by A L Fogerty
“I just thought…”
“That’s your problem, buddy. Just stop thinking, and it will all be all right.” Cedric lifted the flagon toward Felix’s mouth. The sharp scent of alcohol burned Felix's nose, making him recoil. “Suit yourself," Cedric said. "More for me.”
Cedric staggered away and fell back on his bed. The men beside him were playing an animated game of cards and telling crude jokes about the women in the bunk room next door.
“We go in there and lift their skirts,” a man Felix recognized as Harvey Mangle said. He chuckled. “If we get in fast, they’ll never notice.”
Felix’s jaw dropped. He might be naive about such things, but he was well aware of what the man was speaking about. It would be impossible to rape a woman without her noticing, never mind the egregious ethical issues. Similar conversations were happening throughout the room. He wanted to ask how a man could consider doing such a thing and to a woman of his own pack no less. But he chose to stay silent. It was pointless to speak out.
Felix lay back on his bed. His pack mates had fallen so far. Closing his eyes, he wondered where Riddick, his only living brother, had gone. He hoped he was faring better than Felix was. It wouldn’t be difficult to be in a better situation, unless Riddick had been caught by zombies and eaten.
He imagined Riddick dodging zombies and skeletons on the other side of the shields. He was quick-witted and fast. If anyone could survive alone in the world, it would be Riddick. As the drunken jokes and aggressive shouting filled the tight room, Felix closed his eyes and tried to sleep. His body felt beaten, his mind felt dim, and he knew that the next day, he would have to do it all over again.
Chapter 21
Sid plowed down the desert highway in his stolen car. Music played on the radio, filling the silence that had settled between him and Gloria.
“We should try to open a portal back to the jungle.”
“I’ve told you a thousand times, Sid, I don’t trust my portals to work. We’re just as likely to end up in some far-flung location, unable to ever get back here.”
“We should at least try.”
“They’ve probably made it into hell by now. We’re more likely to find them here than back in the jungle.”
He sighed, lightly gripping the steering wheel. His heart ached for Kayla. The mission had gone so badly from the moment they stepped out of the witches’ compound. It almost felt as if it was cursed. He had to get back to Kayla, help her find her child, and take her home. Any option other than that simply didn’t make sense. But Gloria had said her piece, and he had to agree with her too.
“How will we find them in this place?” he said as much to himself as to Gloria.
The flat desert stretched out before him in all directions, dull yellow and nondescript. The heat of the sun beamed down from above, and they watched the empty landscape fly by through the windows.
“I don’t know. But Malik will come up with something when he’s sure his magic is working again. He has a lot more tricks than I do. Maybe he can send us a signal of some kind. Then I would have a location to lock onto. It would give us a much better shot than just traveling blindly.”
“Okay,” Sid said, not happy to wait for the chaos mage. He wanted to take action to find his mate. Every moment they were apart was like torture. The fact that he couldn’t sense her through their mate bond was like a gaping hole in his heart. He felt her absence the way an amputee feels a missing limb. It was so strange. She should have been right at his side.
“Don’t worry," Gloria said. "We’ll find her.”
Sid sat silently at the wheel, driving through the endless desert. He was growing hungry and wished he hadn’t left his backpack and hammer in Border Town. All his survival gear was gone, including his rations and water. They’d have to make it through hell with nothing but their wits and each other.
He didn’t know Gloria all that well, but she'd helped a great deal in the battle with Veronica, and her courage was obvious. Sid appreciated her cool head. Usually, he would have been the patient one, but not when it came to getting back to Kayla.
Being mated had changed him. He would move heaven and earth to find Kayla and make sure she had all she wanted. Everything else be damned. He gritted his teeth, feeling the aching hole deep in his chest. The car started to sputter under him and slowed to a crawl until he had to pull off the road.
“What’s wrong?” Gloria asked. “Are we out of gas?”
“Gas?”
“Yes, gasoline. That’s how these things are powered,” she said with a smirk, leaning over to peer at the dashboard. “The tank is empty.”
“How do we fill it?”
“In Dark Haven, we went to gas stations. The last one I saw was back in Border Town.”
“I haven’t seen any street signs this entire time,” Sid said.
“Neither have I.”
“I don’t think hell operates the same way the surface does, or we would have seen some sign of life by now.”
“We’re going to have to walk,” Gloria said.
“But it’s so hot, and we don’t have any water.”
“What other choice do we have?” Sighing, Gloria opened the door and stepped out into the hot afternoon sun. She slammed the door closed and squinted into the distance. Sid exited the car and stood in front of it, inspecting their surroundings.
“It all looks the same,” she said.
“Feel confident about opening a portal yet?”
“Not any more than the last hundred times you asked.”
“Okay. I guess we'll walk. But where?”
“We either go back, or we keep going,” she said, moving out onto the open highway.
Sid nodded, following Gloria onto the road, and they set off on their trek. After what felt like a hundred miles of heat and thirst, they spotted a road sign in the distance. Sid shuffled toward it, his lips parched and his mind a blank haze.
“It says Mirage City is just twenty miles from here,” he called back to Gloria.
“Twenty miles…” She walked up beside him, her dark cheeks red from the sun.
Sid wasn’t faring any better. His skin was burning after their journey through the desert. “The sun will go down soon,” he said, squinting into the red blur of sunlight in the west.
“Then what?”
“We can find a place to sleep, or we can keep walking. It will be easier once it gets dark.”
“I’m so thirsty,” Gloria said.
“Got a water spell up your sleeve?”
“I wish I did. But water isn’t quite as easy to conjure as fire. It requires a cloud or a water source nearby. Fire only requires a small bit of flammable material.”
“We should just keep walking. There’s no telling what is out in this desert at night. We don’t want to be caught off guard.” Sid had left his hammer back in his hotel room and felt naked without it. He wouldn’t be able to defend himself or Gloria without a weapon. Bare fists would make a poor match for the fangs of a predator at night on its own turf.
“All right. I just hope we don’t get arrested once we get there.”
“Maybe if we do," Sid said, "you’ll decide to use your portal again.”
She grunted and passed him, limping from a blister on her heel. They walked on through the twilight. Gloria lit a witch fire when the light of the sun had fully faded, and they marched through the desert as the cold descended and gripped them with its frigid claws.
The sliver of a crescent moon rose high into the sky. Gloria hugged herself with one arm and held her witch fire with the other until she grew too cold to keep it up and had to hug herself with both arms.
“I don’t think I can keep going, Sid,” she whimpered. “I have to rest.”
“Let’s sit down,” he said, looking around at the barren landscape. “I thought we would see some sign of civilization by now.”
“The rules in hell aren’t the same as they are above,” she murmured.
They wandered off the r
oad and sat in the cool dry sand and scrub brush. Gloria was shivering horribly, so Sid drew her close. The little witch wasn’t faring well. He wasn’t doing much better, but he pulled his leather vest off his back and wrapped it around her.
“Thank you,” she chattered, resting against his shoulder.
A moment later, she was sleeping, her breathing soft and even. He planned to rouse her, but the next thing he was aware of was the sound of a motor and a silver thread of daylight streaming across the sky. The motor rumbled to a stop behind him, and he turned his head to see what it was. A large white van sat in the road, vibrating like a crouching lion.
“Gloria,” he whispered, shaking her gently. “We have company.”
She gasped awake, blinking rapidly. “What? Who?”
An older white-haired man in baggy shorts stood in the doorway of the RV. “Howdy, folks. You in need of assistance?”
“We are,” Gloria said, standing on wobbly legs.
“How’d y’all get out here?”
“Our car broke down. We had no choice but to walk.” Gloria approached the man.
Sid hung back, not sure of the situation. “Where are you headed?” he asked, shielding his eyes from the growing daylight.
“We’re on our way to Mirage City. We’d be happy to give you a lift.”
“You are a life saver.” Gloria started to move toward the man, but Sid caught her arm, and she added, “I just need to speak with my companion.”
“I’m not sure it’s safe,” Sid said to her.
“I’d rather take my chances with them than spend another day out on the road.”
“It can’t be that much farther.”
“I can barely walk, Sid. My feet are bleeding, and I don’t know what I’ll do if I don’t get water.”
“Okay. But these people can turn on us like Tiffany did back at the restaurant.”
“Just try not to lead them on, and we should be fine,” she said, turning away with a wink.
Sid gritted his teeth and rolled his eyes as he followed her into the bus. The older man moved aside for Gloria and Sid to pass. They stepped onto the bus and took in their surroundings.
A woman about the same age as the man sat at a table, playing a card game and drinking from a glass full of ice cubes. “Would y’all like some sweet tea?”
“Oh, yes, please.” Gloria rushed over and sat down beside her.
The woman poured her a glass. “I’m Marla, by the way. This is Stan. We’re the Perkinses from South Carolina. We’ve been on the road since we retired five years ago. I have to admit, this isn’t the first time we’ve picked up hitchhikers.”
“They weren’t hitchhiking, Marla. They were stranded.” Stan sat down across from her and picked up his cards.
Sid held back, taking in the scene. After what had happened in Border Town, he was reluctant to trust anyone in this place. But Stan and Marla seemed nice enough, and the tea looked like heaven.
“Well, have a seat, big man. What are the two of you called, anyway?”
“Oh, I’m so sorry. How rude of me,” Gloria said after chugging down her entire glass of tea and pouring another. “This is Sid Blackfang, and I’m Gloria Amos.”
“Well, it’s nice to meet you,” Marla said.
“We should get back on the road if we want to make it to Mirage City for lunch,” Stan said, standing from the table. “You keep our guests company, Marla. I'll do the driving.”
Stan hurried to the front seat of his bus and turned the engine. The bus rumbled to life, and they started off down the road. A cool gust blew through the air, and Sid took a deep breath, sitting back to relax against the soft chair.
“We should be in Mirage City in a few hours,” Stan called from the front seat.
“How did you two get out there, anyway?” Marla asked.
“Our car broke down, and we couldn’t get a ride back,” Gloria explained, starting in on her third glass of tea.
“That’s terrible. This highway used to be more heavily traveled. But nowadays, everyone is moving out of the area.”
“How so?” Sid asked, remembering what Felix had told him about hell.
“This part of the country has become less popular. Everyone wants to be in the big cities on the coast, closer to the action.”
“How do you get to the coast?” Sid asked.
“You’ve got to go back in the other direction,” Stan said from the front of the bus. “Don’t you know where you are?”
“We’re just confused from the sun,” Gloria cut in.
“We should be in the city soon, and we can get out and stretch our legs. There’s a big mall where we can walk around and get some food and something cold to drink.”
“I’m afraid we left our money in the car,” Gloria said. “We won’t be able to afford anything.”
Marla gave Stan a sharp look and met his eyes in the rearview mirror. “We’ll be happy to buy you lunch before we part ways,” she said in a hard voice.
“That is so kind of you,” Gloria said. “We can call our family once we get to town. They can send us the funds we need to get everything sorted out.”
“Great,” Stan said.
Tense silence hung over the bus the rest of the way to Mirage City.
Sid pulled Gloria aside. “We need to lose these people the minute the bus stops,” he whispered.
“I shouldn't have told them we didn’t have money.”
“The people here can turn on you in a heartbeat. I learned that lesson back in Border Town.”
They sat back at the table, the iced-tea pitcher empty between them. Marla was no longer smiling with happy conversation and had not made a move to refill the pitcher. Sid had the distinct feeling that he and Gloria were no longer welcome.
Chapter 22
Felix woke, his body a mass of pain. He was barely able to sit up in bed. His eyes hurt from the harsh sun of the day before. His lips and tongue were parched. Groaning, he pulled himself from the bed and stumbled toward the door. He was the first among the workers in the bunk room to awaken.
He needed to find some willow bark for the pain. His legs would hardly work. Dragging his feet across the floor, he made it out into the hall. The dim light of predawn seeped through a small window.
Moving on heavy feet, he turned into the kitchen, his head throbbing from the effort. He moved to the cupboards and opened one after the next, looking for a tincture for the pain.
“And what do you think you’re doing?” said a sharp male voice.
Felix turned to find the cook standing in the doorway with his arms crossed and a scowl on his face.
“You know the kitchen is closed to you lot unless it’s mealtime.”
“I need something for the pain.” His voice was so dry it was barely audible.
“You need something for the pain? That’s rich.”
“Is there a shaman? A healer?”
“Alpha Irontooth got rid of them. Doesn’t believe in their witchcraft.”
“No healers?” Felix was stunned. “What about the souls of the dead?”
“We bury them far away from the village. Irontooth believes in letting nature take its course. The circle of life and all that. It’s not my place to say if I agree with him, but that’s how it is. I don’t know how things went in Mist Valley, but guests here aren’t welcome to raid the kitchen. Get out before I call the foreman to whip you.”
“I’ll go,” Felix said, moving past him on aching legs.
“You’d think you’d be used to it by now,” he scoffed.
In the hallway, he leaned against a wall and slid down to the floor. He couldn’t go back to his room. There was no help in the kitchen and no healer in the entire village. He drew his knees close to his chest and covered his eyes with his palms.
The memory of how he’d gotten here swirled in his mind. He didn’t want to remember. He didn’t want to have to carry the burden of the truth. Jagger had been the first to die. Then Sid. And Quinn.
The
pain of remembering sliced him like a dagger to the heart. Tears welled in his eyes, and he held his palms against his face. He thought of Jagger’s dead face marred with dirt in the sparring ring as Irontooth stood over him, sword dripping with the lifeblood of Felix's brother. He remembered Sid running into the ring, hammer held aloft, too slow to defeat Irontooth and whoever was helping him.
Quinn's death had to be the hardest. When they returned to Mist Valley and found most of their pack gone, he’d taken sick. The burned village was haunted by the ghosts of its dead, and Quinn’s goddess had abandoned him. Felix tried to help him, but Quinn just got sicker. Finally, he passed in the night as the rain beat down on the forest outside their cave.
When Quinn left this world, Riddick couldn’t take it anymore, and he ran off as soon as the riders from Smoke Mountain appeared in the village. Riddick hated Irontooth as much as Felix did, but he’d left without him, shifting and running on an impulse with no regret. At least, that was what Felix told himself when the bitter memories haunted him at night. Riddick had betrayed him at his lowest point, showing once and for all that he was a selfish rogue with no loyalty or love for his family.
The tears came in earnest now, and Felix did his best to hold back the sobs. He’d been drinking almost nonstop since arriving in Smoke Mountain. It was the only thing that dulled the pain. The need for drink twisted in his stomach, and he almost got up to take a sip. Maybe it would dull the ache in his legs and back.
But it didn’t matter. His life was cursed. He’d lost everything he’d ever cared about. He was trapped in this hellhole with no one to talk to and no books to read. His mind was growing duller by the day, and his body was falling apart. If something didn’t change soon, Riddick would be the last of the Blackfangs, and that cad would be the only one to carry on the legacy of their name.
Chapter 23
Kayla sat on her throne, her face a mask, her heart empty. The delegation from Tanglewood Village walked into the pack lodge, carrying gifts and offerings that they set at her feet. Aaron Windspear bowed with the rest. Kayla nodded at them all in turn.