Cowboy from the Future (2 page)

Understanding
her was like trying to read forgotten words off a crumbling wall.  With some
concentration, Cade managed to find the translations and fancy accent he
needed.  “You wish… to stay…
here?
”

“Nooooo,
I really
don’t
wish it, actually.  But, I don’t have much of a choice,
do I?”  She swung a pack off her shoulder, setting it on the ground.  It was
made of an exceptionally smooth material and decorated with multicolored dots. 
It had to have cost more money than even existed in the world.  “It’s going to
be fine, though.  Everything’s going to be fine.”  The words seemed aimed at
herself.  “Fine, fine, fine, fine,
fine.
  Just stay calm.”  She took another
deep breath and refocused on Cade.  “Am I still in Wyoming?”

“Why
o’ Ming?”  Cade didn’t recognize that name and he could tell from the baffled
looks of the eavesdropping patrons that no one else did, either.  “Which polis
is that?”

Forest
green eyes met his and he saw them fill with something even greater than fear. 
Something like real terror.  “Where am I?”  She got out hoarsely.

Cade’s
heart flipped at her shaky tone.  He wanted to sooth her panic… which was so completely
out of character for him that he knew he was in trouble.

His
whole life, his family had been nagging him to be
softer
.  Less
demanding and stubborn and cynical.  The cold blood of his mother’s people ran
through his veins, after all.  The Voltyn were a heartless race, without
emotion.  They were only bred to fight.

So
why did Cade want to vault over the bar and comfort this fragile human girl?

This
wasn’t good.

“You’re
in Shadow-of-the-Gods.”  Jacobi put in quickly, seeing that Cade was frozen in
place.  He was the most outgoing of the brothers; his aura a clear, goodhearted
blue.  “I got no idea how you managed to get here,” he told the woman, “but you’re
safe, now.”

Cade
wasn’t so sure about that.  His gaze scanned over the bar, taking in the hungry
expressions of the patrons.  Ladies were rare in these parts and now this helpless,
unprotected, untouchable being was within touching distance.

Deke
arched a brow at Cade, waiting to see how he wanted to handle this.  Deke’s
aura was red, with jagged slashes of black as a result of the Wilderness War.  Bloodshed
meant little to Deke, so one nod would’ve had him preemptively picking off the
rowdier customers with the laz-gun.  He was nearly as large as Cade, with dark
hair that he never bothered to cut or clean, anymore.  It fell over his face,
his watchful blue eyes peering between the matted strands.

Cade
gave his head a shake.  Hopefully, no one would have to die tonight.  The
Westins’ standing in the polis was already dismal.  Too much more bloodshed and
they’d be run out of Shadow-of-the-Gods for good.  Not that Cade particularly
wanted
his family to stay here, but they had nowhere else to go.

The
woman’s attention stayed on the youngest Westin brother.  “Shadow-of-the-Gods?” 
She repeated, frowning at Jacobi.  “Where’s that?”

The
question didn’t make any sense.  Not even to Jacobi, who’d always been the best
student of their grandmother’s language.  “Um… It’s here.  Or
there
,
actually.”  He pointed to the window on the far wall.

She
turned to look through it, up and up and up some more… to the four faces of the
gods carved into the side of the Great Mountain.  Weathered by the ages and
covered in vines, they were still clearly visible for miles.  The civilization who’d
built them had passed into history a millennium before and still the mysterious
sentinels were worshipped.

The
woman gazed at them, growing pale.  “Oh… shit.”  She finally whispered.

“People
are always saying that when they first see those heads.”  Manston edged his
barstool closer.  The guy had tried and failed to bed every female in a
tri-polis area and he was clearly eager to keep his perfect record intact.  His
eyes greedily roamed over the woman’s lush body, his muddy aura alive with
creeping browns and angry streaks of violent red.  “The four of them founded a
great world, ya know.  Before the flash took it all away, they ruled
everything
. 
Their cities had buildings five stories tall and filled with food.”

The
woman didn’t seem to hear those outrageous claims.  Or maybe she just didn’t
understand them.  “I’m at Mount Rushmore.”  Her eyes stayed fixed on the
granite faces.  “Why am I at Mount Rushmore?  I thought we weren’t touring
Mount Rushmore until Thursday.  Where
is
Mount Rushmore?  South Dakota,
right?  How did I get to South Dakota?  And why does everything look so… old?”

“Those
faces were carved a thousand years ago.”  Manston volunteered, not giving up
even though the woman hadn’t even glanced his way.  “No one knows how.  It must
have been magic.”  He leered at her.  “Come home with me and I’ll show you some
real
magic, flower.”

Several
other patrons laughed at that remark.

“What
did he say?”  The woman sent Cade a quick look and he could tell she didn’t
understand most of Manston’s drunken come-ons.  Not surprising since she didn’t
seem to communicate in anything but the obsolete tongue of the elite and Manston’s
broken vernacular was barely intelligible even at the best of times.

“Manston
says he’s fucking a goat.”  Jacobi put in when Cade didn’t answer.  He glanced
over at the huge miner and smirked, enjoying the fact that the jackass couldn’t
comprehend a word of that insult.  “It makes him very proud, since he’s mostly
had to settle for ghaa beasts.”

Deke
snorted in amusement, which was almost as rare a spectacle as a lady in the
saloon.  These days, the middle Westin brother was a silent specter in his own
life.  He hadn’t recovered from the War.  Unless a miracle occurred, he
probably never would.

Cade
supposed he owed the woman for that slight smile.

“Oh.” 
She clearly didn’t care about Manston’s love life.  She looked back out at the
Great Mountain, again.  “Look, I have to get back to Yellowstone.  Which is
ironic, since I never wanted to
go
to Yellowstone, in the first place.  I
mean glamping?  Really?  That trend is
so
over.”

“What
is ‘glamping’?”  Jacobi asked Cade in a stage whisper.

He
shrugged.  Grandmother must have skipped that word.

“It’s
like glamorous camping.”  The woman explained.  “It’s this year’s company
retreat, although
I
certainly didn’t vote for it.  I voted for Vegas. 
Do I look like someone who glamps?  I flunked P.E., for God’s sake.  Who flunks
P.E., except the
really
unathletic, fat kids?  I always
knew
no
good would come from exercising and now look at what’s happened!”

Cade
had never heard of a place with yellow stones, either.  Not that it mattered.  Someone
needed to talk some sense into the woman and it seemed like it had to be him. 
He focused on constructing sentences that she would understand.

“You
will not…”  Shit, what was the word he was looking for that was like “life”?  “You
will not
live
if you go searching for yellow stones in this weather. 
You were correct in looking for shelving.”  Not shelving.  Fucking hell, what
was it called?   Shepherd?  Shelter!  That was it.  “Shel
ter
.  The snow
is very deep and it is getting worse.”

“You’re
right.  I know.  I just…”  She looked over at Cade, again, like something new
had occurred to her.  “Shit, what do you charge for rooms here?  You probably
don’t take American Express, right?”

His
eyes traced over her face.  Most of her words were a mystery, but the woman had
the smoothest skin he’d ever seen.  He knew he was acting like an idiot by staring
at her, but he couldn’t stop.  She was so beautiful… and so far out of his
reach.  If he didn’t get rid of her quickly, she would upend his whole life. 
He knew it as surely as he knew the sun would set in the west.

“There
are other places you could stay.”  He declared, trying to come up with another
spot where she’d be safe.  “You should find other shelving.”  Fuck.  He
couldn’t think straight when those green eyes were blinking at him.  “
Shelter
.”

His
brothers squinted at him, taking in his uncharacteristic behavior.

“But,
I don’t know where else to go.”  The woman fumbled in the front pocket of her
pack and came up with a leather wallet decorated with interlocking Cs. 
“Here.”  She placed a half dozen… things on the bar in front of him.  Flat and
thin, they were covered in formal writing, but most of the words were
unfamiliar.  “Do you take
any
credit cards?  It doesn’t even matter what
you charge, just let me stay here.”

Cade’s
eyebrows drew together and he picked one up, turning it over in his hand.  What
were these “credit cards” made of?  Whatever the hard, smooth material was,
he’d never seen it before.  He caught it between his teeth and bit down,
testing its flexibility.  A jagged piece snapped off between his molars.

She
blinked at the destruction and then gave a hysterical laugh that quickly turned
into a sob.  “Jesus.  You’re eating my credit cards.  Of course you are.  I
just… can’t.  I just can’t do this.”  She laid her head down on the bar, her
shoulders shaking with the force of her crying.  “If only I’d dieted, like I resolutioned
for the past twenty New Years, I would already
be
thin and my idiot
coworkers couldn’t have guilted me into hiking on my vacation.  Well, I’m sorry
if I’m not a size two, but this is
really
not helping!”

Cade
gave up trying to understand her teary rant and concentrated on figuring out
what the hell he was going to do with this woman.  Christ, where
was
he
going to send her?  Defenseless, clearly lost, and possibly insane, she’d just turned
her back to a roomful of thieves and killers without the slightest awareness of
how vulnerable she really was.

Manston
edged even closer to her.

“Cade.” 
Deke said quietly in their normal dialect.  “What are we doing?”  They all knew
this situation was about to go bad.  The Westins could smell a fight coming a
mile off.  “Yes or no on this girl?”

“No.” 
She couldn’t stay there.  Her mere presence would upset Cade’s shaky status quo
with the rest of the polis.  A human lady staying with a Voltyn…?  Gods, there
would be blood in the streets.  “She has to go.”

His
mother’s blood screamed at him over the denial.  Logic be damned, it wanted her,
and that golden aura, and the damn click she made.

Deke
didn’t say anything else, but Cade could feel his disapproval.  Under the craziness
and bad temper, Deke had always had soft spot for strays.  It was why the War
did so much damage to him.  Well, that and the time he’d spent as a prisoner of
the Outlanders.

“
No
.”
 Cade repeated more firmly, trying to convince them both.  “She’s got to leave.”

“You
want to toss her into the snow, then?  You think she’ll last out there?”  Deke
glanced pointedly at Manston.

Godsdamn
it.

Jacobi
looked between his brothers.  “Deke’s right, Cade.  We can’t just kick her out. 
Especially, not when you want her so bad.”

“I
didn’t say I wanted her.”

“You
didn’t have to.”  He lowered his voice.  “Look at your palms, moron.”

Cade
swore under his breath and put his hands into his pocket, before anyone else
noticed the glow.  “If she stays here, she’s going to cause us nothing but
trouble.”

“So
what?”  Jacobi shrugged with all the careless optimism of his sixteen years. 
“I’ve never seen you react that way to
anyone
, Cade.”  He was still
whispering to prevent eavesdropping, which was unusually perceptive for the
kid.  “This girl is supposed to be yours.  You
have
to keep her.”

“Are
you out of your mind?”  Cade hissed back.  “Look at her!  She’s a
lady
,
Jake.  You think someone like her would ever be with
me?
  Just having
her here is dangerous.”

The
woman was the most valuable thing within a hundred miles.  Getting involved in
her mess would be inviting a shit storm of epic proportions.  The smart play would
be to let some other bastard deal with all the turmoil she’d cause.  Judging
from the patrons’ eager expressions, there would be no shortage of volunteers
to take her in from the cold.

“A
bar is no place for a pretty flower like this.”  Manston interjected, picking
up on the broad strokes of their argument.  “She can’t stay here with
you
,
Cade.  That’s for sure.”  He edged closer to the woman as she wept.  “I’m
happy
to take her off your hands.”  He reached out to touch her hair, his filthy
fingers running over the pristine curls.

The
woman jerked away from him in surprise and alarm, her gaze flashing over to
Cade like she expected him to do something.  Of
course
, she expected him
to do something.  Clearly, she was useless and spoiled.  She came from a world
where the rich son of some rich asshole protected her from reality.

Manston
was an illiterate scumbag who literally lived in a cave, while she was the kind
of lady who existed exclusively in the beds of wealthy men.  She was so damn
pretty, she could have anyone she wanted.  …Meaning there would also be quite a
few she
didn’t
want, wanting her.  On her own, the woman would be at the
mercy of every degenerate in the polis, starting with Manston.  The bastard
wasn’t exactly a girl’s dream beau.