Page 74 of High Noon

Chapter Sixteen

Eve

Titusand I were cleaning up droplets of blood from the floor with wet cloths. We’d sopped up the trail that led from the room upstairs, down the steps, and across the floor, up to the largest puddle where Kohana had fallen after being shot.

Enoch paced back and forth on the saloon’s porch. Asa fumed, raving about what had happened. Neither men were responsible for siring the bandits. That left one possibility: Terah.

“Have you seen her?” Titus asked me quietly. He must’ve come to the same conclusion.

“Not since I dreamed about her.”

“You don’t want to see her, trust me.” Titus scrubbed a tiny dot off the floor and stood. The cloths were rust-colored and smelled like copper. “I’ll throw these in the fire.”

He walked to the kitchen, and then a loud clang came from within. A pot teetered on the floor. “Titus?” I yelled. He wasn’t in the room. Enoch and Asa were behind me in an instant. I rushed to the door, looking right, left, and everywhere in between. “Titus!” I shouted. “Did Terah hurt him?” I whirled around, looking to the brothers.

“She isn’t in Falling Branch,” Asa answered calmly.

“How do you know?”

“Because I sent her farther west.”

Tears fell from my eyes. “He didn’t just disappear!” Then it hit me. I sucked in a breath, holding my stomach.

“I think he did,” Enoch said quietly.

“They pulled him.” I felt sick. I rushed outside to some brush and vomited into it. “I wanted to go first, to make sure he’d be safe.”

“You could never guarantee that,” Enoch answered gently, helping me stand. My legs felt rubbery and unstable.

“Enoch?” Asa called from behind. “What if Terah was here?”

“One of us should check the cabin,” Enoch breathed.

“We should all check it,” I declared. I needed to see her. Needed to see that Titus wasn’t with her. I knew it was more logical to assume he’d been pulled back to our time, but what if she took advantage of that knowledge? What if she was lurking in the woods and listening to our conversations, and decided to use it against us?

What if Titus was in danger?

I started around the building when Enoch caught my elbow. “I’ll go.”

“No,” I stated, pulling away from him. “I’m going, too.”

Kohana gingerly stepped out of the back door, clutching his side. “What’s wrong?”

“Titus is gone.” Though logic said he was pulled, I didn’t trust logic anymore. Nothing seemed right. I wanted to see Terah and make sure she didn’t have him. I wanted to know my friend was okay.

Kohana winced and slumped against the door frame, grunting as he caught himself with his forearm against the wooden paneling. “Help,” he murmured weakly. Enoch rushed to catch him before he collapsed. “I need to lie down.”

Enoch scooped Kohana up and carried him back inside, the shadows from within swallowing both of them. His footsteps echoed through the saloon and started up the steps.

“This entire visit of yours has been bad for business,” Asa offered conversationally, walking toward me with a sly grin.

Without warning, a loud roaring filled my ears and the earth tilted. I stumbled to the right, barely managing to stay on my feet. Asa’s smile fell away. My heart fluttered, unable to keep pace with the blood trying to rush through it. I gasped as something sharp and hot cut through my head. The agony spread to my chest, burning, tearing. I cried out as I lost my balance and began to fall forward.

A pair of strong arms pulled me backward, holding me in place. “You’re dying,” Asa cursed, holding me upright. “I won’t let you leave him. If he didn’t have you, he’d kill us all.”

The sharp pain began to dull. My heartbeat slowed.

Thump. Thump.

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