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Ty shifted to relieve the pressure on his burgeoning, hardening flesh. He ached with every heartbeat, an ache that had become all too familiar since his mind had discovered what his body had known all along: Ja
Did she know how much I wanted her? Is that why she ran out into the storm?
Uneasiness flattened Ty's mouth into a hard line. Ja
Ty's reaction to Ja
But none of them ran from me, by God. Hell, often as not I was ru
The cold wind swirled down from Black Plateau's rumpled heights, reminding Ty of how miserable Ja
The dawn sky passed from pale pink to a pale, rain-scrubbed blue. There was little real warmth in the early-morning sun, but as Zebra trotted toward the crest of a long rise, the light was strong enough to allow Ty to find out where he was. He halted Zebra just below the top of the rise, dug a new spyglass out of his backpack and looked out over his trail. Nothing moved behind him but a few ravens flying blackly through the hushed air.
Ty shifted position, looking to the right and the left. It was the same everywhere he could see. Nothing moving. He couldn't have been more alone if he had been the first man on earth.
Zebra snorted and shifted her weight, telling Ty that she wanted to be on her way.
"Easy girl. Let me look around."
No matter where Ty looked, the countryside was daunting. It was also beautiful to anyone who appreciated the naked form of mountains and mesas, stone pi
The only familiar-looking part of the landscape to someone who hadn't been born west of the Mississippi was the pile of stone known as Black Plateau; from a distance, it rather resembled a ruined mountain. Other than that, the stark combination of sheer red or white cliffs and rumpled rivers of black lava were like nothing Ty had ever seen. He could still remember the excitement and visceral sense of danger that the land had called forth from him at first look. Harsh, beautiful, beguiling in its secrets and its surprises, the vast country threatened his body even as it compelled his soul.
Frowning, Ty looked out over the land behind him once more, letting his gaze go slightly unfocused. Even using that old hunter's trick to reveal movement in a vast landscape, Ty saw nothing new. If Ja
"All right, girl. Let's go."
Zebra moved out smartly, hurrying over the crest of the rise as though she understood that to silhouette herself against the sky was to ask for unwanted attention. The mustang had taken a straight line begi
"I can ride you or track you," Ty muttered. "Which would be better?"
If personal safety were the most important consideration, Ty knew he should let the mustang go and track her. But he wasn't worried about his own safety half as much as he was about finding Ja
And Ty would also hope that Troon poured enough rot-gut down his throat to ruin his aim, so that Lucifer lived to be captured by Tyrell MacKenzie.
Chapter Sixteen
The track was as perfect and as unexpected as a diamond in a handful of mud.
"Whoa, Zebra."
Ty might as well have saved his breath. Zebra had already stopped and lowered her nose to the footprint. She sucked in air, blew it out and sucked it in again. Unlike the mare, Ty didn't have to rely on his sense of smell; he had no doubt that the line of slender footprints was Ja
Bruja. Witch.
Skin shifted and prickled on Ty's neck. He wasn't a superstitious man, but it was easier to believe in witches than it was to believe that something as generous and gentle as Ja
Atop Zebra, Ty quartered the land where the prints had vanished. Beyond them he spotted a narrow tongue of stone coming in from the right. The toe of the last track was more heavily imprinted, as though Ja
"Good question," Ty muttered.
The ru
Like all good hunters, Ty had learned long ago that tracks weren't the only way to follow prey. A better way was to know where the prey was going. He had seen the dismay and fear in Ja
Then Ty remembered what Ja
Sitting motionless, Ty looked at the land ahead of him. It wasn't simply luck that had led him to cut across Ja