Burned (21 page)

Carson nodded.
"I'll pass the word, but you may want to speak to Isaac and
Heath directly. That kind of thing always comes best from someone
inside their own chain of command."

I tried to
suppress a yawn, but didn't quite succeed. "Okay, that's a fair
point. I'm running on empty right now though. I'll give them a call,
and then if nothing materializes in the next few minutes I'll send
that part of the help home and go get some sleep."

"That
part?"

"Yeah, the
other part of our help is going to be staying in my RV. It's not
ideal, but I don't know of another way to keep their identity a
secret while still keeping them close enough that they'll be able to
help if we get attacked."

There was a
stubborn set to Carson's shoulders that told me I'd better let him
say his piece.

"Alec,
that's a very bad idea. How sure are you that you can trust whoever
is back there? If they are in the RV with you, then you're going to
be incredibly vulnerable while you're sleeping. Let me post some
guards in there with you."

I shook my
head. "I'm sorry, Carson. I understand your concerns. If I'm
completely honest with you, I even share them, but this alliance is
too important to risk having it go sideways because I let the wrong
person figure out who I've got back there with me. Brindi will be
with me, and I'll make sure that we sleep in shifts so that I at
least have some forewarning if that operative tries anything. With my
ability being what it is, I only need a fraction of a second to get
it into play—that will just have to be enough."

Carson still
didn't like it, but given all of the secrets he was still keeping, he
didn't have much room to throw stones at me for keeping a few of my
own.

"Okay,
Alec. This is your show." He turned as the SUVs carrying the
Chicago pack pulled up. "Those are the ones you want left
alone?"

I looked down
at my phone as it chirped with an incoming text. It was Vicki,
confirming that it was her people who'd just arrived.

"Yes. I'll
keep an eye on them for a few minutes while you go spread the word."

Carson nodded
and then headed off to the closest RV. I waved to the SUVs, and then
dialed Isaac's number. He answered on the second ring.

"You're
back. That's good—you'd never believe the rumors that started
flying around this place when your vehicle left."

"I can
only imagine. I'm sorry about not giving you more of a heads up about
that before I left."

"It's
okay. Our favorite human dreamer made it back here within a few
seconds of your departure and told me that you were going to pick up
some help."

"Yeah,
that's actually what I'm calling about. There are two SUVs parked
right behind my RV, and they are full of that help, help that needs
to remain anonymous if at all possible. I'll be sending them away
once the sun finishes rising, but until then it would be helpful if
you could ask your people to give them a wide berth."

"Sure
thing. We're trying to keep our people out of sight right now for the
most part so that we don't tip off the Coun'hij as to just how many
people we've got here. If we're lucky it will help keep them from
realizing that this is our HQ."

I nodded, even
though I knew he couldn't see the gesture. "Yeah, and if we're
unlucky it should still cause them to underestimate us."

"Right.
That means that there isn't any reason for most of them to be over
there anyway. I'll pass the word to the dreamer and the
illusionist—I'm sure they'll honor your request."

"Thanks.
I've got another operative in my RV right now. They'll be there for
the foreseeable future, which is going to create some difficulties
with regards to conferences for the next little while, but it can't
be helped."

I could sense
Isaac's curiosity, but he was one of the most even-keeled hybrids I'd
ever met. He wouldn't let his questions push him into doing something
that would cause the two of us to have a falling out.

"Right—I'll
make sure that everyone knows to give your RV some space as well.
Anything else?"

I hesitated. I
wouldn't have said that I wanted anything else from Isaac, but his
question made me realize that there was one more thing he could do
for me.

"I was up
late hunting down a werewolf and I haven't gotten a chance to get any
sleep yet. Adri is pissed at me for leaving without talking to her
first, but I'd like to get some shut-eye in before we start yelling
at each other. Do you think that you can find something to keep her
busy for a couple of hours?"

Isaac was quiet
for so long that I checked my phone to make sure that our call hadn't
dropped.

"I don't
know, Alec. This feels like something that I should stay out of the
middle of."

"Yeah,
you're probably right. Forget I asked. I'll power through until the
sun comes up and then I'll crash and just hope that I can manage to
get my forty winks in before she comes over looking for a fight."

Alec Graves
The Caravan RV Park
Tucson, Arizona

I stood outside
the RV, exchanging texts with Vicki to confirm what my nose was
already telling me. Her people had rounded up some
industrial-strength air fresheners and hung them liberally inside of
their vehicles. It probably wouldn't stand up to a concerted effort
by someone who was willing to get right up next to the SUVs, but
given the fact that they could always just drive away if someone
violated the safety perimeter I'd ordered established, it would
probably be enough.

I watched as
the sun started up into the sky, and marveled at the contrast between
what I saw in my surroundings and what I felt. To a human, the RV
park and attached motel would have looked quiet. There were a couple
more people wandering around than I would have expected for such an
early hour, but not so many as to make me suspicious that something
important was going on.

The unseen
plane was another matter altogether. I could feel bursts of energy as
people's beasts acted up in frustration at being trapped inside four
walls when there was the possibility that we were going to be
attacked before the morning was out.

I'd known that
keeping so many shape shifters cooped up inside of motel rooms and
RV's was going to be a challenge, but I was feeling a lot more
tension than I'd been counting on. There were too many of us packed
into much too small an area, and the question of dominance hadn't
been settled to our beasts' satisfaction.

It was yet
another problem that I didn't have a good solution for. We couldn't
let everyone walk around at the same time, and we couldn't afford to
have large numbers of our people trying to rip each other's heads
off, but I was going to have to think of something soon.

I waited for an
extra thirty minutes after the sun cleared the horizon, and then told
Carson to let people relax a little unless he got new intel that
indicated an attack was imminent. By then my beast was trying to
wrestle control away from me, so I knew I needed to get inside and
get some sleep.

Brindi was
asleep when I went inside, but she woke up when I went to cover her
up with a blanket.

"What do
you think you're doing?"

"I was
going to make sure that you didn't get too cold."

Brindi shook
her head at me. "We both know that you've gone too long without
sleeping, Alec. You should have just kicked me off the couch."

"You need
your sleep too."

She shook her
head as she yawned. "I'm not likely to rip someone's face off if
I have to go another few hours without getting my sleep. Go ahead and
get some rest—I'll stay up to make sure that your friend back
there stays a secret."

Her words were
innocuous enough, but the slight lift to her eyebrows told me that
she knew I wouldn't like the idea of sleeping with someone new so
close. I debated telling Brindi to go back to sleep, but she was
right. If I didn't sleep soon I was going to become dangerous to
everyone around me, and if that happened Brindi was going to be
especially at risk. Not only was she physically close to me, she also
couldn't defend herself if I did lose control.

I nodded and
lowered myself down to the couch. Brindi sat down on the floor—close
enough that she could touch me if she wanted to, but just far enough
away that she wouldn't actually be getting another hit.

She hadn't
acted this vulnerable for weeks now. It was probably just the result
of nearly dying earlier, but I made a note to keep an eye on more
than just her physical state over the next little while. It had been
a small thing given everything else that had been going on, but I'd
really appreciated Brindi's efforts to lighten my mood as I'd headed
off to rescue Cindi. She hadn't had any way of knowing that I wasn't
planning on coming back, but she'd still made a concerted effort to
make me feel better.

She wasn't just
a burden anymore—hadn't been for a while now.

I went to sleep
fully expecting to have Adri barge in and wake me up, but woke up
feeling remarkably refreshed considering the metaphorical sword
poised above our collective necks. Brindi's head was bobbing, so I
moved off the couch and slid her onto it, putting a light blanket
over her. I waited until she was asleep, and then went over and
knocked on the bedroom door to let Vicki know she could take a
bathroom break if she wanted to.

Ten minutes
later I locked the RV's doors behind me and headed towards Adri's
motel room. It was less than a hundred yards, but I got stopped no
fewer than five times by people who wanted advice, resolution to some
conflict or another, or an updated set of orders.

The last person
to stop me was Taggart.

"Alec, I
think that Adri has put enough weight back on for us to take another
run at Kaleb tonight."

"You're
sure? At this point I'd rather wait another day or two than rush
things again and fail a second time."

Taggart nodded.
"It will depend on how she does with her calorie intake today,
but she's on track to have added a couple extra pounds over what she
was carrying when we went after him the last time. If you add in the
fact that this time she'll be going to your dream rather than pulling
you to hers, I'm fairly confident she'll be able to control the
outcome. We can wait and see what she says when she gets back though.
If she says she's not up to it, we'll give her more time."

"She
left?"

"Yeah, as
far as I know. Isaac said that he was sending her out with a wad of
cash to buy groceries. There's a limit to how much food preparation
we can realistically do here, but feeding our entire force by going
out to eat for every meal would be both expensive and sabotage our
efforts to keep a low profile."

I instantly
felt bad about not having thought about that particular issue. My
people were all being taken care of with some of the funds I'd stolen
from Kaleb, but I'd failed to make the same arrangements for Isaac's
people. I knew that Taggart and Adri had netted a nice payday when
they'd taken out that nest of vampires in Wyoming, but that money was
hardly inexhaustible.

"I'd like
to help out there, Taggart. I've only got so much I can do without
making another trip to bring physical cash across the border, but I
was planning on having someone go purchase another RV. That will give
us another stove so that we can give people some variety in their
diet, but really it's not fair to expect you all to pay for your food
out of your own pockets while you're down here helping me out. I'd
like to provide a war chest to fund your half of the operation."

I could smell
Taggart's reluctance. I was a product of the current generation, but
growing up with two- and three-hundred-year-old shape shifters had
given me more insight than most guys my age into how things used to
be. Taggart didn't want charity. He wanted to make his own way in the
world, which I respected, but I suspected that the real reasons went
even deeper than that.

Once he
accepted my money, it would be that much harder for him to refuse me
if I asked for something he didn't want to do. He was worried about
me tying strings to him, strings that could eventually become chains.

"I…I
think that the girls, Tristan and I are all okay for now, but you may
want to float the idea past Isaac. I've been helping out a little
there, but his people are probably the ones who are feeling the most
pinch."

I gave Taggart
a smile that I hoped was understanding. "Perfect. I was headed
over to talk to Adri, but since she's gone I'll go over to Isaac's
room instead. That way the trip won't be a waste."

We shook hands,
and then I took a right turn into the main courtyard of the motel.
Isaac's room was only four doors down from Adri's. I was headed past
Adri's room when I suddenly heard the unmistakable sound of voices
from inside.

I nearly
stumbled when I realized
who
I was hearing. It boggled the
mind that they would be doing what they were doing inside a motel
room with shape shifters all around, shape shifters for whom mere
walls and windows did little to impede sound waves.

There was a
split second where I thought that I'd been mistaken, that I wasn't
standing outside of Adri's room, that it wasn't her I could hear in
there. Taggart had told me that she was gone, and he hadn't given off
any of the usual signs of someone who was lying.

I nearly had
myself convinced until I heard her gasp and call out Tristan's name.

My beast surged
up with such force that it was all I could do to stop myself from
transforming right there in broad daylight. I clamped down on the
tsunami of power crashing through me. I managed to funnel it all into
my right hand, which exploded outward with the deadly claws of a
hybrid, but I had zero desire to do anything about the anger coursing
through me.