Chapter Fourteen

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

The next morning, Faith woke with a start and a feeling of dread in the pit of her stomach. Blindly, she stumbled out of bed and looked for her clothes. She had to get out on the road as soon as possible. She felt the renewed pull and thought she could find the place for certain today.

In fact, she must find the place, or evil would be unleashed on a helpless community. Probably several communities before the demons moved on, dispersing themselves all over the country, and then the continent, and then the world. She had to get them while they were still local, or the hunt would take forever, and untold numbers of innocents would die in horrible ways.

“Faith? Everything okay?” Colt’s sleep-roughened voice came to her from the bed. She looked behind herself and saw him there, sexier than anything she’d ever seen, lying in the rumpled white sheets.

More than anything, she wanted to go back and just lie in his arms and let him hold her, but she couldn’t. She knew what she had to do. Thank the Goddess he would be with her on her perilous journey. She needed him more than she’d ever needed anyone else, and it was at that moment that she realized he’d become central to her existence.

“Not a good time,” she murmured to herself. “We have to go,” she said louder, directing her words to Colt. “The knowing is back, and we need to start heading south again as soon as possible.”

“All right,” he said, throwing off the covers, exposing his smoking hot body. Her breath caught, but this really wasn’t the time. “Give me five minutes to get my gear. Get dressed, and we’ll be on the road as soon as you’re ready.”

He was on his feet, heading for the door of her bedroom, naked as the day he was born. She couldn’t help but watch as he stalked closer. He paused right in front of her and bent to give her a smacking kiss.

“Don’t worry, Faith. I’m with you. We’ll fix this. Have a little bit of your namesake.”

He was gone before she puzzled out that he wanted her to have faith . She groaned aloud for his benefit and heard his sexy chuckle in the outer room as he went to get his gear . Whatever that entailed.

She ran into the bathroom and rushed through the quickest shower of her life, then slapped on some clothes, pausing only to make sure she had the things she would need to do her demon slaying. She’d put together a go bag at her mentor’s suggestion and kept it with her at all times. She was for damn sure not going to forget it today, when she’d probably be needing it most.

Faith made sure to dress properly. She wasn’t sure what conditions she might encounter today, so she made sure to have long pants made of durable canvas, not unlike Colt’s military BDU’s, only a more feminine version. She also had ankle boots with durable soles that she’d been wearing during most of this trip. Her bag was slung across her torso, and she had a T-shirt as well as a light-weight leather jacket that had pockets holding a few of her essentials. It might be a little hot, but it would also protect her. Natural materials like the leather and cotton of her pants would protect her a bit from any stray magic that might come her way.

Non-magical people never realized that man-made fibers were much more susceptible to magic and more mundane things like flames and water than the natural alternatives. She noticed that all the shifters she’d met seemed to favor natural materials for not only their clothing but their surroundings, as well. Everything in this apartment and the entire building, for that matter, seemed to be made of natural materials, in fact.

And she was stalling. Mentally, if not physically. She just didn’t want to think about what might come next. She just knew today was going to be the day. A day of reckoning when her training and fortitude would be put to the test in the biggest way yet. She was scared.

Then, she thought about Colt, and a bit of the fear subsided. He’d be with her. He’d said so. He wanted her to have faith, and by golly, she was going to do so.

Finishing her dressing, she grabbed her go bag and went out into the main room of the suite. Colt was already there, waiting for her. She moved right into his arms and just hugged him for a moment, feeling his strength fill her with purpose and take away some of her anxiety.

When she drew back, he looked deep into her eyes.

“Better now?” he asked, his voice a low, intimate rumble.

She nodded. “I’m glad you’re with me, Colt,” she told him honestly. She wanted to say more, but now really was not the time. Later. After they’d faced whatever was going to come for them today. Then, she might have the courage to lay her heart on the line.

“I’ll always be here for you, Faith. We’re a team now,” he said, kissing her once, all-too-briefly, then letting her go.

As they left the apartment, her head was still whirling a bit from his kiss, and she knew she probably had a goofy grin on her face. He’d sounded so serious. Maybe he was feeling a bit of what she’d just discovered within herself where he was concerned. She could hope.

But first, they had a job to do, and it wasn’t going to be easy.

They took the same route they’d taken the day before but were able to go a bit faster since the direction was much clearer in her mind than it had been yesterday. They bypassed the space center and kept going until, suddenly, she knew it was time to turn off the highway.

“Get off here,” she told Colt, and he complied. She closed her eyes, hoping to home in on the feelings that were tugging at her a little better as their pace slowed to non-highway speeds. “Turn left,” she said a few minutes later when they came to a crossroad. They went down that smaller road for a few miles, passing other cross streets, but she didn’t tell him to turn again until she felt they were in exactly the right spot. “Turn here and then just follow the lane. But go slow. I think we’re really close now.”

He heeded her words and drove down the deserted country road for about a mile before she put out her hand to clutch the dashboard. She saw a driveway, and the feeling of dread was stronger than ever.

“That’s the driveway,” she whispered, unable to summon her voice.

He slowed even more, grabbing his phone from the holder on the dash and snapping a few quick photos of the driveway and the house at the far end as they went past. She looked as best she could from her side of the truck, but the driveway was on the left, closer to Colt than her. She craned her neck as he went past and kept on going. Surprised, she looked at him.

“Aren’t you going to turn around?”

“Nope,” he told her, putting his phone back in the slot on the dashboard. “We’re going to do some research first. I assume we have time before whatever’s going to happen. Can you gauge that?”

Slowly, she nodded. “Yeah. There’s nothing active now, but they’re making preparations. That’s what I’m picking up on, I think. The intent. Or something. I’m not one hundred percent sure how it all works. But I feel like they won’t actually do the summoning for a few hours yet.”

“So, we have time to research and plan,” Colt said, turning the truck onto a much larger road that intersected with the country lane. Within a few minutes, he found a chain restaurant and pulled into the lot. “We should also eat so we’re at full strength for whatever fun and games are coming later.”

“I never realized how much shifters thought about food all the time,” she said, shaking her head, a bit miffed that he could think of eating at a time like this.

Still, he did have a point, she guessed. The summoning wouldn’t happen for hours. She felt the truth of that in her bones. Keeping herself and her self-appointed partner in top form was a good idea, and for a big shifter like Colt, she realized that meant filling up his tank, so to speak, with calories he could, and would, burn during the coming action.

“I’m going to order on their app,” he told her, poking at his phone. “They’ll bring it out to the truck. That way we can talk freely while we eat. What do you want?”

They talked over the options, and she made her choices. He plugged them into the app, and she sat back while he completed ordering his own meal. Then, they waited. He turned to her in the close confines of the truck’s passenger cabin.

“I think we need to do a little more recon in this area after we eat. There has to be a reason they chose that house and this place,” Colt said, his gaze serious. “There’s probably something nearby that they plan to set the demons loose on. Maybe one of those shifter neighborhoods Gavin was talking about last night.”

“That makes sense,” she allowed. “I hope they managed to get the children and elderly out of the line of fire. The build-up of power I sense is more than anything I’ve felt before. As if the mage doing the summoning is really powerful, or there’s more than one working the preparatory spells.”

“Not good,” Colt shook his head. “This could be bigger than just you and I can handle.”

She nodded, feeling a bit hopeless for a split second. Then, she rallied. This is what she was born for. She could handle it. Of course, maybe having a little more help was a good idea, loathe as she was to involve anyone else in this.

“I hate to do it, but I think we should call Gavin,” she said quietly.

Frowning, Colt finally nodded. “If for no other reason than to warn him about the location.”

A young employee of the restaurant jogged out to the truck with three bags just then, and Colt lowered the window to accept the delivery. They spent a few minutes securing the bags, and Colt drove away. He called Gavin as they drove to the next shopping center down the road so they could park in the rear of the lot.

“We found the place,” Colt said to Gavin once he picked up. He followed that announcement with the location.

“I know the area,” Gavin replied, his tone reserved.

“How well?” Colt challenged.

“ Very well.” Gavin sighed and went on. “It pertains to the things we were discussing last night. I’m going to text you an address. Meet me there in thirty minutes. Doable?”

“Yeah. We’re eating lunch in the truck, and we’re in the general area if the address you send me is near the one I just gave you.”

“It is.” Gavin sounded grim. “I’m driving out now. I’ll see you shortly.”

They ended the call without further ado, and Colt turned to the food. As they were sorting out the items, his phone beeped with the address Gavin had promised, and he paused for a moment to look it up. He whistled when he saw the location on the map on his phone.

“That’s pretty damn close,” he said, turning the little screen so Faith could see it.

“Yeah, I see what you mean,” she agreed, squinting to see the details of the little map. “Is that house in the middle of a development?”

Colt turned the phone back so he could see it and tapped a bit. “Yeah, smack dab in the middle of a neighborhood with only a few ways in and out. This address is by one of the side entrances.” He did a bit more tapping on the screen. “Well, hot damn. This whole development was built by Redstone Construction. I’m willing to bet it’s a custom-designed shifter neighborhood.”

“Built for the Kinkaid Clan? Or just shifters in general?” she asked as she nibbled on a strip of bacon.

“I’m guessing it’s a Clan thing,” Colt replied, tilting his head in consideration. “They probably need the room, though I don’t know how large the Clan really is. Still, a guy like Sam gathers a lot of people under his protective wing. The man has a lot of power and a lot of money. That goes a long way, in this day and age, toward protecting the people under his rule. Generally, the more powerful the Alpha, the bigger the Clan.”

“I didn’t know that, but it makes sense.” She ate a bit more as Colt went on.

“Take the Redstone Clan, for example,” he said as he paused in the consumption of a third egg sandwich. “They employ a lot of shifters of all kinds and are one of the most powerful Clans in the country. Possibly the world. The five brothers who run the Clan are all Alphas and between them, wield a lot of power.”

“How does that work? I thought there was usually only one Alpha.”

“Well, technically, the oldest brother is the Alpha of the Clan. The other four have decided to work with and for their brother. It’s sort of a radical arrangement for shifters, but then, cats are a bit more contrary than the other species. Redstones are cougars,” he said, scratching his chin reflectively. “But having so many powerful Alpha personalities running different parts of the operation has allowed them to bring in all sorts of shifters under their Clan’s banner. They’re theoretically all employees, and each group has their own Alpha that reports back to the Clan Alpha, but they all have tied their lives and livelihoods to Redstone. And they all aid each other, regardless of species, when needed. There is truth to the old adage about safety in numbers.”

“I’ve heard Kinkaid has a large Clan, but they’re mostly lions, right?” Faith asked as she finished her own sandwich.

“Lions and selkies, oddly enough. I’m not sure if they’ve branched out like the cougars to accept other species under their banner. My brothers and I have studiously avoided learning too much about the Clan over the years.” Colt grimaced a little. “Maybe that was a bad decision on our part,” he said, surprising her. Then, he shook his head.

He went back to eating, and in short order, they were finished with their take-out. Just in time, Faith realized, looking at the clock. They had about five minutes to get to the address Gavin had sent. Colt started the truck while Faith gathered the trash and stowed it in the bag it had come in. Within moments, they were back on the road.

Five minutes later, they pulled up in front of a nice house on the edge of an even nicer development. Gavin was in the driveway and waved. Colt politely helped Faith out of the truck, and they walked together toward their host.