Chapter 9
CHAPTER NINE
Colton hadn't thought about his court case in at least eighteen hours, which was probably a personal record.
Now, hearing Jo mention it and realizing that one way or another he was going to have to leave her for a little while, he was suddenly breathless with pain.
He wanted to gather her in his arms and promise he'd be back.
To tell her he couldn't live without her anymore.
To guarantee forever, when in fact he couldn't even guarantee they'd get out of the damn mountains alive.
We will, his chimera said with far more confidence than Colton felt. We just have to fly. We would never let our mate come to harm. Trust me.
I do, he whispered. He tried to smile at Jo, then braced himself, straightened his shoulders, and made himself smile.
He didn't want her to worry any more than she had to, and there was a lot to worry about right now.
"We'll think about the kids later," he said firmly.
"Right now, an X to mark the spot is a good idea.
Let me do that, and then…" Despite his reluctance, he nodded. "I'll fly."
Can I have my blanket while we break snow? his chimera asked hopefully, and he chuckled, relaying the request to Jo.
Her gaze, which had been hard and worried, softened considerably. "Of course. And then he'll be nice and warm for your flight, too. Go ahead and change. I'll get you all tucked in."
Colton shifted, and his chimera did a happy prancing dance through the snow as Jo went about tucking his wings and tail in so he'd stay warm.
Colton nuzzled at her when she was done—a gentle gesture that nearly knocked her off her feet—and then he went off to pounce and walk through the snow until the entire clearing they'd come through was marked with a giant X.
Jo collected fallen branches from beneath trees while he did that, so by the time he was done, she'd begun laying them out to make a contrasting color in the X. "This should work," she promised him, and while Colton believed it, he still hated to leave her behind.
We'll be back soon, his chimera promised. Let's go right away, so we can come back sooner.
Colton thought that might be a good idea, because he was afraid if he changed back to human, he would gather Jolene Talbott into his arms and never, ever let go. So he came over to her side still in chimera form, and huffed gently against her arm.
She paused to rub his nose, and he began to purr, which made her smile. "That's a big purr. Should I get these blankets off you, so you can fly?"
He nodded reluctantly, and she puffed a steamy breath into the cold air.
"You know, I thought you could understand me, but it's good to have verification.
I'll finish laying out the branches in the X and go into the tent to keep warm.
I promise. Don't worry, okay? You're going to get the information we need to get out of here safely. "
Colton grumbled in the back of his throat, still worried despite her reassurances, but he nodded again, and Jo worked her way around him, removing the blankets with more efficiency than she'd done yesterday.
She noticed, too, because as she folded them up, she said, "Give me another half dozen times doing that and I'll have it down to a science!
Which means you'll have to come visit," she added, almost sounding embarrassed, but Colton gave a happy bounce at the suggestion—
—and knocked Jo into the snow. Deep into the snow: it went up past her hat, but a laugh came out of the snow from under the hat.
"Man, and I thought excited house cats were a danger to my feet!
" She struggled back out of the snow, still smiling, while Colton stood there stricken with guilt, unsure whether he should shift back to human and help or not.
Once she was up, she caught a glimpse of his expression and laughed again. "Who said cats don't have expressions," she said again, and ruffled a hand into his mane. "You're fine, big guy. I'm fine. Fly, fly away, and come back with news of where the hell we are."
Colton made the most agreeable sound he could with a lion's vocal cords, shook out his wings, and leaped into the air.
Jo's delighted, "Oh, wow! Oh, yeah! Oh my God!
Look at you!" rose after him, and he couldn't help showing off a little, swooping and spinning in the air above her before finally pumping his wings to gain altitude.
He'd flown in cold air before, since the whole family did rent a remote lodge every Christmas season.
But even though it was remote, they were careful to not fly above the treetops, just in case of small planes or other observers.
Striving for mountaintops was a whole new experience, and aside from the cold, what he really noticed was the thinness of the air.
Even a few hundred feet made a difference, and his first impulse was to yawn.
It turned out yawning while flying was hard.
He bobbled a bit in the air, finished his yawn, and went higher, concentrating on his position in the sky relative to that all-important X turning green in the snow.
He could hear small planes in the distance, but didn't see any, and promised himself he'd dive the moment one came into view.
But it might mean there were rescuers out searching for them, which in turn meant that Jo's X in the snow might be what saved them.
But that required them looking in the right place, and there was an awful lot of territory to cover out here in the Montana mountains.
He was yawning again as he climbed high enough to finally see what Jo meant about the Hacksaw Range: even snow-covered, they made visible rows of mountains sliced apart by valleys, running north to south beneath the bright blue sky.
And the pass she'd hoped for was to the north, too, walled by that south-southeastern range she'd mentioned.
They weren't close to the pass. On the other hand, they weren't nearly as far away as they might have been, and Colton thought he could make the flight, or at least, get them out of the mountains into the comparative flats.
From there they could decide what, or where, to try next.
At the very least, they knew which direction to go, now.
He spun and began his descent, searching for the green X in the snow.
Even knowing where it should be, it took him a moment to find it.
Then, curious, his gaze went to the west, the direction they'd come from, looking to see if he could find the scar of their crash on the mountainside.
It should be obvious, he thought. Broken trees, scorch marks in the snow, something—but again, even knowing more or less where he should be looking, the crash site remained invisible to his eyes.
That, above all else, convinced him that rescuers would have a difficult time finding them. If he knew where to look and still didn't see it at a glance…
We'll go back to our mate, his chimera said comfortingly. We'll get her and we'll walk or fly away from these mountains and be safe, together.
We will, Colton agreed almost fiercely. He couldn't quite figure out how, what with him having a job and a major court case in New York, and Jo worried about losing her family ranch and having already lost her airplane here in Montana, but those were problems for later.
Right now, getting out of the mountains was what counted.
It had taken him a while to get up high enough to see where they were, and to orient himself, Colton thought, but he hadn't thought it took that long until he was back down among the peaks.
The sky above was still bright and clear blue, but the mountains themselves were already blocking the sun, turning everything a dusky blue-white.
He finally landed right in the middle of the X, thumping softly against the branches Jo had laid out.
A soft scent of evergreen rose with the gentle impact, and he shifted back to human immediately. "Jo?"
She came out from the tent beneath the tree, snow shimmering down around her, and ran to meet him with a hug. "That sucked! I knew you were coming back, but wow, it felt a lot more alone and scary out here without you!"
Colton tucked her against himself, nose buried in her—well, her hat, really.
Both of them were still dressed for the weather, in bulky snowpants, puffy coats, big hats, heavy gloves.
But it was still good to hold her, and to murmur an assurance, even if it was into her hat.
"You're right about where we came down. The trip north toward the pass isn't that bad, especially if we're flying, but—"
Jo pulled back far enough to shoot a look toward the shadowed mountains. "But it's already getting dark in here," she finished. "You think we should wait until morning?"
"The problem with waiting is we have no idea what tomorrow's weather will be," Colton said hesitantly. "This could be the only clear day for weeks."
"Yeah, that's true." She released him, which Colton thought was too bad, and took a few steps toward the north like she was considering their options with her fierce gaze. "You think you can fly over them with me?"
Around, his chimera said, and Colton paused before speaking, listening to it.
We don't have to go high, the chimera said. Not as high as the mountains, at least. Not mostly. We can fly through the lower parts, like our mate's airplane does. It won't be as tiring, and if we need to stop we'll be closer to the ground so we can find shelter.
That's pretty smart, Colton said, and his chimera gave him a sort of exasperated sigh.
Animals are good at surviving, it pointed out. Humans think too much.
Colton laughed, startling Jo, and raised his hands apologetically as she turned to look, the brim of her hat rising to indicate her eyebrows were lifted beneath it.
"My chimera says I'm overthinking things, and that we can fly through, or around, the mountains, rather than above them, so we're closer to the ground if we need to shelter overnight. "
"That's pretty smart," she said admiringly.
His chimera preened, stretching its wings luxuriously. Our mate thinks I'm smart.
"That's what I said!" Colton said to both of them, but the chimera ignored him in favor of Jo's praise. Not that Colton could blame it, really: he would also preen if she praised him.
"Let's pack up, then—no!"
Colton's eyebrows shot upward. "No?"
"Let's see if you can get off the ground with a passenger, first!"
"Oh!" Colton snorted with surprise, which brought very cold air into his throat and lungs, which made him cough rather dramatically for a while before he recovered. "Yes," he finally said in a wheeze. "That's actually a really good idea."
"I, too, am pretty smart," Jo told him solemnly. "All right, let's try this."
He shifted and crouched on the green X they'd made. Jo, shaking her head, climbed carefully onto his back, muttered, "I can't believe I'm about to ride a flying lion," and held on for dear life as Colton sprang into the air, wings working hard to lift him.
It was much more difficult than he expected, truth be told.
He didn't quite hit the ground again, but it took far more effort to get into the air than he'd thought, and he didn't even try to gain any real altitude.
Instead he landed with a thump and Jo slid off his back, her expression concerned.
"Maybe you should fly out without me and come back for me. "
"Not a chance," he said as he shifted back. His chimera also offered a resounding No!, then added, It'll be easier when we're in full flight. Tell her.
"My chimera says it'll be easier once we're really in the air," Colton echoed. Jo eyed him suspiciously, and he spread his hands. "I trust it."
"All right. Okay. Well, then, let's pack up and see how far we can get today. I'd love to get somewhere that there's signal, just to let people know we're okay. I'd—" She stopped, shook her head, and chuckled softly.
"You'd what?" Colton gestured and she led the way back to the tent, where they packed up, which mostly meant Colton handing Jo things when she pointed at them, and her doing the rest with practiced efficiency.
"Oh, I was going to say, if we clear the mountains, I'd love to just fly straight home, but then I realized that even if the distance wasn't too great, the chances of being seen are. And then I thought, wow, I adapted to the whole idea of shifters pretty fast, didn't I?"
Mates do, his chimera said impatiently. Tell her!
I'll tell her when we're no longer trapped together in an inaccessible location, Colton promised. The chimera practically groaned with dismay, but couldn't force Colton to talk, so instead curled up, hid beneath its wings, and sulked.
I'm sleeping, not sulking!
Uh-huh, Colton said. Of course you are.
The chimera sulked harder, and Colton smiled as they finished up the last of the packing.
"I guess people mostly decide to believe what's right in front of them, although I also think that a lot of the times, later, they decide they saw something else.
I think that's probably part of what keeps us secret. "
"It must be hard," Jo said as they climbed out of their little shelter beneath the tree. "Having this big secret about yourself. My most difficult secret is my stupid name."
"It's a beautiful name," Colton murmured, not wanting anyone, even Jolene herself, to be mean to her. "But I do understand why it must also be a difficult one."
"It'd help if I was a petite blonde or something," she said with resigned irritation. "Although then people would probably call me 'Dolly' and think they were funny, too."
"You're absolutely perfect as you are," Colton said firmly. He shouldered the bags, made sure they were comfortable, then lifted his eyebrows at Jo. "Ready?"
"Ready as I'll ever be."
Colton winked once, and shifted.