Chapter Eight

“So, where are we going, exactly?”

Iain turned off the paved road half a mile back, his sport utility vehicle bouncing down the hillside between low-lying trees and dodging creek beds. All while ignoring the “No Personally Owned Vehicle” signs as he went.

The sun was moments from slipping behind the hills, the sky a pleasant mix of blues, purples, and oranges bleeding into one another. The heat had dissipated, replaced by a pleasant breeze and manageable humidity. Evening was alive with the sounds of summer; the deep calls of frogs, the chorus of insects.

“You’ll see,” Iain told her over the growl of the engine.

He looked more relaxed than she had ever seen him, lounging back in a sleeveless shirt, a pair of aviator glasses, and cargo shorts. He was more muscular that she had imagined his shoulders well-defined, his arms sculpted. She hadn’t thought he was unfit, but he had always seemed to be the more slender type. He had nothing on Evan, that was for sure. But who did? She wasn’t one to be impressed by large, ballooning pectorals, anyway.

“That’s a non-answer,” she yelled as the truck lurched over a tree root.

He turned his gaze to her with a lazy smirk before giving the dirt road his attention, again. Suspecting she wouldn’t get any more of an answer, Evie sighed and let her head drop back against the seat rest. Above the roll bars, thick pockets of leaves and knotted branches sped, a parcel of heavy black birds gliding the winds above them. The vehicle bounced over deep ruts, curving to the left, later to the right, the birds somehow always coming back into view.

Eventually the trail ended in a clearing, deep gouges in the mud from tracked vehicles creating a circle where the large, heavy tanks and infantry fighting vehicles had turned around. The sun officially dipped below the horizon, but the sky was still light to the west, and the shadows cast by the trees become darker and more pronounced. Iain pulled the emergency brake, and shut off the engine, hopping out. He reached into the back bed of the old vehicle, pulling out an old, green and brown backpack.

“I haven’t seen BDU material in ten years.” Evie laughed as she unbuckled her seatbelt. The old green and brown camouflage of the Battle Dress Uniforms was retired when she was a child, the Army replacing it with colors and patterns better suited for more modern wars.

“I just use it for hikes. It came with the truck.”

Evie lifted her eyebrows and shook her head. “That’s a rather odd thing to throw in with the sale of a vehicle, isn’t it?” When he didn’t answer, she decided to let it drop. “So, if you won’t tell me where we’re going, maybe you can tell me what we’re doing?”

“Hiking.”

“You do remember that I have a bit of a limp, right?” She gestured to her bad leg as if she were presenting a prize on a game show.

“It won’t be far.

“If I fall over and break my nose, I’m blaming you.”

“I’ll catch you.”

Evie put her hands on her hips and screwed her mouth to the side. “You better.”

He cracked a grin, something he rarely did, and motioned for her to follow him. She slung the thin strap of her purse over her head so the leather lay across her midsection and fell in step behind him. They trudged over the tall, waving grass, and she cringed inside, uninterested in picking up any six-legged hitchhikers.

“You know, I like trolling for ticks just as much as the next person, I’m sure,” she said as they wound around a fallen tree, cracked and dry, grass growing up through its hollow insides. “But wouldn’t it be easier to just rub up against a few stray dogs?”

He snorted but didn’t say anything.

“Do you come out here often?” she asked after the silence became uncomfortable. She suspected she wouldn’t get anything out of him before they arrived wherever it was he was dragging her.

“Almost every evening.”

“Really? Why?”

“I like the solitude. And I enjoy the hike. It keeps me in shape.”

At that she allowed her gaze to drift down to his butt. Yup, it was working. “How long are you out here?”

“A few hours.”

“So, what you’re saying is that if I want to keep hanging out with you, I’m going to have to buck up and get used to this?”

“Something like that.”

“Damn it, that sounds terrible,” she muttered.

They continued in silence, the screeches of insects growing in volume the darker the sky became. To the east, several stars made their presence known where the sky was darkest, only the brightest winking directly above head. The horizon was still light but fading into a deeper blue. She had to hurry to stay close to Iain, frightened she would get separated from him. She didn’t want to find any of the skunks or coyotes that roamed the hills on her own.

Iain suddenly halted and put his arm out to keep her from walking any further. “Here,” he murmured.

Evie frowned as he dropped his pack to the ground and dug through it. He extracted some dark colored clothes then shoved some of the cloth into her hands. When he stood, again, he pulled his shirt off, revealing a smooth, sculpted chest. He tossed his shirt on the ground, and looked at her face, lit now only by the moonlight.

“Put that on.”

“What?” She tossed the balled up cotton from hand to hand, her lip curling in confusion. What the hell was this? “No, I think I’m good.”

“Put it on, Eve,” he ground out.

No one ever called her Eve. Even when she was young, her parents always used her full name to show their displeasure. But he said it like he had said it a thousand times before. Like she had always been Eve to him. Had he ever called her Evie? Her brow puckered. She wasn’t sure.

She gulped and the tiny hairs on the back of her neck rose. She was out in the middle of who-knows-where, alone with a man she didn’t know well.

“I think… I think I’d like to leave.”

At her words, a murder of crows circled overhead, their caws mixing together until they became one voice. They spread their wings, taking the air under their feathers, spinning faster and faster, like the hand of a clock speeding out of control.

Beware the crows.

The simple line of text flashed across her memory. At the time, it had seemed so harmless and silly. But the flock moving and growing above twisted those three simple words into terror, and the unease slowly washing over her quickly formed into full-fledged panic.

Evie stepped back. Her heel crunched on a brittle stick, snapping it. Iain’s hand clamped over her upper arm, yanking her back. She pushed and clawed at him, but his grip remained vice-like, and she kicked out at him.

“Let me go!’

“Well, well, well.”

The throaty, feminine purr stopped Evie short.

Her head snapped up as the words emerged from the cawing, and the crows condensed and faded into the most beautiful woman she had ever seen. Hair as black as a raven’s feather and skin of alabaster shone in the silvery cast of the moon, red lips twisting into a feline smile.

“Iain, I am impressed. I didn’t think you would be able to track this one down. She’s been a bit of a problem, hasn’t she?”

Evie’s mouth fell open and she looked from the woman to Iain and back. Iain stood stoically, shoulders set and mouth a grim line, but said nothing.

The woman cast her gaze to the ground. “And a fairy circle here? How quaint.” A wide circle of mushrooms perfectly outlined the small clearing. “I’ll have to remember that my faith in you is always so well placed.”

Iain nodded once, slowly, almost like a bow.

The woman’s attention turned back to Evie, her light eyes glittering in the twilight. She took two steps forward, her feet crunching on old, brittle leaves and the sweeping black fabric of her dress billowing around her. She pursed her lips and canted her head. “And are you ready, my dear?”

Evie swallowed past the lump forming in her throat, and immediately regretted the move. Her stomach rolled and knotted, threatening to be sick. She pulled her arm once more for good measure, but Iain’s hand did not loosen.

“Who are you?”

The woman’s sneer remained tight-lipped, not reaching her kohled eyes.

“What the hell is going on?” Evie demanded.

“Ah, there is the spirited little warrior we all know. Come, child. It’s time to return home.” The woman motioned toward the fairy circle.

“Child?” Evie snarled, all of her insecurities bubbling up. “Go to hell, lady.”

She stomped as hard as she could on the top of Iain’s foot. He sucked in his breath in surprise, his grip dropping.

It was all Evie needed.

She took off, ignoring the twinges in her leg and the screaming in her lungs. Pushing through the dense underbrush, she sprinted away. Low-stretching branches scratched her face, snagged her hair, and she sobbed through the pain slicing through her back and hip, and leg.

She glanced over her shoulder to catch Iain’s dark form leaping through the forest with the grace of a practiced hunter. She sharply zagged where she should have zigged and tumbled over a downed limb. The breath knocked out of her, and she struggled to pull in another, panicking when nothing happened, crying with relief when air finally hitched into her lungs. She tried to scramble back up—damn it, she didn’t even know what she was fleeing—but Iain caught her by the waistband. He hauled her to her feet then wrapped his hands around her upper arms, stilling her.

He jerked her to him. “No more of that, Eve,” he growled in her ear. “You have to come with me, now. Please.”

He didn’t even sound breathless, and her heart pounded in her chest, her breathing loud.

“Where?” she managed to choke out.

“Back.” He whirled her around and nudged her back in the direction they came.

She obliged, what fight she had abandoning her. “Why don’t you just kill me?”

“It matters not to me,” he murmured. “I will get you back there one way or the other. But it would be far easier if you just come willingly. You’ll see that. You will. I promise.”

“But where?” she demanded.

“You really don’t know, do you?” His voice held a hint of awe.

Was he so surprised? She opened her mouth to ask, but his grip fell away and his cry of pain echoed in her ear.

“Run, Evelyn!”

She whirled to stare wide-eyed at her rescuer.

Alec.

Evie couldn’t move.

She knew she needed to, but her legs wouldn’t respond, her feet wouldn’t work. All she could do was stare slack-jawed at them both, her gaze darting from one to the other.

Slammed into dead and decaying leaves from seasons past, Iain groaned, quickly rolling to his feet, a growl of annoyance ripping through his gritted teeth.

“Evelyn. Go.”

His yell was all she needed. She took off at a run, her breath sobbing out of her, tears streaming down her face.

How could she have gotten mixed up in-in whatever the hell this was? She had been so sure she got it right. Who was the woman? And what were she and Iain going to do to her? How did Alec fit into all of this?

She didn’t care. Let them have their midnight cult meetings under the moonlight but leave her out of it.

Her mind ran through the possibilities of what they wanted her for. The more distance she put between herself and that fairy circle, the more she felt like she needed answers. So many things didn’t make sense, starting with the woman just showing up in the middle of nowhere. And the crows. How had Alec known about the crows?

When an arm snagged her around the waist, she let out a scream quickly silenced by a hand.

“Shh, it’s Alec,” he whispered.

She immediately quieted and whirled on him. “What the fuck is going on?” she demanded.

“Now is not the time nor is it the place.”

“The hell it isn’t!”

“I’ll explain, but we have to get out of here.” He held out a hand.

Evie hesitated, but eventually placed her own palm against his, and he hurriedly tugged her after him. They wound through the darkness to a shallow gorge cut by a deep creek gushing through the woods. At its shore, he oriented himself, and pulled her along behind him.

The pain in her leg and hip became more than she could manage any longer. Grimacing, she collapsed on the fallen leaves. She wrested her hand from him and massaged her thigh, gritting her teeth to keep from sobbing.

Alec knelt beside her. “We have to go, Evie.”

She nodded and followed him stiffly, her leg screaming with every step until it buckled, dropping her to the dirt.

“I don’t think I can keep going,” she said. It was almost as much of a challenge to keep her voice from betraying the pain as it had been to sprint through the forest.

He didn’t miss a beat. Bending down, and sliding an arm around her waist, he hauled her to her feet. “Lean on me.”

They continued like that for what felt like hours, hurriedly hobbling through the forest until white headlights blinked above.

“Here.” He hefted her up against his chest, not waiting for her to wrap her arms around his neck before he sprinted toward the beams.

Why was she allowing him to carry her like a sack of potatoes? The irritation lasted less than a second as the pain in her hip and thigh dissipated. Embarrassment that she needed the help at all took its place.

The break in the trees grew near, a gap high above where the shadowed arbors opened for an indigo sky. The road.

Alec followed it, sticking to the cover of the trees, never straying into the open. He approached a dark car pulled off to the side of the road, hidden in an overgrown ivy bush. As they drew nearer, the lights blinked on. He carried her right up to the passenger side door and yanked it open before lowering her to the ground.

She obediently climbed in, fastening her seatbelt as he jogged around the hood. She massaged her leg as the car roared to life and he pulled out onto the nearly-abandoned road.

“Where are we going?”

“Do you have your ID?”

Her hand instinctively went to the small purse still looped around her shoulder. “Yeah, why?”

“Good.” He turned left on the next road and hit the gas.

She recognized it as the one running toward the back gate. It was the same gate she used to leave for Manhattan only a few days before.

“Where are we going?” she demanded, again.

He glanced up into the rearview mirror. She turned around and saw nothing but darkness behind them.

“What did they tell you?”

She rolled her eyes and slumped back in the seat. “I don’t know. Nothing that made sense.”

“What did they tell you, Evie?”

“Um, the woman—who is she?” When he didn’t answer, she continued, “The woman said something about it being time to go home. She told Iain her faith in him was always well placed, before that. None of it made sense. After I ran, Iain caught me, but all he said was that he was taking me ‘back.’ Back where?”

Alec pushed out a frustrated breath and slowed to go through the gate. Under the bright lights, Evie could make out the uniforms of the gate guards and the military police standing guard with their rifles. Briefly she considered opening the passenger door and rolling out of the car. It would hurt; she’d likely bang herself up pretty badly. He might try to grab her. But she couldn’t make herself do it. Too many questions remained, and since none of the answers seemed to end with her immediate death; she intended to try to get them.

“Evelyn, I need you to trust me.”

“Trust you? Why the hell would I trust you?”

The car rolled slowly through the rundown little town situated on the north end of the base. It didn’t even have a stop light, just a couple of stop signs that kept traffic from entering the main drag. The depressing little bars had full parking lots, those lots housing the only other vehicles in town.

“Because I got you away from the situation in which you unwittingly placed yourself.”

“You sound like an over-pretentious prick,” she grumbled.

“Are you really more interested in my grammar right now?”

“Well, you aren’t answering any of my other questions!”

He shot a glance at her but turned his gaze back to the road. The lights of the regional airport glowed ahead, and the silence between them stretched into uncomfortable. She could feel his annoyance and hoped it matched her own.

But then, as they approached Manhattan, her resolve began to wane. She let go of her anger and murmured, “Look, I’ve trusted you enough to get into the car, right? That may have been the biggest mistake of my life, but what can I say? I’m young and stupid. But the least you could do is make up some sort of answers to my questions so I can feel a little better.”

He sniffed with amusement. “I’m taking you to my place.”

Evie wasn’t sure why she wasn’t uncomfortable with the idea. “Why?”

“Because it will take her longer to find than if I were to take you to your house.”

“But who is she?”

The shadows shifted in the darkness as he clenched his jaw. “She goes by many names.”

“That isn’t an answer,” she chided.

“I don’t really know.”

Evie opened her mouth to say something else, but he quickly added, “I have my suspicions, though.”

“I’m really not in the mood for guessing games.”

“When I knew her, she went by the name Mora,” he murmured.

Something akin to regret seeped into his tone, and Evie couldn’t help but wonder what the story was there.

“And now?”

“It’s better if you don’t know.”

Evie threw up her hands and groaned. “Are you always this difficult to talk to?”

She didn’t receive an answer.

Alec slowed the car as they entered town, and then made a left turn into one of the residential streets. The street lamps glowed yellow at odd intervals down the street, and she recognized the general area as being close to the campus. When he pulled into the crumbling drive of a little Queen Anne cottage, she couldn’t hide her surprise.

“This is where you live?” she muttered in disbelief.

Even in the shadows of the large oak trees flanking it, she could make out the tiny details of the gingerbread. It seemed entirely too ornate, too delicate, too cultured for such a large, surly man.

He hopped out of the car then, skirted the hood as he came around to open her door. Her hand was in his and he was pulling her out onto the grass before she even managed to snap her mouth closed. Hand at the small of her back, he escorted her, up three wooden steps to the front porch. Their footsteps sounded heavy on the planks, especially her uneven ones. Alec shot a look over his shoulder, and then one to the darkening sky above before stabbing the lock with his key.

The front parlor was cast in heavy shadow and Alec made no move to remedy it as he pulled he door shut behind him and threw the heavy lock into place. Evie couldn’t make out much other than the rows of bookshelves lining the walls and the heavy, leather chesterfield sofa dominating the far wall. It was a masculine room, dark and warm, but sophisticated.

He brushed past her into the hallway, leaving her to stand awkwardly at the door. She considered following him, but remained rooted. Her hand slid around her waist and her thumb massaged the small of her back where the ache spread. The seconds ticked by as her mind bumbled through her options.

Stay or leave.

She needed little time to consider her answer.