Stallion of Ash and Flame (Siren Publishing Classic) Page 13

  “That’s definitely bigger.” Awe surrounded her dry understatement.

  “It also contains ancient records, the history and knowledge of the race it belonged to, the Hauloquines, as they called themselves, back then.”

  “Not the Anunnaki?”

  He shook his head. “Two different epochs. However, the Anunnaki may have found and used this device.”

  “Device? Do you mean like an ultra futuristic device used by an advanced race of beings?”

  “In this case, back to the future. The advanced ancients who inhabited Earth. But, yes, like that.”

  “Why leave it behind?”

  It was his turn to shrug. “If I had access to the stored records, the story might be there. It also contains a hologram map of the Earth, the inner terrain.”

  “Mining,” she burst out.

  “Yes, mining, as in where to mine for precious metals and elements. That’s why the Fire Starters want it. They must have a decoder,” he mused.

  She cocked her head when he gazed at her. “How would they even know I had that, that ultra device?”

  “Right now, I’m guessing they used their remote-viewing capability to watch you look

  at it.”

  “I usually look at it everyday before I pocket it.”

  “Where did you keep it?” He trained his gaze on her, needing to know as much information as possible.

  “Sometimes, it got left in the pocket of my jeans at bedtime. Or I’d put it in the drawer by the bed. And,” she loosed a sigh, “whenever I rode I was afraid I’d lose it, so I put it in a tin box inside the tack room.”

  “It never let you forget where you put it, did it?”

  “No, I always knew.” She shook her head anxiously. “Once I lost it. Or I thought I had. Dang, it felt like a magnet. I found it in the bathroom trash can. Must have fallen there when I undressed.”

  “It belongs to you.” Trail extended his hand, holding it out to her.

  “I don’t understand.”

  “It’s said on my world if an ancient device makes itself known to you, it’s yours, and is important to your destiny.”

  She cupped her palm, accepting the mica-like rod. “Fascinating world you come from. Does everyone change into a horse?”

  “Yes. We are equine-human shifters.”

  She blinked, squeezing her hand around the device. “Explains why—” She averted her face, a blush staining her cheeks.

  “Why I was a real stud with you.”

  “Yes.” She moved nervously, gazed down at the ground, and shoved the device in her pocket.

  Despite their dire circumstances, Trail grinned, remembering.

  “Why not just abduct me if they wanted the device?”

  “Intergalactic Federation rules. No humans like you abducted.”

  “Like me?”

  “Non-enemies to those races in the Intergalactic Federation.”

  “Unlike some in Earth’s Shadow Government.”

  He nodded. “Like I said, the Fire Starters are already violating the rule against the type of mining they’re gearing up to do. If they were caught abducting you, they would be banished from this sector of the galaxy.”

  “So, they get others, humans, to do their dirty work.”

  “With you detained by the Sheriff, they could have ransacked this place looking for the device.”

  “Guaranteed Pork Butt would have come up with a reason to strip search me and found the device that way,” she added.

  “Seneca, the Fire Starters won’t be expecting us.” Trail palmed the side of her face, stroking. He searched her eyes for her readiness and found a reserve of courage he figured she didn’t know she possessed.

  “The amulets.” She placed her hand over his, pressing a caress.

  He gave a nod. “It’s time.”

  “Aren’t they watching us psychically?”

  “Not us, currently. They were connected to Sheriff Colgan. So they know what happened to him.”

  “Could they tell it was you,” she hesitated, “attacking him as a horse?”

  His breathing hitched, and he stroked his thumb on the soft skin of her face. “They’ll figure it out. How soon? I can’t tell you that.”

  Her eyes clouded over. “What next?”

  “My truck. We’ll drive as close as we can get to their underground facility. The Fire Starters won’t be on the lookout for stealth by primitive technology,” he answered the question in her gaze.

  “Stealth by primitive technology. Good, alien stud.” She smiled a tiny bit.

  Trail reached for her hand, and they clasped fingers. “It’s not an ordinary truck,” he warned.

  “Of course not.” She sliced a glance at him as he led her from the stable toward his truck.

  “I’m not sure I’ll ever get over how bizarre this all is, assuming I survive this strange adventure.”

  Trail was tempted to tell her she had a lifetime to get over it. That conversation between them would have to wait until after they’d recovered the amulets. “There’s something you should know, Seneca.”

  “Something else? I’m already at a ten on that scale.” He pivoted, gazing at her quizzically. “For the level of shock I’m in,” she explained. “What should I know?”

  Drawing her before him, Trail opened his truck’s passenger door. “We’re connected.” For an instant he lost himself, galloping free and fast in her eyes. “In a special way.”

  “What? You can read my mind?” Her delicately spoken sarcasm fanged inside him because he was joined to her deeply.

  “Your emotions. I can read your emotions and your mind when you’re in danger. It’s one way I protect you.”

  “An ability of your race, I presume.”

  “Yes.”

  Keeping her gaze glued on his face, she slid inside his pickup. “I still don’t understand why I trust you...beyond some urge I have that it feels right.”

  Trail almost touched her mouth with a kiss, instead he placed a finger to his lips, a warning for silence.

  “Someone listening?” she mouthed.

  “Listening and watching,” he mouthed back, then carefully shut the door.

  His saunter relaxed, he moved to the driver’s side, laconically entering.

  “You really don’t have to do this,” she began, “I can get the supplies myself. Oh, and I don’t do seatbelts, so don’t bother asking.”

  “Good,” he mouthed, encouraging her with a nod. “No problem, ma’am. Don’t much care for them myself,” he replied like her hired hand.” Trail eased the truck down her drive. “Nothing better to do than help out. You might need a strong back.”

  A small nervous giggle escaped from between her lips, and she clutched her belly, suppressing her laughter. “A stud should have a strong back,” she mouthed to him.

  He smiled widely.

  “Course after the Sheriff’s harassment I feel better with you around.” She gazed out the side window, and he knew she focused on saying nothing that would give them away.

  “Are you going to file charges? You should. I’ll back you up.”

  “I don’t know. I’m thinking about it.” She erupted with a large sigh and shook her hair back briskly. “There are so many ramifications. I’ve heard stories about people who did file charges against law enforcement. They ended up dead or had their lives ruined.”

  Trail headed west. “I caught some of it on the cell phone.”

  “At least it’s not just my word against his. God knows what he’ll do with the evidence on the dashboard cam in his car. If he even turned it on.”

  “When did you say you’d be there?” he asked.

  She glanced at him. “Could you hurry? I told them I’d be there about now. I can’t call. She doesn’t carry her cell around the horses.”

  Trail gave a nod of thanks, stomping on the accelerator. “Music?” he asked. “Your choice on the radio.”

  “Good idea. I don’t want to dwell on what happened anymore.” She lea
ned forward, touching on the radio. “I’ll just hit select until I find something I like.”

  Taking advantage of the moments, he honed in on who tailed them. He knew who listened and watched them, three Fire Watcher psi-sensors. Already, they had sent a human black ops team to scour her place for the Hauloquine device. But he had to know who the other players were before making a strategic move.

  With precision, he shot his awareness toward the tailing vehicle and in a frequency the Fire Starters couldn’t detect. It was the van, the same three-person team inside. Diving inside their computer data stream, he discovered who they were. Alien Busters, as they were called by the other-world communities located on Earth, named after the movie, Ghost Busters. They operated inside a compartmentalized wing of the CIA, tracking down and reporting on aliens, including little green men. They had followed the Fire Starters to Seneca’s place, then lost them. If the Alien Busters wanted the Fire Starters, he’d give them every assistance by keeping the speed of the truck within a normal range.

  “Good to see Luke and Spook up and about.” He conversationally spoke above the lyrical soft twang of K. D. Lang because he wanted her to have an idea why he was about to mention the Hauloquine device. The black-ops squad would kill her dogs without a thought in their search for it. And if Chief made the wrong move, they’d murder him.

  Alarmed stiffened her body and she swung her gaze to him. “Yes. I was worried sick. Thanks for helping me with them.”

  “They’re in danger,” he mouthed to her, knowing the psi-sensors merely watched the pickup and listened.

  “Oh, God,” she mouthed back.

  “Follow my lead,” he mouthed again.

  She nodded. The agony in her eyes arrowed through his heart.

  “I think they’re starting to accept me. Haven’t had a dog of my own since I was a kid.” Trail slowed, swinging onto the right-hand fork of the highway.

  “They’re like family. I hope I find out who poisoned them. Their ass will be mine.”

  “I’ll keep my ear to the ground. Too bad the tracks ran out. I might have been able to find the cowardly trash.”

  “Even if I never find out, like Johnny Cash says in his song, God will cut them down.”

  “Did you find that good-luck mica stone of yours? The one you showed me earlier today?”

  “I did.” Digging into her pocket, she fished it out and gazed down at the gleaming tiny device. “It must’ve of worked since that lost stallion showed up and scared Pork Butt out of his shorts. Once we get back I’ll check for who owns him. Why, are you in need of some extra luck?”

  “Yep. If I step on the gas, I don’t want a highway patrol officer turning on the cherries.”

  “Yeah, that’s all I need, more negative interaction with the so-called law enforcement authorities. For all I know, Pork Butt has put out a warrant for my arrest based on a damn lie. Rory will have to bail us out of jail. And I really don’t want that to happen since he’s still recovering.”

  “I don’t think we have to worry about the Sheriff. He knows he’s been recorded on my cell.” Gradually, he increased the truck’s speed, making certain the van remained behind them.

  “I hope not. It was certainly good luck you showed up when you did. I was wearing myself out fast.”

  From the corner of his eye, Trail watched her stroke her thumb pad over the device. Looking at him, she mouthed, “Is this what they want? Are they safe?”

  In his mind’s eye, he observed the black-ops squad trot back toward their jeeps and prepare to chase after them.

  “They’re leaving,” he mouthed. “The dogs are safe.”

  She fell back with relief, then carefully pocketed the device.

  “I’ll stay on for as long as you need me. I could do with a change of pace. Movin’ around like I have doesn’t have the same charm.”

  “Well, cowboy, I could so use you, especially since the horses like you.”

  “They’re gone,” he announced. “The Fire Starters were using their psychic talent to watch and listen. Now that they know you have the device, they’re siccing the black-ops team on us.”

  “Great. Nice to know. Still, better than losing Luke and Spook. I assume they planned to take my place apart.” Squirming anxiously, she settled and folded her arms.

  “That was the plan. We also have company behind us, a CIA team we visitors on Earth call the Alien Busters.”

  “Are they after you?” She whirled to face him, sitting sideways in the seat.

  “No, they’re after the Fire Starters. The CIA team were the ones covertly listening to us last night. I didn’t know who they were then.”

  “Well, they got their ‘jollies.’”

  “Jollies?” he asked, braking to turn onto the highway that would take them deeper into the National Forest.

  “Enjoying the sex show,” she drily explained. “My mother used to say that word. She’d tease Dad about ‘getting his jollies’ whenever he watched her bend over. Rory and I figured it out pretty fast once we saw a few late sixties, early seventies movies.” Her voice ended wistfully, sadly.

  Trail beamed his awareness toward the underground facility. Three semi-trucks lumbered over the makeshift road about ten miles out from the above-ground entrance. He zoomed through the semis, taking an inventory of the contents. Mining equipment, supplies for human miners, foodstuffs and other necessities loaded them down.

  “Care to tell me the plan, alien man?” she asked in the following silence.

  “It’s better if I don’t yet. They can’t mind-read what isn’t there.”

  “Yeah, sure, I get it. The need to know scenario. Great. I hate it.”

  “Right now, the plan is to get the Alien Busters close enough to discover the Fire Starters.”

  Restlessly, she twisted in her seat. “I don’t think I’ve ever trusted anyone this much. Except Rory,” she muttered.

  He wanted with all his heart to tell her to keep trusting him. He wanted to tell her he wanted to get his ‘jollies’ whenever she bent over. He knew to her ear that would be so many words and useless as hay blown away by storm winds. She needed direct proof, experiences with him she couldn’t deny.

  “Seneca, would you like to know why our portals with Earth are so vital to us, to our race?”

  “Portals, as in more than one? Why?” she shot back.

  “We have many portals throughout the western states. We require the DNA of wild horses on Earth, the descendants of the Spanish Mustangs, to keep the equine side of our race strong.”

  “How the hell does that work? I mean I can understand the strength of wild horse DNA. It is priceless. And too few people realize that fact.” Her tone pounced like a wildcat on those who failed to understand what was obvious to her.

  “Over time, with the advancement of psi powers, the human side of our DNA became too dominant, resulting in the slow degradation of our equine side. There has never been a true equine species on our world. Yes, we have horse species, but they retain some of our human DNA. Only the true equine species of Earth revitalize that part of our natures.”

  “I still don’t understand. Are you saying you somehow inject wild horse DNA into your people?”

  “We collect mane follicles, mostly, from the strongest mustangs, and only from those who run wild. The triggered gene sequence is different than mustangs raised domestically.”

  “Yes, it would be different. Go on.”

  “A womb absorbable cream is made, then matched to the gender and characteristics of the child/foal being carried. It’s simply rubbed on during the first month of pregnancy.”

  “Well, that is easy enough. Why not import wild horses to your world? Hell, all the BLM wants to do is round them up and kill them, now days. Breaks my heart thinking about it. And it breaks my soul not being able to do anything permanent to stop it.”

  Joined with her, he felt her utter despair over the horrific plight of the wild horses.

  “There are operatives from our world in p
lace who are protecting some of the herds. It’s always a balancing act, since we risk exposure.” Trail wheeled the pickup onto a private access road that would take them much deeper inside the forest.

  “You would be sliced and diced in some secret government lab. Or worse, kept alive. Yeah, I understand.” She checked their surroundings. “Aren’t we going to have the forest rangers after us?”

  “The truck is outfitted with a code to make it look like one of their vehicles.”

  “That’s certainly convenient.”

  “To answer your question, the matrix of Earth promotes the highest expression of mustang genetics. Our world doesn’t.”

  “Yep, that does explain it.”

  He glanced at her. So far, she held up well despite everything she faced, her spirit carrying her. “Earth is a paradise for animal species,” he continued. “And for plant species. More so than many other planet-worlds.”

  “Certainly for gold. A golden planet paradise.”

  Trail smiled for a bare instant, tickled by her thought process. “A paradise ruined for the sake of mining gold,” he replied seriously.

  “Irony at its best and worst,” she mused. “No different than gold fever during the Gold Rush. People would have hacked through anything to find the mother load. I can’t say the gold coins we found aren’t mighty tempting.” He watched her hug herself in his peripheral vision. “If all this didn’t feel so real, it would feel like a dream. You would feel like a dream.”

  “Adjustment,” he encouraged. “It will take a while to get used to the notion of me.”

  “Oh, you think so, do you? I think it’s going to take more than a while.”

  Negotiating the narrow road faster and faster, Trail psi-searched for a strategic place to leave the truck.

  “Won’t the Fire Starters know by now we’re coming for the amulets?” she quietly asked.

  “They’ve probably put some pieces together. Hang on, Seneca.”

  Slamming his foot on the brakes, Trail slid the pickup inside a tall stand of thickets. The next second, he reached for her, clutching her flush against him. “We’re going for a phase ride. The landing surface is going to be hard.”

  She blinked. Merging his energy body with hers, he flashed them into a higher vibration, then lightning-streaked them toward the semi-trucks. He centered them on top of the trailer and materialized their bodies. Dazed, she merely laid in his arms. Wrapping his body around hers protectively, he psi-scanned around them. So far, they were undiscovered.