Hearts Are Wild (30 page)

“Please, Lily,” Shain said quietly. “Trust me.”

After a moment, she sighed in resignation. He released her, his thoughts already far away, his stride purposeful as he made for the door, pulling his shirt on as he went. He slammed his Stetson onto his head and turned to her. “Stay inside. Keep the door locked.”

Fingers of ice itched across Lily’s shoulders.

Shain leveled a no-nonsense stare her way as he pulled his gloves from his back pocket and slid them on. “I mean it, Lily. Do as I say.”

Unable to speak, she nodded and watched as her lover strode from the cabin.

* * * * *

Nhya’s mare Keeta whinnied a greeting as he and Windigo slowed to a trot then pulled up. Dismounting, Shain’s feet hit the earth with a muffled thump and he tied Windigo loosely next to Keeta before starting up the mountain slope.

The climb was steep and blood surged through his thighs as he crested the jagged rise. As always, the stunning view of the valley stole his breath and the strange, intoxicating energy that permeated the peak seeped into his bones and made his head fuzzy.

He spotted Nhya on the smooth, saucer-shaped boulder hanging at the edge of the rim. Her back was straight, her dark, silky hair lifting softly in the breeze, her face tipped to catch the last rays of yellow sun. As he walked over, a warm, slightly numbing sensation started in his toes then moved on up to his head.

Shain stopped a few feet away, his breath coming fast. He rubbed his eyes but it didn’t lessen the glow emanating from his sister’s still form. Blues and purples wafted from her in shimmering waves and Shain closed his eyes.

“Brother, it’s okay. Open your eyes and sit with me.”

Nhya’s soft voice eased some of the strangeness and Shain did as she asked, happy to see the colors had dissipated. They looked out at the valley.

“So, tell me, Shain. How was it being away from the Red Bear? To not feel the land beneath your feet. To not smell the clean scent of the pine. To not touch the rich soil?”

Shain grunted and flexed. “Like I was missing my right arm.”

Nhya smiled. “For me, it would be like not having a heart.” She studied him and, after a moment, her gaze narrowed, then widened. “Shain…something is different. You—Lily,” she finished with conviction.

A joyful laugh trilled through the air and Shain raised an eyebrow. “You approve?”

Nhya placed a hand on his arm. “I more than approve. I give you my blessing and a warning.” Shain frowned at the look of gravity on his sister’s striking face. “If you mess this up, Shain, I’ll beat you silly.”

Shain grinned wolfishly and Nhya raised finely arched brows. “I mean it. This is a good thing. The right thing. It’s time to stop running.”

Her words arrowed straight to his heart. “I know,” Shain murmured, his attention captivated by an image of his blonde goddess’s ethereal face. Her stunning body. Her pure heart…

“Nhya, how do I make this work?”

She took his hand, her palm cool and dry. “By thinking and speaking from here.” She jabbed him lightly over his heart and smiled. “It won’t lead you astray.”

Shain gripped his sister’s hand and cleared his throat. “Today, Lily and Luke say they saw—”

“Red Claw,” Nhya finished for him.

“Luke told you?”

She shook her head, her gaze dreamy. “I felt him and I came here where his presence is strongest.” Their eyes met and Shain knew he had to put aside his doubts, his suspicions of the old ways. Because his sister—his little Nhya—was connected in the way of his grandmother and her father before her. It was there in her dark eyes, that amber glint, that flare of knowing.

His chest felt warm, his head light, and Shain took a deep breath. “Is it real, Nhya? Do we actually have the pendant of the Red Bear?”

Her look said it all and Shain had a hard time swallowing past the knot in his throat. “When? Where?”

Nhya squeezed his hand. “I’ve dreamt about it for years but the dreams never revealed where—until today. And he said—he said that there would come a time where I would need to use the pendant. That I would know when that time was. Until then, I’m to protect it. Keep it hidden.”

Anger sizzled in Shain’s gut. “What? How can Red Claw expect that?” Shain stood and paced. “If this thing really
can
do what Grandmother said, it’s fucking dangerous!”

Nhya stood. “Listen…”

Shain threw up his hands. “We have to get this thing and lock it up. Somewhere off the property and away from—”

“Shain!”

He stopped, blood heavy in his ears, and looked at his sister. She stood straight and regal on the top of the boulder, her hair streaming as if held up by invisible fingers. His anger drained away as if someone had pulled a plug.

“Brother,” Nhya said, her voice lilting with an inner music that played softly in Shain’s ear. “I am capable of this. Meant for this, as you were meant for other things.” Her voice deepened, her words reverberating through his chest. “It is beginning now, with Lily, and others you will soon meet. Do not let your fear and anger blind you. It’s time to let go, Shain. It’s time to embrace your heritage and your destiny.”

It was true. He knew it and, while he still wasn’t comfortable with it, the idea no longer filled Shain with dread. In fact, the suggestion of a future with Lily filled him with elation. A sense of purpose—the promise of things to come.

Shain and Nhya locked eyes. “Where is it, Nhya? And what do we do?”

Nhya smiled. “It’s hidden and protected by a spell of our great grandfather’s design. That’s why they haven’t been able to find it.”

Shain’s heart stopped and he stepped forward on wooden legs. “Where, Nhya?
Where is it hidden
?”

Her smiled faltered. “I—it’s at the old cabin. Set behind a spelled stone in the fireplace… Shain! What’s wrong?”

Shain was already striding toward the path, every muscle in his body screaming for him to go faster, move quicker.

“Shain!” Nhya called from behind.

“Lily’s
at the cabin,” Shain growled as he scrambled down the cliff, shale rippling in a wave at his descent.

Chapter Eleven

“Any time now, Shain,” Lily murmured. The hour was almost up. She’d tried to busy herself by inspecting every inch of the cabin but, within thirty minutes all she wanted to do was see Shain and find out why he had to leave so abruptly. If she hadn’t promised him she’d stay inside with the door barred, she could have at least gone out and explored the glade.

And why
had
he insisted she lock the door?

Lily crossed to the fireplace, admiring the smooth river stones that ran the width and breadth of the chimney and hearth. The mantel was lined with carved woodland creatures. Elk, wolf, trout, rabbit, but no bear. “Curious,” Lily said aloud, reaching out to touch the wolf, admiring the fine detail and life-like essence of the carving.

A knock at the door made her jump. She set the wolf down and ran to the window. She couldn’t see who it was and her heart raced. Shain wouldn’t have knocked…

“Who is it?” Lily called.

“It’s me, Miss Whitman.”

Lily’s eyes widened in surprise and she pulled the old fashioned bar lock off and opened the door. “Darrell. What are you doing here?”

“May I come in?” he asked, holding his hat in front of him like a shield.

“Sure.” Lily stepped aside, then closed the door behind him. “So, what brings you here? I hope you weren’t worried about me. Luke was supposed to tell you that Shain and I had—” Lily stopped and lowered her gaze, hoping it wasn’t totally obvious what she and Shain had been doing.

“He did.”

Darrell’s edgy tone brought Lily’s head up. A jolt shot through her. His expression was tense, almost feverish-looking.

“Where is it?”

“What?” Lily asked, taking a step back, her palms suddenly clammy. “Where’s what?”

Darrell’s hand clamped onto her upper arm. “Don’t play games with me.
Where is it?
”

Lily stared at his fingers in shock. “Darrell, I don’t understand.”

In an instant he flung her aside. Spinning out of control, Lily struck the hutch on the far wall. Pain shot through her lower back. Dishes rattled. Glass exploded in a shower around her elbow.

There wasn’t time to scream. Think.

“Never mind. I’ll find it myself.” Darrell paced the room. “Amazing that the glade and cabin were so well protected.” He smirked. “Primitive magic. But effective. It wasn’t until Luke mentioned in his native tongue that Shain had likely taken you here did I realize what I’d been overlooking. Of course he thought I wouldn’t understand. Fool.”

Lily tried to collect herself, tried to breathe through the pain as she forced herself to stand upright. To track the cowboy she thought she knew as he walked the room in an ever-widening circle, his once kind face vacant.

“I know it’s here. I can feel it…”

His words washed over Lily like ice water, snapping her out of her shock. “You!” She stumbled forward, her face flaming. “
You’re
the one looking for the artifact! Digging up Shain and Nhya’s property. How
could
you?”

His eyes swiveled in her direction and Lily gasped. They were no longer the pale blue of an early morning sky, but rather the shocking turquoise of a robin’s egg. And they burned with an unnatural glow that confirmed to Lily that what she’d always taken for reality was about to shift. Forever.

He stepped toward her. Lily stepped back. “How very astute of you
, Lily
. Did you figure that out on your own?”

Darrell’s sarcasm didn’t bother her. It was the disgust behind it that set the hairs on the back of Lily’s neck on end.
He’s insane.
And something else. Something beyond Lily’s reckoning.

Shain.
Where was Shain?

Lily itched to glance at her watch. But she couldn’t. He promised he’d be back in an hour. She had to keep Darrell calm. Pacify him. Give Shain a chance to get there. Stop him from finding…what exactly
was
he looking for?

The pendant
. The claw that could potentially open a doorway into another dimension.

Ludicrous. Outrageous.

But as Lily took in Darrell’s fixed, hungry expression, she knew he believed it with every fiber in his body.

Oh, God…

“Darrell,” Lily started, speaking slowly, calmly. “It’s only a legend. A story. Surely you can’t—”

“Quiet!” He didn’t even look at her, just continued to walk the room, palms open. “Come out, come out wherever you are.”

Think, Lily!

As he moved toward the fireplace, his lips curved into a disturbing smile. “I’m getting warmer.”

The tingling was back and Lily knew she had to do something.
But what?

“I know where it is,” Lily blurted.

Darrell froze.

“Shain let it slip today, while we were…intimate.”

In slow motion Darrell dropped his hand and turned to face her. Doubt tightened his features. “Oh?”

“I—I can take you to it.”

Sandy eyebrows rose. “No. Tell me.”

Lily shook her head, her heart pounding. “It’s in the woods at a spot Shain took me to. I couldn’t tell you where that is but I know I can show you.”

“You’re lying,” Darrell said softly.

“I’m not,” Lily replied, raising her chin. “What do I care about some stupid, worthless adornment? I’ve seen so many, it hardly seems worth all the effort you’ve gone through, but to each his own.” She flipped hair off her shoulder and walked toward the door. “If showing you where it is will get you out of my hair, then I’m all for it.”

“Step back and face me.”

Lily froze, then did as he said, working hard to keep her expression self-involved and neutral.

He was smiling and, for a second, he looked like the handsome, unassuming cowboy she first met at the Wolf Springs airpark. But the grin melted into a bone-chilling sneer, leaving a hollow, tremulous knot in her chest.
He’s not buying it…

A laugh, deep and startlingly inhuman, crawled across her skin. “That was a decent effort but you broadcast your feelings like a spotlight.” His expression turned thoughtful. “You didn’t, when you first arrived. You were a closed book. Something I found interesting, which is why I stayed close—to get a better read. But now that you’ve opened your heart, you’re as transparent as all the other fools.”

His words made Lily’s face flame and her mind spin.
How could he sense such a thing?
“What
are
you?” Lily said.

Flicking a hand he turned back to the fireplace. “Something beyond your understanding, Lily. Now be a good girl, shut your mouth and let me finish.”

Lily’s eyes darted, looking for something,
anything
she might use to stop him.

Darrell’s left hand gripped one of the mortared rocks. “What a wonderful vibration you put off.” He reached into a pouch at his hip, dipped his fingers inside, then wiped a wide blue streak across the stone. Darrell—or whoever…
whatever
he was—stepped back and began chanting a string of guttural words.

Electricity filled the room and Lily pressed a hand to her chest, her breath shallow, her face cold. As his voice rose in pitch, the blue streaks began to glow and, before her eyes,
the rocks dissolved
, gray running down the face of the fireplace to reveal a dark hollow.

That’s not possible, Lily thought. Rocks don’t just melt!

Darrell gave a shout of success and reached in, only to whip his hand back with a growl. Faint tendrils of smoke drifted off the tips of his fingers and he affixed Lily with a cold stare. “Come here.”

She shook her head.

“I said,
come here
, Lily.” Darrell raised a hand and twisted it in the air. Pain exploded in her abdomen. Lily clutched her stomach and, even though nearly doubled over, she couldn’t take her eyes off his expressionless eyes and curving grin. “Don’t you think you’d better do as I say?”

She felt her head nod as she staggered forward, her breath falling out in rasps.

“Now,” came Darrell’s voice near her left ear. “Reach in and pull it out.”

Coolness brushed her, an unnatural, blistering cold that burrowed under her skin and into her bones. Sweat popped out on her neck, chest and brow and instinctively she knew it was from Darrell. From whatever power he held. Images flashed through Lily’s mind. Fractured pictures of desert vistas, rolling hills, then waving fields of wheat.

“Pull it out, Lily,” he whispered, his breath icy hot against her neck.

Lily wanted to resist, to refuse, but her hand lifted. As her fingers entered, a rush of cold bit into her. She gasped and tried to pull out but Darrell grabbed her forearm, holding her there.

“Keep going,” he whispered.

Lily could see no other way and perhaps…perhaps she could find a way to keep it from him once she did. Fight. Run.

Swallowing, Lily forced herself to find a sense of calm. “Let go of my arm,” she stated. Surprisingly, he did. Lily took a deep breath and plunged her hand to the back of the recess. A fraction before her fingers connected, Lily felt a warmth swelling in her chest then, as her fingers closed around the soft object, the tingling. It started in her gut and spread in a wave that left her breathless, detached, unafraid. As she had in the meadow when watching the bear.

Gripping it tightly, Lily stepped back. Darrell’s face twisted in a triumphant smile as it focused on the leather pouch clutched in her hand.

“Perfect.” He held out a bandana. “Give it to me.”

She shook her head, her body primed, her spirit knowing it was something she could never do.

His eyes snapped to her face, fury burning behind the bright blue irises. Before Lily could blink, his hand snapped out and fastened around her throat, her scream choked off as Darrell lifted her free of the floor and walked her to the opposite wall. Slamming her against it, he leaned in, his lips thinned into a gruesome slash. “I have searched for this for years, sacrificed, all the time working toward a single, ultimate goal and
you
…” His face dipped closer, teeth bared. “You…
nothing of a creature
…think you can stand in my way?” He reached down with his other hand and wrenched her arm up over her head. “Release it,” he hissed.

Lily tried to move, to kick like Susan had taught her, but it was no use. She was losing ground every second air was denied her. Despite her terror, despite knowing that her decision may well doom her, Lily choked out, “Not on your life.”

A snarl blasted into her as his hand tightened, crushing her airway, denying her any hope that this would end with anything other than her violent death.

I’m sorry, Shain…Nhya…