Night Whispers: ShadowLands, Book 1 (36 page)

Carrie stirred. Jules waited for her breathing to either dip into a death rattle or start panting in that way that signaled another seizure. Jules’s eyes burned, only partly from fatigue.

The girl made a soft sound before those long lashes trembled. James leaned closer and placed his hand on her forehead. Then he stood until he could place a knee on the bed, his large hand covering her head completely. “Jules,” he said in an odd voice. “Her skin feels cooler.”

She leaned forward as well, touching Carrie’s cheek. The skin was warm but not feverish. Her pale eyelids flinched before they opened.

Carrie studied the man bent over her. “Who are you?” Her voice was a thready murmur.

The girl didn’t wait for James to answer. A good thing, because he appeared dumbstruck. Carrie turned her head to Jules, and a small smile crossed her bow lips. “Jules.”

Jules opened her mouth. Shut it. Cleared her throat. “Hey,” she croaked. She would be overcome with emotion regardless. But it was the girl’s new silver eye color that really stole all her powers of speech.

Carrie looked past her, her smile widening. “Erik.”

Jules glanced over her shoulder. Erik stood, stunned. He took one step toward the girl. A second.

“Carrie?” He only managed to utter her name before he crashed to the ground, all two hundred plus pounds of muscle.

Chapter Twenty-One

James came inside the living room in time to hear the exchange between Jules and Erik.

“I’m fine.”

“Are you sure?”

Erik waved her back when she tried to check the lump on his head. “I was weak from the electric shocks. And blood loss. That is why I collapsed.”

“Yeah. Okay.”

“Go fuss over Carrie.”

“No way. We’re going to let the girl sleep for a bit.”

“She doing okay?” James asked.

Jules turned to him. “Yes. It’s a good sleep, a healing sleep, she’s in.”

“Have you…? Did you tell her about her eyes?”

“No. Not yet.” Jules glanced at Erik. “I know she’s practically an adult, but she still looks so fragile. I’d like her to be stronger before we broach the subject with her. I told her Erik exposed her to his saliva and blood, and that she may be different. She seemed to be weirdly okay with that.”

“She saw what happened to the failures at the lab, how they were exterminated. I suppose any life would be considered superior to that.” Erik’s words lacked bitterness. He stood, shoved his hands in the pockets of his borrowed jeans and studied James. His face still showed the strain of the shock collar. “I would have helped you bury the guard.”

James shrugged. “I found a shovel in the shed.” The task had been distasteful, but he wouldn’t have shoved it off on someone else. He had been the one to take the life, he would be the one to clean things up.

It didn’t matter that the man had deserved it, had had a gun trained on Jules and Carrie. It was damn difficult to kill someone. He couldn’t be blasé about it.

Jules cast him a soft, understanding glance that warmed him. Yeah, she got it.

James hesitated, hating to deliver bad news when everyone was still happy about Carrie’s recovery. “I couldn’t find the key for your collar on him.”

“There must be a tracker in it. That is how he found me.”

“Yes.”

“But the good news is, he said he didn’t tell his bosses about our escape, and the other guard ran. So…” Jules trailed off.

“They’ll learn about it eventually.” Erik stood from the couch. “They will track me then. I may be able to smell someone coming, but as long as I have this collar, they can still disable me.”

“It’s possible.”

“Which means you all need to get away from me.”

James had had a feeling this was coming. “Come back to Raven with us.”

“I cannot come with you.”

Though he was aware of Erik’s reservations and understood his fears, James couldn’t let him just walk away. “We can help you. We can figure out what makes you the way you are.”

“So you can use me.”

“I won’t lie. Our scientists are going to want to study you. And our leader will want to know all about your treatment at the hands of the Cheyenne crew. But I can guarantee you won’t be mistreated like you were before. Human life is precious. Our whole objective revolves around safeguarding that life.”

“Human life.” Erik looked incredibly weary. “I am hardly human anymore.”

He was aware of Jules’s sudden stillness next to him. Was she thinking about her own mixed blood now? He grasped her hand, tugging her closer. “We will help you. You’re human enough, and that makes you one of us. Compound doesn’t cage. Hell, I left to go on a trek that some people called a suicide mission, and no one stopped me, even though they were unhappy with my decision. Not everyone is like this shadow government, drugging and experimenting on every human they can kidnap.”

Erik shook his head slowly. “I appreciate that you came for your woman instead of leaving her to die. I respect that you are a good man. That has been proven to me. I am grateful for what you did to protect all of us. But I will not put my life in the hands of another powerful organization.”

James nodded, aware he would have to accept defeat, but not happy about it. “Fair enough.”

“Your leader will be angry with you when he learns you let me get away, once you explain my strengths and what I can do. I would be a handy weapon.”

James shrugged. “He’s going to be more interested in your blood than your muscles, since it could hold the key to an antidote. So am I. But if you don’t recognize the fact that you could honestly help people by coming with us, I can’t force you into doing anything you don’t want to.”

Jules wasn’t quite as ready to give in. “What will you do? Where will you go?”

“Away. I’m not sure. As long as I am alive, I fear someone will be coming after me. I will not fight you on Carrie going to Raven.” He took a deep breath, and a crack appeared in his composure. “It is best that you get her away from me. If it is known that she is the slightest bit like me, that you are the slightest bit like me, you would both be chased as well.”

“So, what, you’re going to pack your bags and go hitchhike? Steal a car?”

“Actually,” James interjected quickly, before Jules could give the man any further ideas, “he could take your van.”

“It’s broken down.”

“I might be able to fix it. We have to head back that way anyway. If that doesn’t work, we can give you a ride to some other transportation.”

“You’re helping him?”

James squeezed Jules’s hand. “What army could stop him? And he’s right. If he won’t come to Raven where he can be protected, we have to get him far away from Carrie and you. As far as Cheyenne knows, the two of you are nonentities to be concerned about. Hell, as far as Cheyenne knows, you may not even exist. He’s the target.”

Erik studied him for a pregnant pause. Then he glanced up at the ceiling before cutting his gaze to Jules. “Well said. You will make sure the girl is taken care of?”

Jules’s jaw tightened, but she nodded, reluctant. “I promise. The first minute she’s ill-treated, I’ll take her and run.”

Erik smiled. The skin around his light eyes crinkled. Warmth spread over his whole face.

Fuck. Even half-Shadow, the bastard was still good-looking.

Choke that jealousy back.

Since it didn’t mesh with his vow to end his resentment of the man, James didn’t hold on to Jules when Erik swept her up. Jules hung there for a moment, stunned, before she responded, burrowing her head in his massive shoulder.

Erik’s voice was muffled. “I am sorry I ever doubted you, Jules. You managed to free us in a few hours when I couldn’t do so in years. Thank you for not giving up on me.”

James scratched his nose, his envy melting away. He had to clear his throat around the happiness he felt for Jules. He knew how much those words would mean to her.

Finally, Erik returned her to her feet and stepped back. “I will grab some extra clothes from the closet upstairs. They fit me well enough.”

“You will have to be the one to tell Carrie you aren’t coming,” Jules warned. “She knows you a lot better than me or James.”

Erik looked like he wanted to argue, but he nodded. “Very well.”

“Okay then.” James squeezed Jules’s hand. “Let’s be on our way.”

They readied their things fairly quickly. Carrie was still too weak to walk on her own, so James was the one to carry her. The girl was too furious with what she saw as Erik’s desertion to even consider allowing him to touch her. Erik had found a pair of sunglasses in the closet of the house’s former occupants, so Jules’s pair was perched on Carrie’s delicate nose.

They walked out the back door and crossed the yard. James had fetched his car and parked it behind the shed the evening before. He waited patiently with Carrie while Jules came abreast of him.

“What the hell did you do to your car? You destroyed it.”

“I wouldn’t say destroy, exactly.” Though the beat-up vehicle, with its cracked windshield, shattered driver’s side window, dented fender, half-broken side mirror and numerous dings from flying bullets, wouldn’t be winning beauty contests anytime soon. “In my defense, I haven’t driven a car in a long time, and it wasn’t a leisurely trip.”

“
This
is going to get you back to America?” Erik asked, the first words he’d really spoken since he’d come striding, grim-faced, from Carrie’s room.

James studied the car. It was no longer a cocoon. But if there was one thing he’d learned, physical barriers didn’t mean jack shit when it came to getting hurt. Despite the cracks in it, the car had kept him safe on his journey. He’d grown rather fond of it. “Yes.”

“Maybe you should drive, Jules.” Doubt was written all over Carrie’s face.

“No kidding. I’m driving the first shift. Maybe all the shifts.”

“I got here in one piece, didn’t I?”

“By the grace of God.”

“True enough,” James conceded cheerfully as he settled Carrie in the backseat and helped her arrange the pillow she had carried under her head.

“I want you to sit next to me,” Carrie said clearly, all snotty teen. “Not Erik.”

He winced for the other man and glanced over his shoulder to where Erik was putting their knapsacks in the trunk. The hybrid didn’t so much as betray a flicker of regret or emotion, though he must have heard.

Deciding it wasn’t worth arguing over the matter, James slid in next to her and closed the door. Jules climbed in on the driver’s side and adjusted the seat and mirrors to fit her shorter frame. A smile crossed her lips when she found the pile of torn-up paper from her makeshift breadcrumb trail on the center console. He had carefully smoothed out each page and laid them flat.

She glanced over her shoulder at him. “I stole the book.”

“I can see that.”

“So if a library fine hits me in twenty years, it’s all for you,
güey
.”

Using the GPS and James’s guidance, Jules was able to navigate back to her van by midday.

The problem with her vehicle, it turned out, was fairly basic. James had the manual for his identical battery neatly tucked in his dashboard and was able to jump hers using his.

When the van was purring again, Erik returned to the car and opened the back door. “Carrie. Goodbye.”

Her mouth was set in a tight line. She looked away. From where she stood next to the vehicle, Jules’s heart ached.

Erik hesitated. His mouth firmed and he reached in, pulling the girl to him for a hug. Her stiff anger persisted for a moment before she relaxed against him, her body shaking. “I’ll seriously never see you again? You’re sending me off alone, just when I’m getting better?”

“You aren’t alone. Jules will watch out for you.”

“You’re going to be alone!”

He smoothed his hand over her head, his touch gentle. “I will be fine. This is for the best.”

“Take me with you.”

“No.” His tone brooked no disobedience. He leaned down and whispered something in her ear. Carrie stilled.

Jules strained to hear what he was saying, but no luck. After a long minute he straightened away.

“Promise?” Carrie asked tremulously.

“Yes.”

Whatever he had said, it calmed the teen. They hugged again, and though fat tears slipped down her face, she did not resist when he drew away.

Erik shut the door and turned to Jules. They had already spoken of everything that needed to be said, so she only hugged him. The embraces seemed to be coming easier to the man, which made her happy to see.

“You have a strange habit of rescuing young women,” she half-joked.

“Indeed. Hopefully Carrie will never have to rescue me.” He gave her one last squeeze and stepped away.

“I’ll take care of her,” she reassured him again.

“I wouldn’t leave her with you if I wasn’t aware of how much you’re capable of. Be well, Jules. And happy.”