“Are you all right, Jael?” Bree was by her side in an instant, taking her arm. “Come on, get in the car. I’ll take you home.” She helped Jael into the passenger seat, then hurried around and climbed back behind the wheel. She glanced in the rearview at Shadow, once again in the back seat, and frowned. “I can’t believe you let Jael do all the fighting. You didn’t even step in to help.”
“I was busy.”
“Doing what?”
“Calling for backup.”
Brianna shook her head and started the car. “Whatever.”
Jael twisted around before fastening her seatbelt. “If you called someone, then where are they?” she asked.
“I told you they went home,” he said.
She couldn’t tell whether he was joking or serious.
Brianna managed to turn the car around after about ten back and forths and finally turned onto the empty highway. The radio station played cool jazz as they rode along and seemed to soothe the irritability left over from their encounter with Lyle and his friends. Jael stared out the window at sagebrush and cactus shadows and wondered why she found it so hard to believe a teenage boy had a direct line to a pack of wolves. It wasn’t as if her life was totally believable.
“Why did you hide in the car at the restaurant?” she asked, flicking off the radio when the song ended.
“I wanted to make sure you got home safe. Those guys were talking about drugging your milkshakes. I couldn’t be sure you’d leave before that happened.”
Brianna made a sound of derision. “And what were you going to do if they did? Evidently you’re not much of a fighter.”
He leaned forward with his hands on the backs of their seats, so close that Jael could smell the shampoo he used. Something fresh and citrusy. His hair hung straight and silky along his cheekbones, blocking a good view of his eyes. “I fight when I need to, but Jael seemed to have it under control.”
“Jael is an expert in martial arts. What are you an expert in? Buffalo chips?”
He turned his face toward Brianna. “Was that a subtle jab at my heritage?”
Her eyes widened and she shook her head. “Of course not! I would never make fun of you because you’re an Indian.”
“Native American,” he corrected smoothly.
Jael detected the hint of a smile at the corners of his mouth. “The redskin is pulling your chain, Bree.”
Brianna shot him a quick glance before gluing her eyes back to the road. “That wasn’t funny.”
He laughed softly and ran a finger along her arm. “Sure it was.”
She slapped his hand away. “Sit back and quit distracting the driver.”
He slid back on the seat with a sigh. “You’re pretty bossy for a squaw.”
“You’re pretty worthless as a backup plan.”
Brianna slowed and turned onto Jael’s road, pulled to the side and shifted into park. “You want me to drive you closer to the house? You’re probably exhausted after beating up three guys – all alone.”
“She’s fought worse,” Shad mumbled.
Jael gave him a sharp glance before opening the door. “I’ll be fine. Are you sure you will be?” she asked, leaning in through the open door. She gestured toward Shad.
The back door was thrust open and Shad stepped out beside her. “Don’t worry. I get out here too.”
Jael and Brianna stared after him when he closed the door and started walking down the road.
“Where does he think he’s going?”
“You don’t suppose he lives nearby?” Brianna asked. “Maybe I should drive you to the house.”
Jael met her friend’s eyes. “If my parents don’t already know I’ve been gone, they definitely will if you pull into the yard. Bruno’s bark could wake the dead.”
“Okay, but call me before you go to sleep. I want to know you’re safe.”
She laughed. “You sound like my mom.”
Brianna pulled back onto the highway. Jael stood and watched until her taillights disappeared from view, swallowed up by the dark and a dip in the road. She turned and hurried toward the house, quickly catching up with Shadow’s slow ambling gait. With his long legs he could have been half way there by now. It was obvious he was waiting for her.
Hearing her approach, he stopped and turned around. “Don’t worry. I don’t bite.”
“What are you doing out here? Nobody lives on this road for miles.” She put her hands on her hips and regarded him with a frown. “If this is some macho guy thing to protect me...”
He laughed. “Why would you think that? I just saw you take out three guys single-handedly. I’m not stupid.”
“True. Then why are you here and how do you intend to get back to town?”
“I’ll worry about my ride. You have more pressing problems.” He stuck his hands in the front pockets of his jeans, his eyes narrowed as he regarded her. “Do you know what a tracker is?”
She hesitated, sensing he was fishing for information. “Sure. Isn’t it some kind of computer program to track online history or something?”
He looked past her shoulder into the dark sagebrush at the side of the road, his gaze so intense that she couldn’t help glancing back as well. When his eyes flicked back to hers, he smiled. “You’re pretty good.”
“At what?”
“Deflecting questions.”
The conversation was making Jael seriously uncomfortable. Her mother had mentioned something about trackers from the Shoshoni tribe, sniffing out Slayers and… what? That part was never explained. She was supposed to ask her father. Of course she never did.
She started walking, hoping to put some distance between them. If he really had a nose like a dog he probably thought she smelled like the inside of a dirty clothes hamper after the night she’d had. “I have to get home. Good luck finding that ride.”
“She’s your best friend, isn’t she? Maybe you’re only friend?”
His questions brought her feet to a sudden stop. She spun around and glared at him. “What are you getting at? Are you threatening Bree?”
He crossed his arms over his dark blue t-shirt and sighed. “Of course not. I’m trying to warn you and failing miserably.”
“Warn me?”
“You’ve been found. A relative of mine, who will remain name-less, has already put the word out. I tried to stop him, but he wouldn’t listen. He thinks the old ways are the only ways.” He shook his head. “We’ve been living as servants for far too long. Serving the needs of the immortals without even a taste of immortality. Like dogs bred to hunt, they throw us a bone at the end of the day and say, “good Indian.”
“They?” she asked, taking a tentative step back toward him. She glanced to each side of the road, now fearing an ambush. If he was a tracker for the vamps…
“Bloodsuckers. Vampires. Immortals. Whatever you want to call them. I refuse to call them Master any longer. I will not bow to their needs or use my abilities to serve them.”
“And you’re telling me this because…?”
“Because you are a slayer and I’m changing sides.”
She bit her bottom lip, her eyes narrowing. The guy was big, strong looking, and obviously bright. He’d been watching her fight earlier, so he knew some of her moves. Was he toying with her, trying to get into her head? Or was he being straight with her?
“You don’t believe me,” he said. He glanced at the desert on either side of the road before turning his face up toward the full moon, his dark eyes reflecting the shining orb, and howled.
The sound startled her. She was about ready to run home, and throw herself on the mercy of her parents, just to escape the crazy guy. Maybe they’d know how to get rid of him – short of shooting him with a silver bullet. A moment passed while she was shocked into silence, and then in the distance she heard the sound of echoing howls. Not just one or two, but at least half a dozen.
She gasped. “You really did have a backup plan,” she said.
“I probably shouldn’t have called
them before, but Lyle was really acting like a jerk. I couldn’t let anything happen to you or Bree. I know you can take care of yourself, but if they’d put something in your drink like they said they were gonna…”
“I guess I owe you one.”
He shrugged. “Maybe.”
“But I still could have taken them out of commission even without your wolves waiting in the wings.”
“Probably.”
“So, why are you here? And what does this have to do with Bree? Is she in danger?”
He scuffed the toe of his athletic shoe against the hard earth a couple times as though hesitant to divulge what he knew. Finally he pulled his hands from his pockets and pushed the hair back from his face with a sigh of resignation. “There is a family line in our tribe that will end with me. I am haayabinnaangwahte – the last Tracker. Unless I marry my cousin, who is ten years older than me, there will be no more trackers. The chance is slim even then. The gift of wolf charming has slowly disappeared from our tribe. My father never reached his potential, but my grandfather was a master at communicating with the pia isan.
“I take it that’s a wolf.”
She moved closer, watching his eyes. Earlier she thought they looked golden, now they seemed darker, more of an amber. But that could just be from lack of daylight. The moon was brighter than normal, revealing an intensity in Shad that she hadn’t noticed before.
“It’s not like the movies,” he said, a flicker of amusement in his dark eyes. “We can’t shapeshift or anything crazy like that. I mean, I’m not a werewolf if that’s what you think.”
She raised her brows. “After what I’ve seen lately I don’t think werewolves would even surprise me.”
“I know what you mean.”
“You do?”
He ignored her question and continued. “I may not be able to turn into a werewolf but I sort of have some of their characteristics.”
“Sort of? Like what,” she asked, taking a step back, “the strength to tear someone limb from limb?”
He laughed and shook his head. “Nothing like that. I’m just a tracker, remember?”
“My mom told me trackers can smell slayers from a hundred yards away. Is that true?”
“Close enough,” he confirmed, wrinkling his nose.
“So how long have you known?”
“That you’re a slayer?” He shrugged and glanced away. “I didn’t know for sure until a couple days ago, but I made the mistake of mentioning it to my grandfather. I’m sorry.”
“Your grandfather. And he told…”
“Word was sent out that a slayer is rising.”
He made it sound like carrier pigeons were on the move, little notes tied around their necks. How in the world did you send word to the vampire population? A late night phone call to a bat cave?
“What does Bree have to do with this?” she asked again, worried now, after she’d sent her home alone.
“If they know she’s your friend, they could use her to get to you. It’s not as if they play fair. They’re soulless creatures, after all.”
“True, but what would that gain them? Besides an angry slayer?”
“I just know what I heard. Kenu said if you have not yet reached your sixteenth birthday, that you are still vulnerable.”
“I thought you said your grandfather would remain nameless.”
He grinned. “That’s not his name. It’s just the Shoshone word for grandfather.”
There was a sound in the brush beside the road. A snake slithered out and curled up on a rock ten feet away. With her eyes on the creature, Jael moved away from it and started walking again. “I need to get home. My parents are going to be worried if they realize I’m gone.”
He kept pace with her. “Your parents are vulnerable too. I’d warn them if I were you. They should know you’ve been located.”
She shook her head. “I can’t tell them that. They’ll ask me how I know, and then,” she spread her hands, “all of this will come out. Besides, they’d probably pack up and run again. I don’t want to leave Sunburn. I’m tired of moving from place to place. Now that I know why we’ve been nomads for most of my life, I can put a stop to it. I’ll be sixteen in two weeks. What can happen before that?”
The look on his face was not encouraging.
Chapter 16
A savage tale