Lu shook her head and winced from the movement. “I won’t—”
Lorde barked and trotted into the road, headed back to the truck.
“Lorde!” I shouted.
“Come,” Lu said at the same time.
Lorde stopped right in the damn middle of the road and wagged her tail.
A van was headed toward us, high beams on, driving slow, and slower once it came alongside the truck in the ditch.
Lu jogged off to get Lorde, but the fool dog was still barking at the van, tail swishing. Lu hooked Lorde’s collar and guided our fuzzy girl over to the shoulder next to us. The van moved forward, stopping next to her.
Hazard lights blinked gold in the gloom, and the driver’s side window rolled down. “Are you Lula and Brogan Gauge?” a man called out.
No one should know who we were. No one should know where we were. No one should even be looking for us. But we didn’t live a logical sort of life. There were all sorts of deities and creatures that might decide to track us, though I wouldn’t have a clue as to their reason for doing so.
“Do you need help?” he asked. “A ride? A tow truck? I’ve got towels and blankets.”
“Who are you?” Lu called back. “Who sent you?”
“Lawrence Hobbs. Miss Woodbury. She lives up aways and thought you might be in trouble, though she said I’d find you a few miles back. Good thing I kept going. But then, she’s not always dead on in her prognostications. But she said you might need a healer, and well, I’m the best we’ve got around here.”
“Woodbury?” Lu asked.
“She said she sent her owls to talk to Mr. Gauge. Does she have that wrong too?”
“The seer,” I said, unnecessarily, from the look Lu gave me. Yeah, the punch to the head was still making my thoughts muzzy. “It might be a trap.”
Hado strode toward the van, determination in every step, and Lorde followed him.
“Fuck it,” Lu said. “Can you walk?”
“I’m fine.” My teeth chattered the words, but she didn’t call me on my lie. She slipped her arm around my waist and helped me across the road.
Lorde wagged her tail harder as we approached, then wove around to walk on my other side toward the van.
“Pretty sure this is how psychotic murderers lure in their victims,” I said.
“Lot of work to go out in a flash flood just for a little killing,” she noted.
“Let’s hope so. You have your knives?”
“Always.”
“Good,” I said.
She squeezed my side, then we were at the driver’s side door, and the man was smiling at us.
He was bald, dark-skinned, with an impressive thick, dark beard, a wide face, and black-rimmed glasses. “I promise I’m not an axe murderer.”
“Which is exactly what an axe murderer would say,” I said.
His smile grew. “That’s the problem, isn’t it? They know how to pass as helpers. But I think you’d know, both of you would know, if I were out here for evil doings. I’m hoping one of you is in good enough shape to drive, so I can take a look at the little rabbit. She’s not a rabbit, is she?”
So that put some questions to rest. He was obviously aware of the otherness of the world, the strange and supernatural. It made believing he was sent by the seer—Miss Woodbury—that much easier.
“I can drive,” Lu said. “His foot is injured.”
