincing as she took the
next curve too fast and the wheels screeched in protest.

“The redhead is. His name’s Kellan. The other’s a
human, but Noah’s fighting with us against the Casus.”

Looking over his shoulder, he reached back and patted
Jamie’s leg, his voice raised so that he could be heard over the roaring engine
and the guttural howls. “Jamie, baby, I need you to cover your ears, okay?”

Olivia steered them around the next bend in the road,
and without any warning, the first monster came out of the woods, charging the
car head-on. The impact as it slammed onto the hood reminded her of the time
she’d been rear-ended on the interstate by a drunk driver, the jolt slamming
through Olivia’s body hard enough to make her bones rattle. Claws screeched
against the metal hood as the beast struggled to hold on, the nightmarish sound
making her want to scream with terror, though she refused to give in to her
panic. Not yet. Not until she’d gotten Jamie out of there alive and away from
the monsters.

As Aiden braced himself in the open window and fired
the gun, she knew why he’d instructed Jamie to cover her ears. The blast was
painfully loud, making her flinch. The car swerved, and Aiden slammed into the
window frame, a coarse four-letter word jerking from his throat.

“Sorry!” she shouted.

“Don’t worry about it,” he grunted, resettling himself
in the open window. “You’re doing great.”

It all happened so fast after that, the details were
like a blur. Olivia fought to keep the car steady while the other Casus
attacked, jumping onto the roof…the hood. Each time she thought they were going
to die, Aiden would unload a round of bullets, and even with her untrained eye
she knew his aim was lethally accurate. Only one of the vile creatures managed
to get too close, its razorlike claws just missing his chest as it fought for
purchase on the roof of the car. Before it could swipe at him a second time,
Aiden reached out with his left hand, caught its arm and cracked the bone in
half while bringing his gun arm around and nailing the bastard right between
its pale, ice-blue eyes. Olivia struggled not to gag as its heavy body rolled
down the windshield, leaving a bloody streak across the glass as another Casus
launched itself toward the car, only to be jerked off its feet as Aiden drilled
it with a bullet that tore right through the center of its leathery forehead.

“Don’t freak out,” she whispered to herself, her hands
curled in a death grip around the wheel. “Just focus…and keep breathing, and
whatever you do, don’t pass out.”

One minute the car seemed to be buried in the bowels
of hell, and in the next, it was over and they were speeding down the winding
road all alone, with nothing but the moonlight and the surrounding forest for
company. “Is Jamie okay?” she shouted the second Aiden had slipped back into
his seat and rolled up the window.

Sensing her panic, he quickly turned and leaned into
the backseat, pulling the blanket and pillow off Jamie’s little body. “She’s
fine. A little pale, but she isn’t even crying.” To Jamie, he said, “You were
so brave, sweetheart. It’s all over now, but I want you to keep the cross for
me. Can you do that?”

In the rearview mirror Olivia could see Jamie nod her
head, but it was difficult to make out her expression in the shadowed interior.
She took a deep breath, trying to sound as normal as possible as she said, “I
love you, Jamie.”

“Love you, too, Livie,” Jamie called back. From the
sound of her voice, you’d never have guessed the child had just gone through a
living nightmare, and it made Olivia’s insides clench with worry, the fear
taking hold of the back of her neck with a cold, clammy clasp. It had a
different flavor than the terror that had been riding her during the
attack—this one slower, digging down deeper, rooting its way into her heart.

Settling back into his seat, Aiden quietly asked, “Is,
uh, that normal?”

Olivia knew he meant Jamie’s reaction—or lack of
one—and she shook her head. “I don’t know. She’s been really closed down
lately.” She swallowed, trying hard to keep it together. Softly she said, “I’d
be lying if I said I wasn’t worried about her.”

She flinched as he reached out and settled his large
hand on her forearm, its startling heat sinking into her flesh. “You can slow
down now, Liv. Just pull over here on the shoulder for a minute and get your
breath back.”

She hadn’t realized she was still driving at top speed
until he pointed it out, and she immediately did as he said. The night seemed
unusually silent without the engine roaring, and as the car came to a slow
stop, she pressed her forehead to the steering wheel, her chest hurting from the
ragged force of her breathing. “They’re going to keep coming for her, aren’t
they?” she whispered, wondering if she would finally throw up now.

“Yeah.” Olivia turned her head to look at him, her
expression obviously stricken, and she felt the powerful intensity of his stare
as he studied her face all the way down to her bones. Felt it in her blood and
her stomach and the tightness of her chest. “I know that’s not what you wanted
to hear, but I’m not going to lie to you, Liv.”

“Well, that’s something, then,” she murmured, unable
to ignore the strange sensation that he was actually telling her the truth.
Honest men, in her experience, were few and far between. She’d have pegged
Aiden Shrader as the kind of guy who could smooth talk his way right out of any
uncomfortable situation, sugarcoating the truth if it made things easier for
him, but maybe she’d been wrong. “Have you had to do that a lot?”

“Do what?” he rumbled as he undid his seat belt again.
Leaning forward, he reached behind him and slipped the handgun back into the
waistband of his jeans.

“The gun thing,” she explained. “You were deadly
accurate with it.”

Pushing back the thick strands of his hair, he slid
her a wary glance, as if worried about how she was going to take his answer.
“I’ve had to make kills, when the circumstances called for it.”

Olivia nodded, squeezing her cold fingers around the
padded wheel. “That’s not surprising, I guess, except that I thought the
Watchmen were meant to be neutral or something like that.”

“For the most part, yeah, we are,” he rasped. “When it
comes to the clans, our directive is to simply monitor and report our findings.
But there are times when we’re called on to take down something that needs to
be taken down.”

A shiver traveled up her spine. “Well, I think the
Casus certainly fit into that category.”

“You’d think, wouldn’t you?” he muttered, his tone
bitter. Before she could ask what he meant, he changed the subject, saying,
“Why hadn’t you left town, anyway? After what happened to your stepsisters, I
would have thought you understood how dangerous it was for the two of you
here.”

“Well, we haven’t been alone,” she explained, noticing
that his eyes had bled back to hazel, though they still smoldered with an
unearthly glow of light. “Up until this morning, Jamie and I had a houseful of
aunts and uncles from my father’s side of the family staying with us. Two of
them are actually retired law enforcement, so I felt we were safe with them
there. They came in for Monica’s funeral, but after being here for several
weeks, they needed to get back to their lives, especially with the holidays
coming up. The house finally cleared out this morning.”