Page 4 of Ash Fall

Her voice breaks on my name, and then she's moving. I catch her and lift her straight off her feet as her arms lock around my neck. My face goes into her cinnamon-red hair, and for a few seconds I do nothing except hold her and breathe. She's warm, she's alive, and she's in my arms. That's all I need right now.

When I finally make myself pull back, I check her properly. Her skin is pale, and there are dark circles under her eyes from too little sleep, but I don't see blood or anything that tells me she's hurt. She's here and she’s whole.

I press my forehead to hers. "Are you okay?"

She says my name again, and that broken sound nearly takes my legs out from under me.

"God, sweetheart. I'm so sorry it took me so long to get back to you."

"It doesn't matter." Her hands tung on my hair. "You're here now."

Torrin's hand closes around my shoulder and squeezes once. That's enough from him to know exactly what he's saying.

I reluctantly set Luna back on her feet, keeping my palm against her arm until I can slide my fingers through hers. I'm not ready to let go of her yet. I might not be for a while.

"We need to get out of here," I tell them. "Those soldiers are going to come looking for their friend any minute. They had to hear my rifle shot."

Mars gets back to his feet, rubbing his jaw. "That was you? You shot through the window? Jesus, Gage! You could've hit one of us!"

I ignore him, mostly because he's right and I'm not in the mood to discuss that. I keep Luna's hand in mine and lead her toward the stairs. Torrin follows, then Mars.

On the main floor, Penny finally abandons her food bowl when she sees Luna. She charges across the room whining, tail going so hard her entire back-end swings with it. Luna drops to her knees. "There's my girl! Oh my God, Penny. You're such a good girl. Such a brave girl."

Penny attacks her face with kisses while Luna laughs and tries to hold her still. I stand there and watch them longer than I should because for the last week, every decision I've made has been about getting here. Finding Luna. Finding the guys. Making sure the people I love are still alive. Hearing her talk to Penny in that soft voice makes everything I went through to get back here worth it.

I force myself to look away and see that Torrin is checking the dead soldier's rifle, working the weapon over with steady hands.

"Good thinking," I tell him. "We'll need every weapon we can get our hands on if we're going to rescue the others."

His head snaps up. "The others? What do you mean?"

Luna looks over from where she's still kneeling beside Penny. I don't want to put more fear on her face, but she needs to know.

"There was a roadblock on the highway coming into town. Soldiers were pulling people out of their cars and forcing them onto buses at gunpoint."

Torrin's expression hardens.

"I got off the road before they saw me, then followed one of the buses across town. They took everyone to a warehouse surrounded by chain link fences with barbed wire. There’s guards at the gate and soldiers all over the place."

Luna slowly stands.

"I saw Reid in the fenced yard out back," I continue. "If Reid's there, Jules probably is too. Those two don't get more than fifty feet apart."

Her hand finds mine again.

"You saw Reid? He's here?"

"Yeah, sweetheart. I saw him."

Her eyes immediately fill, but she blinks it back.

"Gigi might be there too. She went out yesterday to get more gas and never came home."

"Fuck."

The word is out before I can stop it, but there isn't much point pretending this situation deserves anything softer. I nod and start working through what we know.

"Okay. We get clear of the house first. Then we figure out how to get them out."