Wild Night Road(32)

Tasha lifted a brow.
“I promise,” Lilith said. “No more secrets.”
“I’m holding you to it.” Tasha turned away and headed for the ladder.
Lilith, left in the great room near the door, circled her sore shoulder, and wished they could all go to sleep and wake to a fresh day.
One where werewolves didn’t track her and strange demons didn’t attack and her life belonged to no one but herself.
It was a nice dream, but she’d learned long ago that dreaming didn’t make it so.
She opened the door and headed back into the dark.






 
    Nine by Night: A Multi-Author Urban Fantasy Bundle of Kickass Heroines, Adventure,   Magic
    
 


 

CHAPTER SIXTEEN


Funny about sleep. When you needed it most was when it said adios and left your brain wide-awake to churn every stupid detail. Like that would help.
Up in the so-called sleeping loft of the cabin, Tasha threw off the quilt and scooted to the edge of the bed, let her legs dangle and rested her face in her palms. She’d washed most of the filth from the night’s barefoot run from her feet, but they still throbbed and felt like she might have suffered a few tiny cuts. Her new black dress was ruined, also.
And her shoe.
The one she’d lost when she’d run from those things. She’d found it on the ground next to Lilith, charred as if it’d been barbecued. She’d asked Lilith about it in the car, but hadn’t gotten a satisfactory answer. In truth, she didn’t care about the shoe, because if it had, in some bizarre way, helped Lilith survive, she was cool with that.
But what the fuck? Who torched a shoe? And how?
Lilith had promised answers when she returned, and Tasha was going to dig them out of her even if she had to tie her down and use sharp objects.#p#分页标题#e#
Giving up on rest for the moment, she crossed to the ladder, climbed down to the great room and turned on one of the table lamps.
In another time, she would have loved spending the night in a rustic cabin. Might have admired the red leather sofa and the striped, cotton rug and the lamps that looked like they’d been fashioned by local artisans. But all she could see was Erin’s pale face against the rich leather. She couldn’t shake the feeling that something more serious was wrong than simple overindulgence.
Sitting on the matching chair next to the sofa, she studied her friend. Erin’s eyes moved restlessly back and forth under the thin skin of her eyelids. Her jaw worked as if she was attempting to speak, but all that came out were weak moans. Tasha rested her palm on Erin’s forehead. The skin was hot and dry.
Too hot.
That fever needed to come down. The hell with Lilith, Tasha decided.
She rose and found a clean cloth in the kitchen, doused it in cold water from the tap and returned to Erin, draping the cloth over her forehead. At the cool, wet touch, Erin gasped, but seemed to quiet after that.
Next, Tasha uncapped the ibuprofen bottle, tapped out two small caplets. In the kitchen, she opened cabinet doors until she found a glass, filled it with a couple inches of water, opened the caplets and tilted them until the contents spilled into the liquid. She swirled it around to mix the medicine.
Back at the sofa, she sat on the edge, lifted Erin’s head gently to prop it on her thigh and pressed the glass to Erin’s mouth. Up close, she noted that Erin’s lips were as pale the skin on her cheeks. They looked chapped and dry. She raised the glass until a few drops of water dribbled. Erin’s tongue flicked out. Tasha took advantage of the slight opening to tilt the glass higher. About a spoonful of the doctored water flowed into Erin’s mouth. It gurgled, and for a minute, Tasha thought she might choke, but Erin managed to swallow.
And so it went, one baby swallow at a time until the glass was empty.
With a sigh, Tasha rested the glass on the polished surface of the coffee table and moved over to the chair. She tugged a throw off the back of the chair, wrapped it around her shoulders and curled up in the chair, dozing and keeping an eye on her sleeping friend.



The cave entrance was hidden from casual view by thick undergrowth that gave natural cover. Over the years Gaebryl had added more and more to the complex string of protection wards draped over the surrounding pines, outcroppings of granite and blackberry bushes until the assemblage blinked blue and silver like an enthusiastic holiday display at a suburban shopping mall. All it needed was a couple menorahs, a Star of David, eight tiny reindeer and a red fat suit.
That or excess simply suited the seraphim’s ego.
Lilith had no doubt where her opinion landed on the subject.
She picked her way across a field of never realm land mines, flipping them from blue to white as she passed, then turning around and voicing the spell that switched them back on again before lifting a barely visible silver garland that neatly beheaded an unsuspecting trespasser.