No dice.
“Let’s go!” Raven screamed, charging forward into the trees.
Gabriel maneuvered through the forest, feeling Heather’s upper body dangle off his back with every step.
“So…this is weird,” she muttered. “I bet you never thought you’d be carrying a girl over your shoulder through a forest filled with zombies.”
He smiled. “Uh, no.”
He looked down at her feet where blood still trickled from her many wounds and his smile faded.
She sighed. “I’m totally flashing everyone.”
“I’m pretty sure the Ashmen don’t give a damn.”
She dangled in silence for a moment. “Raven looks crazy old, doesn’t she? Like…scary old.”
“Yeah,” Gabriel said quietly. “The water is wearing off really fast.”
He could hear Heather smile. “Hey, maybe she’ll die of old age and we can get the heck out of this weird Ashman dog-walking situation we’re in.”
He smiled. “That would be ideal.”
Raven led them down a steep hill and Gabriel shifted Heather’s body so he could hold her more securely as they descended, moving his tied hands up her legs.
“Hey now. Don’t try to cop a feel, Gabriel Michael.”
“Cop a feel?”
“Yes, mister. Keep your hands to yourself.”
He silently laughed. “I love how our lives are at risk and you’re worried about me feeling you up. Like this is somehow sexy for me.”
“What’s not sexy about old witches and dead guys and bloody feet? You don’t find this whole thing hot?”
“Not even a little,” he smiled. “And my middle name isn’t Michael.”
“What is it then?”
“I don’t have a middle name.”
“Well, you do now. Michael.”
He shook his head with a smile.
“Shut up!” Raven screamed.
They did.
Raven eventually led them to a valley of boulders and ordered the Ashmen to remove Heather from Gabriel’s shoulder and tie the two of them up against a set of large rocks.
Not comfortable.
Gabriel looked at Heather. “How are you doing?”
She shook her head. “Not good. I don’t feel right. I have a really bad headache and I keep seeing sparkles everywhere.”
Gabriel looked around. No sparkles.
He nodded. “It’s probably just the withdrawal setting in. I’m sure Tristan will get us out of here in no time. And then we’ll get you to the fountain so you don’t…see sparkles.”
Or die.
A twinge of protectiveness and fear struck his chest and he marveled at the feeling. He’d never felt protective of anyone other than Tristan and Scarlet before—and even then, the protectiveness that shot through him when he looked at Heather was…different.
Raven appeared before them with her hair more gray than it had been twenty minutes ago. “Get the girl and bring her with us,” she commanded a nearby Ashman.
Heather was quickly untied from the rock and shoved through the boulders on her bloody bare feet as Raven walked behind her. They disappeared around a large rock and the unfamiliar pang of protectiveness coursed through him again..
Just as the sun began to set, Scarlet led Tristan and Nate up a hill behind the group of boulders she’d once died beside. Morbid memory, but hey. This trip was all about death anyway.
At the top of the hill, Scarlet crouched down and squinted at the rocks below, searching for any sign of Heather or Gabriel.
Tristan came up beside her and did the same, his bicep brushing her arm as he did so, sending a swirl of pleasure through her. She closed her eyes for a moment, getting a grip on her body, then stared back down at the scene as Nate crouched on her other side.
Scarlet scanned the boulders until movement caught her eye. In a small clearing far below them, twelve Ashmen were circled around a tied up Heather and an impatient-looking Raven.
But no Gabriel.
Scarlet’s stomach dropped.
Of course this was the first thing Tristan noticed. “Where the hell is Gabriel?”
Nate twitched his lips. “Maybe he had to pee?”
Scarlet let out a long breath as she tried to keep from shaking.
No. This couldn’t happen. Gabriel would not die just so Raven could live forever. That would just be wrong on so many levels.
Tristan was tense beside her as he stood and paced the top of the hill, gazing down on the other side, his green eyes sharp and filled with determination.
“What are you looking for?” Nate said.
Tristan shoved his backpack off and rummaged through its contents until he came up with a pair of binoculars and searched the side of the hill again. “If Raven knows the fountain is nearby, she must have set up a camp in anticipation of gaining the map and going after the fountain.”
Scarlet looked back at Heather. She was alive and breathing.
How was Scarlet going to get Heather away from Raven without sacrificing the map? Because there was no way in hell she was going to hand the map over to Raven and her greedy I-have-no-problem-sacrificing-any-heart hands.
Tristan cursed and Scarlet turned her attention back to his tense jaw. He was worried. Very worried. And scared.
Gabriel was everything to him. Scarlet couldn’t imagine what Tristan would do if Raven had her way with Gabriel—
Nope. No more sacrificing thoughts.
“Nothing?” Nate asked tentatively.
Tristan shook his head.
“What’s that?” Nate pointed to a ripple in the sky. Tristan jammed the binoculars back up to his eyes.
Scarlet squinted and realized the ripple was actually a stream of smoke rising into the air from the forest below.
Tristan’s tensed shoulders relaxed. “Found her camp,” he said. “And found Gabriel too. He’s just on the other side of these rocks.”
Scarlet let out a breath she didn’t know she had been holding as Tristan moved away from the hillside and put the binoculars back in his bag.
“Okay.” He stood up with a renewed look on his face. “Let’s do this.”
They talked through their plan to rescue Heather and Gabriel and headed down the hill where they parted ways. Sort of.
Since Scarlet was somewhat tethered to Tristan—and the selfless hottie refused to move outside the painless boundary their little curse provided for Scarlet—the two of them had to stay somewhat close to one another. But whatever.
Ten minutes later, Scarlet was perched in a tree and hidden the shadows of the giant boulders that surrounded them. Tristan positioned himself several yards away in a second cluster of trees, close enough for Scarlet to maneuver without grimacing, but far enough away where she felt the uncomfortable tightness of his absence wrapping around her muscles.
But pain was nothing when compared to what was at stake: Her friends.
Scarlet scanned the small clearing where Raven stood with her hostage.
Heather’s blond hair had lost its perky curl and hung around her dirty cheeks in deflated waves. Dried blood marked her nose and lip and the pink dress she wore was tattered and bloodstained. Her wrists were bound and her body was tied to several Ashmen at the waist. Her feet weren’t tied together, but from the bright red marks circling her ankles it looked like they had been recently.
Scarlet swallowed back a lump in her throat. She couldn’t remember ever having such affection and fierce love for a girlfriend before. In all her lives, no other girl had made Scarlet feel so real and normal and happy.
Heather was a truly bright thing in Scarlet’s otherwise murky life. And there she was, terrified and bruised, at the mercy of this mess.
Scarlet shifted her attention somewhere else—anywhere else—to keep her thoughts from distracting her from the mission at hand.