Pained yelps sounded between gunshots, and Laurel peeked up to see the three trolls fleeing into the forest, a hail of bullets at their backs.
“Cowards,” a woman’s voice said softly, calmly.
Laurel rose from the ground, her mouth slightly agape.
“You can come out now,” the dark form said, still staring after the trolls. “They won’t be back — shame I didn’t come prepared for a real chase.”
Laurel and David scrambled to their feet. Laurel pulled her blouse as securely as she could over her blossom, wincing against the pain. The heat of the moment had chased her injury from her mind; she wondered how much damage the troll had done, but an examination would have to wait. David started to step out from behind the tree, but Laurel held his hand, pulling him back.
“I won’t bite,” the woman said in a clear voice.
It was pointless, Laurel realized, to try to stay hidden. Whoever this was, she knew they were there. Laurel and David took a few tentative steps out from behind the tree to get their first good look at the woman who had saved them. She was several inches taller than Laurel, and dressed from head to toe in black, from her long-sleeved shirt and running pants to her black leather gloves and combat boots. Only the mirrored sunglasses resting casually atop her head departed from the scheme, setting off the gelled strands of auburn hair that surrounded her face and stuck up just right in the back. She looked about forty, and in excellent shape, but she wasn’t built as thickly as a troll.
“I don’t blame you for being nervous,” the woman said. “Not after what you’ve just been through, but trust me: I’m one of the good guys.” She raised her gun and performed a series of actions that made a lot of clicks before she stowed it back in a holster at her hip.
“Who are you?” Laurel asked bluntly.
The woman smiled, her white teeth bright in the moonlight. “Klea,” she said. “Klea Wilson. And you are?”
“That was…that was, wow!” David stuttered, ignoring her question. “You were amazing. I mean, you just came in and they…well, you know.”
Klea stared at him for a long time, one eyebrow arched. “Thank you,” she said dryly.
“How did you—” David started to ask, but Laurel cut him off with a quick yank on his arm.
“What were those things?” Laurel asked, trying to sound innocent without being too fake. “They didn’t look… human.”
David looked down at her, confused, but a quick glare wiped the question off his face. Despite everything, Laurel was determined to keep her wits about her, and the most important thing was not to reveal who she was to this stranger — even if she was, as she claimed, “one of the good guys.”
Klea hesitated. “They were…a species of animal like you’ve never encountered before. Let’s just say that.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “I still haven’t caught your names.”
“David. David Lawson.”
“David,” she repeated, then turned to Laurel.
Laurel wondered if there was any point in trying to withhold that information. But it wasn’t like it would be hard to find out. Finally she murmured, “Laurel.”
Klea’s eyes widened. “Laurel Sewell?”
Laurel looked up sharply. How did this woman know who she was?
“Well,” Klea said softly, almost to herself, “that explains a lot.”
David rescued Laurel from her bafflement by changing the subject. “How did you know we were—?” David gestured wordlessly to the center of the clearing.
“I’ve been tracking these…subjects for several hours,” Klea said. “It was only when they started chasing your car that I realized what they were doing. Sorry for cutting it so close, but I can’t run as fast as you can drive. Good thing they forced you off the road when they did; I’d have never gotten here in time.”
“How do you—?” Laurel started.
“Listen,” Klea said, “we can’t just hang around here talking. We don’t have any idea how far their reinforcements might be.” She walked over to the tree where her metal disc was stuck. She retrieved it, then looked up at David, meeting his eyes for the first time. “Would you two mind giving me a ride? I’ll take you somewhere safe and we can talk.” She turned her gaze to Laurel. “We really need to talk.”
Laurel’s mind was screaming out against the idea — to not trust whoever Klea was. But she
“Yeah. Sure. Of course!” he said. “My car…it’s just down — well, you know where it is. I can totally give you a ride — um, except, well, it’s kind of stuck, but…” His voice trailed off, and an awkward silence filled the clearing.
Klea stowed the metal disc in a wide case that attached to her back. “I imagine the three of us can push your car free. Let’s go.” And she strode off in the direction of the car.
David turned to Laurel, both hands on her shoulders. “Are you okay?” he asked, his eyes darting over her, looking for wounds.
Laurel nodded.
“I’m alive,” she said skeptically. “I don’t know about safe yet. How are your knees?”
David shook his head. “They’re going to be way sore tomorrow, but at least I’m walking.”
“Good,” Laurel said, her breathing still a little fast. Then, remembering his moment of idiocy, she slapped her hand against his chest. “And what the hell was that giving-yourself-up thing?” she demanded.
David grinned sheepishly. “It was all I could think of at the moment.”
“Well, don’t you ever do anything like that again.”
David didn’t say anything for a long moment, then he shrugged and turned toward the car. “We’d better go.”
“Hey,” Laurel said, one hand reaching up to touch David’s cheek. “You go ahead, I’ll be there in a second,” she whispered. “I have to tie up my blossom. But,” she said sharply, “don’t tell her anything. I don’t trust her.”
“She just saved us from the trolls,” David countered. “She was awesome!”
“I don’t care! She’s a stranger and she knows something. You can’t tell her anything!” It was different for David — he wasn’t the one who had something to hide. “Now go, before she gets suspicious. Tell her I dropped my purse.”
“I don’t want to leave you alone,” he said firmly.
“It’ll just take a second,” Laurel said. “I have to tie up my blossom. Now please go. She’s looking up at us.” Klea had reached the bottom of the hill and was peering up at them through the darkness. “She’s going to come back up here if she doesn’t see you soon.”
With a long look and a squeeze of her hand, David reluctantly headed out of the trees and down the hill.
Laurel untied the knot around her waist and bent her petals down. The spot on her back still stung like an open wound. She gritted her teeth and bound the petals tightly. As soon as she pulled her shirt down over the blossom, she hurried out of the trees, forcing herself not to run. She picked her way down the hill in the dim moonlight and almost shrieked when she tripped and found herself face-to-face with a troll. She threw herself backward and started to scramble to her feet when she realized the troll wasn’t moving. She crept back to it and saw that it was the troll who had gotten a face full of monastuolo serum. Apparently there were ways around the open-air limitation.
She had only seconds to make her decision. Klea would want to see the unconscious troll — maybe kill it. But bright red lines streaked across the troll’s face where the serum had splashed and burned him; Klea would know Laurel or David had done something. And if Klea knew anything about Laurel at all, it would just make things worse. Laurel couldn’t alert Klea to the troll’s presence without also exposing her faerie potion. Trembling, Laurel stood, continued down the hill, and didn’t look back, wondering how long the serum would last. The sooner they were out of there, the better.
David’s car sat right where they had abandoned it, front tire wedged into the mud, with its headlights shining into the dark night and the passenger doors wide open.
