Courts and Cabals 2 G.S. D'Moore (the little red hen read aloud .txt) 📖

I jerked forward and would have hit my face against the seatback in front of me if the seatbelt hadn’t snapped taught.

“Oomph,” the air was squeezed out of my lungs, but that was better than Lilith. She slid forward and onto the floor between the two sets of seats with a thump.

“Shit, sorry,” Dani apologized as she threw open the door.

We’d parked in a small nook in the woods. Trees crowded in on either side of us, but a glance told me it was manmade. It was too neat; free of weeds, grass, and nature didn’t make right angles. This looked like someplace someone parked their car. The advantage was that it hid us from anything unless it was right on top of us. That was good, because I could hear the chopper getting closer.

“While I wouldn’t mind camping in the woods sometime,” I hurried to pull the door open and grab Lilith, “where the hell are we going?”

“About fifty feet that way,” Dani pointed at a path I’d missed hidden in the night’s shadows.

I scooped up Lilith and ran for it; with Dani in the lead and Xamira bringing up the rear. It didn’t even occur to me that Lilith felt like a feather in my arms. The path was narrow and branches reached out to snag at me. I shouldered through them, only letting Lilith get slapped in the face once by a particularly bendy bastard. She didn’t even stir as the leaves tickled her nose.

After a minute, we emerged into a clearing, and I felt something snap inside me. I stumbled and nearly dropped my charge. It hurt to breath for a second; like something had a hold of my lungs and was squeezing, but after a few moments of panic, it subsided.

“Wards,” Xamira stated. “Well, no use in being quiet,” her longer legs took her farther and faster than the rest of us as she took over leading the group.

The clearing covered several acres all the way up to the side of an impressive hill. There were some fields off to one side – all barren and covered in snow – but come springtime, they’d be ready to plant. Anything from corn to pumpkins could be grown as long as the weather cooperated. My nerves didn’t allow me to feel complacent, even with the safehouse in sight. My eyes scanned the sky as much as the area in front of me. Our getaway van might be concealed, but we were sitting ducks out in the open.

My body propelled me farther and faster, to the point I left Dani in my wake. I heard her grumble something about, “stupid, short-ass legs, and too-big tits,” as she fell behind.

I was still far behind Xamira, but I saw her stop as a figure appeared from the house ahead. It was a stereotypical Victorian. Not quite a mansion, but pretty damn close. It was three stories with its siding painted the light blue of the open sky. A wrap-around porch encompassed the entire perimeter of the structure, while a steep, irregular roof, and tower of cupola perched on top. There was a plethora of carvel inlets, and enough gilding to border on gaudy.

Despite the late hour, light blazed through dozens of windows; enough to beat back the shadows of the woods. To complete its disguise as a regular, rural house, smoke wafted out of the chimney, and I thought I could smell fresh-baked Christmas cookies fanning out the door the owner had just walked through.

I drew close enough to see her. She was the first person associated with the cabal that I wouldn’t call beautiful; handsome and imposing was more like it. Her face was stern, with hawkish features. Her tall, willowy body was covered in a flannel robe, but the way she walked screamed predator to me. My steps faltered as I got closer. Something in me rebelled at bringing Lilith, in her current condition, closer to whoever the hell this was

Xamira bowed to the stately woman, while I stopped about ten feet away. The woman didn’t pay attention to either of us. Her eyes were fixed on Dani. I looked behind me and saw Dani had skidded to a halt another twenty feet back. Her face was white as a ghost, and her hands shook in fear. She looked ready to bolt.

“Ah hell no!” she yelled and took a step backward.

The action seemed to propel the woman forward, and the next thing I knew, I’d nearly been knocked over by a gust of wind. I turned and saw the woman had Dani by her long braid. Now, the dwarf was frozen in fear as the woman sniffed her throat. Judging by her reaction, my first instinct was vampire, but I knew vampires, and she didn’t seem like your average vamp. Whatever the hell she was, she looked like she was about to take a bite out of Dani.

“We come seeking shelter!” I yelled into the near-homicidal silence.

The woman’s eyes lingered on Dani for a second, and then snapped to me. Between one blink and the next, she was directly in front of me. I would have retreated, but I’d learned from Dani’s mistake. You didn’t run from a predator who savored the hunt. There was something very dangerous about this handsome woman.

“I was wondering why a snack willingly walked into my territory,” the woman’s voice was a little too deep to be feminine, but something about it caressed me in all the right ways. I shivered as she studied me.

“You smell of Fae, but are not Fae. You smell of the snack, and the half-blood . . . but,” her eyes slid down to Lilith’s unconscious form, and I gulped when I saw they were a vertical reptilian slit. “I know her.”

I hadn’t realized a pressure was holding me in place until it was gone. I