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  We found Ashley and Bob in the garden at the west end of the property, taking a minute to join in their fun and games before jumping into Bob’s closed-in Jeep lookalike and heading down the drive.

  “Ashley seems to be adjusting quite well to life in Terlain—again, that is,” she quickly added.

  “I think you’re right. At first she was more than a little scared to come back here, and you can hardly blame her. I mean, she hasn’t exactly had good experiences up to now, not in Terlain. But she does seem to be coming around,” I agreed. “I told her this is a magic place.”

  “It is that.” A smile played along the corners of her lips as she navigated the car around a tight turn, taking us out of town and into a densely wooded area. “Mark seems to be coming around too.”

  “I doubt that.”

  “Don’t fret. He will soon enough.”

  “I don’t care if he does,” I retorted, waving away the thought. “Mark can do what he damn well pleases. We’re both adults and all of us are here to do a job. Mark and I share a common goal, but that’s it. We are not required to like each other.”

  “Only to love each other?”

  “Hah,” I snorted, twisting around to stare mutinously at the forest we were passing through.

  “Fine, deny all you want. But you’re forgetting one thing.”

  “Oh yeah? And what would that be?”

  “I know you and now I’ve met Mark for the second time. The first time, by the way, he was out of his mind with grief at your absence. You love him, and he is crazy about you.”

  “He was crazy about me—past tense. A lot has changed since then.”

  “So you do love him.”

  “Oh fine, yes, I love him. I never stopped. And don’t you dare tell him that. Believe me when I say he wants nothing to do with me now.”

  “You’re wrong about that, but of course I wouldn’t ever discuss your personal feelings with him. Still, Claire, I think that you should.”

  “I’ll consider it,” I hedged, knowing that it would probably be a long time coming, if such a meeting of souls occurred at all.

  “So.” She exhaled, her eyes on the rutted dirt road as she took us deeper into the forest. “How is your brother?”

  “Mike? He’s okay. He works a lot.” I shrugged. Privately, I had been wondering when she would bring up my brother. “He thinks about you all the time,” I told my friend in a hushed tone.

  “I…miss him,” she admitted, sparing a glance in my direction. “I miss him a lot.”

  “He hasn’t found anyone else, Aries. The man hasn’t even dated anyone since we returned from Terlain.”

  “Tell him…” She seemed to struggle with the words. “Tell him to move on with his life. Tell him to be happy.”

  “That’s up to him. It’s not hopeless, you know.”

  “I doubt if I’ll ever see him again.” She shook her head sadly. “You and Mark, now that’s different. Fate brought the two of you together again for a reason. Trust me, Claire, talk to him.”

  Chapter Nine

  Branded

  The sun was setting by the time we pulled into the hard-packed dirt parking lot in front of the wood frame general store. We sat in the car for long minutes, taking note of the peculiar and foreboding surroundings. Ours was the only vehicle in the parking lot of a store that was the only one of its kind in roughly a thirty-five mile radius.

  “Business is usually booming.” Aries frowned, her eyes narrowed and focused on the brightly lit log cabin style building. “I don’t like this. Something’s wrong.”

  “I agree. The lights are all on, but the owner’s car is gone. Of course, he may have gotten dropped off.”

  “Hmm. Maybe. Only one way to find out.” The creak of the car door sounded like a shot ringing out in the subdued night air.

  “Where are the birds?” I whispered, hurrying to match Aries’s long strides. “They were chirping when we left the house, weren’t they? And I’m pretty sure I heard them a few miles back, when I had the window down.”

  “I noticed that too. Something is wrong here. I can feel it. Stay close and stay behind me,” she instructed, drawing a short but still lethal-looking jagged edge knife from her bag.

  Hinges groaned ominously as the door swung shut behind us. I took a deep breath, inching close to Aries as we put our backs against the wall next to the plate glass door.

  “Should we call out for the owner?” I breathed in a barely audible whisper.

  “No.” She nodded toward the counter, to the sticky red mess that oozed around the corner of the bricks. Blood.

  “Oh no. It’s wet, Aries. Do you suppose he’s still alive?”

  “I doubt it. That’s a lot of blood. Damn. Stay here—watch my back.”

  I kept watch as she moved behind the counter, skirting the blood that was still spreading slowly across the white tile floor. Nothing moved, but I didn’t dare relax my guard. Blood that hadn’t even yet congealed meant a recent kill. Despite the absence of vehicles in the lot, the odds were good that the killer still lurked in the store. I shivered, willing my companion to hurry so we could get the hell out of the store. Every minute we spent inside upped the chance of harm coming to Bob’s automobile, eliminating our chance for escape.

  “He’s dead,” she reported a minute later.

  “Are you sure? Of course you are,” I sighed when she continued to stare at me. “Let’s get out of here.”

  “No, we still need supplies. But we have to be very careful and we have to be quick. Whatever did this could still be in here.”

  “There’s nothing we need that bad,” I argued, dreading what we might find lurking in the neatly organized aisles of the general store.

  “Claire.” She gripped my shoulders, one hand holding the knife out to the side.

  “What?”

  “Breathe. Now come on, I need you. Grab a couple of sacks and a cart and let’s get moving.”

  “Okay.” I nodded, struggling to pull myself together. “Grocery sacks. Check. Cart—check.”

  “Good. We stay together. Let’s start with this aisle right here. You fill a bag with baking powder, I’ll fill a bag with flour. No,” she amended. “We’ll need more flour than that for so many men, and big men at that. I’d better pack two sacks. Hand me another one, will you?”

  “Sure,” I complied before turning to the shelf at my right and shoveling plain brown boxes that read premium baking powder into the enormous burlap sack. It was beyond me how Aries could be so rational despite the danger we were facing. I envied her competent assurance. The knowledge that blood-thirsty…things…could leap out from around a corner and viciously attack us at any given moment was never far from my mind, and my hands shook as I tied the heavy sack at the top and shoved it into a corner of the cart that sat between us.

  “What’s next?”

  “Start on the sugar. One bag. From there we’ll move to the coffee and tea. It’s two aisles down. After the paper products.”

  “Okay,” I mumbled, tensing at the idea of moving. It felt like I was rooted to the spot.

  The dry goods we hastily packaged filled one cart to brimming, and we were forced to cautiously backtrack to the front of the store and exchange it for an empty one. Cured meat filled ten more huge sacks; butter and lard and molasses filled several more.

  “What about fruits and vegetables?”

  “No, they’re in the produce section along the back wall. It’s too close to the stock room entrance.

  There’s no telling what could be hiding back there. Too risky. They’ll have to make do with what we’ve got. Besides, there’s an apple grove not far from Bob and Marta’s place. We need to go now.”

  “You don’t have to tell me twice. I’ll grab the other cart.” I spoke rapidly, pulling the dry goods cart behind me and holding the door open for her to pass through ahead of me.

  “The car’s still there, that’s a good sign. Let’s hope it hasn’t been messed with,” she muttered. />
  I was halfway out the door and nearly out of the danger zone when the growl sounded behind me.

  White-hot pain pierced my shoulder blade a moment later. I saw Aries whip around and draw her knife, yelling for me to get down. She needn’t have worried; I was slumping to the ground in an ungracious heap before she had even finished the harsh command. Fire burned through my back, clouding my vision and making it difficult to breathe. A loud thump sounded before a heavy weight fell to the floor beside me.

  Fight through the pain, I silently ordered through gritted teeth. I had to make sure Aries was okay. I had to help her. Forcing my eyes open brought me face to face with a chalk-white creature, its mouth open in a grimace that revealed a row of sharp, pointed teeth that were stained red at the ends. Coatyl.

  “Aries,” I managed to gasp.

  “I’m here. It’s okay, it’s dead.”

  “No—”

  “It’s dead, Claire. I promise you it’s dead. Can you walk?”

  “Yes. Oh God, it hurts,” I moaned, forcing myself upright. I wasn’t sure if I could actually walk or not, but it was impossible to miss the urgency in her voice.

  “Good, because there are more coming. Get to the car.” She yanked the double doors closed, whirled around, grabbed a large branch from beside the door, and hurriedly shoved it between the door handles to create a makeshift bar.

  Somehow, I made it to the car, leaning over the front handle of the cart and using it to stabilize my movements. That and sheer force of will kept me on my feet and in forward motion until I made it to our vehicle, barely noticing the dent that formed in the metal when I failed to stop the cart from ramming into the side of the car.

  “Don’t worry about unloading the cart, just get yourself in the car.”

  “No.” The word was slurred. There was no way I was leaving her to load our hard won and badly needed supplies by herself. My vision may have been hazy, but I could see enough to know that less than fifty feet away, locked in the store, at least five coatyl beat and scratched at the door. Aries needed all the help she could get at the moment and I wasn’t eager to stay here any longer than was absolutely necessary.

  My movements were uncoordinated and stiff, but somehow, I managed to get most of the bags in the backseat. Aries proved much faster in the task, hurling her packages in through the side door and then sprinting around the short length of the vehicle to shove the last of the sacks in my cart to join the rest, creating a virtual burlap mountain behind our seats. We wouldn’t be able to see out the back window.

  Then again, I wasn’t sure I wanted to.

  “Get in and hurry! That stick isn’t going to hold the door for much longer and those things are fast.”

  I slumped against the seat, scarcely managing to pull my door shut before Aries was behind the wheel, tires spinning furiously as we careened out of the parking lot and sped along the forest. She didn’t slow down until we were safely within Grandview city limits, shielded by the gentle illumination from the fence’s border.

  “Are you okay? Shit, I can’t believe he got you. I should have heard him before he ever got that close. Shit.”

  “I knew teaching you cuss words was a mistake.” I tried to smile.

  “Are you okay?” She alternated nervous glances between me and the road.

  “I’ve felt better. What did that thing do to me?”

  “He scratched you.”

  “A simple scratch feels like this?” I groaned.

  “It’s not that simple. Their nails are incredibly sharp and the tips are covered in a neurotoxin. The effects should wear off by morning. Hopefully the scratches aren’t too deep. Are you in very much pain?”

  “It’s hurting pretty bad.” I tried to flex by shoulder in an attempt to gauge how deep the wounds were. “I can’t really move it; it’s stiffening up.”

  “That’s normal. Don’t try to move around so much. We’ll find out soon enough—we’re back at the house.”

  “Already?” I hadn’t even been aware we’d turned down the lane that led to the drive.

  “Come on, warrior princess, let’s get you inside.”

  The first thing we saw upon entering the house was Mark, pacing the front entryway.

  “Where the hell have you been?”

  “We went for supplies,” Aries replied by way of explanation. “Help me get her in the living room.”

  Mark paused then blinked, abruptly registering the way I was leaning heavily against Aries. “I’ll take her.”

  In the next instant, I found myself swept up and carried close to Mark, his long, even strides taking us to the formal living room and the plush green couch in the corner. “What happened to her?”

  “We were attacked by a group of coatyl. One of them came up behind us and cut her shoulder.”

  “Where are they now?”

  “Back at the store. I killed the one that hurt Claire and trapped the others. But I’m certain they’ve managed to get loose by now. They might be staying close to the store. It’s hard to say.”

  “How many?” Mark kept up the conversation as he peeled my shirt from my stinging back and carefully slipped it over my head, leaning close when I hissed in pain.

  “I counted ten, not including the one I killed.”

  “Damn.”

  “I saw one on the way here. After we left Lerna, that first night we were here,” I mumbled, swaying a little.

  “Then the coastal towns have been breached.”

  “It looks that way.” Aries nodded. “How is she?”

  “The scratches aren’t deep enough for stitches. Claire, how do you feel?” he asked.

  “It hurts. I’m so tired. I have to take care of Ashley.”

  “Marta put her to bed an hour ago. Don’t worry about anything right now. I need to clean your back and then I’ll let you rest, okay?”

  “Mhmm.”

  “I’ll go get the first aid kit,” Aries offered. “It’s in the kitchen?”

  “No, Marta keeps it in the bathroom off the kitchen. The one under the stairs.”

  Aries retrieved a small white box containing an array of bandages and something in a clear glass bottle that smelled like alcohol before leaving me in Mark’s capable hands. “I’m leaving at first light to lead a search party of the cities near the general store.”

  “Take any of my men that you need. And…thank you for taking care of Claire.”

  “Where’s she going?” I mumbled, not even wincing anymore when the cool, wet pad scraped against the wound in my back. Everything felt fuzzy, off somehow.

  “Upstairs to bed. Which is where you’re going in a minute.”

  “I can’t move.”

  “I’ll carry you.”

  “I just want to go to sleep, Mark.” My eyes closed on their own.

  “Then we’ll sleep right here on the couch.”

  “We?” My eyes popped open.

  “I’m not leaving you alone tonight.”

  I might have argued, but the blanket he tucked around me was like being wrapped in a cloud, and his warm weight curled around me felt nice. I might even have questioned the change in his attitude toward me, but I was quickly losing the battle to keep my eyes open.

  “I won’t be able to stand it if anything happens to you, Claire. I can’t lose you again.” His voice was husky in my ear. It was the last thing I heard before falling sleep, and the sweetest thing I’d heard in a very long time.

  ***

  I woke in the morning to the scent of strong coffee and something...sweet. I opened my eyes to investigate, even though I immediately registered the pain in my shoulder. What I really wanted to do was close my eyes again and curl into a tight ball in my bed—no, not in bed, I realized, blinking rapidly. I was downstairs on the couch. And then I remembered the events of the previous night. Coatyl...so many of them.

  My mind replayed the scene in the grocery store, the pain of the coatyl’s long, sharp nails in my shoulder, Aries, and our escape. And...something mo
re. Sitting up took more effort than I felt ready to give at the moment, but it was the only way to reach the hot coffee that someone had left on the end table. It was a bold, strong brew, just as I’d suspected. Good.

  I continued to sip at the hot liquid while I fought to remember the very last part of the evening, the elusive hint of a memory that seemed faded now. Mark had tended my wound, that much was clear enough, but for some reason, I was also pretty sure he had spent the night on the couch with me. Not talking or even moving, just...there, almost as if he’d stood guard throughout the night. Other things were less clear. For a moment, I thought I could recall Mark’s voice in my ear, a low murmur of words that were at direct odds with his usually cool attitude toward me. Then again, his spending the night on the sofa with me was out of character as well—at least it was now. Maybe I had imagined the whole thing, I reasoned. I must have, because Mark didn’t want much of anything to do with me. Did he?

  I stretched and finally shed the thick blanket that was still tangled around my legs, rose from the sofa, and, still cradling the mug of coffee, made my way slowly and carefully to the kitchen. The discomfort in the back of my shoulder had become more of a dull, throbbing ache, and I realized that I was hungry. I wasn’t sure what time it was, but a glance out the window showed a sky that was tinged with just a hint of purple; it was early then. Marta would be awake, Bob would either be on his way downtown already or barricaded in his home office for the day, and Ashley would soon be waking up.

  But it wasn’t Marta I found in the kitchen, elbow deep in what looked to be pancake batter—it was Mark.

  “I hope you’re hungry,” he told me without turning around from the hideous mess he was in the process of making. I cringed, thinking about what Marta would say when she spied her kitchen, her domain, in such shape. Batter dripped from several places on the countertop, hitting the floor and pooling there. The countertops themselves were a white, sticky mess—ditto with the tile backsplash.

  Wide-eyed, I said the first thing that came to mind. “Marta is going to kill you.”

  Mark chuckled. “Yes, she probably will. Everyone’s gone and I thought you might be hungry when you woke up. Guess it’s been a while since I’ve cooked in an actual kitchen.” He frowned. “I promise these will taste better than they look.” He dropped six circles of batter onto the stovetop griddle and turned to face me.