Defender Cave Bear (Protection, Inc: Defenders Book 1) Read online

  Caro broke off the hug at last, then gave him a closer look. “Hey! Those aren’t the same bandages you had at our house… are they?”

  In the instant it took his mind to automatically weigh whether he should say they were or say he couldn’t talk about it, he realized how ridiculous that was. Pete had meant well in trying to protect her with ignorance, but that was how you treated a child. His little girl had grown up. She wasn’t an adult yet, but she wasn’t a child either. She’d just protected him!

  “No,” Pete said. “I was shot.”

  Caro gasped, her hands tightening on his arm. “Oh, my God!”

  “He’ll be fine,” Tirzah said. She shot Pete a look.

  “I will.” Pete gave Caro a pat on the shoulder. “Uh, I know because I can heal faster and better than I could before…”

  “Before what?” Caro asked suspiciously.

  “Before I got kidnapped on my last tour of duty by the thing you just fought, who experimented on me and gave me the ability to turn into a cave bear,” Pete said, all in one breath.

  Caro stared at him, incredulous and then indignant. “You can turn into a bear!? And you didn’t tell me?!”

  “For your own protection, yes.”

  Caro rolled her eyes dramatically. “How does not telling me anything protect me? You didn’t tell me any of that, and I still just fought a pteranodon!”

  “Well…”

  Spike flew down from wherever he’d gone. He landed on Pete’s shoulder, then stretched out his neck and gave Caro a cautious sniff.

  “You have a flying kitten?!” Caro demanded. “You have a flying kitten and you didn’t tell me?!”

  “You had a flying horse, and you didn’t tell me,” Pete pointed out.

  “Because you’d have made me give him to the government!”

  “No, I wouldn’t. Why would I do that?”

  “Because you think authority figures always know best!” Caro proclaimed.

  “No, I—”

  Tirzah cleared her throat. “Guys, can we carry on this conversation later? We should get out of here. I don’t know if the pteranodon and the gargoyle are gone for good.”

  Caro blinked at her, having clearly only just registered her presence. “Hey! Is that your flying kitten?”

  “Yeah, I gave her Pete’s dog tags and sent her to find Merlin,” Tirzah said. “I did it behind Pete’s back—literally.”

  “So that’s why you needed me to stall,” Pete said. He noticed for the first time that Caro was now wearing his dog tags.

  “Wait, you didn’t know?” Tirzah asked him. “Pete, I told you exactly what I’d done!”

  “When?”

  “In the attic, when… Oh. You were pretty out of it. I guess you don’t remember. You said, ‘Sounds good,’ and went back to sleep.”

  That rang a faint bell. “Tirzah, I had no idea what you were saying. I meant the sound of your voice.”

  Tirzah smiled. “Honestly, I had no idea sending Batcat would work. I was just crossing my fingers she’d understand what I wanted. And remember the way back. And know Merlin’s name. I thought it was a great piece of luck when Gorlois actually mentioned Merlin himself, because that gave me an excuse to repeat his name. Only I guess Batcat went to Caro instead.”

  Caro nodded. “She appeared at my window with Dad’s dog tags! Then she led us all the way back here.”

  “Smart kitty.” Tirzah tickled Batcat, who arched her back and purred.

  Caro took off the dog tags. Pete bent his head, and she put them back around his neck.

  “So is Merlin a cave bear too?” Caro asked. “Are they all cave bears? No wonder they were acting so weird around me!”

  “Er… Yeah, they’re all shifters,” Tirzah said. “I’ll explain more later, but we really need to get out of here.”

  Caro glanced around. “How did you get up here in the first place? Oh, sorry, that was rude… right?”

  “It’s fine, Caro. I climbed a rope ladder. But…” Tirzah glanced at Pete. He wanted to say he could climb down just fine, but he wasn’t altogether certain of that. Still, it wasn’t as if there was another choice.

  “Moonbow can take you both down,” Caro said, quickly adding, “One at a time.”

  She chirruped to her flying horse and he obediently settled down to the floor. Tirzah and Pete looked at each other.

  “I don’t know about you, but I’m dying to ride the flying horsie,” Tirzah said. She scooted over to him, clambered atop his back, and threw her arms around his neck. “Hi-yo Silver, away!”

  The horse turned his head and stared at her. Pete didn’t know if he was reading in expressions that weren’t there, but the horse seemed to be thinking, Really?

  Caro chirruped to him. “Take her down, Moonbow. Then come back up!”

  The horse stood, spread its wings, and jumped out of the attic. Tirzah let out a strangled scream. Pete guessed that she’d been so excited by the thought of “flying horsie” that she’d forgotten that it would involve a height. But Moonbow landed lightly outside, then sat down. Tirzah slithered off, then looked up and gave a slightly shaky thumbs-up to Pete.

  Caro whistled, and Moonbow flew back up, this time sitting down beside Pete. He still felt dizzy, and the surreal knowledge that he was about to ride on his daughter’s flying horse didn’t help. He got on and held tight. There was a sudden lurch, and then he was in the air. If he’d felt better physically, it would have been exhilarating. In a way, it still was.

  And then Moonbow landed and sat down. Tirzah had to help Pete off. Even the small effort of holding on tight for thirty seconds had made black spots dance before his eyes. Spike jumped into his lap and nuzzled him.

  “Caro!” Tirzah called. “I left my wheelchair in the kitchen. Can you get it for me, please?”

  “Sure!” Caro shouted from the attic. Moonbow flew up and brought her down to the front of the house, and Caro ran inside.

  “Thanks,” Pete said quietly to Tirzah. “I’m not lying to her anymore. But I’d rather not scare her if I can help it.”

  “I figured,” Tirzah said, also quietly. “Hey—that horse obviously can’t carry three, so...”

  Pete glanced at Moonbow, who stood looking up at the sky. He followed the horse’s gaze, uneasily hoping it didn’t know something he didn’t. But there were no flying monsters in sight, only the bright stars and the last sliver of the setting moon.

  Reluctantly, Pete said, “It could maybe take you and Caro.”

  Tirzah just rolled her eyes and didn’t dignify that with a direct response. Instead, she said, “Do you think you can drive?”

  Pete had been asking himself that exact question. “If you’d asked me before I rode that horse, I’d have said sure. But now that I have, I’m worried I might pass out over the wheel.”

  Tirzah shuddered, then swallowed. She took a deep breath, then lifted her head high. “I’ll drive.”

  “But—”

  “If you help me.”

  “Oh!” He nodded, relieved that she wouldn’t have to try to force herself through terror and that he could help. “Yeah, of course. Caro can ride with us, and her flying horse can follow and guard the car.” He chuckled. “There’s a sentence I never imagined myself saying. I wonder how she found it. And how long she’s had it.”

  “It can’t have been long,” Tirzah pointed out. “It’s not like she could’ve hid him in her room, like a flying kitten.”

  Pete chuckled. “Yeah, no. Well, Caro won’t have to bust out any of her conversation topics for the car ride back. We’ll have plenty to talk—”

  Moonbow stamped his hoof and whinnied. The sky darkened as the moon set. And, as Pete watched in astonishment, the winged horse shimmered, then shrank to the size of a kitten.

  Caro came out, pushing Tirzah’s wheelchair. “Sorry I took so long! The whole place was trashed. I had to get it out from under a sofa, can you believe—”

  She came to a sudden halt, staring at Moonbow. Then she looked up at
the moonless sky. In a small voice, she said, “Uh-oh. I was hoping we’d have more time.”

  Moonbow leaped into the air and landed on the hand rest of the wheelchair. Caro petted him with a finger.

  “He’s only big by moonlight?” Tirzah asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Pete said. “We have a—”

  Some sixth sense honed by years of experience in combat made the back of his neck prickle. He looked around, then up. There was no sound, no shape, only a sense of movement: something black as the sky, black as obsidian, plummeting down like a hawk toward his Caro.

  CHAPTER 29

  T irzah had never seen Pete move so fast. One second he was sitting beside her, the next he’d leaped to his feet and lunged forward. In the blink of an eye, he was the cave bear, rearing up and striking at the gargoyle plummeting toward his daughter.

  There was a shattering crash. Fragments of something hard rained down all around Tirzah, making her duck and cover her face. It was only when she saw their familiar glassy sheen that she realized what had happened.

  It had all happened so suddenly that neither Tirzah nor Caro had time to even scream. By the time the cave bear’s front paws hit the earth again, it was all over.

  Caro stared at the huge bear standing beside her. “Dad?”

  There was no fear in her voice or expression, only amazement. She reached out a hand and buried it in the bear’s shaggy fur.

  And then Pete stood swaying with Caro’s hand on his shoulder. But only for a moment. The next second, he dropped to his knees with a thud.

  “Dad!” Caro exclaimed. “Are you all right?”

  Tirzah scrambled toward them, half-crawling, half dragging herself by her arms. “Pete!”

  He was pale and sweating, his eyes unfocused. Tirzah could barely catch his mutter of “Don’t be scared.”

  Tirzah and Caro exchanged what Tirzah suspected were identical looks of worry and exasperation.

  “Pete, lie down before you pass out,” Tirzah said.

  “But… I have to…” His voice trailed off into an inaudible mumble as his eyes closed. Tirzah caught him as he collapsed and laid him down on the ground.

  Caro’s eyes were wide and frightened. “Is he going to be all right?”

  For the first time, Tirzah understood Pete’s impulse to protect Caro by hiding things from her: she too had the impulse to make up something, anything to make the girl feel better.

  Instead, she took Caro’s hand and told her the truth. “Listen, Caro, I’m worried about him too. But I think he’s going to be fine. See these?” Tirzah indicated the pink scars on Pete’s chest. “They look like he got those a month ago, right? They’re from the day before yesterday. He really does heal fast. He just wore himself out fighting when he was already hurt.”

  “Oh.” Caro looked relieved. “But… What even happened?”

  “The gargoyle went for you—”

  “Yeah, I saw that. But… it turned into stone?”

  Tirzah nodded.

  Caro looked at the fragments of obsidian. “Is it dead?”

  “I’m not sure. But even if it’s not, I’m pretty sure it’s down for the count.” Tirzah levered herself into her wheelchair. “Can you stay with your dad? I’ll go pull up the car.”

  “Sure.”

  Tirzah took the car keys from Pete’s pocket and headed for the car. Her commitment to the truth had gone as far as she intended it to go: she’d answer any questions Caro asked, but she wasn’t going to volunteer the information that she had a massive phobia about driving twisty mountain roads in general, and especially this specific one that had given her the phobia after she’d nearly been killed driving it, and she’d only agreed to drive it because Pete had said he’d use the Shoulder of Strength on her only that sure wasn’t happening now, and oh by the way she’d had a panic attack just being a passenger on the way up.

  She reached the car, opened it, stuck her chair in the trunk, and hopped to the driver’s side. Trying very hard not to think about what she was doing, she adjusted the seat and mirrors, then crossed her ankles to touch her left foot to the gas pedal.

  The instant her hands closed around the steering wheel, panic threatened to engulf her.

  What if I have a panic attack and crash the car and get us all killed?

  What if I hit black ice and the car goes off the road?

  I can’t do this.

  Her hands felt icy. Her heart was pounding. She couldn’t catch her breath.

  Tirzah closed her eyes and recalled Pete’s voice, deep and comforting and calm, talking her through the panic attack she’d had on the way up. She remembered the warmth of his hand in hers.

  He needs me, she thought. Caro needs me. And that’s all there is to it.

  She opened her eyes, started the car, and carefully drove to where Caro sat with Pete. The car moved jerkily, hard to control with her legs crossed and her left foot on the pedal—and a weakened left foot, at that. She brought it to a somewhat abrupt stop with the back seat door next to Pete.

  Tirzah hopped out and helped Caro wrestle Pete into the back seat. He woke up just enough to help them, though he seemed half-asleep and Tirzah doubted he’d remember it later, and closed his eyes again as soon as his head touched the seat. The best they could do was get him partially lying down with his legs on the floor and clip all three seatbelts around him. Spike curled up under his chin.

  Tirzah touched Pete’s cheek, but he was so deep in sleep that he didn’t respond. His skin was cool and damp, his stubble just starting to come in and roughen his cheek. Reluctantly, she returned to the driver’s seat. Batcat jumped into her lap.

  Caro got in the passenger seat and whistled for Moonbow. The flying horse settled into her lap.

  “Oh!” Tirzah’s tension broke as she burst out laughing. “I knew he looked familiar! He was pretending to be a toy!”

  As Tirzah started the car and began to drive, Caro laughed too. “Yeah, I had him hidden in my room. And then in my jewelry box.”

  “That was what the grass clippings were for!”

  “Right!”

  “Pete and I were hiding Spike and Batcat at the same time! Pete actually had them stuffed in his pillowcase when you came in and he said he was going to throw up!”

  As they traded stories of what they’d been doing and how they’d acquired their magical pets, the car was filled with unexpected laughter. Tirzah didn’t forget her fear, either for driving or for Pete, but it became more of a background anxiety than a presence so overwhelming that it threatened to swallow her whole.

  The stars went out as the black sky brightened to the pale gray before dawn. Caro kept twisting around to check on Pete, since Tirzah didn’t dare take her eyes off the road.

  “How is he?” Tirzah asked.

  “Still asleep.” Caro rubbed her jaw in a gesture that Tirzah recognized: it was one she’d seen Pete do. “You know what’s even weirder than finding out that Dad can turn into a cave bear? Being able to help out when something’s going on, instead of Dad refusing to even tell me what’s going on.”

  Tirzah shot a quick glance at Caro to see if she was being sarcastic, but she looked completely serious. “You really do like that better, huh?”

  “Yeah, I do. I get that there’s adult stuff I shouldn’t be involved in, like… uh… rent and insurance and stuff.” Caro’s voice began to tremble, as if she was on the verge of tears. “But Dad was acting so weird when he came back this time, and he wouldn’t tell me anything, and I thought he didn’t like me anymore and he didn’t want to say so!”

  “Caro.” The voice came from the back seat. Tirzah’s gaze flicked to the rear view mirror, where she saw Pete pushing himself to a sitting position. “Mija. I love you. That stuff was all me. It was…” He stopped to catch his breath. “Cave bear stuff. I’ll explain later. It had nothing to do with you.”

  “Yeah, but I didn’t know that!”

  “You’re really okay with al
l… this?” He made a vague gesture, encompassing himself and the flying pets.

  Caro beamed. There was no mistaking the sincerity in her voice as she said, “Kittens with wings? You being able to turn into a cave bear? Me getting to fly to the rescue on my flying stallion? This is the greatest year of my life!”

  Tirzah suppressed a giggle at the sight of Pete’s face in the mirror. He was clearly torn between relief that Caro wasn’t traumatized, pride in her, and horror at the thought of her making a habit of flying to the rescue.

  To save him from having to respond, Tirzah said, “Like father, like daughter. Pete, didn’t you wish you had a flying pony when you were her age?”

  “I wished I had a pet wolf. But close enough.” He rubbed his jaw, then caught her eyes in the mirror. “Nice driving, Tirzah.”

  She smiled. “Thanks.”

  They could have the real conversation about that later, in private. But she could see that he was proud of her. She’d never been afraid of driving before her accident, and a little of her old confidence had returned to her, though her body ached from the awkward position and her weak left leg ached more.

  I’m going to go to a therapist and get some real therapy, she thought. Maybe some anxiety meds, so I don’t have to rely on Pete always being with me. And then I'll get the car with hand controls out of the garage. And then I’ll make some major repairs to my cabin, and—

  In the rear view mirror, she saw a black shape appear in the sky over the hills. It was the pteranodon.

  “Oh, shit!” Tirzah burst out. “Sorry, Caro.”

  “Drive faster!” Caro yelped.

  “Keep calm,” said Pete. He laid a comforting hand on Tirzah’s shoulder, and on Caro’s. “Once we’re off the mountain, we can go off-road. It’s too big to get through the trees.”

  But there was still a lot of mountain left to drive. And the pteranodon was coming in fast, its great leathery wings beating against the pale sky. It loomed larger in the mirror as it came closer. Tirzah realized that it was bigger than the car.

  The animals in the car were either aware of the pursuit or else their owners’ tension had transmitted itself to them. Moonbow snorted, his ears laid back against his head. Batcat meowed and flapped her wings. Spike bristled until Pete had to nudge him away.