Ancient Warrior, page 4
“And then some. We’re good. Thank you.” Then she walked off toward the camp.
Harlow stayed where she was, trying to decide if she wanted to grab the food or just fall back and sleep. The way the dead animals had just been delivered to them was still bothering her. She’d assumed they’d been from Ace at first, but when he’d arrived later with his own kills and found they’d already cleaned and prepped everything, he’d been surprised.
And adamant that he wasn’t screwing with her. So…who the hell had delivered the meat?
It hadn’t been tainted or poisoned; she’d have smelled it. The kill had been fresh and just given to them.
Beyond weird, and while she wanted to figure out who the hell had done it, she shelved it because Ace was taking first watch and she was going to grab that food after all.
Then she was going to sleep. And not dream about a dragon with wings that actually turned to fire when he wanted. A dragon with amber-orange eyes the color of her stripes. A dragon she’d never gotten over.
And never would.
CHAPTER SIX
“Hello, Harlow. I need your help.” Legend, the almost nine-year-old phoenix boy—also a twin like her—sat at the island top across from her, his expression somber.
Unlike his twin Enzo, Legend was serious and mature for his age. His brother was a wild thing, more like Harlow at that age, but she loved them both the same. Copper-haired, bronze-skinned, green-eyed little angels. Goddess, she loved the kids so much, was so glad they’d come into their lives. Of course she was a hundred times more obsessive about the property’s security now because the thought of anything happening to them gave her cardiac stress.
“Okay, shoot. You hungry?” she asked as she made her turkey sandwich, held up the grainy bread in indication.
“No, thank you. I’ve already eaten this morning.” Again with the serious, formal tone.
“Okay, then. What do you need, kid?”
“To set a trap.”
She lifted an eyebrow. “For who? Enzo?”
He shot her a look that said he was questioning her brainpower. “No. I sleep in the same room with him. The payback would not be worth it.”
“Ah.” She suppressed a grin as she cut a thick tomato slice. Made sense. And also the reason she and her own twin hadn’t messed with each other. They’d usually teamed up and messed with other shifters instead. Because Legend was right—don’t screw with the person you share a room with. “So not your brother. Who, then?”
“In school we’re learning about different minimal and maximum tensile strength and I want to test something.”
Okay so the little booger wasn’t answering her question—likely because she’d scent a lie. But she’d play along because she was a cat. Forever curious. “All right. I can probably help with that.”
He nodded in approval and slid off his stool, eyeing her expectantly.
“You want help now?” She cut her sandwich in half and wrapped it up in a cloth to carry with her.
“I want to show you the location of what I’m thinking.”
“Okay, give me a sec.” She wiped up and put the condiments back in the fridge before heading out the front door with him.
To her surprise, they didn’t go too far, just around the side of the house next to some azalea bushes on the east side of the mansion.
“This is where I’d like to set the trap, and it has to be invisible to the shifter’s eye.”
“Do you have any idea how you’d like to set it? Use magic or not?” He was a phoenix and had a little bit of magic.
“I’m open to all ideas but I think magic would be good.”
“Is the intent to injure the being you trap?”
“Of course not,” he said immediately, giving her a shocked look that she’d even asked.
She took another bite of her sandwich, grinned as she eyed the area. Well that was good at least. “Okay, we won’t injure our prey, just trap them. When do you want to start work on it?”
Before he could answer, one of the windows from the third story above them opened and his almost sixteen-year-old sister popped her head out. Phoebe had the same copper-colored hair as he did, but hers was long and braided. “Hey bozo, what are you doing down there?”
“None of your business!” he shouted back, then looked at Harlow. “We’ll talk later,” he whispered before racing off.
What the heck? Harlow snickered and looked up at Phoebe, waved. “You staying out of trouble?”
“Heck no!”
Then she disappeared back inside, making Harlow laugh. Sounded about right. She glanced at her watch, saw that the kids should be leaving for school soon and decided she’d walk all of them.
School was different now than it had been before The Fall. It started a little later in the morning, and while they all learned basic stuff across the board, there were different schools with different focuses, starting around age twelve. Harlow hadn’t gone to a regular human school so she didn’t have anything to compare it to anyway.
As she headed back in the house, the back of her neck tingled, as if she was being watched. She didn’t sense any danger but… She resisted the urge to itch her neck.
Nothing was there.
Once she was inside, she texted everyone in the house. I’m walking the kids to school, then I’m going to shore up security around the property, test our wards. If anyone wants to help, let me know.
She immediately got pings back from almost the entire crew, which eased the weird sensation buzzing inside her.
Ever since someone had left those killed animals yesterday for the party they’d rescued in the woods, she’d felt…off. Uneasy.
As if she was being watched. Or stalked.
Hours later, Harlow tucked away the cleaning supplies under the sink and decided to go running since she’d finished cleaning the downstairs earlier than she’d thought.
“You taking my chores now?” Bella strolled into the kitchen, eyed her suspiciously. Wearing jeans and a bright red sweater, the petite snow leopard shifter looked stunning as always. Her jet-black hair was down today instead of pulled back at her nape.
Harlow shrugged. “You’ve been busy.”
“Yeah, and so have you. I’d planned to clean tomorrow morning… So what do you want for this?”
Harlow snickered around the weird ache in her chest. “Uh, nothing. Just felt like doing something nice for you.”
Bella watched her for a long moment. “Not that you don’t do kind things, but…in the forty-plus years I’ve known you, you’ve never voluntarily cleaned. For anyone.”
Harlow rolled her shoulders once, feeling as if she could crawl out of her skin. “So? I’m gonna go for a run if anyone needs me.”
“Harlow!” Bella snapped in her “mom” tone she used to keep them in line. “What’s wrong?” She moved suddenly in front of her, clasping Harlow’s hands in hers gently. “Please talk to me.”
The kindness in Bella’s expression and tone nearly unraveled Harlow. She swallowed hard, shoved back tears. Actual tears, and she hadn’t cried in almost sixteen years. Instead of answering her friend, she simply pulled her into a hug, kissed the top of her head, then hurried outside.
If she started telling any of them about the dreams she’d been having, they’d insist she go to therapy, to talk to one of the healers in the territory.
And that was a big fat hell no.
She didn’t do that. Certainly didn’t talk about her feelings. That wasn’t how she and her twin handled things. Though normally she told Brielle everything—they were each other’s therapists. But she’d been keeping her feelings to herself lately, not wanting to burden her twin with shit from their past.
After stripping and leaving her things in a pile by the front door, she raced off in her tiger form, stretching her legs as she headed for the local animal sanctuary.
After The Fall, they didn’t really have a zoo in the sense that people came to see animals anymore. Now it was a sanctuary, and she loved visiting and playing with the older Malayan tiger.
Right about now she’d do anything to keep her mind off Aodh—because her mind was betraying her. She couldn’t seem to keep anything compartmentalized anymore.
After years of handling shit just fine—or fine enough to survive—now, nothing helped. Not even sleep. Hell, especially not sleep. She used to be able to at least lose herself for a few hours but now when she closed her eyes, she saw him.
Every. Single. Night.
CHAPTER SEVEN
“What’s up with your twin?” Bella shoved open Brielle’s door to find her and Marley playing a video game.
“What?” Brielle turned her head in Bella’s direction but didn’t take her eyes off the screen.
“Ha! Eat it, sucker!” Marley shouted as…well, whatever, she won something on-screen.
Bella didn’t understand any of this nonsense. Never had. “Harlow. Something’s up with her. She’s been off for months and now that she’s back she’s worrying me.”
“What, why?” Brielle still didn’t look at her fully. “She’s been kinda moody but she gets like that sometimes. Just let her be. She’d have told me if anything was wrong. She’s fine, trust me. We tell each other everything.”
Bella resisted the urge to stomp her foot, mainly because she wasn’t wearing heels and it would be a wasted effort.
“I don’t know, Bella’s never wrong,” Marley said, in between shouting obscenities at the screen. “We should take her out this weekend.”
“Yeah, all right,” Brielle said. “We’ll round up the crew, do a night out. I think everyone’s off work too. It’ll be good for all of us.”
Bella rubbed a hand down her face, took a breath. “I don’t think taking her out will do…” She trailed off as they shouted at the screen again. She’d lost them, and short of standing in front of them—and having them throw stuff at her like children to get out of the way—she decided to check in with some of the others.
At least Marley had gotten out of her funk since returning from Scotland. It had been months but she was back to her normal self after a bout of depression.
Maybe…that was what Harlow was dealing with? Bella wasn’t a psychologist and she’d never really thought of Harlow as even capable of getting depressed. But that was nonsense, she realized.
Everyone could get depressed.
Downstairs, she found Axel and Lola in the living room, going over the household chore list as well as reviewing the online security they had for the house.
“Have either of you two noticed something off with Harlow?” she asked as she strode in, not bothering with small talk.
They were all the same age, had grown up in the same compound, then gone their separate ways for a few years before teaming up again. And she’d always taken on the maternal role with everyone.
“Ah…yeah, a bit.” Axel leaned back, his expression thoughtful. “She mentioned she’s been having weird dreams.”
“What kind of dreams?”
He looked uncomfortable for a moment.
“Sexy dreams?” Lola asked.
“What? Ew, no. Or, I don’t think they are. She’s been, ah…” He cleared his throat once, twice, then stood. “I just remembered I’ve got tea with Prima in an hour. She needed to discuss something important with me.” Then the big lying lion tried to run from the room.
As if Bella was letting that happen. She sprang like the snow leopard she was, jumping on his back and wrapping her arms and legs around him. He was just lucky she was still in her human form.
Lola howled in laughter behind her as Axel yelped. “What the hell, Bells?”
She wrapped an arm around his neck, tightened her legs around his middle and squeezed. “Talk or I start biting!”
Lola laughed even louder.
“Um, are we interrupting some sort of weird foreplay?” a female voice asked.
Bella turned at the sound of Dallas and Rhys, though she’d scented them not too long ago. They had permission to be on their property, their signatures allowed by the wards they kept around the house and yard. The couple had even stayed with them at one point, the sweet witch and her dragon mate good friends of theirs now. “Hey guys! No foreplay. Axel isn’t that lucky.” She nipped his shoulder once and he punched her leg.
“Let me go, you psycho!”
“So, we’re here to see Harlow if she’s around. Willow’s with us.”
Bella stopped attacking Axel and jumped off him. “Willow’s here?” The little dragonling was the cutest thing and they all adored her.
“Yeah. In the back, terrorizing your chickens.”
Bella snickered and punched Axel once in the shoulder. “You’ll talk later.”
He rubbed his arm, kissed Dallas on the cheek then ran out the front door before Rhys could punch him for kissing Dallas.
“I love coming here, but I always forget how wild you guys are,” Dallas murmured, eyes a bit wide.
Bella simply grinned. “Harlow’s not here…but did she ask you to bring Willow by?”
“Ah, not really. But I talked to Harlow a week ago and she was asking about her. I know how much she loves Willow and we had some time off. So.” She had her arm wrapped around Rhys, her head on his shoulder.
Rhys was pretty quiet, as usual, and had his arm tight around Dallas.
“She should be back soon, and I know she’d love to see all of you.” Bella glanced at her watch, saw that it was about four. The kids had all gone to friends’ places after school and wouldn’t be home for a bit. “You guys want to hang out while I start dinner?”
“We’d love to,” Dallas said, smiling warmly. “We’re staying with Avery tonight but she’s not expecting us until late.”
Dallas and Rhys helped run one of the farming communities on the outskirts of New Orleans and didn’t often make it into the city proper.
“I’m going to visit Willow for a bit,” Lola said, giving hugs to both of them before heading for the back.
Before the three of them had made it to the kitchen, Brielle and Marley came pounding down the stairs, racing to see Willow as well.
“I see how it is,” Bella called out to them. “You’ll stop playing for a dragonling, but not…” And they were out the back door already.
“So how are the kids?” Dallas asked as they headed to the kitchen.
“Exceptional,” Bella said as she started to pull out all the foodstuffs. This was one of the rare nights they were all going to be home at the same time and she planned to make everyone dinner.
And figure out what was going on with Harlow.
She knew she couldn’t fix anything if Harlow was depressed, but she could nudge her to talk to someone. That was what family did. They looked out for each other.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Harlow opened the front door, moving quietly, hoping to go unnoticed. She could hear the laughter when she was walking up the drive, knew that everyone was out back having dinner.
And she didn’t want to be a buzzkill.
As she locked the door behind her, she smiled to see her twin on the stairs, a glass bottle of cider in hand—courtesy of one of the local bear clans. “Hey.”
“Hey, yourself. We’re all out back if you want to join.”
“Yeah, of course.” She kept her voice light, not wanting Brielle to realize anything was wrong. In a moment of weakness she’d admitted to Axel about her dreams, but she’d kept them from Brielle. Because deep down, if she admitted that she was hurting to her twin, she was terrified she’d break, would be unable to keep all that shit locked down anymore. “I need a shower because I stink.”
Brielle snorted. “Always.”
She rolled her eyes, snagged the bottle out of her twin’s hand and raced up the stairs, ignoring the yelp of indignation. She chugged it as she started her shower, hoping it would take some of the edge off, but knowing it wouldn’t. She would need to drink a lot of alcohol for that to happen. She would need…vodka.
Or tequila.
As the hot water pounded down around her, she flashed back on the first time she’d ever had tequila. Drinking wasn’t a huge deal to shifters because of their metabolism, but that particular time had been after a mission.
With Aodh.
Because all she could ever think about lately was Aodh.
“Stupid female,” she growled to herself, snagging the shampoo from the shelf.
She felt so weak and stupid and helpless right now because she couldn’t get him off her mind. He was dead, gone.
What was wrong with her? Something had to give.
But as she started working conditioner into her thick hair, the memory overwhelmed her, made her chest constrict because she swore she could almost hear his voice right next to her ear.
“I’ll bet you that I can hit the bull’s-eye five times in a row. And if I win, I get to drink tequila out of your belly button.” Aodh sat across from her at the high-top table in the hole-in-the-wall bar in Jacksonville, North Carolina.
Brielle and Axel were currently at the bar in a drinking contest with some Marines—who had no idea they were competing with supernaturals. Harlow and Aodh had been waiting for their turn at the dart boards.
“Why would you want to drink it out of my belly button?” She slid off her seat when the two human males playing tossed their darts into the bucket and nodded that they were done.
“I think the more important question is, why wouldn’t I want to?” His voice was a low, dark whisper as he slid the coins into the machine.
She ignored the effect his words had on her, the sensation of his voice wrapping around her like a soft caress. Or she tried to. “What do I get if I win?”
He paused for only a moment. “You can drink it out of mine.”
She barked out a laugh at the ridiculousness of him. “Does this ever actually work on females?”
He shrugged. “How would I know?”
She paused from grabbing her darts. Blue for her, red for him. She’d never actually smelled another female on him in the year she’d known him. But…he had to be hooking up with females, right? They had downtime in between missions. They were in a special branch of the Marine Corps and did top secret missions that always involved supernaturals, but they still had time off. Right now was a perfect example. They were stopped over in this little town for a night before they flew out in the morning to somewhere in California. “What does that mean?”
