Demon Crossings (2 page)

Grace startled awake and swung at the flashlight pointed at her face. She didn’t hit anything but the blinding light withdrew, leaving a patch of stars behind. She stretched out flat on the road with a hulking black shape looming over her. When she tried to roll away, a big hand caught her shoulder and held her in place.

“Whoa there. Take it easy.” A soothing voice, deep and male. “You were in a wreck and have a head injury. I’ve already called for help.”

She was a good distance away from her car so he must have carried her to the road. How long had she been out? “Who are you?”

“My name is Aiden. You crashed in front of my house. Aside from your head, does anything hurt?”

She tried to sit again and this time, with an exasperated sigh, he slipped an arm behind her back and helped her up. Swallowing hard, she closed her eyes and waited for her stomach to settle.

“You shouldn’t be moving,” he said.

“It was just the airbag. My neck is fine. My head…hurts…but it’s still attached.”

“That it is.” His hands drifted over her body, checking for injuries. A firm touch but impersonal. When he inadvertently brushed her breast on his way to her shoulder, his hand jerked back but not before an electric jolt ripped through her. She could barely remember the last time she’d let a man close enough to touch her. He murmured an apology, and his fingers slipped into her hair to check her head. “Can you tell me your name?”

“Grace.” She squinted into the dark, trying to get a good look at him. No use. But he was warm and reassuringly solid, definitely not a figment of her imagination. Someone actually had come to her rescue. Someone big, with strong arms and a broad chest, who smelled so good she wanted to press her face to his shoulder to breathe him in. Safe. A sappy feeling unfurled in her chest and she crushed it.
Damn.
She’d hit her head
hard
. Wedging her hands between their bodies, she tried to push him away but he didn’t budge.

“The cut seems to be the worst of it. Here, take this.” He shoved a wad of fabric into her hand and pressed it to her forehead. “You need to keep pressure on that. I can’t stop the bleeding here so I’m taking you up to the house. Can you stand? If you can’t manage, I’ll carry you to the horse.”

He shifted to get his legs under him and her memory of how she got here returned in a flash. Her fingers clamped down on his forearm and she pulled him back down. “Before I crashed,” she whispered urgently. “I saw something run across the road. About the size of your horse but it wasn’t a horse. I think…”

She trailed off as she considered what to tell him.

“Yes?”

She shook her head and regretted it. “It looked dangerous.”

He squeezed her shoulder. “Probably a deer. Maybe a raccoon or fox. There’s not much else living in these woods.”

“It wasn’t a deer,” she said. “I know what deer look like.”

“What was it then?”

“I don’t know. There were lights in the woods…” He was going to think she was crazy, seeing aliens or chasing Bigfoot, so she gave up trying to convince him of the danger. She could protect both of them. “Give me a minute to find my gun. I dropped it when I fell.”

“When you fainted,” he corrected, “because of the blow to your head. We have to get you checked out first and the doctor’s already on his way.”

Ignoring Aiden, she started scrambling through the grass looking for the gun until he wrapped an arm around her waist and stood, pulling her up with him.

“Whatever you’ve got out here can wait.”

Of course. Don’t let the crazy woman get to her gun. She sympathized, but a pair of strong arms and a broad chest weren’t going to keep her alive if that thing came back. She tried to pull away but lost her balance and would have taken them both down if he hadn’t caught her again.

“I’m not imagining things.”

“I didn’t say you were. Come on. Up we go.” The placating tone in his voice told her he wasn’t going to hear anything else. And it didn’t matter because as soon as she turned to argue, another wave of dizziness crashed over her and it was all she could do to stay conscious. He hefted her into his arms and carried her to his horse, set her in the saddle and then climbed up behind. Before she knew it, they were moving down a driveway that split from the road barely a dozen feet from where she’d wrecked.

He kept them at a walk but even so her head throbbed with every step and her stomach lurched. The rustle of leaves made her jump and Aiden’s arm flexed around her waist. They both watched a deer dart from the bushes beside the drive and bound across the open field.

Before he could comment, she said, “That is not what I saw.”

He made a noncommittal noise.

“Something startled it,” she said, trying to look behind them.

“We did…or the truck. Do you hear it? That will be the doctor coming.”

She felt his voice more than heard it, vibrating through her body where they were pressed together. She realized her hand was fisted in his shirt and eased her hold, smoothing out the wrinkle she’d made and trying to ignore the way his muscles tightened under her fingertips.

“You’re safe, Grace. We’ll have you patched up and on your way in no time.” Headlights swept over them and then bounced down the road. Aiden waved the truck past.

The house wasn’t set far off the road. A pole lamp back to one side lit up a circle of light between the barn and a sweet old farmhouse with clean white siding, dark green shutters and a partially screened wraparound porch. A big outbuilding sat behind it, surrounded by rows of corn and soy. As they came to a stop, a man climbed out of the truck parked out front and grabbed a small black duffle bag from the backseat before walking over to meet them. He lifted his arms and Aiden eased her down from the horse.

“Grace, this is Dr. Greene, a neighbor of mine. He’s going to make sure we don’t have to run you in to the hospital.”

“I’ve got her.” The doctor held onto her arm until she stopped swaying. “What happened out there?”

“Got spooked by a deer and landed in the ditch. Took a good knock to her head. I’m going to take care of the car. You get her inside and make sure she’s okay,” Aiden said, dismounting.

She expected the doctor to balk at the clipped order but he only nodded and started to lead her up the porch steps. Grace untangled herself and turned to thank Aiden but he was already walking away. Though not particularly tall, he looked as solid as he’d felt, well built with good shoulders and a very fine ass. As she watched, he passed into the deeper shadows of the house and for an instant she thought she saw the outline of a sword strapped to his back. The pole light flickered, she blinked and the distortion was gone. Maybe she was seeing things. Could it really have been a deer?

Gently, the doctor pulled her toward the door. “Come on. Grace, is it? Let’s take a look at you.”

A few minutes later she found herself lying on a dark leather couch in a surprisingly cozy living room waiting for the doctor to return from the kitchen. It was a nice place. Warm, masculine colors. Some solid antique pieces mixed in with modern furniture in a way that somehow worked. Aiden was a better decorator than she was. A rather large flat screen TV was mounted on one wall. An open bag of Oreos and an empty glass sat on the coffee table next to the remote. Other than the funeral wreath propped inside the door, there was nothing out of the ordinary here.

Dr. Greene had led her to this room and ordered her to lie down before disappearing down the hallway, turning on lights as he went. As much as she hated to trust strangers, what choice did she have? Wincing with the movement, she dug her phone out of her pocket.
Damn.
Still no reception.

“I’ll be with you in just a minute,” the doctor called out.

“I’m not going anywhere.” Unfortunately.

She dropped her head onto the armrest. The dizzy feeling receded as soon as she closed her eyes and so long as she didn’t move her head, it didn’t hurt…much. She didn’t want to go to a hospital. Just the thought made her stomach knot. She’d spent too much of her life in hospitals to ever go back to one willingly. Doctors made her uncomfortable too, and judging by the way this one moved through the house, he was a frequent guest. Probably a neighbor, maybe family. Aiden would trust his judgment. If she wanted to get out of here tonight, she would have to convince them she was okay to drive.

But…she’d been exhausted before the wreck. If she drove off now, there was a good chance she’d land in another ditch, hurt herself or, worse, somebody else. The alternative though, to stay and trust these strangers, wasn’t particularly appealing. She heard the faucet running and another cabinet open then close. Dr. Greene was back after a few minutes with an armful of towels and a bowl of water. When she tried to get up, he motioned her down.

“I can make it to the kitchen or bathroom,” she said. “I don’t want to bleed all over the furniture.”

“It’s leather. If it doesn’t wipe off, it’ll add character. And you need to be lying down right now.” He smiled and she was struck by how young he looked. Blond hair, slim build and not a wrinkle in sight.

“You’re really a doctor?”

Pulling on gloves, he kneeled beside her. “With a license and everything. You’re not even my first patient. Now be a good girl and lie down so I can get a better look at this.”

She wiped her damp palms on her thighs and crossed her hands over her stomach so they’d stop shaking. It helped that he wasn’t wearing a white coat and she wasn’t trapped in a locked room. Statistically, she knew, it was unlikely that all doctors were soulless monsters.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to insult you.”

That big smile again. “Don’t worry about it. Although for future reference you might want to avoid offending people who could decide to give you stitches just for the hell of it.”

“I’ll keep it in mind.”

He touched the edge of the wound and her whole body jerked.

“Alright?”

“It just stings.”

“I imagine it does. Relax, okay? You’re wound tight as a spring. I can give you something for the pain in just a second.”

“No,” she said a little too quickly and then softened her voice. “No, thank you. No drugs.”

He paused. “Suit yourself. Open your eyes again?”

She did and flinched from the light he pointed at her. “Look over toward the window.”

The light hit her again but this time she was ready for it and stared straight ahead. She could see headlights sweep across grass, corn, the side of some outbuilding and then go dark.

“Mind if I ask you a question, Dr. Greene?”

“It’s Alan,” he said, turning off the penlight. “And not at all.”

“The flowers by the door…Was there a death in the family? I don’t want to intrude.”

Without the smile, he looked years older. “Not a recent death, the anniversary of one. It’s a sympathy bouquet—you place it at the gravesite in remembrance.”

“Oh.” He didn’t offer more and she didn’t want to pry. Okay, she wanted to pry, but she wouldn’t.

“You’re not intruding in any way but even if you were crashing the wake, we couldn’t leave you in a ditch, could we?”

Sure they could have. They could have dialed 9-1-1 and let emergency services take care of her. Before she could ask why they hadn’t done that, he said, “Do me a favor and don’t mention the flowers to Aiden. It’s still difficult for him.”

“I won’t.”

“Okay. Now, about your head…” He smoothed some of her hair away from her face, frowned when it bounced back.

“It won’t stay. Hold on.” She grabbed an elastic band from her pocket and hastily pulled her hair into a ponytail.

“Thanks. That’ll make the stitches easier.”

“Stitches?” She searched his face for a sign he was joking and sighed when she realized he wasn’t.
Great.
Stitches.

“Just a few. The good news is no concussion.”

She narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “Is this because I questioned your credentials?”

He looked up from the package he was tearing open and grinned. “Not as far as you know.”

Adjusting the lamp, he set the towel under her head to soak up the liquid as he cleaned the wound. He made soothing sounds as he worked and when he finally reached for the needle said, “Sorry about this. I’ll be quick.” He even sounded like he meant it.

To distract herself from what was coming, she said, “You got here awfully fast. I really appreciate this. I didn’t think doctors made house calls.”

“I live next door. Aiden called as soon as he heard the wreck.”

She closed her eyes and tried not to flinch at the first tug.

“That road can be dangerous at night. No lights and we get a lot of deer through here.”

Deer. She still couldn’t get the image of black fur out of her head but she had to be wrong about that. Just a trick of the light and her own overactive imagination. “It came out of nowhere.”

The doctor set aside a piece of bloodied gauze and angled her head toward the wall. “So what brings you to Ragnarok?”

“Is that where I am?” It fit with all the other weird German-sounding town names she’d seen on the interstate signs. “I was lost. My GPS stopped working and I couldn’t get a signal on my cell phone. At that point I was just looking for a place to turn around.”

“The coverage out here is crap. Where were you actually headed?”

“Into Wisconsin. I have a business meeting in Madison and for some reason I thought a road trip along the Mississippi would be fun. Scenic.”

“You’re a ways from the Mississippi.”

And you’re a very curious doctor.
She bit back her initial impulse to tell him to mind his own business and instead simply said, “It was dark.”

She winced when he hit a particularly tender spot and he made a soft noise of apology.

Then he turned his head and spoke to someone behind him. “Can you grab her a glass of juice? There’s no sign of concussion but she’s lost a good deal of blood. I think she’s skating on the edge of shock right now.”

Aiden. Her horse-riding, car-towing savior. She hadn’t heard him come in. The needle jabbed into her forehead kept her from looking. She thought Dr. Greene might be drawing this out just to finish his interrogation but before she could say anything, he sat back on his heels and gave her arm a pat. “Okay, Grace. We’re done here. You can start breathing again.”

She closed her eyes. All in all, this was going better than she’d expected. The stitches were done so there’d be no need to bring her to a hospital, and if her car was okay…

“Will she be able to drive?”

Aiden’s deep voice came from directly above her and when she opened her eyes, she was staring at a big hand wrapped around a glass of orange juice. Definitely the hand of a farmer or laborer, hard, calloused and thick fingered. She’d never seen anything like it up close. For a second, she froze but then snapped out of it, reached for the glass and looked up at her white knight.

He was about forty, attractive, with sandy brown hair and… Her smile faltered when she looked into his pale gray eyes. Maia’s dad. She was sure it was him. Those eyes were unmistakable, so light they were almost white. When she’d seen him through Maia, he’d been smiling at the girl in that indulgent way people sometimes looked at their children. Right now he was frowning, trying to decide what to do about this strange woman bleeding all over his furniture.

He wasn’t nearly as handsome without the smile. Well, that wasn’t exactly true. There was still that body, but his face was lean and stern. It looked half-finished, as if a sculptor had cut the broad strokes and then walked away before smoothing out the rough edges. Not an easy or a reassuring sort of face but when he nodded at her, some of her tension eased.

“Aiden.”

He nodded again. “Your car’s out front. The bumper’s cracked and you may have lost a headlight but it doesn’t look too bad. It seems to be driving okay.”

She took a sip of the juice just to give her some time to gather herself together. He couldn’t be the dad. She tested her link with Maia.

Cool worn sheets beneath her fingertips. Soft, even breath.
Not here. She was close, safe for now but definitely not inside this house.

The doctor stood, slinging his bag over his shoulder. “She’s not going anywhere tonight. Keep an eye on her and I’ll stop by in the morning when my shift’s over.”

Grace touched her temple which was starting to throb again. The adrenaline was fading from her system leaving her cold, tired and very aware of her vulnerability. She was torn. She didn’t want to stay with a stranger and she didn’t want to impose either. Staying would make it easier to locate Maia. She wouldn’t have to drive through the dark, wouldn’t wreck because she was too exhausted to be on the road. There was risk in every direction and she was too muddled to reason it through.

“Is there a hotel in town?”

Aiden shook his head.

When he didn’t say anything more, the doctor shot him a dirty look. “She can’t drive like this. Look at her.”

She swung her legs over the side of the couch and sat up. “I can drive if I need to. You said yourself it’s not a concussion.”

“It’s not a mosquito bite either.”

Aiden just stood there, lean face impassive, watching her climb to her feet. She thought he was trying to gauge exactly how capable she was of getting herself gone. “What about Jill?”

“She’s been having Braxton-Hicks contractions all day.” Dr. Greene said, frowning. “When the phone rang I thought it was her.”

“You don’t need to worry about me if it’s inconvenient,” Grace said quietly.

Aiden’s expression softened. “It’s not that. You’re welcome to stay. I thought you might not want to be alone in a stranger’s house.”

Could she trust him? Alarming how every instinct answered with an unequivocal yes. It wasn’t only his actions tonight or that she was maybe a little attracted to him. Something more lurked at the corners of her mind like a misplaced memory. Maybe Maia trusted him and some of that lingered in Grace’s subconscious.

“You’re safe here. Aiden would never hurt you.” The doctor took a small plastic bottle from his bag, shook it and placed it on the table. “Just in case.”

“Thanks,” she said, still undecided about staying.

Her gaze caught on Aiden’s big stony hands again. They were clean. The nails clipped short. His skin looked dry, especially around the knobs of his knuckles. Dependable, honest working man’s hands.

“So what do you think, Grace?”

She looked up. “I’ll stay if you really don’t mind having me.”

Aiden held her gaze a moment longer before giving her a nod and a small smile. “Then it’s settled.”

Why had he agreed to let her stay? Shapely legs and a pretty face. She’d looked worn thin, plain defeated when he’d told her there wasn’t a hotel in town. Her shoulders had slumped and he felt a tug of pity but he wouldn’t have kept her here if Alan hadn’t insisted.

He would have given her directions and let her head out of town. But she was injured and had seen something on the road tonight. The full moon was tomorrow and the fault was unstable. Tonight, for a brief moment, it had split open prematurely. The hounds were out hunting the stragglers. A dangerous night to travel abroad. They didn’t need anyone to come here searching for a lost woman. Especially not now.

She was hiding something—he could tell that much—or else she’d never have taken him up on his offer. No matter how spooked by strange lights in the woods or how much her head hurt. A woman alone in an unfamiliar town should have been more afraid of putting herself at the mercy of a strange man. She wasn’t open enough to see his offer as a simple gesture of common courtesy. Lovely Grace was knit together of suspicious bones. He’d seen it on her face when Alan told her she needed to stay the night. Then, something changed her mind. She went from fear to total acceptance in a matter of seconds. And he wondered why.

He could give her that at least—the hospitality of his house and maybe a better view of human kindness. After handing her some towels and pointing out the bathroom, he put her in Hallie’s room. A light quilt lay folded at the foot of the old bed. The brass gleamed in the glow from the light on the nightstand. It seemed feminine to him, though the walls were a neutral cream and there wasn’t a floral print in sight. Warm and welcoming. Even if he couldn’t stand to step inside it.

Grace thanked him and he could feel her eyes on his back as he turned away. On his ass. He hadn’t missed the way she looked at him.

The lock turned before he was two steps away and he smiled. He wasn’t the only one feeling that strange connection, and fighting it. He used the bathroom, went to his room and stripped down. Stretching out on the bed, he locked his hands behind his head and stared at the sword hanging above him, within easy reach if he needed it.

Not yet. Not tonight.

He didn’t really want to know Grace’s secrets, the reason behind that guarded look in her eyes, or even why she’d decided to stay with him in the end. He’d see her safely through the night and then see her on her way come morning.