Snap, Crackle ... Read online

  “It’s much better,” she murmured out loud in surprise. She rotated her shoulders and her neck, even as she mentally called out to the bits and pieces of her energy to return. She just needed to get that 50 percent boosted much higher. She had a long way to go, even though she had no destination in mind. She had to get away from here, before her presence brought problems to Stefan.

  Now to search for a new destination and to not do anything stupid. And definitely not get caught.

  If she could utilize her system properly, she could pull more energy from Mother Earth around her. There was never any shortage of energy, but there was a shortage of energy she could use. Being so statically charged, she had to warm up the energy and then bring it into her system in a different way. As her body was still healing, that slowed down the process. Which is why, when she’d been injured, she couldn’t do it at all. So, instead of her energy recharging, it had faded quickly.

  She moved out of the trees, wondering where to get a set of wheels so she could travel faster. Money was another thing she didn’t want to locate on her own. If she hit an ATM or a bank, they could track her. She had credit cards and cash on her, just not enough. It was never enough if you needed to disappear. She hadn’t set up safe deposits anywhere, nor stashed cash at various locations. She hadn’t had time, since she’d been on the run forever and, of course, obtaining cash was a whole different issue. As she took two more steps forward, a voice called out to her.

  “You don’t have to be alone, you know.”

  She froze and turned to look at Hunter, glaring at him. “Why can’t you let me leave?”

  “Because you’re hurt and you’re heading toward certain death.”

  Her eyebrows shot up at that. “Certain death is something we all have to face.”

  He nodded slowly. “And you’ve had a rougher time of it than most. But I don’t want you to disappear right now. Not alone at least.”

  “I want to go alone,” she said.

  “I have wheels,” he offered.

  She froze, as she studied him carefully. “And?”

  “If you have a destination in mind, I can help you get there.”

  She thought about it, wondering what the payoff would be and what he would want in return. “There’s always a price,” she said boldly. “What is yours?”

  It was his turn to raise his eyebrows. “In this case, the joy of doing a good deed.”

  She snorted at that. “People in my world don’t do things like that.”

  “Because you haven’t had the right people in your world.”

  It was hard to argue with that. She’d had assholes and bastards around her for a very long time.

  “Who’s hunting you?”

  “My captors.” She shouldn’t be telling him even that much.

  “Someone in particular?”

  “Lizzy,” she said faintly as if giving voice to the name would give it more power.

  “This Lizzy girl, will she be hunting you?”

  “I didn’t think she would bother me anymore,” she said quickly, “but I no longer know.”

  “And would you blame her, if she is?”

  “I don’t blame her for anything she might do to stay alive and to stay sane,” she said, “and nobody should.”

  “I get it,” he said, holding up his hands in front of him. “I’m not accusing anybody. I do know what it’s like to be alone and to have the world against you.”

  “You do, huh?” She studied him for a moment, seeing him nod.

  “Different than your case, for sure,” he said, “but we all have stories to tell. Most of us don’t like telling them.”

  “Isn’t that the truth. I do have a cabin I can go to,” she said quietly.

  “In that case, I’m happy to drive you.”

  She shook her head. “It’s too far away, but, if you can get me where I can connect to a bus, that would be great.”

  “Where is it you want to go?”

  “I was thinking up by the Canadian border.”

  He frowned at that. “Are you planning on crossing?”

  “No plans at all yet,” she said easily.

  “A lot of land is between here and there,” he said quietly, “not all of it easy.”

  “None of it’s easy,” she said simply. “I’m just looking for a way to get through this and to get somewhere I can hole up to heal more.”

  “So, the cabin would be temporary?”

  “Very,” she said, “every place will always be temporary.”

  “You can’t spend your life on the run forever.”

  “Sure, I can,” she said, with a half laugh. “It’s all I know.”

  “You’ve never had a safe place to rest, have you?”

  She shook her head. “No.”

  “Well, how about, instead of your cabin, you go to my cabin?”

  She looked at him. “Where is your cabin?”

  “Well, that’s what makes it special,” he said. “Whoever is hunting you doesn’t know where it is. Whatever connection you have, they’ll pry at, until they can get it out of you or whoever might know you.”

  “Nobody knows me,” she said.

  “But they tracked you here.”

  “Yes,” she said, hesitating and looking back in the direction of Stefan’s house. “I’ll feel terrible if they get a hold of him. I needed his healing, or I’d be dead by now.”

  “Stefan can handle himself.”

  “You seem confident in that.”

  “Well, you knew him before, right?” Hunter asked easily, not taking a step forward but keeping his distance. “What was he like?”

  “Tormented, like the rest of us, and driven to get out of there. Driven to succeed in a way that would ensure he’d never become a victim again.”

  “Well, in that case, he succeeded in a big way.”

  “Maybe, but everybody can still become a victim. You don’t know how easy it is to get that mind-set all screwed up again, until you are one.”

  “Very true,” he said quietly.

  “And I don’t intend on being one ever again either.”

  “Good. You should also know I have helped put away a lot of criminals.”

  “That’s just making you cocky,” she challenged. “How many of them have had abilities?”

  “Some,” he said. “Either way, I’m not prepared to back down from the challenge.”

  “You should,” she said calmly. “You don’t understand these people and what they’re doing.”

  “There’s got to be a reason why they’re doing it though. What’s their endgame?” he asked curiously.

  “Control,” she said instantly.

  He nodded slowly, as if understanding what that meant. “Control of people, control of circumstances?”

  “I don’t know. He has high plans, and I think he’s just looking bigger and bigger.”

  “As in government bigger or law enforcement bigger?”

  “All of the above,” she said quietly. “You don’t know how dangerous these people are.”

  “All the more reason,” he said, “to put a stop to them.”

  “And again, not that easy to do.”

  “Maybe not …” His voice trailed off.

  The smartest thing she could do was make use of his assistance and then leave him somewhere before he got caught. She didn’t want him to get hurt, not after he’d helped her, not since Stefan obviously cared about him. “You understand it’s a death wish to do anything with me, right?”

  “I understand you believe that,” he said.

  She smiled. “Yeah, well, that’s exactly what it is.” She shook her head and said, “I get that you think you have the answers and that you can do something that’s better than what anybody else has tried.”

  “Tell me,” he said. “Have many people tried, or has he kept to the shadows up until now, while working on a game plan?”

  “I think he has kept in the shadows,” she said quietly, “but that won’t last much lon
ger.”

  “And can he do things, like rob banks or coerce people into doing things they don’t want to do?”

  “Well, they already have done the latter,” she said, staring at him. “Did you not understand all of what I said?”

  “I think I understood it,” he said, “but a lot of criminal activity is out there, and we don’t know what people are up to.”

  “Maybe,” she said, “but also a lot of people don’t want to know exactly what others are up to either. For them ignorance is bliss.”

  “Very true,” he said. “So, what’ll it be? A ride in my vehicle or not?”

  She nodded slowly. “I guess.”

  He smiled. “In that case, let’s go.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “I’ll walk you down to the road. Then I’ll go get my vehicle from Stefan’s place.”

  “Will you tell them?”

  “Pfft. Stefan already knows,” he said. “That’s one of the things about Stefan. It’s pretty hard to pull anything over on him.”

  “I just want to keep him safe,” she said.

  “He knows and appreciates that, but, at the same time, it frustrates him because he’s already in a certain amount of danger on a daily basis, so what you do won’t change or affect that.”

  “It could make it a lot worse,” she murmured.

  “Maybe. But it could also be something that ends up being not a big deal.”

  She shrugged. “So go get the vehicle then.”

  He smiled, nodded, and asked, “You’ll be here when I come back?”

  Seeing the road ahead of her, she said, “I guess we’ll know when you get there.”

  He hesitated and then, swearing, turned and bolted into the woods.

  She smiled, and, as soon as he was on his way, she turned and disappeared again.

  *

  Hunter swore, as soon as he picked up the vehicle and headed down because he knew, in his heart of hearts, that she’d already left. “Damn it,” he said out loud. “I shouldn’t have trusted her.”

  She was so determined to get the hell out of here, and he’d wanted to give her a place to go where she could at least hole up and heal long enough to be in fighting form. But she didn’t appear to believe in anybody. What a life had she gone through that this was her reality? It must have been pretty difficult in many ways. As he drove down the street, he kept hoping that maybe he’d see her.

  Even though he knew she was gone, and her energy had somehow dissipated all around, he would find her. He wouldn’t give up. He got out of the vehicle and leaned against it, as he studied the darkness. She was here somewhere. Using his peripheral senses, he studied the hills, looking for shifts in the energy. If she’d come this way, he would see the traces that she left behind. Energy spores, so to speak.

  But he found absolutely nothing, which meant that she had gone up instead of down. He shook his head at that. She was obviously much more comfortable in the night, in the bowels of Mother Nature, than being around two-legged humans.

  As he studied the area up ahead, he saw a road winding up around the back of a hill. On a hunch he got back into the car and headed that way. When he got to higher ground that gave him a beautiful view down below, he parked off to the side and hopped out. And he smiled because he could sense her. He called out, “The offer still stands.”

  She stepped out from behind a tree and glared at him.

  He gave her a fat smile. “Did you think you could get away from me that easily?”

  “Well, I tried,” she said, then hesitated and looked at the vehicle.

  “I know you’re tired,” he said, “and you don’t have to exhaust yourself just staying hidden. It burns up a ton of energy. It’s not necessary.” He motioned at the car. “Offer stands,” he said. “Up to you.”

  She shot him a look, walked toward the vehicle, and got inside without saying another word.

  He hopped in, holding back his smile. Round one had gone to him.

  Chapter 6

  Three hours later Beth finally spoke. “Where exactly are we going?” She’d been pondering the route for the last few hours, wondering what their final destination was. She almost recognized part of the journey, but her memories weren’t serving her enough to place it.

  “Well, I have a spot on the Oregon coast.”

  She stared.

  Hunter shrugged. “It belonged to my grandfather.”

  “Will they track that?”

  “We don’t have the same name, so I doubt it. He’s also been gone for quite a while.”

  “Whose name is it under?”

  He just looked at her and said, “You don’t trust much, do you?”

  “I don’t trust at all,” she shot back.

  As they drove, he pulled into a small gas station to fill up, and he said, “We will need to pick up groceries for the cabin.”

  “Agreed.” She nodded. “So a store large enough that we can get lost in.”

  As soon as the gas tank was filled up, he paid and hopped back into the vehicle.

  Sitting in the passenger seat, she turned and asked, “Why are you doing this?”

  “Because I believe in you.”

  The words were so shocking and yet seemingly so honest, she frowned, as she studied his profile, looking for any sign of deceit. She studied his energy, what little she saw. All of her abilities were completely decimated in direct proportion to her decimated energy. She couldn’t see or read much from people for a while. Even then, that wasn’t her strong point. She had to keep her energy focused on looking for the ones who were after her. She sagged into the corner. “You could be betting on the wrong horse.”

  “I’ve often done that,” he said, “but I still learn in the process.”

  What could she say to that? He drove another ten to fifteen miles and then pulled into what looked like a community shopping mall. She tucked her hair inside her jacket and followed him into the grocery store. He grabbed a shopping cart and proceeded to put loads of fresh fruit, vegetables, and meat into it. She added a jug of milk, so she could have tea the way she loved it, and some cheese. When she stopped at the apples, she frowned.

  He asked, “What kind do you like?”

  “Galas are my favorite—or pink lady’s.”

  He chuckled and said, “Let’s grab both.” And he quickly bagged up a few of each.

  She looked at the growing pile of groceries in the cart and said, “How will you pay for this?”

  “Money,” he said easily.

  “But I don’t have any.”

  “No worries,” he said. “I have plenty.”

  “Good for you,” she said, “because I’m broke.”

  “Of course you are,” he said, “but the fact that you even survived these last few years is amazing.”

  “I had a job,” she said. “It was enough.”

  On the road again, he said, “We’ll have another hour or so on the road, if you want to sleep.”

  “I don’t sleep much,” she said, studying the road as it disappeared.

  He nodded. “We could talk.”

  “I don’t want to talk.”

  He gave a bark of laughter. “Not a whole lot you do want to do then, is there?”

  “I want to live my life without this added weight,” she said. Surely he could understand that, at least she hoped he could. She sighed and said, “It’s not your fault. I’m not angry at you.”

  “Aren’t you?”

  She shook her head. “I’m not, not really. I’m just, I don’t want this for my life.”

  “What will you do about it?”

  “Well, that’s the trick, isn’t it? If I don’t do something, this will continue. I can hide my head in the sand as long as I want, but it won’t change anything. I thought I was safe, thought they’d given up. But they hadn’t.”

  He winced. “And I’m sorry for that. Living on the run is no fun. I’d like to see these guys caught and jailed.”

  “I would too. I would t
oo,” she said, staring out at the darkness and the trees all around them. A question burned on the back of her mind. “How long have you known Stefan?”

  “A decade,” he said simply. “Plus.”

  She nodded, yet frowned. “And you’ve worked with him that long?”

  “Off and on. What you probably don’t know is that Stefan has a whole team of gifted people like us.”

  “Like us?” she said, questioning.

  “Energy workers.”

  She studied him. “So, what do you do that is special?”

  “I don’t do anything,” he said, “and I especially don’t do parlor tricks.”

  She nodded. “I figured that would get to you.”

  “Well, hardly the nicest question.”

  “Maybe not,” she said, “but it does tell you what people are like.”

  “Maybe,” he said in a noncommittal voice. “But to answer the question you didn’t ask, I’m a good hunter.”

  “Meaning that you can follow energy.”

  “Sure, but lots of people can do that.” He shrugged, showed his teeth.

  She studied him and said, “A lot more to you than that.”

  “Maybe,” he said. “A lot more to you than what you’re showing us too.”

  “Sure,” she said, “but I don’t know what there is.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “I spent so much time being tested and used to test others, that I don’t know the full extent of what I can do.”

  “And you’ve never had to test the limits of your abilities?”

  “Nope, not at all,” she said. “Maybe it’d be better if I did.”

  “I don’t know about that,” he said. “Life is tough enough without coming up with answers for everything.”

  She burst out laughing. “Wouldn’t it be nice if there were any answers for us?”

  “True,” he said, with a smile, “but obviously that’s not happening.”

  “No.” She leaned back, closed her eyes, and said, “I’ll just rest.”

  “Is that different than sleeping?”

  Her eyes flew open, and she said, “I rarely sleep,” she said, in a dark tone. “Best you remember that.”

  With that, she closed her eyes and zoned him out.