Cassie (The Coven's Grove Chronicles #3) (9 page)

The car started up just fine, despite the weather. Cassie cranked the heat, and just sat in the driver’s seat. The thought of taking off without Caleb crossed her mind, though it was more of a conditioned response she’d become accustomed to than an actual desire to leave. She crinkled her nose at the idea. It’d be stupid to go it on her own now, especially with that thing out there. How the creature had found her, and who its master was were still mysteries to her. But it had managed to find her once, and she had the sinking suspicion it would do so again.

More than fear prevented her from leaving however. She
wanted
to stay. Her feelings toward Caleb were headed in a direction she hadn’t expected. Maybe he could look past her mistakes and see a future with her.
Foolish,
she thought.
Don’t be so damn naive. You’re a criminal, and a freak to boot. He won’t be staying with you
.

As if her thoughts had summoned him, Caleb swung the door of the hotel room open. He had a towel wrapped around his waist, and water still dripped from his hair. Tendrils of steam drifted off of his broad shoulders and chest.

Cassie waved. The look of relief on his face was priceless, as he shut the door. She laughed, but it didn’t last. The reality of her situation pressed on her, and it sucked.

She slid over to the passenger seat when Caleb came back out, with clothes this time.

“You gave me a bit of a scare,” Caleb said, as he got in.

“Thought I was gonna take off, huh?”

“You are a fugitive,” he replied.

Cassie knew he meant it as a joke, but it still stung. “Let’s just get this over with.”

Caleb frowned and seemed on the verge of saying something, but instead he buckled his seatbelt without a word. They got on the road, slow, and steady. Caleb appeared lost in thought, which was fine with Cassie, she didn’t feel like talking anyway. The prospect of facing her past mistakes wasn’t as appealing as it felt yesterday, and striking up a conversation about it was even less so.

They pulled up to highway 35. Caleb sat at the intersection in silence. When the light finally turned green he continued to sit there, staring at the overpass.

Cassie glanced behind them. Thankfully, the bad weather had cleared the streets so no one was waiting on them. She then looked over at Caleb with concern. “What are you doing?”

His hands tightened on the steering wheel, so much so that the wheel creaked. “Making a big mistake,” he answered. With that, he drove past the onramp headed north, and went under the bridge to take the one headed south.

Tears welled in Cassie’s eyes. “We’re not heading back to Canada?”

“No, we’re not.”

She leaned over and kissed his cheek, and then did her best to not sob like a little girl. She hadn’t realized how much she’d been stressing about returning to her hometown. But with the burden of it suddenly lifted, Cassie truly understood the full weight of what she’d been carrying.

Caleb was decent enough to give her a moment to compose herself.

“Sorry. I’m usually not such a puss,” she said, as she wiped the corners of her eyes.

“Whatever,” he replied. “You hit like a girl too.”

“Shut up!” She smacked his arm, but not too hard. “You can stop being so nice to me now.”

“Fine, where’s my Taser...”

Cassie continued to laugh, as she gaped at him.
He went there
. “You are such a dick!”

He shrugged, “Gotta keep it interesting.”

“With friends like these, who needs monsters chasing after them,” Cassie stated wryly.

That pretty much killed the conversation, as Caleb’s laughter tapered off into silence.

Nicely done girl,
she thought with regret. She shouldn’t have been surprised though; seeing a creature that should only be in the movies wasn’t something people could swallow very well. Hell, she was having trouble with it, and she was supernatural herself. For the first time in five years, Cassie was at a complete loss. “What are we going to do?”

“About that thing?”

“About everything.”

“For now, we’re headed to Oklahoma,” Caleb answered. “I have a friend that lives there.”

“Oklahoma?” She frowned. “I know we’re headed south, but I thought we’d go a little farther, like Mexico?”

“Just for now, not permanently,” Caleb reiterated. “We need somewhere safe to hold up, until we figure out a plan.”

“I hope your friend has some heavy artillery. Have you talked to him—or her—about what’s going on?” Cassie glanced at Caleb, a bit on edge. She wasn’t sure how she felt about him telling someone else about her. She was a fugitive after all, as he had so eloquently pointed out. Not to mention the fact that a monster could be chasing her. Also, what kind of a friend was he talking about? A
girl
friend?

“Sorry, I should have mentioned that I called
him
this morning. I explained the situation. He said we could stay as long as we needed.”

“You explained the situation?” Cassie reached out and grabbed the dash, as she turned to look at Caleb. She could feel the familiar surge of heat crawl up from her stomach, whenever her power manifested. “Did you happen to tell him there’s a...a... I don’t even know what it is, chasing me? Or that I’m wanted by the law?”

Caleb eyed her, and then the dash. “Cassie, I need you to calm down.”

“I’m calm,” Cassie lied. “I mean it’s not like my world just got turned upside down two days ago.”

“Look at the dash, Cassie,” he said, real easy like.

She humored him. Her fingers had sunken into the dash, causing cracks to crawl away from each indention like spider webs. Seeing what she’d done, she instantly felt the heel. She quickly removed her hand. “Shit.” Doing damage to a car like this one was borderline sacrilege.

“We don’t have a lot of options,” Caleb continued. “If you’ve got a better idea, I’m all ears.”

Cassie placed her hands in her lap, and started wringing them. “No, I don’t.”

“It’s going to be okay.” He reached over, and placed his hand over hers. “We’ll figure this out.”

His touch tingled, as it usually did. The feeling helped distract her from the anxiety, and her power slowly cooled to a low simmer. “Sorry, I’m not used to people helping me.”

“It’s okay.”

Cassie leaned back, and looked out the window. Every so often there was a grouping of trees or a farmhouse, but for the most part the scenery was snow-covered flat land. She dozed off after a bit, and dreamt of a place where there were no bounty hunters, rapists, or monsters. Well, one bounty hunter was there, but he wasn’t hunting her. There was an enchanted forest with trees so large they couldn’t have been real. She and Caleb ran through the misty green woods without a care in the world, hopping over streams, and dancing in glades. She truly felt at ease for the first time since her dad had died.

Eventually, the happy pair found their way into a secluded grove. It teemed with life, and at its center was an altar made of stone and living wood. Cassie approached the dais alone. The intricately worked stone sparkled with golden light, as she stepped up beside it. She was bathed in loving warmth and belonging. She reached down and touched the smooth bowl that had been carved in the heavy block. A tingling, not unlike what she felt when touching Caleb, ran up her arm and through her body. Bliss.

Cassie jolted awake. “Holy shit, that was weird!”

Caleb chuckled, “
You’re
weird.”

She grimaced at him, then rubbed her temples. A splitting headache had crept in, and set up shop just behind her eyes.

“Need an aspirin?” Caleb asked.

“Yeah, or a drill.”

Caleb motioned to the glove box. “In there.”

Cassie popped it open, and found the solution to her pain in the form of an aspirin bottle. “Thanks.”

“You didn’t sleep for very long.”

“Really?” She swallowed a couple of the little white pills. “Felt like I was out for a day.”

“More like an hour.”

This wasn’t the first time she’d experienced a lapse in time after a hard sleep, but this particular incident was different. Maybe it was because the dream had felt so real, or because of the stress she was under. Whatever the case, she could have sworn she’d been out for longer than just an hour, and that she had been somewhere that truly existed. She couldn’t say how she knew, she just did, and despite the headache, she felt good about heading south.

“So, who’s this friend of yours?” she asked. “Is he cute?”

Caleb grinned, “Well, I’m glad to see that you’re feeling better.”

“Nothing like the prospect of meeting a hot guy to turn my mood around.”

Caleb shook his head. “His name’s Brody, and unfortunately for you, he’s ugly as hell.”

She laughed, causing a spike of pain to rifle through her brain. “Damn. This sucks.”

“Sorry, I don’t have anything more powerful.”

“It’ll be fine. Tell me more about this ugly friend of yours, and how he deserves the curse of putting us up for a while.”

“I’ve known him since we were kids. He’s a good guy.”

A thought came to Cassie. “So, you’re not Canadian?”

“No.” He gave her a quizzical look. “What made you ask that?”

“The bounty...”

“Oh, I see.” He nodded, catching on. “I picked it up in Minnesota a year ago, after dropping off a guy wanted for fraud. I’ve been working your case off and on for a while.”

“Huh, so you’re kind of a stalker,” Cassie teased.

He chuckled, “I suppose everyone in this line of work is.”

“This Brody guy, is he a bounty hunter too?”

“Nah. Just a friend.”

“I guess that will have to do.”

“I know you’re concerned,” he said. “But we need a place to figure out what to do and where to go.”

She nodded in agreement. “And to figure out how to take that thing out if it shows up again.”

“Yeah, since Miss Muscles and her trashcans couldn’t,” he snarked.

“Oh really, Mr. I-had-to-use-a-car,” she scoffed. “Like you did any better.”

“That was just a practice run, and payback for stealing my car.”

Cassie rolled her eyes with a laugh, letting him have his victory. “Thanks, for not walking away. This really isn’t your problem.”

“Yeah it is,” he replied. “I know things are moving quickly between us, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t genuine. I won’t be leaving you to deal with all of this on your own.”

Relief and hope filled her, pushing back the pounding headache that the aspirin had failed to do. “That means a lot. I’ve been running since I was seventeen. Trust is a new thing for me.”

“We’ll take it a step at a time.” Caleb took her hand. His electric warmth rolled into her. “I don’t think it’s even possible for me to walk away at this point. Promise me you won’t run again. Not from me at least.”

She smiled, “I think I can promise that.”

He practically glowed with that grin of his. “I guess that will have to do.”

Cassie kissed his hand. She was enjoying the tingle tickling her lips, when the car suddenly lurched forward from a jarring impact from behind. The sound of metal on metal was deafening. Her head whipped back against the headrest, summoning the headache back tenfold.

Caleb turned the wheel madly back and forth trying to get the car under control, but the Mustang went into a spin, despite his best efforts. The car was struck again as it spun, this time on the driver’s side. The world flipped upside down again and again. Broken glass and debris floated through the air, suspended in flight by some force of nature that only a master in physics could explain. The car rolled for what seemed like an eternity, and then came to a grating halt against a tree.

The last thought Cassie had before darkness took her was,
Caleb
.

T
he forest was thick with undergrowth, and deep green moss covered the ruddy trunks of massive trees. A heavy mist made it hard to see more than thirty yards ahead, but the golden glow of the stone dais Cassie had seen in her previous dream was easy to make out.