by Martha Carr
“Why’s that?”
“The air right now is crisp in comparison.”
“Hey, does anyone have any water?” Amanda muttered. “I could use some water.”
“Yeah, you’re looking a little pale. Did you eat anything before your…adventures with caffeine?” Lisa asked.
The girl frowned at her. “No.”
“Does he usually not feed you breakfast?” The woman tilted her head and gave Johnny an exasperated glance over her shoulder.
“She didn’t wanna eat.” The dwarf grunted. “Said she was too tired.”
“Not very much thinking things through happening today,” she muttered and caught the water bottle he tossed at her. “By either of you. Here.”
“Thanks.” Amanda opened the lid and drank almost the entire bottle before she lowered it from her mouth with a sigh. “Maybe I’m not cut out for coffee.”
“Ha. Wise words, kid.” Lisa patted her shoulder gently and scanned the riverbank as they skimmed across the water at medium speed.
Johnny ran a hand over his hair. “Do you think you can pick yourself up to help us bag a beast, kid?”
“No problem.” The young shifter grinned at him and nodded. “I’m ready.”
“Good.” And I hopefully got us far enough away from those damn shifters. “Now, we ain’t lookin’ for no fifteen-footer today. ʼGator probably wouldn’t be a good choice anyway. What we want is somethin’ nice and juicy a draksa can’t say no to.”
“Or a hound,” Rex muttered.
“Yeah, what if we find something nice and juicy we can’t say no to?”
Johnny glanced at his dogs. “We flush it out, bag it, get it on the boat, and that’s it. Understand?”
“Yessir.”
“Wait, we’re bringing your draksa friend a live snack?” Lisa asked.
“It’s the best way to the scaley bastards’ hearts.” He steered them around a huge tangle of dead branches and reeds that had washed up against the bank. “And their expert advice. The draksa have a soft spot for fresh meat. Even softer if they don’t have to work for it.”
“I can’t believe I’m gonna see one up close,” Amanda muttered. “In real life.”
“Not until we bring it a present. So keep your eyes open and your noses up.”
“Except for the lady, Johnny.” Luther panted with unbridled excitement.
Rex sat to scratch vigorously behind his ear with his back leg. “I bet she can’t tell the difference between a rabbit and a rhino.”
Amanda laughed. “What?”
“I mean by smell.”
Lisa smirked. “How about I simply keep my eyes open?”
“What?” The girl frowned at her.
“You’re the one with the good nose, right?”
“See?” Rex snorted and shook his head when a large black fly landed on his ear. “Noses up doesn’t apply to your girlfriend, Johnny.”
The bounty hunter ignored his hound’s slip of the tongue. She’s not my girlfriend—if I ever had one. But things might get a little complicated if I don’t tell her about the collars.
They skimmed around another wide bend until the river started to narrow. With a grunt, he pulled back on the throttle and let the airboat coast downstream. “We’ll get off here.”
Both animals stood abruptly as the craft puttered toward the swampy bank.
“Land!”
“Game!”
“Hey, look. Mud crabs.”
They bounded off the deck and splashed through a few inches of swamp water before they scrambled onto dry land.
Lisa didn’t stand until the hull of the airboat bumped gently against the soggy earth. “So this is the spot, huh?”
“Not really.” Johnny stepped off after her and Amanda before he tied the rope around a thick tree trunk. “I can’t take the boat much farther downriver. Don’t wanna get stuck.”
“Please tell me that’s not something you generally do out here.”
“Naw. It ain’t.” He leaned over the edge of the airboat to retrieve the coil of rope hanging above the box and slung it over his shoulder. With that in place, he unlatched the black metal box, sifted through the compartments for a handful of rounds he wanted, and grasped the rifle he’d upgraded to handle anything and hopped onto the shore. His boots landed in the mud with a splat. “But this is as good a place as any to find somethin’ worth bringin’ home.”
At his shrill whistle, Rex and Luther darted without warning through the reeds to rejoin their master. “This is it, huh, Johnny?”
“Yeah, you gonna let us go on our own? Find somethin’ juicy?”
“Ignore the vermin, boys. It’s gotta be at least as big as one of y’all.” The dwarf pointed ahead through the thickening trees and underbrush. “I’m right behind you.”
They stared at each other.
“One…”
“Two…”
“Five! Go!” Luther darted off through the swamp, his tail sticking straight up in the air like a radar antenna and his snout pressed to the ground.
Rex snorted and sniffed in a wide arc away from his brother. “Who taught you to count?”
“Johnny did. I can count all the way to… Wait. How high, Johnny?”
The hounds moved through the trees and Johnny shook his head. He looked ahead occasionally as he loaded two glowing blue tranquilizer rounds into the chamber. I didn’t teach him how to count shit.
“So…” Lisa jerked her boot out of a particularly stubborn mudhole and stumbled forward. “Do you set traps out here?”
“Nope.”
“Do you have any particular kind of animal in mind?”
“Nope.”
She stopped and looked at him. “And this is what you do all day long when you’re not hunting flammable monsters.”
“Yep.” He smirked at her and hefted the rifle in both hands as he trudged after the dogs. “Nowhere and nothin’ better than this, darlin’.”
“Totally cool, right?” Amanda’s nose wrinkled when she grinned at Lisa and moved slowly after the dwarf.
“Uh-huh.” As she swatted a swarm of tiny humming insects away, Liza shook her head and followed.
“Woah.” Luther’s head whipped up out of the reeds and he snorted. “You get that?”
Rex paused. “It was here…what? Twenty minutes ago.”
“What is it?” Amanda leaned forward slightly and sniffed. “Did we find a pig?”
“Oh-ho-ho, buddy!” Luther yipped and raced through the underbrush with Rex on his heels. “I’m gonna rip it apart.”
“No, you ain’t!” the dwarf shouted. “We’re only baggin’ it, boys.”
“Johnny.” Amanda’s outstretched fingers wiggled at her sides. “I’ll listen this time. I can help.”
“Why d’ya think I brought you along?”
“Really?”
“Hurry or they’ll beat you to it.”
The girl wasted no time before she shifted, leapt out of her clothes, and uttered a chilling howl as she loped after the hounds.
Johnny broke into a jog after them and held the rifle close.
Lisa stared at them before she bent to collect the pile of Amanda’s clothes. She stacked the girl’s shoes on top, looked around, and found no sign of anyone—dwarf, girl, or hound. “Okay. I’ll…uh…stay right here.”
“Close, close, close.”
“So close, Johnny. Keep up.”
“Yeah, you don’t wanna miss all the—hey. Hey, pup! Slow down!”
Amanda darted through ferns and reeds and over old tree trunks covered in moss.
“Get along,” Johnny grumbled and hurried toward them. “Corner him.”
The dogs yipped again, raced forward, and skidded to the left when the scent changed direction. “Ha! Pup got too excited.”
“She’ll find us. Go! We’re so fucking close.”
“Hey, Luther. In there!”
Luther darted forward through a wall of ferns and Rex went wide to the other side. Johnny foll
owed the former and brushed aside the ferns with his rifle to emerge in a small, sunny clearing. The hound bayed and startled the massive wild boar into action. With a squeal, it charged and barreled at the hound without a moment’s hesitation.
Johnny held the rifle’s scope to his eye and aimed.
Rex leapt out of the bushes from the other side of the clearing and echoed his brother’s howl of triumph. “Gotcha now, you juicy—”
A gray streak burst through the reeds, and Amanda launched herself at the boar before Luther had a chance to respond. She snarled and pounded into the terrified animal. It squealed, snorted, and lost its footing, and its huge tusks gouged the earth as it slid to a halt. Immediately, it squirmed and regained its feet.
Johnny cocked his head. “Well, that’s one way to corner a hog.”
“Get it!” Rex shouted.
“I got it.” Luther leapt in front of their dazed quarry and snarled. “You’re not goin’ anywhere, porky.”
The animal charged again, this time away from Johnny.
“Come on, pup! Cut it off!”
Amanda darted in front of it and leapt at it again. They rolled across the ground in a scramble of wiry hair, tusks, gray fur, and snarling teeth.
“Nice one!” Luther raced toward them.
“Yeah, now pen it in.”
The hounds spaced themselves equally around their quarry, barked, and snapped their jaws. The young shifter closed in slowly with a low growl.
And that’s my cue.
Johnny released a long, slow breath and squeezed the trigger gently.
The rifle cracked and the cornered animal screamed.
“Nice shot, Johnny!” Luther bayed again.
“Nighty-night, little piggy.”
The boar thrashed its head and charged, its instincts to escape overriding the tranquilizer. It weaved and swerved, unable to move in a straight line.
“Yeah, I think one will do.” The bounty hunter sniffed and headed toward the clearing. “Good work, boys. Now we—”
Amanda attacked without warning and clamped her powerful jaws around the thick hide on the animal’s neck. It squealed and thrashed its head to flurry huge sprays of dirt and grass as it tried to throw the young wolf off its back.
“Amanda!” Johnny ran forward. “Goddammit. Cut it out. We got it.”
She snarled, lost her hold, and rolled before she scrambled to stand and try again.
“What the hell, pup?” Rex shouted.
“Yeah, weren’t you listening? He said don’t rip it apart!”
The hounds raced toward both the young wolf and boar as she attacked again. This time, it knew what was coming and charged. She yelped when one of its huge tusks collided with her rear leg and catapulted her away. Again, she bounded to feet and her jaws snapped and sprayed spittle everywhere as she snarled and targeted the wild pig’s throat.
Goddamn shifter instincts.
The dwarf raised the rifle again and aimed as his target turned toward him this time and attacked with an angry grunt.
Amanda raced after it, but Rex intercepted her and nipped at her face and neck with a firm snarl more in warning than in anger. “Hey, hey, hey. Chill, pup. You’re takin’ it too far.”
Johnny squeezed the trigger, and the second tranquilizer round struck the boar in the chest. It grunted, lowered its head for impact, then finally succumbed to the two heavy cocktails racing through its blood. An odd squeal issued from it as its front legs buckled and it fell, skidded forward and stopped two inches away from his boots.
He lowered his rifle, sniffed, and looked at the hounds who paced in front of Amanda to keep her away from his juicy bargaining chip. “How bad is it?”
“Little blood, Johnny.” Luther sniffed at her hind leg. “Okay, a lotta blood.”
The bounty hunter knelt beside the boar and shrugged the coiled rope off his shoulder to tie first the front hooves and then the back. “Can she walk?”
“Looks like it.”
“Can you walk, pup?”
Amanda responded with a low whine and limped forward past the dogs.
Rex’s upper lip twitched as he watched her. “Yeah, well, I only did that ʼcause you weren’t listening.”
When he’d finished trussing the unconscious animal, Johnny squatted and heaved it onto his shoulders, two tied limbs in each hand, and turned to head through the brush. “Let’s go.”
The young shifter trotted three feet behind him, her shimmering wolf’s eyes focused on the boar draped across his back as she licked her muzzle.
“Better watch her, Johnny.”
“Yeah, you should’ve fed her before we left.”
He passed through the next dangling curtain of moss to where Lisa stood among the trees exactly where they’d left her. “Enjoyin’ yourself?”
“Well, someone had to get her clothes.”
He squinted at her, then strode past through the foliage toward the airboat. “I think you simply don’t like huntin’.”
“I don’t have a problem with it.” She turned to study the huge head that dangled away from his back. “Except maybe hunting for something like that. Look at the size of those tusks.”
“Don’t wanna touch, ʼem, lady.”
“Yeah, take it from the pup.”
Lisa looked at the small gray wolf who slid past her and left a trail of blood splatter. “Amanda.”
The shifter stopped and tried to sit on her haunches, but the pain in her hind leg made her whine and stand again. In the next moment, she shifted into a naked twelve-year-old with leaves and twigs in her hair and a four-inch gash down her thigh. “You didn’t have to stand guard over my stuff. But thanks.”
She handed the clothes to the girl and stared at her in concern. Amanda dressed quickly and grimaced when she had to stand on her injured leg to push her other foot into her pants. “What happened?”
“Pup tried to rip its throat out, lady,” Luther called, although Agent Breyer only heard a sharp bark.
“Yeah, but Johnny put that piggy to sleep. Didn’t ya, Johnny?”
The dwarf ignored them and sloshed carefully down the bank toward the airboat with his rifle under one arm and the trussed boar over his shoulders.
“Come on, kid.” Lisa touched the girl’s arm gently. “You were hurt out there, I can see. What—”
“I’m fine.” The young shifter tugged her hair out from the back of her shirt collar and shrugged. “It’s no big deal.”
She limped barefoot after Johnny and the hounds and the leg of her jeans quickly darkened with a crimson stain.
The agent shook her head. “Well, you get points for toughing it out. I’ll give you that.”
The bounty hunter thumped the boar onto the deck as the girls caught up with him. He set his rifle down and went to untie the rope from around the tree.
“So no one’s gonna tell me what happened, huh?” Lisa grunted when her boot squelched into a deep mudhole and filled with dark slime and swamp water. “Oh, great.”
“Lady, I already told you—”
“She can’t hear you, numbnuts.” Rex leapt onto the airboat after his brother. “You get into those mushrooms down by Odie’s again? I keep telling you not to eat the mushrooms. They make you stupid.”
“Oh, yeah…” Luther sat and lifted a leg to nibble an itch on his inner thigh. “Wait, those are mushrooms?”
“Johnny…” Lisa grunted again and tried to pull her boot out of the mud. “If you’re not gonna tell me what happened—woah!”
Her foot popped free with a squelch but left her boot behind and she stumbled forward toward the edge of the boat. He clamped a hand around her wrist and pulled her up before her face could impact the hull.
She sighed and took his other hand for a boost onto the boat. “Thanks.”
“I told you those boots were no good.”
With a laugh, she folded her arms and raised an eyebrow. “Seriously, Johnny. I heard two gunshots and animal noises. Then Amanda follows you out of the
re seriously injured, and no one will tell me anything.”
“It’s not serious,” the girl muttered and lowered herself gingerly to the deck. Rex and Luther did the same on either side of her and didn’t say a word.
“Well?” Lisa cocked her head at Johnny, who stepped over the lightly snoring boar and turned on the airboat’s propeller engine before he took hold of the throttle.
He looked at her with a small smirk and sniffed. “It’s kinda hard to take you seriously when your feet don’t match.”
She glanced at one mud-globbed boot and one muddy sock in a puddle of swamp water. “You’re deflecting.”
“Damn straight I’m deflectin’.” He jerked the throttle control stick toward him to turn the fan before he kicked the propeller into a higher gear than he probably should have. The airboat lurched away from the shore and flung twigs and leaves into the thick swampy woods as they made a tight turn on the river.
The agent steadied herself against the fan mount but pulled away hastily when she looked into the whirring blades two feet away from her face. “And you’re pissed. I can tell that much at least.”
“I ain’t—” Johnny growled and rubbed his mouth vigorously as he glared upriver. “Kid, you have any idea what just happened?”
Amanda shrugged but didn’t turn to look at him. “We went hunting?”
“We went hunting for live game, fixin’ to keep it alive to haul on out to that draksa. No live game, no draksa chat. No chat, I can’t discover what the fuck the creature is that splattered me with goo yesterday and blew up a damn market. Ya hear?”
“The boar’s fine.”
“You can’t go lettin’ your instincts get in the way. I know it’s hard and I know you ain’t got—”
She whirled where she sat and startled the hounds. “You don’t know anything about being a shifter, Johnny. Don’t talk to me about that.”
His upper lip twitched and he cleared his throat. The kid’s gonna give me a hernia.
“And none of that even matters.” Amanda gestured sharply at the trussed boar. “We got it, didn’t we?”
“Yeah, but we almost didn’t. If you’re gonna be out here with me, you gotta listen, follow directions, and stick to the plan.”
They stared at each other, and Lisa raised her eyebrows. “Oh. The boar did that to you.”