Chapter 24 - Brittany’s Bomb

A young woman with muddy hair stepped out from behind a boulder ten feet up the path. Every inch of skin Goldie could see was smudged with dirt and her clothes were in tatters. The poor girl was practically naked; even her feet were bare. But she was alive, and that was more than Goldie had dared to hope for when she’d agreed to join this expedition.

When Lucas had told Goldie, his big eyes wide and scared, that he’d overheard his sister and her boyfriend arguing about going someplace they weren’t supposed to, and his big sister had yelled at him that he better not tell anyone, Goldie had reassured Lucas that he’d done the right thing. It had been hard on him, all the talking, but he’d made her understand. She’d called the police immediately, but she’d called Jameson, too, because vampires were involved, and he was a law enforcement ranger and part of The Cause.

When Flint had asked her to help them on their search for Brittany, she couldn’t refuse. Didn’t want to. For so many reasons. If she could help, she would. And Flint, Flint was there. Big, strong, doing the right thing. She wanted to do it with him.

Jameson knelt to dig a blanket out of his kit. Flint grabbed it, and took it to the young woman, placing it around her shoulders. “Everyone has been worried sick.”

Goldie stood off to the side. She wasn’t needed after all.

Jameson led Brittany to sit on a boulder. “What happened?”

The young woman began her story. “Toby’s the one who wanted to come here, not me. We fought about it until the day before we left, but then he gave up, said we could go out east towards Pisgah Forest like I wanted. Well, out in Pisgah we had a fight and I told him to bring me home, but then on the way we made up, and he suggested we come up to the Springs. I didn’t want to fight again, so I said yes.” Tears spilled over her lashes and cleared tracks down her dirty cheeks. “And he died for it.”

Her lip trembling, Brittany continued. “He wanted to help me learn to sh-” She looked to Goldie, but Flint patted her hand. “She’s cool, she knows.”

Brittany nodded and kept going, her voice directed at her lap. “I never could shift, because I’m only half, but then I met Toby, and he’s only half too, and he could shift. He said he would teach me, that it would be easier for me to learn if we were surrounded by nature.”

She sniffled. “And it totes sucked. I didn’t shift once. That’s what our fight was about, because I didn’t think it was going to work. But Toby thought that coming to the Spring would help. He said it’s magic for shifters.”

Jameson gave a disbelieving grunt. “It’s deadly for shifters.”

The younger woman practically spat at her rescuers. “Well, it worked. I shifted for the first time in my life. We ran around the woods together as deer and even went skinny-dipping in the Spring every sunset to celebrate.” A sad smile twisted Brittany’s lips. “That’s when he attacked us.”

Oh man, Goldie did not want to hear this part. But she had to.

Brittany’s cheeks pinked as she went on. “I was getting my clothes on and Toby was gathering wood for a fire when I heard him shout at someone. I started that way and then I heard-” Her voice broke, her shoulders shaking with sobs. “I heard him scream. And when I peeked out from the rocks there was a man kneeling over him with this big, black knife.”

Brittany took several shaky breaths. “I couldn’t help it, I screamed. He looked right at me and cursed, like he was pissed to have someone else to kill.” Her face crumpled. “I ran, and he chased me. I tried to shift but I was so scared I couldn’t focus enough to do it. He was maybe ten feet behind me when I came around a boulder and saw her.” She looked up at each of them. “She’s real and she saved me from that vampire. I don’t know how. There was lots of shouting, pink light everywhere. I hid behind a rock, and only came out when she said it was safe.”

Goldie’s mind raced. What Brittany described sounded like a switch to her. A quick glance at the men showed them looking at each other over Brittany’s head with identical quizzical expressions.

“She told me to shift, to hide between those boulders, and then she disappeared, too. I stayed shifted and curled up on top of my clothes and waited. I only came out to eat because I didn’t know what else to do. I didn’t know how to get home through the woods, and every night I heard him out there, crashing around, cursing. Looking for me.” She shuddered.

Flint looked at her. “Let’s get you home. Can you walk?”

Brittany nodded and stood, wrapping the blanket tighter around her shoulders. The pine needles beneath her feet shifted, and Goldie spied something glinting in the dirt. She lunged forward to pick it up.

It was a metallic gray prism of rock, about one inch long and slender, with one end pyramidal in shape and the other jagged and brittle, as if it had been broken off. Gray stayed behind on Goldie’s fingers as she turned the crystal this way and that.

Brittany’s voice broke in, just over Goldie’s shoulder. “Looks like one of the rocks the Warrior Woman had in her hair. A few of them were shiny and jagged like that.”

Jameson held out his hand and Goldie dropped the rock in his palm. “Stibnite, looks like. But this stuff is only found out West.”

Jameson palmed the bit of rock and tucked it into his pocket. He spoke to Brittany. “Are you up for shifting? We can get out quicker. I scented a stash of clothes on the way out that we can pick up on our way back. Something in them should fit you.”

Brittany shrugged. “Sure.” She went for it, shifting smoothly like she’d been doing it her whole life. Her jaw lengthened, her nose extended, her brown eyes going wider and rounder. Slender shoulders and hips grew a thin layer of fur as arms and legs stretched to graceful lengths, joints altered, bones thinned, and painted toes became dainty hooves. The whitetail deer gave a delicate shake and her ruined clothes fell to the ground in tatters.

Flint nodded in approval. “Nice. You’re good.”

A ghost of a giggle flitted through Goldie’s mind. Was that-? Could she hear-? Oh, man this was so weird. But as many hours as she had spent pretending to be a princess with magical animal friends, she really shouldn’t be at such a loss. I’ve been training for this all my life.

But her attention was stolen by Jameson. While Goldie had been watching Brittany, Jameson had transformed into a white wolf.

She knew it.

“You wrecked my car, you big mutt!” she said, the words slipping out before she could filter them. Whoops.

The enormous wolf tilted his head at her like an overgrown dog, and Jameson’s voice rang through her head. Why do you think I offered you the duplex ten minutes after we met?

Jameson’s wolf made a little snuffling sound and turned down the path they’d come in on, glancing back to make sure Brittany followed. The two shifters rapidly picked up speed until they were both leaping over the ground, covering huge distances with every pace.

Goldie was almost jealous. “Must be nice. Now we have to do it the hard way.”

Flint laughed just a little, his voice low. “Too much poison ivy around here for doing it the hard way.”

Oh my word, had he just said that? She looked at Flint. He was staring at her like he could barely hold himself back from crushing her in his arms and kissing her. She didn’t even know what had happened. But she liked it.

Helpless against the way her body responded, Goldie imagined Flint pulling her off this path and backing her up against a tree, lifting her legs around his waist, plunging deeper inside her than any man had ever been before. Or maybe- she looked around- he’d bend her over that big rock and take her from behind, his massive body sheltering hers as his hips pumped, their sweaty flesh slapping together in time with every moan and scream. No doubt, whatever happened, Goldie would not be in charge. And no doubt as well that she would relish every moment of it.

Flint stepped closer and slipped his strong, thick fingers into Goldie’s hair at the nape of her neck, waiting just a beat to study her, see if she was telling him yes or no. Yes! Yes! Go! All systems! She couldn’t speak. He practically growled at her. “Jesus, Goldie, you are so sexy, do you know that? The look in your eyes just now, like you were imagining all the things I’d do to you… Fuck.”

He’d seen what she was thinking? Oh, she was in trouble. His eyes flitted to her neck, her chest. Goldie’s nipples were hard as pebbles and lightly pulsing. They pressed against the fabric of her bra, aching for more stimulation. Goldie imagined Flint using his other hand, the one not holding her head still with the barest tension, to slip under her shirt and pull the restricting undergarment down for a better view, then being so overcome with desire that his mouth followed to feast on her flesh through the thin cotton barrier. A shuddering breath left her, bringing Flint’s gaze back to hers.

Searing brown eyes left no doubt of his intentions as Flint’s face moved closer to Goldie’s, his free hand coming to rest on her hip, turning her to face him head-on. Goldie groaned in the back of her throat. She loved that Flint was big and strong enough to put her where he wanted her and not let her clumsiness mess it up. Goldie wondered if he’d possess the same mastery of her body in… other ways.

Their lips met in a steamy tangle that immediately ratcheted up to hot lust. Flint’s hand at Goldie’s nape held her deliciously captive until his fingers fisted in her hair and pulled, exposing her throat to his rough kisses, to the sweet thrill of knowing he wanted her just as badly as she did him, that they could have each other, if only-

Oh no.

All control, all manners, all thoughts were shoved rudely aside, as power and hate welled up equally inside her. She shoved away from Flint, whirling to face the figure who’d materialized twenty feet behind them on the path.

A man. No, a vampire. Dark. Tall. Wisps of black smoke that looked more like liquid clung to his clothes and hair before seeming to disappear, drawn inside him. Black hair, white stripe. Awesome. One of the really bad ones. Switch-hate and regular-person-hate surged inside her, co-mingling. He’d killed a young man for no reason other than that he was evil. He deserved every hole Goldie poked in him.

She was ready. She whipped her knife off her belt before the surprise at seeing them dropped off his face.

He’d be surprised when he died, too.

She ran for him.