He'd barely counted to fifty, back tight over the line of the horse's spine, when he heard the first shot sound and echo past him. The horse side stepped and he corrected, keeping himself in line behind DG. He called to her, urging her to keep going while he heard another whip cracking shot. He wasn't sure where Ahamo was. He didn't look back to find out while he twisted the reigns into his bunched left fist. Wyatt straightened his back, making himself more a target to keep from a bullet passing toward her and instantly knew –
Mistake.
"Son of a bitch!" His teeth knocked together as he coughed pain up against them, tongue nipped to bleeding a moment before the sound cracked in his ear. But the sound always came after… he'd nearly been unhorsed and he'd unintentionally reared her to a rough and side tumbling stop from the way he'd slung from the weight of a bullet passing his arm. Bastards. It was the same damn shoulder.
He gritted his teeth together, trying to control the way the mare was stumbling. He loosened his hold on the reigns and flung himself off the opposite side with much less grace than he'd intended, letting her track off to the left. When he lifted his head he could see Ahamo jerk his own mount off to the opposite side. A truck, similar to the one he had taken but looking much worse for wear, was bearing down on him.
And the bastard that had shot him was leaning cockily out a cracked window.
"Follow her." Cain slapped hard at the backside of the other man's horse, barely catching the sympathetic way the Consort matched his eyes as the horse jaunted back into a hard gallop.
"The same fucking shoulder." He cocked the pistol up, not even looking at the wound he felt trickling hot while he took a shot at the truck, the curse he'd gleaned from DG already feeling comfortable on his tongue.
Cain spit phlegmy blood into the packed ground as the truck wheeled sidelong to a jerking stop. He'd been wrong. And that fact alone had him furious. It hadn't been Azkadellia… Either Zero was manic enough to alter the rules of basic logical strategy or this was a rogue hit that was merely coincidence. Either way… It was done here.
"Stand." One of the Longcoats screeched from inside the truck. "Hold, Cain."
"You shot me first." He yelled back angrily, taking another potshot at the front end of the truck.
"Hold." One of the men stepped from the truck, his own weapon aimed at Cain's head.
Wyatt stepped forward with the same sweated glance of hatred the other man wore. He was forcing his arm to stay up, pain just now rounding up and radiating from the way the bullet had winged his right arm. The suns bearing down on him forced him to squint and he realized he'd lost his hat in the tumbling tip off the horse. The Long coat was young and looked scrappier than Wyatt had expected. The other stayed lodged between the truck and the open driver's door, head ducked low.
"I was told to give you a chance." The younger man's jaw lifted marginally. "One chance. Make a choice, Tin Man."
Wyatt considered the barely born kid in front of him and shook his head, slowly letting the gun hand drop. Blood was already sealing his shirt to his skin like mud had packed on his son's knees when he played after a thunderstorm. He dropped the gun to the dirt and took another step forward, catching the sudden wracked confusion in the other man's eyes. The Longcoat lifted his own weapon higher, choosing the kill spot somewhere on the former Tin Man's forehead.
"You got a girl?" Wyatt rolled his fingers, looking down minutely to see blood starting to stain the cuff of his shirt.
"What?" the kid shook his head slightly. "Hands up."
"I asked," Cain murmured as he lifted his hands. "if you've got a girl."
"Get on your knees."
He complied, putting his hands up even higher, wincing at the thundered volley of pain up his arm as he flexed the muscle of his bicep. His fingers pressed the back of his head tentatively as he breathed slowly through the way his stomach was churning.
Something had to give.
Had to break.
Something, for once, had to work.
"I have one." Wyatt whispered quietly, looking toward the truck, watching the figure that he'd noticed moving behind it moments before. "She's - "
"I know all about it." The Longcoat let the muzzle of the gun press behind his ear as his other hand caught one of Wyatt's wrists.
"I meant to say…" he turned his palm just enough to catch and nudge the tip of the weapon away while he shunted his head back into the other man's groin.
He flipped the younger man hard into the dirt, using the still pain screaming arm to wedge the gun to the ground while the other landed a solid hit into the soft skin of the Longcoat's larynx. His sticky blood-wet hand braced the pistol while he scrambled a knee into the other man's already tortured groin and hit him again, this time in the face.
"I meant to say," his teeth grated before he spit into the bloodied face below him. "that she's one of the two things I'd kill for."
"You done?" Jonah Hays, panting as he stepped away from the bloodied body that now lay beside the truck, was red in the face and bending double.
"Not yet." Cain grunted and landed another hit into the younger man's face, knocking him unconscious with the brute force of the hit.
He looked up to say something smart back to the man he hadn't been sure he should trust… but that's about when he tip-landed on his back, blinking unconscious into two red roving suns.
"Do not - " Ahamo stopped his words when she flashed him a glare, her horse high stepping nervously as she tried to keep in one place.
"Thirty seconds." She was counting already and he was sure she was mentally counting at double speed, watching the empty hill they'd just come down with wide eyes.
"Don't go back there Dorothy." He tried to gentle his tone to calm the wash of fear and anger that was changing the usually pretty color of her eyes.
DG flicked him a glossy glare, "Don't call me Dorothy."
"You're upset."
"I'm going." She reared the horse back up the hill and he sighed as he aimed to follow her.
Azkadellia only stared blankly at the pocket watch that Glitch was offering her. She didn't need to open it; she already knew what was in it. There was a verdant wave of energy coming off the metal that she wasn't sure anyone else could see. It pulled at her slightly and the fact that she stepped forward toward it shattered the thin illusion that she had control over anything at the moment.
"No." she lifted both hands and shook her head, eyes squinting against the tensing feeling of dread that was weighing heavier with every moment.
"Ambrose," the Queen murmured and put out her hand as she stepped in behind him. "Give it to me."
Glitch frowned at her in sad confusion, turning slowly.
Lavender offered a supportive smile and spread her palm flatter, "I'm sorry. I'll take it, Glitch."
He slowly laid the watch into her palm, casting a cautious glance between the two women. His eyes were wide, as though he were waiting for a disaster to come from the very act of handing it to the Queen instead of the last woman who had held it. He breathed out a level sigh of relief as nothing happened. Lavender just clipped it to the bodice of her dress and tucked it away to a place he didn't dare look.
"How are you ladies feeling?" he asked and glanced around the inside of the hut that Az had taken refuge in.
She just shrugged in response, leaning her body to sit on one of the cots, "Very strange."
"How?" the Queen questioned gently, concern showing in her usually steely eyes.
"DG's scared." She murmured and glanced to her hands, flexing one of them. "Nervous."
"Did something happen?" the fear that flooded her mother's voice was actually a comfort compared to the usual tone she used when in command.
"I'm not sure what." Azkadellia whispered up, sharing her mother's concern. "She's not hurt. But…"
"She's in flux."
"I suppose." Az nodded. "That's how you could describe it."
Lavender just nodded, "Can you tell how close she is?"
"Close." Az nodded quickly. "It's getting stronger."
"Your father?"
She just shrugged in sad apology, "I don't know."
The older woman frowned and looked toward the door, "I don't either. That's what concerns me."
"But you're so pretty when you first wake up." Jonah kept pressure on the wound and Wyatt just groaned half annoyance at him. "I could kiss you right now."
"Still bleeding?" he asked the older man and used the other arm to prop himself up from the ground. He 'accidentally' let his foot kick the Longcoat's head as he scrambled for purchase against the dirt.
"Oh, it's a pretty one." Jonah nodded with a frown. "Needs to be stitched up some."
"Just brace it." Wyatt growled and cast a glance around them. "There should be more of 'em."
"Numbers are low. They can't spare large groups." The other man answered. "Figured you might still be around here."
"You should be damn near Finaqua." Wyatt hissed as the other man tried to help him pull the jacket from the still tacky wound.
"You're welcome." Jonah laid his thumb into the soft skin around the wound to make a point and Cain hissed. "You owe me an apology. Two actually."
Wyatt nodded, "That I do."
"I'll wait until after the youngest Princess filets you, uhkay?" Jonah jerked his head behind his friend and Wyatt just groaned, knowing she'd done something stupid by coming back.
"You're a hero, Hays."
"I am today."
He finally breathed easy, slacking the ropes that he'd tied to the saddle hook of his own horse. Ahamo cast a glance behind him to be sure the mare and the Pinto were still keeping a comfortable pace with his own horse. Once satisfied with their easy movements he looked forward to the truck that was slowly gaining ground on him. He wagered maybe an hour before he lost sight of it into the sunset.
His head tipped back slightly as he watched the truck, relaxing his tensed up body as much as possible. He let his shoulders sag slightly as he rolled with the gait of the horse, considering the way his daughter was faring…
She reminded him so much of Lavender, the beautifully stubborn and eagerly generous way she had been when they'd met.
He let his eyes lower as he checked the wrapped reigns again, sadness at the thought of his wife pinching his brow. He'd been happy to have her back and losing her again after just one night had been a stunning blow to his morale. It wasn't that he didn't have faith that he'd find her again… It was the sheer disappointment of hours compared to the years that he'd imagined.
There was a certain jealousy brooding in him that Cain had found a way to stay close to Dorothy while splitting him from his wife.
Ahamo shook his head up from his own self pity and swallowed, breathing in the warm air through his nose while the truck tipped over a hilltop. He could still see the top of it jaunting about but that was it. It did nothing but make him a measure more nervous than he already was.
He'd been alone for a fair number of years now.
A few more hours wasn't going to kill him.
Hopefully.
"Stop flinching." Her eyes were squinting dark blue while she tried to stitch the slice that cut an angry red angle across his upper arm.
"It wasn't me, sweetheart." He let his head fall loose against the back of the passenger seat, legs stretched out across the enclosed back of the vehicle. "Truck's screwing you up."
"Mmmm." DG nodded and elbowed the seat that Jonah was in. "Wanna slow it down?"
"I was told to step on it." He replied easily and cast a quick glance back to the way Cain nodded at him before gunning the engine harder.
DG glared between the two men and leaned back in, once again trying to angle the stitching along his arm as she shook her head. "This is going to get infected."
"We're driving straight into a pack of healers, Princess." He flexed his jaw and drove his head back into the seat he was leaned up against, "I'm not worried about an infection."
"I could have driven." She murmured as she finished closing up the wound with some makeshift supplies she'd found in the truck. "Ahamo shouldn't be alone."
"He's not alone." He cracked open one eye as he grinned at her and grunted when her fist punched his thigh lightly.
"Stop beating on me." He caught her fingers and pulled her closer. "Please."
"Temporarily." She acquiesced and leaned into his chest, letting her head drop against his collarbone while he wiped at her hair.
"I'm fine, baby." He settled the words into a wave of sweat damp dark hair. "Breathe a little."
"I'm breathing."
Actually, she was crying… finally.
It broke open on him like the fault crack of a dam exploding on the boy that had held his hand against it in desperate exhaustion.
He didn't say anything, knowing from the way she curled into him and the choked back way she was trying not to make a sound that she was trying to hide it. He curled both arms against her and tightened her down into his chest while wiping his jaw slowly back and forth against the top of her head.
"C'mere." He whispered, pulling her tighter, forcing her to straddle against his waist and settle into him while he laid her head against the uninjured shoulder. "Let this one go. Been a long time coming."
DG laughed in scoffing embarrassment and cupped her hand between her tear damp face and his throat. Wyatt just shushed his lips against the side of her face, kissing up the salt of her tears while his good hand rubbed her back softly. His other hand curled against the way she had her calf turned from his side. He bent his head to kiss her full on the forehead, waiting as she wiped at her face again. His other hand came up to press her now wet hair off her face as he gave her a calm and softened glance.
"Your father's going to be fine." He nodded, "I'm fine. Your mother and your sister will be fine."
"Don't coddle me." She grumbled at him.
"Too late." He winked at her and tugged her tighter against his lap. "Can't stop now. It's habit."
DG just gave him an annoyed glance and wiped the last of her tears off her face, "You annoy me."
"That must be hard for you." he kissed her softly, whispering into the corner of her warm lips "Especially considering you wanna lay me out naked somewhere and do incredibly wicked things to me with that perfectly made mouth."
"I never said that." She smirked into the way the comment had lightened her eyes as she drew back.
Cain just smugly grinned at her, "Didn't deny it either though did you, Princess?"
He jerked her still when she pressed her body down hard into his groin.
"What's wrong, Mr Cain?" she watched him in taunting scrutiny.
"You'll be the end of me." Wyatt just grinned, "I shoulda let him shoot me."
DG lifted her hand and let one finger trail down the thin bridge of his nose while he let his eyes dip closed. "Well, it would have saved me the trouble."
"You're dreaming." He brushed the kissed words against her forehead.
Well, if he were to be honest, she was jamming his injured arm into the seat that they were both leaning against. And it hurt like a bitch.
He let that complaint go in silence as she lifted her hand against her face and rubbed hard before nuzzling her face into his neck. DG groaned against the warm flush of his sweaty skin and tested a kiss against his throat. The rumbled noise that came from his throat denoted approval and she continued, debating leaving the same break of red against his skin that he'd left on her. She didn't get the chance when his hand caught her jaw and drew her mouth against his. His tongue roughly forced her lips to part and DG gasped in the warmth of his mouth while he tipped his head.
"Still alive back there?" Jonah's voice was more annoying than he remembered it being but he drew his mouth from hers, letting it wipe against her cheek.
"Yeah," Cain grunted. "Problems?"
"Naw." The other man murmured as he tapped the brake pedal of the truck. "Might wanna see this though."
"Jesus." DG squinted and looked away from the body that was hanging slick and bloody from a tree, "That's disgusting."
Wyatt stepped away from her and leaned down, picking up a stick with his good arm so that he could prod the swinging body around with it. The man's face and skin were completely mangled and ripped bloody from the remaining muscle. Bugs swarmed the body and he angled his head away as much as possible from the dank stench, eyes studying the leftover black leather that still hung from the skinned limbs.
"The Eastern Guild flayed him and strung him up as a warning." Cain said gently.
Jonah let off a low whistle, "I think the munchkins mean business."
"So?" DG made sure to look at him so that she didn't end up staring at the way gnats and flies were clinging to the former Longcoat.
"So," Cain turned back toward the truck and flung the stick away from them. "We're close. Let's go."