“I’m fine. Fantastic, actually.” Her body felt supercharged, like she was a superhero or a junky on a high. “I feel like I’m ready to take this guy on. The only question is how.” She stepped into her underwear and jeans, pulling them up her dust-smeared legs.
“First thing is to find him then we’ll figure out how to break him.” Grant was already half dressed in jeans and boots. He delved in the backpack and threw them each a bottle of water.
Sherrie guzzled most of hers and used a little to rinse her face. She dressed quickly, but even so the shifters were both waiting for her by the time she’d tied her shoes. She wished she had a moment to process what had just happened, but there was no time. They should leave the ravine before their nemesis realized they were free. Nemesis—not a word she’d ever expected to use in her lifetime. What would be next?
Minions? She shuddered and hoped not.
Grant shouldered the backpack this time and forged ahead. John took Sherrie’s hand, helping her climb over the remaining rubble blocking the path. They went back the way they’d come, down the steep slope, as the path leading up had been virtually destroyed. Besides, they could be picked off one by one by anyone watching that pass.
“Now what?” Sherrie panted as she trotted along trying to keep up with John’s long, loping gait.
“We’ll go around, find another way up.”
“And then?”
He shrugged and continued walking fast.
“Could we hold up a minute?” Sherrie called out to Grant, who was yards ahead of them and disappearing into the undergrowth. “Maybe make some kind of plan before we go any farther?” The panther shifter glanced over his shoulder. “Soon. I want to make sure we’re safely out of range first.”
She took a deep breath, pain lancing through her side, and ran on. Her feet ached from the chafing of her new shoes, and her panties were soaked with come, a sticky, uncomfortable sensation. But other than those discomforts, she was still glowing inside. She wondered if she possessed some powers now. Could she punch a fist through a brick wall? Shift into animal form like her companions? Fly? It was pretty obvious she couldn’t suddenly run faster, since she was practically staggering along behind John in her efforts to keep up.
At last Grant led them through a thicket of bushes into a grove of trees and stopped. Sherrie bent over, hands on her knees, and gasped for breath. The men weren’t even winded. She sat on the ground, stretching her legs before her and leaning back on her arms. She exhaled a long, ragged breath, wincing at the stitch in her side.
The woods were quiet except for birdsong, the buzz of insects and the rustling of leaves. Sherrie tilted her face up to the shafts of light spearing the canopy overhead. A breeze cooled her sweaty face, making her skin feel stiff from salt and grit.
So, here they were, and somewhere out there was their enemy—a being powerful enough to control peoples’ minds and maybe cause an avalanche. Was she now equally powerful? Sherrie reached out a tentative tendril from her mind, willing the leaves to shake. At that precise moment, the breeze rose and the branch she was staring at swayed, causing the leaves to tremble. Coincidence? Maybe.
She looked over at John, who was taking his shoe off and pouring pieces of gravel from it, and at Grant, who paced the perimeter of the clearing, stopping occasionally to listen. She felt a wave of affection for each of them and a sense that she knew them intimately, although they’d been acquainted such a short time. John’s caring warmth and Grant’s exciting energy were like two sides of a coin—both of them indispensable. You couldn’t spend half a coin. She wanted and needed them both.
“Sit,” she commanded Grant. “Let’s join hands while I try to locate our guy with my mind again.” Although she made the offer, Sherrie hoped one of them would think of an alternative. She didn’t want to meet this entity again, not in her mind or in person. He had a scary, off-balance vibe she imagined serial killers possessed.
Grant jumped on the suggestion. “That’s a good idea. Clearly you gain some power from joining with Walker and me. Use it to try to find our enemy’s weakness. If we feed you our strength, maybe you can even take him down with your mind.”
Not what she wanted to hear, but even John didn’t protest that it was too dangerous. He nodded agreement and scooted closer to take her hand. “Be careful.” Grant gracefully dropped down beside them and seized Sherrie and John’s hands. The warmth of his big palm engulfing her hand and John’s hard, callused grip on the other made Sherrie feel much more secure. Their union was strong. She could do this.