Fangs

by Vella Munn

  “Didn’t he care about your safety?”

  “I’m not sure if my uncle cared about anything except what concerned him. We’d been arguing about that a lot. I’d recently told him that if I was going to continue living with him, he’d have to help me add onto the cabin so I’d have my own bedroom.”

  “That hadn’t occurred to him?”

  She shook her head. “Fishing was his priority. He was good at it. So was I. Usually, we caught more than enough. We’d trade or sell our excess for gas and other supplies we couldn’t get from the land. He wasn’t about to waste time and money on lumber just so I’d have my own space. We were at loggerheads about a lot of things.”

  “You weren’t the little girl he’d taken in. You’d become an adult with a mind of her own.”

  “Ungrateful.” The word tasted bitter on her tongue. “That’s what he called me as he grabbed the axe and headed out onto the ice.” She shuddered. “I heard it crack, begged him to come back, but he ignored me. His stubbornness…”

  “The ice broke under him.”

  “Yes.” The memory rose around her, as stark as when it had happened. “One second he was on the surface. The next he was going down. He had the presence of mind to throw the ax away from him so it wouldn’t add weight. I never went after it. It was a fitting memorial for him.”

  “Why do you blame yourself? You aren’t responsible for his decision.”

  “He came back up. Stared at me. Extended his arms toward me. Begged me to pull him out.” She started rubbing her middle in an attempt to warm herself. “I wanted to slide a log toward him, but the only one close was frozen to the ground. In the end, I stood on the shore watching him die. Doing nothing.”

  “You did what you could.”

  “It wasn’t enough!” She hadn’t wanted to snap, but that’s how the words had come out. “Instead of looking for something to leverage the log free, I begged him to find the strength to haul himself out. But he got cold so fast. Then he started to go under again. He screamed. Screamed until his head disappeared. He didn’t come back up.” I’m going to hear that sound all my life.

  Exhausted, she stared at the ceiling she couldn’t see because that was easier than facing Jeff.

  “His body’s still in the lake?”

  “Yes. Fitting, isn’t it?” She pressed her nails into her belly until it hurt. “It was over so fast. I no longer had to concern myself with having to save him. Or putting up with him.”

  “Yeah. All you’ve done since then is deal with your feelings of failure.”

  “Is that how you see it? That I failed to—”

  “No. You’re the one who’s beating yourself up over that. Seeing his death as a solution of sorts. The way I look at it, you wouldn’t be having those dreams if those things were resolved in your mind. I had nightmares for months. I hated going to work or walking into the silent condo. Moving and changing jobs has helped, but it’s still a work in progress.” He laid his hand between her breasts. “I can’t straighten out your thinking. Only you can. What I can say with upmost confidence is that you’re as far from a coward as it’s possible to get.”

  “You weren’t— You didn’t—”

  “You gave that injured elk the merciful end she needed. You were hands on for Kendall. Those things take incredible courage.”

  Thank you for saying that. Even if I can’t tell you, I needed to hear those words.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “You have to go?”

  “Yes. Otherwise, I’m not going to be ready to take off in the morning.”

  “Why?” Mia demanded of the man who was putting on his clothes in her dark bedroom. “There’s no law saying you have to do this.”

  He groaned. “I was hoping we wouldn’t have this conversation. What do you want me to do, leave the grays alone?”

  Hearing the question cemented things in Mia’s mind. Jeff and she had pulled out and examined so many emotions tonight. If she was wise, she’d let him go, focus on her satiated body and the simple-complex matter of their having made love.

  But she couldn’t.

  “Yes, I do. An eye for an eye. I’d give anything for Kendall to be whole, but it isn’t going to happen. The grays did something I don’t believe they have any control over.”

  “So you believe this business about them being, what, imprinted by Hopi belief that all living things are sacred? That those who don’t respect that belief need to be punished?”

  Did Jeff have a better explanation?

  “If that’s true,” he continued, “and that’s a huge if, then Kendall deserves better than what he got.”

  “I don’t want to argue this with you. I just wish—I hate it that you’re going to try to kill them.”

  “It isn’t what I want to do. When I was a cop, I sometimes arrested people who were more stupid than anything else. Impulse gets a lot of people in trouble.”

  What did that have to do with what they were discussing? “You aren’t doing that anymore.”

  “But I’m still charged with upholding rules and regulations. During the meeting with local law enforcement, not once did anyone say anything approaching an eye for an eye.”

  “Let someone else do it. You don’t—”

  “Yes, I do.” He stepped toward her, stopped.

  She knew it. She just hated having logic thrown at her by the man who’d brought her body to life and messed with her heart.

  “What if the grays decide you’re the enemy? You’re going after them. They might go after you.”

  “Don’t.”

  “Don’t what?”

  “Make things more complicated between us than they already are.”

  * * * *

  Between Zero and Lyle, Ram could barely concentrate on the surroundings. The hound was still so jumpy he had to keep her cinched close to his side. As for Lyle’s behavior, that was even more complicated. Lyle had acted ready enough when they were breaking camp, but now that they were doing what they’d come here for, the kid’s eyes were white, and he clutched his rifle in both hands as if it was his lifeline. Ram had been concerned that Lyle’s memory might fail him, but with the others providing support and reminding him of what he owed his cousin, the kid had managed to locate where he, Kendall and the girls had been when everything went to hell.

  Lyle, Kendall and the girls had chosen a depression with well-watered evergreens all around. Ram knew why they’d selected the secluded spot. It had been perfect for getting it on—not so much today. The trees grew so thick someone would practically be on top of them before they knew it.

  Not someone, something. Wild, aggressive dogs. Like the one they’d heard last night.

  Uneasy, Ram rested his hand on Zero’s head. He’d given her the name because of the dark circle around her right ear, but unfortunately it also fit her IQ when she was hot to get knocked up.

  “There.” Lyle pointed at something in the underbrush. “That’s my storage box. I couldn’t remember where I’d put it.”

  Lyle had found a large, open plastic container half-full of dirty cooking implements. Nearby were a couple of pots and an upside-down frying pan. Ram turned over the pan. It was scraped clean.

  “What’d you cook in it?”

  Lyle frowned. “Hamburgers, I think.”

  He exchanged a stare with Parker. “One of the dogs went after the fat.”

  Grover and Clark had joined them and were staring at what Kendall’s rescuers hadn’t bothered taking with them during their desperate attempt to get Kendall to help in time. Today it was cloudy, cooler than yesterday. At this altitude, the ground seldom warmed up or dried out, but that wasn’t the only reason Ram felt chilled.

  They were really here. Determined to make Kendall’s would-be killers pay for crippling him. Five men wouldn’t lose courage all at once. They’d locate the prints the dogs had made and hunt the bastards down. This wouldn’t be different from countless hunts, except for the goal.

  Still holding onto Zero’s ch
ain, Ram drew his Glock out of its holster. He shrugged to remind himself of his rifle’s weight on his back. The rifle had the best scope he could afford, but it wouldn’t be particularly useful with so many trees crowding around.

  “Where did the attack take place?” Parker barely spoke above a whisper. He put his arm around his son’s shoulder. Lyle didn’t lean against his dad, but neither did he pull away.

  “There.” Lyle indicated a small space between the evergreens.

  Ram knew he should get going in that direction. He’d led dozens of hunters into the mountains over the years. He was a damn good shot and almost always filled his tag. He had more antlers in his shed than Grover and Clark together, maybe more than all of the Tafts.

  But he was about to see where a young man he’d known since he was a toddler had been destroyed.

  “You don’t have to go to the spot if you don’t want to,” he told Lyle. “I don’t blame you if—”

  “I…” Lyle whispered.

  “I’m staying here with my boy,” Parker said.

  Right then, Ram wished he had a son, someone to share his knowledge with. Someone whose emotions he easily read.

  But he didn’t.

  “Grover, Clark, you guys with me?”

  Grover sighed and drew his rifle off his back. “Yeah. Let’s do this.”

  * * * *

  There was too much to see, too much blood staining grasses and pine needles. The ground torn up.

  Breathing through his nose, Ram forced himself to study the unspoken story being spelled out at his feet. He wasn’t sure whether Kendall or the dogs were responsible for the newly exposed roots, maybe all of them. He could almost hear the young man’s terrified cries, the dogs’ snarls and howls. The longer he studied what defied comprehension, the stronger his vow to make the bastards pay for what they’d done became.

  When the dogs were dead, puppies as well as adults, he’d cut off their heads and show them to Kendall. Wrap the heads in something so hospital personnel couldn’t see, make sure Kendall was awake and aware, and hold them up one at a time.

  Tell Kendall that the skulls were worth living for? Would that be enough?

  “Oh, shit. Shit!”

  Alarmed, Ram stared. Grover was about twenty feet away and pointing at something on the ground. “What did you—?”

  “Shit,” Grover repeated.

  Hoping to hell the other man wasn’t trying to warn them of danger, he pulled on Zero’s chain and walked around what he hoped was the worst of the blood. He joined Grover. Clark was close behind him.

  Grover’s lips had lost all color, and his nostrils were flared. Ram couldn’t guess what he was about to see, just that none of the possibilities were good.

  “I didn’t think…” Grover started.

  Didn’t think what, Ram wanted to know. At the same time, he didn’t. Then because he didn’t have a choice, he forced himself to look down.

  Grover had found Kendall’s foot.

  “Ah, shit,” Ram hissed.

  His muscles seized then weakened. He managed to hold onto his pistol, but not Zero’s chain. The foot was bloodless, the skin ragged, the bone exposed with deep grooves in it caused, he knew, by fangs.

  Her tail between her legs, Zero slunk toward what was beyond rescuing. She sniffed. Her hackles went up, and she quickly backed away.

  Ram crouched next to the foot. He didn’t touch it, couldn’t imagine ever being able to force himself to do that.

  But, close up, he soon understood why his hound had wanted nothing to do with the object.

  “It smells like piss.”

  * * * *

  When they’d met in the department’s parking lot, Darick and Jeff hadn’t said much, beyond detailing what was in their respective backpacks. The agency SUV could have carried more than a couple of sleeping bags and one-person tents, but experience had taught them how to travel light. Their food consisted mostly of granola bars and apples. They’d be hungry by the time they’d finished, whenever that might be, but eating wasn’t a priority.

  “I drove by Ram’s place this morning,” Jeff said, when they were ready to take off. “His truck wasn’t there.”

  “It’s in Parker Taft’s driveway next to the car his son drives,” Darick explained. “I knocked on the door, but no one answered. No sign of Parker’s rig.”

  “What are you thinking? That Ram, Parker and Lyle have gone somewhere together in Parker’s truck?”

  “I wouldn’t be surprised. If we had time, we could check some of their hunting buddies’ places. If those three have gone after the dogs, my guess is they aren’t alone.”

  Jeff nodded. “This could come down to a matter of whether they get to the grays first or we do.”

  “Maybe we should let them do the dirty work.”

  ‘Dirty work’ explained what they were committed to accomplishing all right. Jeff didn’t for a moment condone what the grays, and perhaps Lobo, had done. On the flip side, one of the grays had granted an orphan calf a quick, merciful end. Did the animals have to die for something they maybe had no control over?

  “Mia has a theory.” He glanced at Darick, who was driving. “She wonders if the grays came here to try to keep Ice and any more offspring he might have safe.”

  Darick frowned. Early in their relationship, Darick had told him that the back surgery he’d had to correct three crushed disks made being in a vehicle for an extended period difficult. He did better if he was behind the wheel. Sometimes, Jeff could see the strain in Darick’s eyes, but not this morning.

  “What do you think?” Darick asked.

  “It makes as much sense as anything, if anything does. Maybe Niko Fox could shed more light on the grays’ background and possible motive than you found out.”

  “Why her?”

  “Do I have to spell it out? You’re the one who dug into that part. Besides, it might give you an excuse to talk to her.”

  “Yeah, well…”

  Jeff couldn’t say why he was teasing his partner about Niko, other than it gave him something else to think about so, maybe, he wouldn’t continue to ask himself whether he’d made a mistake by having sex with Mia.

  What did he mean, whether? Things had gone too fast and too far between them. They’d told each other things they hadn’t expected to. Things that made them feel vulnerable and exposed.

  He wouldn’t get in touch with her until he was home and, when he did, he’d limit what he said to updating her on what Darick and he had accomplished. Whatever the outcome, it wouldn’t go well between them. Either he’d have to tell her his first attempt to find the grays and Lobo had failed and he’d have to return, or that he had five carcasses with him.

  That’s what she might not be able to ever forgive.

  * * * *

  Mia accessed the address book in her cell phone and scrolled down to Jeff’s number. Staring at it, she tried to get a handle on what she was feeling. Her body still celebrated having had sex, while her mind stumbled over the question of why she’d told someone she really didn’t know what she had. She wanted to blame her nightmare for having loosened her tongue, but that was simplifying things. Jeff hadn’t cast a spell over her. If she hadn’t been ready to detail how her uncle had drowned and her role in the accident—yes, accident—she wouldn’t have.

  But she had.

  He’d done the same thing, was probably dealing with the same misgivings. Remembering the words they’d spoken.

  Shoving that particular reality aside, she punched send. Instead of hearing him say hello, she was taken directly to voice mail.

  “Jeff, it’s me.” She hurried her words. “Maybe you’re out of range. I thought of something maybe you need to know. One of the reasons I fired Ram was because I found some traps he’d set around my trees. There were rabbits in them, caught by their legs.”

  She clutched the phone, waited for her nausea to fade a little. “I had trouble with rabbits eating some of my seedlings, but that wasn’t how I wanted to ha
ndle it. Just the same, Ram probably wouldn’t have done what he had if I hadn’t complained. What happened to Kendall is far worse than the damage the rabbits did, but Ram won’t be able to let it go. He’ll hunt the grays. He might resent someone else, like you, doing what he believes he has to. Jeff, be careful.”

  * * * *

  Tracking where Ram was certain the dogs had gone was a simple matter of staying on the trail leading away from where the attack had taken place. This slope had taken the brunt of countless storms over the years. As a result, lush vegetation covered the earth. Thousands of trees fought for sunlight, while those that had died and fallen nourished the ferns growing from them. The air was cool and damp, unsettling, even though he’d been in places like this all his life. In addition to canine prints on the trail, he spotted the occasional deer and elk track, even the outline of a bear’s paw. There wasn’t enough elk sign for him to conclude they were following a herd, but considering how much rain there’d been, he knew he was only being given a partial story of what had taken place here. It would have been nearly impossible for anything to have taken off cross-country.

  The dogs needed to eat. For that to happen, they first had to kill something. Just as he and his companions were tracking the dogs, the beasts were probably following something they believed they could take down. If they worked together, the beasts might take on an elk, but more likely they were after deer or smaller creatures. The thing was, he was about one-hundred percent sure where everyone was headed.

  Any other time, he would have loved being here. Whenever people asked why he spent so much time in the wilderness, his answer was the same. He’d been born hundreds of years too late. He would have made the perfect mountain man or wagon train scout. Bottom line, he didn’t feel comfortable in civilization.