One Bounce Away from Crazy, page 6
Justice didn’t waste any time. He jerked his head toward the cave. “Come on. We don’t have much time. They’re big and clumsy, but surprisingly fast.”
“Wait! What?”
Justice ignored me, so I hurried to catch up with him. “How do you know there aren’t more of them in there?”
“I don’t.” He stopped at a good-sized cave opening. “Giant males generally stay away from their families. They hunt and forage and leave anything they find in the opening to the cave. Then they scamper away before the female can bite off their heads.”
I snorted out a laugh before I could stop myself. “Sounds perfect. Where do I sign up?”
Justice gave me a look I couldn’t decipher. Then he smiled and my belly tightened at the sight. For a single heartbeat, I forgot to breathe. “Just like in the human race, the females are as terrifyingly relentless as they are irresistible.” His voice had deepened, a slight huskiness making my toes curl inside my sneakers. “It’s one of my favorite things about them.”
Oh hells. The man was seriously sexy. And me with my mega man-hating card dangling from my limp fingers. “Um…”
He turned away and the moment was lost. I sagged like overcooked spaghetti. Before I knew he’d moved, he was gone. Lost to the seemingly impenetrable dark of the cave’s interior. Clasping my kitchen knife in a sweaty hand, I took a deep breath and plunged in after him.
8
Fast Food
I discovered once I was inside the cave, that it wasn’t as dark as I’d first thought. My eyes adjusted quickly and I saw a shadowy shape moving quickly away from me. Justice was heading toward a flickering light in the distance.
I started running, focusing on keeping my steps light. I was suddenly glad for the foresight of pulling on sneakers when I’d felt the bounce taking hold of me. Justice stopped ten feet ahead of me and I slowed, coming up behind him. “What’s up?” I whispered, trying to see around him.
We were at the end of the rock wall, a partition between the entrance and what looked like the main area of the cave. In the center of that main area was a huge bonfire. From where we stood, it appeared to be six feet across. Comprised of a large square of metal mesh laid over rocks that were stacked four feet high, the fire pit glowed from a slow fire.
Beneath the skunky smell I’d noticed outside, the rich scent of roasting meat permeated the space, along with a smoky undertone that likely clung to everything in the room.
My stomach growled at the scent.
Justice turned and gave me a grin. “Hungry?”
I smacked him on the shoulder. “It’s impolite to tease a woman about a rumbling belly.”
Grimacing, he rubbed his arm. “I’ll remember that.” He turned back to the big room and I wondered what he was waiting for. Finally, he said. “Okay, we’ll grab something off the fire for breakfast. We need to be fast. The female will be coming back soon.”
A sudden flair of guilt swept through me. “I don’t feel good about stealing their food.”
Justice moved quickly to the fire, grabbing two large hunks of meat and throwing them into the bag he carried. “I’ll leave something in trade. Besides, giants are phenomenal hunters. They can easily catch more if they want to.”
I eyed the meat. It didn’t look like any kind of meat I’d ever seen before. “What is that?”
Justice’s only response was to hold the open bag up under my nose. “It tastes as good as it smells.”
Groaning softly, I nodded. “You talked me into it.”
He smiled, reaching into the bag and pulling out a metal cannister with a domed lid. It looked like a large bullet. He unscrewed the lid.
“What’s that?” I asked.
Justice didn’t answer. He moved quickly to the other side of the pit, picking up a tall, slender pot with a curved handle. When he opened the pot, the skunky smell flared around it, sending me scuttling backward. “Ugh! Whatever that is, I don’t want it.”
He gave me a knowing smile. “I wouldn’t be so quick to opt out,” he told me. “This might smell bad, but it’ll be the best coffee you’ve ever tasted.”
“Coffee?” Horror replaced revulsion in my brain. “That’s giant coffee?”
Justice’s smile widened. “A unique experience.”
Before I could make a smart remark, a soft grunt sounded from a shadowed corner.
Justice went very still. He glanced in that direction and stiffened. Moving over to a large, flat rock that showed signs of having been used as a table, he dug into his bag again, coming out with two large, wrapped bars. I stared at the bars, my eyes going round. “Chocolate?” I asked, appalled. “You had chocolate and didn’t share?”
“Shhh,” he said, glancing toward the corner again. He motioned toward the entrance. “We need to go.”
Movement exploded from the shadows, accompanied by a blood-chilling roar. A male giant clambered from the pile of rags I assumed had been his bed, and lumbered toward us.
He roared again, showing a terrifying array of very sharp teeth. The creature peered at us from under a shelf of a brow, his beady eyes dark and shiny in a very angry face. Smaller than the other two adult giants I’d seen, he was likely an adolescent, but he was still a good eight to nine feet tall.
Justice grabbed my hand and yanked me toward the exit. I’d been gawking when we should have been running.
Behind us, the teen giant’s footfalls were thunderous in the cave, their bomb-like concussions heavy enough to bring rocks and dust sifting down onto our heads.
Three breaths later, I felt the swirl of air at my back and an enormous hand skimmed past my shoulder. He’d tried to grab me and missed. Barely. In mere seconds, he’d catch me, and there was probably a good chance I’d end up on the fire pit with the other unknown meats.
Justice picked up speed, somehow dragging me along with him.
The giant’s hand hovered just beyond reach, mere inches, and the musky scent of unwashed skin wafted over me. I tripped as a giant foot scraped along my heel and stumbled forward, releasing Justice’s hand. I slammed into the wall, hitting it with my palms, and screaming with frustration as a thick limb wrapped around my waist. The giant hauled me off my feet, effortlessly holding me several inches above the rocky soil with a meaty arm.
Justice skidded to a stop, whipping around to find me captured.
The teen giant snuffled loudly near my head as if sniffing my hair. I shuddered as hot breath scalded my neck. Somehow, I knew the giant’s interest wasn’t sexual. He was assessing my worth for the fire pit.
The blood froze in my veins. I needed to do something or I was going to die. My hand slid down to the knife in my belt loops.
Justice took a step in our direction, hands out. “Don’t use the knife, Rae,” he said, his deep voice soft. He extended his hands to show the teen their contents. Two more of the oversized bars of chocolate lay across his palms. “You don’t want the woman,” he told the kid. “She’s bitter and tough.”
“Hey!” I objected.
The idiot had the gall to wink at me. “Wouldn’t you rather have this chocolate?”
The giant teen’s grip on me had softened. I heard him licking his lips. Spittle dripped onto my arm and I shuddered. “Choc-a-lotte?”
Justice nodded, lifting his hands and nodding toward me. “For the woman.”
The teen hesitated another minute. My heart flailed my ribs and I was finding it hard to breathe.
A distant bark from outside the cave brought Justice’s chin up a notch, tightening his muscles. But his expression remained calm as he took another step toward the teen. “Two choc-a-lotte,” he said, using the kid’s strange pronunciation. “For the woman.”
The kid’s grip loosened enough for me to slide to the ground. As soon as my feet touched the rocky earth, I started running.
Behind me, the teen giant roared and Justice threw the bars in his direction, turning to run with me. “We need to hurry. The female and the toddler are coming back.”
“The bark?”
Justice nodded. “Elvo’s warning.”
We burst from the cave as the blonde-headed toddler emerged from the trees. Our presence elicited a shriek of happiness from the child, followed by the thunderous cadence of its mother.
“More puppies!” the girl screamed, clapping large, meaty hands with delight.
Justice grabbed my hand. “Run as fast as you can and don’t look back. For anything.” He took off, jerking me along after him, and I decided to do a better job of listening to his advice. I had no desire to decorate that fire pit in glistening chunks.
Or act like a puppy, fetching the bones of the pit’s victims for a giant toddler.
In my defense, I ran like the wind for several minutes. I kept up with Justice for most of it. But then an indignant roar shook the trees around us and my steps faltered, I stumbled forward, ran into Justice and brought us both to the ground.
He rolled and was back on his feet in the blink of an eye. I splatted like an overripe apple on the hard ground.
Which was where I was when the toddler found me a beat later.
Another roar made the forest quiver, but seemed to have zero effect on the toddler. She crouched down beside me, her tree-trunk-sized legs strangely cute with their baby-like pudginess. An enormous face, surrounded by golden curls hovered over me, the small blue eyes blinking as if to clear her vision. Oversized pink lips curved upward, showing an array of small but sharp teeth with a wide gap in the center. “Puppy?” Her voice was high-pitched, with a lisp that was adorable even on a giant child.
I heard Justice rustling around in his bag. “I hope you have more chocolate in that bag,” I said as the ground rumbled again. Mama was coming fast, and she would likely not enjoy finding me so close to her baby. Even if her baby probably outweighed me by a hundred pounds or more.
“I’ve got something better,” Justice said, moving close and holding out a hand.
Unbelievably, he was right. He did have something better. The little girl squealed in delight, reaching pudgy arms toward the toy.
Of course, that was the moment the trees parted behind her, puking the enormous female into our little piece of Hell on Earth. The creature took one look at me and her entire fifteen-foot-tall form stiffened with rage. Her thick-featured face turned nearly purple.
She opened her mouth and growled, her shark-like teeth gleaming in the sunlight.
“Justice!” I yelled, skittering sideways in preparation for another run.
The kid reached out and clamped a big hand around my leg.
I went very still, aware that if I struggled, mama might think I was attacking her child.
“Any ideas?” I asked my partner, my hand skimming toward the knife.
“Whatever you do, don’t pull that knife,” Justice said, his voice soft. “Just hold for a minute.”
He lifted the doll, dancing it to catch the toddler’s attention. Mama closed her mouth, cocking her head at the toy.
The toddler giggled, clapping her hands.
Mama smiled, motioning to Justice to give the doll over.
He danced it a few more times, until the toddler climbed to her feet, taking my leg with her.
“Um…” I said.
He smiled at the child, stepping closer. “Get ready to move,” he said softly.
The baby stomped her foot, her emotions turning mercurial with the speed of toddlers in all species. “Give!” she demanded, lifting her chubby hands toward Justice.
Unfortunately, my leg went up too, leaving me dangling in her painful grip. “So far I’m not liking your plan,” I groused, wincing as short, sharp fingernails scored my flesh.
He danced the doll again, pointing to me. “Let the woman go.”
I was getting a strong sense of déjà vu. “Yes, let the woman go,” I said. “She’s really getting sick of being giant-handled.”
The not-so-little toddler focused glossy blue eyes on me, her bottom lip coming out as the first tear slid down her pink cheek.
Oh, oh.
I reached out and patted the hand clutching my leg. “I’m sorry, honey. I didn’t mean it.”
The little girl sniffled, more tears flooding from the blue eyes. Her bottom lip quivered like a leaf in a hurricane. “Justice?”
“What do you want me to do?” he asked, sounding annoyed. “You used the mean voice.”
“It wasn’t mean. It was…sturdy.”
He snorted out a laugh.
The enormous cherub opened her mouth, blue eyes squinting, and I knew I was gonna die. “She’s gonna blow,” I told my erstwhile companion.
Mama giant stepped forward, her massive hands fisting. In that way mothers all around the world…or universe…I wasn’t sure anymore…had of knowing when their children were upset, she knew her kid was about to go postal. And, in her mind, there was only one creature in the vicinity who could be responsible for it.
Me.
I patted faster. “Such a pretty girl. Do you want the doll? Justice, give her the doll.”
“I’m not sure…”
I whipped around like the girl in the Exorcist and growled. “Give it to her!”
The child broke into a full-scale wail.
Justice threw the doll and it sailed over her golden head, hitting mama giant right in the bread basket.
The girl turned, her eyes going wide. “Mama.” She let go of my leg and I hit the ground hard, but I wasted no time climbing to my feet. “Mine, mama,” the enormous cupid demanded.
And we were off. Running so fast, I thought I might have grown wings on my feet.
Somewhere along the way, an enormous black wall of fur flew past me and I cursed the fact that I only had two legs. Four legs would allow me to go twice as fast.
We didn’t stop running until we’d left the giant family well in our wake. We covered at least a mile.
And then I collapsed onto a rock, sweat streaming from every pore in my body. And wondered what I’d done to deserve my current predicament.
Just who had I, Raelynn Kitt, fifty-seven-year-old ex-cop, hacked off to get a job that bounced me all over the place? Especially one that landed me mostly on my head?
9
Moist and Tasty
“This isn’t bad,” I said around a mouthful of tender meat. “I probably don’t want to know what it is, do I?”
Justice slid me a sideways glance. “Probably not.” He held out a tin cup that may or may not have been washed in hot soapy water…ever. “You sure you don’t want to try the coffee?”
I grimaced, but the flagging adrenaline load had left me tired and a little shaky. “It smells like a skunk’s butt.”
He nodded. “It does at that.” I watched him take a sip, his sexy eyes closing with pleasure. “But it tastes amazing.”
I stared at the mug. “Tell me what it’s made of.”
“Mostly a plant called skunk bean. For obvious reasons. But there’s a woody-stemmed flower whose roots are ground up and added to the blend too.”
“Like chicory?”
He took another sip. “I believe so. But this flower isn’t known in the dimension you come from.”
I frowned, his words bringing forth an issue I’d been wondering about. “Speaking of that…”
He shook his head. “I’ve told you, Rae. I can’t take you back.”
“Not that,” although I wasn’t happy with the knowledge. “I was going to ask why that traveler woman tagged me. Why pick someone from…well Earth, I guess? Why not pick someone from this place?”
He shrugged. “There are few traveler candidates in this dimension. Mostly monsters and beasts.”
Yeah, that didn’t give me the warm fuzzies. “Monsters?” Maybe his description of monsters was different from mine.
Justice threw another hunk of the delicious meat to Elvo. The big dog snagged it out of the air and dropped it to the ground, clutching the tender meal between his paws, and happily tearing off chunks. “Giants and Chickara, and those that walk the night.”
I let that one slide through my brain, assessing the heft of it and telling myself he couldn’t mean what it sounded like he meant. “Those that walk through the night?”
Justice refilled his mug, handing it to me without comment. “The fanged ones. You know of them. Your books are full of the things.”
A memory of being unconscious for many hours suddenly filled me with horror. Justice had had unmonitored access to all my stuff while I was recuperating from the Chickara bite. He’d clearly looked through my paperbacks.
Oh, the humiliation.
I had dozens of well-worn paranormal romances on those shelves.
I took a sip of the coffee without thinking and went very still as a smooth, rich brew slid over my tongue. “Mother of all that’s holy,” I breathed out as I swallowed. “This is amazing.”
Justice looked pleased with himself. “I did tell you.” He reached for the mug and I slapped his hand. “Get your own.”
He blinked, frowned, and then said, “But that is my own.”
“Not anymore,” I said, taking another drink of the heated nectar.
His eyes sparkled with mirth as he shook his head. “The fanged ones are called vampires in your culture, I believe. They are a big part of the reason travelers and guides exist.”
I finished off the coffee and handed him the mug. He refilled it from the bullet-shaped canaster and handed it back to me.
“Okay, treat me like I know nothing, because I don’t, and give me the Travelers for Dummies pitch. I’ll probably do less damage if I have a clue what we’re supposed to be doing.”
Justice sat back against a smooth rock. “It is very simple, really…”
I doubted that.
“Travelers find interdimensional fugitives and guides help them address the problem.”
“Address the problem?”
Justice turned to me, narrowing those startling blue eyes. “Are you aware that you have a tendency to repeat statements and frame them as questions?”
“Repeat statements?” I fought to keep my lips from curving upward.
