Bryce, page 11
part #2 of Anarock Shifters Series
“You would try, you mean,” she corrected. “You’d be lucky to get anywhere near him. He’s got his people around him all the time.”
Bryce shrugged. “We could tell them we want to report something unusual on the perimeter. That would get us inside his tent.”
“What would you report? You would have to work out the details to make a convincing argument. Then you would have to have a sure-fire way of killing him once you got inside.” She dropped her voice even talking about this. “After all this time, we still don’t know anything about him. He could have the ability to turn his skin to iron if anyone attacks him. We would be just as screwed then.”
He went back to gazing at the camp. “There must be a way.”
Alexa fell silent. She didn’t want to dwell on this, but now that he got her talking, she found herself considering the problem one more time. “What about using our dragons to attack McCain? After all, Susie’s spell was to stop us doing anything against the Battalion. No one said anything about doing anything against McCain himself.”
“How do you know that will work? As I recall, no one said anything at the time. The spell could have included him and the Battalion.”
She shrugged. “I don’t know for sure, but if it came to a fight and I shifted, I would damn well try to burn him. If it doesn’t work, I haven’t lost anything. It could be our only answer.”
“That’s a long shot, don’t you think?”
She couldn’t sit still. She hopped up and paced back and forth. Now that Bryce woke her senses to the situation, she examined their position more carefully.
This spot that McCain ordered them to guard occupied the only entrance and exit to the neck of land where the Battalion camped. A stream separated the northern and southern edges. Beyond that, she could see nothing but swamp.
The stars glistened on the surface ruffled with tiny waves. A gentle breeze cast the deep colors in shadow. A distant rumble came from the ocean farther south.
Bryce got up and drifted to where she stood. When he murmured under his breath, she heard a thrill of living emotion in his voice. She hadn’t heard him alive like that since the night they spent together. “I have another idea. We’ll go to McCain and offer to fly over the city ahead of the Battalion. We’ll offer to torch the place to prepare it for the Battalion to move in. We’ll tell him that we’ll devastate it to the ground so the Battalion doesn’t encounter any resistance.”
The sound alone of his spirit coming alive made her quiver all over. She whispered low. “What good will that do? We would be starting the very assault we’re trying to prevent.”
“We wouldn’t actually torch it, dumbass,” he breathed. “We would land on the ground and shift. Once we took our human form, we would have probably a few minutes to tell Victor what was going on. It wouldn’t be much, but it would give them at least some warning. We would at least raise the alarm. We would do what we set out to do. We wouldn’t die as failures.”
“And how would we avoid fighting for the Battalion? Once the assault started, we would have to attack our own people.”
He shook his head. She could just make out his profile against the sky. “We might get lucky. McCain might hold back the assault until we finished supposedly torching the city. He would delay. That would give them even more time to prepare some defense.”
“And if he didn’t delay? What if he suspected us or launched immediately? Then what?”
She sensed him moving closer to her. His presence entered her awareness. He buzzed with inner power the way he used to. She almost picked up a subtle tension of desire in his body. “If we get caught in the assault, we keep our human forms. We would be able to kill each other before we did anything to put our people in danger. Either that or we could get Victor to kill us. I’m sure he would be more than happy to oblige.”
“Stop it.” She barely made any noise saying it, or did she just move her mouth without making a sound? “If you warned him, he would realize you were trying to help him.”
He shook his head again, but he didn’t answer. He gazed across the water, not toward the camp but to the city.
Her heart ached looking up at him. “All right. It’s probably our only chance.”
He rotated toward her. His eyes gleamed out of the shadowy mass of his face. In that moment, she couldn’t be this far away from him. She needed to be near him. She darted in and kissed him. When her lips made contact with his mouth, the compulsive energy that drove her changed into cloudy velvet softness. Her lips collapsed against his in a tender kiss that held her to him.
He was the same man. He was still there buried under mountains of pain and heartache. He was the man she started to care about before this situation tore them apart. She wanted him as much as ever so long as he was that man. She needed him to keep her alive, to keep her head above the water so she wouldn’t drown in despair.
13
Bryce and Alexa sat side by side gazing across Lake Salvador. This time, they sat with their shoulders touching and their fingers interlaced. Bryce’s chest hurt thinking about tomorrow. He came up with the plan days ago to sacrifice his own life in order to warn Anarock of the Omega Battalion’s invasion. He didn’t tell Alexa, though. He didn’t want her to suggest she go along with it.
Now she knew. He never expected her to sit tight behind the lines and let him go alone. That was why he hesitated to tell her. Now they would go together. He wasn’t sure if he should be glad of that or not.
He couldn’t turn his back on her no matter what happened. He knew that now. She kept him sane. She kept him afloat with that hand in his. She anchored him to reality so he wouldn’t lose his mind in this madhouse.
So tomorrow morning early, the two of them would go find McCain. They would propose this idea of torching the city. Then, when he and Alexa flew over Anarock, Bryce would have to find Victor in a hurry. He would have to confront the brother who put a death sentence on his head. He would have a matter of seconds to convince Victor to listen before Victor tried to kill him.
Bryce almost hoped Victor would kill him. Bryce didn’t want to deal with this nightmare anymore. Not even Alexa could make this agony bearable. He would rather die and he couldn’t think of anyone he would rather do the job than Victor. He could almost wish Victor had executed him at the wedding.
If he had, Anarock would never have known the Omega Battalion was coming. That would have been unacceptable, so Bryce supposed he had to admit this torment was a good thing in the end. It sure didn’t feel like it, though.
The minutes dragged. The hours tortured his very soul. He dreaded the dawn and he wished it would hurry up and come so he could get this ordeal over with.
Lights winked far away on the skyline. Somewhere over there, people played music and danced and drank and played poker and snorted lines of cocaine and gambled and fucked and slept and snored and read and surfed the internet. They didn’t have a clue about the Omega Battalion. Bryce envied them. They didn’t have to sit outside on a cold and lonely lakeshore facing the greatest trial of their lives.
Out of nowhere, Alexa shifted in her seat. She tilted sideways and rested her head on his shoulder. She snuggled close to him and hugged his arm under her elbow. She slipped her other hand around his waist, but not even that intimate embrace could comfort him. Nothing could—nothing but death.
She sighed. Her lips gave a quiet clicking smack opening to say something, but at that instant, a loud crash of something shattering startled them both out of their wits. They leaped to their feet at the same moment. They jumped apart and spun toward the noise.
Off in the distance, a human shape splashed in the water. A light came out of nowhere and illuminated a dark head saturated with murky slime. Arms and legs floundered trying to extricate the rest of it from something holding it waist-deep in the marsh.
Bryce and Alexa rushed to the spot. Bryce couldn’t figure out where the light was coming from or what made that crashing sound. It reminded him of breaking glass and that made no sense out here, miles from anywhere.
A spluttering voice snarled and grunted trying to fight its way out of a trap, but the person didn’t make any progress toward getting away. Bryce didn’t think twice. He plunged into the swamp and waded out. For some reason he couldn’t explain, the water didn’t come up past his ankles whereas it submerged the stranger to the ribcage.
He and Alexa ran to the spot and seized the intruder. Arms lashed out and a fist connected with his jaw. In half a second, he and Alexa grappled with a wriggling wet body full of wiry muscle. “Let go of me! You cocksucker, let me go!”
Bryce reared back in astonishment. “Riley? Riley Strickland!”
She whipped around fast. Her jet-black hair stuck to her damp cheeks and her midnight eyes stared at him out of the queer light. “Bryce? What are you doing here?”
Alexa didn’t hesitate. She strapped both arms around Riley’s waist and heaved her out of the muck. “Come on. Let’s get you out of here.”
Riley exploded struggling against Alexa’s grip. “You fucking bitch! I’ll kill you! Let me go, I said. You can’t do this to me.”
Alexa gritted her teeth and ducked her head under Riley’s flailing arms. “I’m trying to help you, you stupid fucking cunt! Will you settle down?”
Bryce stared at the two women squirming against each other’s efforts. In the end, Alexa’s words penetrated Riley’s brain and she quieted down. Alexa heaved her onto dry land and propped her on her feet. “There. Are you satisfied now?”
Riley jumped clear. She made a pathetic effort to straighten her dripping clothes, but she didn’t do anything about her hair twisting every which way. It gave her a wild, primal appearance. The eerie light still shone on her no matter where she went.
She curled her lip, first at Bryce and then at Alexa. “What the fuck are you two doing out here?”
“We should ask you the same question,” Alexa returned. “What are you doing out of Anarock? Where’s Victor?”
Riley rounded on her baring her teeth. “Wouldn’t you like to know! I’m hunting. Now you answer my question. What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be….” She wheeled around to eye Bryce. “You’re banished.”
“Don’t you think I fucking know that?” he snapped. “We’ve got a much bigger problem.”
“I ought to kill you right now.” Riley’s hand flew to her waistband, but Bryce didn’t see any weapon.
Alexa’s voice growled low and menacing. “Don’t you even think of going near him.”
Bryce flung up both hands. “Will you two fucking shut your mouths and think for two seconds? This could be the break we’re looking for.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Riley clipped. “I’m going back to Anarock to tell Victor where you are. He’ll send out a posse to hunt you down.”
“You really are just as stupid as a box of rocks, aren’t you?” He forced himself to keep his voice low. “Don’t you get it? That bunch of mutants over there is ready to lay waste to the city and destroy Anarock, and all you can think of is your stupid fucking revenge.”
Riley’s eyes popped. “What?”
Alexa turned away. “Don’t even bother with her. Let her go shoot off her mouth to anyone who will listen. I don’t give a shit. I’m as likely to turn her over to McCain as look at her.”
Bryce clenched his fists working overtime to keep his temper in check. These damned cats wanted to scratch each other’s eyes out rather than do something useful with themselves. “Will you shut the fuck up? This is exactly what we need. This is perfect. We couldn’t ask for better.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Riley fired back. “What are you talking about destroying Anarock for?”
“We’re not, God damn it!” he hissed. “Do you see those tents over there or are you blind as well as stone stupid?”
Finally, at long last, she blinked at the camp behind Bryce’s back. “I see them.”
“There’s about four hundred of the most powerful creatures and magicians and shifters anywhere in that camp. They’re called the Omega Battalion and what do you think they’re doing here? They’re getting ready to attack Anarock in the morning. Alexa and I have been searching for over a week for some way to warn you and Victor to prepare for the assault. For some idiot fucking reason I can’t remember why, I actually had the idea to sacrifice my life to do it, too, but apparently, you don’t think I should have bothered. You think I should have flown off to fucking Guadalajara and lived happily ever after. Is that what you’re saying?”
Riley gaped up at him with her mouth open. Then she looked at Alexa. Bryce watched the truth sink into her thick skull.
He drew in a shaky breath gathering his resolve for one more sally. “Now you have to listen to me real close, Riley, because you’re our one chance to raise the alarm. You have to get out of here and fly back to Anarock right now. I don’t care what happens. You have to find Victor and Colonel Weeks and tell them what’s going on. There’s no time to lose. Understand?”
Riley dropped her eyes slightly. She seemed to think the matter over for some reason. She opened her mouth and shut it again before she spoke. “I can’t.”
Bryce did a double-take. “What? Why can’t you?”
“I can’t shift. I just tried. I can’t shift. Something’s stopping me.”
He stared at her before he realized. Alexa said it first. “The tripwire. It must be blocking her power.”
“What tripwire?” Riley asked.
“The spell that alerted us to your intrusion.” Bryce waved up and down. “Where do you think this fucking light is coming from?”
Riley glanced around at nothing. “Well, what am I going to do?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Bryce told her. “You have to get back to Anarock even if you have to walk the whole fucking way. Leave right now. Go find Victor and tell him everything.”
Riley looked back and forth between him and Alexa. “What about you guys?”
Bryce bowed his head. He never really thought he’d see Riley or anyone from Anarock again. He never thought they’d find out what he really went through these last few days.
He took a deep breath. “I need you to tell Victor something for me. This is important. Tell him Alexa and I are trapped in a spell. We’re doing everything we can to break out and help Anarock, but we might not be able to. If he or anyone else from Anarock confronts us in our dragon forms during the battle, they should kill us without hesitation. Understand? Don’t even try to save us.”
Riley wheeled around and stared at Alexa. “Really?”
Alexa nodded down at the ground. “Bryce is right. When we’re in our dragon forms, we can’t act against the Battalion. We’ll do everything we can to stay like this. We can help you in this form, but we can’t guarantee we’ll be able to stay like this. If that happens, you have to treat us as the enemy. Don’t hold back.”
Riley’s jaw dropped and her eyes gaped. “It can’t be as bad as that. There has to be a way to break you guys out.”
Alexa shook her head. “We’ve been over it a thousand times. We’re going to do our best to come over to you in the morning, but there’s always a chance we won’t succeed.”
Bryce turned to her. “Hey! I just had a thought. What if we hide her until morning? We could fly her there.”
“There isn’t time,” Alexa replied. “We would be missing our one chance to raise the alarm early. Maybe once she moves away from camp the spell will break and she’ll be able to fly again.”
“What if it doesn’t?” Bryce asked. “She won’t make it back to Anarock in time if she goes on foot.”
“Then we’ve lost nothing,” Alexa replied. “We have to go with this plan.”
“Wait a minute!” Riley interjected. “Don’t I get a say in any of this?”
Alexa rounded on her. “Just put a sock in it while we iron out the details.”
“I will NOT put a sock in it,” Riley returned. “If I’m going to do this, then I’m going to have something to say about how I do it. I’m not a kid you can order around.”
Alexa propped one hand on her hip and bobbed her head sideways. “And yet you’re acting like one when we’re trying to save the fucking planet. Stop distracting us and do what you’re told.”
“You goddamned cow!” Riley spat. “You’re still fucking jealous because I married Victor and you’re out in the cold.”
Alexa made a face. “You can keep him. He’s a trifling, pretentious prick, anyway.”
Riley narrowed her eyes. “Don’t you dare call Victor trifling.”
Bryce slammed both hands against his temples. “Shut the fuck up, both of you! You’re wasting precious time with this bullshit!”
Both women turned on him flashing fire when an all-too-familiar voice boomed out of the dark. “What’s going on over here?”
Bryce’s heart contracted. He and the two women spun around to see Jamison appearing out of the shadows. He entered the ring of the light and surveyed the party.
Bryce’s pulse raced trying to think of some excuse. “The tripwire spell just captured this intruder on our perimeter. We were just questioning her.”
Jamison studied Riley and nodded. “Good work. You have to take her to McCain. He’ll be the one to question her.”
“We were just about to.” Bryce floundered to delay the inevitable. “Just give us a second.”
“No.” Jamison’s innocuous reserve evaporated and his voice bit. “Now.”
Bryce held up his hand, but he sensed his one chance slipping through his fingers. He had to find some way to stop Jamison from taking Riley into the camp. “Just let us finish. We’ll take her to McCain just as soon as…..”
Jamison didn’t let him finish his sentence. He put out his hand and grabbed Riley’s elbow. He tugged her toward him. Before Bryce could react, Alexa dove between Riley and Jamison. Bryce never dreamed she could move so fast or with such single-minded intent.
