by T. M. Clark
They could recognise him. They could expose the 6th. His position within the 6th was already compromised. His life might end if they realised he was alive, but if they didn’t—if these attackers were gone, and didn’t expose him—he might be able to slip deeper into Africa and live there, where no 6th master of the hunt would ever find him.
He had to find and kill every last one of them.
CHAPTER
26
Waking from a dark dream, Chloe could hear the deep murmur of men’s voices talking, just outside the cave. She looked around. Other than the horses, her dad and Ethel, she was the only one still inside.
Blood thundered in her head, and the darkness in the cave threatened to close in on her. She shook her head, trying to dislodge the sensation. She wrapped her sleeping bag around herself and walked out into the early morning. She could see the golden light of the first rays as sunshine touched the tree tops, and bathed them all in a heavenly light. But it hurt her eyes. She closed them and tried to open them just a slit to walk carefully to where the voices were, letting them guide her.
‘I guess we won’t really understand what happened unless we double back, go take a look,’ Nick said.
‘That would be a waste of our time,’ Enoch said. ‘Better to press on, get into Zimbabwe, away from the war.’
‘I would be happier knowing what that was. Khululani and I can get there and back easy. It’ll take us a day and a night at most to check on it, and make sure it’s nothing for us to worry about,’ Nick said.
‘It would be good to know exactly what it was, but are you sure that walking around where there are mines and you don’t know the area is a good idea?’ Filipe asked.
‘Do not even think of joining them,’ Enoch said. ‘They are free to do what they want to do, but you need to ensure that the horses don’t walk into any of those mined areas, so we will push forward.’
Nick was planning on leaving her?
Leaving them?
Her heart skipped a beat. She had got so used to him being there. What if something happened to him out there? What if he didn’t get back to them and was lost forever in the bush somewhere? Her heart constricted, her breathing shallowed, and she became light-headed. She shook her head. Forced air into her lungs, trying to remain calm.
‘No way, I’m not happy with this,’ she said. ‘How can you be so sure you can find us again, and we are not going to lose you? I know I was left out of this conversation for some stupid male chauvinistic reason, but I really don’t like the idea of us separating out here.’
‘Is it just me or is Chloe not speaking English?’ Nick asked.
Enoch immediately came to her side.
‘Don’t try sucking up to me,’ she told him.
‘Xo, go find her migraine medication. I’ll get her to lie down out here, hurry.’
‘Migraine? Her speaking gibberish is a migraine?’ Nick asked.
‘I’m fine,’ she said. ‘I just want to know why you were conspiring behind my back, and going to give me a fait accompli with us splitting up before we get to Delaware.’ She tried to take a breath after telling them off, but there was no air around. Nothing was going in. She tried again.
Enoch took her sleeping bag and threw it on the ground, then physically pushed her downwards. ‘Sit down before you fall down. And breathe, you are as white as white gets,’ Enoch said.
‘I’m trying to,’ she said loudly, trying to explain.
‘You’re sure she can hear and understand what you are saying? She really doesn’t look good,’ Nick began, but saw Enoch’s hand go up into a stop-talking position.
‘Breathe,’ Enoch said. ‘You are going to pass out, Chloe.’
He was kneeling in front of her now. She could see him, but he was becoming fuzzy.
‘Hurry, Xo,’ Enoch called.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, and then she felt Nick sit next to her and take her hand. Her body knew it was Nick, and her heart began to race in response.
Nick looked at Enoch and asked, ‘Does she suffer asthma when she gets a migraine?’
‘Not for many years. I thought she had grown out of the asthma. Last time we had to buy a pump was about five years ago. The attacks stopped just after we settled in Howick. She has not had one since.’
‘Can she understand what we’re saying?’
‘Yes,’ Enoch said. ‘But sometimes she will not remember everything.’
‘Come on, Chloe, do as Enoch said, just breathe deeply. Breathe slowly. Regulate it again.’
She could feel the warmth of his fingers on the inside of her wrist, the fingers gentle despite his large hands being calloused from his style of outdoor work. She wanted his hands to stay there forever, making her feel secure. Safe. But he was going away, he was going to leave her —
The air was in her lungs, but she couldn’t get it out.
‘Don’t think, Chloe, just let your body do what comes naturally,’ Nick said. He was patting the back of her hand again, the rhythm gentle, reassuring. Soothing.
‘Breathe. It is going to be okay,’ Enoch said.
She opened her eyes and looked at Enoch. He was breathing deeply, trying to help her get into a normal rhythm again.
‘Come on, Princess. Khululani is going to get a fire going, and we can have some sweet coffee and something to eat,’ Enoch said.
She wanted to tell him that she didn’t need coffee, or smoke, but there was no air in her lungs to speak, and when she opened her mouth no words were coming out. Something was squeezing her head, making it explode. Something was stealing her oxygen and crushing her as it wrapped around her chest, too.
‘I’m not so sure this is asthma. Can I try something? Do you remember that Mike used to help Sarah through the panic attacks she would get when everything was too overwhelming? It might just be one of those,’ Nick said.
She heard Enoch give him permission, but they were fading away, and her vision was narrowing.
Nick gathered her in his arms, right up tight against his chest. ‘Feel the rhythm of my breathing, Chloe, let your body feel mine. Don’t try to do anything except breathe with me. Feel my warmth, it’s all yours. You are safe. Feel my arms around you, they’re not leaving you. You are safe. Feel my heartbeat.’ His hands ran up and down her back as he spoke.
She could smell Nick’s scent, she could feel his warmth. The rise and fall of his chest as his lungs breathed in air and let it out normally. His hands continued to rub, only now they were inside her T-shirt, and it was skin on skin.
Heat. Goose bumps. Nick was touching her, and it felt so good. She stopped fighting and relaxed into him.
The pounding in her head wasn’t letting up, but feeling Nick against her was helping her chest. There was air coming into her lungs, and the giant coil that held her tightly began to relax.
‘That’s it,’ Nick said. ‘All you have to do is feel the rhythm. Relax, don’t do anything —’
‘Her colour’s coming back,’ Xo said, ‘but we need to get these meds into her. As it is she might be out for a whole day. How’s her temperature?’
‘She’s burning up,’ Nick said. ‘But her breathing’s almost normal.’
‘It’ll get worse again,’ Xo warned. ‘Chloe, I’m going to put these in your mouth, and then give you some water to wash them down.’
She felt the pills on her tongue, and when Xo tipped the cup of water into her parched mouth she tried to swallow. But they just seemed to swell and wouldn’t go down her throat.
‘Dammit, it took too long to find them,’ Xo said. ‘Hold her, I need to get them out.’ She could feel Xo’s fingers in her mouth pulling the pills from the back of her throat.
‘Why did you not crush them?’ Enoch asked.
‘I thought she’d still be able to swallow.’ He poured out half the water and threw the pills into the cup, swirling it around. He used his finger to stir it and make sure they had dissolved before carefully putting the cup against her lips and tipping i
t in.
‘Swallow, Chloe,’ Xo said, holding her nose closed.
She swallowed the bitter mixture.
He let go of her nose and she gasped for a breath.
Nick held her against him still and she snuggled into the warmth of his body, knowing somewhere in her head that in his arms, she was safe.
* * *
Nick held onto Chloe, even though he knew she had now fallen into a drugged sleep.
‘She’s going to sleep for a day or two at least,’ Xo said. ‘It’s six o’clock now. Her next dose is due in four hours. If you lay her down, I’m happy to take the first watch. Once she is asleep, her temperature will continue to rise. She’s been known to run above average temperatures for a week. We need to keep her as cool as we can over the next few days, despite the December heat.’
‘It was a good place for one of her migraines to hit if it had to,’ Enoch said. ‘At least we have good shelter, the feed for the horses that we dumped will not all be gone, and we can use that instead of our stores while we wait it out.’
‘We won’t continue with her sick?’ Nick asked.
Enoch shook his head. ‘This is just the beginning. She is about to be really ill, and the cave will help us keep her temperature in check. I do not know why she was struggling to breathe though; that scares me more than her migraine.’
‘The talking gibberish is normal?’ Nick asked.
‘One of her markers. For a few days, she will be totally out of it, drugged to help her. When she wakes up, she will vomit. Then another day to gain her strength after that, and then we can move again.’
‘She has to get worse to get better?’ Nick asked.
‘Yebo. It would be good to have you here so that we can do patrols around, help Filipe keep watch while she rests, but I guess now if you and Khululani are still wanting to go see what that explosion was, given where you think it was, it would be a good time. We are not going anywhere, and there is no risk of you losing us in the bush. And if it’s anything to do with that bastard, then it’s better we know about it. But I fear I am supporting you going looking for trouble. There is a saying that I learned while in South Africa: Jy krap met ń kort stokkie aan ń groot leeu se bal.’
‘What the heck does that mean?’
‘Literally, you are scratching a big lion’s bollocks with a short stick. But it really means you are going looking for trouble, you know, pushing your luck.’
‘Shit, that’s quite a saying. And I hope that you’re wrong on this, I really do.’
Nick looked at the ground, then at Chloe in his arms. Her breathing was finally steady, and she was asleep, but he could feel the involuntary twitches in her body.
‘What if she doesn’t wake up?’ Nick asked.
‘She will. This one will follow the same path her migraines always have. All we need to do is keep her hydrated and cool, and let the drugs fight the migraine.’
‘You sure you’ve got enough drugs?’ Nick asked.
‘Plenty,’ Xo said. ‘She always stocked at least enough for a week, and she hasn’t used them in a while,’ Xo said.
‘I hate to admit that while I don’t want to leave her, I don’t want to ignore that explosion either. We are all uneasy knowing that the Caçador Escuro is out there, and he’s deadly accurate with a rifle from a long way off. We know that he was shot at least in his shoulder, but it could just be a flesh wound. He could be out there already, tracking us, and he could pick us off one by one, and we would never find him.’
Enoch nodded. ‘I have been thinking about that, too. But right now, I have to focus on Chloe. We cannot move her, not with what we have available to us. We need to also protect this site in case someone comes here, so three of us patrolling will be hard. It would be easier with five.’
‘Two nights away at most, probably less,’ Khululani said. ‘It’s not too far. We’ll be back before she wakes up.’
‘He’s right,’ Nick said. ‘Khululani and I can move quickly through the bush, we’ve done it before.’
Enoch nodded. ‘Then go. The quicker you leave the faster you are back, for Chloe’s sake.’
‘Right, Khululani, a quick breakfast then we carry minimal on our trek and we get back here ASAP,’ Nick said.
‘Just …’ Enoch paused. ‘Be safe and take care. Both of you.’ He held out his hand and Nick shook it.
‘Don’t get shot,’ Xo said. ‘Chloe would kill me if she wakes up to find you dead. She’ll say that I should have stopped you going. Not that anyone could, but she’s really growing fond of having you around.’
Fond. Now there was an insipid and inadequate word for how Nick felt towards her.
Holding her again today had been hard. He hadn’t wanted to ever let her go. She felt right fitting into him, her soft skin felt perfect against his.
But it was wrong. He couldn’t start a relationship with her. Not now. It was his fault that her father was in the state that he was. If he’d gone with them that fateful day instead of staying behind, the outcome might have been different.
If he hadn’t stood on his laurels, had been a better friend instead—like Enoch—the outcome with three riding into battle might have been different to having just two there. The odds could have been improved.
Even after all these years, he still didn’t believe that the gold that Mike and Enoch had acquired was worth the price they had paid for it. And he didn’t understand why Mike was so insistent about going after it in the first place.
Nick had closed his eyes to the death and destruction afterwards. Nothing could hide the fact that Mike was damaged forever. Who knew if his mind was trapped inside his body, or he was gone altogether and only his shell remained. Could he have prevented it? And a niggle deep inside was still there. He didn’t think that Mike and Enoch had told him everything. They had trusted him enough to ask him to join them, but not told him their whole plan. The motivation behind it, or what they were planning on doing with the gold when they had it.
That was the part that he still didn’t understand. And that was what had made him turn his back on them. Leave and start again, away from them all.
It had taken a long time to put that day behind him. To start a new life away from the family. Only to be dragged back into it, and now he was falling for Mike’s daughter.
He needed to get away from Chloe. His body had reacted like a man drowning in the scent of a woman when he held her. He had to get away. To put some distance between his body and hers so he could get his mind in order.
CHAPTER
27
Xo and Chloe sat under the stars near the dying fire outside the cave. Mike lay on the stretcher, Ethel next to him, giving his legs a rub, while Enoch and Filipe were doing another perimeter check.
‘This was a bad one. You were out cold for two whole days, and you are still not looking so with it. You sure you are okay?’ Xo asked.
‘Shakes are still here, but only slightly. Nothing compared to yesterday’s lot. Otherwise doing good. Thank you as always for watching over me, and sorry for throwing up on you yet again.’
Xo smiled. ‘Isn’t that what brothers are for.’ He raised his hand and they knocked their fists together.
‘I can’t believe one hit me on this trek. We’ve wasted so much time having to stop. Four whole days; we could have been almost inside the Zimbabwe border by now,’ she said.
‘Not wasted. You’ve been through a lot lately. Dad took out the stitches in your leg while you were being a sleeping beauty. You didn’t even flinch. We figured since it’s been two whole weeks that it was time. And they looked ready.’
‘I’m glad he did it when I couldn’t see.’ She rubbed her leg.
‘If nothing else, this stop helped you heal. The bruising on your face is so much better, a few yellow patches left, but black eyes are mostly gone. If it wasn’t for the short orange hair you would be almost back to normal.’ Xo smiled and reached over to rub her arm. ‘Besides, it gave Nick and Khululani time to go look f
or the Caçador Escuro.’
‘You think that they are okay? Your dad said they were due back two nights ago. He seemed worried when I asked him. He changed to a different subject like he always does when he doesn’t want to talk about something. He started asking me questions about Ethel and Dad and if they were okay.’
Xo smiled. ‘He’s so good at that, isn’t he. Dad thinks they got sidetracked. He said Nick is not the best at simply following orders, and he likes to know the reason behind everything. But as long as Nick is with Khululani, he’ll be okay. I’m still astounded at the agility of that old guy. You saw him when Nick needed him off Marin, he just jumped as if he was a youngster. Eish, seriously.’
‘He’s pretty amazing. But then your dad’s nearly fifty and he’s still so nimble. Must be something in the African genes,’ Chloe said.
‘Maybe, and even if I’m half as fit as he is when I grow old, then I’ll be a happy man,’ Xo said.
Chloe attempted to laugh. ‘I can imagine you with grey hair, perhaps because Enoch’s hair has gone really white in the last few years. And you two look so alike.’
‘Thanks, Chloe,’ Xo said. ‘But I still can’t decide who was braver, Khululani for bailing off the back of a horse like that or Marin for carrying them both into battle in the first place.’
‘In my eyes, Marin wins hands down every time,’ Chloe said. ‘He’s a good horse. We knew that when we found him. His endurance is outstanding,’ Chloe said.
‘He proved more than that when we went after the hunter. And I told him that when I groomed him.’
Chloe laughed. ‘As if he could understand that, sure …’
‘Eish, we each talk to them in our own ways,’ Xo said. ‘You discuss feelings with them, and I tell them worldly truths.’
They heard a whistle from afar, followed by a guinea fowl, ripp-peee-peeep-peep, and Nick’s voice came out of the darkness. ‘Don’t shoot me, I’m coming into range.’
Enoch shouted back, ‘We hear you.’
About thirty minutes later, only three men walked around the side of the cave.