“Well, the guys who held me at the other prison were Skinners. Old school Skinners who knew about the runes. Do you know about a group of Lancroft disciples who have the balls to take over that prison?”
“Holy shit,” Paige breathed. The more she spoke, the faster Paige’s words came out. “I do. Oh my God, Cole, and I handed you over to them. Oh my God, I’m so sorry.” It didn’t take her long to collect herself and switch back into business mode. “Do you know about what’s going on in Oklahoma?”
“Stu mentioned something. Sounds serious.”
“I’m in the middle of it.”
“Just you?” he asked.
“No. Me and some of our European friends.”
“How bad is it?”
“Bad,” she told him. “Looks like this whole town is swarming with Half Breeds. There are at least two Full Bloods here and one of them is Liam. That shapeshifter we met in Denver is there too. The one the Amriany call Ktseena.”
Lambert was already in the car and they were quickly approaching Frank’s fifteen minute deadline. “I need to find Rico. He’s got my weapon.”
“Don’t contact him.” After giving him a brief rundown about what happened in Toronto, she said, “I don’t know if he’s still thinking he should kill me, but I think it’s safe to say he’s with the Vigilant. Do you know who they are?”
“I’ve heard that name before, but don’t know a lot of details.”
“They’re some kind of Lancroft cult. Lots of Skinners looked up to that old man, and many still do. Just don’t contact Rico, okay? And don’t send word to MEG about where you are. There’s no telling if or how far the Vigilant have infiltrated them.”
When Paige stopped, there was only silence on the line.
He prayed she couldn’t sense the tension that had clenched his eyes shut or caused his lips to form silent obscenities.
“Cole? You didn’t already call MEG, did you?”
“Maybe.”
Instead of the unholy tirade he’d expected, she only took a long, measured breath before saying, “We’re on our own now. Don’t call MEG again. Don’t go anywhere you’ve used as a home base before. The Full Bloods are converging here for some reason, and I don’t know how many more will be coming. There’s already one that I’ve never seen before.”
“Have you heard them talking about something called the Breaking Moon?”
Paige chuckled into the phone. Although her breath made a scratchy bit of static as it hit her speaker, he savored the moment as much as he could. It was the closest thing to touching her that he could hope for.
“All they’re talking about out here,” she told him, “is how badly they want to rip us up. One of the new Full Bloods did mention the Breaking. She told me to enjoy mine. Since it was after she tore the hell out of me, I’m guessing it could be what they call transforming someone into a Half Breed.”
“Shit!”
“Don’t worry,” she said before he could get even more worked up. “I’m getting patched up right now. Our Euro pals brought supplies we needed, and by the look of things, the stuff works faster than what we whip up. I’ll have to get the recipe.”
Cole couldn’t understand the language that drifted in from somewhere beyond Paige, but it had the same feel as the Amriany dialect. Judging by the venom in the woman’s tone, she wasn’t too anxious to swap medical tips with a Skinner. “I should get going,” Paige said. “Lots of work to do. Do you think Tristan will follow through on her promise to help transport you somewhere safe if you needed it?”
“That was before the legal trouble, but I may be able to wrangle something. She does owe us big-time.”
“You’re damn right she does,” she snapped. “Call her and set something up if you can. If not, just try to get someplace where you can stay alive.”
“No!” The word came out of him as if it had been squeezed up from his ankles. He winced at how much noise he’d made, but continued in a determined whisper. “This is my fight too, remember?”
“You’ve been through more than anyone. I made the mistake of trusting someone too soon and nearly lost you. I thought you were dead,” she stated in her steely tone. “I won’t hand you over again.”
“I was unconscious most of the time,” Cole said with a forced, unconvincing chuckle. “From what I’ve heard about prison life, that’s a good way to go. Randolph told me some things.”
“Randolph, huh?” Paige grunted. “No more Mr. Burkis?”
“That’s one of his names, and I’m sticking to it, okay?” In a strange way, squabbling with her again made Cole feel better than any amount of food he could smell whenever someone opened the door to the truck stop. It filled him up, heart and soul. Knowing better than to get that corny with her, he said, “You’ve got your thing going on in Oklahoma and there’s something going on here as well. Since they’ve both got Full Bloods attached to them, I think our things are connected.”
“Insert dirty joke here,” Paige said. “Before I let you go, I think we should consider something.”
“What?”
“That we may need all the help we can get,” Paige said with a wince Cole could feel through the phone line. “Lancroft worshippers or not.”
Cole ground his teeth together hard enough that he thought the sound might have carried through the phone line.
“If these guys are all like the ones that took me from Canon City,” he said, “they pride themselves on being the ultimate Skinners or something. They were getting slaughtered when I left that place.”
“But they’ve got to be preparing something against what’s happening. At the very least, they’ve got more people to stand against these things.”
“Cannon fodder,” he said. “I like the sound of that. Too bad Rico’s still got my weapon.”
“You can make a new one. Are you okay?”
The change in her voice was subtle, but Cole picked up on it without a problem. For Paige, the absence of that edge to her tone was no small thing. “I’m better now that I’m out of that prison. What about you?”
“In the middle of a freaking meat grinder. Don’t know if I’ll live to see the next hour. Same as always.”
“Good to hear it,” he said with a tired laugh. “I’ll call you when I can.”
“Ring once and hang up, then call me right back. That way I’ll know it’s you.”
“Old school. My grandma used that one for us to let her know we got home safe after Christmas.”
“Mine too. Just sit tight, baby.”
Cole was still recoiling from that last word when the connection was cut. Did Paige just call him baby or was something garbled along the line between Colorado and Oklahoma? Unable to think of any profanities that would have fit at the end of her sentence that could have been mistaken for “baby,” he hung up and hurried to the car.
“Can you still read that girl?” he asked Lambert.
“Yeah. She’s by herself and thinking of all the nasty things she wants to do to our balls with a hammer. Other than that, she’s fine.”
“I’m circling back to make sure she’s all right, then we’re getting out of here.”
“Any way I can convince you to just drive before we’re spotted or picked up?”
“Nope,” Cole replied. “Buckle up.”
Chapter Sixteen
There was a campsite about five miles west of Walsenburg, over twenty miles from the truck stop where Lambert had picked up their supplies and clothing. It was a nice, scenic area with two lakes nearby and plenty of spots for families to set up their tents or park their campers. Cole wanted to get farther away from Canon City, but Jessup had insisted they meet at the motel near Lake Meriam. Too tired to argue, Cole removed the license plates from the hatchback, parked on an access road, and stayed close enough to the nearby
