Vengeance Borne (31 page)

“I’d like to say, when it rains it pours, but this is a fucking deluge,” Jacquelyn griped.

Micah turned to Jacquelyn, his eyes slow to move from the mysterious woman. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, is there some sort of supernatural convention in town that I don’t know about? The entire county is crawling with supernatural squatters.”

But the woman before him swathed in white couldn’t possibly be one of
them
. Not when she made him feel so—good. “No, she’s something else.”

“Hardly,” Jacquelyn scoffed. “Our girl here is a Dryad. And you’d best watch your ass, Micah.”

Dryad? He wracked his brain, searching for a myth to go with the name. Micah turned back to the woman, and she pulled the cowl from her head. White hair in long flowing waves drifted on the breeze. Her pale skin reminded him of the smooth bark of a birch tree. And her eyes, electric blue and icy crinkled at the corners when she smiled at him.

“Shall I sing you a song, Bearer?” she asked in a voice as smooth as churned butter.

“Not if you want to keep your vocal chords,” Jacquelyn snapped.

“You’re no fun.” The Dryad stuck her tongue out like an errant child.

“A Dryad is a tree spirit, Micah.” Jacquelyn came to stand beside him. She held the .357 with intent, aiming it at the woman’s head. “She’ll use her pretty voice to tempt the soul right out of you if you let her.”

“Calm yourself, hunter.” The Dryad inched closer to Micah but he didn’t bother to move. The sense of euphoria intensified, stealing his breath and making him a bit dizzy. “I have no intention of taking your pet tonight. Though I must admit,” she ran a long white finger down the center of Micah’s chest, “that he is a tasty-looking morsel. Yum.”

Jacquelyn stepped between them and pushed Micah back. He took a couple of stumbling steps away but craned his neck to see around Jacquelyn’s shoulder. The Dryad flashed him a model-worthy smile and winked. “Mmm, I could have some fun with you.” Her voice was a sensual purr as she looked him up and down.

If he didn’t know any better, Micah would have sworn he was still lying in the bed of his RV, drugged out of his mind and dreaming. As if rays of moonlight shown down on her, an inner glow gave the Dryad the illusion of an angel come to earth. Her white robes and hair rode the wind currents, fanning out behind her like wings. “What’s your name?”

The Dryad’s laughter, like the sound of wind chimes, caused a ripple of pleasure to dance across his skin and Micah shuddered. “My name is not for you, Micah,” she said.

Jacquelyn pivoted away from the Dryad’s appraising stare and grabbed Micah’s wrist with her free hand, giving his arm a hearty tug. With as much effort as it took to pluck a giant magnet from a refrigerator, he pulled his gaze from the Dryad and fixed Jacquelyn with an unfocused gaze. “Sorry,” he said. “Must be the Ativan still. I’m a little light headed or something.”

“It’s not you, Micah. It’s her.” Jacquelyn pushed into him, forcing him steadily away from the Dryad. “I need you to flex those emotional muscles of yours. You need to put a wall up, block her out so she can’t make you feel anything. Do you think you can do that for me?”

Whether or not he could seemed immaterial. Micah wasn’t sure he wanted to block her out. He hadn’t felt so good in months, years, maybe. His heart floated free inside his chest, and all of his worries evaporated under the Dryad’s heated stare. Jacquelyn nudged him, the slightest of movements, and he remembered what she’d told him about the untrustworthy nature of supernatural creatures. His trust had to lie in Jacquelyn, and, beautiful or not, this Dryad had her on edge.

Using every bit of concentration he could muster, he focused on keeping her out. Like a reverse funnel cloud, he pushed against whatever influence she’d snuck over him and instead sent his own emotional feelers outward toward her. He didn’t exactly sense malice in her. Rage and lust didn’t live within her the way it did in the Furies. But she had a singular purpose and he felt it from the Dryad in an icy wave: protection. She was there to keep watch over something and was willing to kill or worse to do it.

“What are you so threatened by?” Micah asked over the top of Jacquelyn’s head.

The Dryad raised a tawny brow, her mouth puckered. “Clever Bearer,” she said. “I’m here to protect what’s mine. Nothing more, nothing less.”

Micah stepped from behind Jacquelyn, sure now he could hold his own. All it took was focused self-awareness and he found her influence easy to stave off. He smirked, just a little smug at the accomplishment. “And you think we’re that threat?”

She graced him with a wry, seductive smile and Micah felt an invisible wave push against him. But he pushed right back and soon her grin faded, her mouth turning downward in disappointment. “Don’t get a swollen head, Micah,” she said with a sweet cajoling laugh. “If the moon were full, you’d be licking morsels of affection from my palm. But, to answer your question, yes. I consider you a threat, or at the very least, an accomplice to threat.”

A distinct click echoed in front of him as Jacquelyn pulled back the hammer on the .357. Micah placed his hand on her arm, applying an almost indiscernible amount of pressure to encourage her to lower the weapon. Blowing the Dryad’s brains out might have been Jacquelyn’s solution to their predicament, but Micah wasn’t ready to throw in the towel, yet. “Why don’t you tell us what you’re trying to protect and we’ll tell you whether or not we’re involved in threatening it.”

“Trees,” Jacquelyn answered instead. “She’s protecting the forest. Dryads are the guardians of the forest.”

Micah looked to the Dryad who nodded her head. “Okay, well, I think I can safely say that we’re no threat to you.”

“He’s such a pretty thing.” The Dryad sighed, casting a sidelong glance at Jacquelyn. “I wonder how you get anything done with him around.” She walked a circle around them, her gait lazy and graceful like a feline on the prowl. “I’d like to see him naked, lying on a bed of moss.”

Micah flushed, another sensual pulse sending him back a step.
Focus, buddy
.
Dangerous, not sexy. Not. Sexy
. Micah rose on his tiptoes and expelled a gust of breath. “Like I said, we’re no threat to the forest, so I don’t think you need to stick around.”

A blast of wind hit Micah full in the face and he shielded his eyes as bits of grass and little broken branches peppered his body. The Dryad let out an angry whimpering sound and as the wind died down, she raked her long fingers through her hair, pulling at the strands. “You have allowed Furies into my forest!” she screamed. “And they are destruction incarnate! Because you have failed,” she jabbed an accusing finger at Jacquelyn, “I must stay here.”

Jacquelyn took a threatening step forward and Micah grabbed her by the shoulders, holding her back. A fight wasn’t going to solve anything and he had a feeling that a one on one, hand to hand, would not end well for the feisty hunter. “Whoa,” he said. “Hang on, Jacquelyn.” She shot him a death-ray glare that he chose to ignore. She wasn’t the only badass on the block. “Listen.” He pulled Jacquelyn aside and took a step closer to the Dryad. “No one has
allowed
anything anywhere. We’re just as concerned as you are about these Furies, and we’re trying to get rid of them as we speak. We just need a little time. Even you have to admit they’re not so easy to track.”

“It’s her job to see them gone,” the Dryad argued. “And she’s yet to do it. I refuse to leave these woods until the Furies’ wrath is extinguished. Once their host has served its purpose, it will become a vessel of destruction, and my beautiful trees and all that live here with them will be at risk.”

Okay, now they were getting somewhere. Negotiations. “I think we can live with that,” Micah said. “On one condition.”

The Dryad laughed, and Micah suppressed a moan. If the Furies were destruction incarnate, then this woman was one hundred percent sex. “I don’t bargain with hunters and their pets.” Her eyes darted to Jacquelyn. “But—since you are so mouthwatering, I’ll consider your condition.”

“All we want is for you to behave while you’re here,” Micah said. “We have our hands full already, and don’t need another headache. If you can’t uphold your end of the bargain,” he jerked his chin toward Jacquelyn, “then I doubt I’ll be able to dissuade her from blowing your head right off.”

The Dryad tilted her head to one side in contemplation. “Agreed. But I have a condition of my own. If I,
behave
, and defer to your hunter to do her job, I’d like to see you again before I leave.”

“Go to hell.” Jacquelyn lunged forward as if she was prepared to scratch the Dryad’s eyes right out. “If you think for one second—”

“Agreed,” Micah said. “I’ll come back here, after we’ve dealt with the Furies. But only to make sure you really leave.”

“Of course.” The Dryad paced another circle around him and Micah felt the weight of her eyes on him. “You have a bargain, Bearer. I look forward to seeing you again.”

A halo of white sparks burst from the Dryad’s body and she once again became the shimmering ball of light. As she drifted through the stand of trees, she hovered for a brief moment before disappearing into the night.

“Oh, hell.” Jacquelyn groaned and shoved the gun in her waistband. “Get back to the truck, Micah. Fuck my life.”

For someone with such short legs, she could sure move fast. Micah tripped over a rock, nearly impaling himself on an old branch. What had her so fired up? “Wait up!” Micah shouted. The moon was fully hidden by trees and no longer illuminated the path. “Jacquelyn!”

He stumbled up onto the road, chasing her across the highway. She reached the Dodge and spun around to face him. “You idiot!” She shoved at his chest but Micah held his ground. “Do you realize what you’ve just done?”

“I thought I’d diffused what could have been a bad situation,” Micah said. Why was she all bent out of shape?

“They’re
all
bad situations!” Jacquelyn seemed to be in quite a huff as she climbed up into the truck. She slammed the door in Micah’s face and the engine roared to life.

He walked a little too slow, around the front of Trish’s Dodge, hoping the extra few seconds would cool her down. He’d never understand women, especially this one. Hadn’t she just spent the night with her ex? Why worry about him? He was just extra baggage at this point.

“Would you mind explaining why you’re so bent out of shape all of a sudden?” He shut the door and Jacquelyn pulled out onto the highway, tires screeching, before he could even buckle his seatbelt. Right now, with the way she was driving, she was more dangerous than any Dryad.

“They don’t have consciences, Micah. They’re all the same. They don’t do right and wrong, good or bad. They simply are. And they’re slaves to their natures. Do you think if you meet up with her again that she’ll just shake your hand and let you go? No. She won’t. She wants you, Micah. Badly. And you just handed yourself over to her, might as well have a goddamned bow tied around your neck.”

At least she didn’t mince words. But her concern seemed a little out of place. Not that he didn’t like it. “I’m sorry,” he said. “But I’m not stupid, you know.” Despite his inexperience with the supernatural world, Micah could take care of himself. He didn’t need Jacquelyn throwing herself in front of him all the time. “I know she’s no innocent kitten. But it got her out of our hair, and if she keeps her word, it’ll keep her out of trouble, too. You keep talking about a partnership. Well, partnerships aren’t a one-way street. If we’re going to work together you have to trust me, too. And I’m telling you, negotiating with her was our best option.”

Jacquelyn gave a derisive snort. “A few years ago, a logging company bought two-hundred acres not far from here. Some of the guys clear-cutting the property went missing, others went crazy. The equipment malfunctioned and the state cops found one of their forklifts forty miles away in a dry creek bed. They blamed it on an extremist environmental group.”

“It was her?” Micah asked.

“Maybe. One of her kind, for sure. They’re just as deadly as any Fury, Micah. You can’t ever let your guard down. And what did you do? You struck a
bargain
with her. You have to hold your end up as long as she holds hers. You know that, right? If you go back on your word, she’ll find you, and kill you—nice and slow. You can’t trust her. She made a promise to leave, sure, but there’s always a loophole. And supernatural creatures sure as hell know how to use them.”

Micah assumed that Jacquelyn’s prejudice toward the supernatural creatures was ingrained through years and years of conditioning. He didn’t have that conditioning. He wasn’t so ignorant as to not be wary, but he also had to trust his own intuition that if the forest was kept safe, the Dryad would keep her word. What was done was done, and he wasn’t going to worry about it now. “Understood, and duly noted,” he said. “I won’t do anything like that again without consulting you first. But for the record, I think what I did was the right course of action.”

“Damn right you’ll consult me first.” Jacquelyn pointedly ignored the second half of his statement as she slowed and turned the truck on to Whitney Ranch Road. “I’m done worrying for the night. I’m tired. I’m going to park this truck, I’m going to crash on Trish’s couch, and
none
of you better wake me up before I’m ready.”

Micah opened his mouth but thought better of sharing any further conversation. He’d pushed her buttons enough for one day, and she deserved a night of peaceful sleep. But the thought of drifting off reminded him of his dream, and her screams of terror. Those screams had been reason enough to take a mouthful of pills. And he didn’t think he’d ever have a good night’s sleep again.

Chapter 25

HE WATCHED HIS prey with an almost perverse interest.
I’m better looking than he is
, he thought.
Especially now that I’m so much stronger
. It would be an easy thing to let vengeance take the lead, but this time was different. Special. He was going to take his time with this one, really enjoy himself. The first kill, he barely remembered. The second kill—so much easier—he’d actually been a curious participant. Now, though, now he’d take the lead and let them watch. This death meant so much more than the others.