No Shelter Trilogy (Omnibus, Books 1-3) Read online

  “Right now, better than my arm.”

  We move closer to the source of the light trying to stay conscious of the dry weeds beneath our feet. I can hear voices now.

  “I couldn’t believe he said that,” says a girl with a gravelly voice. “He actually wanted me to do that for two freaking bottles of water.”

  “What did you tell him?” asks a deep male voice.

  “I didn’t say anything. I punched him in the sack and got the hell out of there.”

  These aren’t Guardians. If she were a Guardian, she wouldn’t need to trade anything and she would have shot the guy. This doesn’t change the fact they could still be dangerous. Our best bet was to let Isaac work his charm.

  We head back to the other side of the hangar and the other three already back.

  “They’re scavengers,” Isaac says. “I don’t know how many there are, but they won’t try anything if they know we’re willing to trade.”

  “We don’t got enough water to trade,” Daedric says.

  “We don’t have a choice,” Isaac replies, ignoring Daedric’s poor grammar.

  Together we scrounge up three gallons of water we can trade. Isaac holds two gallons in one hand and I hold the other.

  “Don’t say anything,” I say to Daedric.

  We approach slowly until we can see the entire group. There are eight of them: three girls and five guys. Only one of the guys appears strong enough to take us. The rest of them look like they’re about to dissolve from thirst and hunger.

  Isaac walks ahead of me holding up the two bottles of water. “Good evening,” he says and my shoulders tense at the surprised expressions on the scavengers’ faces.

  I think they’re more afraid of us, except the big guy. He stands from his lawn chair and immediately pulls a knife from his pocket.

  “Just looking for a trade, gentlemen,” Isaac says, and I fear he’s being too chummy for his own good. “We’ve got water and rabbit jerky, if you’re interested.”

  “What is he doing?” Daedric whispers behind me.

  A skinny girl with a shaved head stands and looks Isaac up and down. “What do you want, cutie?” she says and I recognize her gravelly voice.

  She was at Whitmore two years ago.

  “What do you have, Amy?” I say. “We have three gallons.”

  She throws a look at the big guy with the knife and he sits down and lays his knife on his lap. “We’ve got soap,” she says. “A whole hangar full of soap. Nobody gives a damn about hygiene nowadays.”

  “Ten bars for two gallons?” Isaac replies, setting the two gallons of water at her feet.

  “Deal. What else do you have?”

  Ten minutes of negotiations later, we leave the airport with ten bars of soap, a candle, and two pounds of almonds exchanged for three gallons of water and a pound of jerky.

  “Have you seen any Guardians come through here?” Isaac asks after we’ve packed our bounty.

  “We haven’t been raided for weeks,” the girl replies. “It’s summer. They’re too busy getting baked on the shores of the Salton Sea.”

  We find an abandoned McDonald’s with all the windows boarded up. As we lay out our blankets, Isaac grabs my hand and leads me into the kitchen area.

  “I got those almonds just for you,” he says with a grin. “I’ve noticed you trying to choke down that jerky.”

  “Thanks.”

  “I have something else for you,” he says, and he reaches into his pocket and holds out his balled fist.

  “What is it?”

  He opens his hand slowly and my body goes cold as all the blood rushes to my head.

  I wake with four faces staring down at me.

  “Are you okay?” Eve asks in a small voice.

  I nod and realize my head is resting in Isaac’s lap. I sit up and the candlelight swims in my vision.

  The necklace. My mother’s necklace. The ruby set inside the gold pendant in the shape of an S… S for Sara. Vic ripped it off my neck the day he almost killed me. I didn’t know until I woke up in the cave with Isaac.

  How did Isaac get it back? Where did he get it? Is this why Vic is after him?

  Isaac knows I’m trying to work this all out in my mind. “You need to lay down,” he says. “The bed is made behind you.”

  My blanket and Isaac’s pillow are laid neatly in the middle of the McDonald’s dining area. I lay down and watch as Isaac sits in the corner of the restaurant with his leg propped on a table.

  We make it through old Pasadena and Covina in one day. The following day we make it to the old farms in Chino. The smell of cow manure is long gone with the cows.

  “Are you going to say anything about the necklace?” Isaac whispers when we reach highway 15, which will take us straight to the Salton Sea.

  We won’t run into the Guardians out here. We’re too far from what used to be L.A. and too far from the Salton Sea. We won’t need to worry about running into them for another thirty miles or so. It’s a small relief.

  “How did you get it?” I ask. “Please tell me you traded someone for it.”

  “You know that’s impossible,” he says. “Are you not happy? I got it for you.”

  “That necklace isn’t worth your life,” I say.

  He reaches into his pocket and pulls it out. He places it in my hand. “Do whatever you want with it. I just wanted you to have it.”

  We walk for a while before I hand it back to him. “Can you put it on me?”

  CHAPTER 10

  Daedric eyes my necklace from across the fire. “Fancy,” he remarks.

  I tuck the necklace under my shirt.

  Mary is sharpening her knives again and Eve is off somewhere setting up traps. We’ve set up camp in the forest near Lake Elsinore. The lake is dry, but there’s plenty of game in this area due to the ponds and streams in the higher altitudes—and the lack of humans.

  “We should stay here a few days to regroup,” Isaac suggests. “We’re running low on food and water.”

  Daedric doesn’t appear too jazzed about this, but he doesn’t object. “Two days should be enough.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me about Mary?” I whisper to Isaac as we lay together gazing at the stars.

  He turns onto his side to look at me. “Because it wasn’t anything. It doesn’t matter. She doesn’t matter.”

  “You’re so full of crap.”

  “I’m full of crap?” Isaac shoots back. “You’re the one who made me swear never to kiss you again. What was I supposed to think? What was I supposed to do?”

  “I don’t know, but I didn’t think you would start hiding stuff from me. We’re supposed to be best friends.”

  “You’ve always been more than a best friend to me and you know it. That’s why I couldn’t tell you. Besides, there wasn’t anything to tell.”

  “That’s not what it looks like,” I say with a glance in Mary’s direction. “Have you seen the way she looks at me?”

  “Have you seen the way Daedric looks at me? The guy’s got it bad for you.”

  “We’re talking about Mary.”

  “Forget about her,” Isaac whispers, and in one swift motion he reaches around and turns me toward him.

  His breath tickles the top of my nose. He puts his hand on the small of my back and pulls my body against his. I can smell the new soap he used to wash up. His lips graze mine and a shudder passes through me. I reach up, placing my hand on the back of his head, and I pull him closer.

  His fingers move in light circles over my back as we kiss. His hand slides forward caressing my ribs as he kisses my neck. I know we should stop, but I don’t want to.

  His hand moves up and slides underneath my bra. I suck in a deep breath as he kisses me more urgently. He moves his hand down my belly and under the waist of my pants. I grab his hand.

  “Stop,” I whisper.

  “Why?” he asks, as he kisses my ear.

  “Just stop,” I say, pushing him off me.

  “Sorry,” he s
ays. “I guess I got a little carried away.”

  Is that what happened with him and Mary?

  “It’s okay,” I say, as I turn around and lay down.

  I can feel him adjusting his crotch behind me before he lies down.

  “Good night, Nada,” he whispers in my ear.

  “Good night, Isaac,” I say, as I twist my finger around the ruby pendant.

  The traps are empty, so I catch two squirrels and one rabbit with my bare hands. Mary slices the meat razor thin and we have more jerky within hours. As we’re packing up the meat, Mary glances at my neck and snickers.

  I look down thinking she’s laughing at my necklace, but it’s tucked inside my shirt.

  “What so amusing?”

  “Nice hickey,” she says with a smirk.

  I touch my hand to my neck, but I don’t feel anything.

  “I guess Isaac had fun last night,” she continues. “Did he draw circles on your back?”

  I want to smack the stupid grin off her face, but this would just play into her game.

  “As a matter of fact, he did,” I reply. “It was so relaxing I almost forgot where we were.”

  “I’ll bet it was,” she says, as she gets up and storms off with her backpack.

  This is not what I want. Though Mary and I were never close, I don’t want this animosity between us; especially not over Isaac.

  I jog to catch up with her. “Mary, I’m sorry,” I say. “I don’t mean for any of this to hurt you.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she says as she pulls her honey-colored curls into a ponytail.

  “You know what I’m talking about,” I say. “I know about you and Isaac.”

  “Look, Nada. Isaac told me to keep my mouth shut and that’s what I’m doing.”

  “You don’t have to keep your mouth shut,” I say, glancing back at Isaac.

  “Yes, I do.”

  “Why?”

  “Because he used me, that’s why,” she says. “Once he figured out where Vic kept that stupid necklace, he realized he had a way to get you back and he didn’t need me anymore.”

  The pain in her voice makes my throat swell. “I’m sorry.”

  “Why are you apologizing? It’s all my fault.”

  I glance back. Isaac is catching up to us. “What do you mean?” I ask.

  She shakes her head. “He told me he was in love with you,” she says. “That’s why you could never find out about us. He told me… He said as soon as he figured it out, he was going to get you back. And he did.”

  “He told you that?”

  “Told you what?” Isaac says as he pulls up next to me.

  Mary slows her pace so she can walk next to Eve.

  Isaac shoots her a glare that chills my blood. “What did she tell you?” he asks me.

  I can’t even look at him. According to Mary, he used her like a disposable cup. When there was nothing left, he threw her away.

  “What did she tell you?” he demands.

  I shake my head in disgust and disbelief. “I always knew you could be a jerk, but I never expected you to be a total jerk.”

  “What? Did she lie to—”

  I put up my hand to stop him. “Don’t talk to me.”

  CHAPTER 11

  Isaac insists I can take back my blanket and he’ll sleep alone, but I sleep with Eve instead. I’m feeling good about my ability to ignore Isaac until Eve’s trembling and twitching keeps me awake the entire night.

  In the morning, the traps are empty again, but I don’t have the strength to hunt.

  “It’s my fault, isn’t it?” Eve says, as we gather and break down the traps to pack them up. “You should sleep with Mary tonight… or Daedric.”

  Though Mary and I share a strange bond now, I still can’t look her in the eye. I keep imagining Isaac drawing circles on her bare back.

  By the end of the day, we enter Hellhole Palms: Guardian territory. Just forty miles of California desert separate us from the Salton Sea now. We decide to camp out as long as it takes to develop a strategy.

  Daedric unrolls his blanket onto the grass on the hillside. Isaac’s eyes follow me as I approach Daedric.

  “Do you think I could… sleep with you tonight?” I say. “I need to get some rest so I can hunt tomorrow.”

  Daedric glances at Isaac then back at me. “You sure about that? I don’t want to piss anyone off.”

  “He’s all bark,” I reply. “So, do you mind?”

  Daedric lifts his blanket for me to squeeze in next to him. He picked a good spot to lie down. The ground gives slightly beneath my weight and I fall asleep instantly.

  When I wake, Daedric is gone and Isaac is sitting at my feet staring at me. The instant I sit up he walks away.

  Daedric comes back with a tiny bundle of twigs for the fire. “Slim pickings around here without a saw,” he says, as he throws the wood down. “You up for some huntin’ today?”

  If it weren’t for the awful accent, Daedric would fit right in here. The shoulder-length blonde hair, the golden tanned skin, gorgeous green eyes… He could be a model for surf gear in the former California.

  “What?” he says, and I realize I’ve been staring at him.

  “I have to hunt alone, so I don’t scare off the game,” I say. “But if you want you can follow a couple hundred yards behind me and I’ll catch up with you when I’m done.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” he says.

  From my backpack I pull the elbow-length leather gloves Isaac brought back from the marketplace two weeks ago. I can see the proud expression on his face as he presented them to me clearly in my mind. After I caught the cougar and sustained a few puncture wounds on my forearm, he insisted I needed some kind of protective gear if I wanted to try something like that again. He helped me slip the gloves on and I couldn’t believe how perfectly they fit every curve of my fingers all the way up to my elbows. We got in a huge fight that night when he refused to tell me how many gallons of water the gloves cost us.

  Mary and Isaac watch Daedric and I as we disappear over the hillcrest. The other side of the hill is pretty bare except for a wooded area in the valley between this hill and the next.

  “Stay up here and I’ll call up to you if I need help.”

  He nods and takes a seat on the hillside. I slide down the steeper areas until I get to the valley.

  The craggily trees grow in all directions. They remind me of the Bristlecone Pine trees in Northern California. My mom took me to see the pines when I was seven because they were one of the oldest living organisms on the planet and they were about to be cut down. I remember the despair I felt as I stared at the twisted branches of those ancient trees.

  As usual, I take a seat on the lowest branch and crouch to make myself as small as possible. A crow flies down and perches on a branch above me. Crow is one of the worst game birds to eat: tougher than leather and just as tasty.

  A pigeon swoops down and perches on the branch behind me. Pigeon is delicious, but I hate when the game is behind me. There’s no way to turn around quietly. The only thing to do is hope I can jump backward and twist my body fast enough to catch it.

  I take a couple of quiet deep breaths then I pounce. In the span of one second I release my grip on the branch, push off quickly so I’m flying backward as I twist my body to face the bird. The pigeon takes flight, but my hands are already outstretched and I snatch it from the air. I come down belly first on the branch and I dangle for a bit as the bird tries to peck and claw at my gloved hands.

  “Sorry, birdie,” I say, before I snap the bird’s neck and let myself drop from the tree branch.

  I could set the pigeon down and try for another, but I don’t want to. I call up to Daedric and he slides down to join me. I hand him the pigeon and he smiles.

  “It’s our lucky day,” I say. “We’re having squab for dinner, old chap.”

  “Bloody brilliant,” he replies. “Let me call ‘round for the driver. Jeeves? Oh, Jeeves?”


  I take one look at the I-just-smelled-curdled-milk expression on his face and burst into laughter.

  “I say. What is it you find so humorous, young lady?”

  I double over laughing and he offers me a hand to pull me up.

  “You do that accent much too well,” I manage to say.

  “I got an English aunt who visits every few years,” he replies. “We like to pull the mickey out of her.”

  I shake my head. “No, no, no… You really need to stop with that,” I say. “You don’t got an aunt, you have an aunt. And never, ever say pull the mickey. Got it?”

  Daedric laughs. “You guys talk funny out here.”

  “We talk funny?” I reply, as I start climbing the hill.

  My foot slips and I slide right into Daedric who falls on top of me.

  “Oops!” I say, still giddy from all the laughing.

  Daedric leans down and kisses my cheek.

  “Oops,” he says, before he kisses my lips.

  I don’t pull away because this time he doesn’t taste like charred meat. His lips are the flavor of peppermint leaves from the tea he made. So fresh.

  He pulls away first. “Big oops,” he says.

  “Let’s oops again,” I say, as I grab his shirt and pull him toward me.

  We arrive at camp a few minutes later and I swear everyone here can smell the peppermint on my lips. I lay the pigeon down next to Mary for her to clean it.

  “That’s it?” she says, holding the bird up by its feet.

  “I’ll get more later,” I say. At least, I hope I’ll get more.

  In the evening, we feast on squab with mint-almond pesto. It’s the best meal we’ve had in months and I almost forget that Isaac is sitting across the fire scowling at me.

  I scoot in next to Daedric for the second night and this time it’s too much for Isaac. He storms off and disappears on the other side of the hill.

  Daedric pulls the blanket over us. “He looks fit to burst.”

  “He’ll get over it,” I say, as I turn on my side so I’m facing away from Daedric.

  He scoots in closer to me, but he keeps his hands to himself. I lay sleepless for an eternity before I finally sit up.

  “Want me to help you look for him?” Daedric whispers.