Moon - New Moon Part 3

He wobbled to his feet, then stood leaning heavily against her. She led him farther into the forest, toward a rocky outcropping.

She tried to ignore his naked hip brus.h.i.+ng against hers as they made their slow way across the leaves. She wanted to hurry, but she knew he could barely walk. She wished she had clothing she could pull on. But that was one of the great inconveniences of transforming from animal to woman.

If you couldn't get back to where you'd changed, you would have to stay naked until you found something to wear.

She had become a master of stealing clothing-a skill she wasn't proud of. Yet it was necessary.

A familiar sound stopped her in her tracks.

Great Mother, no!

Her fingers digging into Logan's ribs, she pulled him behind an outcropping of rock. When he tried to speak, she clamped her free hand over his mouth.

From her hiding place, she saw four men burst from the other side of the rock and dash into the forest.

They were dressed like Sun Acres warriors with tight-fitting leggings, molded body armor and spears. They must be Falcone's men. Who else would dare to send troops through a portal and into this patch of forest?

She knew she and Logan had almost no time left.

Quickly and coolly she considered her options. She could stay on this side of the portal, but she knew very little about this place, which made that decision dangerous.

The man needed to rest-and heal. And she didn't know where to keep him safe in this foreign territory, after he pa.s.sed out, which would surely happen in the next hour or so.

As the warriors took off through the trees, she made a decision. They were going back to her world-if they could.

LOGAN gasped as the woman named Rinna pulled him forward. His leg could barely hold him, and he wanted to sink to the ground-then sink into oblivion.

But he forced himself to stay on his, feet because he had heard men rus.h.i.+ng past in the night. He was pretty sure they were the enemy-closing in on the trap to find out what it had caught. Leaning around the rock, he stared at their backs. They looked like a cross between Star Wars storm troopers and Roman soldiers.

In his present condition, they could mow him down like gra.s.s.

As soon as the men swept past, Rinna moved.

"Hurry," she ordered.

Catching the urgency in her voice, he struggled to make his body move faster. But he was almost at the end of his strength.

He had given up being ashamed to lean on her. And given up wondering what they looked like-a naked man and woman staggering through the Maryland woods.

If someone saw them, they'd probably think they'd been enjoying some wild drug party and taken the notion to get some fresh air.

He tried to put more weight on the leg, but it threatened to collapse, so he let her do the heavy lifting as they staggered through the trees.

It was hard to keep going. He did it by concentrating on the woman who had clamped her aim around him. He closed his eyes and let her guide him, focusing on small pleasures, like the soft pressure of her breast against his side and the way her brown hair swayed against his cheek.

She had been a beautiful wolf. She was an equally beautiful woman, with that fall of long dark hair, light eyes that he thought were probably green, and delicate features that nevertheless conveyed strength. He wanted to ask her how a female werewolf had come to be. She couldn't be part of the Marshall clan. So where had she come from?

His questions would have to wait for later. If there was going to be a later.

He was dizzy with fatigue-and whatever poison that d.a.m.n trap had injected into his body. But as they headed for a rock outcropping, he saw a slit in the face and thought she might be going to hide in a cave.

He spared the breath to say, "If they come back we'll be trapped."

"No."

She tugged him forward, and at the last moment, the rock wavered like a doorway in a science fiction movie. His next breath was a gasp as they walked through the rock-into another place he had never seen before. Or maybe he'd completely lost his marbles. Maybe his addled brain thought it was better to be somewhere else, anywhere else.

"Beam me up, Scotty," he muttered.

"What?"

"Forget it," he answered, as he looked around.

He understood the nuances of the Maryland woods. He knew the plants and animals in his environment because he spent so much time among them.

This landscape was completely unfamiliar. The hardwood forest was gone. In its place was a plain with charred tree stumps, bare dirt and what looked like buildings that had been badly damaged in a World War II bombing raid. A German city at the end of the war.

The buildings looked ghostly in the moonlight. And the air smelled rank and unhealthy. Not like the clean atmosphere of the forest they'd just left.

"Where are we?"

"My... country," she answered in her oddly-accented voice.

And what country was that? Denmark? Sweden? She sounded vaguely like she might come from the far north of Europe.

"How did we get here?"

"Through a portal."

"What happened to the buildings?"

"The wars. Stop asking questions. You need your strength for walking."

He pressed his lips together and continued to look around at the grim landscape.

Rinna steadied him, but he knew he couldn't go any farther.

"Let me rest," he gasped, striking out toward one of the buildings. At least it would afford him a little shelter.

"Yes. But only for a few minutes. I'll be right back."

They crossed hard, packed ground. When they had pa.s.sed through a ruined doorway, she eased him down so that he was leaning against a half-destroyed wall. After giving him a critical look, she turned and trotted off. As she disappeared, he felt a jolt of panic.

From the other side of the building, he saw a flash of white. Blinking, he tried to figure out what it was, then finally realized it was a large white bird, taking flight. A hawk or an eagle. Nesting in one of the buildings?

Rinna must have frightened it.

He saw it rise high in the air, circling around the area where he was lying. Then it was gone, and he was alone again.