Forged: The World of Nightwalkers (21 page)

“Right. Any food requests?”

“Whatever you can find is fine.”

They parted ways, anxiety crawling around in her belly the whole time she was searching for food, which proved to be harder than she thought. The restaurants were all closed because of lack of electricity, and the small market a few buildings down was the same. She was desperate to get something, knowing what it meant for him if he didn’t eat regularly. In the end, the lack of electricity worked in her favor. As soon as the street was quiet she found a cinderblock from a nearby wall and then hauled it through one of the side windows to the market. Silence followed. No alarms, no cameras. She regretted what she had to do instantly, but it didn’t keep her from grabbing things off the shelves. She bagged everything then left. She thought about leaving money or a note, but feared the reprisals if she did. She knew Bill Mackinzie very well, and she would somehow make this up to him. She didn’t know how, but she would.

She escaped unseen back to the motel and was just opening the door to her room when the familiar loud rumble of Morrow’s truck pulled up beside her.

“Grab Karma and let’s go. We’re a li’le conspicuous.”

“I’d say so!” She whistled for Karma and hopped in the truck with her. Luckily it was one of those extended cabs so there was plenty of room for Karma. “Part of
me wants to ride past the five-and-dime and blow his horn. The jerk has the
Dukes of Hazzard
horn installed. It makes it unmistakable.”

“You have a vicious streak in you, do you no’? Remind me never tae piss you off.”

“I’ll be certain to.”

Ahnvil threw the truck into gear and they trundled off down the reasonably plowed roads. She immediately burrowed into her stolen booty and started by handing him several doughnuts in a row. Then she moved on to canned chili. She had commandeered plasticware and a can opener and soon she was spoon-feeding him while he concentrated on keeping the truck on the icy mountainous road.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t get you any real meat. Everything was either frozen or raw or needed a slicer in order to get at it. I didn’t really want to take the time to figure it out. But I got lots of junk food! I love me some junk food!” She unwrapped a candy bar and bit into it.

“Ah, so now I see your true weakness. You have a sweet tooth.”

“It’s true and I’m proud of it.” She deflated a little. “Except it makes my butt a little too jiggly. But I’m not going to worry about that right now.”

“Oh aye, doona worry abou’ it at all. I like your butt just fine.”

That made her cheeks burn with color, but secretly she had to admit that it pleased her. She thought she was silly for reacting that way, but there it was nonetheless. It was just nice to have someone look at her and see so many things they felt were positive about her, rather than focusing on her flaws, shortcomings, and freakish weaknesses. But, of course, he wouldn’t see anything wrong with her. He had to avoid the sun, for the most part, as well. He would be just as sensitively aware of it as she was.

“The road seems all right for the most part. If it continues on like this we should make it to the Walmart with plenty of time to shop before I have to try and contact my ghost friend.”

“I doona know why you want her tae follow us,” he said with a frown. “I doona like it.”

“Your opinion is duly noted. I don’t know why I want her to follow us either. I just … do. There’s more to this. I’m not experienced with this sort of thing, but you said you know people who are powerful and understand things like how to get this Amulet off me. Maybe they can understand why I can see the ghost and you can’t. Maybe they can tell me if she really is a ghost or if she’s something else. I don’t know, and I won’t know unless we can get her to follow us to … Hey, where are we going exactly?”

“New Mexico. Tae a li’le town called Portales. We have a huge ranch out there. Lots of land and lots of property. A big house full of people. Bodywalkers. Gargoyles. We have a Djynn staying with us now. I doona know if I trust him. And if we get there and you meet him, doona make a wish. Ever. You never know if you’ll get an honest result or some manner of trickery. Grey seems to be aboveboard, but he’s also got his own agenda and none of us really knows what that is. And … I doona want you tae stay long. I want tae get the Amulet off you and send you back home immediately. ’Tis dangerous where we are and … you doona ken what we’re dealing wi’ but tis verra bad and I doona want you tae get hurt.”

She understood the sentiment, even was grateful he was looking out for her. So why was it that a part of her was disappointed, almost hurt by the idea that he would want to be rid of her as soon as possible?
What a foolish thing to think!

Kat shrugged the sensation off as best she could, reminding herself that she didn’t want to be away from her home any more than he did. Home was safe and, even under his protection, the world was a frightening place to be caught out in. Every dawn brought horrible dangers with it; would potentially force her to face her fear of it. A fear that was rightfully justified.

By the time they reached Walmart, she felt exhausted from worrying about so many things and the dangers of the slippery roads besides. There had been places not plowed well enough and only the truck’s four-wheel drive had allowed them to pass through. But in the end they arrived safe and sound and, delightfully, the store had electricity! Whether from a generator or that they had not been affected by the storm as Stone Gorge had been, it didn’t matter. He was going to get some clothing and they could get more food. Something better and potentially more nutritious. She wanted to take care of him, she realized. It was very important to her that he get to his touchstone in time. He was far too beautiful to be lost to the world. To be frozen into the state of an ugly Gargoyle. She had not seen him like that thus far, but she could easily imagine what that meant. She had seen her share of Gargoyles over time and they were anything but the handsome man she was now sitting next to.

“Come wi’ me, lass,” he said after jumping out of the truck and walking over to her side. He held out his hand to her and helped her down to the slushy ground. “Karma, stay there,” he said, giving the dog a brief rub at the ears. “We doona want anything tae happen tae a fine lass such as yourself.”

To her, it was the sweetest thing he could have possibly done. He was understanding of how much Karma meant to her. It wasn’t necessary for him to be kind, and yet he was.

If anyone thought anything of a man walking around the store in a towel in the dead of winter, no one said anything. Although she suspected there was more than one covert cellphone picture being taken. Ahnvil bee-lined for the men’s department and after a brief search through a pile of cargo pants he bent over right there in front of God and country and pulled them on under his towel. Once he was clothed he popped off the tag and dropped the towel to the ground. Then he grabbed up a pack of socks and tore into them. He had them on his feet and was heading for shoes a moment later. On the way past the rounders of shirts she grabbed one she thought would fit, a handsome button-down in the fairest shade of pink, so fair it was almost white. As he tried on boots, she pushed the shirt at him.

“Your shirt is stained with blood. If you want to be less obvious … A bloodstained shirt will attract attention.”

“No. I’ll no’ wear pink,” he scoffed, taking a brief walk in the boots he had on. “Find me anything but pink. A T-shirt preferably.”

Grumbling about men who were insecure in their own masculinity, she went back to the men’s department and found him a T-shirt that said,
I’LL STOP BEING DISRESPECTFUL WHEN YOU STOP BEING STUPID
. He eyed the shirt dubiously. It was a bright red with white lettering.

“It’s not pink,” she said smugly.

“Aye,” he agreed dryly.

On the way to the register she stopped for some pens and a pad of paper. The paper was a bright pink color. Hard to miss.

“Now this,” she said, once again being smug, “is pink.”

After they had checked out she went to the entrance of the store with him, realizing there were two. Dismayed
she decided to leave a note inside both entrances. She wrote:

Then they waited in the truck for nine o’clock. As time ticked past he grew increasingly restless. “Let me try your phone again,” he said. It was a phrase that was becoming familiar. He had asked her to try it maybe ten times since leaving the house. “What’s the nearest airport?”

“But—”

“It doesna hurt tae try,” he said before she could point out that phone communication might be down still.

She handed him the phone and once he dialed and put it close to his ear she saw the profound wave of relief that washed over him.

“Jackson,” he said on a sigh.

“Ahnvil?” Jackson asked in surprise. “What in hell happened to you?”

“ ’Tis a long story. Suffice it tae say I’m in a spot of trouble.”

“You’ve been over a week without your stone, my friend,” he said, knowing it was a needless thing to point out.

“Aye.”

“We were afraid …”

“No. No’ yet anyway. I need the jet though. I doona know how much time I have left.” It was clear he didn’t want to say it out loud, didn’t want to remind either of them of how dangerous his situation was.

“Where are you?”

“Washington State.”

“Wash—you mean the same Washington State that is in the middle of the blizzard of the century?”

“Aye,” he affirmed grimly.

“Ahnvil, of course I’ll send the jet, but I’m not certain flights are going in and out yet.”

“They will be,” Ahnvil said. They had no other option. They
had
to be.

“Right. It’s on its way. It’ll be there before sunrise, but I’m not sure we can get you back here before the sun comes out.”

“We have to. If no’ we’ll close the shades and stay on the tarmac until you can get my stone tae me.”

“All right. Don’t worry. We’ll figure this out and get you back here in time. Are you going to tell me what happened?”

“No’ now. I’m no’ alone and I’ll be bringing a guest.”

“We’ll be waiting for you.”

He hung up the phone.

“I’m going to go check.” Kat bolted out of the car and headed for the entrance to Walmart. She checked one and the note was still there untouched. Then she checked the other and saw beneath her writing:

Kat responded with the exact address and wrote:

As she watched, the note floated into the air and opened up. It flattened up against one of the giant claw machines and a slow, beautiful script began to fill the page.

Kat wrote:

The response came only moments later. Bella wrote:

At the last minute she was struck with a moment of brilliance. She grabbed the arm of a man walking into the store.

“Excuse me, sir, do you see someone standing there?” She pointed to the place where the note still lay flat on the machine.

“Is this a joke?” he asked. “Young lady it’s too cold to be—”

“Please. Just tell me what you see.”

He sighed. “I see a lovely little brunette, curling black hair … purplish eyes. Cute figure. And her male companion who is glaring at me for ogling what is no doubt his wife.”

“Oh. Can you speak to her?”

“Yes, and so can you,” he snapped. Then he jerked free of her and went on into the store.

Kat brought the note to Ahnvil and showed it to him. Once again Ahnvil said all he could see was her responses. She told him how the letter had seemed to float of its own volition and telling him that the man had been able to see Bella but once again she had not.

“I thought about telling her how you’re a Nightwalker. I mean, what could it hurt, right? She’s not even in the same dimension as we are. At least I don’t think
she is. But then, that man saw her. I don’t know what to think anymore.”

“ ’Tis best that you dinna tell her about Nightwalkers. No’ until we learn more abou’ this. Now, let’s be on our way.”

She nodded vigorously in agreement. Nighttime was burning and she knew time was growing short for him. He seemed to grow exponentially more agitated as they drove. By the time they had entered the airport he had broken into a sweat. When she ventured to touch his chest, his shirt was damp with it.