Bearly Hanging On (The Jamesburg Shifters #6)(63)

Smiling, Jamie looked back up at the sky. "If you're there," she whispered, "I'll find you."

With her wings stretched wide, she caught a gust, pointed east, toward the cave. I’ll find you, Ryan. I won’t stop until I do.





-17-


“I wish they made high altitude heaters.”


-Jamie


Cold air, frigid from the high altitude and blowing ice crystals, had Jamie slightly worried about her wings freezing up, but the briefest dips and drags were plenty to keep her from going full icicle. Still, by the time she finally wheeled around in a long, slow circle around the cave she and Ryan had shared, she was sapped.

Her feet hit with a click, and she peered inside. It never got to be less jarring when the weather in the air was vastly different from what it was on the ground, and that time was no exception. The chill from her flight along with the oddly balmy late-fall weather had her going between shivering and sweating, like a flu with no sense of purpose, but a lot of plucky ambition.

“Ryan?” she called out into the dingy, earthen-smelling darkness. She didn’t remember the cave smelling quite like this, but then again, she was a little taken away from reality. “You in here? I need to see you.”

She felt his presence, heard his breath, before he spoke. “Ryan?” she asked again.

His feet padded softly in the dark. Hearing, but not seeing, she turned in the direction of the sounds. “We gotta—”

He interrupted Jamie with a kiss that forced her head backward until he caught her with his hands, digging his fingers into her hair, and holding her in place. “I want to run,” he said, his voice a low, dangerous growl. “I want to take you, and go somewhere, and never look back. I can’t live with putting you in danger, and I can’t live without you.”

“I get a choice, too, right?” she said, pulling away from his lips with a gentle suck. “I’ve got my own brain, remember?”

“I just don’t know how,” he said in a soft, almost defeated voice. “I don’t know how we can be here and not be constantly looking over our shoulders. I don’t know how I can live in a place and just be normal, just be... me. All because of my father, my past, I don’t know.”

Jamie interrupted him, that time, when Ryan seemed to get just a little too upset. Her tongue swirled into his mouth, she tasted blood on his lips when she pulled away. “What happened?”

“Oh,” he wiped at his mouth, stepping out of the darkness so she could finally see him fully. “This? Nothing. No, I know that look,” he said. “Really. It’s nothing. Charging around through the forest is dangerous. You run into things.”

Jamie quirked an eyebrow, and gave him a little smile. “I’m not leaving,” she said flatly. “This is my town, these are my people, and you are my mate.”

Mate. Even thinking of him like that makes my brain get all sticky. But to actually say it?

“Mate, huh? That sounds so formal, especially for a couple of crazy kids like us. Why not just... I dunno, a civil union  ?”

“Shut up, I’m being serious. I’ve made,” she thought back Jenga’s advice still rolling around in her skull all these days later. “I’ve made a lot of mistakes, and I’ve kept a lot of secrets that made me miserable. I’m sure you’ve done the same thing.”

A brief nod was his response.

“Yeah, well, I’m not going to do it anymore. I’m not doing the secrets and the hiding. And to be honest with you, if you’re scared of the DIPS or whatever they call themselves, finding you here? Where the hell do you think you’re going to run?”

“You’ve got me there,” he stepped closer and ran the back of two fingers down Jamie’s forearm. “Out of the country? Iceland? Too cold?”

“Been there,” Jamie said. “It’s nice. But it isn’t home. You need one as badly as I do, and you know it, no matter how detached bad-boy you try to act, there’s a reason you gave everything up to run here and keep those people safe and fed. Your heart’s as big as your,” she coughed.

He furrowed his brow. “I’ll take that as a compliment. But we’re not safe here Jamie, someone’s going to find me and drag me in for what I did. Even though I didn’t do anything wrong, I sure as hell pissed off people you don’t want to piss off.”

Suddenly, something stuck in Jamie’s brain. Branson hadn’t really been angry or furious or anything else. He’d be more irritated at Erik for going over his head than anything else. “Are you sure they want to catch you?” she asked.

“Uh, well, what the hell else would some suited-up agent from a government police force want? And it’s not DIPS it’s DPIS, Department of Paranormal—”

“Yeah, I know,” Jamie cut him off. “But I’m not sure about this guy. He seems more curious than anything else. Seems more like he’s fascinated with the town, with everyone in it, but then again, I’ve been wrong before.”

“And I’d say you’re wrong this time,” he said. “Or at least, taking a hell of a risk by not trying to run, hide, or, hell even pretend I’m not here. What did Erik say to him?”

Jamie shrugged. “Said he hadn’t seen you for a while, that you never paid taxes so there was no record of you, that—”