Tracker and the Spy Read online

  Toni averted her eyes.

  “Toni?” Alyssa spoke softly. “If there’s something wrong, I’d like to help.”

  Toni sighed and dropped her pack to the ground. Before she could speak, stiff gusts of wind swirled dust and dirt around them. They both shielded their eyes and crouched to keep their footing since they were standing very near the outlook’s edge. The wind abruptly stopped, and a familiar blowing sound broke the sudden silence. Alyssa slowly lowered her hands.

  “Sun and moon.” He was magnificent. Black as a moonless midnight. His wings, still unfurled as if he would take flight given the slightest cause, spanned nearly the entire width of the rock outcrop. She’d seen him before in flight, but not up close. How had she mistaken him for Bero before? He had the wide chest and thick, arched neck of a breeding stallion. And he carried the scars of past challenges. She frowned. Some appeared to be still-healing wounds. She wasn’t sure, but she thought she sensed pain coming from him. She projected a calming, friendly emotion.

  He shook his head, then stretched his nose toward them and blew out a breath, small licks of flame shooting from his nostrils as he scented them.

  Although it was unusual for her to so clearly sense an animal, she definitely felt him. “He’s hurt,” Alyssa said, lifting her hand toward him.

  He jerked his head back, and the red slits of his dragon eyes dilated as his chest expanded.

  “No!” Toni threw herself in front of Alyssa and raised her hands, palms out. The column of blue flame that the dragon stallion spewed seemed to hit an invisible wall and dissipate. The stallion shook his wings and stomped his feet.

  “Don’t scream, don’t scream, don’t scream.” Toni chanted urgently, her hands still raised.

  “Are you talking to me or yourself?” Alyssa blinked at the tremor in her voice and suddenly felt rather silly. She was hiding behind a woman at least a head shorter, gripping the back of Toni’s T-shirt like she was her only lifeline.

  The stallion pawed the ground and tossed his head, his ears working back and forth.

  “I was talking to him. If he lets loose one of those dragon screams, the entire army will come up here, and he’ll be toast.” Toni slowly lowered her hands. “Calm. I need you to project calm. But don’t approach him. That’s what nearly got you fried. He won’t hurt you if he doesn’t feel threatened.”

  Alyssa released Toni’s shirt but kept her hands on Toni’s back. The surprising steadiness of her assistant seemed to anchor her. She conjured a picture in her mind of a field lush with clover, a horsy favorite, and pushed it outward. The stallion lowered his wings a fraction, then a bit more.

  “Good. That’s right. You’re hungry, aren’t you, boy?”

  The stallion loosely folded his wings, and his elliptical pupils pulsed as he watched Toni. Not anxious to be an exposed target, Alyssa squatted with Toni as she slowly reached for the backpack and tugged it in front of them. She opened the pack and waited while the stallion blew out a few breaths, scenting the air to check the contents of the pack. He snorted blue flame, as if in warning, then folded his wings tight against his body and backed up to the edge of the woods. Tony nodded and stood.

  Alyssa grabbed the back of her shirt again. “What are you doing?”

  “It’s okay. He’s hungry.” She glanced over her shoulder at Alyssa. “I’ve got fire rocks in the backpack. I’m just going to empty them out over there and come right back. You stay here and don’t move.” She took a few slow steps and looked back. “It’s really important that you don’t move, no matter what. Okay?”

  Alyssa nodded. “Okay.” She watched Toni walk slowly but confidently to the other side of the outcropping and dump the fire rocks onto a small depression in the stone. When she returned, they quietly moved as far away as possible, considering he blocked their path to the woods on their left and the edge of the outlook was on their right. They sat and he watched them for a few more seconds, then ambled over to munch the rocks.

  “This isn’t the first time you’ve fed him, is it?”

  Toni shook her head. “No. I was looking for a plant to make an analgesic you needed at the clinic and thought I’d seen it on the way to the wild nest. It took less than a day when we took a whole caravan, so I figured I could get up there and back easily before dark.”

  “You went alone?” Alyssa kept her voice low so she didn’t spook the dragon horse but added a disapproving glare. She didn’t expect it would be very effective, given the dim lighting, so the spike of bitterness that radiated from Toni surprised her.

  “Yeah, well, my millions of friends were all busy.”

  Alyssa laid a reassuring hand on Toni’s leg and squeezed. “You’re wrong about that, but it’s a subject for another day.” She gave her another squeeze and withdrew. “So, you went to their mountain?”

  Toni nodded, her eyes on the stallion. “I left really early and by midday was near where we’d camped. Then I heard these awful screams, and I ran to the edge of the forest.” She nodded toward the stallion. “Dark Star—that’s what I call him—was fighting with another stallion. Since it was daytime, they weren’t in dragon skin, and Dark already looked pretty beat up and skinny. He had a couple of big burns and bad-looking wounds.” Toni was quiet for a moment, and Alyssa could feel her wrestling with a swell of emotions. “The other horse, a big bay, won and chased him off.” She turned to Alyssa. “That was his herd.”

  “Nature can be cruel,” Alyssa said quietly.

  “Why?” Toni asked. “Why does one animal have to die to feed another? Why do animals and humans have to hurt each other?”

  She thought about her struggle to come to terms with the violence of Jael’s mission. “Why must we have day and night, light and dark, life and death? Do we need pain to know when we’re without it? Must we know sadness to recognize joy? I don’t have answers to those questions, Toni.”

  Toni shrugged. “Anyway, I still get up early like I did when I worked in the stables, and I noticed him flying around the edges of our valley an hour or so before dawn. So I started leaving fire rocks up here. After they disappeared a few times, I stayed to make sure it was him eating them.”

  “Weren’t you afraid he would—” Alyssa suddenly realized why they hadn’t been burned before. She poked Toni in the side. “You’ve been hiding a gift, my friend.”

  Toni looked away. “It’s nothing much.”

  “Nothing much? You kept us from being tomorrow morning’s toast.”

  “It’s not cool like being a pyro or a telepath.”

  Alyssa nodded. “Yeah. Being an empath isn’t all that exciting either.”

  Toni chuckled. “Yes, it is. You know it is.” She grew serious. “People can’t lie to you.”

  Alyssa felt a wave of old pain, and she projected what she hoped would be a soothing balm to whatever hurt Toni carried that brought that emotion to her surface.

  “Many things that hurt us also help prepare us for our purpose, our destiny. We can’t see the destination but can only trust that our path is as it should be.”

  Toni sighed. “Are you going to tell Jael about Dark Star?”

  “I have to. We let our shields down when we’re together, so it’s impossible to keep secrets. She hears my thoughts, and I know her feelings. And she would know if I was trying to keep something back. It would damage the trust we have in each other.”

  Toni grimaced at one particularly loud grinding noise as dragon teeth broke up the hard phosphorus bricks. “What do you think she’ll do?”

  “About the stallion or you saving my life?”

  “She’ll probably point out that I wouldn’t have had to shield you if I hadn’t been feeding him up here.”

  Alyssa smiled. “It’s all in how you present it. Trust me. I know how to handle the First Warrior.”

  ❖

  “Who is this?” Simon didn’t like interruptions, and he was engrossed in the weather reports scrolling across the large d-screen in his suite while this fool of a doctor pre
tended to administer to his hand. Simon wasn’t stupid. The hand was useless. He hadn’t even felt the cut on the underside near his elbow, and that stupid doctor hadn’t found it until it started to smell.

  Xavier led a man dressed in work clothes, nervously twisting a knit cap in his hands, forward. “This is Juan. He works in the central warehouse.” He clamped his hand on Juan’s shoulder, and Juan looked up at him. “This is the man. You understand?”

  Juan nodded. “Yes, yes. I’ll tell him everything I know. Only the truth.”

  Xavier released him. “Good man.” He patted Juan’s shoulder. “Strong, too. I’m looking for strong, loyal men to hire for very good jobs.”

  Juan straightened. “That’s me. I know how to keep my mouth shut, too.”

  Simon wiped at the sweat that beaded on his face. How could he be sweating? It felt like the Alps in this hotel, and he was tiring of the chatter. “Xavier, call the front desk again. I swear the climate control in this room isn’t working right.” The doctor lifted his injured arm to secure the bandage around the elbow and blocked his view of the weather report for several seconds. “Enough.” He jerked his body away, his arm flopping uselessly against his stomach. The doctor reached to secure it in the protective harness that looped over his shoulder and around his torso. Simon pushed him away. “I’ll do that. Just leave it.”

  “The room temperature is fine. You have a fever from the infection in your arm. The hypospray antibiotics I have with me aren’t working. You need to go to a hospital.”

  “I don’t have time.”

  “You’re running out of time,” the doctor said.

  “You let me worry about that.”

  Xavier studied Simon as the doctor gathered his instruments and bandages. He’d never been a big man, but he seemed to have shrunk over the past few days. His face was gray and damp with sweat. He didn’t like Simon, but he respected him. He could learn a lot from him, make many contacts through Simon. He would stand in Simon’s place one day, but he still needed him awhile longer. He touched the doctor’s arm as he walked past. “Doctor?”

  “If he won’t go to a hospital, you’d better get a local doctor over here with a super-antibody infusion pronto.”

  “I can arrange it.” Xavier waited while Simon stared at the screen a moment longer. He seemed to have forgotten about them. He moved close and whispered to Juan. “Go to the bedroom on the right and get something to cover him.”

  Juan nodded and moved around the long leather couch where Simon sat, ignoring them. Xavier stepped out onto the balcony and slipped a receiver in his ear. He keyed the IC on his forearm. “Report.” He listened. “They’re gone? Maybe they moved them to another place. Let me know if they contact you. Yes. Contact me, not Simon. He’s still not well, but he’ll be okay. I’m going to arrange for another doctor here, and the fellow Simon brought with him is going to mysteriously disappear. Yes. They’ve already been sniffing around. Soon.”

  He clicked off and keyed a different contact. “Have they arrived? Where did they last report from?” The smile grew on his face as he listened. “Excellent. I want eyes on that coast from New Orleans to Tampico.” This was the news he would give Simon. The disappearance of the doctor’s family, he would keep to himself for now.

  He went back into the suite where Juan stood uncertainly, holding a light blanket. Xavier took it from him and went to Simon. “The hotel manager says they’re working on the climate-control problem. Until it’s fixed, Juan has brought a blanket. We must do something about your fever.”

  Xavier spread the blanket over Simon’s legs and bunched the rest in his lap.

  “I’m not going to any dung-eating hospital. I have an operation to run.” Despite his protest, Simon shivered and tugged the blanket up over his chest.

  “No hospital. I can arrange for a doctor to bring what you need here.”

  Simon scowled at the d-screen’s weather radar but nodded.

  “And, I have news you will want to hear.”

  Simon glanced up in irritation.

  “Cyrus’s boat has been delayed by the bad weather and has not arrived in Galveston.” He had Simon’s full attention now. “Unfortunately, the captain last reported their location northwest of the storm, which is now a category-two hurricane. I’m told the northwest edge of a hurricane is the worst place you can be. I’m afraid their situation is dire. We must pray for a miracle that they’ll survive.” He offered a small smile as he mimicked the believers’ signature gesture of touching their foreheads, mouths, then chests when they ended a prayer—dedicating their thoughts, words, and hearts to The Natural Order.

  The corner of Simon’s mouth lifted in a half smile that looked more like a sneer. “Yes. That’s terrible news.”

  Xavier waved Juan over. “Juan, tell Simon about the people you talked to at the warehouse.”

  Simon seemed to brighten with the news about Cyrus, and Juan stepped up boldly to give his report.

  “There were three of them—two men and a woman two nights ago. The men were brown-skinned, like most in this region, dark hair—one young and handsome, one short and stocky. The woman was tall with long dark hair. The two men paid to use my transport to go into town, but the woman stayed and walked around the warehouse to look at shipping crates. We let her look, like Xavier told us. When the men came back, I heard them talking. They had been to the Cathedral. The woman told them about the crates that hadn’t been shipped, and then they all left.”

  Simon nodded, lightly tapping his fingers on the arm of the couch.

  “Did they ask you any questions when they returned your transport?” Xavier asked.

  “Yes, but I did as you said. I told them nothing and acted scared. They didn’t press the issue.”

  “Did you hear them say where they’re staying?” Simon asked.

  “No, I’m sorry. They only said that someone had arranged it for them.”

  “I can help with that.” Xavier smiled. “That someone would be my second cousin’s girlfriend.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Tan would have yelled at whoever was hammering somewhere outside their room, but the warm lips tasting their way along her neck were too pleasant to interrupt. The lips found her earlobe and sucked it into a hot mouth. She moaned, drowning out the noise for a few seconds.

  “Good. You’re awake,” Kyle said. “I was beginning to think your heart had given out during that last orgasm.” They’d awakened earlier and, their battle lust previously sated, made love slowly before falling asleep again.

  Tan didn’t open her eyes but couldn’t stop the smile that pulled at her mouth. “I’m not awake. My heart did stop, and I need mouth-to-mouth.”

  Kyle’s mouth covered hers, her tongue pushing, stroking against Tan’s. She drew Tan on top of her and stroked overheated hands down Tan’s back.

  The racket grew louder. Not hammering. Someone was persistently knocking on their door. Tan broke off their kiss. “Son of a dung eater. If you don’t stop that infernal banging, I’m going to come out there and burn your knickers off.”

  A giggle. “Oni says to tell you dinner’s being served, and Zack needs to talk to you before it gets dark,” Pete, the boy who’d talked with Kyle, said through the door. “That’s only about an hour from now.”

  “Tell them to jump off. We’re busy.”

  “Kyle said I could see the dragon horse.” More banging.

  Tan stared down at Kyle, who smiled and shrugged. Tan closed her eyes. Stars, her crotch was throbbing. “Your hand, quick. It won’t take but a couple of strokes,” she whispered. “I don’t think I can walk if you don’t.”

  Kyle glanced at the door. “Okay, Pete. We need to get a quick shower and dress. We’ll see you in the dining area in about fifteen minutes.”

  Tan felt for Kyle’s hand. “Just a few strokes, baby.” A few thrusts of her hips against Kyle’s thigh would do it, too, but she wanted to feel those long, warm fingers.

  “What are you guys doing? It feels li
ke fun. I can wait for you.”

  “No, you go ahead,” Kyle said loudly.

  “Let him wait,” Tan said. Sun, she was almost whining, but she might combust if Kyle didn’t touch her.

  “No. He’s an empath. He’ll feel it.” Kyle raised her voice again. “Go save seats for us—and you—at Zack’s table.”

  That had the desired result. “Okay, Kyle.”

  His footsteps were still echoing in the hallway when Kyle flipped them so that Tan’s back was to the floor. Watching Tan sleep for a few minutes had been a gift. Awake, Tan exuded the defensive wariness of a strikingly gorgeous but dangerous predator. Sleep relaxed, softened, and transformed her features into a beauty that made Kyle ache inside…ache so badly she hadn’t been able to resist a brush of her cheek against a puckered nipple, a taste of the tempting brown skin that smelled of the Shea butter moisturizer Tan preferred. She straddled Tan’s thigh and rode to her own climax as she stroked Tan inside and out with long, sure fingers.

  Though they needed to be quick, Kyle still mourned their fast rise to orgasm and the lack of time to hold onto Tan a bit longer. She was afraid once they turned on the light, once they left this room, this new bond between them would vanish. For a few hours, she’d belonged with someone. She’d never had that before, even as a child when her family was happy together. She’d always felt as though her mother was preparing her for some mission away, while grooming her brother and sister to stay close at home. She’d always been the outsider. Maybe that’s why she felt a kinship with Tan. She was an outsider, too. She was the rogue member of The Guard. When they’d all waited outside the headquarters office while Jael and Alyssa dealt with Tan about drugging Jael, Diego had had plenty to say about her.

  “She’s had a jump with half the countryside and a temper so quick, I’m surprised she hasn’t fried some innocent and sent the locals running from us with that ridiculous war paint.” Diego waved his arms dramatically but kept an eye on the door to Jael’s office and his voice low.