Page 48 of Taken By Raider Kings
Thankfully, though, he glanced around the bar as if looking for something, then shook his head.“That can wait.If we go now, we’ll get to the pickup point just in time.”
“Carcajou.”For some reason, Cullen looked even more uneasy now.“She needs training, and you?—”
Zach turned slightly, not quite looking over his shoulder.“If the Tribes won’t deal with this, why should we stay and risk her?”His tone was pitched to carry, ringing through the entire bar, and Sophie was very glad he didn’t seem irritated withher.“She’ll decide what to do.In the meantime, you can tell the air—and Armitage—that if he comes after her I’m going to personally reach down his throat and tear his diseased little heart out.”
Silence.Her kidnapper—but she couldn’t think of him like that now, Sophie realized—flowed into motion again.He halted just before her, and his gaze locked with hers.
“Nobody,” Zach said, “messes with her from now on.”
twenty
The house wasn’t much—atwo-story fake Tudor on a quiet, depressed street—but Eric was visibly proud of scrambling a rental on short notice.
“It’s good,” Zach said, and hoped Sophie would catch the hint.She’d been silent since the bar, the kind of trembling quiet he was beginning to think spelled trouble.He also didn’t want to break the news that all Eric’s efforts might’ve been wasted if they had to get her out of town because theupirhere were getting too big for their britches.
“It’s nice.”His shaman had finished rubbing at her steel-framed spectacles with a cloth fished from her purse and now stood in the empty living room peering at the fake fireplace; the gas wouldn’t be turned on until Brenn or Eric could get down to pay a deposit.But there was electricity, the place came with fridge, stove, and laundry machines.Julia had already hung up her clothes in one of the bedrooms—notthe biggest one, for once.
That one belonged to the shaman.And, not so incidentally to Zach, once she consented to shar.He’d cross that bridge when he came to it.
Assuming they stayed put.
“It’sreallynice,” she said, pushing her hair back.A thin thread of her light, lovely musk reached him.She even smelled pleased.“You did all this just in a few hours?”
“The hardest part was finding mattresses.”Eric drew himself up a little straighter, grinning, leather jacket creaked as he shrugged.Was he actuallyblushing?Wonders never ceased.“But we’re champion scroungers.”
Sophie was indeedsmiling,pale eyes damn near sparkling and the corners of her mouth curved up.The smile did something funny to Zach’s head, even though he thought himself reasonably prepared for just how goddamn attractive she was.
That smile made him want to do something, anything, to keep it in place.Maybe even make her laugh.She didn’t just smell good, she was smart and capable and soft in all the right places, and?—
She gave the living room another critical glance, slid her purse off her shoulder, and sobered.“We might not be here for long, though.We found out some things.”
Which brought Eric’s gaze around to rest on him, speculatively, and Zach found himself wondering if his cousin-brother was having second thoughts.
There was going to be a short, sharp fight ifthatwas happening.
“Like what?”The pale stripe in Eric’s hair gleamed under the ceiling fixture’s bright glow.
Zach kept his hands loose with an effort.“Like why theupirare after our shaman.What’s for dinner?”
“The kids are at the store, should be back in a few.Jul said she’d do steaks.”Eric studied Zach’s face, his forehead wrinkling.He looked younger when he did that, a ghost of the gangly kid he used to be.“What’s up?”
“Steak?Wow.”Sophie’s smile peeped out again, a shadow of its former self as well.
Still, he almost lost track of what he needed to say.“Seems like our shaman’s ex-husband wants her as a sacrifice.Theupirin these parts are getting uppity, in bed with the police and the local gentry.Met a shaman of the Bear Tribe who doesn’t think anyone will stand up to them.”
“So it’s simple.”Eric folded his arms, jacket creaking.“We slap them around a bit, show them who’s boss, crack ’em like a nut, and be home in time for breakfast.Right?”
If something so simple can fix it, I’ll be relieved.“It’s up to the shaman.”Zach clumped to the big bay window, his boots squelching.He’d be lucky if she didn’t catch a fever after being dragged around through the rain all day—she was still so new, barely past triggering.No wonder Tribe was so hard to find in this city.
But… scared ofupir?What next?They were dangerous, true, but Tribe—especially Carcajou—were well-equipped to handle such things.Right?
Unless there’s so many they can swarm a Family and take out a shaman.It was an uncomfortable thought.Cullen said they’d already lost two.Are pigs gonna start flying next?Jesus.
A quiet residential street under heavy grey pall, night already mostly fallen.Streetlamps struggled into life, pale yellow dots on the canvas of winter dusk.The house was full of stale air, but the musk was already beginning to seep in, make it smell like home.
“What are we going to do?”Eric sounded young as Brenn, and for a moment Zach was glad nobody was asking him.He was having a difficult time keeping his temper down, thinking ofupirstalking a helpless woman.
Stalkingthishelpless woman.
