Alpha Blood Box Set(85)
I laughed. “Maybe next time. I don’t think I could do the party part right now, but the slumber sounds really tempting.”
“Come, Abby, it’s very much past your bedtime,” Martha scolded her child. She unlatched Abby from my legs and led her back toward the room.
Luke and I lay down on our beds, and I made sure to scoot mine close enough to his so they touched. Then I snuggled up against him with my face buried in his neck. “Did I mention how much I missed your warm body?” I asked him.
“Yes,” he told me.
I yawned and my eyelids forced themselves closed. The time must have been past midnight. “Well, I did. . .”
That was the last I remember until, at an hour I can only describe as Too-God-Damn-Early. I felt myself pulled from Luke’s warm body and set down on the blankets. I lay still, but creaked open my eyes. Luke climbed to his feet and behind him stood Burnbaum.
“What is it? Have you heard from the driver?” Luke whispered to him.
“Yes. Wilson says he will meet you where he left Becky, but he says there are many problems. Lance’s men now are in many regions and towns, and causing trouble where they stay. People are getting mad and fighting back, but that makes travel very dangerous.”
“We’ll have to take that risk, and the more men Lance has in the other regions the fewer we will have to fight at the compound. Has there been any word about the compound or Sanctuary?” Luke inquired.
“Nothing from compound. We cannot get too close because patrols may find them and capture them, and then game is up for us,” he explained. “At Sanctuary battle is better. The sheriff is not there any longer and Simpling is a coward. He cannot lead his own men.” Burnbaum stroked his beard. “I do not know if Sanctuary is worth trouble. We have lost many already.”
“We can’t let their deaths be in vain, and if we capture the capital and Lance then the war will end much faster,” Luke pointed out.
“I suppose, but do you think this Callean will help us?” Burnbaum wondered.
“He has no love for Lance and his family is greatly attached to Stacy, so we may have a chance,” Luke replied. “What time are we to meet this Wilson?”
“He will be at meeting place in two hours, and I think it only takes one hour to get to spot from here,” Burnbaum told him.
“Does Brier know yet about the message?” Luke wondered.
Burnbaum nodded. “Yes. He is preparing to leave right now and will be here soon.”
“All right. We’ll prepare to leave and wait for him. If anything changes send your fastest wolf to inform us,” Luke advised.
“I will. Now I must stand watch over barn and cannot see you off.” Burnbaum held out a hand and smiled at Luke. “Be well, my friend.”
Luke took the hand and gave it a firm shake. You, too.”
They broke apart and Burnbaum turned to me. “You will have to keep Luke out of trouble, Becky,” he teased me.
My game was up. I raised my head and snorted. “I don’t think that’s possible.”
Burnbaum chuckled. “No, I think not. Goodbye, my friends.”
We parted on our farewells, and I climbed to my feet. “So time to leave?” I guessed.
“Time to leave,” Luke agreed.
I stood and winced when my aching body protested. The previous battle was hardly a few hours old, and here we were getting ready to travel. The door to the bedroom opened and light streamed into the open space. Martha stepped out in her nightgown and looked to us. “Are you leaving already?” she asked us.
“Yes, I’m afraid we must leave your hospitable home for another long journey, but we hope for this to be our last,” Luke told her.
“Then allow me to provide you with backpacks and pack you some food. You cannot go hungry on such an important mission,” she insisted.
Martha evidently wasn’t going to take ‘no’ for an answer because she shut off the bedroom light and swept across the floor into the kitchen. She turned on the light and scoured the cupboards and refrigerator for food. “The backpacks are in the closet near the front door,” she informed us.
Luke fetched the backpacks from the closet just as the front door opened, and Adam slipped inside. He had a backpack over one shoulder and dark pouches under his eyes. I doubt he’d slept a wink. “Are you ready?” he asked us.
“We need to pack, but we will be ready in plenty of time to reach the rendezvous area,” Luke assured him.
Martha stuffed as much homemade goodies as could be crammed into our bags, and even folded the blankets and tied them to the tops of the packs. In a quarter of an hour Luke and I strapped on our packs brimming full of food and care, and turned to our lovely hostess. She smiled back at us, and there were hints of tears in her eyes. “God keep you safe,” she told us.
I smiled back at her. “We’ll come back. I still have to have a slumber party with Abby.”
Martha bowed her head and led us to the door. “Then you have to hurry back. Abby isn’t a very patient girl.”
“We’ll try,” I promised.
Adam led our small group out into the cold, starry night. I could see my breath and snuggled against Luke for his warmth. In the woods I could just make out the forms of the captives snuggled beneath blankets provided by Burnbaum’s group. I tried to find the familiar shapes of Ian and Emily, but my eyes were too tired to discern their forms. Martha stood on the threshold of the home and waved to us. “Good luck,” she spoke up.
“Thanks. We’ll need it,” I replied.
We headed away from that little glimmer of paradise and out into the dark woods. There was plenty of time left for the rendezvous, and our speed in our human forms was still much faster than the normal human. We jogged through the woods with our full backpacks as quiet as church mice on our backs. Martha had packed everything tight so nothing would rattle and alert our enemies. Abby was really lucky to have that great of a mom.
“Have any of Lance’s patrols been seen in the woods since the sheriff’s attack?” Luke asked Adam.
Adam, who played the leader right then, glanced over his shoulder and shook his head. “No, but with that de-scent formula they could have reconnaissance groups watching us right now and we wouldn’t know they were there unless they made a noise.”
“Comforting,” I mumbled.
“It was not meant to be. We must all stay on our guard until we reach the safety of this Wilson’s truck, and even then we can only out-drive any pursuers for so long before we reach the border to Prospera,” he warned us.
Our little group was quiet for a few minutes until a wind blew past us. Adam and Luke stopped and glanced around, and I, too, smelled something distinctly familiar in the breeze. We stood in a wide part of the path, and I could see nothing move around us. I pressed close to Luke and felt his stiff body. “What is it?” I whispered.
“It’s just us,” a voice spoke up, and out from the shadows stepped Ian and Emily. Emily was the speaker, and she had a grin on her face as she crossed her arms over her chest. “And you won’t stand a chance against Lance in his own territory unless we help you.”
Adam snarled at them. “And why should we trust you? You could still be in Lance’s employ and merely wish to be led to Callean.”
Emily rolled her eyes. “Your brother tried to kill us, and this girl is our witness to prove it,” she argued, gesturing to me.
“Possibly a ruse to gain our trust,” Adam countered.
She snorted. “You believe we would need that complicated a ruse to fool you?”
“Why do you believe we won’t survive in Lance’s region?” Luke spoke up. Adam pressed his lips together, but didn’t interrupt.
Emily smirked and leaned against Ian. “Because Lance has that place fortified like a vault. You’ll be lucky to cross the border without getting shot, and even if you do get in there he has more loyalists than those who hate him.”
“And you can ensure we won’t be captured?” Luke wondered.
“Or shot?” I spoke up.
“We were Captains, after all,” Emily reminded us.
“And may still be,” Adam argued.
She glared at him. “After what he did to us? No way. Besides, we followed Alston and Cranston because they cared about us. Connor would rather shoot us himself than see us captured.”
“So this is revenge for you?” Luke guessed.
Emily smiled and gave a nod. “You bet. We’ll help you across the border if you give us a chance at Connor, and see what he did to Cranston. The Boy Scout here has already taken care of that stupid sheriff,” she added, nodding her head toward Adam. “Oh, and if you say no we’re still going to follow you, and having two parties spread out means there’s double the chance of one of us getting caught.”
Adam scowled at the pair. “Then it would be safer if we fought you here rather than-”
“We accept your offer,” Luke interrupted him.
Adam whipped his head to Luke. “Are you mad? No good can come of allowing murderers with us,” he argued.
“Perhaps not, but I would rather have them with us than behind us,” Luke countered.
Emily smiled and clapped her hands together. “Good! Now how about we get going to the rendezvous point before I freeze to death?”