Free Keepers & Killers (The Alchemy Series) by Donna Augustine Page A

always felt him when he was close by; it wasn't a comforting feeling, no, not comforting at all. It made me conscious of every move I made. If I didn't have a point to prove, I would've let him take the lead again. We'd see who was slow.
    It took us about another twenty minutes to reach the top. Lying on our stomachs, we peered over the cliff at the valley below. I could tell it was a town, of sorts, but like nothing I'd ever seen. The same gigantic trees lined the perimeter of an area that looked to be several miles in diameter. What I thought were huge boulders turned out to be buildings as I watched people walk in and out of carved doorways.
    "What we need is supposed to be in that one," he pointed toward the middle.
    "The one in the dead center?" It was surrounded by at least fifty other stone-like structures in the heart of all the activity.
    "Yes."
    "The place is crawling with people." At least they were all in human form. I remembered what Tracker had looked like that night in the basement which seemed so long ago now. He hadn't looked like a wolf, but a monster. Seeing them walk around in human form was much more comforting. "Do they ever go to sleep?"
    "In about eight hours they 'll start. They don't sleep much, but they sleep like the dead when they do.
    " We couldn't come any earlier. The light from the wormhole is too bright. Even several miles away, it can be seen at night. It wasn't safe." Cormac shimmied a few feet back from the edge and tugged on my ankle to get me to follow him as we settled in to wait it out.
     
     
     
    When I awoke sometime later, I noticed the air had gotten chillier and that I was snug up against something very warm and hard. My arm was draped across his ridged stomach and my leg draped over his thighs. It was my traitorous subconscious who took over as I slept and clearly couldn't get enough physical contact with this man. I lay there for a moment while I tried to decide how to detach myself without waking him.
    "How was your nap?"
    Too late. His deep voice reverberated through me since I was lying pretty much on top of him.
    "It 's quite chilly now," I replied as I sat up, not having the nerve to look at him as I detached. I looked up and saw the massive moon hanging above us. I'd seen glimpses of it from the other end of the wormhole a few times, but didn't realize just how large it would be. In person, it was awe inspiring.
    While I straightened myself and tugged my hair back into a ponytail, I watched Cormac walk over to the edge.
    "Are you ready to do this?" he asked as he came back over.
    "Yes. Let's do it. How do we get down there?" I started looking for a trail of some sort.
    "We 're going to float down."
    "I can 't float reliably, remember?"
    "I 'll float us both down."
    I peeked back over the edge of what had to be a five hundred foot drop. "Are you sure you can float two people? That 's a whole hell of a way down."
    "You 're going to have to trust me on this."
    "You drop me and this partnership is through."
    "I've never dropped a girl by accident, only on purpose," he said, and smirked as he dug out a bag he'd stashed in one of the backpacks.
    "What 's that for?"
    "Supplies we might need to steal stuff." He took a step closer. "Put your arms around me."
    "Is this the brightest way to go in?" I asked, having second thoughts. "Maybe we should take a less direct path in?"
    "We could meander in slow and steady, but sometimes hard and fast is best."
    I couldn't look down, and now I couldn't look at him either. He was probably talking about the matter at hand, but I wasn't really sure. I just wish it hadn't sounded so sexual while I was draped over him for the second time in less than an hour.
    We stepped to the edge and took a final look down. Actually, I only looked for a second because my fear of heights was already starting to get the best of me, but from what I saw, nothing and no one stirred. He pushed off with his foot and we slowly started to float down. We both wore black