Haven 4: Back Roads (10 page)

“It’s okay,” Bannon said as he patted Galen’s thigh. “It’s just Torren.” With a loud groan, he pushed up on the mattress and scrubbed both hands over his face. “Quit bangin’! I’m comin’, damn it!”

Rolling off the bed, he took his time going through his dresser to find a clean pair of boxers and pulling them on. Then he sauntered to the door as if there wasn’t an angry witch on the other side and pulled it open. “What?”

“You hung up on me,” Torren snarled.

“Nice of ya to notice. That doesn’t explain why ya felt the need to come all the way down here, beat the hell out of my door, and scare my mate out of his skin.”

“I gave you an order.”

Bannon snorted, but Galen didn’t really see anything humorous in the situation. Torren looked mad enough to spit fire. Galen idly wondered if he’d turn Bannon into a toad. Witches did that, right?

“Aye, ya did, and if ya didn’t notice, that was my way of tellin’ ya to piss off.”

“We have twenty-seven days until Halloween. On average, it takes you approximately two weeks to find one person. We’re looking for three. Do you think this is a goddamn game?” Torren roared, slamming his hand against the doorframe.

Galen whimpered as he curled himself into a ball and ducked his head. Realistically, he knew Torren wasn’t angry at him. He also knew that Bannon wouldn’t allow the man to hurt him even if he was.

That didn’t stop him from being scared out of his mind at the irate mountain of a man.

“Enough,” Bannon growled. He turned his back on Torren, which was a brave though stupid move in Galen’s opinion, and crossed the room to crawl back up on the bed. Then he pulled Galen into his arms and stroked his hair back from his face. “Not to worry, darlin’. Torren is just a bit out of sorts. No one is going to hurt ya.” A heavy sigh sounded from the doorway, and Galen peeked up to see Torren drop his head and rub at the back of his neck.

“He’s right. I’m sorry, Galen. This elder business is a lot more stressful than I thought it would be. Add my personal issues on top of that, and I’m not really myself these days. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Galen? Are you okay?” Aslan appeared behind Torren, peeking around his massive frame to look into the room. “I heard shouting and banging. You’re not hurt are you?”

Galen smiled at his friend and waved him into the room while Bannon pulled a blanket up over him to hide his nudity. “Thank you,” he whispered to his lover and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before turning to Aslan. “I’m fine, but thank you.” Aslan was so tiny, smaller even than Galen, and couldn’t fight his way out of a paper sack. Anyone else in his place would have locked the door and hidden under the bed with the amount of noise Torren had been making. Not Aslan, though. His friend was in trouble, and he’d come running without thought to his own safety.

“Okay, I just wanted to make sure.” Aslan crossed his legs under him on the mattress and settled in, showing no signs of leaving any time soon. Then very slowly, he turned his head to stare at Torren and pointed a finger at the big man. “You’re being very rude.” Torren had the strangest look on his face as he stared back at Aslan. It was somewhere between a lost puppy and starving wolf.

Galen probably would have found it comical if he hadn’t still been shaking from being woken up in such a terrifying way.

“I apologize,” Torren said quietly. “Did I frighten you?”

“A little,” Aslan admitted but shrugged. “I was mostly worried about Galen. You’re my mate, right? I’ve seen you before, but you were more glowy and see-through. I like you better this way.” Bannon’s eyes rounded, and he lifted both eyebrows. Galen grinned and snuggled in closer. It might seem a bit abrupt to some, but that was just Aslan. He never beat around the bush about anything.

“Thank you?” The inflection in Torren’s voice made it sound like a question, and Galen pressed his face into Bannon’s neck to muffle his chuckle.

“Oh, you’re very welcome. If we’re mates, why haven’t you come to see me? Don’t you like me?”

“I’m afraid I don’t know you at all. I’d like to change that, though.”

“Okay.” Aslan stood on the bed and jumped across the room, right into Torren’s arms. “Let’s go to my room.” Torren nodded dazedly and turned to carry his mate down the hall.

The minute they were out of sight, Galen burst into laughter. “Torren doesn’t even know what hit him. Did you see the look on his face?”

“Ya mean like the one I was wearin’ when your sexy little ass walked into the room for the first time?” Bannon poked at Galen’s ribs, tickling him and sending him into more fits of giggles. Then he sighed and dropped his cheek to rest on top of Galen’s head. “I guess we should be packin’. Torren is right that we’re runnin’ outta time.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. So, how do you track people? How am I going to help?”

“I’m not sure how to explain it. I’m thinkin’ it’ll be something I’ll need to just show ya.”

“Can you do it now?”

“Well, I have to be asleep.”

“Huh?” Galen sat up straight and tilted his head on his shoulders. “How on earth do you find people while you’re sleeping?”

“He can show you on the plane,” Torren interrupted, coming back into the room, sans Aslan. “We have reason to believe that Camdin is somewhere in New England, so there’s a plane waiting to take you to Maine where you’ll work your way down the coast from there.” Ignoring Torren’s kiss-swollen lips and his mussed-up hair, Galen pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes. “If you know he’s in New England, why don’t you know exactly where he is?”

“It’s not GPS, Galen.”

“What’s not? Why do I feel like you’re only giving us half the story?”

“Because I am,” Torren admitted. “You don’t need to know everything. I just need Bannon to do his job and you to help if you can. There’s a car leaving for the airstrip in ten minutes. I expect you in it.”

Aslan stood just inside the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest and a crooked smile on his face. “You just can’t help yourself can you? Leave them alone, and come here.” Torren’s entire body softened as he turned to face his mate. “I have to get back,
caro
.” His massive palm tenderly cradled the side Aslan’s face. “I need to settle some business, but I’ll be back soon. Will you wait for me?”

“Sure.” Aslan pushed up on his toes, kissed Torren’s cheek, then turned and bounced out of the room.

“He’s going to be a handful,” Torren muttered as he watched Aslan leave. He had a dopey smile on his face, though, so Galen took that to be a good thing. “Be in that car,” he said without turning. Then he left without further comment.

“I guess we better be in that car.”

Bannon chuckled and kissed Galen on the nose. “Aye, I guess we should.”

* * * *

“Wow!” Galen’s mouth dropped open when he stepped through the door at the back of the plane. “This is awesome.” Bannon had slept in the bed Galen was gawking at too many times to count. He was a little over the thrill of it, but he’d had the same reaction the first time. Never had anyone shared the bed with him, though. Suddenly, the trip didn’t seem quite so bad.

“I’ve never been on a plane before. It’s safe, right?”

“Not to worry, sweetheart. It’s safer than drivin’.”

“It’ll be sunrise soon. Are Raven and Demos going to be okay?” Bannon eased around his mate and walked over to the small window beside the bed. “Steel plates slide over these, just like at home. There’s even a steel door separatin’ the cockpit. Everyone is perfectly safe.”

“How long is it until we land? Then what do we do when we get wherever we’re going?”

“Come over here, and stop ya frettin’.” Bannon chuckled and flopped down on the mattress. “We have work to do.”

“Are you going to show me how you do your tracking thing now?”

“Aye. It’s actually easier when we’re movin’, but I’ll get to that part.” He reached into a little compartment on the headboard and withdrew two glass vials. “Ya need to take this and get comfortable.

It’s just to help ya sleep,” he added when Galen looked hesitant.

Screwing off the black cap on one of the vials, he tipped the contents into his mouth and tossed the bottle and the lid into the waste can beside the bed. Then he kicked his boots off and stripped down to his boxers before turning the covers down and crawling into bed.

“Bottoms up,” Galen mumbled as he upended the bottle and drank down the clear liquid inside. His nose scrunched up, and his mouth twisted. “What is that?”

“More or less a Valium.” Bannon levered up on his elbows and patted the empty space beside him. “Crawl in.” Galen undressed down to his boxers as well and wiggled himself under the blankets and right up to Bannon’s chest. “Now what?”

“Relax and try to sleep.”

“Okay.” Galen cuddled closer, resting his head on Bannon’s chest and draping one leg over his thigh.

Already exhausted from the emotional roller coaster of the day, and feeling utterly content with his mate’s scent filling his nose and his warm body heating Bannon’s side, it wasn’t long before the sleeping aid began to work its magic.

“Bannon, where are we?” There was a slightly hysterical note to Galen’s voice as he hissed in Bannon’s ear.

Blinking open his eyes, Bannon looked out over the vast field surrounded at the edges by thick, rolling fog. Moonlight illuminated the thick grass, making it look almost black in the eerie realm of his dream world.

“It’s just a dream,” Bannon assured his lover. He was rather pleased that he’d been able to suck Galen into the dream with him.

“Stay by my side, and don’t let anyone touch ya.”

“Who? There’s no one here but us.” Galen did as instructed though, grabbing Bannon’s hand and plastering himself to his side.

“What are we doing?”

“Hush now,
mo chroí
.”

Dreams didn’t work like reality. It wasn’t like punching someone’s name into a database and waiting for the results to pop up on the screen. With computers, Bannon could search by name, age, gender, phone number, address, police records, and a number of other things—usually the more the better.

It was the opposite in his dreams. Fewer details usually garnered better results. Unfortunately, it also gave him a
lot
of results. That was where Galen would come into play.

The first man appeared in the center of the field, looking dazed and very much confused about how he’d gotten to his surroundings.

“Don’t be afraid,” he whispered to Galen when he felt the man tense beside him. “Can ya tell me what he is?” Bannon knew the man had to be a preter of some sort. His powers only worked on other paranormals for some reason. There were thousands of them scattered around the world, but luckily, they numbered far less than the general population, which made his job a fair sight easier.

“D–Demon,” Galen stuttered, squeezing Bannon’s hand in a death grip.

“Shh, it’s okay now.”

Three more men appeared out of thin air, scattered around the clearing. “Shifters,” Galen whispered. “They’re all shifters. Related, I think.”

“Good. You’re doin’ good, baby.” And it was going much faster than it normally did. Bannon couldn’t have been more pleased.

“Where did he go?”

The demon Galen had identified faded away until he vanished completely. “The plane has moved outside of my radius.” There were limits to his powers, just like any other magic. He could only summon preternaturals, and only when they were sleeping. Once that person awoke or moved outside of his circle, he lost him.

Eight more males appeared within the boundaries of the fog—two who appeared to be teenagers, a small boy, and five fully-grown men.

This was where vague could be a problem. He’d sent out feelers for males, but narrowing the age range was a little more difficult.

“They’re all werewolves except the little boy,” Galen whispered, and Bannon could hear the frown in his voice. “He…he’s like Kendall. And he’s scared.”

Before Bannon could react to the news, a huge group of at least twenty men ghosted in through the fog. They looked just as confused as the others—all except for one. While everyone else in the clearing milled about, looking just like what would be expected in a dream, one of the men in the back stood completely motionless, staring into Bannon’s eyes as though he recognized him for what he was.

“Galen?”

“The one looking at us? His name is Raith Braddock, and he wants us to get him the fuck out. His words, not mine.”

“How did ya do that?”

“I didn’t.” Galen lifted his arm and pointed toward the witch. “He did. He’s in my head, and it’s kind of uncomfortable.”

“Where is he?” The words weren’t fully out of his mouth before Raith was sucked back into the fog as though an invisible line was connected to his belly button.

“What happened? Where did he go?”

“Someone took him.” Bannon had only seen it happen twice before, and it never meant anything good for him. “We need to be goin’, Galen. Now.”

“Galen, wake up!”

Rolling his head back and forth on the pillow, Galen groaned as the world around him shook. Why was the bed shaking?

“Galen!”

Oh, right.
The bed wasn’t vibrating, but he was. Well, Bannon was shaking the shit out of him as he yelled his name and tapped at his cheeks annoyingly. “I’m up. I’m up.” Galen groaned again, prying his eyelids open and blinking several times to get them to focus.

“Why are you shaking me?”

“I’m thinkin’ ya probably shouldn’t take the sleep stuff anymore. I almost choked on my heart when ya wouldn’t wake up.”

“How long have I been asleep?” It felt like only minutes, but it suddenly occurred to him that he didn’t feel the rocking or swaying of the plane anymore. “Did we land?”

“Aye.” Bannon stared down at him with concern. “It’s almost nightfall, Galen. I got ya out of the dream, but I couldn’t get ya awake.”

Galen bolted upright, groaning and grabbing at his temples when his head began to spin. “Yeah, no more night-night juice for me. I feel like my head is going to explode.”

“Here, drink this, baby.” Bannon pushed a small plastic cup of water into his hand. “I’m not sure what good it’ll do, but I’ve seen it in movies.”