Surviving Passion (13 page)

“Fall back!” Jake roared from somewhere safe. “Get out of there! Go! Go!”

They hardly needed his encouragement. Selena let fly again and again, but most of them were soon beyond her range. Jimmy leapt at a fleeing man from behind and brought him to the ground. Cal bore down on them and kicked the man in the face with crushing force before swiftly reaching closer and cutting his throat.

Selena’s eyes widened as Bear flung his axe with a terrifying roar and it flew through the trees. She brought a hand up to her mouth involuntarily as a man exploded under the impact.

No one attempted to pursue the enemies that were out of range. The frenzied chaos of the last thirty minutes had abruptly ceased, and the resounding silence left Selena only with the roaring sound of her pulse in her ears. She surveyed her friends, spread out among the trees, dripping with sweat or blood and breathing hard as they realized that there was no one left to fight. The battle was over.

Eight

“Ready?” Selena asked, clutching the hilt of the knife.

Shane nodded and held his breath. She slid it out quickly, but he couldn’t stifle a groan of agony. Panting heavily, he mopped his face with his sleeve.

“It’s not that bad. We just have to make sure there’s no infection. Don’t worry. I’m not going to burn it shut. Stitches and a good poultice will do the job and with a lot less pain,” Selena reassured him as she held the wound closed and carefully began to sew.

Shane grunted in acknowledgement. Saying that it wasn’t bad translated to “Well, you’re not going to die.” Truthfully, she wouldn’t want to be in his shoes, but she wasn’t going to tell him that. It wouldn’t have been nearly as worrisome if the knife had been smaller, but this one was a good size and there was more blood loss than she would have liked.

Fortunately, Shane had the smarts to go to ground and keep out of the fight when he reached the trees. Selena knew he wouldn’t feel too badly about it, seeing as he was the only one seriously wounded and his traps were responsible for taking out as many of the enemy as most of the others had by hand. He had willingly put himself at risk to facilitate their plan. In the end, the body count was a shocking nineteen. If their original estimate of the enemy numbers was correct, that left only six, including Jake.

As Selena finished stitching Shane’s wound, she felt Dan’s eyes on her again. “What?” she barked impatiently, before turning to meet his gaze. A momentary look of surprise flicked across his features, but it was soon replaced by the disapproving glare she knew he had been giving her before. She had known his wrath would be terrible for going against orders, but Selena didn’t care. If he didn’t like it, that was his problem. He could glare all he wanted. She reciprocated his withering stare until she was satisfied, then turned away from him to continue her work. She hoped he got the message. On this matter, Selena did not regret her actions and she would stand firm on her decisions.

Shortly after the fight was over, Gina had set off to bring the horses back. There was no need for stealth now, and Shane would not be traveling on foot. When the woman returned, they all mounted up and headed for the stream. The journey took little more than ten minutes, but everyone was exhausted so it seemed like longer. It looked like Gina had brought Ben up to speed as he didn’t seem worried when he saw them. Then again, he wasn’t the most expressive fellow, so she could be wrong.

They took no more than a half hour cleaning up. There were cuts, scrapes and a couple small gashes but no one had died. It was the best outcome they could have hoped for.

Bear was still looking unhappy. No one else was exactly leaping for joy, despite how lucky things had turned out. None of them enjoyed killing. Selena guessed that Bear’s sullenness stemmed from the fact that his brother’s killer had evaded them once again. On the opposite end of the spectrum, she was not surprised to see that Clint was looking particularly pleased. Then again he was an idiot with too many male hormones and something to prove.
He was probably on the wrong side of the fight
, Selena thought disdainfully, wondering who brought him into the community in the first place.

While the others cleaned off in the fresh water, Selena wanted to do a little medical foraging here. She ranged a distance from the group, but always kept them in sight. The area around the stream was very green, but only a few paces away, the terrain turned into desert scrubland. After wandering for several minutes she found a patch of comfrey growing in some rocky, disturbed soil. Part of the reason why she was fond of this region was specifically because of this herb. Its regenerative properties were well known to her and her family for as long as she could remember. It was probably the best natural remedy for healing damaged tissue.

When Selena had harvested enough for everyone’s wounds, she made her way back. Ben helped her mash the leaves and mix them with water until she had a good paste. Better yet, he managed to find a strip of cloth among the group’s belongings and they soaked it in the mixture to make a poultice. The wound was too serious to apply the stuff directly to it. She didn’t want any debris getting past the stitches. She just wanted the healing juices in contact with the skin. The wound had looked clean, which was a good thing. An infection would be hard to battle.

As she dressed and rewrapped Shane’s shoulder, Selena listened absently to the discussion at hand.

“I can’t think of leaving until that bastard is good and dead,” Bear was saying.

“I don’t know, Bear,” Gina replied, “We gave him a scar he won’t forget any time soon. If you don’t think he’s running for the hills with his tail between his legs, then I’d be surprised.”

“He’s only got five men with him now,” Jimmy added. “I doubt if he’d come sniffin’ back for trouble after so few of us got nineteen of his.”

“You never know Jimmy, he just might. He’s one mean son of a bitch,” Cal put in.

“It’s not safe to take any chances now,” Dan said. “It’s not over until it’s over. There’s more risk now than before we started. We don’t want them getting the jump on us later. Years down the road, they’ll remember.”

“Shane needs to get back and heal up,” Ben interjected. “He’s not going by himself. So you’ll be losing at least two people. Selena should go with him ‘cause she’s got the best healing skills, and I don’t think the two of them should travel alone. What if Shane gets worse and she needs help? So you’re short by three people.”

“That’ll leave eight,” Blaire counted. “So are we in the right kinda shape for those odds? We should outnumber them by two but now they’re on guard. I don’t think we’ll get away with another attack without losing somebody. And we can safely say everyone’s exhausted. By the time we rest up, where will those bastards be? We don’t even know where they are now. If
they have any brains, they’ll have put a damn good distance between us and them. I know some of you boys are good at trackin’ but with Shane out of commission, I wouldn’t send you lookin’ for ‘em.
And
they’ve got horses. We ain’t got much control anymore. I think we should all head home. What kind of crazy fool would come after us when we beat ‘em so badly?”

“Jake would,” Cal answered levelly. “He
is
kind of crazy too, from what I’ve seen of him. And we
do
know where they are now, generally. Hiding out and regrouping to the northwest end of town, opposite from here.”

“Well I’m down for staying and taking the rest of them fuckers out,” Clint threw in, looking as though his opinion was extremely valuable.

Selena quirked a wry half smile.
Now we’re going home for sure
.

“We should go home and finish this thing later,” Ben said, ignoring him. “Post watches and keep an eye on our tail, but get back and rest up.”

They seemed decided. No one had much fight left in them. Even those who wanted to stay barely had the energy to argue about it. A glance at Dan told Selena that he thought leaving anyone alive was a very bad idea, but he couldn’t force them to stay. That was the thing about these people, Selena realized. Everyone was in charge, just as he’d tried to tell her before. They tended to have some kind of majority rule agreement. Dan seemed to respect that, despite his own better judgment. Fortunately, so did Bear.

There was one nagging detail that didn’t quite make sense to Selena. After seeing him fight, she had to ask herself why Dan didn’t decide to play the solo assassin, at least until Jake was dead. She knew he could do it.

Selena chewed on the idea until she recalled the first time she saw their nemesis. When he had stepped out onto the porch, she had gotten a pretty clear view of the man. He looked a bit shorter than Dan, but surprisingly he looked heavier. There had to be something about Jake that Dan knew and she didn’t; something that made him cautious. Dan was no fool. As Selena thought about it, she realized that Jake had seemed extremely calculating throughout the conflict. When she shot his friend, he had whistled, disappeared into a house and hadn’t emerged until his men were out in their full number. Even then he had kept to the rear. Selena had watched him. He was always out of her range, or obscured by trees and shrubs. He had sounded their retreat. She sighed, resolving to let it go, for now. She would get no answers by wondering, and as long as they didn’t run into him again, none of it mattered.

When everyone was ready, their little band rode wearily back into the hills, with Dan and Cal taking the rear. They stuck to the forest like they had on their way in, grateful once again for the cool, protective shade it offered. Better yet, this time they were following a stream back.

Luckily for all of them, the horses were full of the energy they lacked, having enjoyed a restful night while their riders were engaged in mortal combat. They made good time, but in the early evening, Selena called for a halt. Shane wasn’t complaining, but she knew he needed rest. The coming hours would reveal whether his wound was infected, and she would take no chances pushing him too hard.

Everyone was happy with the prospect of getting some early sleep, and Ben volunteered to keep watch that night. They settled in for the evening and talked about their success. Now that some of the tension had eased, they had the time to kick back and praise each other’s battle prowess. Selena took the opportunity to explore their immediate surroundings, hunting for any medicinal herbs she might find along the water’s edge. Her walk took her to the stream where she found the kind of rushes from which you could make rope. Pulling out her little knife, she set to work slicing them off at the base and piling them neatly. Once enough were gathered, she used one of them to tie the others up. Selena turned to see Dan glowering at her from just steps away and jumped back with a gasp. He faced her with his hands on his hips, wearing a furious expression.

“God damn it! Why do you have to do that? Someone’s going to hurt you one of these days and it’ll probably be me,” Selena berated him, unconcerned with the lashing she was about to receive.

“You lost your mind back there, Selena,” he growled, clearly working to control himself.

At first, Selena looked at him quizzically and then for some bizarre reason, she grinned.

His return look was now a mix of anger and bewilderment. “You’ve definitely lost your mind. Let me know when you find it again.”

He turned to go.

“It wasn’t as bad as all
that
,” Selena told him, picking at a fingernail. She squashed her grin into a smirk.

He spun back to face her again and stepped closer, frowning deeply. “It was bad enough you completely ignored our plan, but then you let them run ahead, cutting yourself off!”

“No one would have found me,” she interrupted calmly. “They were all too busy chasing targets that they could see.”

“And if they happened to stumble over you, or if one had seen you firing? I thought you had the good sense to at least move out before we passed you, but there you come from
behind
fifteen of our enemies alone!”

His storming rebukes were growing more audible.

“Someone had to cover you. You saw what happened to Shane!” Selena
stepped closer, whispering emphatically, “I don’t know if you realize this but he would have been dead if I hadn’t plugged the guy throwing that knife. And my God! When Jimmy tried tackling that pair of guys … are you telling me we would have been better off if I hadn’t taken that one down? Then there was the archer who was behind everyone when they were running back. He never got a shot off, and do you know why? Because of me! Two of us would probably be dead if it wasn’t for me. I know I took a risk and I’m sorry, but you are not going to convince me that I made a wrong decision, Dan.”

The stubborn set to his jaw was unflinching. “But if you
had
been discovered Selena, don’t you realize what could have happened?” His volume had leveled off, but he seemed angrier still. “They’d have tried to rape you or kill you right then and there, or they’d have used you as a hostage! ‘Drop your weapons or we’ll kill her!’” He stepped in closer and grasped her shoulders. “We would have listened. We couldn’t help you if that happened. Even I couldn’t help you. You put everyone in danger! Yourself most of all!”

“Dan!” she hissed, losing all her patience and pulling from his grasp. “They would never have found me, or
caught me! I knew where every single one of them was! And Jesus, how easy was it for
you
to run me down? I won’t pretend I’m faster than you but I have given you a damn good chase and you know that much. Now, you may not think so, but I know a thing or two about weighing risks in situations like that. The odds that I’d help were greater by far than the odds that I’d hurt. Even if someone had stumbled on me, I’d have the advantage. I’d know they were coming, and I’d have more than enough time to kill them before they got close. You don’t have to like my choice but I’m standing by this one.”

He didn’t answer when Selena finally reached the end of her tirade, but only stood there fixing her with a look of wonder that clearly said he thought she was crazy. After moments that felt like hours, he just turned around and walked back to the camp.