Promise the Moon (Lorimar Pack Book 1) Page 19

  “Mrs. O didn’t say anything?”

  “He might not have told her.” I didn’t know them well enough to guess at the dynamic of their relationship. “Some guys get off on protecting their loved ones by not telling them when they’re in danger.”

  “It goes both ways. You do realize that, right?” He checked his mirrors and adjusted them for the tenth time since we got in Tallulah. The man was twitchy about his mirrors. “Women are just as bad as men at hiding things they don’t think their man will understand.”

  “Yes.” I grinned at him. “But we do it for your own good.”

  Zed grunted and put the truck in reverse.

  Neither of us had much to say after that, so we let the radio fill the companionable silence in the cab. Our first stop was the hardware store. I grabbed the extension cord and a box of nails. Zed escorted me out when I began salivating over a cordless circular saw I couldn’t afford. Once I regained my senses, we locked those purchases in the cab of his truck then hit the grocery store. I froze with a red plastic basket slung over my arm. Aisle after aisle had been decimated.

  A shrill whistle eased past his lips. “People up here sure take their storm preparation seriously.”

  “Butler doesn’t have enough people to buy out a store this fast.” Okay, we did, but they would have had to all rush through with full carts since the last grocery run two days earlier. “No Pop-Tarts. No chips. No cereal. No milk.”

  “The Cheerios are still here. The granola is too. Just none of the sugary stuff.” Hangdog expression in place, he patted an empty space where the Cocoa Puffs should be. “It’s like a bunch of toddlers went on a shopping spree.”

  Carnivorous predators or not, Wargs ate like teenagers who couldn’t remember the last time they’d tasted food. High metabolisms were all that saved our species from becoming as round as the Oreo cookies the pack loved so much.

  “This should make breakfast interesting.” I plucked a round tin off the shelf. “At least there’s coffee.”

  “Evening, folks.” An elderly man slimmer than Zed ambled over to us. He wore the bright red apron with a white name tag that identified him as one of the owners. Thankfully not the same one who offered discounts in exchange for phone numbers. “Pickins’ are slim until the truck comes through Friday.” A single white nose hair tickled his upper lip, and the urge to pluck it almost overwhelmed me. “We got robbed last night. Cleaned us out of most all the dry goods.”

  “Robbed?” That snapped my attention to his eyes.

  “Damn strange too.” He pinched his nostrils together, the tickle of that single hair bothering him. “My wife found a note taped to the front door. I thought it might be an apology. We had that happen once. A drifter passed through, stole a few staples and left an IOU with a promise to pay us back when he could.”

  An anxious twitch started in my fingers, as if I could manually lift the message from his memory. “What did the note say?”

  “That was the odd part.” He huffed out a laugh, sending the nostril streamer flying. “It said ‘out of beef.’ None of the other meats are missing as far as I can tell, and we had plenty of chicken and fish in stock. Not that it matters. It’s all ruined.”

  “Let me guess.” I angled my head toward the rear of the store, scenting the air without being obvious about it. “Lightning ran in and fried your cooler?”

  “Well, yes.” He rubbed a finger over his upper lip. “How’d you guess?”

  “We have to go.” I hooked Zed’s elbow and hauled him toward the front door.

  “Miss?” The gentleman cleared his throat. “It’ll be eight dollars and ninety-nine cents if you want that coffee.”

  A flush spread over my cheeks until they burned.

  Zed whipped out his wallet and withdrew a ten-dollar bill. “Keep the change.”

  “Thanks.” I cradled the coffee to my chest. “We need to get back to that field.”

  “Whoa.” He caught me by the back of my shirt and pulled me up short. “Is that smart?”

  “The fewer people who go, the fewer casualties we risk.” It would be a long night for the residents of Butler if the pack was incapacitated and fae infiltrated the town. “We have Isaac’s bracelets. He’s tracking us as we speak. He won’t be able to help himself. He’ll want to know his new toys work.”

  “Wait here.” He jogged back inside the store and reemerged a few minutes later with a plastic bag in hand. “Okay. Now we can go.”

  “What’s in there?” I poked it with my finger.

  He passed it to me to hold. “Earplugs.”

  “Ah.” I followed him to the truck. “See? What would I do without you, gamma dearest?”

  “Please don’t call me that.” He visibly shuddered. “It makes me sound like I ought to be wearing pearls so I can clutch them when you get mouthy.”

  Chuckling at the visual of a big, bad wolf like Zed playing someone’s grandmother, I hopped into the truck. Zed joined me, and we set out for the field.

  Getting from point A to point B in Butler never took long, and this trip was no exception. Zed parked, and we exited the truck. So far, so good. A gentle wind stirred the grasses, and we exchanged a look.

  “First sign of trouble, we get out of there.” I waded in, the heels of my boots sinking into the soft ground. “We need to get out of sight and shift.”

  “Should we both shift?” He kept pace beside me. “The truck is the fastest way home if this blows up in our faces, and I don’t know about you, but I can’t reach the pedals with my paws.”

  “The fae attacked your wolf. I vote you stay human.” I hesitated in front of the barbed-wire fencing. “The one thing I do remember is my wolf saving my bacon. She had more immunity than me. She’s the best candidate for this scouting trip.”

  “The first time might have been a fluke. Luck might not be on your side twice.”

  “I have to try.” I ducked through the wire, careful not to let the sharpened points tear my clothes. “Two lives are at stake.” Assuming we were very lucky and the fae had kept its victims alive. “Besides, humans may be quick to look the other way, but the blinders will fall off eventually. Two popular restaurants are closed. Who knows how many folks in town have heard Mr. O’Malley and Ms. Zhuang are missing. “Factor in the grocery store robbery, which blows their previous MO to hell, and time is ticking. We have to solve this, and quietly. We can’t risk human law enforcement getting involved.”

  “Fine.” He gripped one of the fence posts. “I’ll be here if you need me. One sniff of trouble and I want you to turn tail and run. Got it?”

  “Wow. You’re bossy for a guy who hasn’t accepted my proposal yet. Dare I say gamma levels of bossiness?”

  I trudged off into the grass before he talked himself out of staying behind. I didn’t bother folding my clothes. Jeans and T-shirts don’t give two figs about being balled up and tossed in a heap. I sat on the ground naked, grass tickling my butt, and let the wolf take me.

  Painful moments later, I rose on four legs and trotted back to Zed, who dutifully stuffed my ears with balls of wax warmed in his hand. The wolf balked at her muffled senses, but I held her steady until she comprehended the necessity. That didn’t stop her from prancing around, attempting to shake off the tracker. Not until she hooked her teeth in the leather did she catch a whiff of sautéed electrical wiring and calm.

  With both halves of myself in harmony, I began the slow process of stalking my prey. Last time I made the mistake of rambling around, thinking I was alone to hunt. Now I knew better. I walked on soft paws, head down beneath the level of the grass, and picked my way toward the stone cottage. Abandoned or not, it was my best lead.

  All the instinctive flicking and pivoting of the wolf’s ears as she strained to catch a thread of sound popped one waxy plug loose, and I had no way to stuff it back in her ear canal. As much as I hated running into any situation half-cocked, it couldn’t be helped now.

  No one jumped out of the bushes or zapped me from across th
e field. No peculiar odors tickled my nose, and no sounds set my blood racing. I was on top of the cottage before the prickling sensation lifted the hairs down my spine. This time, I noticed a sleek red bike leaned against the nearest wall. More proof they had made contact with Ms. Zhuang. Not that the connection was in doubt at this point.

  Nestled low in the grass, I made myself as small as possible while I waited for the source of my unease to reveal itself to me. A single giggle belonging to a joyful child perked my ears, snatched by the wind, before two hushed voices reached my hiding spot.

  “We need more supplies. The wee ones are starving.”

  The feminine voice carried a lilting accent I had never heard before, not even among the deserters.

  “Town is dangerous,” a young man replied with a rasp. “We must flee while we still can.”

  “And go where?” Bitter laughter shattered that first lovely titter. “Where can we go? Home? No. Not there. Never there again.”

  “We’re hurting them, Leandra.” A tender note turned his words beautiful. “We swore to be better than this, if the gods gave us the opportunity. We have to—”

  A smattering of childish babble cut short their confidences. The chaos peaked quickly, a dozen speakers talking over each other, clapping and joking and squealing.

  “Sing,” they chanted merrily. “Sing. Sing. Sing.”

  The young man with the tired words chuckled at their antics. “All right. One song is all I have left. You’ll hear it, and then you’ll go to bed. All of you. Agreed?”

  “Yes,” they gushed in unison.

  The first note in his lullaby unfocused my eyes. The gentle cadence set my mind buzzing, and the tattered edges of the scene blurred at the corners. Sleep teased my eyelids, and my head dipped, my chin hitting my forelegs and sticking there. I was halfway to unconsciousness when the veil of grass in front of my muzzle parted, and a pudgy hand emerged to pet my head.

  “Doggy,” a baby cooed. “Doggy. Doggy. Doggy.”

  Utter silence followed the child’s pronouncement.

  A lanky boy with midnight eyes and moonlit hair towered over me a second later, snatching the girl out of reach. Even his snarl was melodic.

  The discordant sound wiped the cobwebs from my head, and adrenaline dumped ice down my spine. I leapt to my feet, startling him backward. His lips parted, and the air contracted around me. I ducked my head and ran as hard as my legs would carry me. His music wrapped me in a binding, squeezing my ribs until one popped in an odd countermeasure to his song.

  Grunting through the agony, I pushed harder to escape his range. Every slow inch I earned sapped my strength. Lungs and heart thrashed within his gruesome melody. Bone snapped in my left foreleg. Being an old pro with broken bones, the radius was my guess. I stumbled forward, my good paw rolling under, getting pinned beneath me.

  Red light burst in an arc around me. I had tripped Isaac’s panic button.

  Big hands fisted my fur and yanked me up and up, higher and higher. Paws off the ground, legs dangling. I blasted out a hard breath as a bony shoulder jammed into my gut. Carried. I was being carried. Away from the danger? I touched my nose to the fabric under my chest and inhaled.

  Zed.

  Safe.

  “Wake up.” He jostled me on purpose, and my joints ached. “Hold it together. You’ve got to remember.”

  I raised my head and licked his ear, a whine in my throat.

  “I know it hurts, Delly, but you didn’t do this for nothing.” He rubbed his fingers through my fur. “We’re almost back to the truck. I won’t hide you under the tarp this time if you stay awake, okay? You can sit up front with me. I’ll even let you stick your head out the window if you want.”

  The wolf perked at the idea of her nose surfing the wind, the cool air ruffling her fur.

  But I was drifting, an anchor too heavy for the wolf’s buoyant mood to lift.

  “Aww hell” was the last thing I heard before I shut my eyes and they stayed that way.

  Chapter 18

  Burnt metal teased my nose, a wisp of a dream forgotten as soon as my eyes cracked open. I wasn’t at the clinic. I wasn’t at my RV. But I was in an RV. Isaac’s. I recognized the wall in front of me, the feel of the mattress beneath me. I rolled onto my back and spotted a figure slouched in the doorway.

  Isaac sat on the floor, his back against the doorframe and his chin resting on his chest. He didn’t snore, but he breathed deep, like even in sleep he was determined to live his life to the fullest. Who knew where his dreams carried him? What brave new worlds he documented behind his eyelids?

  One of the books Cam had loaned me carried a single footnote on Gemini, and I couldn’t get it out of my head. The scribble said Gemini were the explorers of Faerie, the adventurers. They quested until they hit a wall, until they had documented every inch of their homeland, and that’s when they came to Earth.

  There were no more Gemini in Faerie. They would not stay in a place they had already been. Where they would go once they saw all the sights here, who knew?

  I lay there watching him sleep for the longest time. The wolf stared through my eyes, and we soaked up the knowledge he was here, and he was safe. And if he didn’t love us, he cared for us. That would have to be enough. It might be too much.

  How could we heal with him so close? How could we bear it if he left again?

  We survived once. We’ll survive again.

  I couldn’t tell if the encouragement came from the wolf or my own subconscious. Either way, I would take it.

  “Hey.” I grabbed a pillow and tossed it at him. “Wake up. Some nurse you are, sleeping on the job.”

  Isaac’s head jerked up so fast, he smashed it against the doorframe. “Dell?”

  “Who else? What am I doing at your place?” Brain sloshing like soup in a can, I pushed upright and swung my legs over the side of the bed. “I live next door. Why aren’t I in my own bed?”

  “There wasn’t enough room for me to watch you there without sharing the mattress with you, and I doubted you would appreciate that.” He shoved to his feet, movements stiff. “Abram checked you out and gave you a pass to go home and sleep off the enchantment.”

  “What did Enzo say?” Last time this happened, I’d ended up sucking on a rock.

  Isaac’s shoulders went rigid. “He agreed.”

  I wiggled my fingers at him. “And they just let you spirit me away?”

  His smile exposed teeth. “I asked nicely.”

  “Where’s Zed?” Was he so miffed over the gamma thing he let Isaac have me without a fight?

  “He lost the coin toss and went to pick up breakfast.”

  Relief must have shown on my face.

  “We weren’t alone last night.” Muscles in his jaw twitched. “Zed slept on the pullout.”

  The bed sat so high, I could almost swing my long legs. “Did you spend all night on the floor?”

  “No.” He turned and headed into the kitchen. “That’s just where I ended up when my legs gave out from pacing.”

  My arm outstretched toward his retreating back, but I managed not to call his name. The movement brought the red-and-black flannel shirt I wore to my attention. I fingered the soft fabric and summoned all my willpower to prevent myself from sniffing the material.

  Now that I was awake enough to wonder, I don’t know what I had expected. Other wargs didn’t care if I was naked or not. They had seen it all. Me nude was nothing newsworthy to them. Even Enzo accepted me in my birthday suit without blinking. But Isaac had clothed me. His fingers knew the geography of my body, and he had covered it while I slept. What did it mean? Did I care what it meant? Most importantly, would he mind if I kept the shirt?

  “What do you remember?” Isaac poured amber liquid into a glass then walked it back to me. “Sweet tea is all I’ve got. I hope that’s okay.”

  I murmured it was fine. Drinking sweet tea for breakfast wouldn’t offend my Southern sensibilities. “We went back to the field, and I skulked arou
nd the stone house we thought was abandoned. It must be glamoured to the rafters, because it’s the opposite of vacant.” A jolt of sugar hit my system and helped prop my eyes open. Isaac brewed his Red Diamond stout and super-duper sweet. “I heard kids, Isaac. A lot of kids.” I lowered my drink. “Two teens—a boy and a girl—seem to be running the place. The robbery was their way of feeding the younger kids.”

  “The same message was left at the grocery store and the restaurants, right?” He leaned in the doorway. “That means these fae kids are involved in the disappearances too. Did you spot Mr. O’Malley or Ms. Zhuang?”

  “No.” There hadn’t been time. “I only identified one threat, a boy.” I wiped drops of sweat off my glass. “He’s definitely a siren with a voice like that.” Sharp enough to cut, soft enough to caress. “He sang to the children, and it was the most beautiful sound I’ve ever heard.” Reliving those first long notes made my chest ache. “Or at least I thought so until he turned it against me.”

  “His voice broke your bones?” An odd note spiked his tone.

  “That part I remember very well.” My hand pressed against my ribs. “There was nothing to fight against. It was air. Sound.” I dropped my hand. “We can’t leave them out there. They’re too dangerous. They’re kids but…”

  “They’ll bring the humans down on us,” he agreed.

  “The trouble in town just started. They can’t have been here that long.” I voiced what bothered me most about the whole situation. “Where did they come from? Where are their parents?”

  “We’ll figure that part out later.” He dared me to argue with a tight frown. “Right now we need to focus on how to capture them without getting killed in the process.”

  “We can’t hurt them.”

  “We won’t if we can help it.” Muscle ticked in his jaw. “They almost killed you. Twice. Kids or not, they’re not going for lucky number three.”

  “I need to talk to Cam.” I rubbed my forehead. “She needs to know what we’re up against, and it won’t hurt to ask if she’s got any bright ideas on how to counteract his power.”