Gods and Mortals: Fourteen Free Urban Fantasy & Paranormal Novels Featuring Thor, Loki, Greek Gods, Native American Spirits, Vampires, Werewolves, & More (212 page)

“I don’t know.” The mountain lion lifted his head, meeting my eyes. “I don’t understand why I protect you, but I know it is because the Matwau hunts you. You are his enemy and I know I cannot let him harm you.”

“I don’t understand any of this,” I complained.

“You will,” the mountain lion said. “I just hope it will be in time.”

Nodding my agreement, I let myself relax next to the mountain lion. Being able to talk to him had taken away at least some of my anxiety. I was still as confused as ever, but I felt a little better. I appreciated his willingness to listen.

Barely one day ago, the sight of the mountain lion had terrified me, but now we spoke as friends. In fact, the mountain lion was a friend, the only one who really seemed to understand what was happening to me. “Do you have a name?” I asked.

His answer was more complicated than I had expected. Images and feelings related to his name swirled in my mind. It took a few moments to process everything he had shared with me, but eventually I understood.

“Talon.”

His mother had given him the name because he reminded her of an eagle. A fierce hunter, the swiftest runner of his litter, intelligent, a leader. The much simpler string of images I sent back seemed to amuse the cougar, but he was pleased I had understood.

“Tell me of your life,” I asked. I needed the distraction and the mountain lion was happy to oblige. Thinking of my waiting Claire, I “listened” to Talon’s stories, pushing away the more painful and frightening thoughts I was harboring. The images of his life spent hunting and tracking were soothing, lulling me back into a steadier frame of mind.

I realized how tired I was as I sat with him. Adrenaline had been pumping through my veins for so long that I hadn’t felt the natural weariness so much activity should have brought hours ago. Now, as I sat with Talon, my mind and body yearned for rest. Too tired to contemplate my strange fate any longer, I draped my arm across his back. The warmth of his body calmed me as I stared up at the stars and thought of Claire. We were so close to getting Daniel back to her. My mind centered on that, and the weight of who I really was faded into the background.

“
U
riah
.” Cole shook my shoulder. I tried to ignore him, wanting to stay in my dreams a little longer. “Uriah, wake up. I need your help.” Forcing my eyes open, I blinked in the bright sunlight. Cole held out a hand, pulling me to my feet. It was morning. I had slept through the entire night undisturbed. My muscles ached, painfully reprimanding me for my poor choice in sleeping positions.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

Cole motioned for me to follow him and turned quickly, rushing back toward the camp. The mountain lion stayed close to me as I followed Cole. As soon as I reached the pile of backpacks, I heard the moaning. Daniel was lying on the ground, sweating from fever and rigid with pain.

“What happened? He seemed like he was going to be okay last night.”

“I don’t know. I think his leg is infected,” Cole said. “I don’t know how we’re going to get home with him like this.”

Daniel was obviously not going to be able to keep himself on the bike by himself, but I refused to spend another night camping in the desert. The creature could come back at any moment, not to mention Claire may not have that much time. “He can ride with me. I have some rope in my bag. We’ll just have to tie him to me and get home as fast as we can.”

“Uriah, that doesn’t sound very safe. Maybe we should take him back to that town we passed through last night, to the hospital, and call his parents,” Cole said.

“If we take him back, his parents will probably call the police and we’ll never get him to San Juan. I won’t risk Claire’s life on the chance that his parents will understand why we practically kidnapped their son,” I said. Daniel wasn’t so bad, but my priorities were still firmly set with Claire at the top. “Sophia will be able to help him as well as any doctor at a hospital.”

“I guess you’re right,” Cole said reluctantly.

The mountain lion’s low growl drew my attention. “What is it?” I asked silently.

“The Matwau is coming closer. We must leave.”

“What’s wrong, Uriah?” Cole asked.

“It’s coming back. We’ve got to go, now,” I said. “Get the rope. I’ll get Daniel on my bike.”

Cole dug through my backpack, finding the rope quickly. Reaching down, I shoved my arms under Daniel’s legs and shoulders and lifted him from the ground. His face contorted with the pain of moving, but he only moaned deliriously. Setting Daniel on the bike, I turned to Cole. “Hold him up so I can get on.”

“He’s not going to come too close with the wolves and coyotes still here, but he’s not turning away either. He’ll follow us,” Talon communicated. I nodded and mounted the bike. It was an awkward few moments while Cole tried to secure Daniel to my torso with the rope. His limp body refused to cooperate, with even his feet hanging loosely to the ground. By the time Cole was finished, though, Daniel wouldn’t fall off unless I did.

The closeness to him was more than just uncomfortable. I could hardly move my own body because of the bindings, but that wasn’t really what was bothering me the most. “Claire needs him,” I whispered to myself. I was doing this for her.

After strapping the backpacks onto the motorcycles, Cole jumped on his own bike, the engine roaring under his touch. “Will you follow?” I asked Talon.

“We all will.” Talon stepped closer, his muzzle touching my leg. “I’ll try to stay in your sight. You may need to go slower than usual so we can keep up. The Matwau should still be badly wounded, but even wounds will not slow him down. He will attack if you get too far away from us.”

“Thank you for the warning,” I replied. The idea of slowing our pace grated on my patience, but there was no way I would have been able to go full speed with Daniel strapped to me anyway. “Stay in contact with me.” Talon nodded his head.

“Let me set the pace, Cole,” I said.

Cole nodded. “Sure, Uriah. The headsets are on, so just keep me updated on what’s happening with Daniel, and everything else,” he said, the last part trailing off a little.

The first few minutes of driving with Daniel were frustrating as I struggled to keep the unusual weight balanced. Talon backed away when we reached the interstate, but I could still see his sleek body darting along next to us. Cole and I stayed close to the shoulder, letting the other drivers fly past us.

The mile markers ticked by too slowly. Cole checked in periodically with questions about Daniel and our pursuer. Daniel’s body was hot against mine. His fever burned my back. I started to worry when I was reminded of the searing heat of the creature’s touch. What if there had been some kind of poison in the Matwau’s bite? Would Sophia be able to help him? A strange emotion suddenly filled me.

In my heart, I was praying that I would be able to keep Claire and Daniel from forming the Twin Soul bond, but in my mind I knew how unlikely that was. When I thought Daniel could die, sadness washed over me, for Daniel, and for Claire. Daniel’s parents would be devastated, and I would be largely to blame for his death. Exchanging his life for Claire’s…I had no right to make that choice. And for Claire, what would that do to her, to find her Twin Soul, only to lose him soon after? I pushed the thoughts away, lost in that precarious balance between right and wrong.

Daniel would be fine, I told myself, begging for it to be true.

As if knowing I was thinking about him, Daniel shifted violently. His sudden lurch pitched the bike sideways. I pulled hard on the bike to right it, but Daniel struggled again. “Daniel, what’s wrong?” I yelled at him over my shoulder. Had the infection proved fatal? I panicked. I didn’t want him to die. The twitching continued and I searched the road ahead for a place to pull off. “Cole, we need to stop. Daniel’s convulsing!”

“There should be a rest stop just ahead,” Cole said.

I didn’t know how Cole paid attention to any of the road signs. My mind was so consumed with fear for both Daniel and Claire that most of the trip was a beige colored blur. Cole proved to be right, fortunately. A green and white highway sign announced a rest stop one quarter mile away. Daniel’s hands clutched my waist, his whole body shaking now. I pushed the speedometer higher and turned into the rest stop lane. As soon as I pulled to a stop, Talon rushed out from behind some rocks and hurried over to me. I hoped there was no one else around to see him.

“What’s wrong?” He had felt my distress.

I showed him how Daniel had been behaving. I tried turning around to look at him, but Daniel’s head had sunk low on my back. Glancing around for Cole, who had just pulled up behind me, I said, “Hurry up and get him down so we can see what’s wrong.”

Cole leaned the bike against a picnic table, not bothering with the kickstand, and rushed to my side. Untying the knots seemed to take forever, but Cole was hauling Daniel off the bike after only a few seconds. Daniel grunted harshly when his injured leg smacked into the pavement.

“Sorry,” Cole said.

I hopped off my bike and helped Cole lift the twitching Daniel onto the wooden table. “Daniel,” I said, tapping his cheek, “can you hear me?” A whining sound was the only response. “Daniel.” My touch was almost striking him now. “Daniel, wake up.”

“Uriah, I don’t think he can hear you. He’s still unconscious,” Cole said. “What was happening?”

“He kept moving, like he was having convulsions. He almost knocked us over a couple of times. I can’t keep going. I’m afraid he’s gotten worse.” Daniel laid on the table calmly, now, but I still feared for his life.

“Daniel,” Cole said softly. “Can you hear me?” Not waiting for a response, Cole felt his forehead and listened to Daniel’s breathing. Gingerly, Cole lifted the bandage. He sucked in a breath and motioned for me to come closer.

I didn’t really want to see it, but I went anyway. I remembered my mother’s leg, ravaged by the starving mountain lion. Usually I was more than willing to help an injured person or animal, but since my mother’s attack I found myself more squeamish than before. I hesitated before looking over Cole’s shoulder. Surprised by the wound, I took a closer look. My mother’s leg would be covered with scars when she finally healed, but Daniel’s wound was simply two red spots, which were very swollen and had red lines of infection snaking out from each puncture.

“The infection is spreading,” Cole said. “I thought we’d be able to make it to Sophia in time. Do you know what Sophia gave your mother? Some of her herbs grow naturally in this area. Maybe we could find something to help him.”

“I’m not sure. I know she used chamomile and goldenseal in the poultices she put on my mom’s leg, but I don’t know what they look like. Sophia only had the dried powders,” I said.

“I think I know what they look like,” Cole said thoughtfully, no doubt something else he had read about while bored at his dad’s store. “It’s pretty late in the year to find them, but I’ll try looking.” Cole stared at Daniel, appraising his condition. “Give me a few minutes and I’ll see if I can find anything.”

“Okay,” I said, “just try to hurry. If you can’t find anything we’ll have to get him to the hospital as fast as we can. And Claire…” I shook my head. “We can’t give anyone the chance to catch up to us, either.”

Cole nodded and hurried away. He was disappearing into the scrub brush when Daniel stirred on the table. I looked away, struggling with the idea of saving Daniel even if it meant Claire died. Even if I save them both, I had no plan to keep Daniel and Claire apart. I had thought at one point that if Daniel could give her the antidote without ever touching her, the bond would never form, but just them being in the same room with the intensity of bond pulling them toward each other, it would be impossible for them not to touch each other.

As much as I would want to haul Claire away and never let her touch him, I knew I couldn’t do that to her. If she really wanted Daniel, I would have to find the strength to let her go. Fighting off the truth of the situation, I pressed the palms of my hands into my eyes, using the pain to distract my thoughts.

“Cole?” Daniel’s voice was low and wheezy.

I stared at my shoes. “Cole will be back in a minute,” I said.

Daniel struggled to lift his head. “Uriah?”

“Yeah,” I said, not looking at him, “don’t try to move, okay?”

“I saw her,” Daniel said. “I saw Claire.”

I turned to face Daniel. “What do you mean you saw her?” I didn’t want to ask, but I had to. I was drowning, not knowing how Claire was doing. I was terrified we would return to my mother’s house only to find that Claire had already slipped away.

“When I was dreaming,” he said. “It was really strange. I was kind of locked away with the pain. I couldn’t tell where I was. I just felt the pain. Then all of the sudden Claire was next to me, comforting me. The pain went away, and so did my fever. I think it was because of her.”

“What did she look like?” I whispered. My eyes were burning, but I wouldn’t let Daniel see me cry.

“She had dark hair and these incredible brown eyes. They were the color of…”

“Milk chocolate,” I whispered.

“Yeah,” Daniel said. “She sat by me and told me everything would be okay. I’ve never felt anything like what I felt when she was near me. Even before…”

Daniel’s voice trailed off, but not quickly enough. “Before?” I demanded.

“I’ve seen her in dreams before. For years,” Daniel admitted. “I didn’t think she was real.”

I knew it was Claire, real as could be, but I refused to acknowledge that to Daniel. How had she been able to comfort him while he was dreaming? Was there even more to the Twin Soul connection than anyone knew? Had she really been able to heal him?

“She knew my name,” Daniel said quietly. “She’s never said my name before.”

Unable to bear the possibility that I was too late, I turned away again, my heart on the verge of destruction.

“Uriah,” Daniel said, painfully pushing himself up further to face me squarely, “is there a way to keep the bond from forming between me and Claire?”

I was dumbfounded by his question. Hadn’t he just been saying how much she had comforted him, how he had never felt anything like her presence before? I couldn’t understand the reason behind his question. I didn’t have an answer for him either.

Turning back to him, I said, “I don’t know, Daniel.”

“I don’t want to take her away from you.”

“What?” I couldn’t believe he really meant it. “Why wouldn’t you want her? You just said…”

“I know what I said, and I meant it. I’ve never felt such a powerful connection to any person before. Just being near her, even in my dream, I felt so happy it was hard to keep from exploding. But,” he said, “I could never take that away from someone else. I can see how much you love her. I mean you must love her more than I could understand to be doing this, to be willing to lose her to…another guy, in order to save her life. I don’t know if I could do that.”

“You could if you knew her,” I said quietly. Anyone who had experienced Claire’s beautiful spirit, so full of love and understanding, would do anything to make her happy.

“Still, I don’t want to be the one to come between you and Claire. I would hate myself for destroying something as special as that,” Daniel said.

Daniel must have thought that Claire and I shared the same connection he had felt when Claire’s spirit stepped into his dreams. He didn’t understand that it was the bond he was feeling, not just Claire’s goodness. I knew I loved Claire more than my own life, but I also knew Claire and I would never feel the overwhelming joy Daniel had described. That was reserved for Twin Souls alone. I couldn’t bring myself to correct his assumption.

“If there is anything I can do to keep the bond from forming, I’ll do it,” Daniel said firmly. Saying what he needed to say, Daniel sunk back down to the table. Pain still streaked his features, but the awful heat emanating from him had faded completely. A peace seemed to come over him as he closed his eyes.

Guilt washed over me for every unkind thought I had harbored for Daniel. He had seemed so immature and carefree just the day before, but I had judged him badly. Underneath his young exterior, he was a better man than me. I could see Claire loving him. “Thank you,” I said as a tear escaped my careful control and rolled off my cheek.