Stallion of Ash and Flame (Siren Publishing Classic) (17 page)

“Good to see Luke and Spook up and about.” He conversationally spoke above the lyrical soft twang of K. D. Lang because he wanted her to have an idea why he was about to mention the Hauloquine device. The black-ops squad would kill her dogs without a thought in their search for it. And if Chief made the wrong move, they’d murder him.

Alarmed stiffened her body and she swung her gaze to him. “Yes. I was worried sick. Thanks for helping me with them.”

“They’re in danger,” he mouthed to her, knowing the psi-sensors merely watched the pickup and listened.

“Oh, God,” she mouthed back.

“Follow my lead,” he mouthed again.

She nodded. The agony in her eyes arrowed through his heart.

“I think they’re starting to accept me. Haven’t had a dog of my own since I was a kid.” Trail slowed, swinging onto the right-hand fork of the highway.

“They’re like family. I hope I find out who poisoned them. Their ass will be mine.”

“I’ll keep my ear to the ground. Too bad the tracks ran out. I might have been able to find the cowardly trash.”

“Even if I never find out, like Johnny Cash says in his song, God will cut them down.”

“Did you find that good-luck mica stone of yours? The one you showed me earlier today?”

“I did.” Digging into her pocket, she fished it out and gazed down at the gleaming tiny device. “It must’ve of worked since that lost stallion showed up and scared Pork Butt out of his shorts. Once we get back I’ll check for who owns him. Why, are you in need of some extra luck?”

“Yep. If I step on the gas, I don’t want a highway patrol officer turning on the cherries.”

“Yeah, that’s all I need, more negative interaction with the so-called law enforcement authorities. For all I know, Pork Butt has put out a warrant for my arrest based on a damn lie. Rory will have to bail us out of jail. And I really don’t want that to happen since he’s still recovering.”

“I don’t think we have to worry about the Sheriff. He knows he’s been recorded on my cell.” Gradually, he increased the truck’s speed, making certain the van remained behind them.

“I hope not. It was certainly good luck you showed up when you did. I was wearing myself out fast.”

From the corner of his eye, Trail watched her stroke her thumb pad over the device. Looking at him, she mouthed, “Is this what they want? Are they safe?”

In his mind’s eye, he observed the black-ops squad trot back toward their jeeps and prepare to chase after them.

“They’re leaving,” he mouthed. “The dogs are safe.”

She fell back with relief, then carefully pocketed the device.

“I’ll stay on for as long as you need me. I could do with a change of pace. Movin’ around like I have doesn’t have the same charm.”

“Well, cowboy, I could so use you, especially since the horses like you.”

“They’re gone,” he announced. “The Fire Starters were using their psychic talent to watch and listen. Now that they know you have the device, they’re siccing the black-ops team on us.”

“Great. Nice to know. Still, better than losing Luke and Spook. I assume they planned to take my place apart.” Squirming anxiously, she settled and folded her arms.

“That was the plan. We also have company behind us, a CIA team we visitors on Earth call the Alien Busters.”

“Are they after you?” She whirled to face him, sitting sideways in the seat.

“No, they’re after the Fire Starters. The CIA team were the ones covertly listening to us last night. I didn’t know who they were then.”

“Well, they got their ‘jollies.’”

“Jollies?” he asked, braking to turn onto the highway that would take them deeper into the National Forest.

“Enjoying the sex show,” she drily explained. “My mother used to say that word. She’d tease Dad about ‘getting his jollies’ whenever he watched her bend over. Rory and I figured it out pretty fast once we saw a few late sixties, early seventies movies.” Her voice ended wistfully, sadly.

Trail beamed his awareness toward the underground facility. Three semi-trucks lumbered over the makeshift road about ten miles out from the above-ground entrance. He zoomed through the semis, taking an inventory of the contents. Mining equipment, supplies for human miners, foodstuffs and other necessities loaded them down.

“Care to tell me the plan, alien man?”
she asked in the following silence.

“It’s better if I don’t yet. They can’t mind-read what isn’t there.”

“Yeah, sure, I get it. The need to know scenario. Great. I hate it.”

“Right now, the plan is to get the Alien Busters close enough to discover the Fire Starters.”

Restlessly, she twisted in her seat. “I don’t think I’ve ever trusted anyone this much. Except Rory,” she muttered.

He wanted with all his heart to tell her to keep trusting him. He wanted to tell her he wanted to get his ‘jollies’ whenever she bent over. He knew to her ear that would be so many words and useless as hay blown away by
storm winds. She needed direct proof, experiences with him she couldn’t deny.

“Seneca, would you like to know why our portals with Earth are so vital to us, to our race?”

“Portals, as in more than one? Why?” she shot back.

“We have many portals throughout the western states. We require the DNA of wild horses on Earth, the descendants of the Spanish Mustangs, to keep the equine side of our race strong.”

“How the hell does that work? I mean I can understand the strength of wild horse DNA. It is priceless. And too few people realize that fact.” Her tone pounced like a wildcat on those who failed to understand what was obvious to her.

“Over time, with the advancement of psi powers, the human side of our DNA became too dominant, resulting in the slow degradation of our equine side. There has never been a true equine species on our world. Yes, we have horse species, but they retain some of our human DNA. Only the true equine species of Earth revitalize that part of our natures.”

“I still don’t understand. Are you saying you somehow inject wild horse DNA into your people?”

“We collect mane follicles, mostly, from the strongest mustangs, and only from those who run wild. The triggered gene sequence is different than mustangs raised domestically.”

“Yes, it would be different. Go on.”

“A womb absorbable cream is made, then matched to the gender and characteristics of the child/foal being carried. It’s simply rubbed on during the first month of pregnancy.”

“Well, that is easy enough. Why not import wild horses to your world? Hell, all the BLM wants to do is round them up and kill them, now days. Breaks my heart thinking about it. And it breaks my soul not being able to do anything permanent to stop it.”

Joined with her, he felt her utter despair over the horrific plight of the wild horses.

“There are operatives from our world in place who are protecting some of the herds. It’s always a balancing act, since we risk exposure.” Trail wheeled the pickup onto a private access road that would take them much deeper inside the forest.

“You would be sliced and diced in some secret government lab. Or worse, kept alive. Yeah, I understand.” She checked their surroundings. “Aren’t we going to have the forest rangers after us?”

“The truck is outfitted with a code to make it look like one of their vehicles.”

“That’s certainly convenient.”

“To answer your question, the matrix of Earth promotes the highest expression of mustang genetics. Our world doesn’t.”

“Yep, that does explain it.”

He glanced at her. So far, she held up well despite everything she faced, her spirit carrying her. “Earth is a paradise for animal species,” he continued. “And for plant species. More so than many other planet-worlds.”

“Certainly for gold. A golden planet paradise.”

Trail smiled for a bare instant, tickled by her thought process. “A paradise ruined for the sake of mining gold,” he replied seriously.

“Irony at its best and worst,” she mused. “No different than gold fever during the Gold Rush. People would have hacked through anything to find the mother
load. I can’t say the gold coins we found aren’t mighty tempting.” He watched her hug herself in his peripheral vision. “If all this didn’t feel so real, it would feel like a dream. You would feel like a dream.”

“Adjustment,” he encouraged. “It will take a
while to get used to the notion of me.”

“Oh, you think so, do you? I think it’s going to take more than a
while.”

Negotiating the narrow road faster and faster, Trail psi-searched for a strategic place to leave the truck.

“Won’t the Fire Starters know by now we’re coming for the amulets?” she quietly asked.

“They’ve probably put some pieces together. Hang on, Seneca.”

Slamming his foot on the brakes, Trail slid the pickup inside a tall stand of thickets. The next second, he reached for her, clutching her flush against him. “We’re going for a phase ride. The landing surface is going to be hard.”

She blinked. Merging his energy body with hers, he flashed them into a higher vibration, then lightning-streaked them toward the semi-trucks. He centered them on top of the trailer and materialized their bodies. Dazed, she merely laid in his arms. Wrapping his body around hers protectively, he psi-scanned around them. So far, they were undiscovered.

“Where the crap are we?” she mouthed, once he gazed down at her.

“On top of a semi-truck, headed inside the underground facility. We’re on the third one. The security is manned by humans and is only geared against human enemies.”

“I’m human.” She glowered.

“I’m not,” he bantered. “I’ll save you.”

“This is hard and not all that warm, alien stud.”

Tempted to make a joke about her warming up his hard cock, he didn’t. She wasn’t used to his covert adventurous life. “We won’t be up here long.”

“Aren’t they, the Fire Starters, the Alien Busters or the black-ops

guys going to find the pickup?”

“It’s possible.” He didn’t lie. “This is a fluid scenario.”

“Great. On a wing and a prayer.”

He questioned with his gaze, stroking her hair back from her face and holding it away from the wind’s force.

“What pilots used to say after their airplanes were shot to hell. Everyone knows that. Except portal-equine aliens.”

“What sharp claws you have, my mare.”

Confused for a moment, she glared. “That makes no sense.”

Trail grinned. He couldn’t help it. “It would if you saw the panther-equines on Ovrust.”

She hesitated. “You’re making that up,” she accused. Yet, in the depth of her eyes, she believed him.

“Your inner cougar has sharp claws.”

Their semi-truck hit enormous dips in the crude road, jostling them, and he crushed her close, keeping them balanced on top.

Once the semi stabilized, she lifted her face from his chest. “My inner cougar is roaring and ready to rip anyone who gets in her way to shreds.”

“That’s my girl. Hang on tight while I use my remote viewing and plot our way to the amulets.”

“You’re already squeezing me to death,” she mock-complained, yet tightened her hold on his neck.

Blasting his psi-senses all around them, he located the Alien Busters. Just passing his pickup truck, they remained on the National Forest road. Behind them, the black-ops team made good progress
,
and were only a few miles away. Not sparing valuable time to find out if his pickup would be discovered, Trail eased his awareness within the underground facility, where the semi-trucks would soon enter to unload.

Gradually he expanded his awareness, disguising his presence in the frequency hum of several compressor engines. Recalling the exact entry point from his previous trip inside, he focused and felt the energetic pull of the domed area.

Slowing the rate of his mind travel, he observed his path as if he physically walked through the facility. The closer he moved to where he’d last seen the amulets, the heavier the security, including Fire Starter guards holding their net-freeze weapons. Obviously, they were wanted alive, or she was, because the pulses would trap her like a net, then place her in an advanced cryogenic state.

Like a serpent, he sinuously slipped through the maze created by the psi-guards to catch him. Sensing a trap as he closed in on the position of the amulets, he zipped upwards, above the sticky-sucker field two of the psi-masters had formed around the amulets. There was a reason the Fire Starters had not changed the location of the two ancient keys, a critical reason beyond their use as bait to lure him and Seneca inside the domed room.

Not only did they want the Hauloquine device, they wanted access to her memories of the cave. They wanted all that Seneca knew. And their methods could seriously harm her brain, especially if she refused to cooperate.

He knew there was something else the Fire Starters and those hiring them wanted. Yet he owned no more time to psi-sleuth it out.

He is here
, one of the masters spoke to the other.
 

Personal Battering Ram

Trail didn’t think. He merged his awareness with the forest winds, flowing until he knew they had no way to attach their psi-eyes to him. One thought of Seneca and he swiftly streamed back to her.

“It is beyond weird watching you do that.” She frowned as he fastened his gaze on her.

“They’re loaded and ready for bear.” He’d used the expression, hoping that would keep her calm, but explain their situation.

She quirked her mouth. “You mean, we’re about to be trapped like rats on a sinking ship.”

“Nobody is sinking.”

“I dunno. It feels like quicksand to me. Ever fall in quicksand running around as a horse?”

“Giant quicksand pits on my world. I had a few close encounters.”

“Close encounters.” She rolled her eyes. “You are a close encounter of the third kind.”

“The closest.” He rumbled the heat of his loins and the heaviness of his cock.

“Stop it.” She complained about his small thrust against her thighs. “I should never have let you seduce me.”