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I must have dozed off, though I didn't remember doing so. Someone shook my shoulder softly, but didn't speak. I came to and sat up with a jolt. It had been the first sleep I'd had in months that wasn't filled with some kind of nightmare.
"Where are we?" I turned to find Grace standing outside of the car opposite of me.
"We're at a small cabin in the woods. In Oregon. Come on. Let's stop here for a while. Regroup and try to figure out where we're going from here." She gave a sad smile.
"Okay," I mumbled and moved gingerly from my warm spot in the Bronco, still feeling half asleep.
I expected the pain of my broken rib to take my breath away, but oddly I felt fine. Brushing my hands over my midsection as I got out of the SUV, I realized all was well. I had healed sometime during my nap.
"You okay?" Michael's voice caught me off-guard and I jerked around to see him.
"Yes. Just making sure my rib healed right." I continued to run my fingers over my side, but took note of the way his eyes watched me. Warmth spread from my chest up to cover my cheeks and burn me.
He smiled. "Why are you blushing?"
"Because," I barked. "I just am."
"I like it." He moved toward me, pulling me into a comfortable embrace. "You good?"
"Yeah, I think so." I rested against him as the darkened night echoed with life around us. "We need to find Rob. Fast. We have no time. They don't give a crap about his life."
"I know." Michael sounded upset by my last statement, which was huge. He was far more like Caleb in his being so mission-minded. Maybe things were changing. I could only hope.
"Come on, guys. You can snuggle inside, but it's cold out here." Grace opened the door to the quaint wooden cabin in front of us.
Sheesh, they have cabin’s everywhere. "Whose is this?" I asked and pulled from Michael's arms. We had a lot to talk about in terms of the baby that lay inside of me, but I would bring it up later. My brother was the first order of business and far more important than me and Michael trying to work through whatever emotions would spring up from our situation.
"Don't know." Michael reached for my hand as we walked toward the cabin. "We’re taking a chance with it. Grace picked it out of the dark as we were driving past. I doubt there's food or water, but it’s shelter for a few hours. We won't stay long. Just long enough to figure out where we're going and hopefully clean you up."
Grace had disappeared into the darkness and as we approached, a light came on to illuminate what looked like a kitchen area. I moved inside and took a quick glance around. The kitchenette sat to my right, a two-seater table to my left and a living room beyond that. It was fully furnished, but looked as if no one had been there in ages.
"At least it has electricity and running water." Michael released my hand and walked toward Grace, who stood by the sink, checking the faucets. "Rouge, take off your top and come over here. Let's get you cleaned up."
I nodded and forced the angst inside of me to subside. Rob wasn't dead yet. I was as sure of that as I was the people standing in front of me. Something inside of me would have recognized his death due to our connection. I could control all Grollics, but with Rob it was almost automatic. I could feel his determination to live. A smile brushed by my lips as the sound of him cursing me filled up my head. He hated having me control him or anyone else.
I hated it too most days, but it was a handy tool when needed.
"What’re you thinking about?" Michael asked as I approached.
Tugging my shirt off, I turned and gave him access to my side where the rib had perforated the skin. "My brother being an ass."
"He's always an ass," Michael muttered and ran his fingers over my side slowly.
"We're going after him, or at least I am. I can't let anything happen to him. I just got him. He's all I have." I shivered and turned to find Grace gone.
Michael glanced up, his dark blue eyes threatening to steal my breath. "You have me, and Grace."
"Thank you." I wasn't sure what else to say, so I turned and looked back toward the darkened house. "Where’d Grace go?"
"Probably to check for supplies."
A warm rag moved across my side slowly and chill-bumps rose on my skin. I turned my attention back to Michael and reached up, brushing my fingers by the side of his head.
"I love you." I didn't say it often because he knew, but after everything that had happened, he needed to know.
He brushed the rag across me once more before tossing it beside him and tugging me to rest in his arms again. His lips pressed against the top of my head as I tightened my grip on him.
"I love you too." He stepped back just a bit, enough to give space so he could talk. "Why didn't you tell me about the baby?"
Here it was. I knew the discussion would arrive far before I was ready to handle it. "I wasn't sure if I actually was pregnant. I didn’t think it was possible.” I cleared my throat. “I still have my doubts." I glanced down at my slightly swollen stomach. "I shouldn't though. Something’s fluttering inside of me. I can feel it."
He ran the back of his fingers over my stomach as his breath caught. "Is this why you were so sick back at the hotel? Not just because of the Sioghra?"
"I guess so." I shrugged and pulled from him. "It might not matter anymore. I can't imagine a child surviving the transition from human to... to what I am. I had to die to become what I am now, right?" I was a hunter, I guess, but I was also a Grollic. What did that make me? A freak?
"Not human, but Grollic. You were different from the start of the transition. I guess that would make things even more complicated." He reached for me, but I swatted him away playfully.
"We can hold each other later. I need to find my brother." I picked up my torn shirt and slipped it back on my head. "Where’s my journal?" Panic filled me. Had we left Bentos’ journal back at the house in Port Coquitlam?
"In the backseat of the SUV. I grabbed your backpack as we raced off. I assume your journal is in there. I'll grab it." He moved past me, brushing his fingers along my arm as he did.
I turned and walked into the darkness, fear of such things long part of my past. After everything we had been through, the darkness was almost a welcomed reprieve more than anything else.
"Grace?" I called out to my friend and turned to walk down a short hallway that led to what I assumed to be a bedroom.
"Back here. There're a few t-shirts and socks in these drawers. I think they belonged to a man, but should be comfy, right?"
I walked in to see her holding up a worn Van Halen t-shirt with a big smile on her face.
"Yep. Looks like it will do the trick." I changed and grabbed a few more shirts before leaving with her to meet up with Michael.
He was leaning over the sink, drinking water from the faucet. Grace scolded him, but I ignored their banter. Finding Rob wouldn't be easy, but if anything could help me, I knew it would be my father's journal.
I dug through my bag and found it at the very bottom, next to the journal I'd bought to start transcribing the information for Caleb. That ship had sailed now. I wasn't doing anything for the head of the hunters. He was enemy number one, just beside my father from what I could gather.
"I'm going to step outside." I lifted the journal in the air.
"I'll come with you." Michael wiped his face on his shirt and moved toward me.
"No. Please don’t. I need a minute to see if I can find Rob." I walked to the door, pausing only as Grace called out to me.
"Do you think he's still alive, Rouge? Can you feel him at all?"
"He's alive,” I said tersely. “We'll find him. Just give me a minute to figure out how." I knew I sounded ticked, but they didn’t know. They couldn’t possibly understand my frustration. I shrugged as I tucked the journal against my chest and walked out into the chilly night air, maybe they did understand and I wasn’t giving them enough credit.
An owl cried out in the distance, and where it once would have frightened me, it gave comfort now. It felt good to know I wasn't alone.
I found a large oak tree and pressed my back to it before sliding down to sit on the chilled ground below. The book grew warm in my hands, and that too was welcomed against the cold and dampness in the middle of the forest.
I flipped through the pages and found that even though it was too dark to see my hand in front of my face, the words glowed softly, making them easy to read.
So much of the information in the book had been locked away from me, but now most of it was open and readable. The wolf-speak, the language of my father's people, was something very few could read, but I could make it out as if it were plain English. From what everyone told me, I could speak it too, though I never could hear the difference when I did.
"Help me find Rob. Please." I flipped a few more pages and stopped at the picture of a bridge. It amazed me that I’d had this book and found things I hadn’t seen before in it. I wondered if it might possibly be because I was looking at it in the dark.
Leaning over, I read what was written on the page. It took a few times rereading it but I was able to decipher the meaning. I read it out loud to clarify the information, “The one powerful enough to gain access to my words, has the ability to bridge the gap in space between where they are and where they want to be.”
I brushed my fingers over the page as hope set in. The words moved slightly as if jolted by my touch and I smiled.
"Incredible." Such intense power should belong to no one, but I couldn't deny the draw it had on me. I knew without a doubt I would have to destroy the book once everything was said and done, but it would be a hard task to face. I was the only one capable of laying waste to the old magic which lay inside the leather bounds. It offered me protection, and knowledge. However, I knew I would have to burn it to protect myself. Not from others, but from the power inside of the words, the same power which had corrupted my father.
I couldn't take that chance. Not with the stark realization I would soon be a mother. Seventh mark...
"I can't handle that right now." I stood and pushed away the horror at being responsible for someone's well-being and mental stability. It was too much and not having a mother myself, I would be starting at a great disadvantage.
"Show me my brother. I want to be with him." I closed my eyes and pressed my hand to the page as the darkness turned to a blurry mix of yellows and reds.
The sound of a car passing by filled my ears, but it was in my vision, not reality. Rob was on the floorboard of a van, lost to a fitful sleep. His cries accompanied his arms jerking or legs twitching as if his dreams terrorized him.
"You’re okay," I whispered and tried to look around the van to see who might have him. Two dark figures sat at the front, but I couldn't make them out. I pressed against the vision, trying to shift myself in the front with them, but it wasn't happening.
As long as Rebekah wasn't one of the ones in the front seat I would be fine. To think about killing her was almost too much to consider. I didn't think of her as my mother, but she was, regardless of how I felt about it. And she was Rob’s mom.
Pulling back, I let out an aggravated sigh. "Where is he? That didn't help much other than to confirm that he's alive."
A gasp ripped from my lips as I jolted, the back of my head banging against the bark of the tree trunk. A bright beacon appeared in the sky almost like heaven had sent down a fiery bolt to hit someone. I rubbed my head. Was Rob at the end of the light?
It was too far away to tell where it landed, but the subtle shifting of it to my right told me that whatever it was tracking, the thing was on the move.
It had to be Rob.
I took off back toward the cabin and rushed into the house, half scaring Grace to death. If that was even possible.
"We have to go! Rob’s in a van that's traveling sixty miles an hour or so. I can see him, but not who's got him." I grabbed my bag and shoved my journal back in it before turning on my friends and making my request a bit more urgent. "Let's go! I'm serious!"
"How do you know where we're going?" Michael asked, but moved to open the door for me.
"I can see a beacon in the sky where he is. We'll follow it, but we'll have to move faster than them if we're going to catch up." I jogged to the car and glanced back to catch Grace's attention. "You okay with me taking shotgun?"
"Of course." She bit at her lip and moved to get into the back. "Is he okay? He's not hurt too bad or anything, right?"
Michael had gotten in the driver's seat and slammed the door as Grace asked her questions. He glanced back at her and gave a sardonic huff. "She hasn't seen Rob, Grace. She just knows where he is."
I buckled up and nodded toward Michael. "Hit the gas, we gotta go. We're heading southeast. I'll tell you if that changes."
Grace's fingers brushed by the back of my shoulder and I reached up, trapping them against me. "He's okay. I saw him asleep in the back of the van. I don't sense anything life threatening yet." I had no idea if I could be sure on that, but it didn’t hurt to hope and say the words out loud.
"Who has him?” Grace turned to Michael. “You know Caleb better than anybody. Who would he send to take Rob?”
“I don’t know.” The frown on Michael’s face deepened. “I don’t know Caleb as well as I thought I did.”
“Where could they be taking him?" Grace's voice carried a layer of panic in it.
"It’s hunters. I assume they’re headed for Salt Lake City. We have a facility there, but why they’re keeping him alive..." Michael turned on the heater and glanced over at me as I growled softly. "Sorry. I'm just saying."
"Yeah, well, don't. He's my brother." I turned to look out the window as tears burned my gaze. I was beyond tired, exhausted from the past few weeks and pregnant. I was starting to get scared. How long did we have before our journey ended with my brother's death slamming into the center of me?
Michael's hand brushed over my arm and squeezed softly. I patted his fingers and returned my gaze to the burning light out the front of our window.
Finding Rob wasn't the issue, saving him was.
