Valiant Heart (16 page)

“They say what direction they were traveling?” She moved to the bags and squatted, opening both in turn. Her sickles lay in between the two. She picked up the holster and slung it over her shoulder.

“Deep north, Lazarus's old territory. They have a good head start.”

She sneered as she stood, one bag in her hand. “Yeah, Greer is thinking I'm not going to make it there on time. She's trying to keep me out of the battle.”

“Because she's a control freak.”

Ariana glared at him. “Because she's trying to keep me alive. She doesn't know I have my powers back.”

Lance stepped toward her, anger bubbling again. “When are you going to fucking clue in that she does not always have your best interests at heart? That she is doing things to meet her own agenda?”

“And when will you fucking realize that that's all she has in her heart? Her best interests are also mine. That is the Amazon way.” She opened the door. “I'm not stupid, Lance. I stand with Greer but that doesn't mean I'm blind to her. For the time being, her goals and mine are the same. You coming or what?”

Chapter Twenty

Half-Truths

Okay, so technically I'd lied. I was weak. I felt like I'd been run over by a dump truck and hardly had the energy make it across the courtyard to the pantry cabin, but I'd be damned if I was going to let Lance in on that.

The sword thumped against my back, heavier than I'd expected especially with all that it symbolized. My path was clear though. Sever my bond, free Lance, become a champion to wronged Huntresses. Seemed like a perfect fit.

Except…

I blew out an angry breath, except that message wasn't meshing with my gut well and that pissed me off. The sticking point? Severing the bond meant that Lance would return to being a human, no longer a Hunter, and although I didn't know him all that well, I was pretty sure he wouldn't be okay with that. Not at all.

I flung open the cabin door and stomped inside, bee-lining directly for the food stores. Hoping that a little nourishment would give me an energy boost.

I pulled out a box of protein bars. “We need to eat and then get our asses on the road.”

Lance opened the fridge and pulled out two bottles of water, handing one to me as I traded him for a bar. “I get your stubborn need to be involved, but don't think I haven't noticed the way your feet are dragging. Why not sit this one out, Ariana?”

I speared him with a hard look. “Sit this one out? Like some kind of game?” I took a bite, hating the taste but forcing it down anyway, my stomach growling at the promise of more.

“You may have gotten your powers back but you're not acting like yourself.”

“I have a lot on my mind.” Which was the understatement of the century.

“What did Artemis tell you?” He unwrapped a bar for himself and took a bite.

“You don't really believe I spoke to her.” I cocked an eyebrow and shook my head.

He shrugged, a wry smirk on his lips. “I believe that you believe you did. Tell me what she said.”

I moved over to the table, depositing my water and bars there. He was right, food or not, my energy was just not what it should be. I pulled a chair out and sat, the sword forcing my spine ridged as it fit awkwardly against the back of the chair, giving me more of a support than it should have. “I have to get to Greer. Artemis told me that Kelly has some kind of prophecy trapped in her mind that only Andrew can access. A serious game changer.”

Lance's eyes shot wide. “That's it? That's the super important info she gave you?”

“Fuck!” I rubbed my hand over my face, feeling a headache coming on. “That's exactly why I didn't want to tell you.”

“You're not being straight with me.” Lance speared me with a hard look. “I don't get it—what's the big deal? Greer is taking Kelly to Andrew. She'll be able to access the big bad prophecy. Why the rush to get to the women? You're barely able to walk—why kill yourself over this?”

I shrugged, feigning indifference, while my mind raced through all the possible lies I could tell him, discarding them one at a time. He had my number, knew when I wasn't being honest.

“Let me guess.” Lance leaned forward. “Greer has plans to kill Andrew and claim Kelly for the tribe?”

I swallowed a gulp of water, nearly choking on it as I did, and wiped my hand over my lips. “How long have you had it figured out?”

Lance eyed me for a full minute, puzzle pieces obviously clicking into place. He leaned back. “Not until this moment.” He mumbled a curse. “I knew there was something fucked up about this situation.”

“Greer has plans to free Kelly from the bond that Andrew used against her when he kept her in that coma to serve the needs of the Order. As far as Greer is concerned, Andrew must die so that Kelly can take her life back.”

And to make Kelly malleable with grief so that all she could see was the warmth and comfort from her Amazon sisters. Artemis had been feeding us messages that Kelly was vital to our survival for months, nudging us to go and seek her out. We'd all assumed that meant Kelly needed to become an Amazon. I had a feeling, a very strong feeling, we were totally wrong about that. Even after Kelly got the prophecy, she would still need her bond to Andrew. She was one of those Huntresses who needed a Hunter. I had to get to Greer before she did anything disastrous.

“You know I'm not going to let that happen, right?” Lance dumped the rest of his protein bar in the garbage. “Andrew's a Hunter of the Order and I will stop Greer from murdering him. Kelly needs him too. I won't let her suffer for Greer's ambition.”

I sighed, too tired to argue. “For once, you and I agree.”

He snapped his head back a bit, clearly caught off guard.

“There's something kinda fucked up about this whole situation and I'm not totally sure Greer is thinking straight on the correct course of action. I need to find her before she does anything irreversible.”

“Hallelujah!” Lance threw his hands up. “The woman finally sees the truth.”

I shot him a dirty look but said nothing as I pushed myself up from the chair.

“Trekking on foot is going to be slow going with the way you're dragging your ass,” his tone teasing.

I was not amused. “We're not going on foot.”

“Oh no?” His eyes lit up, interest piquing; minutes later, we were wheeling out two dirt bikes from the large shed. I kicked the stand then went back for helmets.

“We'll take these into wolf territory. Should be there by noon and then we're heading in on foot.” I tossed him a helmet before putting mine on. “I know a shortcut, should put us within a day of Greer. She's going to be moving slower than us and has to stop a lot to figure out where Andrew is.”

“Kelly's bond—isn't it supposed to be guiding them?” Lance swung his leg over the bike.

“In part, yeah, but instinct can only go so far. There are some rituals that can be performed.”

Lance snorted. “Rituals, yeah, so we'll catch up in no time.”

I sighed, rolled my eyes and got on my own bike. I started it up a second after that. Fucking men. Artemis was right. The Hunters were all about downplaying the role of the Huntress and ignoring any and all mystical connection to the old ways.

Well, except for the bonding part—sex and loyalty didn't get totally abandoned by the Order.

I snorted. How could Artemis think that anyone would be able to unite the chasm that had been formed over the years?

With a nod in his direction, I revved the engine then took off, leaving a plume of dust behind me.

We hit the forest edge by midday, stopped to eat and then loaded up with backpacks and weapons and headed into the trees. Food had helped to a certain degree and every once in a while, I would get little sparks of my old self. But Lance was right, my feet were dragging and I was tired. I cursed Greer for the hundredth time as I tripped over a fallen branch, nearly knocking myself out on the trunk of a tree.

“Whoa there.” Lance was at my side in an instant, his hands steadying me as I righted myself.

I shook him off. “I'm okay.”

“Like hell you are.” He pointed to the ground. “Sit.” He swung his backpack around and pulled out a water bottle. “Drink.”

I wanted to argue, but my parched throat screamed at the sight of liquid. “Fine.” I slumped down, my muscles so sore a throbbing ache radiated from my toes to my head.

He pulled out a package of beef jerky and tossed it to me. “You need some protein.”

“Thanks.” I opened it. The smell of teriyaki beef was actually welcoming.

“I've got to admit, when you first woke up and you seemed fine, I thought the whole siphoning thing was bullshit. I thought that Greer might have been talking out of her ass.” He sat down across from me. “But seeing you over the past few hours, the way you're so bogged down, lethargic, yeah, she definitely fucked you up good.”

I snorted bitterly as I swallowed a piece of meat. “Yeah, she's good at what she does.”

“And you say Artemis unshackled you?” He took a gulp of his water.

“She did, but she said…” I paused, my face growing warm with embarrassment, as if I could admit that I needed him to bolster me. “She said it would take some time to filter back.”

He lowered his bottle and nodded. “Uh huh. She say anything else?”

His tone was patronizing and it pissed me off. “Listen, I get it. You don't buy all the Goddess stuff. You and every other Hunter out there, raised by the Order, indoctrinated by half-truths and chauvinistic ideals. I don't care if you don't believe me, I know what I saw, what I felt.” I twisted my back to show him the sword. “What I got from my meeting with Artemis.”

Lance snickered as he took another sip. “Yep, that's pretty solid evidence that something otherworldly happened.” He dug into his pack again and pulled out another protein bar. “I know you think I'm some Neanderthal with no brain, bowing to my vows, wholly committed to the Order.” He took a bite, spoke while he was chewing. “But you've got that all wrong.”

I snorted. No, I had him all figured out. Brainwashed by the Order from the time he was a kid, vowing to put the Hunters above all others. I knew all about what happened at Wolves' Bane, not to mention the other Order strongholds. My dad had spent my entire life educating me on their ways. Was it biased? Hell yes, but in that bias I had seen truth. Many, many times. Our history spoke of it. Hunters against Huntresses, undervaluing our role.

“I didn't grow up with the Order. I wasn't from an Order supporting family.” His smile was lopsided. “I know that's what you think.”

“That's irrelevant.”

“My life is irrelevant?” He scoffed as he mockingly rubbed his chest. “Ouch, Huntress, that was a low blow.”

I shrugged, determined to stay cool and unaffected. “It's the truth.”

“You're not the only one with a fucked up story, lady,” Lance said as he stood, holding his hand out as if to help me up.

I sealed the bag of jerky and slapped it into his hand, ready to push myself up without his help.

He grabbed my hand and the bag, pulling me into him as he did. He looked down at me, his eyes dark, searching for something. “You can push and push, Ariana, but I'm not going anywhere.”

I opened my mouth to argue, ready to brush him off with another shitty comment when he kissed me. Not raunchy or aggressive. His lips came down on mine and he sucked, and then licked his way inside.

And I melted. I fucking melted.

When he let me go I was dizzy with a surge of strength.
Ah, fuck. Fuck it all to hell!

“By the time I'm done with you, you're gonna be madly in love with me.” He winked before turning his back to me and heading to the trail. “And if you're lucky, I'll kiss ya again, give you another boost.”

Yeah, right.
I scoffed.

And yet, somewhere deep down, the possibility of that scared the shit out of me.

Chapter Twenty-One

Sword-Play

“Let me see that sword of yours.” Lance turned to face her, walking backward down the trail.

Ariana winced as he narrowly missed being bonked on the head by a low hanging branch. That was a good sign. At least she cared about his head.

“No.” She continued forward, her walk a little more bouncy than it had been.

He wasn't so arrogant to think it was all about his kiss, but he knew it was all about his kiss. She needed him. His touch, his affection, regenerated her powers faster. He could see that; sadly, she couldn't. But he'd decided that no matter what she did, or what she said, it was not what she really wanted, or needed for that matter. He wasn't lying when he said he would make her fall for him. There was nothing more important to him than to get her heart opened to him. He knew,
knew
he could heal all her aches with the devotion he felt toward her, his Huntress. She just needed to come around to his way of thinking.

“You don't trust me?” He scoffed. “I've been training with a sword for my whole life. I know how to use one.”

“I thought you said you weren't from an Order supporting family.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “And yet you've been training your whole life?”

He turned around and slipped back so he could walk somewhat side by side. “Yep, it's actually a funny story.”

Ariana sighed but didn't say anything. He took that to be a go.

“You ever hear of RPGs?”

She frowned, “Role playing games?”

“Yeah, that's right. So my folks, they were big into that world. Cos-play, D and D, you name it, they loved it.” He shifted the weight of his backpack. “From the time that I was a little kid I can remember being taken to all kinds of events. My parents were heavily into the medieval stuff. Horses, knights, damsels, wizards, squires—all of it. Had me learning how to use all kinds of weapons no six year old has any business touching.”

She turned to look at him, her usual scowl slipping away. She was clearly intrigued.

“I took a liking to the broadsword at first. Imagine me, a puny little kid, wielding a big ass sword. It was comical. There are pictures.”

“And dangerous!” she said with a smile.

“Yeah, but it went with the costume.” Lance winked and she turned her face away, eyes focused back on the trail ahead. “I showed an aptitude for it. My folks were thrilled. Fit right into their medieval-minded plans. So they enrolled me in lessons.”

“There are sword lessons? I mean, I know fencing, but it doesn't sound like that's what you're talking about.”

“Nah, not fencing.” He rubbed his hand over the back of his neck. “I trained from the time that I was about ten, switching up instructors as I progressed in my skill. I was kind of a protégé, of the sword wielding variety. Not really a skill most normal people needed to have.” He chuckled, feeling awkward as the tone of the story started to change. “My last instructor was a man named Anthony. He came highly recommended, really amazingly skilled with his blades. He took one look at me during practice and said that I needed to train with him.”

She looked over at him, her eyebrow cocked.

“Turns out he was a Hunter, from the Order.” Lance winced at the memory. “I was fifteen when he took me out to train. With a sword in my hand, totally and completely unprepared, he exposed me to a beast.”

Ariana gasped. “I heard they did that! Forced your Hunter mark by tossing you to the wolves.”

Lance cleared his throat. “Yeah, I got tossed right into the deep end, that's for sure. My mark appeared and I had no idea what was happening. Luckily for me, I was trained. Instinct kicked in and I cut the beast down. There was no Huntress at the time so the wolf didn't die, but neither did I.”

She stopped walking and turned to face him, her hand on his biceps, fingers brushing his Hunter mark. “That's brutal. I'm sorry.”

“Yeah, it was,” he said with a half-smile, knowing that he wasn't hiding his feelings about that time in his life well. “They convinced my folks that I needed to join the Order. Didn't tell them, of course, what was really going on. As far as they know to this day, the Order is a special military operation that takes in youth to hone fighting skills. I resented them for a while, a long while after they signed over custody. Visits with them were hard, infrequent. Naturally, I was resistant to the Order's lessons at first. Acting like the quintessential pissed off teenager, with a sword.” He chuckled. “Never did buy into all the vows, have always been a bit of a rebel when it comes to expectations.”

She nodded and dropped her hand, which he snatched up to lay on his chest above his heart.

“Except for the part about the Huntress. I knew, deep down inside that my Hunter mark meant I was destined to protect someone dearly important to humanity. That one day I'd meet my soul mate and we would fight side by side. Right out of some medieval fairytale, right?” He grinned “So I trained hard and learned what I needed to learn. I became as strong as I could be and all because of the idea of you. My Huntress. The embodiment of every heroine I'd ever seen at a convention or role-play. In a way, I guess I do believe in some of the mystical stuff because I was destined to be a Hunter, been training for it my whole life. Now that I've got you, now that we've bonded, I fully understand what I was born to do.”

Her eyes were locked with his, her head tilting to the side. “You are such a pussy,” she said with a smirk. “A sweet, little pussy-cat romantic.”

He laughed. Hard. “Yeah, well, when you grow up with Mr. and Mrs. Medieval, you pick up a bit of the romance of it all.”

She smiled, like
truly
smiled at him, and then pulled her hand away. “You want to see my sword, Hunter?” She reached back and unsheathed it. “I mean, after a story like that, how could I deny you?”

When he saw the blade, he gasped. The thing was masterfully designed. She offered the hilt, beautifully engraved, stainless steel with black leather wrapping. He grasped it in his right hand and felt the perfect weight settle against his palm. “Wow.” He turned his hand, examining the unique twined metals that joined seamlessly together. Steel and bronze? No, that couldn't be right. He pulled the sword closer, narrowing his eyes searching for where the metals had to have been soldered together.

“Don't try to figure it out. You might fry your brain.” Ariana touched the engravings. “It's magically reinforced. Will always hit true and intensify the Huntress poison.”

“And the two metals?” He shifted the sword again, catching it in the light better. The bronze side seemed to shimmer. Okay, maybe there was something to the whole mystical Goddess thing. He'd never seen a sword like it before in his life. And it felt just right in his hand, like it was made for him.

He glanced over at her when she didn't answer, concerned by the look on her face as she opened and closed her mouth like a fish gasping for oxygen.

“Ariana?”

The ground vibrated. A thundering roar came a second later as branches snapped and trees seemed to sway.

A beast came barreling out of the trees, nostrils flaring, fangs bared. Ariana grabbed for her sickles but Lance forced the sword back into her hand before he slid his own from its sheath.

The beast rose on hind legs, chest heaving. “My Huntress,” it bellowed.

Ariana's eyes went wide. “It can't be! I killed it!”

Lance caught movement out of the corner of his eye, managed to push Ariana out of the way as another beast came roaring from the side. It slammed into Lance, taking him down in a rolling frenzy of fur and flesh. His sword was useless and he struggled to free himself from the tangle, all the while keeping his skin from being shredded.

He rolled onto his back, taking the beast with him, searching frantically around for Ariana, his range of movement limited by both his position and the fucking animal that was on top of him. He held the beast by the snout and jaw, prying its mouth open to keep the fangs from sinking in anywhere. Putrid saliva splashed onto his face, chunks of meat trapped between gums adding to the mess. The beast roared, a gust of foul smelling breath washing over him, making him gag.

“Jesus fucking Christ.” He was going to die just from the smell. Lance tried to leverage his feet underneath the beast's body, but as soon as he moved his legs up the beast dropped its weight down harder, forcing all the air out of Lance's lungs in a whoosh.

It raked its claws down Lance's arm, scoring his flesh. He couldn't help the scream that tore from his body. The beast's claws had to have been hitting bone.

He looked up and there was Ariana, covered in blood herself, a sight that made his heart ramp up even more. She met his eyes only briefly before swinging her sword down to decapitate the beast. One slash and the head popped off, rolling away as the body slumped onto him.

“Holy fuck,” Lance said, wincing. He shoved the body off him with a look of disgust.

Ariana knelt at his side, sword on the ground at her knee, hands gently rotating his arm.

He shuddered as she moved him, the pain almost unbearable. So intense he could hardly think. She closed her eyes, ran her fingers along the wounds and he felt nothing. No warming touch, no magical spark. Her powers had not yet returned.

“It's not working.” Panic edged her voice. “I'm not strong enough.”

“Bandage it,” he grunted. “With something clean.”

When she looked up from his wound, there were tears glistening in her eyes. “What? Okay, yes, you're right.” She moved off to their abandoned packs and started rummaging through in search of something clean all the while mumbling something about Artemis and being bolstered and other things that made little sense to him.

He pushed himself up and shifted so he could lean against a tree trunk, his legs bent to support more of his weight. The first beast, the one that had claimed to be her mate was decapitated as well, its head laying a few feet from its body.

“Are you injured?” he asked, his words coming out slurred, thick. He looked down at his arm, blood coating every inch of his skin. He was bleeding too much.

She came back to him with one of his T-shirts and attempted to wrap the whole thing around his arm.

“No, Ariana, you need to rip it into strips, tie off my wounds to stop the bleeding.”

She looked up at him, confusion riding in her eyes. “Right, yes.”

With shaking hands, she did as he directed, ripping the shirt into thick ribbons and wrapped his gashes tighter after he checked her for being too gentle. “If you don't stop the blood flow, I'm going to lose it all.”

Ariana gulped, nodded, tightened each tie so tight he winced. “I'm sorry. I've never had to do this.”

He touched her cheek, leaving a streak of blood. “I know. You're doing a good job.”

She nodded again, set back to work. Once she'd tied him up, his arm throbbing and burning, she sat back seemingly unsure of what to do.

“Are you injured?” he asked again.

She frowned, shook her head. “I don't think so.”

“Check yourself, just in case. You could be high from the adrenaline.”

She did as he said, checking herself for wounds. It appeared that with the exception of a bruise or two, she was fine.

“There's a stream just over that copse.” She pointed behind them.

He nodded. Fresh water would help to some degree but only time would heal his wounds. He could try to mend himself but he honestly didn't think he had the strength to do it—not yet anyway.

She helped him up, shoulder supporting his arm, his weight hard to manage, his body feeling like gravity was more powerful than it should be.

“I don't understand, Lance.” She grunted as she maneuvered him around the beast's body. “I killed it. See?” She pointed to an apparent wound to the heart, a thick scar that showed all the aggression of the attack. “We burned its body. I don't understand.”

Lance's head swam, his mind whirling. “I don't understand either. Nothing about this makes any sense.”

She got them situated on the bank of the stream, using the fresh cool water to clean the worst of the blood from him. He must have passed out for a bit because the next thing he knew, Ariana was banging through the trees toward him, weighed down with their weapons and backpacks. She dropped the pile next to him and he snorted when he saw she'd attached the beasts' heads to each backpack.

“Trophies?”

She looked up from her search through the bag, eyebrow cocked as he nudged one of the heads with his boot.

“I'm not taking any chances. If those fuckers come back again, they're going to have some trouble attacking with no heads.”

“Good point.” He winced as he shifted his back, sore from his wound and from falling asleep up against the rough tree bark.

“Your bandages have soaked through.” She pulled out one of her own shirts and began to rip it into strips.

“Kiss me.”

She looked up at him, her face screwed up like she'd just eaten a lemon whole. “What?”

“You heard me.”

“Lance, this is not the time—”

“You got an energy boost the last time we kissed.”

She started to argue.

“Stop it, Ariana. You did, I know you did. What if you kiss me and your powers come back? Even just a little? If you can mend some of this, stop the bleeding then I could regain the strength to do the rest myself.” He shifted, pushing himself forward as best as he could. “I'm going to bleed to death if you don't.” He attempted to wink but slipped back against the tree instead.

With a sigh, she dropped the shirt back to the bag and drew closer to him. She moved in, her body heat making him shiver. “That's one hell of a pick-up line, Hunter,” she whispered as she pressed her lips to his.

He kissed her back, or attempted to anyway, his body too weak to do much. With the first jolt, as their lips touched, she moved in closer, hands slipping into his hair as she opened his mouth with her tongue and kissed him for real. It was magical. Really. Magic surged between them, flowing back and forth as they kissed.