Ann Gimpel (10 page)

Fortunately, he wasn’t looking at her, or he might have read guilt on her face. He was doing something with the compass; it lay against one of the sides of the map. “We’re here.” He stabbed the map with a begrimed finger.

She bent over his arm, looking. “So that roadway we ended up on earlier was Interstate Five.” Her nostrils flared and her eyes widened. “We’re practically walking distance to Mount Shasta.”

“Uh-huh.” He nodded. “Best I can tell, we’re near Castle Crags, only about twenty miles from the gateway to Taltos.”

“Where’d we come from?”

He pointed to an area north of Susanville, scribing a circle with his finger. “I’ve moved around a bit, but I’ve stayed in this same basic area for the last couple of years. It was safe enough—until you showed up.”

She ignored his comment. “Do you suppose the Lemurians know we’re here?” He shot her a look that said he thought she was smarter than that. She tried again. “Have you ever been there before?”

“No. Told you I’ve kept my distance.”

If you’ve done that, why come with me now?
It didn’t make a whole lot of sense. Aislinn turned her attention to Rune. “Why’d you go to the gateway?”

“Because I wanted justice—for Marta.” Aislinn was just about to ask him another question when he added, “They sent me away.”

She considered digging deeper, but it upset Rune to talk about his last bond mate. She saw it in the squared-off way he stood. Instead, she got to her feet. “I’m going for a walk. I need to think. If we’re going to be there tomorrow, I have to figure some things out so maybe the Old Ones will answer my questions.”

She felt Fionn fall into step next to her before she’d gotten a hundred yards from the flat rocks near the rushing creek where they’d eaten. He circled her waist with an arm. “You don’t have to do this,” he said.

She snorted. “Yeah. I’ve been thinking the same thing. I can turn tail and run back to my little hovel, fight when they call me, and spend the rest of my time hoping this will all go away.”

“Except it won’t.”

Aislinn stopped walking. She turned to him and laid her head in the nook between his shoulder and neck. After the briefest of hesitations, he pulled her close. His breath was warm in her hair. She wanted to kiss him. To lose herself in sensation so she wouldn’t have to think about all the rest. But that was the easy way.

Moving back so she could meet his gaze, she said, “How about this? I’ll go there by myself tomorrow. You can take the animals and return to your home. I’m sure I can find it again. It’s easy to find places I’ve been before.”

“What will you do after you get to the gateway?”

She shrugged, trying to lighten the edginess nagging her. “Play dumb. Like I didn’t understand what Metae meant. Ask a few questions about my magic and how to deal with things like D’Chel. I’ve met up with two of the dark gods in the last few days. Makes sense I’d be rattled about it. Maybe the Old Ones have an anti-sex charm or something.”

When he didn’t say anything, she hurried on. “That way, there’d only be one of us hiding secrets from them.”
Rune would be safe, and I wouldn’t have to worry about them hurting you,
she added silently, surprised by the strength of her feelings for him. She hadn’t known Fionn all that long. She didn’t understand why it felt so important to protect him.

He pulled her to him again. This time, she laid her head against his chest. The beat of his heart sounded loud in her ear. He knotted his fingers in her hair and kissed her forehead gently.
He’s just as scared as I am,
she realized.
Scared to love. Scared to lose anything else to the scourge that’s taken over our planet.

Twining her arms around his neck, she slipped her fingers under his hair, and then turned her face upward. With an inchoate moan, he covered her lips with his and kissed her. His tongue plumbed her mouth; she sparred with it, licking and sucking. His breath was sweet. He tasted of summer meadows and something spicy and exotic she couldn’t name. Her body heated under his touch as he ran his hands down her back and cupped her ass, drawing her firmly against him. The swell of his erection pressed against her lower belly.

This time when she reached between them to touch him, he pressed himself into her curved fingers. She sensed something untamed in him that ran close to the surface. He kept the energy tightly reined in, but need simmered, barely contained. She felt the shift when he released whatever brakes he’d imposed on his sexuality. Aislinn opened her eyes. His had darkened to midnight. Hunger blazed from their depths. He pushed her down onto the ground. Shoving her clothing aside, he latched onto one of her nipples, suckling and nibbling, and then switched to the other.

Her back arched. She wound her arms around him, trying to draw him closer. Electric sensation sparked from his mouth on her breasts, setting her nerve endings on fire. She buried her hands in his hair and rained kisses down the side of his face. Ever so slowly, he moved his mouth upward to her throat and mouth.

She let go of him long enough to fumble with the fastenings of her pants, undo one boot, and free one leg. When she reached for his pants, she saw he’d beaten her to it. Aislinn pushed Fionn onto his back. Wrapping a hand around his shaft, she straddled him and then guided him inside her. The shock of his body within hers rocked her. She’d had plenty of sex, but never, never like this. Orgasms crowded against one another till she wasn’t sure when one ended and the next began. His hands gripped her hips. She heard breath rattle in his throat, color splotched his face and chest. He cried her name, voice hoarse with need, before his own release took him. Fionn shuddered inside her for a very long time.

Aislinn collapsed over his body. He stroked her back and her hair, murmuring wordless endearments. “Look at me,” he said at last.

She pushed away, feeling cold where his body no longer lay against hers, and rolled into a sit, legs tucked beneath her. “I’m looking. What I see is beautiful.”

He colored. A tender smile tugged at the edges of his mouth. “That’s not why…” he began. Fionn shook his head, levered himself up, and sat across from her. He laid his hands on her knees. “I’m of two minds about your plan to go to Taltos alone, but I do think it’s better than letting them see us together. Especially after what we just shared.”

Realization raced through her. Like books and maps, relationships were also on the
best not do it
list. No one had any problems with humans having sex. They just weren’t supposed to develop feelings for one another.
One more way to keep us isolated. And them in control.

He must have divined her thoughts, because he laughed wryly. “Oh, it wouldn’t have mattered whether or not we actually fucked. They’d sense that we lusted after each other. It would make them…uncomfortable.”

Intuition chimed a sharp note. “That’s not all you want to tell me.”

He nodded. Smiles and laughter gone, he looked serious as death. “You will not do anything to jeopardize yourself. You will come home to me.” He moved one of his hands from her knee and closed it about her wrist like a vise. “I will not lose anything more to
them
.” Because he’d stopped shrouding them, heat from his emotions seared her.

She swallowed. This was what she’d feared—and wanted. He cared about her.
And I care about him. Christ, I hope this wasn’t a mistake.

Chapter Nine

I
f Fionn was one type of problem, Rune had been another. To say the wolf was not pleased by her plan was an understatement. He’d run off into the woods and shielded himself so she couldn’t find him.

“I’m afraid he’ll track me on foot,” she said to Fionn, returning after a fruitless hour hunting for the wolf. “After all, he knows where the place is.”

“We have some time yet.” Fionn’s deep voice sounded reassuring.

“I suppose we do. There’s nothing magical about me showing up at the gateway tomorrow. We can wait him out, but it makes me nervous setting up a camp so close to Taltos.”

“Hmph. They’ll probably think we’re spying on them,” he concurred, scratching at his beard. “Um, taking your bond mate with you isn’t such a bad idea—”

She whirled to face him. “What if something happens to him?”

Fionn tipped her chin upward with a finger. Their gazes met. “Something could happen to any of us. It’s why we’ve avoided…entanglements.”

So I’m not the only ambivalent one here
. “Guess I just haven’t gotten used to having an animal companion.” She prevaricated, finding it easier to focus on her feelings about Rune than the jumbled mess inside her whenever she thought about Fionn.

“They’re pretty good at taking care of themselves.” He smiled. It was a toned-down version of his ten thousand-watt grin, but it still made her guts go all mushy.

“Rune,”
she tried again, using mind speech this time.
“Come to me.”

“Mistress.”
His voice dripped censure.

“I am not your mistress. But I’d like to be your friend.”

“Then stop trying to foist me off on others. We are bond mates for a reason.”

“Can we talk about this?”

“We are talking. If you’re trying to get me close enough to trap me, forget about it.”

She looked at Fionn. “Did you hear that?”

“Every word.”

“What do you think?”

“Rune definitely has a mind of his own. I say we ask him what he thinks of your plan and take his counsel into consideration.”

The wolf sauntered out of a grove of blue firs. “At last, a human with sense.” He growled, keeping his distance from her. His hackles were at half-mast, his amber eyes chilly.

“Okay.” Aislinn came to her feet, hands on her hips. “What do you think we should do?”

A surprised look spread over the wolf’s face. “You have to take me with you. Metae already knows we are bond mates. She would think it odd if you showed up alone.”

Aislinn hated to admit it, but Rune had a point. “I was just trying to keep you safe,” she snapped.

“We are safer together,” the wolf replied in a patronizing tone. “You have much to learn,
bond mate
.” His sarcasm escalated with the last words.

“It’s true,” Fionn concurred. “Part of the magic cementing the bond is a synergistic energy that’s more together than its individual parts.”

Aislinn hunkered next to Rune. “Just don’t disappear on me again,” she muttered. “I’ll have my hands full, and I don’t know if I can pull this off if I’m worried about you.”

“Then don’t send me away.”

From a nearby branch, Bella squawked an unintelligible opinion. Aislinn assumed the bird agreed with the wolf.

“Okay.” She stood and spread her hands in surrender. “I know when I’m outnumbered. Let’s strategize. What are the most important things we need to know from the Old Ones?”

Morning came all too soon. She’d slept wrapped in Fionn’s arms with Rune against her other side. It felt right somehow. Like she belonged between the two of them. She was tempted to simply retreat. It was unlikely her gambit would pay off, and she would have put herself and her wolf in harm’s way for nothing.

“They know we’re here,” Rune told her. “You have to go. The Old Ones would think something was very wrong if you came all this way, only to turn around.”

She eyed the wolf. “I’d forgotten you could read my mind.”

“Good thing.” He met her gaze, tongue lolling. “Someone has to keep you on the straight and narrow.” Surprised he’d know about human idiomatic expressions, she asked how he’d come by it. Pain flickered behind his eyes. “Marta used to say that.”

“Wolf has a point.” Fionn crouched by a nearby creek, making them breakfast out of crushed pine nuts and some berries he’d located the night before. “Your plan depends on the Old Ones thinking you still trust them.”

“So I have to act like I do.” She squared her shoulders. This was going to be hard. She’d never been a very good liar. “Is the food ready?” She didn’t feel much like eating, but she’d need energy.

“Bring your cup over here.”

She was just cleaning the dregs of pine nut flour paste out of her eating mug when Fionn reached into one of his many pockets. He handed her what looked like a piece of river-washed quartz, clear with green flecks in it. “You want me to take that?” She raised a quizzical eyebrow, and he nodded. “Why?”

“It is linked to my magic. If you get into trouble, lay your lips against it and breathe my name into the stone.”

“Just Fionn? Or will I need a last name, too?”

Leaning close, he whispered to her.

She drew back, her mouth rounded into an “o.” Breath caught in the back of her throat. “B-But you aren’t really,” she stammered. “It’s not possible. I mean, that just happened to be your father’s last name. Right?”

He looked at her. Flickers of green danced around his sea blue irises. “Time for you to get going.” He paused a beat, added, “lass,” and winked.

This just gets stranger and stranger. I feel like Alice without the white rabbit.
She lurched to her feet, located her rucksack, and started stuffing things into it. She felt the heat of him behind her before he touched her. It sat like a living thing between them.

He circled his arms around her. “Turn about,” he said.

Maybe because she was listening for it now, she heard the faintest of Irish lilts in his voice. It reminded her of her mother. If she hadn’t grown up fed on Celtic myths, she wouldn’t even have recognized his last name. Pivoting in his arms, she looked up at him.

“I took a bit of a risk, telling you what I did,” he said.

She stammered, “Ah, not to worry. I won’t—”

“Sshh.” He closed his mouth over hers.

The kiss was sweet, not demanding a thing from her, but it still made her knees weak. When she opened her mouth for more, he drew back.

“Uh-uh.” The tiny creases around his eyes deepened as he smiled. “No more today. There are other things for you to focus on. Don’t be thinking about me or Bella. Get what you can from those bastards who see themselves as rulers here. Maybe we can find a way—”

“Maybe we can,” she echoed. It wasn’t easy to pull back from his embrace. She wanted to take up residence in those arms and never leave. Instead, she shouldered her pack, clucked to Rune, and pulled the magic she’d need to jump.

Tears were dangerously close to the surface as her spell made the air around her shimmer.
What the fuck am I doing?
she asked herself roughly.
I got along fine without him until now. I don’t need anything that will make me hurt again. Nothing.

“Think about the Old Ones and our task.”
Rune was in her mind, voice stern.

Good advice.
She spat out the words that would take them to Taltos, still feeling ridiculously conflicted.

Because she’d aimed for Mount Shasta City, thinking it held the gateway, Aislinn was surprised to find a collection of dilapidated buildings and nothing more. Usually cities retained more in the way of debris. It looked as if no one had lived here for fifty years. Rune broke from her side and dropped a paw onto a mouse that had the bad luck to scurry by at just that moment. Its small bones made little crunching sounds between his powerful jaws.

“So where is it?”
she asked, eying him.

“Follow me. We can walk from here.”

At first, she was annoyed he hadn’t sent her the right image, but as she stretched her legs into a long-strided lope, she was grateful for time to organize her thoughts. They climbed a hill that led due east out of town. The bulk of Mount Shasta towered above them. Snow spilled down its flanks nearly to the remains of the town. Rune disappeared into a hillside. Even though she couldn’t see the opening, she figured there had to be one and followed him.

A cave so large that she couldn’t see its other end stretched before them. Rune sat on his haunches, a dark shadow barely visible in the cavern’s dusky gloom. She dribbled magic to her mage light. Breath whistled through her teeth. Lava formations made whimsical archways. Multi-hued crystals glittered in the depths of some of them. The effect was dizzyingly beautiful. Water ran down one wall. She grinned in spite of herself.
Gee, that part’s a lot like my house.

“What now?” she asked the wolf.

“We wait. They know we’re here. They likely knew last night.”

“Your animal has wisdom.” Metae’s unmistakable voice, something like temple bells with a buzz saw behind them, preceded her form as it oozed through one of the walls. “I wonder about you, though.” The tinkling bells cooled perceptibly. “Did I not tell you I would let you know when to come here?”

“Oh?” Aislinn did her very best to look surprised. “I knew you were angry because I didn’t get here in the four-day time limit, but I thought you meant for me to get here as soon as I could. See,” she prattled on, working to infuse truth into her voice, “we ran into more troubles. D’Chel—”

“What about that charlatan?” Metae demanded.

Well, that seems to have gotten her attention.
“I met a fellow traveler. Also a Hunter, bonded to a raven. D’Chel attacked the raven—”

“And me, too, but I got away,” Rune cut in. “I marshaled the forest wolves to help fight.” He leveled his amber gaze at the Old One. “But we were not strong enough. Two were killed.”

Metae’s gaze shifted from Aislinn to Rune. Something unspeakably alien and undeniably ancient shone from her iridescent eyes. Aislinn shook her head to clear her thoughts.
Wonder why I never noticed how strange her eyes were before?

“Because I titrate which parts of me humans can see,”
Metae sent. The temple bells pealed again. “Never forget I can read your mind, child. Now, what happened to the raven bond mate?”

Aislinn sucked in a breath. “I, uh, offered myself in exchange for D’Chel letting the raven, her human, and Rune go.”

That inhuman gaze drilled into her. “Apparently you got away. How?”

Opening her mouth to try to talk felt strange. Suddenly, she knew anything shy of unvarnished truth wouldn’t pass her lips. “He stopped shape shifting and took on human form. He touched me and kissed me, but he was so cold.” Aislinn shuddered at the memory. “I’d planned to just have sex with him and figure out a way to escape after, but he was leaching everything warm out of me. I, uh, knew if he fucked me, I’d lose myself.”

“Good you figured that out.” Dry amusement ran beneath Metae’s voice. “You still have not told me how you escaped.”

“I told you how cold I was. Well, I drew fire. Since I didn’t have a spell in mind, I held it within me.” Aislinn squared her shoulders and clasped her hands behind her back. “The heat made me feel a whole lot better, especially when I figured out my skin was so hot that he couldn’t touch me. He tried a couple of times and then turned into a cobra.” Aislinn shrugged. “Since I already had power to spare, I diverted it into a jump and was gone.”

“And he did not try to follow you?” Metae sounded incredulous. “You had better be telling me the truth, Daughter.”

“You know I am. You’re in my mind.” Aislinn tried to keep defensiveness out of her voice. “He may have followed me, but he didn’t find me. I took refuge underground. My next jump left from there.

“Anyway,” she hurried on before Metae could question her more closely about exactly where underground she’d been, “that’s why I’m here. I need an anti-sex charm or something to protect myself. Christ, I’ve had run-ins with two of them in as many days. Perrikus would have had me if you hadn’t shown up. I don’t know if he’s another refrigerator man like D’Chel, but…” Aislinn let her voice trail off, hoping she’d done a decent job convincing Metae of her continuing trust in the Old Ones.

No one said anything further for what seemed like hours. Rune moved close to Aislinn and leaned against her side. Her legs grew tired, but she knew better than to try to sit in an Old One’s presence. “I must confer with some of the others,” Metae said at last. “You and your bond animal will remain just outside the entrance to this cave. Hunting is plentiful. It is safe to have fires, and the water flowing down yon wall emerges as a spring not far from here.”

“How long do you—?” Aislinn caught herself and bit off the rest of her sentence. She knew better than to question Metae.

“Maybe you have more in the way of wisdom than I thought,” Metae muttered just before she vanished in a blast of light so bright that spots danced in front of Aislinn’s eyes.

Rune padded toward the cave’s entrance.

Cunning! It’s illusion. That’s why I couldn’t see it from outside.
Either her magic had sensitized itself to it, or Metae had done something to make it visible.

“Do you think it’s safe to talk?”
she asked the wolf.

“No.”
He headed through a stand of Jeffrey pines.

“Where are you going?” she called after him.

“Hunting. Want to come?”

Aislinn realized she did want to come. The thought of parking her butt outside the entrance to Taltos for an indeterminate time chilled her. She understood what a dangerous game she played and how few tools she had in her arsenal—especially compared with ancient creatures who’d been alive for thousands of years.