Page 9 of Taken By Raider Kings
“We’re not going to hurt you.”The young boy crouched on the bench seat swayed as the van changed lanes.He swiped at the tears on his cheeks, scrubbing them away angrily.“Zach, are yousure?She’s a bleeder.”
“She’s got the mark, I smell it on her.If I can, you can, too.”Her kidnapper’s hands fell away, and Sophie was suddenly aware she was virtually recumbent; he was wedged up against the closed side door.Her gaze flicked toward the front passenger’s seat—maybe she could signal through the window or get away somehow, if she could justgetthat far.
Think, Sophie.Think!
“A shaman.”The driver sighed.“Goddammit.”There was a sound—palm striking steering wheel now, sharply.Nobody in the vehicle was happy, it sounded like.“Kyle.”
“We’ll sing him to the Moon the moment I’m sure we’re safe.We’ll hold Silence for him until then.”The guy she was half-laid on sighed as well.Zach, the boy had said; she didn’t want to know more, but maybe the names could be useful.“It’s just us now.But we’ve got a shaman.Julia, find her a coat.Brenn, gather up the money.You’ll hold it for me.”
The crying boy hopped off the seat, grabbing cash from the girl’s hands and combing the floor with quick motions, gathering up fallen bills.He paused, ducking his head, when his gaze drifted across Sophie’s.That streak in his hair was strange; the girl had one too.
The boy also seemed not to notice he was still weeping, even while the tears dripped on his denim jacket.
“Please,” Sophie whispered.“You can just let me go.I won’t tell anyone, I promise.”
“She’s whining.”The girl’s lip lifted, white teeth glimmering.“What a fuckingbleeder.”
A confused burst of motion.Sophie landed hard on her side.A burst of starry pain rocked through her skull—hit my head, she thought, dimly—and the weird rattling growl crested again, drowning out engine-noise.
Her ears roared too, like a high wind in acres of trees.A familiar sound, one she’d heard many times before, usually while Marc was yelling.Always soloudwhen he started in on her, the noise robbing her of breath and light, closing down her vision into a tunnel.
“Shutup,Julia!”Zach the kidnapper snarled, but Sophie slid down into a darkness starred with weird spangled lights, and was gone.
six
They heldthe Silence for Kyle, not speaking unless absolutely necessary.It was to keep his spirit from lingering, but also meant Zach had too much time to think.
It also meant he couldn’t explain much to the new shaman.Not that she seemed disposed to listen, especially once she emerged from a semiconscious daze.She shrank frantically away any time one of them approached, and her gaze roved the inside of the van when she thought he wasn’t watching.
Looking for escape.
He cursed himself every time she flinched.She huddled to one side of the middle bench seat, pressed against the van’s wall, making herself as small as possible, an oil-stained rag clasped to the side of her head—she’d fetched up hard against the van’s side when he dealt with Julia.
Which was bad.
A pretty little thing, curved in all the right places, her hair a tangle of sandalwood curls and those little librarian glasses—thankfully not damaged; Brenn had carefully picked them up—perched on her adorable little nose, over two wide, fearful eyes.Too dim to tell what color the pale irises really were.Something too light to be green, and the wrong shade for blue.
He wanted to find out.
Unfortunately, the bruise spreading down the side of her face didn’t do much to help.But he’d had to shut Juliaupbefore he was tempted to hurt her.So many times now he had glanced over to gauge Kyle’s reaction to the new shaman, to Eric’s driving, to Julia’s soft sobbing in the very back seat—and found an empty place where his little brother should be.
This is your fault, not Julia’s.He wasn’t hard enough to lead, and especially not to rule a traveling Family without a shaman.You knew, youalwaysknew.You still let him take the alpha, because… why?
Because of the smoke and Kyle’s agonized howl as Zach held him back, as the fire ate their home and their parents.It was right after a fight with a small wandering band ofupir,both their alpha and shaman wounded, the shaman too deep in a healing-trance to wake up in time.Smoke inhalation could kill any Tribe, and the old alpha had thrown Zach clear with the last of his strength.Dad had succumbed with his last mate, their deaths an agonizing rawness in the center of Zach’s memory.
The fire left them homeless, without shaman or kin.And it left Zach with the deep shame of failure.He was strong enough—he should have saved Dadorgone up in flames with the shaman.He’d made the instinctive choice, not therightone.
Brooding wastes energy.
He had more immediate problems, like keeping their new shaman quiet as the van inched up to the drive-thru window.Which meant crouching right in front of her, peering at that pale, pretty little face.
She inhaled once or twice, sharply, but might be too shocked and disoriented to scream.Or she was calculating the likely consequences, especially since the van could simply pull out and vanish.Zach wasn’t quite sure.
Eric handed the bags of food to Brenn, who had settled in the front passenger seat, not daring to comfort his crying twin just yet.The shaman potential—wouldn’t give her name, either—perched dry-eyed and dazed on the middle bench seat.
Their new treasure smelled too good to be true, and he had to stop himself from sniffing like a bleeder glue addict every time the air in the van shifted.
I have screwed this right up, haven’t I?But he hadn’t beenthinking,just reacting to the beast’s roar of possessiveness.It had happened so quickly and she smelled sogood,brunette musk and cold silver light.
