Mannix Dragon Shifters

Chapter 8

JASMINE

Shit. The gas gauge was flirting with empty. Jasmine glanced into the rearview mirror for the millionth time. She hadn"t seen another vehicle for over an hour, but she couldn"t shake the worry that any minute a convoy of irritated human police officers and an army of angry dragon shifters would descend upon her. The image was all too real. She shuddered.

She"d bounced over the rough forestry trunk road for hours and her body was weary, but she had to press on. The heavy overcast skies clinging close to the earth as she neared the mountains were her friends today. She wanted to go as far as she could under their cover, which meant she needed to stop and fill her gas tank.

Her heart pounded as she pulled to the shoulder. At least the dense pine and aspen trees crowding up against the edge of the road might shield her from view for a moment. And a moment was all she would need.

After she cut the ignition, she rubbed her sweaty palms on her pants. She straightened and stretched her fingers. The muscles in her arms quivered, protesting the tight grip she"d been keeping on the steering wheel.

She wasn"t cut out to be a fugitive. She was a baker, not a gangster.

The road was still barren.

Anxiety surged over her. God almighty, she didn"t want to leave the safety of the van. She took a deep breath. Then another. And another. Okay, she couldn"t postpone any longer. The gas tank wasn"t going to fill itself.

The door opened with a groan. She poked her head out of the opening and peered up. The gray clouds hung low. Nothing marred the uniformity of the sky. No shadows. No movement. Not even a bird.

Shouldn"t there have been some birds?

Stillness closed around her. Even the soft yellow leaves of the aspen trees seemed frozen in place, as though the forest was holding its breath to see what would happen next.

Jasmine hopped out, then scurried to the back. The hatch opened smoothly. Her hand trembled as she reached for the closest fuel can.

What the hell?

She jostled the container to confirm her suspicions. It was empty.

She grabbed the second, and then the third. Sonofabitch. How could this have happened? She"d filled them herself. That bastard caretaker who"d let her store the van in the shed must have stolen the fuel.

Damn it. Now what?

She put her hands on her hips and stared at the useless containers. This was not part of the plan. She slammed the hatch closed and scanned the road again. Nothing. She"d purposely chosen this road because it was away from civilization and things like gas stations.

Well, there was only one thing to do: keep driving until the vehicle chugged to a stop and died on the side of the road. With any luck, she would be another fifteen or twenty kilometers away.

Her van died ten minutes later.

She secured her recipe book in her backpack and strapped it on. Her hunting knife and its sheath, a special gift from her aunt, were next. Lastly, she grabbed an empty gas can. It was silly to hope for a gas station, given her surroundings, but she wanted to be prepared in case she found a fueling spot for the logging trucks.

She looked through the van again, one last time, but there was nothing more to take. Her life had just collapsed into a few things, all of which she could carry at the same time. She shivered. Darkness was settling over the sky now, earlier than normal because of the cloud cover. Maybe she should stay within the van for the night where she would be dry and protected for a little longer. She glanced up at the sky again. Her van would be a sitting target for any dragon flying over.

At least in the forest she had a fighting chance against a coyote or whatever else might live out here. She tightened the strap at her hips. Her sneakers crunched against the loose gravel as she walked. It was the only sound.

Where were the singing birds? The jabbering squirrels? The buzzing bugs?

This silence wasn"t natural, was it?

She continued forward until night obliterated any lingering daylight. Then she veered off the road and into the woods. By the light of a single flashlight, she set up her tent and sleeping bag.

After she crawled into her bed, she stared into the darkness. Her body was exhausted, but her mind was whirling. All the anxiety and worry from the day of running spun around and around in her head. One image came back over and over: the gleaming yellow eyes peering at her through her bedroom window this morning.

What was that? A twig breaking? A footstep?

She held her breath as she reached for her flashlight, which was a little plastic thing she"d chosen for its light weight. It was the only weapon she had within reaching distance. Her knife was all the way down by her feet, which was a pretty stupid place to leave it as it turned out.

Her fingers curled around the flashlight. The sleeping bag rustled as she slipped out of it and crawled toward her knife. It was big and serrated and—

"Who is there?" A man"s deep voice interrupted her thoughts.

She didn"t answer.

A light beam fell over the tent and landed on the entrance.

She stretched for her weapon.

"I can hear you in there." The intruder sounded annoyed as his words rumbled across the darkness. "I know you are awake."

"Leave me alone. I"ve got a weapon." She clenched her flashlight in one hand and her knife in the other.

He laughed like he was surprised by her answer. "That"s not very polite."

"What do you want?"

"You are trespassing on my land."

"I"ll be gone in the morning," she said. "Go away."

"You might as well come out of your tent. I"m not leaving."

She couldn"t face him. What if he recognized her? Her picture was probably plastered over every television channel and social media feed.

"Come out, or I"m coming in."

The light beam on the tent jiggled, then the front of her tent wobbled. She saw the shadow of his hands as he tugged at the zipper. s**t, s**t, s**t. He was calling her bluff. Except it wasn"t a bluff. She couldn"t let him capture her. Her blood roared in her ears. What the hell was the matter with him? Who invaded someone else"s tent without permission? He was giving her no choice…

As soon as the tent gaped open, she blasted him with light, hoping to blind him as she swung forward with her knife.

She struck, wedging the blade deep into… the ground. She"d missed.

Jasmine pulled at the knife as the beam of her flashlight bounced over the forest floor and the trees. Where was he?

Then he chuckled from somewhere to her left. "Looking for me?"

She turned her light toward him. His hair was as dark as the night around them and his eyes glittered like polished onyx. A thin T-shirt hugged his muscular shoulders and chest, almost as nicely as his jeans fit his hips. Man alive. If he hadn"t tried to break into her tent, she might have been tempted to invite him in.

She tugged on her knife again. It came free. Thank God. She lifted it in what she hoped was an aggressive and threatening way.

One of his eyebrows lifted as if to say: Are you serious?

"I warned you I had a weapon," she said. "And now you know I"m not afraid to use it."

"Pack your things. You need to move on."

"No. I need to rest. I promise I"ll be gone in the morning."

"No." He folded his arms across his massive chest. "Now."

"But—"

"It isn"t safe here for single women."

"No s**t," she muttered. It wasn"t safe for single women anywhere, as far as she could tell.

"Where is your vehicle? I will help you carry your belongings to it."

He didn"t say it, but she could well imagine the rest of what he was thinking: so I can make sure you leave.

so I can make sure you leaveShe let out a deep sigh and lowered her knife. Either he was very good at lying or he really wasn"t interested in hurting her. Her intuition whispered that she should trust him. "I ran out of gas."

She waved toward the empty gas container.

He pulled out his cell phone and turned on its light. He swung the beam of light to the can, as if to verify her story. Then he turned it on her. She couldn"t see his face, but he breathed in deeply. Then he muttered something that sounded like a curse.

"Hey," she said. "Do you mind getting that light out of my eyes?"

"Fine, you"ll come back with me."

"I can stay here—"

"No, you can"t. I told you it isn"t safe."

"Yeah, yeah… for a single woman. Gotcha."

She hadn"t unloaded much, just her tent and sleeping bag, so everything was packed in less than ten minutes. He carried her backpack and she carried the fuel canister. Jasmine groaned with the first few steps. The balls of her feet and her leg muscles already hated her from her day"s exertions. She prayed they didn"t have far to go.

"Where is your vehicle?" he asked.

"Down the road a ways." They walked for a few minutes. The silence between them was unsettling. She said the first thing that popped into her mind. "What"s your name?"

Uh oh. Why had she asked that? Now he might want to know hers. Argh.

He didn"t answer immediately and she thought he wasn"t going to until he said, "Kylan."

She held her breath and waited for the inevitable reciprocal question. He didn"t ask. He just continued to walk ahead of her through the dark forest. Okay. So he wasn"t a conversationalist.

In the quiet, her mind started to reel. God only knew where he was taking her. Could she trust him? Could she trust anyone right now? She rested her hand on the hilt of her blade and hoped her intuition was right about him.