Origin

a notch, but she took off the opal cuff. “I hate…the idea of being carried.”

She handed over the cuff, and I slipped it on, getting a little zap from it. I also took the gun from her, slipping it in the waistband of my pants. “How about you get on my back? So in a way you’re not being carried— you’re riding me.” I paused and then winked.

Kat stared.

“What?” I laughed, and her eyes immediately narrowed. “You should see yourself right now. Like a kitten— that’s what I keep telling you. Your hackles are raised.”

Her eyes rolled as she shuffled behind me. “You should conserve your energy and stop talking.”

“Ouch.”

“You’ll get over it.” She placed her hands on my shoulders. “Besides, you could be knocked down a peg or two.”

I crouched, hooking my arms under the backs of her knees. With a little hop, she slid her arms around my neck and wrapped her legs to my sides. “Baby, I’m so far up the ladder there aren’t any pegs under me to be knocked down.”

“Wow,” she said. “That’s a new one.”

“You loved it.” Tightening my grip on her, I let the Source tap into the opal and blend with it. “Hold on, Kitten. I’m going to start to glow just a little, and we’re going to go fast.”

“I like when you glow. It’s like having my own personal flashlight.”

I grinned. “Glad I can be of assistance.”

She patted my chest. “Giddy up.”

Feeling much better about this, I kicked off the ground and picked up the kind of speed I couldn’t while running alongside Kat. Her weight was nothing, which was concerning all by itself. I needed to get the girl some steak and burgers stat.

When I saw we were approaching city lights, I veered closer to the highway, searching out a sign, and there it was. Ash Springs—ten miles out.

“Almost there, Kitten.”

I had slowed down enough that she was able to wiggle free. “I can run the rest of the way.”

Wanting to argue but knowing that if I did, it would only delay getting somewhere to hunker down, I kept my mouth shut. I also knew it was more than that. Kat wanted to prove, not just to me but to herself, that she was an asset not a hindrance. That need to show she could stand on equal ground with me and the other Luxen had been what drove her to trust Blake. I took off the opal and handed it back to her. “Let’s do this, then.”

She nodded. “Thank you.”

I took her smaller hand in mine, and we ran the rest of the way to Ash Springs. The whole trip took us about twenty or so minutes, but those minutes felt like a lifetime. Depending on how Daedalus was searching for us, we had a good two-hour lead on them, more if they followed Archer.

Once we hit the outskirts of Ash Springs, we slowed to a walk, keeping off the sidewalks and away from the lampposts. The town was small—Petersburg small. Signs everywhere pointed to one of the many natural hot springs.

“I bet I smell like day-old funk.” Kat stared longingly at a sign for one of the hot springs. “I’d love a bath right about now.”

Both of us were covered in a fine layer of dust from the desert. “You do smell kind of ripe.”

She shot me a dirty look. “Thanks.”

Chuckling under my breath, I squeezed her hand. “You smell like a ripe blossom about to bloom.”

“Oh, whatever. Now you’re just being dumb.”

I led her around a hedge shaped like…hell, I had no idea what it was supposed to be. An elephant crossed with a giraffe? “What things would you do for a bath?” I turned, lifting her over a fallen branch. “Nasty, bad things?”

“I have a feeling you’re going to turn this into a perverted conversation.”

“What? I would never do such a thing. You have such a twisted brain, Kitten. I’m aghast at your suggestion.”

She shook her head. “I’m sorry that I’ve tainted your innocence and virtue.”

I cracked a grin as we stopped at an intersection. Up ahead were several glowing signs for hotels. The streets were empty, and I wondered what time it was. Not a single motorist had gone by.

“I think I’d shank someone for a shower,” Kat said as we crossed the street. “Including you.”

I let out a surprised laugh. “You couldn’t take me.”

“Do not doubt my need to get this funk off me— Hey.” She stopped, pointing down a side road. “Is that it?”

There was a sign in the distance. The S was a dim red, which made it look like The prings Motel. “I think so. Let’s check it out.”

Hurrying down the narrow side road and past dark storefronts, we hit the parking lot. It was definitely off the beaten track and…

“Oh boy,” Kat said, slipping her hand free. “I think this is one of those motels that charge by the hour, and people come to overdose in them.”

She had a point. It was ranch-style, one level, and shaped like a U with the lobby in the middle and a wooden deck wrapping around the entrances to the motel rooms. Lighting was dim in and around the building, and the parking lot had a few cars in it—the kind of cars that were a day away from hitting the junkyard.

“Well, now we know what kind of places Archer likes to visit,” I said, eyes narrowing on the yellow light seeping out onto the wooden planks in front of the lobby.

“He hasn’t been to many places.” She shifted from one foot to the other. “He hasn’t even eaten at Olive Garden, so I doubt he’s a connoisseur of hotels.”

“No Olive Garden?”

She shook her head.

“Man, we’ve got to get that boy some endless breadsticks and salad. Travesty,” I murmured. “You talked a lot to him?”

“He was the only one who really was…nice to me. Well, in his own way. He’s not really a warm and fuzzy guy.” She paused, tilting her head back as she gazed at the star-strewn sky. “We didn’t talk a lot, but he was always there with me. I never thought he’d be the one to help us in the beginning. I guess first impressions really don’t mean jack.”

“I guess not.” A sudden wariness had etched across her face as she lowered her chin. I could see the weight of everything settling on her. Almost the same look I’d seen on Beth’s face the morning I left, before she’d freaked out.

I didn’t know what to say as we headed across the parking lot. There really were no words that fit how far Kat’s life had been derailed. Nothing I could say would make it better, and trying to seemed to undervalue everything she’d gone through. Like telling someone who’d lost a loved one that the deceased was in a better place. No one wanted to hear that. It didn’t change anything, make the grief go away, or shine any light on why it happened.

Sometimes words were cheap. They could be powerful, but in those rare occasions like now, words meant nothing.

We stopped under a faint lamp along the side of the hotel that faced several benches and picnic tables. Soot covered Kat’s face. Dried blood dotted her cheeks. My stomach lurched. “You were bleeding?”

She shook her head, casting her eyes back to the sky. “It’s not mine. It was a soldier’s. I…shot him.”

What little relief I felt was overshadowed by what she’d had to do and would still have to do if push came to shove. I handed her the gun. “Okay. All right.” I cupped her cheeks. “Stay here. I’m going to take a different form and get the keys. If anything looks fishy, you shoot first and ask questions later. Okay? Don’t use the Source unless you have to. They can track that stuff.”

She nodded. I noticed that her hands were fidgety. Adrenaline was still pumping through her, keeping her on her feet. She’d need a sugar overdose real soon. “I’m not going anywhere,” she said.

“Good.” I kissed her, wanting to linger so as not to leave her out there alone. But there was no way I could