Priceless (30 page)

I pulled down two large blades
—
one curved, one straight
—
and settled them on my back in a cross pull holster that
sat
there as if it were made for me.

I fingered a tag on the leather straps and my breath froze
.
“
T
his
has my name on it.
”

“
What?
”
O
’
Shea asked, his eyes scanning the tag.
“
That . . .
doesn
’
t make any sense.
”

They knew about me. Shit!
But why would they have put stuff in my size
into their van
and then chased us across the badlands?
As O
’
Shea said, i
t didn
’
t make sense.

India
’
s fear hit me in a wave that collided with my own, spiralling upwards through my body until it was all I could do to keep from screaming. A large pair of hands grabbed my arms and shook me, forcing me to look up into O
’
Shea
’
s eyes.

“
Pull it together
,
Adamson. I can
’
t do this without you.
”

More than anything else, that admission snapped me out of it. Later
.
I would deal with the implications of this later.

Geared up, we crept around the edge of the van. Eve
had
finished feeding and preen
ed
her feathers.

“
How are we going to get past her?
”’

Now
that
I had the weapons, I
could
probably take her on
;
she was young and inexperienced, scared. Alone.
Shaking my head at my own stupidity, I motioned for O
’
Shea to stay behind the van.

“
Let me deal with this
,
”
I said, my resolve firming
.
“
You get the harness on. Seeing as there is only one, you will have to pack me down.
”
I told myself
Eve was just another child,
just another child
. That
mantra
spun through my head, but it didn
’
t lessen the fear making my skin clammy.

The Harpy lifted her head, her beak clacking at me.
“
You are too stupid to even believe. Do you think I won
’
t kill you because I
’
ve feasted well?
”

Lifting my hands
to show her I had no weapons,
I shook my head.
“
No, I expect you won
’
t kill me because your sister asked me to free you
,
Eve.
”

She let out a screech, her eyes widening until they were completely dilated, and she stumbled backwards, her wings flapping.
“
She wouldn
’
t have told you my name.
”
But her voice had lost its edge and she sounded like the child her sister claimed she was. Her emotions swirled toward me
,
and I let myself feel them. Fear, uncertainty, loss
,
and pain.

Wiping my hands on my jeans, I tried not to shake as I stepped toward her. Her left foot glittered as she stepped away from me, a blood red ruby catching the light as she walked.

“
You
’
ll have to hold still if you want me to remove that
,
”
I said, pointing at her foot.

Her feathers trembled, rippling as if there were a breeze blowing, but there was no wind. Just the raw emotions that shook her frame.

Eve said nothing
,
and I took a steadying breath and pulled one of the swords out. She hissed and raised her wings, her terror filling me. She was afraid of me.
Her emotions were raw, an open book
,
and I knew if I kept tapped into them
,
I might have the warning I needed if she was going to attack me. Maybe.

Moving slowly, I
spoke to help calm her
.
“
I have a pet werewolf you know. His name is Alex. He was from a pack that tried to kill him
,
and somehow he ended up on my porch one night, bleeding and hurt.
”

I was a few feet closer
,
and she lowered her wings.
“
Why didn
’
t you kill him?
”

“
I don
’
t like killing
.
”“
He was scared and needed help. I know how it feels to be in that kind of a bind.
”

She cocked her head and her eyelids fluttered.
“
What do you know of fear? You are a Tracker. You are a killer.
”

My chest constricted. Was that how all the other supernaturals thought of me? As a killer?

“
I was accused of killing my baby sister, a lot of years ago.
”
I crouched by her foot and put the blade to the edge of the stone, working around it to loosen it up.
“
She was the first I tried to find, but she was already dead by the time I realized I could track people. No one believed me, not even my parents. I had nowhere to turn to for help.
”
I lifted my eyes to hers
.
S
he was crying.
“
Am I hurting you?
”
There was no blood from her foot, no cuts from my blade
;
I was being as careful as I could.

“
I miss my sisters. They kept me safe
,
”
she
said, her head dropping to her thickly feathered chest.

I worked at the stone and with one final pop
,
it flipped out of her foot, leaving a depression but no
w
ound.

Tucking the stone into my pocket
,
I stood and backed away.
There was no glitter of a spell breaking, no clash of thunder or backlash of power being released. The most powerful of spells were often also the simplest, and this was one of those.
“
There. You
’
re free of the
Coven
now.
”

She twitched and her wings shook.
“
I have nowhere to go. We are the last of the Harpies
in this range
;
the others would kill me because I am young and alone
.
”

Deadly, they are
as
deadly as anything out there.
But I still opened my damn mouth.
“
You can stay with me. For a
while.
”

Her eyes flicked up, hope flared between us like a sucker punch to my gut. I
’
d killed her two sisters and now she was looking at me as if I was her saviour. Shit.

I motioned to O
’
Shea
,
who made his way to the mineshaft and starting hooking up the gear.

“
We have to go. If no one shows up, wait for us here. If people show up, hide yourself
,
”

She bobbed her head and settled down on the ground. It was too surreal, even for me
,
to see the sprawled out half
-
eaten bodies next to the young Harpy I
’
d just given leave to stay with me.

“
What the hell are you thinking?
”
O
’
Shea snap
ped
my own thoughts
back
at me.

“
We have to get India
.
T
hen I will deal with the rest
.
”
I forc
ed
the confidence into my voice and my movements
; forc
ed
myself to turn my back on Eve
,
though my every instinct scream
ed
at me to
run
.

O
’
Shea slipped on the harness
and
climbed up on top of the mineshaft, a glow stick dangling from his hip barely touched the murky darkness below h
im
. H
e
passed
me a flashlight,
which I stuck in my back pocket.

Then he
held out his hand.
“
Come on.
”

Tucking away the sword I
’
d used to pry
the gem from Eve
’
s foot, I did as he asked
; put my palm against his,
and
; he yanked me to his chest.

“
Hang on.
”

“
Like I was going to let go?
”
I lifted m
y eyebrows in tandem.

He flushed and I snaked my arms around his neck, shifted more to his side
before I
wrapped my legs around his
hip and right
thigh. Even
though it wasn
’
t
a tight squeeze, the mineshaft brushed up against us, banging us back and
forth
down the pipe
,
our bodies sway
ing
with the movement of the rope
.

O
’
Shea worked the ropes, lowering us slow and steady, his muscles flexing under his dirty white shirt. At some point along the way he
’
d lost his tie, his hair was a complete mess and again, I could see just before we lost the light from above that there was
a
glint in his eye.

“
You having fun
,
A
gent?
”
I tightened my grip on his thigh as the pipe bumped into my hip.

“
What?
”

“
This whole time,
with
all this crap going on around us, you look like you
’
re enjoying it
.
”
The pulse of his blood beat strong against my hands
.
I forced myself to not trail my fingertips along his neck and jaw, to feel
the
stubble that had been pressed against my own face not so long ago. I swallowed hard. This close proximity was not a good thing for me. Never in all the times
I
’
d been tracking down kids had I been so distracted, and it wasn
’
t like this was the first time O
’
Shea had been
involved—
to some
degree—
with a salvage I was on. He
’
d almost always been there on the periphery, just on the edge of my life.

He shifted his arms and we slid down, the light around us dimming completely except for the little glow stick below us.
“
I don
’
t think enjoying is the right word.
”

We slid down
into the darkness
, no longer able to see each other
’
s faces. Maybe that was what made me so damn bold.
“
Yes, it is. You
’
re enjoying this. Like a kid who
’
s never been to a party
be
for
e
and gets taken to the biggest frat house in town and let
s
loose. So what gives?
”

Silence
,
except for the creak of the rope
,
and when he spoke, he went in a totally different direction.

“
What really happened to Berget?
”
His words would have sent me running in a different direction except for the fact that I was stuck with him in a freaking mineshaft that would probably take us another half an hour to get to the bottom of.