Centaur Legacy (28 page)

As I pulled away from him, my stare
wouldn’t let him go. His voice was thoughtful, “Okay, I get it.
You’re not going anywhere.”

“Don’t sound so thrilled.”

A gentle smile formed on his lips, “I’m
not thrilled. How could I be? By staying with me, you’ll never have
a normal life, or any kind of life you deserve.”

“It’s temporary, Drake. And even if it
were permanent, it wouldn’t change a thing.”

“Temporary? I don’t think
so.”

“So did you get ovaries with those
hooves?”

“What?!” Drake’s eyes opened wide and
he stood up from the floor.

“The last time I
checked,
I
was the
Centauride.
I
was
the one who could see the future.”

“No Centauride can see her own
future.”

“I’d buy that except Zandra can see the
future. She knew about Zeus’s curse and told me she wanted her
arrow back. I think it’s within her power to remove the
curse.”

“But the arrow has never belonged to
her. And even if she could, you think she’d remove the curse, from
me?”

“If she could remove the curse, so
could I. It’s got to be a Chiron thing.”

“You aren’t touching that arrow, and we
can’t let Zandra have it.”

I agreed with his thoughts on Zandra.
I’d do nearly anything to have Drake normal, but giving Zandra any
more power than she already had wasn’t something I could agree to.
Then it occurred to me, “What about Zethus?”

Drake cocked his head to the side.
“I’ve already tried to call him. He never gave us his last name. At
least not the one he uses.”

“We could be on a plane
tomorrow.”

Drake’s eyes looked at his body in a
silent answer.

“Right. So maybe flying you there isn’t
the best idea. Give me the arrow and I’ll go.”

“No. I don’t want you touching
it.”

“Geeze, Drake, Cameron had it his whole
life, and he was fine.”

“You’re not Cameron, and I’m not taking
the chance that he was just lucky.”

I heard footsteps crunching in the
snow, off in the distance, walking toward us. Drake heard them at
the same time and trotted over to a gap in the planks of the barn
to see who the intruder was. His voice was quiet as he reached up
to turn off the lantern, “They’re here for you.” I was standing
beside him and wrapped my fingers around his. Drake leaned down and
gently kissed my cheek. “You can’t stay here, Cami. It’s ten
degrees out. Let them take you back to the hotel.”

I tried to look through a smaller gap
in the boards, but I couldn’t make out who the figures were. “I’m
not leaving you.”

“I don’t want you to go either, but
it’s too cold. You can’t stay. It’s Lacey, her father, and Beau.
They’re here for you; they’ll get you where it’s warm. Go. I’ll
call you in the morning.”

I protested through chattering teeth,
acutely aware of the temperatures now that I wasn’t curled up next
to Drake. “I’m-m-m-m n-n-n-not leaving you alone.”

“I’m built for this. You aren’t.
Lacey’s the seer who sent Beau and Daniel to warn us about Phineas.
You can trust her. Don’t let them see me like this. I don’t know
her father, but I’m sure his reaction would be bad. If you love me,
you’ll go.”

I worried that if I left with them,
Drake would disappear again and I’d never find him. “When will I
see you again?”

“I’ll be here. I promise. Go, quickly.
If they come through that door, I’m a dead man.”

“I don’t understand?”

“I promise I’ll explain tomorrow.
Please, Cami. Go.” The urgency in his voice was something I
trusted. I squeezed his hand and made a dash for the door just as
the trio was an arm’s distance away from the structure.

Lacey’s voice was the one I heard as I
pulled the door open, “We found you!” Her voice sounded
excited.

Beau scooped me up in a bear hug and
twirled me around as I answered, “Yeah, thanks.”

When Beau put me down, he asked, “Are
you nuts? We’ve been looking for you for hours! There’s a blizzard
coming! Why were you out here by yourself? Why didn’t you answer
your phone?”

“There isn’t much of a signal here, and
you know why I was out here.”

Beau shook his head, “Did you find
him?”

I hated lying to Beau, but Drake seemed
really worried about anyone finding him. “No, but I felt like I was
getting closer this time.” I felt like my world had been rocked all
over again. How could I leave Drake alone, here, with a blizzard on
the way. I’d never been in one but had seen them on the Weather
Channel. What would happen to him?

Lacey stepped in between me and Beau.
She took my hand to reassure me, and whispered so low, nobody but
me could hear, “He’ll be fine. He wants you to go.” She gave my
hand a gentle squeeze, silently telling me what I already knew.
Lacey reminded me of Bianca, and I had to trust that she would keep
Drake’s secret for me.

Beau had his phone out and was dialing
as the four of us walked to the gravel driveway where they’d left
their SUV rental. “Dad, we found her. She’s okay.” I couldn’t hear
William’s side of the conversation, but Beau answered him, “Yeah,
we’ll be back at the hotel in thirty minutes. We’ll fly out after
the weather passes. It’s supposed to be a pretty bad storm.”
Another pause where William was talking, then Beau answered, “Okay.
I don’t know why you sent Bart back, but we’ll get him from the
airport on the way back to the hotel. I’ll tell her. See you in a
couple days.”

I didn’t care what message Beau was
going to pass along from William. I wasn’t getting on any plane
without Drake.

(Drake – abandoned barn,
SD)

I watched the taillights pull away from
the house and drive down the dark road. She was gone. I could feel
the emptiness in my chest returning. Cami had filled the hole while
she was here, but she took my heart with her when she left. Since
the night I stole the arrow, the night of my transformation, I was
sure I’d never see her again. Her reaction puzzled me: it was
almost as if she were blind to it.

I loved her. I really loved her. I had
convinced myself the only way to prove my love was to let her go,
to shove her toward Daniel. He could give her what I couldn’t – a
normal life. The night I called him begging him to take care of
her, I destroyed half an acre of trees after I hung up with
him.

I’d believed my life was over; then she
started looking for me. At first I was a little surprised; then I
realized she was tracking me with uncanny accuracy. She had had me
on the run for two full days. Tonight when she caught up to me, I
didn’t have the strength to run away from her again.

I expected her to see me and that would
be it. Either her brothers would come later and hunt me down, or
she’d spread the word and let my family take care of it. Having a
living, breathing Centaur walking the earth would prove to be too
much of a risk for our whole race. We’d lived undetected with
humans for millennia; no one would let me live if they
knew.

Until tonight, I guess I wasn’t
convinced she felt for me the way I felt for her.

When I shut my eyes, I could remember
every moment, every conversation, every. . . touch we had ever
shared. I believed the day she chose me could never be topped, but
tonight, when she said the words about not letting me take back my
betrothal pledge, I fell in love with her all over again. There is
nothing I wouldn’t do for her, no sacrifice I wouldn’t make, and no
risk that would ever be too great. She was mine.

I remembered seeing an electrical
outlet in the pumphouse. It was the only place on the property that
had electricity. I loped over to it with my cell phone and charger.
I wanted to make sure it would have a charge when she
called.

Looking at my watch, it was almost 1
a.m. I was running low on food. There was a farmhouse twenty acres
from here, where they had a deepfreeze on their back porch. I’d
make a midnight run. I didn’t need a place to preserve anything
that I took; according to the forecasts, it wouldn’t be over thirty
degrees for at least the next seven days.

I counted out some cash from my wallet
and put it in an easy access pocket in my backpack and threw it
over my shoulders. Grocery stores were out of the question for me,
so leaving cash in place of the food I took seemed the best I could
do.

I made my way slowly along the tree
line. Then I realized I liked the way the earth felt under me.
Everyone was fast asleep by now, and it would be hours before
anyone stirred. I ran at a full gallop, the earth pounding under my
hooves, wind blowing against my face, sweat beading on my chest, my
muscles welcoming the challenge.

I could run as fast now as I ever could
when I was in a human form, but feeling the earth beneath me, I
slowed my pace to a horse’s gallop. I’d run nearly a mile when a
sharp pang of fear sliced through my chest. I stopped abruptly,
stepped into the camouflage of the trees, and tried desperately to
slow my labored breathing. I listened hard, trying to hear the
sound of anyone or anything that may have alerted me.

I took in a deep breath and silently
let it release. I noticed my surroundings. It was too much of a
coincidence. I was too close to the place I’d hidden the arrow.
Zigzagging through the trees, I retraced my steps.

When I’d hidden it away, a fresh
blanket of snow was falling, hiding my hoof prints from others. As
I approached the little church, I saw fresh footsteps that couldn’t
have been there longer than an hour. It was only one set, and they
led into the structure.

Whoever it was, they were still in
there. Maybe it was someone like myself, someone who had heard
about the blizzard on the way and was simply looking for shelter.
There would be no better place to wait out the gods’
wrath.

I stayed in the tree line in a position
where I could watch the exits, where it would be nearly impossible
to see me from the inside. I waited for hours. As dawn began to
approach, it struck me as odd that whoever had gone into the long
forgotten church hadn’t started a fire. I’d been in this form for a
week, and the temperature normally didn’t bother me, but the wind
had to be blowing at close to thirty miles per hour, and the air
was well below zero.

I wanted to get a better look inside.
Maybe whoever had stumbled into the structure was hurt and needed
help. If I was going to peek through the window, I’d need to do it
now, before the sun came up.

A large oak tree obscured the window’s
view, and I did my best to stay off to the side of it. Anyone
looking out the window wouldn’t see me. Unless they were directly
in front of it, I’d be in the tree’s blind spot. When I peeked
through the window, I saw a woman lying still on a church pew. I
took another step closer to the window to see if she had any
obvious injuries.

She sat straight up, her voice booming,
“I thought you would make me come looking for you, Drake. Come in
so we can get this over with, and I can get out of this disgusting
place.”

I froze. I didn’t know what she was or
how she knew who I was. She was not a Centauride, but magic coursed
through her veins. It was not any magic I had come in contact with:
it was powerful, all-consuming – immortal magic. I argued with
myself about what I should do, and then I saw it in her hand: the
arrow. She was twirling it like a high school baton. My heart
stopped; my blood forgot how to move through my veins.

“You can come in here out of the cold.
I want to talk to you. I’m taking this arrow back to whom it
belongs: Hercules.”

The thought of losing the arrow
overwhelmed the fear that I would come face-to-face with an
immortal. Without the arrow, I’d never get Zeus’s curse
lifted.

I stepped up to the doorway of the
abandoned church, “Who are you?”

“I’m Harmonia. I’ve asked my mother to
help you.”

“Harmonia? Your mother? Wait. . .”
recognition flooded my mind, “. . . your mother is Aphrodite! Is
she going to help me?”

“I’m not sure. I hope so. The fruit
basket at the hotel got her attention. This arrow has caused
nothing but pain and death since the day Hercules put it in his
quiver. I mean to take it back with me. I don’t want anything else
to happen.”

“Wait! No. Look at me. Zeus’s curse
transformed me. I won’t be able to get the curse lifted if I can’t
get it back to its rightful owner.”

“Hercules is its rightful owner. It was
given to Chiron. While his family possessed it, no one would take
it back. Now that they no longer have it, it needs to be taken back
where it belongs.”

“Can Hercules lift the
curse?”

“And override his father? I don’t think
so.”

“How can I get my body
back?”

“That’s the body you were meant to
have. Maybe you should embrace it.” My plight didn’t move her to
help me, but what did I expect from Goddess Harmonia? Of course,
she would tell me to embrace it. She helps people get along; she
seeks harmony.