chapter Fifteen
Russ stood outside the car, one arm tight around his upper abdomen, the other pointing a black handgun back and forth between her and Sage. “Get out.”
Neither of them budged.
“Get the f*ck out of the car, or I’ll shoot you both,” he rasped.
“Kiss my ass, Russ,” Sage yelled and turned the car over. The engine stayed silent. She started to stomp the floor, kept turning the key. “Dammit!”
The bullet fired through the window, deafened Liberty, almost physically hurt.
She shot up off the floor. Sage opened up the door and rolled out. Russ fumbled with the door handle on her side and Liberty tried to hang onto the inside. They struggled back and forth.
“Hey, Russ,” Sage called out.
Liberty saw him pause, look over the top of the car, and a trash can lid come down on him. He staggered to the side. The gun went off, hitting the ceiling, before it clattered to the floor.
The outside door flew open. Victor ran in. “Dad? Sage? What the hell?” He flipped on the overhead lights.
“Your bitch girlfriend stabbed me, get her.”
Victor’s face changed, grew dark. He stalked to Sage’s side of the car.
“Leave her alone,” Liberty yelled as she swung open her door in a desperate attempt to help.
Russ took the opportunity and lunged in after her.
She kicked at him, scrambled between the front seats. Her foot banged against the steering wheel. The horn beeped, echoing in the garage. Boxes tumbled as Sage struggled with Victor. Liberty pushed herself up from her back and scooted toward the open door. Her head jerked back.
Russ pulled her hair, and she grasped at the steering wheel, white knuckled, until her sweat betrayed her. He gave a hard tug and she lost some hair when she lost her grip, but managed to snag the keys as pulled her into the back seat.
“You’re not going anywhere,” he growled, and climbed on top of her.
She beat at him, punched him in the chest. He hollered out. His sour breath caused her to heave. As he ripped the shirt from her body, she turned her head toward the floor and vomited.
“Christ, you are one sick bitch.” He grimaced, brought a fist down on her cheek, then closed his hands around her throat.
Blood filled her mouth, and she started to paw at his hands. The forgotten keys dug into her palm. Swinging back, she connected high on his face.
He released her, screamed and clutched at his eye. A stream of crimson gushed through his fingers. She gasped for breath and took the opportunity to kick and claw her way back into the front seat.
“Bitch!”
“Sage,” Liberty called out, and saw through the window her daughter’s face was bleeding, she was caught from behind in a choke hold. Liberty surged forward. “Leave her alone!”
She made it halfway out the driver’s side door when she was yanked back in. Russ had her pinned, using the shirt she’d worn to try and strangle her. God, was he running on rabies? Why wouldn’t he die already?
He held her tight as he attempted to push himself between the seats. She clawed at her neck, then tried to rip off the shifter, couldn’t, snagged the rear view mirror off and it fell. She stretched her arm to grab at it and two attempts later came up with the first solid thing her hand came into contact with.
A snowbrush.
She screamed as she swung it up over the seat. Her voice sounded primal, as though it came from the car itself, or maybe the ghosts of the animals that littered the garage. The blade connected with his neck.
He let go of her hair, fell back. She let the snowbrush go with him, watching in horror as he clutched his neck, made a low, gurgling sound. His good eye stared at her in shock, the one she had stabbed drooped, appeared to watch the blood arcing up and over the front seats. The blood sprayed the dome light, turning the faint yellow into a twisted pink glow. Then, like someone had crimped a garden hose, the blood flow spurted a few more times, then stopped.
He slumped back into the seat and as she scrambled out of the car, she watched the sliced skin on his neck droop down and uncover his Adam’s apple, which bobbed twice being going still.
“Hey!”
She flinched, jerked up to look out the rear window. Nathaniel and Becky ran through the garage door.
Liberty stood up and pointed toward the commotion, “Help her, Nathaniel.”
He froze for a second when he saw his wife, then reacted. Nathaniel pounced on a bleeding Victor, jerking him away from Sage. Becky took off her jacket, put it over Liberty’s shoulders.
“Stay away from her,” Nathaniel grunted, shoving Victor to the cement. A sickening thud sounded as the boy landed face up, his back arched, impaled by one half of a twelve point rack that had been lying on the garage floor.
“The hell?” His hands went to his chest, grasped antlers, as the question exited and then died on his lips. The stain on his clothing grew at an alarming rate, and began to pool beneath him. Three of the six antlers tented up the t-shirt near his ribcage, failing to pierce through the material like the others.
Sage cried out, turned away.
“Honey, it’s okay. Are you okay?” Liberty and Becky were at her side, spoke at the same time, looking her over for injuries.
“Mom.” Sage sobbed and clung to her. “I’m so sorry.”
Liberty held and hushed her, smoothing a hand over her hair. She released a slow breath, observed Nathaniel as he stood over Victor’s body. Took in his appearance.
Flannel. Boots. Jeans and a belt. Too much clothing for him to have thrown on if he’d transformed as he’d entered the garage. She tuned in. White.
She closed her eyes. He’d taken Mitch’s amulet. He’d escaped capture when Gabriel hadn’t, knew Sage was in mortal danger. Got to the farmhouse when she’d already left for the Jenkins’ house. Becky must have told him everything.
She opened her eyes when she felt him wrap his arms around her and Sage. Becky still at her side, she was entirely bathed in their lights.
Nathaniel’s voice hitched. “Holy hell, Lib, I thought you were dead.”
She tipped her head to look up at him. “You did? Why?”
“I got away when Gabe and I got ambushed, but he didn’t make—”
“I know.” She ran her hand through his hair as Sage squeezed them both tighter. “I can’t believe it, either.”
“I hid in the field across the road and by the time I made it back, when you were caught…” His chest heaved and he choked back a sob. “I saw you lying there. You’d been shot—”
“With a dart,” Liberty said. “They drugged me.”
Becky stepped to the side, met Liberty’s eyes and nodded like she had believed it too. Then she pivoted to look at the garage doors, allowing them the faintest bit of privacy.
“I thought you were dead. Your form wavered, and then went solid human.”
Liberty’s eyes grew wide. “It did? I did? How?”
He looked lost, clueless. “I don’t know. I really don’t. But… you can’t imagine how I felt when I thought I’d lost you.”
She thought she could. She’d known that terror before, and hugged Sage tighter. “Shh, it’s okay. Maybe it was the tranquilizer. But, I’m okay. I’m okay and so’s our girl.”
In the midst of everything, she’d forgotten. Remembering, she pulled away. “Sage, honey, I need to ask you something.”
Sage, puffy eyed and wet cheeked, nodded, “Okay.”
“Russ said he was hired to find me. Me, in particular. Do you know anything about that?”
She nodded. “Just found out tonight. That’s why I wasn’t there for Mitch. I was supposed to be, you know? It was gonna be our reunion.” She looked at her father, then down to his wrist. “When Mitch passed, we were finally going to be reunited.”
“I understand, honey, it’s okay. Who hired Russ?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know their real name.”
Becky motioned to the other side of the car, toward the workroom that they’d been held in. “Come over here, no need to look at that,” and she tipped her head toward the floor.
They moved and stood outside the shop door.
“What do you mean, their real name?” Nathaniel asked.
“Since Vic and I were together when I saw Adrian…did you know that? I saw him.” She started to cry again. “I didn’t act scared or anything, so Vic told his dad I was cool with it… They figured they could trust me. But they didn’t completely. They just called this guy Raven, nothing real. That’s his name on a website.”
Liberty nodded, looked at Nathaniel, saw worry crease his brow.
She said, “I think I know who it is.”
“Who?” They all asked at once.
She looked at Nathaniel. “Russ said I’d upset someone back at the palace. I can only assume he meant Proem.”
Sage nodded. “I noticed, too. But, why would anyone do that? If they wanted something, they knew where to find us.”
“You’re probably right, honey.” Liberty watched Nathaniel, not believing a word she said either. “He must have been mistaken.”
From his face, Nathaniel had drawn the same conclusion.
Cutler Thomas. It would be just like him to nickname himself Raven. Black hair, dark eyes, dark complexion. Sleek, opportunistic predators that preyed on the weak.
But Sage had been right though. He knew where she lived. He could have sent someone to fetch or hunt her down. Why involve a human? She and Nathaniel locked eyes, understood, but silently agreed now wasn’t the time to talk about it.
Becky said, “Uh, guys? I’m sorry, but we really gotta get out of here.” She nodded toward the carnage in the car, on the floor. “And we need to figure out a way to make this go away.”
“How?” Nathaniel asked.
“I’m thinking a huge fire?” She shrugged.
“Oh my God.” Sage started to shake. “Can’t we please just get out of here?”
Liberty eyed Sage, and then looked at Becky, pleaded with her silently to help.
“Sure,” Becky said. “Come on. I think we can figure out a plan when we get back to the house. I’ll just turn off the lights. We want it to look like everyone’s asleep if someone shows up before we…”
Nathaniel pulled Sage out. “C’mon, I’ll ride with you.” He looked over his shoulder at Liberty. “We’ll talk when we get back.”
Liberty nodded, put aside her questions. She’d deal with her mixed feelings later.