Part 7 (2/2)

”No sign of anyone else?” he asked me, after I told him how Adam and I had found the boat-and how Adam had run back to camp to get help and left me to do what I could.

”No.” I pulled the blanket they'd given me more securely around myself.

Benny woke up briefly when they started wrapping his foot with vet wrap. It sounded like it hurt.

Jim sighed. ”Benny's sister, Faith, was with him out fis.h.i.+ng. They were supposed to be home for dinner. Julie, Benny's wife, she called Fred tonight when Benny didn't answer his phone. We were docking, but the Jamisons are good folk. We put the boat back in the water and started looking. What tribe did you say you were?”

I hadn't, in spite of the fact that they had introduced themselves that way. All of them were from the Yakama (with three a's, though the town was spelled Yakima) Nation. The Owens brothers were Yakama. Jim Alvin was Wish-ram and Yakama, as was Calvin Seeker. I didn't think of myself that way. I was a walker and a mechanic, both of which served more often than not to make me separate from other people. I was Adam's mate, which connected me to him and to the pack.

I was also cold and tired. It took me too long to remember.

”Blackfoot,” I said, then corrected myself. ”Blackfeet.”

”You don't know which?” asked Calvin, speaking for the first time-though he'd been watching me since they came ash.o.r.e. I'd almost forgotten I was naked until I saw his face just before I'd been tossed a woolen blanket. I supposed polite disinterest was too much to ask from everyone. Three out of four wasn't bad.

”I never knew my father-my mother is white. He told my mother he was from Browning, Montana,” I told them. The wool was doing a good job of warming the skin it covered.

Naked wrapped in a blanket among strangers didn't use to bother me. Maybe if Calvin would have quit staring at the various pieces of me that the blanket didn't cover, it still wouldn't have bothered me. As it was, I did my best to keep Jim between Calvin and me.

”So you were raised white,” said Calvin in disapproving tones.

I should have told them I was Hispanic and any Indians in my bloodlines were South American and unknown. Half of my customers thought I was Hispanic. Telling them I was Hispanic felt like it would have been less of a lie than telling them I was Indian. As if I were claiming ties that weren't there.

”Browning, Montana, makes him Blackfeet,” Jim told me kindly. ”Piegan. The Blood and the Siksika are Blackfoot.”

I knew that. It just hadn't tripped off my tongue.

”What were you doing out here? It's an odd place to be running around at this time of night.” Jim didn't say naked. He didn't have to. ”Boy,” he said abruptly to Calvin. ”Don't you make your mother ashamed of her son.”

The young man's mouth tightened, but he looked away from me. A few years ago his regard wouldn't have bothered me the way it did now. But things had happened since that made me uncomfortable standing nearly naked with four strangers-five if I counted Benny, which I didn't.

”I just got married,” I told him, reminding my too-jittery self that Adam would be on his way back by now. If something happened, and I had no reason to think it would-especially as they had handed over a blanket to cover me without a word-Adam would be here before anything too bad happened. I wouldn't be caught in the trap of a.s.suming all men were bad-but I wouldn't have been human if I weren't wary. ”We were swimming.”

”Good thing for Benny,” said Jim. ”We've been by here twice. It would have been morning before we could have seen that boat under the trees. And morning would have been too late for him.”

Fred (I could tell because he wore a red flannel s.h.i.+rt, and Hank wore a gray one) left Benny to his brother and came over.

Evidently he'd been listening because he said, ”I called 911, Jim, and they had already gotten a call from her husband. There is an ambulance on its way. I told the operator that we could get Benny up to the road. It'll be a rough trip. The road's only a half mile or so as the crow flies, but this is horrible country for a fast trek in the dark. But they'd have to make the trip twice that we need to make once.”

”What about taking him on the boat?” asked Calvin.

Fred shook his head. ”We might get him to the hospital faster that way-but the ambulance will have medical personnel on board. He'll get faster medical care, and time matters. If he stays in shock, we could lose him-but when he warms up, that foot is going to bleed like a fountain.”

”Whatever you and Hank think best,” said Jim, which seemed to make the decision for everyone.

5.

THE ONLY BRUSH OR TREES IN THIS PART OF THE gorge that weren't cultivated-very little of the ground on either side of the river was was cultivated-were right on the river. For the most part our footing was cheatgra.s.s-covered basalt, not horrible hiking if I'd had shoes. cultivated-were right on the river. For the most part our footing was cheatgra.s.s-covered basalt, not horrible hiking if I'd had shoes.

It would have been better if I could have s.h.i.+fted into coyote, but I didn't know these men-and I don't make it a habit of telling everyone what I am. Too many bad things happened to people who admitted too openly what they were without a powerful group behind them-and sometimes even with a powerful group behind them. I'd survived a long time by keeping my head down and blending in; I wasn't going to change that just to make my bare feet feel better.

The Owens brothers and Calvin took turns carrying Benny. Jim led the way and carried a couple of flares to flag down the ambulance with. We all, except for whoever was carrying Benny, carried flashlights, which did a fair bit to destroy my night vision. I brought up the rear-though they had all suggested I stay down by the river.

I could have done that, but what if they ran into Adam? Under normal circ.u.mstances, they'd be perfectly safe. But Adam had had to make two fast changes tonight and experienced a number of stressors. He'd been forced to leave me naked and vulnerable. Benny had been so afraid-in addition to all the blood and pain.

Adam was not human and hadn't been for a long time. His control was very good-but this was not a good night for him to be meeting up with strangers carrying a bleeding, hurt man.

So I insisted on going with them.

We might have been a half mile from the road, but that half mile was all up the side of a very steep hill that was broken up with basalt cliffs that ranged from two feet to twenty or thirty feet high. The first kind we scrambled over; the second we worked our way around.

We'd made it about halfway by my hazy reckoning when Adam caught up to us. He was human and clothed, but his eyes were yellow bright from the adrenaline and the pain of his rushed changes.

He handed me a backpack, and said, ”Clothes, shoes, and first aid.” His voice was a low, growling sound, and his hand shook.

”Thank you,” I said. ”I'm safe with them.” I found that I believed that now, and it was a relief. ”Can you get Benny up to the road to wait for the ambulance?” It would be dangerous, all that blood. But the men were tiring, and tired people make missteps.

Adam didn't look directly at any of the strangers-so they wouldn't have the opportunity to meet his eyes. That was good and bad. It told me he was still in control-but he didn't trust himself to stay that way.

He took Benny off Hank's back without a word, cradling the wounded man like a baby-which kept Benny's foot up higher though it was a much more difficult way to carry an unconscious person than the fireman's carry the Owens brothers had been using.

Hank didn't fight Adam-just held very still, as though he sensed how much danger he was in. Adam lifted his head once, then took a quick look at all the men before sprinting off for the road at a dead run.

”Who the h.e.l.l was that?” asked Calvin.

He had to have had a fair idea of who it was-after all, Adam had brought clothes for me. What he meant, I thought, was how did Adam run up the side of the canyon carrying Benny at a speed that would have done credit to an Olympic sprinter. ”That was my husband,” I said nonchalantly to the adrenaline-filled air as I opened the backpack and pulled out my jeans. ”He's a werewolf-and Hank was smart enough not to make an issue of handing Benny off to him.”

Adam's status was not a secret, though there were still a lot of werewolves who hid what they were. Adam was almost a celebrity in the Tri-Cities, though we were hoping the fascination with him would die down. It did no harm for Calvin and the others to know what he was-and maybe it would give them a little caution when we caught up to him.

Putting on my jeans was slow work because I was still a little damp, but the warmth felt wonderful. He'd packed a sweats.h.i.+rt that smelled like Adam, came down to my knees, and was warmer than anything I'd brought. I dusted off my sore and bleeding feet and stuffed them into a pair of socks, then into my tennis shoes. Heaven.

I looked up to see all four men watching me.

”Don't meet his eyes if you can help it-he's had a rough day,” I told them. Then, with the blanket in one hand, I took off after Adam, leaving the others to follow however they would. They'd been swift and sure in the face of their friend's trouble. They'd recover from the werewolf pretty fast.

Adam was waiting for us at the highway's shoulder when I found him. He'd set the injured man down a few yards away, where there was a big rock he'd used to keep Benny's leg elevated.

”Hey.” I spread the blanket over Benny and tucked it in around him. ”How are you doing, Adam?”

”Not good,” he admitted without looking at me. ”I need someone to kill.” I think he was trying to be funny, but it came out seriously.

I could hear the others approaching. My feet were battered, shoes or no shoes, and my calf ached where the water plant had been pulled off so abruptly. I hadn't made the best time up to the highway and, without Benny slowing them down, evidently they had been able to speed up a lot. I stood up and walked to Adam.

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