Blood Winter (15 page)

G
ISELLE BENT AND RELEASED THE WARD CIRCLE.
Magic continued to surround her as she turned to face the five Blades who had flanked her throughout the ritual. One by one, she set a hand on them. Black magic wrapped them and slid away, leaving them healed.

Once they were done, Tyler sent Oak and Steel to the opposite side of the clearing, no doubt to see if they could find the soldier Max had left there. It wasn’t likely he could have survived the burst of magic and the flattening of the trees. Gates was his name, Max remembered.

Tyler helped Giselle across the river. A look of relief filled his face when he saw Max. He led Giselle over, but Max waved her away.

“Jody needs you more. I can wait,” she said, trying to quiet her shivers.

“Occasionally, you could go first,” Giselle said sourly, but she went.

Tyler glanced at Max as if he wanted to say something, but then he went with Giselle. Max resisted the urge to call him back and ask about Simon. Instead, she forced herself to stand and wobbled slowly down to the edge of the creek. Dropping to her knees, she scooped up some of the icy water and drank it. She scowled at the taste and realized her hands were covered with blood and demon gore. She rinsed them and washed her mouth out before drinking again.

Tyler returned, leading Liam’s three men. One of them, the black-haired man who’d spoken up about Gates before, limped over and stopped in front of Max, his legs braced wide, as if he might tip over at any moment. He was wet, and blood trickled from a dozen cuts on his head and arms. His clothes were torn and ragged. He carried his gun propped on his shoulder. The other two men were in similar condition. He scowled at her, his gray eyes tense.

“What did you do with O’Ryan and Cruz?”

Max looked up at him, not bothering to stand. She wasn’t sure she could at the moment. Her body was quaking, and her voice, when she spoke, shook almost unintelligibly. “They’re safe.”

“Where are they?”

She shook her head and waved vaguely westward. “Over there, I think.”

“You think?” he demanded, and Tyler made a warning sound.

“That’s right, Bambi. I think.”

Hands closed on Max’s shoulders. Giselle. She’d heard the witch coming, of course. Magic coursed downward, filling her. Warmth followed hard on its heels. A moment later, she shook off Giselle and stood. It wasn’t a full healing, but her body could do the rest. Giselle had already used up too much of herself, and she wasn’t done. The soldiers needed help, too.

Wordlessly, Giselle healed each of the three. Oak and Steel returned carrying a battered man. He looked as if he’d been beaten with a dozen baseball bats. His helmet had an orange-sized dent in it. Blood seeped down his neck and stained his shoulders. His right ribs were caved in, and ends of bone thrust through the flesh of his legs and one arm. His nose was mashed, and his mouth was a pulpy mess.

“Oh, my God,” one of the other soldiers whispered, and then vomited.

Bambi’s face went white and blank. He swallowed hard. “Gates,” he grated, and said nothing else.

“Is he breathing?” Max asked.

“Barely,” Oak replied as he settled him on the ground. “And not for long.”

“Get out of my way,” Giselle said. She knelt down. Taking a breath, she drew power from around her. She held her hands out above him, and magic snaked from her palms. It wormed into his body. She began to mutter beneath her breath, and magic swelled thickly in the air. Soon it was impossible to see her or Gates.

Max pulled Tyler aside. “Where’s Simon?”

He looked down. “I don’t know. You jumped out with the two men, and we fought our way to the creek. I thought he made it, but then we haven’t seen him. There’s been no time to look . . .”

She nodded, her throat knotting. Turning to her other Blades, she said, “Simon’s missing. Find him. Check downstream. He might have washed down.”

They scattered. Max glanced down at Giselle. She ought to stay. The three soldiers might not take it well if their companion died. They might decide to get a little revenge.

“Yates and Talsky, you’re with me. We don’t leave anybody behind,” Bambi told Max by way of explanation, and he started off with the other two to search for Simon.

She hesitated a moment and then set off after them.

THE WIND HAD STARTED TO PICK UP, BLOWING AWAY
much of the demon stench. For that, Max was grateful. Giselle’s binding spell had destroyed all of their physical remnants, but the smell wanted to linger.

Flint and Steel had followed the creek south, while everyone else had begun a systematic search of the canyon. There was still no sign of him. With every passing minute, Max’s chest grew more hollow. Refusing to give up hope, she searched through the flattened trees. A holler brought her running. Oak had found him at last.

His body had wedged between two boulders in an eddy of the creek. Oak pulled him out, laid him on the bank, and pumped his chest. Simon’s eyes were staring and lifeless. His wounds had been washed clean. The ugly red hashes contrasted sharply with his pale, wet skin.

“C’mon,” Oak muttered as he compressed Simon’s chest.

It was too late. There was no life left in him. No small ember to blow back into flame.

“He’s gone,” Max said in a soft, toneless voice.

Tyler made a strangled sound and spun around. He strode away, his body rigid with emotion.

Oak balled his fists, his head hanging down. “Dammit!”

Max brushed her fingers over his head and bent to pick up Simon’s dripping body. Tears ran silently down her cheeks. She didn’t try to stop them; she couldn’t if she wanted to. She carried him back to where Giselle had just finished healing the injured man.

Giselle watched as they approached, her arms wrapped around herself. Her eyes were sunken and shadowed, her shoulders hunched with exhaustion. Max came to a stop in front of her. The witch looked at Simon and closed her eyes. A moment later, she opened them.

“Let’s take him home.”

Flint hoisted the healed Gates, and they started up out of the canyon. Max sent Nami and Jody ahead to find the truck.

They went silently, passing the sleeping soldier among them, lifting him over the fallen trees. Max refused to let go of Simon, using her angel’s feather to take long leaps up to the rim of the canyon. Bambi and the other two soldiers clambered over the mess of fallen wood. Despite their exhaustion, they remained alert and watchful. Tyler made his own solitary way, although he didn’t go far. He wouldn’t. Just in case something else attacked.

They slogged westward through the dense curtain of snow. A foot had already fallen, smothering the mountains and trees in heavy silence. Despite her grief, Max kept an eye out for any sign of the red dust. Where it went, nothing good followed.

Nami and Jody returned and led the way to the truck. It was a three-mile trek. By the time they arrived, they were all soaked to the skin, and all four of the soldiers were shivering.

Liam met them. His gaze settled on his injured man in Oak’s arms. He scowled.

“He’s going to be fine,” Giselle said. “He’ll wake when he’s ready.”

“What happened?” he asked.

Bambi answered. “A shit storm,” he said tersely.

Liam took the hint and asked nothing else. He eyed Simon and gave Max a nod of sympathy.

He and his companion had kept the back of the truck clean of snow, and now the group loaded up. Oak took the wheel, with Giselle riding shotgun. Gates sat in the backseat with two of his companions, while everyone else sat in the bed. Everybody but Tyler, who claimed the four-wheeler.

The return to Horngate was made in silence. Max sat with Simon across her lap and her back against the cab. She brushed the snow away from his face, not ready to see him shrouded in death.

They went north to Highway 90, then down back through Missoula. There was no traffic. Their truck was dead silent, and Oak needed no lights to see by. They were a ghost.

As they started down Reserve Street, Max came out of her grief enough to realize that maybe Liam and his men might want to go back to their own homes instead of to Horngate.

“Do you want us to drop you off somewhere?” she asked. “We’ll take you wherever you want to go.”

Liam rubbed his jaw, considering the question. “Are you saying you don’t want us to see where you’re from? Or maybe you want to know where we’re from?”

Max shook her head, too tired in her body and soul to spar with him. “I’m saying you might want a ride home. If you don’t want us to know where you live, you can get out here and walk to wherever you’re going. If you want to see Horngate, we’ll bring you back into town whenever you want. I don’t much care. Just make up your mind.”

He exchanged a look with Bambi, who shrugged, and then he said, “We’ll go with you.”

“Fine,” Max said, and went back to brooding.

THANKS TO THE EXTRA HELP OF MAGIC, THE TRUCK WAS
able to plow through the snow with relative ease. When they returned to Horngate, everything was covered in a thick layer of white. They pulled into the parking cavern. Everyone piled out in slow silence. Max came last, Simon’s body cold and stiff in her arms.

She said nothing to anyone but strode inside, carrying him through the fortress to the angel vault. She stood in the middle, facing the fountain. There were only the two slabs for the angels. Her chest hurt with the emotion building up inside. She couldn’t stop crying, and her nose was running. She sniffed and went around to the other side of the fountain. The ground was covered in gray ash. She scraped it away with her foot. A few seconds later, Tyler joined her, peeling off his tattered shirt and swiping the floor clean.

When he was through, Max knelt and laid Simon down, straightening his limbs and smoothing the hair away from his face. The pressure in her chest grew, churning unbearably. Her skin felt tight, like it would split from the building strain.

Suddenly, she lunged to her feet. Tyler stood behind her. His hands hung at his sides, and his face was empty. She wanted to say something to him, but she didn’t know how to comfort him. She didn’t know how to comfort herself. Instead, she slid past him and back out into the corridor.

Giselle was there, along with her other Blades and most of the Sunspears—Max’s daylight counterparts. She ignored them all, striding past as if wolves were chasing her.

She should have gone to eat and replenish her energy stores. Instead, she went to her apartment. She needed to be alone. Inside, the wards prevented her Prime power from leaking out onto everybody else. She’d asked Giselle to install them when people started complaining about the torrent of power that spun out of control when she and Alexander were together. It was now the one place of real privacy she had, where she could hide and let her emotions get away from her.

The door shut behind her. She leaned back against it, closing her eyes. Instantly, she opened them again. She didn’t really want to be alone. She didn’t want to think. She ached for Alexander more than she could say.

She almost reached for her phone to call him, but it was gone, along with her vest. Not that she would have actually called. After the way he’d walked away from her, after the way she’d driven him off, what would she say?
Sorry I was a bitch, but I need you now, so do you mind pretending I’m sane and you still want me? At
least, until the next time I freak out again and push you away?
That would go over well.

She went to the bathroom and peeled off her stinking clothing and scrubbed away the blood, dirt, and demon goo. She stayed in the shower for more than an hour. Eventually, the sobs came, tearing at her with wrenching violence. She held them back as long as she could, but they wouldn’t be contained forever. She stood in the steam, leaning against the wall as her grief and guilt for Simon, Niko, and the angels poured out of her.

When the storm was over, she was drained. Like a robot, she went to her bedroom and dressed in a pair of sweats and a T-shirt. That left her with nothing to do but think, the thing she wanted to do least of all.

She sat on the edge of her bed. It was still rumpled and smelled of Alexander and sex. She rested her elbows on her knees and pressed her forehead against her knotted hands. It wasn’t until then that she realized her floor was covered in a layer of red dust.

She straightened and tried to pick her feet off the floor. They didn’t move. She could do nothing but watch as the dust collected into two long snakes. They wound around her legs and slid up over her thighs and stomach, circling her body until the dust covered her like a second skin from head to toe.

When she was completely enshrouded, she found herself being gently bent back onto the bed.

Darkness dragged her down.

T
HOR AND ALEXANDER ELECTED TO GO NORTH TO
Divide, then up through Butte and west on 90 for the return trip home. Somewhere between Anaconda and Deer Lodge, Alexander gave a guttural noise and flung open his door.

“What the hell?”

Thor jammed on the brakes and skidded to a stop. Alexander launched from the truck, ran a few feet, and then stopped and turned in a circle. His Prime was frenzied. Every muscle was corded. There was no enemy. It was far away, and it was not threatening him at all.