She pulled a bottle from the bag, unscrewed the top, and took a deep swallow. Behind her, the dog growled. She glanced across; he was staring at the bottle, tongue hanging out.
“Not for dogs,” she muttered, hugging the bottle to her chest.
He growled again. She ignored him and took another swallow, closed her eyes, and felt the warmth spread through her.
Opening her eyes, she peered out the entrance. Nothing moved. Had they lost them? Or had she actually killed them all with her grenades? She tried to feel guilty. But they’d shot first. Whatever. There was no movement in the forest and darkness was falling. Another swallow. Her head swam. It felt good.
Beside her, Milo stirred at last. He blinked open his eyes; they glowed crimson.
What?
But she couldn’t get worked up. At least he was still human and not a dog.
Then he blinked and his eyes were back to normal. “What the hell happened?”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“Great is the truth, fire cannot burn, nor water can drown it!”
—Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo
She didn’t answer, and Milo shifted a little, then groaned.
He felt like he had been hit over the head with a big, solid object. He tried to sit up, but it hurt too much, and he collapsed back and just twisted his head to the side.
They were back in the tunnels. How the hell had that happened? Destiny was beside him, slumped against the wall, cradling a bottle of whiskey. She appeared undamaged, if a little dazed. Beyond her, lay a big black wolf. It regarded him out of golden eyes. Dylan had shifted. That wasn’t good.
Then again, Destiny wasn’t screaming.
He tried to remember back. He’d grabbed some clothes and other personal stuff and a couple of bottles of whiskey, and he’d been about to start work dismantling the comm unit when Dylan had commed him. He’d made a dash for the door and had been halfway down the ramp when the shuttle exploded. It had hurled him out into the air and after that—nothing.
“Destiny?”
She jumped a little. “Sorry, I was just…” She drank some more whiskey. There was a slightly glazed look in her eyes, but then the bottle was half empty, so it was hardly surprising.
“What happened?” he asked.
“I got the comm unit working in the spaceship. I thought if I got it working, then you wouldn’t need to go to the shuttle and put yourself in danger. Then I picked up this comm and it said they had set the shuttle to explode. And so I had to go and warn you. Except I was too late.”
“Not too late. I still seem to be here.”
She sniffed. “I thought you were dead. You wouldn’t wake up. And then the guards came, and Dylan had to carry you and then they shot him. And he changed into a dog. Again. It was him the other night; I know that now.” She looked at him out of enormous blue eyes. “He’s a weredog, isn’t he?”
On the other side of her the “weredog” snarled and Milo had to bite back a laugh. “Yeah, he’s a weredog.” The snarl turned to a full-on growl. Milo ignored it. “Go on.”
“You were still unconscious, and they were still following us, and I had to stop them so I threw a grenade and I think I might have killed them all.”
“Good job.”
A shudder ran through her. “I’ve never killed anyone before.”
He couldn’t even remember the first person he’d killed. Well, not on purpose anyway. The first person he had killed was the priest who’d been trying to burn him at the stake—burn the devil out of him. But that had been an accident. He hadn’t been in control of his powers at that point. In fact, he hadn’t even known they existed. The man had spontaneously combusted. Along with half his congregation, including the woman Milo had loved.
“You did what you had to do,” he said. “They were bad men.”
She cast him a look that said she wasn’t entirely sure of that argument, but then shrugged. “Then a drone came, and I had to drag you into the tunnels because Dylan had turned into a dog. And you’re heavy, and I thought I wasn’t going to make it and…” She sniffed, took a gulp of whiskey, and sniffed again.
Milo tried to sit up again, and this time he managed to ignore the shooting pain in his head. He leaned back against the wall and sighed, then held out his hand. She placed the bottle