Highland Son (Highland Sorcery: A New Dawn) (3 page)

Her mouth went dry. She swallowed when he swallowed. The movement of his Adam’s apple in his strong throat column mesmerized her.

The tray tilted. She nearly lost all the slices of bread.

For the love of—! Had she never seen a man’s throat working before?

She tore her gaze away.

She should leave, get out of this room. Yet she hadn’t really come in here to bring them their dinner.

Composing herself, she lowered and set the tray of thick bread slices in the middle of the men. “May I sit with you for a while?”

The blond man nodded, which she expected. They’d be wanting answers out of her as much as she wanted to learn about them.

She lowered farther, bringing her knees in, positioning herself so the lanky guy was in her peripheral. She didn’t dare look him straight on just yet. Not when he made her insides melt like snow heated by the sun.

Miles shifted on his feet, standing between them all and the only exit.

The weapon’s guy shifted forward to snag a slice of bread, lifting his other hand palm out when Miles edged closer. He took the slice and used it to mop up the remains of his stew before popping it in his mouth. It was almost comical how his eyes slipped closed in bliss. “Oh my…glories—“ the rest of the sentiment was lost amid a second mouthful of Mae’s bread. “This is the softest…” The rest of the sentiment was lost as he chewed with gusto.

It took only a second for the other two to grab up their slices. Even mister-going-to-stand-all-day lowered to one knee.

They were almost finished, having eaten quickly once she’d taken a bite first. She should have brought more for men of their size. She didn’t have much time to find out what she wanted to know.

She smoothed her palms over her knees. “Where did you guys come from?”

“Here. There.” Weapons guy leaned back and placed his hands on his lean stomach. “We’ve been around. How ‘bout you folks? How long you all been holed up here?”

Fine. They were going to play it that way. No need to lie about anything they most likely had figured out on their own.

“Eight months.”

“Eight?” That seemed to surprise them all going by the way they looked at each other. The same guy, apparently their spokesman, frowned. “Eight months in one place and the Sifts haven’t…”

He had the grace to not finish the sentence.
Eat them. They hadn’t been eaten yet
.

“They’ve tried. We’re not that easy to kill.”

They weren’t buying it, which in their place, Jewel wouldn’t either. She couldn’t tell them what really had kept the monsters away. She couldn’t tell anyone. And now that Lance was gone, keeping silent was all the more desperate.

She pulled the silver tray closer to herself. “Look. We really do just want to know about you, what you’re doing in the area. And then if you want, you can go. You can understand that, can’t you? A group like ours has to be cautious.”

“Sure. We can understand that, what with thieves and militant marauders looking to take any cache they come upon.”

Jewel tugged the sides of her knitted cap down on her head. “You’re not…?”

“If we were, would I say so?” Weapons guy’s grin was so happily predatory she could very well believe he was a marauder.

“I suppose you wouldn’t.” This was getting her nowhere. “How ‘bout we start simple. I’m Jewel and that’s Miles.”

“All right. You can call me Ethan. That’s Alexander.” He flicked his thumb toward the lanky man at her side and then nodded toward the blond man across from him. “This is Dez.”

“Ma’am.” Dez tipped his chin.

Alexander.
She wanted so badly to look at him, see how well the name fit to the man. She also wanted to hear him speak again. She’d never heard a voice like his with those slight inflections that sent a heady warmth down to her core. He’d only spoken to her a little when he took his weapons, but she hoped to hear him again. She kept her gaze on Ethan.

He rolled his shoulders. “So what’s the name of your leader, the older guy who was barking out all the orders?”

Jewel pressed her lips together. So he went right into interrogating her. Well, if it made him feel in control… Again, she wouldn’t be revealing anything they wouldn’t eventually be told, but truthfully so far all she’d gotten out of them were their names while she kept giving them answers. If this was a game, she was losing.

But it wasn’t a game to her. She came to them with a purpose and if it meant playing the fool and telling them everything they wanted to know, it was worth it. “Sheppard.”

Dez set his empty bowl carefully back on the tray. “Why isn’t Sheppard in here asking questions for himself?

“He will be.”

“Making us sweat it out for a while. Well you can tell him we don’t sweat, darlin.”

“That’s not what he’s doing. I assure you. He had another pressing matter.”

Three sets of lips curved downward in disbelieving frowns.

But it was true. The moment they’d gotten back, Sheppard, Hank and Trevor went back out for who knows why. They did that every so often without explanation. She clearly was not in the loop.

She sighed. She hadn’t learned a thing other than these guys didn’t crack easily, handled themselves and their weapons well—military grade weapons that Sheppard would give his eye-teeth to get his hands on. Nor did she get to hear Alexander’s husky voice again. Well, no matter because whatever else these guys were, they were fighters and survivors, which meant Sheppard would do his best to recruit them. Which also meant they weren’t the people Jewel dared place all her trust in.

Chapter Two

Alexander listened to the lock turn in the door, closing them in the room again. Maybe they should have been a little more forthcoming with the girl and she would have stayed longer. After all, their purpose in allowing themselves to be escorted here was to find out about this group of hold outs and bring as many survivors as they could back with them to the lighthouse.

Right now, what was left of the human race was stronger and safer together.

Once they determined they weren’t some part of a larger radical marauder group, they’d tell them everything anyway. They didn’t appear as such, not with the women and children being in the majority. Most militant crazies didn’t keep children around as they were little more than useless mouths to provide for.

No, that wasn’t who these people were, yet something didn’t feel right.

He frowned at the electrical outlet plate still screwed into the wall, forgotten when the room had been stripped of anything that could be turned into a weapon. There was no electrical current anymore, but any soldier worth his salt could rip the wiring out and make himself a garrote to choke someone.

Dez came up beside him. “What do you think?”

“About the girl?”

“No Romeo.” Dez flashed a rare grin. “About this situation.”

“But since you asked…” Ethan pounced, pulling Alexander’s neck into a headlock between the vee of his bent elbow. “What do you think about the girl?”

“She was holding something back.” Alexander shoved at Ethan until he let his hold up. “I don’t trust her. Them.”

Ethan grinned. “I think you made her nervous, is all.”

“Me? You’re daft. She barely looked at me.”

“Exactly.” Ethan slapped a hand over Alexander’s shoulder. “She likes you.”

Alexander shrugged Ethan’s hand off. “What? How would you know anything about it? Did she pass you a note after school?”

“Testy.” Ethan held his hands up in surrender. “I’m just saying that could be useful.”

Annoyed, Alexander looked to Dez for help, but Dez merely shrugged.

“You too?” Alexander was incredulous. “No.”

Ethan’s grin expanded. “Suit yourself.”

“Ladies, ladies, put the nail polish away already so we can get back to the matter at hand?” Dez tapped the handle of the empty pistol in his shoulder holster. “How do you want to play this?”

“We give them the truth.” Alexander made the decision.

Dez nodded, considering. “About everything except yourself.” He cupped his calloused palm along the back of Alexander’s neck. “We can’t let on how important you are.”

Right. Alexander frowned. The so-called savior of what was left of humanity. His men would swaddle him in cotton and hide him away in the basement of the lighthouse if they had their way.

“I’m serious, Alexander.”

“No one would ever think otherwise about you,” he sniped.

“Alexander…” Dez snarled.

“Yes. Fine. Good idea.” He might be the leader of the largest gathering of human survivors, but there was no mistaking who was in charge while they were out in the field. It was smart, it really was, except for the fact both Ethan and Dez would throw themselves in the line of fire, or daggered teeth—had done so on countless occasions—to save him.

Considering he not only could hold his own but was a bluidy sorcerer to boot, their self-sacrificing pish angered him to no end.

He loved these guys like brothers.

Dez folded his arms, staring him down.

“I said aye.” Annoyed, his father’s ancient dialect surfaced in his voice. “We play it loose and by the hip as usual.”

Ethan draped an arm around his shoulders. “He’s so precious when he gets mad.”

Alexander shook his head. “You’re both morons, you know that?”

~~~

“Jewel!”

She banged her head on the lowest shelf, dropping a box of bullets. She was taking inventory. They were running low.

Sheppard stormed toward her and planted his fists at his hips. “I heard you took stew into the strangers.”

Rubbing her temple, she winced up at his towering figure. “No one else was in a hurry to feed them.”

“Hungry men make talkative men.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t think that tactic would’ve worked on these guys anyway.”

“I explicitly told Henry not to feed them.”

Jewel pushed up to her feet and found herself hemmed in to the shelves by Sheppard’s wide stance. “Well you didn’t tell me. Where’d you run off to anyway?”

“Not your concern.”

“Dad.” She sighed. “Anytime you leave the motel, I’m concerned. Especially after Lance.”

The gruff demeanor softened around the edges. “I know. I’m sorry. Hank reported that a group of Sifts were edging in on the south perimeter by the bell tower. We had to check it out.”

She stiffened. “Are there?”

He pushed a stray hair out of her face and tucked it behind her ear. “There was a small group, three alone, but they’ve moved on. We followed them at a distance to be sure.”

“You didn’t shoot them?”

“Too close. Didn’t want their stink to draw any more to the area, and we didn’t want to spend the time dragging them out farther. So we let them go.”

Jewel nodded. It was smart, but she couldn’t help think that any Sifts not taken down where Sifts that could potentially find another group of humans to harm, or even… She squelched down the unbidden thought and looked up at her father.

“You shouldn’t risk yourself like that.”

“Would you have me put someone else out there instead?”

She lowered her gaze. “No.”

He lifted her chin. “Now about these strangers… I don’t want you going in there again.”

“I thought the point was to get them to join us.”

“If they are found worthy of us.” The lines fanning from the corners of his eyes deepened. “But since you recklessly went in there anyway, what do you make of them?”

“They’re good men, Dad.”

One brow rose. “You know that after a few minutes with them?”

Heat flushed her skin. “I can tell they’re loyal to each other. And protective. People who look after each other like that…and trust each other…can’t be all bad. They’re not like any of the other marauders we’ve run into. I think we can trust them.”

“You’re willing to risk all our lives on your brief assessment?”

Was she?

Her gut said yes.

But she’d been wrong in where she placed her trust before. Deadly wrong.

“Hesitation?”

“If it were just me, I’d say yes, but the children… Mae…”

“Now you’re thinking like a leader.”

She frowned. “We can’t keep them shut away indefinitely. We either extend a portion of trust or send them on their way.”

“Agreed.” Sheppard stepped back, giving her space to move around him. “But Jewel…”

She stopped.

“I want you to keep your distance.”

~~~

They slept in shifts. No one else came in after the girl—Jewel—left with their bowls and utensils and her fancy silver tray. The entire night and into the early dawn they’d been left to stew in their juices.

They were supposed to check in with command at the lighthouse in two days’ time, otherwise Chesterfield would have entire squads scouring the area for them. With all the Sift activity near this area Alexander didn’t want any of his men placing themselves in unnecessary jeopardy while out looking for them. This group was running out of time before he opened a rift and hustled Ethan and Dez out of there. Hell, they didn’t need a rift in space. Any one of them could kick down the flimsy door. But that would mean fighting their way out through innocents.

In the meantime during his watch while they slept, Alexander had taken two of the outlet covers off the wall and had a couple lengths of wire assessable in his pockets before he replaced the covers as though they’d never been tampered with.

“Time is it?” Ethan stirred, yawning huge enough to crack his jaw.

“Best guess, around seven.”

Dez snapped awake at their voices, alert even in sleep, and immediately flopped to his stomach and began push-ups.

Ethan stretched his arms above his head and rolled his neck. “Stupid chickens clucked all night.”

“Maybe they’ll cook you up one for breakfast,” Dez grunted between lifts.

Ethan’s eyes lit. “Or eggs. Think that gal will bring us some eggs, scrambled maybe?”

“I’m sure you can ask,” Alexander drawled. “They’re all about hospitality here.”

Even as they spoke, the lock turned in the door. Dez and Ethan rose to their feet, taking up stances in front of Alexander.