Moon - New Moon Part 54

He shook his head. "I can't leave you here. Falcone could find you. I'm not going to let him hurt you again."

The pain threatened to rob her of breath. But she knew she had to keep her focus on the man and the message. "You must leave here. You must find help."

"What about... ?" He stopped, looking confused, as though he'd lost his train of thought. "Falcone," he finally said, dredging up the name.

She understood what had happened. He had been trying to string a set of steps together in his mind, and she had prevented him from following his own logic.

It felt like hot needles were digging into her brain cells. To steady herself and also strengthen the contact with him, she found his hand and knit her fingers with his. There was more to do if she was going to succeed. And she could feel time slipping through her fingers.

"Rinna? What are you doing? What's wrong?"

The pain in her head had almost blinded her, but she raised her face toward his.

"Everything's going to work out," she managed to say, praying that she was right as she kept up the pressure inside herself, directing her thoughts toward Logan, forcing him to follow a different logic path from the one he had chosen on his own.

"Is there someone who can help us?" she asked, managing to keep the question from coming out as a moan.

To her relief, he answered immediately. "My brothers. And my cousin."

"Good. Which one is closer?"

"My brother, Lance."

"Then go to him. Quickly. Get help." She could barely speak around the knives stabbing inside her skull, but she forced herself to keep talking. "Tell Lance what happened."

He took a step back, then stopped, looking uncertain. "What about you?"

Somehow she managed to say the biggest lie of all. "I'll be fine until you get back. Get dressed. Go. Before it's too late."

When he hesitated, she closed the s.p.a.ce between them and clasped her arms around him, drawing him to her, pressing her body to his even as she summoned up one final burst of energy directed at his mind.

"I have to hurry," he said, pus.h.i.+ng away from her.

"Yes. Hurry."

She sent him one more jolt of mental energy, reinforcing the message, making sure that if he tried to turn aside from his mission, his mind would go back to her and the instructions she had given him.

"Go now."

He turned and rushed into the house, and she swayed on unsteady legs. They lost the ability to hold her up, and she collapsed into a pile of leaves, lying there panting, trying to regain her strength.

She allowed herself a few moments to lie with her eyes closed. But she knew she couldn't stay there for long. Logan would come out of the house. And if he thought she was in trouble, he would go to her. Then she'd have to start implanting the message all over again, and she didn't think she had the strength.

So she forced herself up, forced one foot in front of the other as she crossed the lawn toward the house.

Logan burst through the front door, his eyes wild. He was dressed in a T-s.h.i.+rt and jeans, but he had forgotten to put on his shoes.

She hoped that didn't matter.

"Rinna! What the h.e.l.l am I thinking? You have to come with me."

"I'll be here, turning the house into a fortress," she said.

"How can you do that?"

"You'll see when you come back. Now hurry."

He looked torn, and she summoned all the mental energy she had left to give him one final push.

To her vast relief, he ran to his car, started the engine and roared out of the driveway.

Praying that the suggestion would last long enough to keep him out of danger, she watched him disappear.

Logan. Her love. Her mate.

And maybe the only way she could save him was to sacrifice herself.

She sat down on the edge of the porch and rested for a few more moments, gathering her remaining strength the way she might gather spools of thread that had fallen out of a sewing basket and scattered across the floor.

Her head still throbbed, and she struggled to clear it because she had to be sharp when she met Falcone. If she was going to get away from him, she would have to do and say the right things.

When she felt a little better, she stood, then took a moment to steady herself on her feet before making the change from woman to bird again.

LOGAN drove south, toward Lance's house. Like his own, it was in a wooded area, next to a state park where a werewolf could roam when the need to hunt took him.

His brain felt foggy. He was going to Lance's house. To ask for help. But he should be back with Rinna protecting his mate.

He pulled to the side of the road, cut the engine, and rested his head on the steering wheel, trying to clear the muzzy feeling from his mind. Why was he leaving Rinna?

He tried to puzzle it out. But he couldn't force the act of leaving to make sense in his mind.

He should turn around and go home. That thought tried to worm its way to the front of his mind.

He reached to start the engine. But the touch of soft fingers on his hand stopped him.

"Rinna?"

"Yes."

He had thought he was alone. But Rinna was beside him in the pa.s.senger seat, whispering softly to him, telling him that he must go to Lance's house.

He turned his head toward her, puzzled, trying to see where she sat.

"Where are you?"

"Right here."

"Didn't I leave you home?" he asked, hearing the confusion in his own voice.