Hunting Medusa: The Medusa Trilogy, Book 1 (36 page)

It took them fifteen more minutes before Kallan decided it was too dangerous to continue directly. Instead he guided her off to their right. He couldn’t tell which of his cousins it was—not yet. Finally, after another ten minutes of almost crawling around the other man, they came to a spot where he was visible from behind some scrubby mountain laurel and fallen trees.

Piers.

His cousin stood against a tall pine, arms folded over his chest, looking bored. He wore no weapon except a blade at his waist. He wasn’t even carrying a radio.

That was good for them, bad for him.

Kallan swiped his sweaty palms down his thighs. “You’re going to have to be careful to get him before he gets his dagger unsheathed,” he breathed in her ear.

She nodded, opening her eyes just a little to see her target’s location. “You should stay put while I deal with him.”

His jaw tightened. “Why don’t you let me get to his other side and we can both be ready, just in case?”

“What if he ducks?”

Well, that would suck. He exhaled softly. He didn’t want to let her step out there. Not without him.

But she didn’t wait for his permission, getting to her feet and moving around him before he could think of another argument, her steps sure and quiet on the forest floor.

He held his breath as she crept behind his cousin, Kallan’s heart drumming so hard in his chest he thought it might have broken a rib or two.

Finally, she stood only a few yards away from Piers. She shot a thumbs-up toward Kallan, who shook his head even though she couldn’t see it, and then she cleared her throat.

Piers whipped around, and then fell as solid stone against the tree he’d been leaning on before tumbling onto the ground. Even as rock, his expression was shocked.

Kallan saw the shudder ripple over Andrea. Guilt and horror were in her expression, even in profile, even with her eyes squeezed shut.

He left the hiding place behind the bushes and went directly to her, avoiding his cousin to wrap her in his arms. “It’s all right,
agaph
,” he whispered into her short hair.

She shivered and slid her hands to his waist. “Well, that sucked.” Her voice was choked.

He closed his eyes and stroked her back. “I know.” He kissed her head and leaned away to look into her face. Still far too pale, and now tension bracketed her mouth and the corners of her shuttered eyes. “We can still leave.”

She shook her head before he finished speaking. “No.”

He’d known that. “Okay, then we have to keep going.” He let out a short breath. “I think it’s best if we don’t try to take them all on at once.”

Her mouth twisted to one side as she considered that. “It would be faster.”

“And more dangerous.” He did a quick check. All three were still together. Probably at the house.

“They’ll be more dangerous one-on-one,” she argued. “I’d bet at least one of them has a gun.”

“You may not be able to take out three at one time.”

She closed her mouth on her next argument, gave it some thought, then sighed. “Okay. You may be right.” She bit her lower lip. “Then how are we going to do this?”

He lifted one eyebrow. She was actually going to let him make the decision? He smiled. Then frowned. How
were
they going to do this? “Dammit, this is why I always make a plan,” he muttered.

Andrea laughed softly, then sucked in a quick breath, her smile disappearing as she bent forward again.

He rubbed the tight muscles at the small of her back, trying to keep half his attention on their surroundings while comforting her. He knew just walking into the house would be bad for them. They’d be outnumbered and with no place to hide if they needed to duck gunfire.

But how to draw his cousins out?

He kept massaging her back while he dug into one of his pockets for the old cell phone. Stavros.

Andrea eased to an almost-upright position, her breathing ragged.

“Are you going to be able to go the rest of the way,
agaph
?”

She nodded. “If I have to crawl.”

Of course she would. While he wanted nothing more than to protect her, to whisk her back down the mountain and away, he knew he couldn’t. She had to stay with him—to finish this—one way or another. “All right.” He thumbed the phone on, then realized he hadn’t charged it in days. He hoped there was enough battery power left for this call. He shifted position, hoping for a tiny overhead clearing to get his satellite signal, then pushed the button to dial his cousin.

“Kallan?” His cousin sounded surprised.

“Yes. Just wanted to give you a heads up, I’m on my way up the mountain with her.” He continued to rub her back, feeling the muscles under his fingers tightening.

There was a moment of silence. “Well, good job.” That sounded completely insincere. “Dead or alive?”

“Alive, but just.” He wrapped his arm around her when she stepped closer, her damp face burrowing into his shirt.

Again, Stavros was silent, either in distrust or elation. “I’ll meet you. Tell me which direction,” he said finally.

“There’s a path behind the house that heads into the woods. I’m heading up from there.”
Not.
Instead, he’d make sure they circled around from the other side and came at him from the back. And hope all three cousins were together.

Andrea’s breath caught against him, and her fingers dug into his back as her body tried to curl in on itself.

This was
not
good.

Kallan shut his phone, not waiting to see if his cousin had anything else to add, and turned it off before he stuffed it back into one of his pockets. “
Meli
.” He scooped her up in his arms, and a soft moan escaped her. He pressed a kiss onto her forehead, tasting the salt of her sweat. “We need to be on the opposite side of the house from where Stavros is heading. Can you get us there?”

She inhaled shakily, then nodded. “We’re nearly there now,” she whispered.

He concentrated on his cousins. All three were still together, for the moment, and they hadn’t left the house, apparently, as they were exactly where they’d been last time he checked. Probably trying to come up with their own plan.

He just hoped his was better.

Chapter Fifteen

Andi concentrated on breathing evenly as she instructed Kallan which direction to go with her eyes barely open. She needed to be able to stand up for what was coming.

Her stomach rebelled at just the thought. When she’d taken out his cousin, she’d been very, very happy she’d only had half a granola bar for breakfast. It had been bad when she’d accidentally killed the rabbit. Deliberately killing a human being was a thousand times worse, even if he had been plotting to kill her.

When she directed Kallan to stop, she pushed away, and he let her ease to her feet. Her knees wobbled, and she locked them to stay upright. Her belly cramped harder, making her clench her jaw against the pain.

“Do you think you can get to the house,
agaph
?” he breathed near her ear.

“Why?”

“For cover,” he said after a second, and she knew it was a lie.

“I’m not going to hide in the house while you deal with them,” she whispered.

He huffed out a short breath. “Can you trust me on this?”

She started to say “of course” but she stopped, remembering the revelation she’d had about the curse. “I do trust you, Kallan,” she said on a breath, “but I feel like this is my fight too.”

“And you’ve contributed to the fight very nicely.” His breath warmed her ear. “But I can deal with the three of them myself. Quickly.”

She heard the front door of her house open, then close, and she turned her head to look. She couldn’t see the men, though heavy footsteps sounded.

“That’s only two,” he breathed. “The other one is heading to the far right corner of the house. Of course they won’t believe me.” A humorless laugh escaped him.

Andi turned back to him, eyes shut, and slid one hand up his chest to his neck, the side of his face. “Let me deal with the one.”

Kallan was silent for a long moment, and she knew he wanted to say no.

“I trust you to deal with them, but I need to help. This is my life, after all.”

“You don’t play fairly,” he complained, but brushed a kiss on her lips. “Fine. I’ll deal with the other two. I just wish I knew which ones were where.”

“It won’t matter. I’ll wait till you go, then I’ll move around the house.” She stretched up to kiss him back. “I love you.” She released him.

His hand lingered on her spine for several heartbeats, warming her, then he stepped away. “When you’re done, stay put, and I’ll meet you there.” Then he was gone.

She only heard a few of his footfalls before he disappeared into the trees. He was silent in the woods. That was good. She needed to be just as quiet. She opened her eyes slowly, listening. The other man was still on the opposite side of the house, as she couldn’t hear him either. So she made her way around, deeper into the forest so she could blend into the trees and shadows but still see the edge of the trees and her house.

When she finally made her way to the other side of the house, her heart was pounding harder, almost in time with the cramping low in her belly.

There.

A big, dark man stood with his back to her, watching the woods at the other end of the house where the pathway disappeared into the trees. At his waist, he had both a gun holster and a knife sheath. Not taking any chances.

She sucked in a quick breath and froze, feeling sweat roll down her chest with the fresh onslaught of cramps.
Bitch.

She waited until they eased off, though the easing off wasn’t very noticeable. Then she took a few more paces toward him, careful where she stepped. She imagined Kallan stalking his own prey. Just thinking about what she was going to do made her stomach flip over, but the queasiness only distracted her from the cramps momentarily.

She paused when her belly tried to curl her in on herself from the giant fist squeezing her guts. The pain was excruciating, making her lungs freeze, her heart thud harder, and sweat break out on her face. She felt it running down her scalp to her nape, dampening her T-shirt beneath the backpack, and wished she’d thought to set the pack aside before she came after this one.

Andi forced herself to breathe quietly, evenly, through the cramping. And swore she’d never have children even if the Medusa were able to have them. If her period was this bad, labor would be a million times worse, and there was absolutely no way she was going through that.

It seemed like hours, but she knew it had to be just a few minutes before the fist eased its grip on her insides just a little, and she moved forward again, her gaze shifting between her prey and the forest floor ahead. The last thing she needed to do was alert him to her presence by stepping on a twig or dry leaf.

Somehow, between bouts of gut-wrenching cramps, she made it to a spot a few yards behind the hulk. He still stood there, arms crossed on his chest, white cotton shirt stretched over his wide back. He stared across the small backyard to where he had a clear view of the trail leading into the woods. She took a shallow breath, then another, bracing herself with one hand against the nearest tree when her body rebelled again.
Bitch,
she thought.
Athena, You are the biggest bitch ever.

This round of cramps was far worse than its predecessors, and it was all she could do to stay semi-upright against the tree. She really, really wanted to get inside her house and curl up in her bed after a nice hot shower.

But she had a job to do first.

“Hey, jackass,” she said hoarsely.

He whirled around, hands going to his waist, but too late. He’d already looked at her, and toppled to the ground, solid stone that cracked into three big pieces and several smaller ones when it hit.

Andi slid down the tree and curled into a ball, panting for a moment. She wondered if Harvester training covered
not
looking when someone called you names in the woods. If so, he had clearly failed that test. Then she crawled to where the gun holster had landed when the stone man had broken.
Good thing only the body turned to stone.
She took the gun out with shaking hands. Then, for good measure, took his knife too. Just in case. She had to believe Kallan was successful on his side of the forest.

Kallan crouched behind a small stand of young trees, watching his cousins. Stavros wasn’t here—just two of Stavros’s favorite cousins, Theo and Kosmo. Which meant Stavros was the one waiting on the other side of the house. For Andrea.

His heart pounded faster, echoing in his ears. He hoped they couldn’t hear it.

She’d deal with his cousin. She’d be fine. He’d like to convince himself, but he realized if he kept thinking about it, he’d never do what
he
had to do.

He took in a slow breath, then glanced around. He found a small rock nearby and picked it up. He hefted it for a second, then lobbed it to the other side of his cousins, satisfied when it hit a fallen tree and made a dull thud even he could hear.

Theo gestured for Kosmo to check it out while he glanced around them. Scowling, Theo continued to pick his way along the trail, looking for signs of their quarry.