Sarai's Fortune (13 page)

“I can just tell. It’s who you are. Besides, how is that any different from my trying to save you?”

“It just is.”

“Bullshit.”

Zac’s eyebrows shot up. He looked over her shoulder at where George and Scott had been listening to her explanation. As if in tune with a silent command, they both left the room without a word, heading for the spiral staircase down to their own rooms.

As soon as the door clicked shut, Zac leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest. “Care to repeat that?”

Sarai refused to back down. “You heard me. I refuse to be treated to a double standard. If I can’t sacrifice myself for you, then you can’t for me either.”

“You don’t set the rules in this Timik.”

“Then I’ll just keep trying to leave until I succeed. I need you to promise me.”

He already started to shake his head no, but she held up a hand.

“In the Carstairs Dare I was treated as a possession, without a mind of my own. Now, I’m no better than a prisoner. Kuharte in the Shadowcat Nation…”

She shook her head. “It’s getting better, but you know cougars. We don’t trust anyone, especially not other cougars. Kuharte belong to their dares. Until just a few years ago, our marriages were even arranged, to be strategic for the dares. More than that…”

She looked down at her clenched hands, searching for the words. “As a Seer, I witness horrors. Sometimes involving people I care about deeply.”

She looked back up steadily into his eyes. Eyes such a deep brown, she could lose herself in them. They made her feel warm, at home. Sarai shook off the feeling. “I can’t have you risking your life for me. It’s the only way I’ll stay. We approach this thing together. Not with you in front and me behind. Or I’m outta here, and you know I’ll eventually succeed.”

A nerve twitched at the side of Zac’s neck. After an interminable, tense silence, he finally nodded. “No self-sacrifice. By either of us.”

Sarai held out her hand. After another pause, he reached out and shook it. She let go of the deep breath she’d been holding. His promise was such a small thing, but maybe it would save his life in that cave.

She didn’t move for a moment, waiting. Hoping. The vision didn’t budge.

“What?” Zac prompted.

Sarai shook her head and got up to go to the kitchen. She pulled a beer out of the fridge, needing something to take the edge off.

“I was hoping the vision would change after I told you.”

“And?”

She shook her head, then took a long swig from the bottle. “Same as it’s ever been.”

Zac left the lights off as he moved through the dark apartment. His focus was on the woman sleeping in the other room. Yesterday he’d run a gamut of emotions in such quick succession his head was still spinning.

Careful to be a silent as possible, he made his way to Sarai’s door and slipped inside. Sarai lay with her back to him, the covers pulled up to her chin. Zac grinned. They kept the apartment meat-locker cold. Polar bear shifters didn’t tolerate heat well.

On silent feet, he moved around to where she was facing and squatted down beside the bed. He took a precious moment to allow his gaze to roam the contours of her face. When he’d first met Sarai, his initial impression was that she was fragile, weak. He realized now that her delicate beauty and quiet ways hid a woman strong in both body and character.

Heaven help him, she’d tried to save him. Had been willing to sacrifice herself to do it. In Zac’s life only three people had ever done that for him. His parents had lost their lives, and a six-year-old Andie had dragged his unconscious ass across a long stretch of Canada. Otherwise, while he trusted certain people with his life, he didn’t have to. Zac was the strong one, the protector, the last line of defense.
He
was the one who sacrificed.

He’d promised Andie he’d protect Sarai. When he’d said those words, his loyalty had been to his friend. But now…the need to make sure this incredible woman was never harmed again rushed through him in a wave so intense he felt his breathing constrict. Responsibility was a mantle his broad shoulders managed easily. This was something different.
She
was different. Precious to him personally.

Reaching out, he gave her shoulder a gentle shake. “Hey, honey.”

Sarai’s eyes flew open. With a gasp she scrambled back in the bed, trying to get untangled from the covers. “Don’t—!”

“Hey, it’s Zac. Calm down.”

Sarai blinked for a moment before her eyes lit with recognition. Relief replaced blind fear. Sarai slumped down in the bed, and she put her face in her hands. “Sorry,” she mumbled.

Zac sat on the bed with slow, deliberate movements to keep from startling her. With a little tug, he pulled her over to lean on his chest, smoothed the sheets over her legs, and wrapped an arm around her. He tried not to think about how she was wearing nothing but a silky slip of a nightgown. At least he was dressed.

“Want to tell me what that was about?”

She was quiet so long he wondered if she would. He could feel the tap of her fingers against his chest. He didn’t say anything. Didn’t rush her.

“Kyle managed to get me in my room alone. Once. I woke up to find him standing over my bed.

Zac tightened his grip on her but kept the violent thoughts in his head to himself. “What’d you do?”

“I faked a vision that the child resulting from that night would eventually overthrow and kill him.”

“That worked?”

“Kyle had seen my gift in action enough to know it was possible. As power-hungry as he is, that future didn’t appeal.”

Zac felt her smile against his chest.

“I knew the same tactic wouldn’t work again, so I made sure I was never alone in my room again. I only went there to get clothes, shower. Andie would usually come with me or send one of the guys she trusted. I never slept in the same place night to night.”

“Jeez,” Zac breathed. While he’d been orphaned young, he’d still grown up in a community that had supported him, nurtured him. He hadn’t ever feared sleeping in his own bed.

Sarai shrugged. “It was what it was. He never found me again. That way, at least.”

“But you’d wake up thinking he was there?”

Sarai pulled back, looking at him with puckered eyebrows. “How’d you know?”

Zac tipped his head. “The way you reacted just then. No screaming. No crying. That’s happened before.”

She snuggled back down into his arms. “Yeah. Especially the first year or so after it happened. I’d wake in a cold sweat, terrified he’d found me again.”

Zac pressed a soft kiss on the top of her head. “You don’t have to fear that now. I’ve got you.”

Sarai shook her head. “I’ll be afraid of Kyle Carstairs until the day one of us dies.”

Zac couldn’t say anything to that. He clenched his jaw against the futile wrath inside him until his teeth started to ache. He should be able to protect his people. He wasn’t used to feeling helpless in situations like this.

“I’ve been meaning to ask. You said yesterday on the train that if you were involved, your visions didn’t work?”

He felt rather than heard her sigh. “Yes. I often see nothing at all if I’m included in something. At best, I get patchy pictures. Hazy. It’s a weakness. One I’ve never shared with anyone else. Not even Andie.”

Zac thought about that. Since he’d found her on the train, Sarai had changed how she was with him. Almost as if she saw him as a trusted partner, rather than an obstacle. Her trust made him want to be that partner, that person she could rely on to fix this. He just didn’t know how.

After a long moment of holding her, he sat up. “Come on. We’ve got to go.”

“Where?”

“Airport. The wolves found you—or us—here. We’re going to clear out.”

She glanced at the clock. “At three in the morning?”

“I arranged a private flight.”

“To?”

“My Timik in Canada. We’ll fly to Kuujjuaq, north of here. We go on foot from there.”

****

Sarai watched out the window of the small jet Zac had commandeered for them. Getting out of the building and to the airport had been uneventful, as had the flight.

Never having been on a private jet before, Sarai explored the craft with interest. The cabin was something else, with nice, first-class-like seats in a soft, tan leather, and plenty of space for everyone, even Zac, to spread out in. She felt somewhat out of place in her jeans and t-shirt when surrounded by such opulence. She’d opted for comfortable rather than classy when they’d stolen away in the night.

She’d looked at Zac with a twinkle in her eye when he’d sat down, his long legs spread out in front of him, crossed at the ankle. “You know after this you’ll never be able to fly coach again.”

He’d raised a single eyebrow. “I think I’ll survive.”

Sarai had chuckled as she settled into her seat.

Now, ten hours later, they were finally landing. It didn’t take long to taxi to the hanger. Zac’s people, in military-style vehicles, were already waiting for them. Several men jumped out as the copilot opened the plane door and lowered the stairs. Instead of their getting off, the men outside came on board.

One wasn’t a man, but a woman about Sarai’s size with dark, short hair. Without introduction, or even a hello, she handed Sarai a duffel bag. Sarai shot a questioning look over at Zac.

“We have to act quickly. I’ll explain in a minute. First, you need to change into the clothes in the bag and give Corrie the clothes you’re wearing.”

Sarai opened her mouth to ask why, but shut it again. He’d said that he’d fill her in. She and the woman named Corrie quickly dressed. Then, to her astonishment, Corrie pulled out a dark blond wig, styled much like Sarai’s own hair, and carefully situated it on her head. Sarai didn’t need her Seer’s gift to have an idea of what was going on.

Corrie stood to leave, having never said a word. If anything, she’d glared at Sarai throughout the entire silent exchange. Resentment? Blame? Sarai couldn’t quite tell.

“Hold up,” Sarai called. Corrie spun back to face her, lips compressed in a petulant expression. Sarai fished into the backpack she’d brought on the plane and pulled out a ball cap—the Yankees one she’d snagged in her bid to escape. Had it been only yesterday? She’d got sweat all over it, which meant it reeked of her scent. She’d also been wearing it yesterday on the train, making it a recognizable piece of her clothing to the wolves who’d seen her.

“Here.” She held it out.

Corrie glanced at it then back at Sarai. With a small shrug, she grabbed the cap and jammed it on her head.

When they entered the cabin, Sarai noticed all the window shades were down. The men moved in and out, in and out, shuttling some supplies out to the waiting vehicles. She eased down to sit on the armrest of one of the chairs, mostly out of the way.

Seeing her there, Zac moved to stand in front of her. “You stay here with George.”

She glanced over her shoulder to see George and a George look-alike standing there. She flicked a nervous look back to Zac. “What about you?”

“I’ll be back much later tonight.”

Stuffing down the protest that wanted to rise out of her throat, Sarai nodded.

“Trust me?”

She gave him a little half smile. “Let me put it this way. I’ve told you more about my power, my life, and a vision concerning you, than I’ve told anyone else. Ever.”

“So that’s a yes.”

She inclined her head.

“Time to go, Zac,” Scott said from the door.

Sarai gave her shadow a wave of goodbye. He winked in response.

“Gotta go. Stay safe,” Zac said—more like ordered.

She watched with hungry eyes as he pivoted to head down the aisle. Before he reached the door, he stopped. Sarai stood up. He whipped around and, purpose in every stride, moved back down the aisle to her.

Then he shocked the hell out of her when he took her face between his hands and laid his lips over hers in a hard kiss that felt gloriously possessive. He pulled back to look down at her. Sarai stared back with wide eyes.

“I mean it. I want to return here to find you in one piece.”

Sarai’s lips twitched. “I’ll do my best, sir.” She just barely restrained her urge to salute.

Zac’s mouth lifted in a crooked smile. “All right then.”

And he was gone.

As soon as the stairs were raised and the plane, for all intents and purposes, shut down, only Sarai and George remained. She looked at him and folded her arms over her chest in a very Zac-like move. “Want to tell me what’s going on?”

His mustache twitched. “Diversionary tactic.”

“I kinda figured that. What, exactly, is the plan?”

“They’re taking you—and by you I mean Corrie dressed to look like you, in your clothes to smell like you—to the Timik. Zac went as well because he figured they’d assume he would never leave you alone.”

“They who?”

“The wolf shifters. Kyle. Anyone else who’s watching with an eye to snag themselves a Seer.”

“So convince them we’re all at the Timik…and then what?”

“Zac will make his way back here.”

Alone? Sarai frowned. “How exactly?”

George regarded her for a long moment before running a thoughtful finger through his thick mustache. “You know, when you first joined us, you were this quiet little thing. Watched everything, but asked no questions. Almost like you didn’t care.”

Sarai waited for the punch line.

“What changed?” he asked.

She gave that question the attention it deserved. “I did,” she finally said. “I realized for the first time in my life that I couldn’t manipulate the situation to change the future the way I wanted it to go, nor could I survive it on my own…And Zac won’t let me save him.”

“That all?”

She shook her head. “I had to put my trust in someone else. The broadest shoulders I could see…were his.”

George stroked his mustache. “I thought that might be the gist of it.”

He pinned her with the kind of hard look only a tough man who’s seen a lot of years could. “Don’t ever betray him.”

She understood what he was saying. “I may be a cougar shifter, and a Seer, but I don’t have it in me to cause that man any pain. Even when he was just Andie’s friend.”