Page 25 of Sanctuary
Patton eyed him and debated asking why, but Ori looked at him with a cool, amused expression as if he knew that Patton didn’t care about dirty clothes and he wasn’t going to accept that as an excuse. Patton opened his mouth to argue, noticed the martial look in Ori’s eye, and decided that he might be better off not setting a target on his head. Or his laundry.
Ori spotted something off to the north, a shop and a bunch of vehicles scattered around a sign for an RV Park, whatever that was. But Ori said he’d read about them once, and that they might be able to find water there. He swung the empty jug hanging from his belt in emphasis. “I wonder if they have someplace we could stay,” he said in soft, uncertain voice. He took a couple of steps in that direction, his walk stiff with fatigue, and stopped, and hand pressed to the small of his back. “I think you’re right. I could use a day to rest.”
“Let’s get water and see if there’s any way to wash clothes there.” It was pretty barren looking from where they stood, but maybe when they got closer, there’d be someplace they could hide for the night. He doubted they’d be allowed to just set up wherever they wanted. If Ori was right about what the place did, they would want money, and he and Ori didn’t have that much left. They’d have to wait and see how much it would be. Even the chance to wash their shirts would be a comfort.
But when they got close enough to see the parking lot and the graveled area behind the building, a dark blue car with familiar patches of rust caught Patton's eye. He froze and grabbed Ori's arm, then hustled them back across the road and into a bunch of pistachio trees growing in ruler straight rows.
Ori's face went white as the petals of a daisy. "They found us," he said, in a voice that was far too calm for his expression.
"Not yet, but yeah, they’re close." Patton scrubbed his hands through his hair and glanced around the trunk of the tree he was hiding behind. "I wonder how long they’ve been here?"
“Well, we’re not really that short of water. If they can’t find any information on us, then they’ll have to move on.” Ori frowned. “They must be sending searchers in every direction they can think of. I wonder what made them stop here though.” For a moment he was the old Ori, then the nervous omega returned. "Pat, I don't want to go back. Really, I couldn't stand it."
Patton reached out to pull him into a hug. "I'm not going to let that happen. You're going to make it to Mercy Hills, I promise." Okay, they could hide in among the trees until the Perseguir shifters were gone, but what then? Obviously, they wouldn’t be able to go to the RV Park and ask to stay now— their hunters would certainly have said something. They might even have had pictures of them. Of Ori for sure—most of the alphas in the pack had cell phones and Ori had been pretty popular. But maybe there were more of these RV Parks around. Patton pulled out his phone and began to search, praying his battery would last long enough, because Ori was tired and he was tired, and somehow it felt as if just finding someplace to hole up for the night would save them from discovery, even though he knew it was no such thing.
“Pat,” Ori said suddenly, and gripped his arm so tightly it hurt. “They’re coming this way.”
“What?” Patton forgot about the phone as he watched two Perseguir alphas come out of the building, heading toward the car with hurried steps. One of them was staring at his phone, and then he raised one hand to point unerringly in their direction. Shit. "I think," he said slowly as his brain caught up with his fear, "I know how they found us."
"How?" Ori gazed at him, his body gone tense in Patton's arms. Then he looked down at the phone that Patton was waggling back and forth. "The phone?"
"I never thought... Of course the pack would want to track all its phones. I mean, if it got lost, or if something happened to the packmember carrying it." What should he do? He could turn it off, but that didn't do anything to fix the situation—the two alphas were in the car now and heading right in their direction. They couldn’t outrun a car—not that he wasn’t going to try. “Come on.” He hit the power button anyway with the idea that if they did get away they didn’t want to be tracked again, and gathered up his bags. “If we can get into the town, maybe we can lose them in the buildings.” And then what, oh great hero of legend?
Damned if he knew.
They ran until their lungs burned, ducking beneath the low tree branches until they hit a narrow dirt lane and Patton turned down it. They passed a house and Patton had a moment’s frantic urge to run inside it, but what would they do if the humans who owned it were home? They kept running, Ori’s breathing gone from sobbing to wheezing. He was limping badly now, and slowing down, until he finally staggered to a top at the end of the lane.
“You should go without me,” he gasped and then sank to his knees and crawled to the side of the road to throw up. “I can’t--” His words cut off as he threw up again.
“I’m not going without you.” Patton grabbed Ori by the arm and hauled him to his feet with more strength than caution. “Just a little farther. Look, see? There’s houses.”
Ori took a couple more halting steps and shook his head. “You should go on to Mercy Hills and come back and get me, okay? I’ll probably be in Jordan Bay by then. At least it’ll be closer. Just don’t leave me there. Please.” He bent double and retched again.
“I’m not leaving you behind,” Patton whispered. “We can hide the bags and come get them later.” He glanced up and down the street. “Look, there’s a shed behind that house. Come on!” He took one of Ori’s bags in one hand and used the other one to take Ori’s arm and pull him staggering along the street. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he said as Ori sobbed along beside him. “Not much farther.” Ori nodded, his face crimson, but at least he seemed be trying to keep up.
They raced down the driveway and into the backyard. Patton tried to peek in the windows as they ran past them, but they were moving too fast. They stumbled to a halt in front of the shed, the sound of the pack car’s engine growing louder behind them. “Shit!”
Ori shook his head. “We better keep going.” He looked like he might throw up again. "If they see us, you go and leave me behind. It’ll give you a chance to get away." He turned and twisted his fist in the front of Patton's shirt. "Promise me, Pat. Promise you'll make sure at least you get away so you can come back and get me."
"No." Patton glanced behind them, then said, “Get in the shed. I think I have an idea.”
C H A P T E R T W E N T Y - F O U R
O ri threw Patton a wild, uncertain glance, but he took all their bags and hid in the back of the shed as Patton had told him to. Patton covered him with some of the junk filling the shed, then slipped out, watching carefully around him as he closed the door. He ran next door and hid his clothes, changing into his wolf form faster than he ever had in his life. The car was going up and down the streets—the packmembers were obviously looking for them.
Well, he’d give them somewhere to look.
As gently as he could, he picked the phone up between his teeth and ran off between the houses. He was looking for something—a truck, a car, anything really, that looked like it was leaving town.
The sound of traffic grew louder, and then he saw a gas station with a scattering of vehicles parked around it. Including several with out-of-state license plates. He squinted at them, wracking his brain for the half-forgotten memories of his history classes and their rough maps of the world. The outlines of the states were hazy, the names even more so. But he was certain that a couple of the license plates came from far away.
He kept his head down and tried to act as much like a dog as a fellow who’d only ever seen them in movies and television shows could do. Slinking in among the cars, he sniffed for the ones that smelled the most foreign, peering at the license plates and trying to plot all the states on the map in his head.
One of them was a half-ton truck. From Idaho.
It was as good as anything, and an easy target to hide the phone inside.
He jammed the power button against the bumper of the car he’d hidden behind and listened for the thread of music it always made when he turned it on. As soon as he heard it, he trotted out from behind the car, doing his best to look like any random dog roaming wild in the town while he checked out his options.
