CarnalPromise (31 page)

Anya huffed, taking her time to follow Jinn. Jinn suspected
the woman’s actions were meant to taunt Jinn, make her fear and doubt her
survival.

But Jinn had no time for that. No, her fear drove
her—harder, and harder still.

Anya’s voice dripped with her building rage. “Me? Try to
kill you?” She laughed again. “I do not try. I succeed. And I will let you know
why with every cut I make with the knife that I’ll take from you.”

The woman knew she had a knife.
Of course. That’s right.
The warrior had been through the program.
Lack of food and weariness
somewhat dulled Jinn’s reasoning.
Cannot afford that. Stay sharp.
She
hurried to the pile she eyed. “Why are the Renegades after me? Makes no sense.”
Jinn suspected it was due to her uncle’s influence.

“Oh, sweet thing, we have our reasons. But more importantly,
I have mine.” Anya’s menacing smooth voice dropped an octave as she came
closer.

“But you don’t know me,” Jinn exaggerated her breathlessness
as she shimmied to the main rock, hoping Anya would think her strength waning
even with her willing to fight. Jinn needed every advantage she could muster.
Let
the woman think I’ll defend myself but that I’m weak. Yes. That might help.

When Jinn turned, Anya stood about nine body lengths away.
And not weary at all.

Damn
. Jinn poised beside the stone that blocked the
pile behind it. A wedged half-buried rotten log stopped the larger rock. Jinn
put her foot by the old branch, hoping it could easily be pushed away. She
stared at Anya, readying for battle, hoping Anya would not detect what Jinn
planned.

The large woman planted her fists on her hip, threw her head
back and laughed. “You are a cocky one, aren’t you?” She tilted her head to the
side. “I think that’s what Drakkar liked about me.” She dipped her chin, letting
her gaze turn into a piercing stare. “What he will still like about me.”

Jinn waved her hand while still forcing herself to breathe
with effort, “Hey, you can have him. I sure as hell don’t want him.”

Anya growled. “Too late.” She jumped over half the distance.
Jinn took two kicks to the log before it loosened.
Help me ancestors
,
she pleaded with her final kick. As Anya descended the stones rolled,
undercutting the woman’s landing, making her legs flail as she fell on her
face.

Jinn flew uphill, looking for the best access to the trail.
Must
make this. Have to stop my uncle. Too much to lose.

But fate had another card to play. Jinn sensed the laser
fire and ducked just in time.

“I’ll cut you in pieces any way I can, you cunt!” Anya
shrieked as she fired again.

Jinn twisted and dove behind a boulder but not before the
ray sliced through her garb and ripped over the skin of her left arm, cutting
through the dermis.
Not deep.
But enough to bleed. Ignoring the pain,
Jinn grabbed a hand-sized stone. Aiming, she pelted the rock as hard as she
could at the woman’s forehead.

The jagged edges dug into the target.
Yes
. The rock
hit her squarely between her eyes. Would it be enough?

As Anya stumbled, Jinn turned to run once more. Jinn had to
reach the trail. The handholds were the safest where the normal climb stood.
She scurried behind what brush she could as she made her way. At this height,
they’d left the heavy tree line and few plants were left for coverage. Only
large boulders. Jinn glanced behind her. Anya followed but slower than before.
Jinn sprinted over the rock-strewn ground. Huffing, she rounded a ridge. The
path lay below but as open as it was, it would expose her to Anya’s laser
pistol.

I will make this.
Jinn rushed ahead and followed the
spiky crest that curved with the trail but how could she lose the woman?

Anya’s footsteps sounded closer. Jinn grabbed cover where
she could.

“Don’t worry, you slut.” The sound of Anya’s voice closed
in, “I’ll stop you before you make it. Drakkar will be up there. I want him to
know every slice I take from you.”

Jinn scurried up another incline then hit a cliff. The edge
dropped to the trail and a long ravine that started somewhere higher on the
mountain but deepened beside the path.
Shatz
. The landscape trapped her.
She could veer to the side where the sharp decline began to smooth and the
ragged face continued to lessen or try the sheer face.
Drop too steep here.
Jinn heard Anya as the Renegade strolled to her, the woman so confident that
she no longer masked her approach.
Going back down means death.
Jinn
knew she didn’t have the strength to defeat Anya in a direct attack.

Jinn veered, seeking a better way to escape, knowing even in
the ravine she would be exposed, although more brush grew there.

Anya fired another shot. Jinn ducked, slipping off the side
of the ridge. She grabbed a boulder but her one hand, bloodied from the cut in
her arm, slipped. Going down became her only option. With her other hand, Jinn
held tight and tried to delay her fall, looking for anything that could help
her descend. Beneath her, rocks rolled down the escarpment. Seeing nothing that
would help, Jinn let go and covered her head, falling feet-first, moving with
the stones beneath her. Other rocks fell from the top and pummeled her, cutting
her hands and other exposed flesh.

“Oh, thank you ancestors,” Anya yelled downward. “You get
what you give, bitch.”

Jinn rolled to the left and under a bush which grew on an
overhang. She held on to the small trunk then dropped behind the flat-faced
boulder, grunting as she landed. She glanced up. She couldn’t see Anya from
here but she knew the woman would be on the move. But which direction?

Jinn darted away from the trail but Anya spied her and ran
along top.
Good
. That’s what Jinn wanted. She knew she couldn’t make the
end before the other and she’d been afraid with the woman’s altered body that
Anya could simply jump down or at least be able to negotiate the crevices
better. Getting Anya to run above the longer ravine gave Jinn a little more
time. A few small trees and several bushes grew where the ravine deepened
ahead. When Jinn hit this, she ducked, hid herself and paused to catch her
breath while Anya ran on.

Then Jinn fled back where she came, knowing she would have
to scramble up the rocks to make the trail.

Behind her she heard Anya’s roar of frustration.

* * * * *

A shriek. Too low for Jinn. Anya didn’t sound happy.
Good.

Drakkar signaled to Sasha who had ceased tracking and
appeared above him through the mountain brush.

“Go,” he commanded. Sasha’s speed outdistanced any man’s but
Drakkar followed as close as he could. More importantly than the peace, his
heart depended on it. He had to reach Jinn in time.

* * * * *

Jinn raced for the rocky incline as Anya hurried down the
side of the ravine.
Outdistance her. Keep moving.
Jinn’s steps varied
back and forth over the rugged landscape, causing her to run a jagged line. For
that, Jinn was grateful. At least she wouldn’t be an easy target for the
woman’s laser pistol.

Jinn worked to save her breath as she hit the wall
supporting the trail. She scrambled between one brush or rock then another.
Pistol
fire.
She heard it and ducked before the ray sizzled passed her, then she
rushed to the top, zigzagging her path again, using as much cover as she could
without slowing down.
Another fire, another miss.
The training had honed
Jinn’s instinct to detect danger. When Jinn hit the top, she rolled over the
edge and shimmied out of range then took off on the trail.

The path wound around a large pinnacle and for that, Jinn
was grateful. At least the curve of the rock face would cover her for some
distance. Still, with little food to sustain her, Jinn tired fast.
Must
live. Must finish what I started.

The simple reminder spurred her on. Where the power to move
came from, Jinn knew not. She accepted it and hurried as fast as she could.

She closed on the final ascent as heat fled passed her head
and drilled into the granite wall next to her.
Damnation
. The warrior
had caught up to her. Jinn had no power left to escape Anya’s wrath but she
wouldn’t go down easy.

Suddenly angry at the woman’s interference, Jinn ducked
around the next sharp turn. In moments Anya followed, taking the turn at full
speed. Jinn grasped her arm that held the pistol and twisted it as she tripped
the Renegade, using Anya’s power against her. The woman fell hard on her face
as Jinn continued to turn Anya’s wrist, loosening the pistol. Jinn fell on top
of the woman as Anya turned and Jinn used the angle to pound the back of Anya’s
wrist against the sharp rocks on the edge.

With a groan from the Renegade, the pistol fell to the
ground and rolled a small distance from the path but Anya recovered quickly.
With the wrist Jinn held, the woman encircled Jinn, trying to choke her but
Jinn’s hands stayed between her neck and the woman’s grasp. Jinn jumped upward
as best she could, flipped her legs up then brought them down fast against the
inside of the other’s knees. Anya grunted as she bent slightly, her hold
loosening for only a moment.

But that was enough. Jinn hammered an elbow strike into the
other’s ribs where her kidneys would be and threw her head back at the same
time, aiming to break Anya’s nose, even push the cartilage into her brain which
should kill her. Both strikes hit true but was it enough?

In nanoseconds, the warrior’s hold unlocked. Jinn pushed
away and crouched into another battle stance, aiming to strike again, knowing
she would have to get past Anya, who had taken the upper side, to continue the
climb.

Jinn cringed. For anyone else, Jinn’s strikes would have
leveled them, or at least had them reeling in pain. But not Anya. Recovered,
the warrior growled. Blood oozed from her nose but with the hatred reflected in
Anya’s eyes, Jinn knew death had come to call.

No
. Jinn had to defeat her. When Anya lunged, Jinn
dropped and rolled underneath the warrior’s strike but not fast enough to avoid
a kick. Anya’s boot hit Jinn in the back and Jinn felt the strike in her ribs,
but survival drove her. She moved to run again but Anya grabbed her blouse and,
lifting Jinn, threw her hard with some distance to the ground. Jinn’s eyes
closed on the impact and she couldn’t help but groan.

“I’m not done with you yet, bitch.”

With speed, Jinn’s eyes fluttered open. She had one card left
to play. Sliding her fingers up her sleeve, she grasped the hilt of the knife,
accentuating her moans, letting Anya think that her arm was broken.

The Renegade sauntered over the distance that she had thrown
Jinn. “Nice fight,” she sneered. “But you lose.” She kicked Jinn in the gut
then bent to grab her arms.

From nowhere, a blaze of white fur crossed Jinn’s view and
Anya was gone. Jinn heard the woman scream with hate from around the upper
bend. Groaning, Jinn rose on her elbows then through sheer will forced herself
up. After inhaling a few breaths, she eased around the rocks. Anya scrambled up
a rock face along the trail. Her shoulder and arm bled from Sasha’s bite. Sasha
reared on her hind legs after her but then spied Jinn. The wolf’s stare drilled
into Jinn, as if to say “go, save yourself” then the wolf clawed its way up,
tracking Anya who had already reached the top and disappeared over the edge.

Jinn didn’t want to leave Sasha alone but she was too weak
to follow. Instead she took her knife and ripped some of her shirt, winding the
strip around her wounded arm.

A sharp, cold wind slapped Jinn in the face. “The winter
gales.”
Oh, shatz. Have to move.

Saying a short prayer for Sasha, Jinn ran for her life—in
more ways than one.

* * * * *

Anya rushed toward a temporary safe spot, a cove under a
large overhang.
Need a boost.
Sliding her war pack around her waist, she
opened it and grabbed the vial that would double her strength. With shaking
hands, she jabbed the gaseous injector into her skin.

In nano-time, she felt the surge. Power tingled in her
veins, made her invincible, even against the wolf.

In stealth, the wolf moved on the ledge above her but with
the drug, Anya’s hearing sharpened. The wolf perched on the edge. Their eyes
met, their minds challenged each other to the fight that would ensue.

The wolf growled and Anya returned the same. “You never did
like me, did you Sasha?”

Anya poised herself, ready as the wolf jumped to her doom.

* * * * *

Drakkar followed the tracking mechanism in Sasha’s collar,
hurrying as fast as he could after her. Running, he almost passed the point
that the wolf had climbed the rock face. Thank the ancestors for Sasha’s claw
marks. His wolf had made it to the top. He followed upward then heard the war
cries from both females. As he crossed onto the top, the fierceness of the
fighting echoed over the rocks. “Hell.” Drakkar sped, his heart pounding,
hoping Jinn still lived.

* * * * *

The winds strengthened—and grew colder. The steep cliff face
that she needed to climb stood in front of her. Jinn sought that inner power
that her training had honed. Still, her will weakened. Ragnar had told her not
to go if the winds had started.

And they had. Jinn wanted to cry but now was not the time.
She glanced behind her. The way down would be blocked by Anya. She prayed Sasha
would be all right, then Jinn gazed up the path, studying the crevices that
could help or hinder her.

She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, finding that place
of inner peace in her soul.
Ancestors, please hear me. I know I have asked a
lot but please keep Sasha safe. And also Drakkar, wherever he may be. Please
protect him. He deserves better than me. And if you choose, let me complete my
mission, correct my most devastating mistake.