Blaze’s ribs with the heels of his boots.
Taking off at a gallop, knowing his brother and friend were behind him, Ranger opened his mind’s eye as wide as it would go. Following the bright light at the end of the Mating Bond he shared with Ellie, the Guardsman headed due south towards the cave she’d shown him over a year ago.
Around the wide base of the tall, flat-topped butte he knew so well – the one he and his brothers had named MacAllen Mesa, he took them through a valley of cacti and past a den of Coyotes that did nothing more than stare as two Dragons and a Valkyrie flew by. It never failed to amaze him how one predator quickly identified another who was bigger and badder. Just another wonder of nature. Something he and Ellie had talked about so many times on their long walks at the beginning of his investigation into the death of her parents.
Thinking of her and only her, Ranger held tight to their Mating Bond. His mind's eye never looked away from the bright white light, the one tangible thing he could hold on to, the reassurance that Ellie was still breathing, her heart was still beating…she was alive.
Stopping at the backside of the Guadalupe Mountains, he brought Blaze to a halt in the shadow of the highest peak of the same name and jumped to the ground. Tying the reins of his bridle to a large Rio Grande Cottonwood, Ranger turned towards Zach and Jianna, barely able to stand still while they dismounted.
Throwing a thumb over his left shoulder, Ranger growled, “The bastard has her in here. I’ll go around that way.” He pointed east. “Y’all go…”
"Fuck that," Zach spat. "There are more than two heartbeats in there." Taking a step forward, fidgeting with the bill of his hat, Ranger's adopted brother added, "You need to slow your roll. We gotta have a plan. At least know how many and who the fuck we're dealing with."
“No.”
"Yes, dammit," Zach snarled in reply to Ranger's single angry word. "I understand that you're flippin' like a fish. You want your Mate back, and you want the asshole who hurt her to pay." Taking another step forward, his hands out in front of him, palms up, Zach tried to reason. "What the fuck good will it do for you to go runnin' in there half-cocked and get killed? Think that's what Ellie wants? Think they won't just kill her even quicker than they already planned?" Pounding the first two fingers of his right hand to his temple, Zach snarled, "Think, dammit. Use that brain of yours for something other than pissing me off."
Stepping between them just as Ranger was about to lose his temper all over his brother, Jianna held up her hands in surrender. Voice softer than Ranger could ever remember hearing, the Valkyrie played mediator. "Zach's right. We need a plan. We’re all coming out of there alive, ya’ hear me?”
When he didn't answer right away, mostly because he couldn't, Jianna closed the distance between them, grabbed his upper arms, and shook as she growled, "Do. You. Hear. Me. Ranger. Evans?"
"Yes," he snarled. "So get with the plan-making. I can't think about anything but Ellie. You've got sixty seconds before I'm busting in there and…"
Before he could get the next word out a bloodcurdling scream, Ellie’s horrified, pained shriek slashed through the silent desert. “Nooooooooo!”
Spinning on his toes, racing around the mountain like he'd been shot out of a cannon, Ranger made it as far as the mouth of the cave when a blast of magic unlike anything he'd ever felt blew not only him but Jianna and Zach off their feet and a good fifty feet backward. Landing with a painful thud, on his ass, beside an Eagle Clawed Cactus, the Guardsman refused to be stopped.
Back up on his feet, running faster than he ever had in all his very long life, he'd just stepped through the massive mouth of the cave, when Jianna appeared in front of him. Hands on his chest, her dark eyes swirling with unspent magic and more than a little rage, her voice cut through his mind, “Stop and listen, Asshole.”
“What the…”
Again, his words were stolen from his lips as Ellie's voice, clear, strong, and absolutely perfect, echoed through the chamber, "But why, Aunt Gwen? Why would you do this? Why would you work with the Chimera? Why would you…” Her voice broke off with a sob. One