Dangerously Charming (16 page)

Jenna had the feeling that he would handle it just fine, no matter what they ended up facing. But if he wanted to cut her a little slack, she'd take it. Gladly.

“Okay,” she said. “You're in charge. I'm just going to, uh, go relieve myself before bed. I'll be right back.” She got up creakily and headed toward the cover of a clump of trees. Jenna understood the multiple reasons they were avoiding hotels, and really, she had nothing against camping, but she was never going to be a fan of peeing in the woods. Every time she did, she swore that in her next life, she was coming back as a man.

On her way back to the campsite, Jenna thought she heard a rustling in the woods behind her. She stopped, listening, the hair standing up on the back of her neck. Probably an animal—a raccoon or a deer, or something equally harmless, but even as she told herself that her heart rate sped up and she could feel her breathing become tight and rapid.

Something scuffed in the leaves off to her left side, and a piece of wood broke with a sharp
snap
off to her right. That was enough for her and she let out a shriek, leaning down to grab a thick branch that was lying at her feet. And just in time, because no sooner was the stick in her hands than three, four, five creatures swarmed out of the forest to surround her.

Panic rose in her throat like lava from a volcano, hot and bubbling. The creatures were like nothing she had ever seen before: nightmares of long fur-covered limbs, flat simian features, and slitted goatlike eyes that gleamed at her out of the darkness. It was hard to tell, since they walked slumped over and shambling, but they must have been four or five feet tall. Sharp teeth protruded from the jutting jaws, and low brows
hung over the deep-set eyes. Slavering and drooling, they gazed at her without discernible emotion or intelligence, but a quick glance showed that the largest male—they were all obviously male—wore a kind of loincloth, although the others were naked. She didn't know if that meant he was in charge, or just had better fashion sense than the rest.

She waved the branch at them, wishing it were a gun, or maybe a lightsaber, and yelled, “Get away from me!”

Unimpressed, they crept in closer, moving in a complete silence that was far more unnerving than any sound would have been. “
Shit!
” she breathed, and then ran forward to attack the one closest to her, before they could all come after her in unison.

She hit it with all of her might, swinging the tree branch like a baseball bat. She would have aimed at its head, but the angle was wrong for the blow to have enough force behind it. So instead, she targeted its knees, which made a satisfying cracking noise as the branch impacted against the bony protuberances.

The creature, whatever it was, went down with a high keening cry but unfortunately, its comrades were already pressing in to take its place. Jenna swung the branch around her in a circle, trying to maintain a clear space, and screamed Mick's name at the top of her lungs.

DAY
was wondering what was taking Jenna so long when he heard her scream. To his experienced ear it sounded less like pain and more like fear, but the frantic tone in her voice had him up and moving before his conscious mind had even processed the fact that she was calling his name. He covered the space between their camp and where he'd seen her go into the woods impossibly fast, not stopping to question where the speed was coming from.

Just inside the tree line, he spotted her standing with her legs braced in a fighting stance, her face set in lines of defiance as she swung a large stick back and forth at the creatures who had her surrounded. He noted and dismissed the one already lying on the ground, and raced across the space between them to take on the rest.

Furry bodies went flying like bowling pins as he barreled into their midst, growling and snarling and knocking heads together, filled with a rush of glorious fury. With a high-pitched yelp, the tallest of the beasts hightailed it into the
woods, his companions scattering and then bounding off in his wake, dragging their fallen fellow with them.

Day dusted off his hands in satisfaction. “Are you okay?” he asked, turning to Jenna.

She nodded silently and took a step back. “Uh, yeah. Thanks for coming to my rescue.”

He started to move closer to her, and she took another backward step, still gripping her branch between both hands. It suddenly occurred to Day that she was still looking frightened—and she was staring right at him.

“What's wrong?” he asked, the words coming out in a strange lisp he hadn't noticed before.

Jenna bit her lip. “Um, did you realize that your hair is kind of greenish right now, and your eyes are glowing? Plus, I don't know how it's possible, but I'm pretty sure you're about a foot taller than usual. Not to mention that your teeth are kind of large and sharp. What the hell is happening, Mick?”

Day picked up a hank of his shoulder-length hair and looked at it in the shaft of moonlight that slipped through the trees into the space where they stood. Unless it was a trick of the light, his hair was in fact about the color of new leaves, although it started changing back to his normal blond as he watched. He ran his tongue cautiously across his teeth and found them distinctly fanglike, although they, too, shrank back to their normal size and shape almost as soon as he took note of the change.

Well, shit.

“It's okay, Jenna,” he said, holding out one hand. “I'm pretty sure I can explain. But I'd rather do it back at camp, where we're less likely to be attacked. I've seen those creatures before, and they prefer to stay away from open spaces. Not that I think they'd come back again tonight anyway. I think we scared them sufficiently to make them more cautious for now.”

Jenna hesitated, then dropped the stick on the ground and moved forward warily. But she didn't take his hand, and kept
a watchful eye on him as they settled back into their places on opposite sides of the meager campfire. It made Day's heart ache to see the way she looked at him, as if he might turn on her at any moment, but he thought he understood. After all, she'd been raised her entire life to think of the Paranormal world as frightening, with a faery as her own personal boogeyman. Whatever had happened to him back there, it had clearly reminded her that no matter how Human he looked, he wasn't someone like her. And therefore, he might be a threat.

He was surprised to discover how much that hurt.

Jenna cleared her throat. “So, what were those things? Do you think Zilya sent them?”

“They're called
biesy
,” Day said. “They're a kind of minor demon being, the type that used to prey on innocent travelers in the forest, back in the old times. I've never seen them on this side of the doorway since the exodus to the Otherworld, so yes, I would think it is almost certain that Zilya is behind their appearance now.” He scowled, then reset his features into a more neutral expression when Jenna twitched. “It was probably too much to hope for that she would play fair. At least now we're forewarned.”

He watched Jenna's shoulders slump. “So now we have Paranormal demons and Human thugs after us too? That's just swell.” She swallowed hard. “Plus, of course, whatever that was that happened to you back there. Should I be worried?”

In other words,
Are you going to turn into some kind of monster too?

He sure as hell hoped not.

“I don't think so,” Day said in a calm tone. “Although, to be honest, I'm not much more certain of what is occurring than you are. But I may have a pretty good idea.”

Jenna leaned forward a little, at least willing to listen, which he appreciated. “Tell me. Zilya didn't curse you, too, did she?”

Day gave a short laugh, tinged with bitterness. “No, I believe that in a way this is the parting gift of Brenna, the insane Baba
Yaga who tortured me and my brothers and almost killed us. In order to heal us, Barbara had to give us a huge dose of a substance called the Water of Life and Death. The Baba Yagas use it to extend their lives and boost their magic, and even they only take a small amount over measured intervals. The dose Barbara gave us was many times greater than normal—especially mine, since I was the most sorely injured.”

“Little Babs said you were broken,” Jenna said, giving him that pitying look he'd come to hate so much. Somehow coming from her he didn't mind so much. “How bad was it?”

He shrugged. “Bad enough that Barbara risked the Queen's wrath by giving us all a massive dose of something not meant for us. Fortunately, Her Majesty was kind enough to decide that our many years of service had earned us the right, but even she couldn't say if there would be any repercussions or side effects later on down the line.”

Jenna bit her lip again in that way he found so adorable, no matter how hard he tried not to. “Is that what you think this is? Some kind of delayed side effect of this Water?” Concern
for
him seemed to override any fear she had
of
him, at least for the moment. “Are you going to be all right?”

He wished he knew. They were deep into uncharted territory now. But the last thing he wanted was for her to worry about him, when she should be concentrating on herself and her baby.

“I expect I'll be fine. My best guess, from what's been happening and your description of the way I looked in the woods, is that the maternal side of my heritage is making a long-delayed appearance. Maybe it's a result of drinking so much of the Water of Life and Death, or maybe it is simply because I am no longer a Rider, and that role took precedence for as long as I was.”

The usual wave of loss and sadness threatened to swamp him, and he had to clear his throat before he went on. “The Leshy are shape-changers, you see. And while they are described in various ways in the old Russian tales, the few I
met, including my mother's father, my grandfather, seemed Human most of the time, but when they assumed their guise as forest guardians, they usually had green hair and glowing eyes, and could grow larger or smaller at will.” He ventured a brief smile. “Somehow I don't see myself running around as a cute, tiny forest gnome, so I suspect I'll stick with getting larger.”

As he'd hoped, that image elicited a hesitant smile in return.

“Were the Leshy dangerous?” she asked.

Are
you
dangerous?
was what she really meant, he suspected. Day wished he knew the answer to that question for sure.

“They didn't react well to those who threatened their forests or those who lived within them,” he said, for lack of a better response. “But I'm not a mythical creature. I'm me. And I would never hurt you, Jenna.”

She gazed at him steadily and said in a soft voice, “How can you be sure, when you don't even know what is happening to you or how to control it?”

Because he knew in his gut that he'd rather rip his own arm off than use it to harm one hair on her head? “I just know,” he said. “I don't blame you if you don't believe me, but all I've done is try to help you since I've met you.”

“And grump around like a bear with a sore paw,” Jenna said with a laugh. But she still went to sleep in her own bedroll on her side of the fire, and not in his arms. He lay awake all night on the other side, trying to persuade himself he didn't mind, and failing miserably.

*   *   *

TWO
hundred and sixty miles down the Natchez Trace Parkway, then a night spent in one of the parkway campgrounds in Mississippi. The next day saw them driving about three hundred miles, stopping to rest near Sarepta, Lousiana. Their sixth night was spent in the Davy Crockett National Forest,
near Crockett, Texas. They'd only gone one hundred and seventy miles that day, but Mick insisted that Jenna needed the breather he'd promised her, and she couldn't really disagree. It was nice to be about to take a hot shower at the campgrounds, and take a few hours to sit on the shore of the Ratcliff Lake, enjoying the feeling of not having the ground moving underneath her.

The next morning they got on US-79, which would take them most of the rest of the way to their destination. Mick decided to stop taking back roads, as they had for much of the way since the attack in West Virginia, and stick to the highway for the last leg of the journey. There had been no sign of either Paranormal or Human adversaries since that night in the forest, and with a five-hour trip ahead of them, he wanted to make as good time as they could, so they would arrive at the Enchanted Rock park while it was still light out.

Jenna was torn between eagerness to get to their goal and fear that once they arrived, it would turn out to be another dead end. If that was true, she had no idea what she'd do next.

They stopped for lunch at a small diner along the way. Jenna looked up from her cheeseburger (with extra pickles and jalapeño peppers) to see Mick cast a slightly worried glance out the window at the road that ran past the parking lot. She looked, too, but didn't see anything other than the usual cars and trucks whizzing by, the same sight she'd been enjoying from the back of the motorcycle for days.

“Something wrong?” she asked, snagging a curly fry off of his plate and dragging it through a pile of ketchup.

He gave her a crooked grin and pushed a pile of fries onto her plate. “No, everything is fine,” he said. “Except for the fact that you keep stealing my food. I know you're eating for two, but at the rate you're going, you're going to need even bigger clothes than the ones we picked up at that Walmart three days ago.”

“Nice,” she said. “You'd think after all these centuries you'd know better than to insult a woman's weight. Jeez.” She
ate another fry. “Also, points for trying, but you're not distracting me from my question. You look worried. Why?”

Mick shrugged, polishing off his third chili dog in a single bite. “I might have spotted the same car behind us a few times. But it was one of those black Ford Explorers, and there are a lot of them around, so I'm probably just being paranoid. Besides, even if it was the same car, we're on a main highway. With pit stops and such, we could be playing tag with the same vehicle most of the day without it meaning anything sinister.”

Jenna put down her last bit of burger, appetite suddenly gone. “Uh-huh,” she said, wiping her mouth with a napkin decorated with the bull's horn symbol that adorned the entire diner. “So you're not worried at all?”

“Let's just say that I'm not
very
worried. But maybe we should get back on the road.”

She nodded. They were so close, there was no way she was going to let anyone stop them from reaching Enchanted Rock. Even if it meant dodging every dark-colored SUV on the road.

*   *   *

ONCE
they got to the Enchanted Rock State Natural Area, Jenna began to realize the scope of the problem. It was a
big
place. The whole area was six hundred and forty acres, according to the guidebook, although they were only looking for a spot on the top of the rock. But even that covered a lot of territory.

Thankfully, much of the area was accessible by motorcycle, even if technically there were no vehicles allowed, and they had some idea from Barbara's research of where to look for the place that Spanish soldier Don Jesús Navarro had rescued the maiden Rosa, daughter of Chief Tehuan, after her kidnapping by Comanches who intended to sacrifice her on the rock. In theory, this spot also coincided with a couple of the locations where people had reportedly disappeared, so they were hoping that the mention of
rose
in the riddle was a clue to the site of
the doorway they were looking for that would lead to the Otherworld.

Mick seemed pretty certain he knew where he was heading, so Jenna just held on tight and prayed quietly under her breath as they bumped their way over the rough paths.

But the prayers turned into cursing when she looked over her shoulder to see a massive black vehicle parked on the road underneath them. She tapped Mick on the shoulder and gestured. He took his eyes off the path long enough to squint behind her and add his curses to her own. Then he revved the bike and took them up and around the next curve at speeds that made her grab on even tighter.