Home > Boundary Broken (Boundary Magic #4)(6)

Boundary Broken (Boundary Magic #4)(6)
Author: Melissa F. Olson

“The speed limit is ten.”

“Why?”

“Probably because of them.” I pointed to the handful of deer grazing on either side of the Jeep. You definitely wouldn’t want to hit one of them at fifty miles per hour, especially in the near darkness.

“Oh.” Simon still sounded sleepy. “You’re so smart, Lex.” I had to smile.

We reached a small, rectangular lot, which contained only a navy pickup truck splashed with mud. “That might be the missing couple’s,” Simon muttered.

“You’re so smart, Simon,” I replied, mimicking his voice.

Simon made a show of straightening up in his seat, faking pompousness. “Thank you. I know.”

Grinning, I parked the Jeep a few spots away, right in front of the wooden fence that formed the border of the parking area. Behind it, I could make out wetland willow growing in a sort of second, natural fence, forming a border to the park itself. The lightening sky made silhouettes out of the dunes. I told myself that they probably didn’t look quite so black and terrifying after the sun came up.

“Lex . . . you gonna be okay out there?” Simon had glanced sideways at me to watch my reaction.

I paused, not sure how to answer. I had been afraid wearing ski gear would set off my claustrophobia, and I hadn’t laid eyes on a desert since I’d stumbled out of one after being left for dead. Now I was going to combine those two things.

“I have to be,” I said at last. “Dunn called in his marker.” I opened the car door before Simon could reply.

The Jeep’s thermostat had said it was twenty degrees outside, but I’d taken off my heavyweight coat while I was driving, and the wind bit through my long-sleeved T-shirt. My nose immediately began running. I took a quick glance at the pickup truck to make sure it was empty and decided to get my cold-weather gear on before anything else. Grabbing the coat, I hurried to the back of the Jeep and opened the hatchback.

As quickly as possible, Simon and I started putting on the gear: lightweight snow pants, hiking boots for me, then the coats. I showed Simon how to pull his BUFF scarf over his head and turn it into a balaclava.

Dunn’s battered Forester pulled up as we were still getting dressed, and he and Mary gave us a quick nod and headed straight for the pickup. Dunn pulled the door handle, found it locked, and put his hands over his eyes to peer inside. “Anything?” I called.

He shook his head. “They’re still out there, or they’ve been taken by someone. We’ll change now,” he added abruptly, and he and Mary went toward the willow clusters, Mary already peeling her loose sweatshirt over her head, exposing a lot of pale white skin.

Simon and I went back to putting on hats and gloves, the goggles hanging around our necks. I insisted that he put a bottle of water, an energy bar, and a compass into his messenger bag even though he complained about the weight. As he slung the bag over his shoulder and began to turn away, I caught his arm. Making sure the werewolves weren’t looking, I reached into a compartment in the Jeep and handed him a knife that Quinn had bought for me the previous Christmas. It was in a leather sheath and had a small clip to hook on one’s pants. “It’s silver,” I said. “Just in case.”

Simon rolled his eyes good-naturedly. “I’m a witch, remember? I can handle a physical threat, Lex.”

“Yeah, but there’s two of them, and not all of your spells will work against werewolves,” I reminded him. As witches, Simon and I were in no danger of being turned into werewolves ourselves, but we could still be mauled to death by big-ass teeth and claws. I was carrying my revolver, loaded with silver bullets, and I would have offered Simon one too, if I’d thought he would carry it. Simon wasn’t great with guns.

I extended the knife toward him again. “Humor me, okay? We might need to split up and follow different trails, and I don’t want to be worried about you the whole time.”

Simon gave a little headshake, but he took the knife, tucking it into his jeans underneath his snow pants. Hopefully the wolves wouldn’t be able to smell the silver under the layers.

Simon began walking the parking lot’s perimeter, setting up his humans-go-away spell. There was just no way to cast the spell around every single entry point to the dunes—the park and preserve covered more than a hundred and sixty square miles—but he could put a wide net around the entire parking area and the road leading to it. It was also the off-season for the park and early morning on a weekday, both of which worked in our favor. Add in the illusion spell that made the werewolves look like dogs, and I figured we were probably safe.

While Simon worked on the ward, I went to the Jeep’s back seat and began unwrapping the two fifteen-pound rump roasts we’d bought on our bathroom stop. The change from human to wolf used up a lot of energy, and Ryan Dunn had suggested that they eat before we started the search, so they’d be better able to concentrate on tracking. I was just as happy not to be heading onto the sand dunes with two hungry werewolves.

When the roasts were unwrapped and set out near the edge of the parking lot, I wandered over to the Ventimiglias’ pickup truck and peered inside, just out of curiosity. I understood immediately why Dunn hadn’t bothered to break into the truck. Matt and Cammie clearly used it a lot—there was dust and some mud in the seats and footwells—but the tiny back seat held only a couple of neat piles of folded clothes, a gallon of water, and what looked like a roadside emergency kit. Nothing that would help us find them.

There was a loud grunt of pain from the direction of the willows, and I automatically glanced over, seeing the naked black branches shaking. I had never seen one of the werewolves change, and I planned to keep it that way. I looked for Simon, and saw him tramping back toward me, almost unrecognizable in his heavy coat and John’s ski gear. He hadn’t put the goggles on yet, and his eyes smiled at me.

“Done,” he said, stamping his feet a little to warm them up. He leaned against the Jeep. The willow branches went still, and I figured they had to be almost finished. “Um, when they come out,” Simon began, “we should probably try to look nonthreatening.”

“I do,” I said, looking down at myself. “I mean . . . right?” It wasn’t like I was holding a weapon.

“Standing at parade rest is maybe a little threatening.”

Oh.

“We’ve worked with them before,” Simon said mildly.

I pushed out a breath. “For one night, three years ago, on our territory. That’s not the same as trust.” And they killed my sister, said an irrational voice in the back of my mind. I knew it was irrational, but I couldn’t help having the thought.

“I don’t necessarily disagree,” Simon replied. “But let’s maybe not start a fight we don’t know we want?”

“Yeah. Okay.” I stepped toward him and copied his body language, leaning against the Jeep.

A moment later, the two wolves emerged from the brush on our right, moving toward the rump roasts. Once again, I had to marvel at the insane size of them. I had seen natural wolves at a preserve, and those had been much bigger than I’d expected—but werewolves followed the law of conservation of mass. Dunn was two hundred pounds of muscle as a human, and as a wolf he was still two hundred pounds of muscle, which made him even bigger than Scarlett’s bargest. He had thick fur that was dark gray on top, fading into white on his legs and tail.

Mary was smaller and sleeker, but her dark coloring and intelligent green eyes somehow made her equally terrifying. I made myself look away. Simon was right. There was no sense in challenging them. I’d come here to help.

The rump roasts were on the ground right in front of the Jeep, but to my surprise the wolves barely glanced at them. Moving cautiously, they walked right past the meat—and toward us.

Simon made a little noise in the back of his throat. Dunn was leading, and he moved closer and closer, his shoulders lowered slightly, coiling to spring.

I found myself pulling my sidearm, but I had never practiced with it in thick gloves. I fumbled it to the ground just as the wolves leaped toward us.

Chapter 6

“Down!” Simon shoved me hard, causing both of us to crash to the pavement. The wolves soared right over us—and raced across the pavement toward the cluster of deer that had caught their attention.

I had completely forgotten about the deer.

I would have breathed a sigh of relief, except Simon had knocked the wind out of me. I lay sprawled on the pavement, trying to get my lungs to work, dammit. I knew my eyes weren’t actually bugging out like I’d been deprived of oxygen, but that’s how it felt.

“Lex!” Shifting his body off mine and supporting himself on his elbows, Simon flapped off a glove. He used his uncovered hand to push the makeshift balaclava off my forehead, pulling it down below my chin, doing the same with his own.

Simon smoothed the hair from my face with a cool hand, murmuring, “I’m sorry, it’s okay, it’s okay, you’ll breathe in a second, I promise.”

Agonizing seconds ticked by while I struggled to force my diaphragm to do its thing. This had happened to me many times over the years, but it never ceased to be scary.

At last, my lungs reinflated, and I gasped in a great breath of air. Simon grinned ruefully, and I couldn’t help but smile back. “I didn’t mean to push you so hard,” he apologized. “I’m clumsy in this gear.”

“I’m sorry,” I told him. “I thought they were attacking us. I feel really stupid.”

“Me too. Let’s not tell Lily, okay?”

I chortled, which hurt my chest. “Simon,” I gasped.

“Yeah?”

“Can you get off me?”

His olive skin flushed, and he sat up and backed away from me. I had to laugh again at the mortified look on his face. “You didn’t hurt me,” I assured him. “It’s cool. We’re cool. I’m just going to lie here for a minute and feel like an idiot.”

The pain in my chest was already receding. Simon relaxed; then there was a loud, wet crunch, and I think we were both relieved to turn our heads toward the werewolves. They had gotten one of the deer down and were nose-deep in the carcass. “I guess they prefer their food hot,” Simon remarked. He stood up and extended his bare hand to me. Grunting, I took it and let him help me to my feet.

We spent a minute regrouping—he retrieved his glove, I fixed my headscarf in place and put the revolver back in my pocket. I got an old backpack with emergency supplies out of the back of the Jeep and strapped it on. By the time I straightened up again, the wolves were trotting toward us, licking blood off their lips.

Dunn approached me cautiously, and I had the sudden impression that he could smell the silver bullets. I wasn’t going to leave the gun behind, so I fixed my eyes on the ground and held out a closed fist for him to sniff, while Mary and Simon did more or less the same thing.

   
Most Popular
» Nothing But Trouble (Malibu University #1)
» Kill Switch (Devil's Night #3)
» Hold Me Today (Put A Ring On It #1)
» Spinning Silver
» Birthday Girl
» A Nordic King (Royal Romance #3)
» The Wild Heir (Royal Romance #2)
» The Swedish Prince (Royal Romance #1)
» Nothing Personal (Karina Halle)
» My Life in Shambles
» The Warrior Queen (The Hundredth Queen #4)
» The Rogue Queen (The Hundredth Queen #3)
vampires.readsbookonline.com Copyright 2016 - 2024