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Authors: Kait Nolan
Tags: Romance
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forget the last town we passed. Wasn’t much to it other than a gas station and a post office.”
He settled back in his seat and lapsed into the relative silence of the road. It was one of those highways where something in the road made the tires go tha-dunk… tha-dunk . There was about 6 seconds from one tha-dunk to another. She figured that meant, what, 600 tha-dunks per hour?
She was at 438. Tha-dunk , 439.
“ What did they threaten you with?” asked Gage.
Startled, Embry looked over at him, but she couldn’t read his face behind the mirrored sunglasses he’d fished out of the glove box. “What did who threaten me with?”
“ The Council. Or the other Walkers. What did they threaten you and Adan with to keep you from coming after me? I figure it must have been pretty damn bad to keep you away this long.”
Potential lies tumbled through her mind. She was IED. No one but the Council knew the laws better than she did. It would be easy to spin a tale of threatened punishments to ease his mind. But it was the truth that fell from her lips. “They didn’t have to threaten us.”
In her periphery, she saw him glance at her.
“ Did you think I’d be better off in my own world?”
Was he trying to give her some kind of out? Some way of proving that they’d had his best interests at heart? That they hadn’t just abandoned him, without family, without memory, in a world that didn’t give a damn about him?
“ We thought you were dead.”
Gage tugged the sunglasses down the bridge of his nose and peered over them. “Come again?”
With a sigh, Embry squeezed her eyes shut for a moment before focusing back on the road. “When the Walkers came to the dojo that night, they intended to kill you. The plan was to cut you out of our lives, our world, in the only possible permanent way.”
“ Yet here I am. Why? If they wanted me dead, I’d be dead. Walkers are nothing if not good with the follow through.”
They didn’t have to follow through. That’s what I was for. Despite the fact that he sat whole and breathing in the seat beside her, she’d lived too long with the guilt of killing him to stop the immediate flash of his body, bloody, burned, and broken on the floor of the dojo. She blinked the image and the immediate prick of tears away.
“ Embry?”
She took a bracing breath and decided to leave out her own role in what had happened that night. “Matthias had what you might call an attack of conscience. You know what their missions are like. Always follow the Council’s orders. Over the years he had quite a bit of innocent blood on his hands. You didn’t do anything to justify execution—not really. My father is the one who brought you into our world, raised you to be a Walker. It was he who broke the laws. You only did what you were told. Matthias had a contact—a witch he knew from way back who dealt in old magics. He got the Lethe potion from her and gave it to you. Taking away your memory was the only way he could avoid taking away your life.”
“ Well bully for him,” said Gage drily. “So I take it he didn’t share that fact with you or Adan?”
She shook her head. “It wasn’t until the news came about my father’s capture and the Council handed down their decree that they wouldn’t be mounting an extraction mission that he broke his silence. And I think he only did then because he knew I would go no matter what.”
“ And he knew it was a suicide mission,” he finished.
Tha-dunk. Tha-dunk. Tha-dunk. Tha-dunk.
“ I wish I’d never gotten you involved,” said Embry.
“ Now hold on a damn minute. I know I haven’t been successful Walking yet, but I’m not exactly a liability.” The first hint of temper crackled in his voice.
“ That’s not what I meant.” She took a breath. “I didn’t think of you when I made this decision. I haven’t done a helluva lot of thinking at all since my father was captured. When Matthias presented you as an option for help, I
He settled back in his seat and lapsed into the relative silence of the road. It was one of those highways where something in the road made the tires go tha-dunk… tha-dunk . There was about 6 seconds from one tha-dunk to another. She figured that meant, what, 600 tha-dunks per hour?
She was at 438. Tha-dunk , 439.
“ What did they threaten you with?” asked Gage.
Startled, Embry looked over at him, but she couldn’t read his face behind the mirrored sunglasses he’d fished out of the glove box. “What did who threaten me with?”
“ The Council. Or the other Walkers. What did they threaten you and Adan with to keep you from coming after me? I figure it must have been pretty damn bad to keep you away this long.”
Potential lies tumbled through her mind. She was IED. No one but the Council knew the laws better than she did. It would be easy to spin a tale of threatened punishments to ease his mind. But it was the truth that fell from her lips. “They didn’t have to threaten us.”
In her periphery, she saw him glance at her.
“ Did you think I’d be better off in my own world?”
Was he trying to give her some kind of out? Some way of proving that they’d had his best interests at heart? That they hadn’t just abandoned him, without family, without memory, in a world that didn’t give a damn about him?
“ We thought you were dead.”
Gage tugged the sunglasses down the bridge of his nose and peered over them. “Come again?”
With a sigh, Embry squeezed her eyes shut for a moment before focusing back on the road. “When the Walkers came to the dojo that night, they intended to kill you. The plan was to cut you out of our lives, our world, in the only possible permanent way.”
“ Yet here I am. Why? If they wanted me dead, I’d be dead. Walkers are nothing if not good with the follow through.”
They didn’t have to follow through. That’s what I was for. Despite the fact that he sat whole and breathing in the seat beside her, she’d lived too long with the guilt of killing him to stop the immediate flash of his body, bloody, burned, and broken on the floor of the dojo. She blinked the image and the immediate prick of tears away.
“ Embry?”
She took a bracing breath and decided to leave out her own role in what had happened that night. “Matthias had what you might call an attack of conscience. You know what their missions are like. Always follow the Council’s orders. Over the years he had quite a bit of innocent blood on his hands. You didn’t do anything to justify execution—not really. My father is the one who brought you into our world, raised you to be a Walker. It was he who broke the laws. You only did what you were told. Matthias had a contact—a witch he knew from way back who dealt in old magics. He got the Lethe potion from her and gave it to you. Taking away your memory was the only way he could avoid taking away your life.”
“ Well bully for him,” said Gage drily. “So I take it he didn’t share that fact with you or Adan?”
She shook her head. “It wasn’t until the news came about my father’s capture and the Council handed down their decree that they wouldn’t be mounting an extraction mission that he broke his silence. And I think he only did then because he knew I would go no matter what.”
“ And he knew it was a suicide mission,” he finished.
Tha-dunk. Tha-dunk. Tha-dunk. Tha-dunk.
“ I wish I’d never gotten you involved,” said Embry.
“ Now hold on a damn minute. I know I haven’t been successful Walking yet, but I’m not exactly a liability.” The first hint of temper crackled in his voice.
“ That’s not what I meant.” She took a breath. “I didn’t think of you when I made this decision. I haven’t done a helluva lot of thinking at all since my father was captured. When Matthias presented you as an option for help, I
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