The Three (26 page)

“Yes.”

“All right, then.” He stepped away from Elin as his men began wandering back into the clearing.

“Nothing to report, sir,” one said. “We didn’t find anything.”

Trey nodded. “Fair enough. Keep an eye on the girl…and her man. If he wakes up, make sure he’s not a threat. Make sure that she doesn’t get any more ideas of defiance, however slight.”

“Yes, sir,” the small group of men replied as one.

Trey dismissed them with a brief nod, then leaned against a tree trunk not far from the one where Anna hid.

He gave Elin a blank smile. “And now we wait,” he told her.

So Anna waited.

It felt like hours before the men left, and their voices disappeared in the general direction in which she had been traveling with her lovers. Anna remained in the tree for as long as she could, extending her senses out into the silence. When she’d heard nothing for several minutes, she descended at an almost dangerous speed, finally dropping from a low-hanging branch to fall forward on her hands and knees in the dirt.

Without pausing to regain her balance, she released a grunt of rage and got to her feet, making it all the way back to the clearing before dropping to her knees next to Kael’s body.

Anna didn’t know which injury to examine first. There was the scalp wound that bled fiercely and the fine slice on her muscular left arm, also bleeding. Anna cringed at the thought of what cuts and bruises might be hidden under Kael’s clothing. With a trembling hand, she pressed her fingers to Kael’s throat, searching for terrifying moments before she located the pulse— weak, thready, but there. He’s alive.

Anna looked around. The bodies of the people Kael had slain were gone. She couldn’t see Elin or Kael’s bags and could only assume that the men had stolen their gear. Anna’s bag and Elin’s second, smaller bag, were across the grassy clearing where Anna had left them. Moving her hand to the long, ugly cut on the front of Kael’s head, she pressed down with her fingers in a frantic effort to stop the bleeding.

She needed her bag and the extra bandages inside it. Kael had been slowly bleeding for at least an hour, and if Anna didn’t do something, blood loss could kill her faster than any brain injury she might have from the blow that had knocked her unconscious.

“Baby, you’re going to be okay,” she whispered. “We’ll just stop this bleeding and then you’ll be okay.”

Hot tears streamed down her face as she pressed hard against the head wound, keeping her other hand clapped over a wicked cut on Kael’s arm. Warm blood oozed between her fingers. The only sound she could hear was her own frantic breathing, filling her with panic. Every moment that ticked by felt like an eternity. The sun hung lower in the sky, and the temperature began to fall. She tried hard not to think about what could be happening to Elin that very second. What are they doing to her? Where will she sleep tonight? Her heart felt like it was rent in two.

“I can’t think like that,” she mumbled under her breath. “Kael is going to be okay, and we’re going to find Elin.”

Stifling a quiet sob, she tentatively lifted her hand from Kael’s scalp. The blood had finally clotted. She checked the arm wound and felt a rush of relief followed by new anxiety that she might have missed something. Hastily, she lifted Kael’s shirt to her chin and inspected her body for any other injuries. There was an ugly scrape over her ribs on the left side and a purpling bruise high on her chest. Anna could see it peeking out from beneath her tight sports bra.

Forcing herself to leave the injured woman for a few minutes, she retrieved her bag, then she washed and dressed the scrape on Kael’s side. All the while, Kael remained limp and cold. Anna ran her hands down the denim of Kael’s blue jeans, examining her thighs and legs for injury. Finding nothing obvious, she debated the wisdom of moving her to examine her back. If she had a neck injury, rolling her over could be a horrible idea.

Feeling as helpless and frightened as she ever had in her life, Anna sat back on her heels, tears rolling down her cheeks. “Wake up, Kael. Please.”

Her lover remained unconscious, and Anna’s entire body felt chilled by a profound feeling of loss.

Elin is gone, and I don’t even know if Kael will ever wake up.

There was no other choice; she would have to wait some more.

“Elin!”

Anna jerked awake at Kael’s frantic scream, and her heart jack-hammered in her chest. She sat against a fallen log near the smoldering fire in the middle of their impromptu campsite. Kael rested only a couple of feet away, close enough so that Anna could hear her if she needed anything.

From Kael’s screaming re-entry into waking life, it was clear what she needed—she needed the same thing that Anna’s soul had been missing for the past half day.

“Oh God, Elin!”

Anna scrambled to her knees and crawled over to Kael’s writhing body. Kael struggled against some unseen force as she tore into consciousness, bruised limbs striking out in a weak attack. Anna was relieved to hear Kael’s voice, her words, to know that she was still capable of speech.

And that he remembers something.

“Kael, honey, calm down.” The sky she glimpsed through the trees was dark, and she wondered just how late it had gotten. “You’re okay, but you were knocked out. You need to keep still so we can figure out how hurt you really are.”

“Oh God, Anna. Oh God,” Kael sobbed. “Elin—” She struggled to sit, and Anna reached out to steady her as she slumped to the side.

“Please, honey, you’ve got to keep still.” She wrapped her arms around Kael’s torso and tried to guide her back to the ground. Kael lurched forward and vomited onto the dirt next to them. Anna cringed but held on tight, afraid that Kael would hurt herself in her panicked state. “Try to calm down, baby, please. Take deep breaths.”

Kael sobbed uncontrollably, broad shoulders shaking within Anna’s embrace. “Anna…Elin…” She vomited again, face twisted in agony. When she could retch no more, she grew limp in Anna’s arms. “My fucking head hurts so much. There were men—”

“I know,” Anna said in a soothing tone. She rubbed a gentle hand over the back of Kael’s torn and dirty Tshirt. “I know.”

Kael released a piteous moan and collapsed within Anna’s embrace. “I failed her…I failed her. God, what are they doing to—” She retched once more.

Anna felt utterly helpless. She needed Kael back, mentally, even though she knew it was asking a lot. She didn’t know how to help Elin alone. “Baby, please try to breathe. Please. I need you to calm down. If we’re going to get Elin back, we need to start thinking about what to do next.”

At once Kael grew so calm, so still, it was almost eerie. The change was instant and startling. She withdrew from Anna silently, putting distance between them. When she spoke again, after some time, her voice was flat, emotionless.

“They won’t rape her tonight.”

Anna had to fight the urge to recoil at the matter-of-factness of Kael’s statement. “If what the leader told Elin was true, I think you’re right. They won’t.”

“They’re Procreationists. They don’t believe in rape. Or at least they think they don’t. If a man forces himself on a woman who is not his wife or who is not in service to him, he’s punished. Imprisoned.”

“In service?” Anna folded her arms over her stomach, sick from the implication.

“That’s what they called what they did to me—to all the unmarried women or orphaned girls. Marry by sixteen or go into service. When I got there…well, I was damaged goods by that point. I didn’t get to wait until I was sixteen. Young girls who find their way into the community often don’t.”

“That’s so evil.” Anna’s stomach flip-flopped at the despair that radiated from her lover. “You’re sure these are the people who took Elin?”

“When the first two surprised us, they acted friendly at first. A man and a woman, so I thought—” Kael shook her head, then winced. “They asked us where we were going, why we were traveling. Where were we from? Asked us what we thought about Procreation, had we ever thought about making it our life’s goal, they have a great community we could join.”

“I heard that guy Trey tell her she would have a purpose in Pennsylvania.” Anna stood to gather their gear so they could move fast as soon as Kael was able. “Did you know they were the same people who had you?”

“No, but they were spouting the same rhetoric, and I got upset…I told them to go fuck themselves. I shoved the woman out of the way, and we tried to get past them. The man grabbed Elin’s hand…her burned hand, and I just saw red—”

Anna was trembling, imagining the scene before she had stumbled upon it. “There were just the two of them?”

“At first.” Kael brought shaking fingers to her face and gave her bandaged head an experimental once-over. “But then there were more. It’s hard to remember. I think there were a lot more.”

“I counted at least twenty-five,” Anna said quietly. “Maybe thirty.”

“I guess the odds weren’t in my favor.”

Anna nodded at the truth of that statement. “The leader said that they would go back to their base camp so a medic could look at the men you and Elin injured. Then he said they’d leave. He said they…had enough.”

“Base camp.” Kael struggled to stand. “We need to find her. We’ve got to get her back before they make it to Philadelphia.”

Anna placed a steadying hand on Kael’s arm as she rose to her full height. As much as Kael would kill herself trying, she wasn’t going anywhere tonight. Her skin was sallow, her breathing shaky and erratic, and her speech remained slightly slurred. She was pouring sweat in the cool breeze of the evening. She had lost so much blood—not to mention taken quite a blow to her head—that Anna was shocked she was on her feet at all.

Kael tore her arm away from Anna’s gentle grasp. “We’ve got to get her!” She took a step away, then grabbed her head and let out a soft groan. “And if you’re not willing to go, then I’ll have to do it alone.”

Anna blinked at the angry words. I’ll cut you some slack here, tough guy, but watch what you’re implying. “I agree, baby, we need to get her back. But not tonight.”

“Goddamn it, right now!” Kael growled. “We start walking this-fucking-minute, and we don’t stop until we kill every single one of those assholes.” Without waiting for a reply, she grunted in disgust and turned as though to walk away, only to double over as pain consumed her.

“Kael, what can you do tonight?” Anna kept her voice neutral, not wanting to further provoke her fury. “Look at you, honey. You just got knocked unconscious for hours. You probably have a concussion. At the very least, you’ve lost a lot of blood.”

“I’m fine,” Kael snarled, still bent low at the belly. Only a moment passed before she turned her head to vomit one more time. When she was done, she spat on the ground in anger. “I’m fine.”

Anna finally stood and placed a hand on Kael’s uninjured arm. “What would happen if you found her tonight? If you tried to rescue her feeling like you do right now? Do you think we’d get her back? Or do you think we’d just get ourselves killed, and Elin would be hurt even more?”

Kael’s lower lip trembled. “But—”

“I don’t like it, either. Trust me. The odds will be against us anyway, but I just want half a chance to succeed. So we can live with Elin, rather than die for her. Because I don’t think our dying for her would make her very happy. Do you?”

The corner of Kael’s mouth twitched as she no doubt relived some memory of Elin. “No. I don’t think it would.”

“So we rest tonight. And then we get up tomorrow, and we go find her.”

A tear leaked from Kael’s left eye and snaked a lazy trail down her cheek. “All right.” She shifted a little, then leaned heavily on Anna. “But only because I’m pretty sure I’ll pass out if I don’t sit down right now.”

Anna helped her to an undisturbed spot next to the campfire she’d just started to build. I need to go kick some dirt over quite a few patches where Kael was sick before I go to bed. And hope that we don’t run out of real estate before the night is through.

“I only have my sleeping bag,” she said. “They took most of your stuff.”

“Great.”

“They left your bow and arrow. But they took your sword.”

Kael managed a weak nod. “We’ll try to find another on the way. If not, well, I’ll figure something out.”

Anna bit her lip as she remembered one last piece of information. “Oh…and the leader had a gun.”

Kael sighed. “You’re right. We’re going to need our rest.”

They walked in silence for most of the next morning, Anna following Kael as they discerned the trail together. Twenty-five men couldn’t move through the forest without leaving evidence of their passage.

Anna allowed Kael to guide them, but covertly watched her for signs of illness or pain.

She had a sudden, startling thought. “You said they went through your bag? Do you think they found your…dildo?” Anna couldn’t imagine what those men would think of something like that. How much trouble might Elin be in?

Kael cracked a smile, doubtless over Anna’s tentative use of the word. “No, thank God.” Her cheeks turned light pink.

“You don’t think they saw it?”

“I know they didn’t. If they had, they’d have checked me out more thoroughly before they left. Two women would have been a lot more valuable to them than one.”

“Jesus, Kael.”

“I know. I’m goddamn lucky I had it on me instead of in the bag.”

Anna raised an eyebrow.

“I had plans.”

“I see.”

“Don’t worry. It’s in Elin’s other bag, now. The one you’re carrying. I put it away this morning.”

“Thanks for the warning.” Anna tried for a smile, but she knew her face was as tense as Kael’s.