Burning to Ashes (7 page)

She stepped away from him. “No…yes.” She turned toward him. “No, I guess, but stop trying to make my decisions for me.”

He reached for her to pull her into his arms, and she stepped back out of his reach.

“No! What happened was wrong.” She paused. “We made a mistake, and it can’t happen again, okay?”

“No, not okay.” He stepped forward towering over her. “It wasn’t wrong. It couldn’t have been more right.”

Scarlet tilted her head up to look him in the eye.

“I don’t know what kind of woman you think I am, but I’m not the kind of woman who messes with a guy who’s got someone, it’s not in me.”

“Wait, what?”

Heath pushed through the door with a mop and a bucket.

Archer glared over at Heath for the bad timing, then grabbed Scarlet’s wrist, and dragged her into the bedroom.

“What do you mean,
a guy that’s got someone
?” he asked as he shoved the door closed.

Scarlet went to sit on the bed, then thought better of it, and moved to stand with her back to the opposite wall.

“Selene told me. So you can’t pretend you are single.”

He sighed, and scrubbed his face with his hands. “What Selene told you is nothing more than a fantasy—
her
fantasy.”

He walked up to Scarlet, and took her chin in his fingers, lifting her face. “Look at me when I tell you this. Selene is
not
my
She
. She never was, but she wanted to be.”

“You are sure?”

“Of course I’m sure.” He gave her the most beautiful smile. “My beast never recognized her. He has other ideas.”

“Oh?” Scarlet was itching with curiosity. Was he telling her that he did have a
She?

“Never mind the,
oh.
Just believe me when I tell you that I’m not with Selene, or any other woman.”

“But what did you mean…”

Someone knocked on the door. “Hey, Archer, how ‘bout you get your ass out here so we can plan the next leg of the journey, and how about you do it before Geo and his sidekick get back,” Tate’s voice growled through the wood of the door.

“We are on our way,” Archer called, then dipped his head to slant a kiss over Scarlet’s lips.

“We’ll continue this discussion later, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Good.” He went and pulled the door open. “Well? Are you coming?”

Scarlet gave him a bright smile, and followed him out the door.

Chapter Seven

Four tables were pushed together in the front of the diner, and everyone was vying for a place around them. The copied map to the Unnamed Oracle was spread in the middle of the table, and the other maps were spread around it.

Scarlet found herself a spot and staked a claim. She was prepared to use elbows to protect it, but the others didn’t try and push her away. It surprised her, because up ‘til now, these people had been happy to make all her decisions for her and keep her out of the information loop.

Sophia came to stand next to Scarlet, giving her a conspiratorial wink. “This is going to be fun, so sit back, and watch males be males.”

“What, no GPS coordinates?” Erik asked as he pushed his way in between Heath and Sophia.

Heath snorted and muttered, “Smartass.”

Tate leaned over the maps, read them for a second, and said, “This is what we are going to do—we are going to take this route. It will get us to the town of Nightingale by nightfall, and then we can find a motel and hunker down for the day.” He used his finger to draw out the route he wanted to take on the map.

“Don’t be an idiot,” Heath chimed in. “If we take that route, we are going fifty clicks out of our way.”

Erik slapped Heath on the back of the head, “Who says clicks, really? We are bounty hunters not Army Rangers.”

“Do that again, and I’ll rip your hand off and feed it to my dog,” Heath growled.

“You don’t have a dog.”

“I’ll buy one especially for the task, a big ass mother, and I’ll call him Tinkerbelle, and when the other dogs tease him, and he gets all pissed off, I’ll tell him you named him.”

Scarlet decided to accept that these people were a total different breed than humans, and in more than just an esoteric way.

“Will you all shut-up?” Archer interrupted before Erik could come up with a comeback. “We are going this way, and stopping in Middleton come dawn.” He gave Erik a hard look. “Then, Heath can go buy Tinkerbelle.”

That began another argument, which had Sophia sighing and walking over to the window to peer outside.

* * * *

Scarlet found her thoughts drifting as she tuned the testosterone fest out.

She had a few questions that needed answers, and they were annoying her. For one, who was the other woman that Archer’s beast had his sights on, and had he been with her, yet. Did that make her letting him kiss her wrong?

Okay, it was more than a few, but they were all about Archer, and whether she could trust him or not.

So far, Scarlet had trusted him with her life, and trust didn’t come easy to her. Could she trust him with her heart?

Heart? What? No!

What the hell was she thinking? Her heart had nothing to do with this situation at all.

Her heart was safe in her chest and so were her emotions. All she had was a hot case of the lusties.

So, if it were just lust, wouldn’t it be okay to give in? So what if she enjoyed Archer’s body. There was nothing wrong with that, and trust wasn’t an issue. No risk of heartbreak, or hurt, since her heart wasn’t involved, she assured herself.

Not that she was the kind of woman to sleep around. In fact, her experience with that was limited to a few encounters.

Still, if she was going to do it, Archer was the guy she wanted to do it with.

All the towering-broad-shouldered-sculpted yumminess of him. The thought led to the memory of the night before, the way he’d grabbed her, the way he’d kissed her. The strong male power he’d used to make her melt for him.

Scarlet didn’t realize she was staring at Archer while absently nibbling on her lower lip.

“Scarlet…” Archer spoke. “ Hello?”

“Oh, sorry. You were asking me something?”

“What were you thinking of that had your expression so dreamy?” Erik wiggled his eyebrows at her.

“Nothing, and my expression was not dreamy.” She dropped her gaze. Then she realized the gesture screamed guilty, and raised her face again, changing the subject. “Are all of you done arguing about the route now?”

“Yes. Archer wore a knowing grin.

She cleared her throat. “Good.”

“Archer won the argument,” Sophia said, looking over from her spot at the window. “Just in case you missed the end there.”

“No, I didn’t. Of course he…” Scarlet spluttered. “I’ll go get my bag.”

“You do that,” Archer told her, his lips still curled in that wicked grin, as if he knew what she’d been thinking about.

Scarlet stopped half way to the swing door. She felt the blood drain from her face as she turned back. “Are any of you a telepath or something weird like that?”

“Honey, you don’t need to be a telepath to figure out where your thoughts were,” Tate said with an evil grin.

“Tate? Stuff a sock in it would you?” Scarlet lifted her chin and turned to push through the swinging door.

The sound of warm laughter followed her out of the room.

* * * *

They travelled in two cars. Tate and Heath were in the Impala. Archer, Scarlet, Zane, Sophia, and Erik were in the SUV. When Zane had grumbled about his legroom, Erik had told him that if he wanted the back seat all to himself he was welcome to scrunch himself into the backseat of the Impala. Zane had sighed with eloquence, and scrunched himself into the back of the SUV instead.

They had been traveling for two hours when they turned onto a road and Archer frowned and pulled over, putting the SUV in neutral and getting out of the car to meet Tate as they pulled in behind the SUV.

“This isn’t supposed to be a dirt road. You’ve taken a wrong turn somewhere,” Tate said as he slid out of the Impala and strode up to Archer.

“I know how to read a map. This is our turn off, and I
didn’t
take a wrong turn.” Archer flattened the map on the back of the car as Scarlet twisted around to see what the males were doing.

“I’m telling you, you
must
have taken a wrong turn. This is supposed to be solid tarred road.” Tate pointed out their approximate position on the map, then gestured to the road in front of the cars. It was dirt road, and beat up, with potholes and ditches, and big boulders in the middle of it.

“This road leads nowhere, so we turn around, and this time I’ll take the lead.” Tate insisted.

Archer opened his mouth to protest.

“Damn it, Arch, just let Tate lead the way. He won’t stop nagging until you do, and I don’t feel like dealing with old-woman-wet-pants the whole trip.” Heath then leaned out of the passenger side window of the Impala.

Tate raised his middle finger at Heath.

Archer snapped his mouth closed and swallowed his argument. He turned and walked to the driver’s side of the SUV, then looked over his shoulder as he got into the car. “You better not get us lost, Tate.”

* * * *

Tate had been leading the way for a half an hour when he made the turn off, but within a foot of turning, he pulled the Impala over to the side of the road and got out. He leaned on the trunk with his arms crossed over his chest, and waited for Archer to get out of the SUV.

Archer slammed the driver side door shut behind him. “I told you not to take a wrong turn.”

Scarlet got out of the passenger side of the car, and moved around to the front. She had made an observation and she wanted to tell them before the males could really start yelling.

“Forgive me if I’m wrong here, but this kind of thing has been happening to me way too much for me to call it coincidence.”

“What is it, Scarlet,? We don’t have time for speculation now.”

Tate scowled at her, causing Archer to growl low. “Watch your tone.”

She ignored them both and sighed. “Did it occur to anyone that someone wants us on this road? I’m pretty sure it’s exactly the same as the last time we made a turn off.” Scarlet pointed at a lightning damaged oak tree on the left hand side of the road, then at a large boulder sitting a fraction from the middle of the dirt road.

Sophia rolled down the window on the SUV. “Scarlet is right. It’s the same road.”

Archer let off a string of curses. “What now!”

Heath had gotten out of the car and walked over. “We could turn around and try to keep going the way we’d planned to.”

“That’s so pointless, it’s laughable.” Sophia then opened the car door. “Whatever is making this road appear will continue to make the road appear until we take it. This is heavy magic.”

“And how could you possibly know it’s heavy magic,” Heath asked with a raised eyebrow. “Magic isn’t your thing, remember?”

Erik joined the impromptu roadside conference. “She might be guessing, but I know for sure, this is magic and it’s the strongest I’ve felt in a long time.”

“So what do we do?” Zane asked.

All eyes turned to Archer.

He was quiet a moment, staring into the distance where the road led.

“We gear up and follow the road. Be ready for anything, and don’t let your guard down.”

He focused on Tate. “You take point in the Impala. I want a buffer between whatever is ahead, and Scarlet.”

“You don’t have to protect me all of the time. This could have nothing to do with me,” Scarlet protested.

Archer opened the car door, and got back in. “I know this has to do with you. I’m so sure, I’m about to bet our lives on it.”

Scarlet said nothing. There was no point in arguing with him when he got that stubborn look in his eyes, so she shut up and got back in the car.

The air in the SUV was thick with tension as they drove further up the road. Soon the Impala was struggling to get through the overgrown and pot-holed parts of the road. The SUV fared better because of its four-wheel drive, but if the road became much worse, they would have to abandon the Impala and all squeeze into the SUV.

As sudden as the dirt road began, it turned into a cobblestoned driveway that wound around a hill. As they rounded the bend, there was a collective gasp.

“What the?” Zane breathed.

“Now that was unexpected.” Erik shifted, knocking his elbow into Sophia.

“Watch it, you big lug,” she complained, but no one took their eyes off the magnificent mansion they were driving up to.

It looked more like a hotel, and it reminded Scarlet of the
Overlook Hotel
from Stephen King’s
The Shining
. That gave her a couple of apprehensive goose bumps.

The grounds in front were spectacular—a circular section of landscaped lawn resplendent with topiaries, but not in the shapes of animals as might be expected. These topiaries were shaped like mythical creatures. There was a dragon, a mermaid, even a troll.

The Impala parked at the top of the rounded driveway at the foot of the stairs led up to the double doors of the mansion.

Tate and Heath waited at the foot of the stairs for the rest to join them.

Archer parked the SUV next to the Impala so they’d have a quick getaway if necessary.

Scarlet felt her nerves tingle. Yet another unknown. If she wasn’t as used to change as she was, she was sure she’d be losing her mind by now.

Roll with the punches, duck the disasters.

She opened her car door, but didn’t get a chance to step out before Archer was there and using his body as a shield for hers.

“Next time, wait until I’m here before you even open the door,” he told her in a low voice that wasn’t meant to carry any further than her ears.

She chose not to tell him to go jump. The poor male was only looking out for her.