So many of the unique experiences I’d encountered during my flings came flooding back, but I imagined Evie in the place of the random girls I’d been with. A groan of desire mingled with heartbreak escaped from me.
I was fully engrossed in a number of different fantasies when a low, graveled growl nearby reverberated through the forest. My eyes snapped open, and all images of Evie were flushed instantly from my mind. The sound wasn’t an entirely natural one. It hadn’t come from an animal, of that much I was certain. Strengthening the nerves that the memories of Evie had frayed, I fell straight into survival mode.
My gaze traveled around the forest, assessing every area with the tiniest glance and trying to find anything that was outside of the ordinary. A too-fast flash of gray between the trees stilled my heart before sending it pounding straight into my throat.
Although I couldn’t see any details of the creature because of its rapid movement, I could fill in the blanks from memory. The face of a wendigo was enough to give most people nightmares, but for me it was nothing more than a mask of evil—something that marked it as a monster that deserved death. It was what distinguished it from the creatures like Evie.
Because a wendigo was impossibly fast and inhumanely strong, I had no chance of fighting the thing off alone. Worse, I had nothing on me that I could use to destroy the beast. Even my usually ever-present gun was back at the motel so that I could go on a proper run and not have to worry about the holster rubbing and chafing. Not that it would have mattered much fighting against a wendigo—the only thing a bullet would do to such a creature was piss it off.
Trying to keep track of the rapid movements of the rail-thin beast that was circling around me, I reached my hand into my pocket and slipped out my cell. Lifting it slowly, I pressed the call button, knowing it would redial the last person I’d spoken to. Because the only people I called with that particular cell were my family, I knew I’d have one of them on the line in almost no time. Whether it would be in time for me, given the fact that they weren’t even in Canada yet, would remain to be seen. There was still a whole day before Dad’s deadline. I could only hope that at least one of them had decided to come early like I had.
Despite foolishly wandering into the hunting ground of a wendigo—possibly even the one that had evaded capture for so long that we’d been sent to investigate—without the required weapons, I wasn’t a complete idiot. The members of my family were the only ones that I could trust to get me out alive, and they would if there was any possibility to do so. Even if they arrived too late for me, by calling them I would at least give them a good idea of the hunting ground of the creature.
Once more I wondered about the possible reasons for the creature hunting in the winter. It was likely that the beast had simply ravished its supply of live humans for winter quicker than it anticipated. Possibly it didn’t create a store for some reason.
Either way it most likely meant that the thing was hungry—or at least, hungrier than usual given that they were renowned for being insatiable. If the beast was seeking an immediate meal rather than prey for storage, the situation was immensely more dangerous for me. There was little I could do about it either way, the end result was the same—it needed to be destroyed.
“What now?” Lou’s voice came down the line.
Fuck! I cursed inwardly as I recalled that her number was the last I’d dialled. Not wanting to risk drawing the wendigo’s attention if I hadn’t already garnered its interest, I didn’t reply.
“Clay?” she asked with a voice ringing with concern.
Just as I would have if the situation had been reversed, she had to know that there was only one reason I wouldn’t have responded to her quip in some way—even if it was just to tell her to fuck off. The lack of a response was a clear sign I was in danger. She bit out a few choice cuss words before fumbling with the phone, no doubt to place it between her head and her shoulder to free up both her hands.
I heard the sound of her fingers tapping against a keyboard at a rapid pace.
“You stupid ass, you went up there alone,” she hissed after a moment. She must’ve tracked my signal.
The sound of her cell hitting the desk as she raced away from it echoed in my ear. She left the call open—no doubt so that the trace would remain active in case I was dragged away to another location.
Knowing I’d done all I could do to warn my family where I was and that they would arrive as quickly as they could, I locked my cell phone screen and slipped it into the pocket on the front of my hoodie. I ran through my options for evading the hunting wendigo.
I wasn’t certain whether it had spotted me or not, but either way, my scent would draw it before long, especially since I could feel the remnants of sweat from my run cooling rapidly against my skin in the frozen winter air. My rapid heartbeat was sure to be another dead giveaway.
Sticking close to the trees, I picked my way back toward the road. By the time I’d taken three steps, I’d lost track of the monster. Another flash of gray moved ahead of me, and I stilled. A few yards in front of me, the creature stopped and then stood to its full height.
From my position, every inch of ashen flesh was clear. The creature’s skin stretched too thin around thickened bones. A little over seven foot, the emaciated frame of the beast appeared to tower higher than that—so high in fact that it didn’t seem possible for it to be able to remain upright with so little bulk to hold it together.
It was an illusion of course, because fine, wire-like, banded muscles twitched and rippled as the creature moved. It shifted forward and sniffed at the air before turning to look right at me. Eyes void of all life and sunken too far into their sockets stared in my direction. For a moment, I could have sworn the damn thing smiled—if that was actually possible with its decayed lips and twin rows of dilapidated teeth.
Without letting the creature out of my sight, I retreated with creeping steps, only stopping when my back smacked against a tree that blocked my path. With a deliberate slowness, like a cat playing with a mouse before going for the kill, the wendigo stepped closer to me. In that moment, I wished I’d brought something that could create fire—the wendigo’s one weakness.
The thought brought Evie back into my mind. If she’d been there with me she could have given us both a decent fighting chance against the foul thing. I brushed my hands over my face as I began to accept the fact that I was going to die. Only I didn’t want to die without seeing Evie one more time. I wanted to live, but I had no weapons, no hope of outrunning the monster, and no way to escape.
If I was indeed a goner, there was no reason not to say goodbye to my family. I reached into the pocket on the front of my hoodie to retrieve my cell, but my hand brushed against something else instead. Something small and plastic.
A lighter.
The last time I’d worn the hoodie was when Eth and I had gone camping. The lighter must have been left in there since then. I gripped it between my fingers and felt real hope for the first time since the growl had pulled me from my thoughts.
The lighter would’ve been through the wash, and there was no guarantee that it would have survived the treatment.
All I had was hope it would still work.
A working lighter in my hands was as good as a gun—if not better considering what I was up against. The beast was right in front of me when I whipped my hand out of my pocket and flicked the lighter. It sparked and . . . nothing.
Fuck.
I flicked the lighter again. Once more, it sparked but there was still no flame. The hope I’d started to believe in faded away. A giant arm, tipped with sharpened claws, reached for me, and I ducked out of the way at the last second, dropping the lighter as I tried to flick it a third time.
Twisting to avoid another super-fast attack from the wendigo, I leaped toward the ground where the lighter had fallen, clutching at a branch on a tree for support. My other hand fumbled in the snow-covered bracken for the lighter. Once I had it between my fingers, I flicked it o
nce more. Mercifully, a tiny flame burst from the end.
I rolled over onto my back, holding the small flame in front of me like a beacon and then pressed the end of the branch against it. The wood sparked and spat as the fire initially refused to take.
The wendigo backed away from the flame, and I could see it assessing other ways to attack. Pulling myself to my feet carefully, brandishing the burning branch like a weapon, I tried to shift the wendigo away from me. In response, the wendigo moved to one side and lunged forward, no doubt to force me farther from the road. When it was closest to me, I stabbed at it with the flame-covered stick. Knowing I didn’t have long before the wendigo realized that the fire wasn’t quite sufficient enough to cause lasting damage, I moved toward the road as quickly as I could.
The creature hissed and spat, before pulling itself up to its full height and releasing a growl. Its foul breath washed over me, reeking of death and decay. I stepped closer to the freeway, closer to freedom, and then the creature disappeared. I followed the flash of gray as best I could, before it became impossible to trace the blurred figure. I spun on the spot, trying to find it again. The little flame I was holding sparked and smoked as it consumed the branch and moved closer to my fingers.
When I thought I spotted the wendigo heading away from me, I made a break for the road. I ran as quickly as I could, knowing that if I escaped, I’d be back within a day or two, properly equipped and ready to kill the fucker. The speed of the wind rushing past the branch snuffed the fire, and I was once again defenseless.
I threw the stick away, hoping the sound and scent would distract the wendigo long enough for me to break free.
Using every bit of speed I could muster, I ran toward the freeway.
Before I could take another step, the monster was in front of me again, roaring at me and sending another wave of foul-smelling breath over me. I lifted the lighter and simultaneously flicked the switch with my thumb to light it as I sidestepped the creature. It seemed to anticipate my movement though and shifted in time with me, reaching out a clawed hand and striking my arm, forcing me to drop the one weapon I had. I ducked under the next blow, but the third struck my side, tearing through the hoodie and into my skin. The claws continued into the pocket, tearing it in two and sending my cell phone falling to the ground.
Ducking to grab the cell, I held my finger on the panic button shortcut on the home screen as I rolled away from the wendigo’s next strike. As the app came to life, the loudest, most ear-splitting noise imaginable blared from the speaker. It wasn’t a permanent fix, but it had the effect I’d hoped it would on the sensitive hearing of the wendigo.
The beast shrank away from the sound, and I used the split-second advantage I’d gained to race the rest of the way to the freeway. Knowing that even the presence of other people wouldn’t keep me completely safe, I leaped in front of the first car that passed and climbed inside the instant they pulled up.
The moment I arrived back in the motel, I called Eth’s mobile.
“Fucking hell, man, how are you still alive?” he asked before even saying hello.
“You know me,” I tried to quip, but the fear over just how close I’d come to dying alone in the Canadian wilderness still rang in my voice and made the jibe fall flat. “I’m just lucky.”
“When Lou called around to let us know you were up in Canada and that she thought you were hunting the wendigo alone, we all thought you were a goner for sure.”
I rolled my eyes even though he couldn’t see me. Their doubt pushed away the remnants of the fear. “Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence. I’d be perfectly capable of handling a wendigo on my own you know.”
“Well you haven’t exactly been bringing your A game lately. The fact that you’re up there right now with no back-up just proves it.”
“First, I didn’t come here early to hunt the wendigo. I came to do some research, but I needed to burn off some steam first.” While I spoke to him, I made a makeshift bandage out of an old shirt. The wound on my side was large but not deep. It probably needed stitches, but I could deal with that once I was back in the States.
“So you went to hunt the wendigo to blow off some steam?”
“No, I went for a run to blow off steam.” I rubbed the right side of my temple. This talk with Eth was becoming as tedious as some of the conversations I’d endured with Lou. “I must have just stumbled across its hunting ground.”
“Sure,” he said with a sarcastic edge. He was skeptical whenever Lou or I located a monster before him, refusing to believe us when we said we just felt an unexplained pull in that direction.
“When are you guys coming?” I asked. “We’ll have to deal with this thing sooner rather than later, I think it’s got my scent now.”
He sighed and muttered something under his breath that could have been, “Of course it does.”
“I’m on my way to the airport now,” he said audibly. “Dad and Lou are already there, we’re all flying in together.” Something like, “Like we should have in the first place,” followed in a mumble and then, louder, he said, “We’ll be there in a few hours. Just hang tight ’til then.”
I grabbed their flight details and jotted them down on a motel branded notepad. In return, I gave him the name of the motel I’d booked into and my room number.
After I’d hung up, my exhaustion sank in. I was tired all the time, and I knew why. I was tired of fighting against what I felt for Evie, of fighting with myself to believe that what we did was always the right thing, and of fighting my family to get even a smidgeon of the respect I deserved despite what they thought of me. There were too many pieces inside of me battling for control, and I’d never find peace until one of them was able to win.
But which one would?
Sick of it all, I leaned backward with a sigh, falling heavily onto the bed.
CHAPTER TWENTY
AT SOME POINT, I must have fallen asleep.
Once more, Evie haunted my dreams.
We were in the snow-covered forest, the evergreens stretching as high as the eye could see. Evie stalked toward me, her body surrounded by fire that melted the snow around her feet.
“What are you doing, Clay?” The secretive smile she wore so often played on her lips again. “Why did you come back after you’d betrayed me?”
Just like I always seemed to be when I dreamed of her, I was helpless—stuck and unable to move or speak a word in my own defense.
“You told your family I’m a monster,” she accused. Her voice fell flat, almost lifeless. “You told them you didn’t love me.”
The sound of her voice drew the attention of a monster lurking nearby.
“You wouldn’t believe the things I’ve seen since you left,” she taunted, stalking closer to me. Flames danced in her palm and circled around her—the fire under her dominion. “The things I’ve done.”
My voice was silenced, so I couldn’t warn her about the wendigo sneaking up behind her. Despite the snarls and growls that issued from it, Evie’s entire focus was on me.
“The things I’ve had to do to get by without you, Clay. I’ve become a monster.”
My mind tugged at my limbs, trying to wrestle any of them under control enough to do something to stop the wendigo that closed the distance inch by horrifying inch as Evie hurled her hate-filled words at me.
“While you’ve been off screwing other women, I’ve become the very thing you were afraid of.”
The wendigo leaped for her.
Evie’s name tore from me as I woke with shaking hands and a racing heart.
Before I had time to examine the dream, blinding agony shot from my Achilles straight up my calves before claiming my knees as a plaything. Every individual muscle fiber of my thighs was being plucked and played like strings on a guitar by an invisible specter.
Rubbing my legs to stave away the pain, I berated myself for not stretching enough before succumbing to sleep. Although it had never happened before, my run had obviously tightened my m
uscles into knots. The pain in my legs was so bad, it completely distracted me from the ache of the open, weeping wound in my side until I moved and felt the edges of the slice tug apart.
I stood and paced around the room a few times, but rather than helping to loosen the cramps and cease the pain, every step was like walking on daggers. I bounced on my heels and tried stretching my hamstrings, but whatever I did, the agony only worsened.
Pulling on some clean clothes, I headed to reception to see if my family had booked in and left a message or something for me. I hoped that keeping busy would get my mind off the cramping and pain. My hobbling steps to the check-in area didn’t fill me with confidence though.
The walk took at least ten minutes longer than it should have as I kept stopping to rub and stretch the ache in my legs. When I reached the desk, the clerk handed me an envelope that contained a room number. I headed straight to find my family.
Eth was the first to greet me, pulling me into an awkward one-armed hug that clearly said, “I’m glad you’re not dead,” in the most macho way he could. Lou was close behind him, but all I got from her was the bite of her hand slapping across my cheek.
“What the hell was that for?” I placed my palm over the spot to calm the bitter sting.
“You had me so worried, you ass!” she snapped. “Why would you come up here alone? First the phoenix, now this. Do you have a death wish?”
I was glad she didn’t know about the púca child. Eth may have been many things, but he was loyal to family, and when he said he’d keep something secret, he did.
“Leave it, Louise,” Dad’s gruff voice called from behind her. I’d only seen Dad a few times since Charlotte, and he always seemed to have aged exponentially each time. He met my gaze for a fraction of a second, disappeared, and then returned to throw a first aid kit in my direction. “Clay, get yourself fixed up and armed. We’re hunting first thing in the morning.”
Wondering how he’d known I needed first aid, I glanced down at my shirt and saw that the wound was seeping through the temporary bandage I’d fashioned, and my shirt was dotted with blood.
Besieged by Rain (Son of Rain #1) Page 20