Queen of Jastain (2 page)

He could be an escaped criminal for all she knew, but something in his eyes called to her. His voice played inside her head again,
“Please, fair one. My name is Avant and I am in need of your help.”

“Shit!”
She threw the X-terra in reverse and wheeled around to the guy. Leaning over the passenger seat, she opened the door for him.

Abby eyed the stranger, leaning as far away in her seat as she could. He hesitated, scanning the threshold of the car door suspiciously before squaring his shoulders and climbing in. It seemed he had as many reservations as she did, which was somehow comforting.

Tall with dark wavy hair, the man looked like he hadn’t shaved in a week. He removed his sword belt as he positioned himself in the seat.

She shot a glance to the approaching horsemen barreling down on them. Then Abby looked to the man in leather and linen who, despite his haggard appearance, had the face and body of a god.
No time for ogling hot guy, Abs. Murderous horsemen on your tail!
“Where to, mister?”

His brow furrowed, and he pointed his finger toward a range of smaller mountains.

The horsemen pulled alongside the SUV as he slammed the door. She locked it automatically. Their angry shouts in an unfamiliar language rang above the car engine. A shiver slithered down her spine. Even if these guys weren't after her before, she was now clearly aiding and abetting Renaissance Man.

The lead horseman pulled his sword and banged on the window. Hot Guy gave her a now's-a-good-time-to-go look that arched his eyebrows almost off his head.

“Buckle your seatbelt.” Abby hit the accelerator. The tires of the X-terra spun in the damp grass then, catching hold, propelled them through the meadow.

Sir Hots-A-Lot lurched and grabbed hold of the handle above his head. He craned his neck to see behind them. She glanced in her rearview mirror. The horsemen froze, clearly stunned. They watched the car pull away. With a battle cry she could hear above the X-terra's bouncing shocks, the men galloped for them. Abby squealed and pressed on the accelerator. Who were these guys? And why were they chasing this man?

For what seemed like miles, the horsemen continued their pursuit. In reality—as if there still were such a thing— it was only a few moments.

Abby glanced over. A relieved sigh escaped the man, and a faint smile grazed his lips. Her already erratic pulse shot through the moon roof. If attractiveness equated to trustworthiness—and in her book it did a little—then he was a freaking boy scout. But for all she knew, she had just picked up the Medieval Ted Bundy. Her gut wrenched at the thought. Why she'd watched that damned documentary was still a mystery. Some things were better left unknown.

The horsemen were small in the background as the X-terra gained a hefty lead. Brutal terrain threatened to jar her fillings loose, but she didn't let up on the gas. The guy held on to the handle with white knuckles and continued to strain his neck around to see. Maybe if she kept him hanging on for dear life, he couldn't rape and torture her.

The sturdy little SUV sped for the mountains, and the pursuers fell farther and farther behind until eventually they were gone. Abby continued to jostle the car across the meadow. With the horses long out of sight, she let off the gas, and the whirlwind of her immediate surroundings finally caught up to her. She felt like Dorothy in the twister as everything outside her body and inside her mind spun out of control.

“Whew! I think we lost them.” Shooting a glance to Mr. Medieval Times, Abby gulped at the startling sight.

He was staring at her with those piercing blue eyes. And what the hell did he have on? Simple linen pants and a cotton tunic looking thingy stretched over his tall frame and broad muscles. The loose sleeves and v-neck of his shirt were tied with laces, the fabric in shades of brown. She looked back out the windshield, trying not to stare at him. Her nose crinkled as the strong scent of male filled the car. He could use a shower.

Her mind fumbled to come up with a logical explanation for what was happening.

Was she stranded in some strange renaissance reenactment? Maybe they were filming a new movie. She peeked over again. Her gaze slid the length of him, all six foot plus of him. He could be an actor. But where were the cameras?

She could be dead. She clenched her jaw. “Or about to be.”

He tilted his head and narrowed his sparkling eyes at the sound of her voice. A wavy wisp fell across his forehead. An unintentional sigh hummed from her. Maybe she was dreaming. Had she died on the highway?

Had she traveled to another time or world? With that thought, Abby closed her eyes and said a quick prayer, unable to think of any other alternatives. With just those options, her circumstances were pretty jacked, and the ones that made the most sense were the craziest.
Holy Shit!
Where was she, and who was she with? Bands of panic tightened around her chest. If he was going to harm her, he would have to do it right then. She couldn't handle any more suspense in her life.

She slammed the car to a stop, and Hots-A-Lot tried not to meet the windshield with his face. She turned to the guy.

Questions swirled in her head and wouldn't stop long enough for her mind to capture one and send it out of her mouth. She stared at him, hoping to God he didn't attack.
Abby, start with the basics
.
Who, what, and where.

“Who are you?” She spoke the words slowly, like that would help him understand a language he obviously didn’t speak.

The stranger frowned at her, and then strained to look behind them again. When it was clear the riders were nowhere in sight, he turned back to her and lifted his finger toward the mountains.

No English. Great.
She shook her head. “No. Not until I get some answers.”

His eyes clouded, and his eyebrows drew together. He stabbed his finger, this time more forcefully, in the direction of the foothills.

Abby winced at his insistence but lifted her chin. “Are you trying to silently boss me? This is
my
car, dude.”

He sighed and rubbed his forehead. Her father used to give her this gesture. Relaxing a little, she continued to stare at him. If he was frustrated with her, he probably wasn't out to kill her. Yet.

The stranger hissed a word she didn't understand, but guessing by his tone, it wasn’t very nice. He leveled a penetrating glare at her. A tingle of electricity pulsed through her, and his voice again reverberated in her mind
. “Fair one, I understand you are concerned and confused. I assure you I will explain. However, we must reach the Tres Frater mountain range.”
He again pointed to the mountains. “
We must go.”

He'd called her
fair one.
The thought made her feel warm and fuzzy, but the fact that he hadn't used his mouth to do it unnerved the crap out of her. Her capacity for suspending logic only stretched so far, and she was at the end of her mental rope. On a positive note, at least, she wasn't dwelling on Chad and Lyndsea.

“Look, Mr.—
Whoever
, I don't speak telepathy, and I need some answers.”

He cursed under his breath and fisted his hands, possibly to keep them from ringing her neck. After regaining control, he looked back into her eyes.
“I am Avant, and I mean you no harm. You are in the land of Jastain, in the time of the Second Age of Darkness.”
His gaze raked over her body accusingly, lingering on her bare legs.
“Clearly, you are from an Other Place and know not the happenings in this land. The king is an evil man who brooks no trespassers and certainly not ones with horseless carriages. Fair one, we are still very much in danger. There are more soldiers on the way. Please. When we reach safety, I can explain.”

His voice rattled her mind, but his gaze absolutely unhinged her. She tugged at the hem of her little black dress. He'd called himself Avant. Sexy name for a sexy guy. Abby sucked in a deep breath and nodded. “Ok, Avant. We can go, but it won't do any good to escape the bad guys and go smashing through the windshield. You need to put your seatbelt on.”

His face lit in a brilliant smile, and her heart jumped in her chest as if it were leaping toward him. His eyes glittered, and his straight white teeth sparkled like a freaking Colgate commercial.
Ting
. He'd obviously recognized the use of his name but clearly hadn't understood the rest.

She held out her own seatbelt and spoke slowly, enunciating each syllable, as if that would help him understand, “Seat—belt.”

He shook his head and glanced back again.

With a sigh, she unbuckled her belt and reached across him to pull his out. Her arm grazed the solid wall of muscle at his chest, and she squeaked. Her face heated. She caught a chuckle from him as she sat back in the driver's seat.
Driver's seat? Yeah, right.
From the looks of this guy, he wasn't going to let anyone, especially not a woman, in the driver's seat if he could help it.

Avant's quiet confidence charged the air with so much testosterone she needed to roll down the window. Sure, he was cordial enough, but his broad shoulders and straight back exuded a masculine pride she recognized but had only seen in one other place—the football field. Damn jocks. They thought they owned the world.

He clicked on his seatbelt and urged her forward with that unrelenting finger…and those eyes. Following his direction, she put the car in drive and headed for the mountains.

What the hell was a Second Age of Darkness? And
Jastain
? It sounded like the name of one of those girls from the trailer park. Jesus Christ, where was she?

They rode for a time in silence. Abby took in the world around her. Even though she could identify everything, it was like nothing she’d ever seen before, except maybe in a James Cameron movie. To the right, snow covered the soaring peaks. She'd seen the Rockies on several spring break ski trips, but these mountains dwarfed them. Behind her in the distance loomed a forest with trees as tall as the sequoias in California. To her left, a mammoth river flowed from north to south, according to the X-terra's compass, as far in either direction as she could see. It was so wide she might have thought it a lake if it weren’t for the obvious current. If everything was bigger in Texas, then Texas had apparently never been here.  And even if there were sprawling mountains and towering forests in Texas, she wouldn't be able to see them. It was the middle of the effin
night
there!

Abby drove slowly through the tall grass and blankets of gold and lavender flowering plants. The sun seeped through heavy cloud cover that choked the sky to the east. She sucked in the fresh air to calm her racing heart. Wherever she was, there was nothing manmade she could see.

Avant reached out his hand. She jumped. He touched the light-gray leather interior of the seat and console. Sliding his curious gaze over the steering wheel and gearshift, he pressed a button on the dash. A cold blast blew into his surprised face.

He didn't know what a car was? He'd called it a
horseless carriage
. Strings of tension bound her hands to the steering wheel. Guess that meant they wouldn't be stopping for a burger. This really
was
the freaking land of Oz.
Tonight the part of Dorothy will be played by Abigail Randall.
She couldn't muster a glance to the sky for fear of spying flying monkeys.

He caught her gaze, and the tingle of his words echoed again in her mind.
“What do you call this?”

“It's a Nissan X-terra. X-terra.”

His lips curled into an odd shape as he tried to repeat the word. “Esterra.”

His rich baritone sent a shiver down her spine. Although his voice was the same when he spoke in her head, hearing the sound with her ears gave it sexy substance.

She smiled. “Close enough.”

When he spoke into her mind—and she still wasn't ready to completely embrace that yet—it was as if the idea took shape; the idea could be communicated in a single thought whereas it took time to speak individual words.

Hots-A-Lot touched her arm. She jumped again and turned toward him. Her mind prickled with his thought.

“We'll travel the River Sast to the lower range of the mountains. We must hide the carriage there.”
He pointed in a new direction toward the fork of the river
. “I do not believe the soldiers will find us or the carriage now, but we need to find shelter before nightfall and in the event the scouts return.”

She nodded. His take-charge attitude wrapped around her like her favorite cashmere throw. At least he had a plan, but it didn't negate the tension that thrummed through her at his intense gaze.

As if he'd heard her thought, he arched a single eyebrow and his full lips curved into a cocky half-smile.
“I don't care to tussle with anyone else today.”

It wasn't clear if he was referring to the soldiers or to her. Maybe both. But if he continued to give her that sexy stare, she didn't care what he meant. She glanced to the path in front of her and had to swerve to miss a large boulder. Damn it. As if she didn't have enough to keep her mind incapacitated, he muddled her brain with thoughts of what a tussle with him might entail.

With furrowed brow, he watched intently out the window. Abby stole a glance at the weapon lying against his leg.

Sheathed in bold filigree, the hilt was the only visible part. Leather wrapped the grip of the silver sword, and two cabochon jewels decorated the sides of the T-shaped guard. The same color blue as his eyes, the large sapphires were of the finest quality and at least three carats each. It was an impressive sight and not something she ever wanted to be on the wrong end of. Although beautifully made, she assumed it wasn't just for show.

Taking a deep breath, she stretched stiffly behind the wheel. What time was it? Her internal clock was all cattywhompus. She looked at the digital display on her dash. 12:45 a.m. Not able to see the sun, she couldn't estimate the time in this place. She rotated her shoulders and cracked her neck from side to side. Her weary muscles reminded her of the tense time spent at the hospital the night her dad died and the hollow days that followed.