An Apocalyptic Need (8 page)

“Come on.” Grimm grabbed her hand and they started running. “Is there another way out of this place?”

Cari fought the sexual haze making her dull, shaking it off as the birds above them circled and screamed in panic. “No. Not that way.” She tugged him to their right and, bunching her gown in one hand took off running as fast as she could go. She only prayed she could find it in time.

She’d only used the portal one other time. The day she’d entered the
Morte Stellam
to become its captain. Finally, as the sound of shouting spread and moved closer, Cari spotted it.

“There!” Cari stopped a few feet away from the shimmering arch of air.

Grimm’s eyebrows lifted in surprise. “A portal? Inside a battle orb?”

Cari shook her head. “I don’t have time to explain. I probably couldn’t anyway. You need to go.”

Grimm shook his head. “I’m not leaving without you.”

Cari stamped her foot. “You
are
leaving, Forbes. I won’t take no for an answer.”

Grimm pulled the blaster free, turning toward the swaying greenery twenty yards away.
Over here! I’ve found them.

The guard burst from the narrow path and lifted an O
²
blaster, pointing it at Cari.

Grimm fired at the man’s feet and he dove. The greenery split and three more guards burst into the clearing. The first guard shot wide, but the other two aimed directly at Grimm.

“No!” Cari leapt toward him, shoving him hard in the chest as a dual blast of ignited oxygen sizzled toward them. She jerked, gasping as the fire hit her in the back.

Screaming her name, Grimm wrapped his arms around her and stumbled backward, pulling her through the portal with him.

Cari screamed as they slammed into the rocky ground. Grimm wrapped himself around her as they hit the ground and skidded. Her scream was long and high pitched, filled with fear and pain.

Grimm swore. “It’s going to be all right, captain.”

But she writhed and tried to wrench away from him as flames flared on her back.

Grimm slapped at the flames, causing her to scream louder, until her voice went hoarse from the horrible cries and, with a final twisting of her torso, her eyes rolled back in her head and she passed out. Her fragrant head landed with a painful thud on his chest.

Grimm rolled her carefully to her side and stood, reaching down to pick her up and looking around for help.

Several shocked gazes stared at them from beneath deep, wide bonnets. The woman wore rough cotton dresses in muted colors and dusty black boots with laces that climbed their shins. A shrill cry had him spinning around, Cari’s dangling legs snapping against his hip. A horse danced on the end of a tether, its brown eyes wide with fear and nostrils flaring.

Beyond the horse was a log fronted building with swinging doors. Above the doors a sign swung in a building wind.

Dust swirled around Grimm’s ankles and filled the air until he coughed.

The doors to the building across the street opened and slammed back, spitting a man in a dirty white hat and leather chaps from its maw.

The man stopped when he spotted them, his jaws working something that made his cheeks puff.

“I need a doctor,” Grimm told him, taking a step closer.

Cari moaned softly, her body trembling. Grimm looked down and saw that his hands were covered in her blood. His boots were speckled with it and, as he watched, a bright red drop fell and slid over the dusty toe of one boot. “Fast.”

Grimm strode toward the building but stopped as the cowboy lifted a long muzzled gun toward them. “What in tarnation…?”

“We don’t mean you any harm,” Grimm tried. “The woman has been shot.”

The man tipped his hat back and narrowed his gaze on Cari. “She don’t look good, mister.”

“That’s why I need a doctor.”

He turned his head and spat a wide stream of brown liquid into the street. “Doc ain’t here. He’s gone to deliver a calf out at the Miller place.”

Grimm wanted to scream. “When will he be back?”

The cowboy dropped the pistol into its holster, hanging low on a gun belt over one hip. He shook his head. “No idea.” He leaned against the post and pulled a packet of chaw from his pocket, stuffing a fresh wad between brown teeth. “Your whore don’t look like she’ll make it nohow. Even if’n he come back tonight.”

Grimm didn’t blame the man for the insulting moniker, Cari’s dress wasn’t…normal…for the time they found themselves in. The chaw-chewin’ cowboy was right about something else too. Cari
was
in bad shape.

“If you’d like, I can take a look at her,” a soft voice said from behind Grimm. He turned to look at the woman, whose wide shoulders were exposed above a deeply cut burgundy gown with wilted yellow lace around the edge.

Her face was just as worn as her gown, but he guessed she’d been pretty once, before years of lying on her back for rough-handed cowboys took it out of her. “Thank you, miss…”

“Scarlett.” She smiled shyly. “Just Scarlett. I ain’t no doctor but I tend my whores. Maybe I can help you with yours.”

“I’d appreciate any help you can give me, Scarlett.”

The woman inclined her head. “Follow me then. I just got a fresh batch of leeches and maggots in this morning.”

Grimm gulped. Alrighty then. “Um.” The woman stopped, looked back. “I’m sorry. I think she needs all the blood she has left.”

Scarlett just stared at him for a minute and then nodded. “Don’t you worry none, honey. Ol’ Scarlett’s done this a time or two before.”

Grimm reluctantly followed the woman toward a low-slung wooden building whose sign declared it the saloon. The covered porch was crowded with women wearing revealing homespun, their cheeks garishly rosy and their eyes bright with interest.

As Grimm climbed the steps, several soft, pale hands snaked out to feel Cari’s gown. A chorus of murmurs followed and, as Grimm followed Scarlett through a low doorway into a dimly lit room, someone tweaked him on the ass.

He flinched but kept on going, frowning at the giggling that ensued behind him.

Scarlet led him through a large room that smelled like old beer and stale sex. A well-rubbed wooden bar ran the entire length of the saloon on one side, with rough wooden tables and benches that were sparsely occupied at that time of day. On the other side of the big room, several lumpy couches were arrayed in the shadows, some of which were occupied by gyrating couples in various levels of undress.

Moaning and panting seemed to be the song of the hour in that rustic, darkened place.

Scarlett unlocked and opened a door hidden beneath the rough, wood stairway leading to an upper floor and ushered Grimm inside. “Lay her on the bed there.”

Something in the woman’s voice had changed but he was too worried about Cari to consider what it meant. Grimm eyed the bed before lowering Cari to it, turning her to her side. The bedding was much cleaner than he’d anticipated.

He saw the damage on Cari’s back clearly for the first time and sucked in a breath. The delicate fabric of her gown had melted away from a hole the size of his fist and scorch marks stained what remained.

The wound itself was shallow, blackened from flame, and oozed bright blood across its surface. Scarlett appeared beside him with a bottle of clear liquid, her blue gaze looking sharper than it had under the bright sun outside. He suddenly realized he’d be unable to explain the strange wound. “She was shot with something…”

“O
²
blaster?” Scarlett nodded as Grimm blinked in surprise. When she saw how Grimm was looking at her she grinned. “Let’s just say I’m not from around these here parts.”

“You’re an epoch mage?”

Scarlett poured some of the liquid on a rag and sat down next to Cari on the bed. “Guilty as charged.”

“Where are we?”

“Dunham, Oklahoma. Eighteen oh two.” She pressed the cloth to Cari’s wound and Cari jerked away. “You’d better hold her down. This stuff stings like the Dickens.”

Grimm leaned over the bed, placing his hands on Cari’s arm and shoulder. “What are you doing in this place?”

Scarlett covered the horrible wound with her saturated rag and pressed gently as Cari screamed, her head flying up and her eyes fluttering open. “Hold her still. Calm down now, missy. I know this stings but we need to try to get that cloth out of your wound.”

There was no further conversation for a couple of minutes until Cari’s screams died abruptly as she passed out again from the pain.

Grimm’s stomach was in knots. “Can’t you give her something for the pain?”

Scarlett shook her head. “I was teasin’ ya about the maggots and leeches, but the reality isn’t much better. I have to keep a low profile or the locals are gonna figure out I don’t belong here. I manage to pass this rubbing alcohol off as clean water and I have a limited supply of antibiotics.” She removed the rag and picked carefully at the wound, managing to loosen a section of the melted fabric from the wound. “If she wakes up again we’ll give her some laudanum. It’s nasty shit but it’ll take the sting out of what we’re doing.” She moistened the rag again and laid it over the wound. “There’s a coven outside of town. Led by a woman who doesn’t keep a very low profile. I’ve been sent to keep an eye on them.”

Grimm nodded. “You’d think witches would understand that drawing attention to themselves in these less civilized epochs is a bad idea.”

Scarlett removed the rag and picked at the remaining fabric. “Yeah, you’d think.” A few moments later she’d managed to remove the last of it. “I’ll give her a dose of antibiotic and some laudanum for the pain, but she really needs to see the Healer.”

Grimm shook his head. “I can’t take her there.”

Scarlett placed a clean square of linen over the wound. She glanced at Grimm. “Why not? You’re Sorceri aren’t you?”

Grimm avoided her gaze for a moment, reluctant to admit his situation. “Not anymore. I…we had kind of a falling out.”

Pulling Cari’s gown over her head, Scarlett wrapped a long piece of cloth she’d torn from her petticoat around Cari’s ribs to hold the bandage in place. Grimm averted his gaze from the slender length of Cari’s form, his imagination filling in the round fullness of pale breasts and the soft roundness of perky buttocks. Despite his determined avoidance of the sight, his mouth was dry and his cock stiff with knowledge that heaven lay only inches away…if only he could look at her without feeling like a cad.

“So, no guide magics?”

Grimm frowned, feeling the weight of his estrangement from the Authority more deeply than ever before. “No.”

Scarlett nodded. She moved to a tall cabinet beside the room’s only door. Dragging the wardrobe doors open, she reached inside and pulled out a pale yellow dress. “This will serve her better than that ruined gown.” Scarlett eyed the tattered fabric pooled on the floor. “It’s a pity though. I can tell it was beautiful.”

Grimm stared at the tattered gown as his jeans tightened over his groin like a clamp. He’d probably dream about that gown for the rest of his life. “Yeah.”

“So.” She extended her hand toward Grimm. “Here. Just promise me you’ll bring it back.”

He looked down at her open hand and lifted an eyebrow in surprise. “A Sorceri guide coin?” The two inch diameter coin was engraved with the Latin words,
dimicare et vincere locant
—Locate and Conquer—the Sorceri maxim. The words encircled a column which was meant to illustrate the Sorceri’s guide. Grimm took the coin from her and turned it over, curious since he’d never actually seen one. The other side bore a likeness of the Huntsman’s odd little face and the date the Authority were formed—1695, a few years after the Salem Witch Trials began.

“The portal will take you to the island. This will get you into his lair.”

Grimm was touched beyond words. “You don’t even know us.”

She shrugged, grinning. “Let’s just say it’s been a while since I’ve seen one of my own kind.” She glanced at Cari. “I’ve missed polite company.”

Grimm pulled the woman into an impulsive hug, drawing a surprised gasp and a chuckle from her. “Thank you. I promise we’ll bring this back to you and, once my business is done, I’ll come back for a visit.” His smile was genuine.

Her cheeks pinkening with embarrassment, Scarlett poked him on the chest. “I’ll hold you to that, hunter.”

Grimm stood at the base of the volcano, his gaze sliding up a column of smoke that rose from the fiery opening into the sky. Cari’s head moved on his chest, her breath wafting softly across his chin. She moaned, her feverish brow glossed with sweat. She hadn’t regained consciousness since Scarlett had given her a glass of water dosed with laudanum.

She was in such obvious pain, Grimm would give almost anything to be able to ease it. Unfortunately he was going to have to make it a hell of a lot worse first.

He glanced at the soft, appealing face resting against his shoulder and sighed. “I’m sorry, captain. Hopefully
you’ll
at least sleep through this.”