Repairer of the Breach (Stones of Fire Book 4) by Sarah Ashwood (free biff chip and kipper ebooks .TXT) 📕

windows stacked upon tiny windows in the tall business towers, going from that to patches of businesses and restaurants with neon-lit signs, and from that into the rings of neighborhoods guarding the heart of the city, and finally out of the city itself. Dusk was falling, broken up by yard lights and the glow of gas stations and fast-food joints. It had taken me awhile to track Carter down.

Calling his phone hadn’t done me any good. Next, I’d tried the Costas mansion. It had rung and rung, but gone unanswered. No surprise there. Who knew, considering the explosion earlier today, if the phone lines were even working? Detective Ewing, with her cop resources, had finally dug up a number for me to call. It was a Ridge Lawson, the man who tended Mr. Costas’s expensive fleet of automobiles. She said his name had come up early in her investigation of the Botanic Garden last fall. I hadn’t met him personally, but when I explained that I was Carter’s wife and I needed to speak with him urgently, I lucked out. Apparently, this Ridge Lawson hadn’t defected to Ciara Costas’s side, because he’d finally told me where Carter, Sean, and several of their folks were headed.

I’d never visited this nature preserve, although I’d heard about it in passing. It might’ve been a fun place to go with my brothers under different circumstances. Now, as Detective Ewing drove her partner and I out to the preserve, guided by the automated voice spewing GPS directions, I couldn’t help sitting in the back seat, staring out the window worrying.

What if I didn’t get the sword to Carter in time?

What if a fight had already occurred?

What if Carter was injured or dead?

What if I never saw, held, spoke to, kissed him again?

I’d been the one who chose to walk away. I still thought that had been the best decision at the time. Yet here I was, speeding along, desperate to get to him, praying I’d make it before anything went down.

I glanced at the sword in my lap. Hard to believe something like this could potentially change the tide of battle and alter the course of the future for Carter, for me, for everyone around us. But the angel, shifter, had intimated exactly that, and that’s where I was placing my faith. I knew Carter having this weapon was vitally important, and I was going to get it to him, come hell or high water.

Before long, we were pulling up outside the gates to the preserve. Detective Tozzi opened his door and climbed out to inspect the gate. Apparently, the lock had been cut, but the gate was wired shut to keep any roaming animals inside. He opened the gate for us to drive through, closed it behind us and re-wired it. We drove forward at a snail’s pace, parking lights only, until we came to a fork in the dirt road.

Detective Ewing stopped the car and leaned forward, chin on the steering wheel, peering off into the darkness beyond the small glow of lights.

“Which way do you think?” she asked softly.

Her partner also leaned forward to peer outside. “Judging by the tracks,” he answered slowly, “I’d say to the left.”

His partner shot him a weird look. “Judging by the tracks? There are tracks going in both directions.”

He pointed to the road on the left. “Those look fresher.”

“How can you tell?”

Now he gave her a strange look. “How can you not tell?”

She stared at him a moment, one eyebrow raised, and finally shrugged. “Okay, Mr. Expert Tracker. I’ll go with it.”

In the backseat, I smothered a nervous giggle. They sounded like an old married couple who had been together a long time and seen everything together. I guess, being work partners, in some ways they probably were as close as an old married couple.

Detective Ewing crawled the car forward. The dirt road was all bumps and lumps that had us jolting in the seat. I was a city girl and not used to dirt roads. I gripped the sword tighter for fear of dropping it and wondered if the vehicle would shake to pieces before we arrived.

After a few moments of tense silence, broken by the creaks and groans of the protesting car, Detective Ewing said, “I see something.”

I leaned up between the front seats to look. “Cars,” I announced. “People. That’s them.”

Something inside me nearly fainted with relief to see there didn’t appear to be dead bodies strewn all over the ground. There didn’t appear to be a huge maelstrom of fighting shapeshifters. Yet. It was too dark and we were too far away for me to tell what was going on, but the shadowy figures I could barely make out seemed to be upright. That was a good thing, right? I nervously bit my lower lip.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Maybe it was a good thing, Carter thought. In a split-second, he’d transformed back to himself and stood there, watching Nosizwe and Sean argue. Maybe it was a good thing the portal hadn’t worked this time. He’d never believed taking Nosizwe and Sean together into that other world was a good idea. Hell, he hadn’t wanted to go back himself. Why his blood hadn’t worked, he had no idea. But maybe it was a good thing.

His thoughts were interrupted by the rising voices of the two shifter leaders. They stood practically toe to toe. Nosizwe was accusing Sean of trickery, of failing to uphold his end of the bargain. Sean returned as good as he got, demanding to know why she was blaming him. Asking how he was at fault for this.

Around them, both sides were picking up on the anger, the fraying nerves, and edged closer to their respective leaders. Carter could read the undercurrents well. This was about to get out of hand. The war they’d come here to fight or prevent was going to erupt if someone didn’t put a stop to it. Problem was, he had no idea how. He’d done his