Chapter Twelve

 

 

“Why again are you takin’ me to the middle of the desert when it’s hotter than two rats screwin’ in a wool sock?” Tree grumbled. “And while I’m askin’ questions you act like you can’t hear, where the hell were you all night? Does either one of these things have anything to do with the sexy attorney Dad was tellin’ Mom about when she called last night?”

Shaking his head and huffing out an exasperated breath, Gage thought about ignoring his brother again, but knew that would only make Tree more determined and more of a pain in the ass. Since his younger brother was right about one thing – it was hotter than blazes, he gave in and sighed, “I need you to look at somethin’ over by the Wild Horse Basin.”

“What the…? Why are we on horseback? The truck’s got air conditioning and comfortable seats.”

 Holding onto his temper by one, fine, thin thread, Gage pushed out through gritted teeth, “We are on horseback so I can see how far the…well, the weird feelin’ thingamajig extends.”

“Weird feelin’ thingamajig? Is that seriously what you just said?” Tree ranted. “You drug me out of a nice cool barn in the heat of the damn day to check on some weird feelin’ thingamajig?” His horse, Bessie, trotted up beside Gage’s just as Tree added, “Have you lost your everlovin’ mind?”

“I asked the same damn thing when he called me,” Junior grinned from ear-to-ear as he appeared, also on horseback, out from behind a short, flat-topped mesa. “It’s my first day off in like a month of Sundays and your big brother wakes me outta some of the best dreams I’ve ever had.”

“Featuring that cute little barmaid from last night?” Gage teased.

“Well, yeah, as if that’s any of your business?” Pulling the reins to the left and falling in on Gage’s other side, the Wolf Shifter went on, “But if we’re talkin’ about last night then I want details, Bro.”

“Yeah, Gage, we want details,” Tree chimed in wearing a shit-eating grin and a wicked gleam in his eye.

“Yeah, well, you can want in one hand and shit in the other to see which fills up first ‘cause it’s none of your damn business.”

“Me thinks the dude doth protest too much,” Junior barked with laughter.

“You are so right,” Tree readily agreed, holding up his hand and prompting the Wolf to give him a high five.

“And I think you’re both dicks and don’t know the first thing about Shakespeare.” Ignoring his brother and Junior as they continued to tease him about his night with Elle, Gage coaxed his horse to a gallop and sped ahead.

About a mile out from the lazy star anomaly as he’d began to call it, the Guardsman slowed Lucy down and waited for the others to catch up. No sooner had Tree and Junior come up on either side of him than they growled in unison, “What the fuck is that?”

“Oh shit,” Junior continued, pointing towards the lazy star. “That’s where Elle’s parents and her sister were killed.” Stopping his horse and looking, Gage was shocked at the strange look in the Deputy’s face when he added, “There’s bad juju up there. I mean seriously rotten shit.”

Needing to know what had happened to his mate’s family more than he needed to soothe his friend’s rankled senses, Gage demanded, “Tell me. All of it. Now.”

Holding up his hands in surrender, Junior replied, “Whoa there, Bud. It’s not like I had a lot of time to fill you in. You just met Elle last night and after that I seem to remember you two being kinda busy.”

Trying not to get irritated at his friend’s cavalier attitude, Gage counted to three then clarified, “Why didn’t you tell us there had been an accident on our land? That it involved something ancient, evil, and supernatural.”

“I did, Gage. I swear I did. I told Cheveyo that same day.”

Unable to believe what he was hearing and trying his best not to get pissed off with his grandfather when the old man wasn’t there to defend himself, the oldest MacAllen brother confirmed, “You told Cheveyo?” Watching his friend emphatically nod his head, Gage probed, “And what did he say?”

The words came flying out of Junior’s mouth like the Wile E Coyote trying to catch the Road Runner. “He said he just happened to be talking with Mac Burntwing and said they would handle it. Said he would take care of tellin’ your ma and pa and thanked me.”

“You need to calm down and take a beat before you go off half-cocked and do somethin’ stupid,” Tree warned.

“And you need to shut up and focus on why we’re out here.” Pointing straight ahead, so mad he could barely see straight, Gage went on, “It means even more now. The pieces are falling into place and the son of a bitch that thinks he’s gonna touch Elle needs to be sent back to Hell right now. Ya’ feel me?”

“Gotcha, Bro. But seriously, if…”

“If what? If Cheveyo and Mac said it was under control it is? Fuck that!” Storming off towards the patch of sand causing all the trouble, he yelled over his shoulder, “Come on! Get a move on!”

Hearing the thundering hooves of both Junior and Tree’s horses, Gage and Lucy ran at full speed, slowing when they were about 50 yards from the scorched patch of desert. Sliding off the saddle, he mentally told his mare to stay where she was and waited until the others were standing beside him.

“Right there,” he pointed. “That lazy star shape. Is that where it happened?” He demanded an answer from Junior who immediately replied, “Yep. If you look right in the center you can see four rectangles. That’s where the tires were melted into nothing but puddles of rubber.”

Focused on what the Deputy had just said, Gage zeroed in on those exact marks. He’d disregarded them as unimportant before and could kick himself for letting the significance elude him.

Letting his Dragon and Wolf take the forefront, he looked through their incredibly sharp vision as the memory of Carrick’s words echoed through his mind. “Ye mate’s family died there an' 'er Rain Bird what was tryin' tae shield ye.”

“Son of a bitch! How could I be so stupid?”

“If you have a couple of hours, I have a list of a couple hundred ways your stupidity astounds me.”

“Shut up, Tree,” Gage growled. “This is a Hotbed, at least that’s what Carrick said.” Taking another step forward, he continued, “He said it happens when contradicting types of magick are shoved together. It fucks with the laws of Nature and can undo the fabric of time and space when used to kill other magical beings.”

“And you’re thinkin’ your grandad and Elle’s uncle knew this and hid it from you,” Junior was putting the pieces together and saying aloud what Gage was thinking. “But there’s no way they would want any harm to come to Elle. Not only is she your mate, but she’s a Rain Bird. Aren’t they damn near extinct.”

Taking his hat off his head and wiping the sweat from his brow, Gage shuffled through the memories of what he’d read the night before last in the old volumes of Cherokee history. The Rain Bird had been mentioned a bunch of times and in every single instance it said ‘the last living Rain Bird will suffer greatly. She will be left alone in a world that no longer deserves her. Her pain will be great and her loss almost insurmountable. But like her cousin, the Phoenix, she shall rise from the ashes and be granted the One True Blessing from the Great Creator. She will ascend. She will be the Star of the Morning, the Bringer of Life and the Winged Chieftess. With the Bringer of Fire by her side they together shall defeat the Purveyor of Death.

Unaware he was talking out loud, Gage spun towards his brother as Tree asked, “Can you translate that for those of us less learned?”

“It means whoever the Purveyor of Death is wasn’t trying to kill Elle’s family, he or she was trying to kill Elle.”

“No,” Junior was adamant as he shook his head. “No way. We brought her out here, Smitty and me, less than twelve hours after it happened.”

Closing the distance in a flash, Gage could tell there was something Junior wasn’t saying. Glaring at his friend, he insisted, “What happened? What happened when she walked towards that?” He pointed behind his back. “Tell me, damn you. What happened?”

“Shut up and let me talk, will ya?” Junior’s normally dark brown eyes turned a brilliant gold as the deep gray fur of his Wolf pushed through the skin lining his jaw. When he answered, his voice was deeper and heavy with the growl of his Lupine. “Her Rain Bird was called to life.”

Whipping himself back towards the scarred earth, Gage stalked toward the tip of the lazy star formation. With the tips of his boots standing on the clearly defined ashen line, he knelt down and laid his palms inside the shape.

“Gage! Gage! I think you better get back!” Tree’s voice was frantic, his panic evident as he continued to shout at his brother with Junior joining in, “Gage, get the fuck back! The damn thing’s sproutin’ a head!”

Two sets of huge hands wrapped around both his arms as Junior and Tree tried first to lift him then attempted to just throw him backwards. But it was too late. Whatever or whoever was controlling the Purveyor of Death was pulling the Dragon under the sand.

“Let go!” He ordered, but once again it was too late.

A screech unlike anything he’d ever heard shook the desert floor. Squalls of wind and sand so cold he could feel his sweat turning to ice blew at their backs, catapulting them into the darkness.

Weightless, freezing, hardly able to draw breath they fell. Unable to see, only able to feel, Gage knew his brother and friend still lived from the vise-like grips still wrapped around his arms.

Using his mental connection to both men, he called out, “Tree! Junior! Can you hear me?”

Only the voracious howl of gale force winds answered his calls as bitter cold bit at his extremities. Roaring in his head, his Dragon forcing heat and magic through Gage’s veins as his Wolf pushed his heavy pelt onto his skin.

Trying once again, he telepathically shouted, “Tree! Junior! Answer me! Are you…”

“They will not respond, Bringer of Fire. They have no part to play. This fight is for you and your Winged Chieftess.”

“Leave Elle alone, you worthless piece of shit!”

An evil cackle, like nails on a chalkboard or sandpaper on steel filled his mind, attacking his consciousness with treacherous shards of ice. So cold, his body temperature dropping exponentially the longer he fell no matter how hard his Dragon and Wolf tried to help him, Gage refused to give up, refused to let Elle be pulled into whatever shit storm he’d unleashed.

Opening his mouth to speak, his words were stolen from his lips as he landed with a bone-jarring thud on what he could only assume from the way it felt was a massive block of frozen earth and sand. Jumping to his feet, he jumped over the unconscious bodies of Tree and Junior laying at his feet, and threw his preternatural senses as far and wide as they would go.

Turning left and right, all the way round in a circle both ways, not even his enhanced sight could cut through the frigid darkness. Dropping to his knees to check on his brother and friend, he’d just breathed a sigh of relief when a bolt of magic struck him in the middle of his back.

Flung through the pitch black, his head made contact with a wall of rock or ice before he fell to the ground on his stomach. Zapped by magic again and again, the Dragon tried with all his might to roll away, to climb to his knees, to do anything to get a bead on who was torturing him, but it was no use, he was in enemy territory and sadly being bested.

Slamming into another hard embankment with his head, Gage finally began to lose consciousness, but not before skeletal fingers fisted the hair atop his head. Jerking him upward, the torturing asshole wrenched his neck backward and spat in his face, “You shouldn’t have meddled where you didn’t belong, Gage MacAllen. I always told you that your arrogance would be your downfall.”

Swimming between consciousness and unconsciousness, Gage tried to place that voice, that evil tone, that threat he’d heard a hundred times. Fighting the oblivion, he roared when his captor slammed his head against yet another incredibly cold, hard surface and added insult to injury by cackling, “But first you get to watch your little birdie get plucked.”