Deadlands Hunt (11 page)

"Thank you," Amethyst forced out past dry lips as he finished. To her surprise, his response was a tender stroke of her tangled hair as Kyle rose to his feet. She had no way of knowing her attempt to save their pack leader's life had won her their undying loyalty.

Chase knew - they all knew - that without her slowing his fall by catching hold of the rope, he wouldn't have had enough time to stop his deadly plunge. Releasing her hand, the Weren snatched the canteen from Kyle before the other moved off and offered her a drink. "Here."

After she'd taken a few swallows, Amethyst managed a lopsided grin. "I imagine I look quite the fright right now."

"I think you look beautiful," Chase quietly replied. The sincerity in his voice and eyes made her grin falter. There was another long, hushed moment of holding each other's gaze. Amethyst found something she didn't understand glimmering mysteriously in the depths of his pale golden ones.

The moment passed and he was assisting her to her feet while speaking. "Let's ride, find a safe way down for all of us. I didn't get a good look."

*

"Curtis, you lead off, and see if you can't find us a way down. Kyle, you're rearguard. Bran, I want you and Peter ahead of him, and you two," he nodded at Sally and Brian. "In front of them. I'll lead your horse, Amethyst."

Aside from the sour glance Brian threw him, no one made any protest. The Weren helped the red head up on her horse by grasping her around the waist and lifting her into the saddle. He paused, looking up and offered a bashful smile. "I forgot to say thank you. I was a little distracted."

Recalling the expressions that had floated across his face as he'd gently held her hand, Amethyst smiled back. Almost without thinking, she touched his cheek with her good hand, fingertips stroking briefly. "You're welcome."

Smile broadening, Chase collected the reins of her horse and led it over to his. Mounting, he looped her reins over his saddle horn and nodded to Curtis to lead them off. They rode quietly, alert for trouble. A slow two miles passed by before the burly shape shifter lifted a hand for a halt and slid off his horse to investigate the trail he'd spotted.

"Game trail, heavily used by runebok," he reported. "Single file, we should be able to manage it, too."

"Let's try it, then." Chase unhooked the reins and ran them over the bay's head to offer them to Amethyst. Glancing at her face as she accepted them, he murmured, "Ride close behind me."

"All right."

Chase was feeling protective of the little red head as he explored the feelings she'd evoked in him. She'd been the first human female who'd ever voluntarily spoken to him, and she hadn't once flinched away from him. Not even the night she'd been crying, when he'd clumsily attempted to console her and had startled her.

Amethyst had even showed a preference for his company, choosing to sit watch with him the night before and selecting him as her riding partner while they travelled. Was it only kindness on her part?

Had Delphine hurt him so badly that he'd ignored any other women who might've shown him the same attention during the past year of riding border patrol? Was it simply her nearness that made him pay attention to Amethyst's friendly behavior?

Glancing back to check on her, the Weren didn't think so. He liked Sally well enough, and she'd been around him as much as the red head had. However, she didn't draw his eyes or make him want to offer any affectionate gestures, like what was rapidly becoming a habit of brushing tendrils of loose hair from Amethyst's face.

No, she was the one he wanted to touch and be near; the first woman he'd felt the need for since Delphine had left him. It was Amethyst, her sweet presence and those flashes of stubbornness she'd shown, that attracted him.

If it wasn't love quite yet, Chase was certain it was heading that way at a breakneck pace he wasn't at all inclined to try and halt.

He'd never had a woman risk her life for him before. It was a little humbling that it was a human woman who had.

*

There was something, Amethyst mused, that was rather thrilling to see in Chase's expression each time he glanced back. A combination of concern and wonder.

It was a far different look than the one of smug satisfaction on Brian's face, when he was looking at her. A look she belatedly realized that she hadn't seen once since the Werens had walked into the inn.

She'd been prepared to accept his proposal, since it seemed no one else was showing enough interest to suggest they might tender one. Amethyst frowned slightly as she thought about it. Seven years before, as a sixteen-year-old debutante, she'd had no dearth of boys requesting the pleasure of her company for events that required one to have a partner.

That had tapered off, so that by her eighteenth birthday, Brian was the only one constantly available to squire her to those events, and always at her side the instant she appeared at any that didn't require a partner in advance. The others had just stopped asking.

The red head resolved to have a private word with Peter at the first opportunity. He'd been one that she'd attended a few events with, and they had enjoyed some park outings together. Not that she minded he'd stopped asking her out, since he and Sally were so well suited to one another. But surely he could explain why he had stopped and would if she asked.

Having been lost in her thoughts, Amethyst was surprised to notice they'd reached level ground once more. Chase edged his horse alongside hers, reaching for the reins, so she surrendered them to him. Drawing them over her horse's head and looping them around his saddle horn once more, the Weren asked, "Can you load your bow one handed?"

"I'm afraid not. The crank turns easily enough, but I have to hold it while doing that," she replied.

"Hand it over, and I'll do it for you." It was somewhere between an order and an offer of assistance. Amethyst complied, watching him quickly crank the bow as she rummaged for a fresh bolt to hand him. Finishing, he asked, "Safety off?"

"No, you can set it. I can do that one handed, if I need to," she assured him. Accepting the small crossbow as he handed it to her, the red head smiled her thanks.

"Does your cheek hurt?" The bruise had developed, and looked painful to the Weren.

"Not badly, no." Having forgotten that she'd injured it until his question, Amethyst suddenly felt an ache. A tentative touch informed her that it was hot and sore.

The shape shifter read her expression and informed her, "It's bruised. Not extremely bad, so I don't think the bone's cracked."

"Oh. I sort of, um, fell when trying to catch hold of the rope." Amethyst looked down at her front, noticing how dirty she was for the first time. "I suppose that's obvious, though."

"Fell?" Kyle chuckled as he came along on her other side. "You didn't fall. She saw the orc about to cut it, turned and shot him. Bad luck he still managed to catch the rope, that's what it was. She took two running steps and dove for it, grabbed it just as it finished coming apart. Showed good judgment in where she caught it, too."

"How does one go about catching a rope correctly in such a situation?" Sally curiously asked.

"Well, catch the end, you lose it fast. Catch too close to whatever edge it's going over and you're gonna go over pretty damn quick yourself. Right in the middle, and being flat on the ground helped." Kyle grinned at her as Amethyst looked over at him. "You didn't even lose your gun."

"Gave me enough time to catch hold of something," Chase remarked.

"And me enough time to get over there and grab it myself," Kyle added. The shape shifter reached over and gently tweaked a red tress. "You're pretty strong for such a little thing. And tough. Someone else might've let go when the rope started taking off skin."

Blushing, Amethyst turned her eyes back to her bandaged hand. "I couldn't let him fall."

*

When she was a little girl, Amethyst dreamed about the man she'd grow up to marry. Those dreams were aided by old stories passed down from her Terran forebears and her more recent ancestors.

Tales of men who were quiet and strong; who insured peace was kept without resorting to just beating down anyone who disturbed it. Men who tamed wild frontiers, surviving against incredible odds.

Men like Chase and his fellow Weren. It was incredibly romantic to the red head that she was riding with men like that, who could've stepped straight off the pages of those old tales. That mysterious glimmering in Chase's eyes earlier was something she hoped to discover the meaning of. An interest in her? One that might perhaps, become love with some time? Turning her head, she gazed at his profile until he caught her looking.

"What's going on behind those eyes of yours?" he asked, voice a quiet rumble of sound.

"I'm thinking about my future, actually. I seem to be doing that quite a lot, these past few days," she replied easily.

"Strange. I've been doing a bit of thinking about my own future," Chase said, wondering if a man could ever grow tired of looking into Amethyst's eyes. It wasn't just the color of them, but the way her emotions seemed to shine brightly from them that he found intriguing.

They smiled at each other, oblivious to Brian's sullen stare and Bran's smacking Kyle on the arm as the latter silently urged Chase to kiss her. The two made faces at each other. Kyle mouthed 'What?' while looking injured and rubbing his arm. Bran scowled at him, to Curtis' amusement.

The burly shape shifter was happy Chase was showing such intent interest in the woman. He'd been worried ever since Delphine had left Chase, because his friend and pack leader had closed down. He hadn't been surprised when Chase announced they were going to the border.

Amethyst was good for him, and the glow that was beginning to show on her face every time she looked at Chase spoke volumes. She was falling for him; and Curtis grinned at them. She'd make a good leader's wife. She was kind, caring, but stubborn. She'd need that stubbornness, dealing with Chase on a regular basis.

Yeah, the two of them will make a fine pair
, Curtis thought.

*

"It's horrible," Sally whimpered, turning and burying her face into Peter's chest as he put consoling arms around her. "All those poor people!"

Chase still held Amethyst's elbow. He spoke quietly. "They've been ravaged pretty badly. I don't think you should look for your sister's body."

"I must," she whispered, looking up with huge eyes in her whitened face. "What if she's not here? What if they took her?"

"If they took her, she's dead," Chase replied. "Here or elsewhere, she wouldn't have survived. I'm sorry, Amethyst, I really am. If you want, I'll look for her, but you don't need to. You don't need to see anymore than you have."

"I...you will look for her?" she asked and he nodded, gesturing Kyle over.

"Take them to those trees. Bran, go with them. Curtis, you're with me."

"Sure, boss."

The two began checking the piles of bodies and wood that had once been wagons. It was a thankless task that both would've preferred to pass on. At the second mound, Chase closed his eyes upon seeing the tiny bones scatted about. What sort of clueless idiots had these people been, to bring babies and children into the Deadlands?

The fourth pile was where they discovered the remains of Pearl. The job of identifying her was easy enough. A locket around her neck revealed a tiny picture of her and Amethyst. Removing it, Chase wiped it clean before gathering chain and locket into one hand.

Curtis gave him a compassionate look. "She's gonna take it rough."

"She's known since before she left Taryton," Chase replied. "She might need a little time, but this will bring her a measure of peace."

"I think it'll help, you being the one to tell her for sure," Curtis tendered his opinion. "Think she's coming to like you a little."

"Do you think so? I do, but thought maybe I was seeing something because I wanted to," Chase admitted.

"Hell yeah. That girl is plumb starting to shine when she looks at you, Chase." A smug grin appeared on the burly shape shifter's face. "We all like her. Told you she'd do."

Chase blinked. "What?"

"Never mind."

*

They walked towards the trees, aware of the humans' eyes watching their approach. Chase went directly to Amethyst, who wore an expression of resigned acceptance. Catching her uninjured hand, he murmured '"I'm sorry" while laying the locket in it.

"Thank you, Chase." Amethyst nodded once, then bowed her head over the delicate bauble and moved away to the edge of the trees. Once she was out of earshot, Brian spoke quietly. "Now we can return home."

"I suppose so," Sally replied, before following the red head. Reaching Amethyst, she slipped an arm around her shoulders and the two women's heads came to rest against each other without either speaking a word.

"You want to find a camping place, start back in the morning?" Curtis asked Chase, keeping his voice low. "It's getting late."

"Yeah, we don't want to try the trail back up in the dark," the Weren agreed. Gathering the reins of his and Amethyst's mounts, Chase led them over to where the two women stood. Sally noted his approach. Kissing Amethyst’s cheek, she nodded to him as she passed by, leaving to collect her own horse.