Part 21 (1/2)
”She did not abandon you,” Silver Hawk said, reading his expression.
Hunter closed his eyes. He didn't want to suffer a lecture. He just thought she'd be there when he woke up.
”Sasha is doing what she must to protect her pack, no less than what you would do if a demon incursion were eating members of the Shadow Wolf Clan. She did not sleep all night. I could see the fatigue in her eyes. She sat vigil for you until the dawn and then came in search of me.”
”Sasha will always do what duty demands,” Hunter said in a raspy voice.
”No,” his grandfather said, touching the dual amulets Hunter wore. ”She gave you a part of her spirit... duty never demanded that.” He stared down at Hunter, his wise eyes speaking volumes beyond his Spartan comments. ”It is an immeasurable gift. Do not let your temporary disappointment or ego squander it.”
Russell Conway clicked off the television remote and flung it across the room. Rage held back the tears in his eyes as he jumped up, rushed to the bathroom, and searched through his toiletries bag with shaking hands. He laughed out loud when he saw the plastic razor and then stared into the mirror for a moment before das.h.i.+ng out of the bathroom to the small kitchenette to locate a knife.
Holding his wrist out over the sink he pressed down on the blade. They didn't believe him; they thought he was a fraud. He'd seen what he'd seen. He had proof! A Werewolf had butchered his mother and little sister right before his eyes. He could see it as though it were yesterday. And now they were calling everything a hoax? He hadn't dedicated his life to a hoax... he hadn't!
”I'm not crazy,” he said in a trembling voice, pressing down harder on the blade. ”I'm not!”
Esmeralda touched the corridor walls lightly, taking her time as she moved timidly without her natural sight. She had to find Sir Rodney, had to let him know about her vision. Fort Shannon of Inverness, the House of Clerka”his rule would soon be under attack. Only her third-eye vision guided her past coats of armor and tapestries, and then she stopped when she heard familiar footfalls.
”Milady! My goodness! You should be recovering,” Rupert said, rus.h.i.+ng to take her elbow.
Esmeralda brought a graceful hand up to her eyes, touching the swirling colored miasma of sparkles that covered them. ”Do I look horrible now?”
”Oh, no, milady ... do not disturb the healing. It is beautiful, just like you . . . like a thousand tiny lights of the Faeries garden.” Rupert soothed her with a hug. ”You will forever be beautiful to all of us. You tried to help our sovereign and he will not abandon you.”
She wiped at a tear that hadn't fallen and the sight of that made Rupert swallow hard.
”I've had a vision, a horrible vision that I must convey to Sir Rodney right away. I want to still be useful to him while I'm here, not just thought of as an invalid to be tucked away.”
”He will keep you here in the sidhe, I'm sure ... as, maybe, his seer. Sometimes when we lose one gift, another comes in its place. I know that Garth would try with all his might to do that for you, if it was in his powers,” Rupert said delicately. ”Come, let me guide you back to your room. The Pixies will help you robe while I fetch the king.”
There was no explanation about why the bureaucratic side of all things government took so long. Fatigue and frustration weighed on her heavily as she double-checked rounds with Woods and Fisher to be sure that everyone on the mission had silver-dust-filled sh.e.l.ls, understood supernatural protocols, and had a chance to get out of the bayou alive.
Late-afternoon sun took a dip behind the trees, and just seeing that made her crazy. All morning she'd been at the base, readying men, talking by VTC to the Joint Chiefs with Colonel Madison, and fact-checking demon-hunting protocols with Bradley and the NORAD team. Shogun and Crow Shadow had thankfully hit her cell with messages that they were headed back to the sidhe. That was the only way she could get a message back to Hunter, by way of a third partya”and that made her stomach clench.
”Captain, we've got a problem that Lieutenant Campbell pointed outa”and it's a valid concern.”
Sasha briefly closed her eyes. ”Give it to me with both barrels, Woods.” She had to get back to the sidhe, and had to get to Russell Conway to give the man a ray of hope. She felt like she was stuck in mola.s.ses, walking through the day in it. Everything seemed to be conspiring to keep her from getting back to where she wanted to be most, back at Hunter's side.
”These guys are going into a firefight with night-vision goggles ... but the goggles don't register color, just the gleam. Everything in the sight line of the goggles is a weird green tint. So they can't tell at a split-second glance if the eyes of something coming at them are red, green, or gold. That's a problem.”
Sasha kicked the jeep tire hard. ”Oh, just kiss my a.s.s!”
CHAPTER 24.
Functioning on hour thirty-six with no sleep, battle fatigue, worry, and delay after delay at the base, Sasha felt the Louisiana heat beginning to take its toll. Her sidearm was like an anvil, adding to the weight of everything else. It was almost dusk and there wasn't even enough time for her to grab a bite to eat; she'd been living off whatever munchies she could scavenge from vending machines. Pathetic.
She held herself up by the second-floor railing of the motel, intermittently lifting her sweat-soaked T-s.h.i.+rt off her back as she waited for Russell Conway to open the door. ”C'mon, Mister Conway. Open up. I know you're in there. I can hear you,” Sasha called out, quickly losing patience.
This was a courtesy call, one she really didn't have time for. But something moved her to do it. The poor b.a.s.t.a.r.d seemed like the type who might put a bullet in his skull if people didn't believe him, and she so did not need to have that on her conscience along with everything else.
”Finally,” she muttered as she heard movement coming toward the door.
A bleary-eyed Russell Conway opened the door a crack. ”What's this? You all coming to take me to the crazy house to keep me quiet?”
”No,” Sasha said, lifting her damp hair off her neck. ”I came to apologize to you for what had to be done.” Sasha let out an exasperated breath. ”Look, I went to a lot of trouble to find you, sir. You've moved from the hotel in town where you'd been staying to way out here in this motel. If I could just have a minute of your time, I'll be on my way.”
Frowning, he peered around the door a little farther. ”This is a trick, isn't ita”to lure me out so you all can grab me.”
Sasha stood back from the door and held her hands up in front of her chest. ”n.o.body wants to take you into custody, sir. In fact, I'm not even supposed to be here. But I felt bad that your story had to be discredited to keep down public panic.”
”Really?” he said, opening the door wider.
Sasha's eyes went to his bloodied wrists and the gasp came out before she could stop it.
”I just gave up,” he said, dropping the knife onto the motel carpet. ”But I couldn't make the knife cut all the waya”I need something sharper.”
”Oh, G.o.d, sir,” Sasha said in a rush. ”Please let me in. I can help you, if you'll let me explain.”
”Okay,” Russell Conway said in a tone that sounded like that of a frightened child.
This was exactly what Sasha was afraid of, and she hurried in behind Russell and shut the door.
”Listen,” she said. ”We know you aren't crazy. There are definitely things out there that kill humansa”things that aren't human.”
”Oh . . . I know,” he said and nodded, then calmly walked back toward the small kitchenette.
”But. . . sometimes we have to make deals, make compromises for the greater good.”
”I understand that, too,” Russell said. ”I learned that as a young boy.”
”I know this has been awfully difficult for you, sir ... I'm sorry.”
”Me, too,” he said, picking up a backpack and extracting a nine-millimeter. He quickly put it under his chin.
”Please don't do that, Russell,” Sasha said, walking toward him slowly. ”It's going to be all right. Please give me the gun . .. please.”
”I understand about making deals,” he said with a peaceful smile. ”I made a deal as a boy with something in that woods that night. It told me to take off the charm and it would keep the monsters, all of them, from coming back. Werewolves wouldn't be able to hurt me, Vampires wouldn't. I would be safe, so I took that deal. But when I wanted people to know, it kept saying, 'Feed me. That was not a part of our deal.' So I tried to cut my wrists and they just healed up. I was about to try this when you came.”