The big male moved out of the lights, but she could see him as he leaned against the side of the building they were next to. He was just a large dark shadow. The woman shifted her body again. “Do you really believe you were ever alone, unprotected? The Alpha would have new tails hanging on his barn. Someone was with you the entire trip, moving south, New Mexico, across into Texas—the trucker that took you into Mexico. Most of the time it has been local shifters, once in a while there was one of Noble’s pack.”
The woman seemed to relax a little, waiting to see how Beth was going to react. Beth didn’t know if she should get angry or be scared. She sat slowly, letting her breathing calm down. She realized the
big guy
in front of the bus had stayed away on purpose to allow her space. Smart.
Beth had to ask because she was so used to running from two groups. “You sure the maniac who wants to live forever hasn’t found this area?”
She was surprised that the woman actually laughed. “Fate caught up with him. He died on a surgery table, trying for one too many transplants. I hear his heirs are happily fighting over his money in the courts of four countries.”
Beth couldn’t enjoy the humor the woman had, but she did understand the results of destiny. “I do like the people I work with right now. I am so tired of running.” She let go of the wheel to lean back on the patched seat.
“Well, there is one other thing.” The woman’s head was tilted towards the
big guy
. Shit. She waited for the other shoe to fall. No one said anything. The woman did let the other shoe go. It was a large shit-kicker, size Fifteen, big thump when it hit. “Noble wants to see you.”
Shit, shit, shit. Beth felt like her body was finally getting over the memory of his, but no, just the thought of meeting with him again sent heat all over, especially to special parts. “Well, obviously he knows where I am at—what is the hang up?”
Lots of throat clearing, both people shuffled feet in dust, then she explained. “He isn’t able to come into the desert—he is in the jungle.”
“Oh, no, I don’t do bugs and snakes, no way, nope, nada, nothing. Forget it. He knows where I am, every night. I will stay here a few more days and see how I feel. Let him come to the bar.” She couldn’t believe she was agreeing to meet him.
The woman had been careful all this time to keep her voice low, now it was almost a whisper. “He’s hurt, a righteous fight. Defending the pack. He slowly moved here to heal—well, and probably to be near you.”
Damn, anything else, but this. “So, your kind can’t go to hospitals. Don’t you have your own medical people? You know, healers or whatever?” Brandy refused to look at either, just hoping they would give her some better info.
Over a long drawn breath, she heard the woman. “Yes, we do, and yes, he did get some help. His injuries were severe. Fortunately, he is strong, but the Alpha is always at risk. Other packs would like to take over. After all, he is the head top Alpha. Politics and all, you know.”
“No, I don’t know. I know nothing about…well…Noble’s pack or your politics, and I don’t really want to know. I don’t want to know about maniacs chasing people that turn into cats. I just want a normal life. Shit.” She laid her head down on the steering wheel.
“You forgot to list the CIA, NSA and every other government letter combination. They would have many uses for someone who could change to get behind enemy lines. They have been trying to recruit us for years.”
“Great.” Beth refused to raise her head. “We now have the government involved. The real jerks, the ones we all have to be afraid of, because they have hidden power. Damn, damn, damn.” She was hitting her head on the greasy wheel.
Suddenly, there was the noise of a beater, as a couple of men headed towards the center of town in the rusted car. They didn’t slow down, leaving only a blanket of dust behind. Okay, the three of them could not sit here with dawn bringing heat or people.
“Go and do whatever it is you two do, then meet me at the bar around eleven tonight.” She started her bus, trusting the woman would close the door. She drove to her warehouse to settle in for the day. Somehow, she doubted if she would get any rest.
That night she carried a tote to work with a change of clothes. She checked the office, but decided to leave the envelopes alone, just in case she had an accident. She changed the note in Carl’s.
Carl, something came up, I will call. Brandy
This would give her a chance to come back if she got stuck away for a night or two. It was nothing serious. At eleven on the nose, the two came in. She was notified by the frowns of the locals. Madrill suddenly moved over to help her behind the bar.
“Madrill, I need to leave for a little while, so you will be in charge of the drinks. Remember to let Tim make all decisions.” She grabbed her tote and walked over to Tim.
“Tim, sorry to pull this on you, but I need to leave for a little while. I am heading out near Carl’s fishing camp.” If Tim had the wrong idea as to why she was going to see Carl, that would be okay.
Tim looked from her to the two behind her who went on out the door. “Are you sure you are okay?”
“Tim, no problem. You know this area. Ask no questions and get no lies.” She reached up on her toes, kissed him on the cheek, patted his shoulder, then followed the twosome outside into the hot night.
Brandy held out the keys to the rusted VW bus. “Do I drive?”
The guy smiled under the brim of his boonie. “I have something better.” She followed them out to the final buildings around a corner. There in the dark, so dark it blended in with its coat of dust, sat one of the new, small four wheelers. She threw her tote in the back, climbed in beside it, and watched the dark figures in the front as the powerful vehicle took off into the night.
She waited quietly during the long drive, as the road led into the highlands. At first it got cooler, then they were over the ridges into the moist clouds and damp air until it started to warm up. It was still cool, but humidity changed everything. The foliage began to close in, both overhead and brushing at the sides of the vehicle.
In the dark, with the stars hidden, Brandy had no idea where they were. She changed clothes, putting on long khakis, then pulled high socks up over the pants and tied on the weather proof walking boots. She put on a sleeveless tee after pulling out a light weatherproof poncho. Last, she pulled out the two most important items, a large bottle of bug spray and her ten inch knife to strap to her belt.
The sounds of the jungle were quiet due to the alien noise from the vehicle. Everything that belonged here drew back to observe, waiting out their place in the food chain. The headlights, on low beam, reflected from numerous pairs of eyes in different sizes. They were at different heights, no color, just that odd reflection of light—blink, blink, then disappear. The quiet jungle was alive, watching.
They slowed as they came to a small bridge that was in amazingly good shape, as if repaired recently. “You guys work on this road and bridge?”
There was silence up front for a moment, then the woman answered. “Someone else has been through here.” She felt the tension in the interior of the solid vehicle.
“We’re going back.” This was from the man as he turned to look over the back of his seat, throwing the vehicle in reverse. Suddenly there were bright lights on the passenger side of the car.
“Brandy, just forget anything and run into the forest. They are after us and we can change and get away. They will only want you because you are with us.” This was from the woman as both of them were ripping off their clothes. Suddenly, the woman stopped and pointed to the other door, with its window down. “Go!”
Brandy went, sliding over the hump, and, taking nothing but her poncho, she bumped, head first through the square window. She landed in the soft squashy plants with soil that had things she didn’t want to think about. She heard gunshots along with shouts. Beside her, she saw a huge spotted animal jump with grace, disappearing quietly into the darkness.
With no grace and accompanied by a lot of noise, she headed into the same darkness, slipping, falling, getting slapped by limbs, leaves or things she couldn’t identify. She had only one thought, get away from the four by four. She was on her hands and knees, thankful for the dense material of her pants. She was wet from the hips down, crawling through the underbrush, not seeing the holes full of muck as she pushed aside vines to move ahead.
Brandy stopped, a cramp in her side making breathing difficult, and realized that she wasn’t sure if she was going in a straight line or in circles. She was still on her knees, but at least her breathing was easing. The cramp was becoming bearable. She felt around in the darkness until she found the dampness of a moss-covered tree. Pushing against it, she got up on her feet. She listened carefully, now holding her breath. She saw nothing but the buzzing of the bugs that had finally caught up with her, already attacking her neck and arms.
Not letting go of the tree, Brandy turned until she could lean her back against it. She struggled with her wet pants pocket to get the bug spray out. She began to add a different type of moisture to her body including head, neck, arms especially face, even her hair. Carefully capping the can so she could put it away, she used her hands to spread the moisture, and was relieved to feel no one biting her any longer.
She took the time to pull on her poncho. Even though she was already wet, it would leave both hands free as she moved in the dark, but she took a moment to think things through. Did she really want to move on in the dark? After all, she was not use to this type of terrain, this type of vegetation. Maybe it would be smarter to stay put and wait for daylight to give her some type of relationship or point to travel. Even
she
knew which direction the sun came up from.
Brandy knew the Dam was north of the jungle. The rustic highway was west. She also knew there were the plateaus and staggering high ranges to cross, but surely, there would be roads. She hunched down on her heels against the tree, allowing the poncho to envelope her. Hoping no lizards or snakes would crawl under with her, she decided to wait for dawn.
She had actually started to doze off as her knees began to ache when something heavy hit her on the side, knocking her away from the tree, forcing her to slide on her side away from the security of the tree. She heard a deep growl as she tried to scramble to her feet, but again something slammed her to the ground. She crawled on hands and knees, trying to get away from the animal that was attacking her. She could hear the deep breathing behind her, almost against her ass as she moved forward on her knees, in the mud, as fast as she could.
She was moving as quickly as she could on her knees, being slapped in the face by leaves. She decided to try to spring up to run and started to get one knee up under her chest so that she could raise upright, but as soon as she shifted upward, she felt a heavy swipe strike against her back, claws tearing through her poncho into her back. This time, she went down, face first into muddy water.
Brandy pushed with her hands by her head to get her face out of water, coughing and blowing dirt from her nose. She heard a low growl close behind her, so the animal was still on her. She felt the burn of the tears in the skin of her back. She knew the animal had raked her body as she felt some hot moisture move down her back that had to be blood.
She felt the weight of something on her thigh, pushing her into the mud. She held her breath, waiting for death from sharp long teeth, then a bright flash to her left drew her attention. Lying flat in the wet forest, she turned her head to see the beam of a flashlight moving in and out of the foliage, about twenty feet away. She now was hearing the heavy progression of men, pushing or chopping through the forest—the hunters who had stopped the vehicle she had come in.
Brandy slowly turned her head to look over her shoulder, trying to see if it was one of the spotted cats that had jumped from the four by four. All she saw was darkness, then there was the reflection in the blackness of the two large cat eyes, tracking the men. The eyes didn’t blink. They disappeared as the lights went with the men who were moving away, enveloped in the arms of the dank dark jungle.
The weight was gone from her leg, but she lay still, waiting, wondering who was with her. What was going to happen next? She couldn’t lie in this mud for long, so she slowly eased up on knees, finding no interference. Okay, so far so good. She slowly brought up her feet, her knees under her breasts, then slowly stood upright. No growling, no claws, no knock against her body.
Brandy decided the best direction would be away from the hunters, since she didn’t want to go back. She didn’t want to go in the direction the men with the flashlight were marching. She heard a low purr, so, evidently the beast agreed.
She was tired, dirty and sore. She had been walking—no make that
stumbling
through the blackness of the labyrinth of wet leaves limbs,
and don’t forget the bugs
. She was so tired. Now, she was in the water, up to her knees for several minutes before she was aware of the wetness of her shoes even her clothes. This was different from the dampness she had grown used to in the mud. She halted, standing with the water moving around her legs. She was aware that it must be getting toward morning as she was starting to see a difference in the darkness, some shades of black fading to grey. She also heard a strange sound like rain, but she felt no water hitting her head or shoulders.
Brandy started for the other side of the fast-moving stream. She was bumped again from behind. Tripping as she tried to keep her stance, she didn’t want to go back the way she came, so she just moved forward in the water, staggering against the water as the force got faster. Thank goodness the stream didn’t get deeper, oh shit. This was her thought as she first saw the reflection of the waterfall. Then she stepped into a hole, sinking over her head.
Her clothes were dragging her down. There was a type of whirlpool, probably caused by the waterfall. Holding her breath, she tried to remember her Red Cross training. She struggled to get out of the poncho, finally getting it off. She tried to kick to the surface, but was running out of air. Then her head burst through. She pulled in air and water, choking as she went under again.