Wolf Hunting (A Wolf in the Land of the Dead Book Book 3)

by Toni Boughton

  She looked at Everett again. “You were right. I am, or rather I was, Harper Addison. Everything I just told actually happened to her. As her body and mind reacted to the vukodlak’s presence Harper simply...went away. She couldn’t face her sister’s betrayal, and she couldn’t face her body’s betrayal. So she built a room around herself in her mind and locked the door behind her.”

  Nowen raised her hands and examined them thoughtfully. “She’s gone. That single memory is all I have of whoever I was before. I guess that also explains why my experience is so different from yours and Sage.” A thought occurred to her and she followed it as if it were a hare. “Hmm. I wonder, then, who I am? A tiny piece of Harper that didn’t make it through the door? Something created by the vukodlak half to balance the wolf? Or am I my own creator, making myself out of nothing?”

  “Those memories, locked away forever. Does it bother you, not knowing?” Everett asked.

  Nowen smiled. “I’ve never been one to look back and miss things that are long gone. The wolf lives in the here and now; why worry over things that you can’t change?”

  Everett seemed on the verge of speaking but whatever he was going to say was interrupted by a massive yawn. He blinked blearily and yawned again. Nowen nodded at the mattress. “You need more sleep.” She watched as he lowered himself to the makeshift bed and stretched out. Once his eyes closed and his breathing fell into a regular pattern she rose as quietly as she could.

  The house was as silent as the night outside. Nowen padded to the kitchen and the back door that let out into what had once been an immaculate yard. She eased the door open and stepped out into the dark, letting her wolf eyes bring the night into focus. Smoke scented the air and she wondered for a moment if the hospital was still burning.

  Knee-high grass tapped against her legs as Nowen moved out further into the yard. In one corner a plastic playground lay tipped on its side; in another corner a metal shed was rusting away. She tipped her head back and looked up at the millions of stars that filled the sky. I’m coming, Sage. She reached for the hem of her shirt, feeling her wolf pushing at her skin.

  A door slamming shut behind her stilled Nowen. She listened to the footsteps as they approached and found herself torn between anger and something else she couldn’t put a name to. She thought it might be gratitude.

  “You are not doing this alone.” Everett said.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “What are we going to do?” Benjamin asked.

  “No idea.” Nowen murmured, studying the city below through the binoculars.

  “That’s encouraging.” the young man said as he slid down from the roof of the truck. She heard him ask Everett the same question, and smiled a little when the answer was the same. Benjamin came back around to the front of the vehicle and leaned against the grille, looking up at Nowen. “So, what are we going to do?” he said again. She ignored him, keeping her attention focused on the scenes that flashed through the eyepieces.

  Colorado Springs sprawled along the base of staggered mountains that rose and fell in sharp peaks. The city was big, blocks of houses and buildings bisected by roads and bike paths. Swaths of green made a bright counterpoint to shopping malls and stores. A light rain had moved through the night before and in the early morning sun cars twinkled like chips of broken glass. At first glance the city looked like it probably had pre-Flux, down to the figures moving up and down the streets and sidewalks. It was their shuffling, loose-limbed walk that shattered the illusion.

  Nowen lowered the glasses and rubbed her eyes before leaping down from the truck bed. She walked over to Everett, Benjamin trailing behind her. The grey-haired man was kneeling over the shotguns that had come from the highway robbers, checking ammunition. He stood at her approach and passed one of the guns to Benjamin. The young man took the weapon with a look equal parts fear and excitement. “Don’t blow your head off.” Everett admonished.

  “It’s a big city. Nothing stands out to me.” Nowen said.

  “Did you see any people?” Everett asked.

  “No. Lots of Revs, though.”

  “So walking through the city is probably out of the question, huh?” Benjamin chimed in.

  Everett laughed and jumped up into the truck bed. Nowen joined him and waited while he took a turn with the binoculars. He tensed suddenly. “What is it?” she said, trying to determine what he had seen.

  “A patrol. Two big-ass trucks and a tractor-trailer.” Everett lowered the glasses. “Minus the trailer. It looks like they’re heading for the highway.” He looked at Nowen. “We can wait until they return and follow them. Or keep an eye out for another patrol.”

  She shook her head. “No. I’m tired of waiting and doing nothing.”

  Everett frowned at this. “Well, I don’t think the three of us charging down there in broad daylight is a great idea.”

  Benjamin knocked on the truck bed. Nowen turned to look at him. “Hey, I got an idea. Why don’t we bring the patrol to us?”

  “What are you talking about?” Everett said.

  “We need information, right? I bet anything that someone on one of those patrols has to know something. So, get them to come out here, where we can control the encounter.” Benjamin said.

  “Well, that’s a better plan than anything I can come up with.” Everett looked at Nowen. She nodded, reluctantly. “Ok, kid, now we need to attract some attention.” he said.

  The young man grinned and held up a safety flare. “Found this in the glove box. You think a nice big fire will be interesting enough?”

  An hour later Nowen and Benjamin lay side-by-side under the pick-up truck. Everett stood out in the open, near the smoldering fire that was sending a long white streamer of smoke up into the sky. A few minutes before he had spotted a lone car heading toward their position and shouted a warning, sending her and the young man into cover.

  The crunch of tires on gravel marked the approach of the car. Everett curled one hand into a loose fist, leaving his index finger protruding. One person in the car. Good. The low grumble of the engine shut off, followed by the sound of a door opening and closing. From her position Nowen could only see the legs of the driver as he walked toward Everett. When he spoke, though, she knew the voice. Robertson.

  “Raise your hands. Are you armed?” Robertson came to a halt a few feet from Everett. The grey-haired man had positioned himself so that Robertson’s back was to Nowen, and now she could see more of him - including the evil-looking gun in his hand.

  Everett put his hands up. “No, I’m not armed.”

  Robertson closed in and ran his free hand quickly over Everett. Evidently satisfied he stepped back and looked around. “Who else is here with you?”

  “No one.”

  The gun muzzle raised threateningly. “Don’t lie to me. I know you didn’t escape from the hospital by yourself. Where’s the boy and that black-haired bitch?”

  Benjamin tensed. Nowen shook her head and pulled herself out from under the truck. The grass was damp enough still to muffle any sound she made as she rose to her feet.

  Robertson’s attention was fully on the grey-haired man in front of him. “Zee wants you alive. She didn’t say nothing about ‘in one piece’, so answer me or I’ll blow your kneecap off.”

  Nowen tapped the small man on the shoulder. Robertson swung about wildly, his eyes bulging as he saw her. The gun muzzle swept toward Nowen; she slammed her fist into Robertson’s face and he fell backwards, the gun tumbling from his hand.

  Benjamin darted forward and scooped up the weapon. With trembling hands he pointed it at the moaning man on the ground. As Nowen flipped Robertson over onto his back Everett eased the gun from the young man’s grip. He looked down at the figure crying in pain and then gave Nowen a sly glance. “Did you pull your punch? You knocked me out with one blow.”

  She glared at the grey-haired man. “I guess you’re just not as strong.” Everett laughed. Nowen ignored him and dropped to a crouch next to Robertson. His hands w
ere clasped over his face and she wrenched them away. The man groaned and tried to pull away; she dug her knee into his side and he stopped resisting. “Look at me.” she said.

  Robertson’s left eye was swelling and turning purple. He peered up at her from his half-closed right eye. A thin line of blood ran from his nose and down his cheek. “What-what-what do you want from me?” he gasped.

  Nowen pinned his wrists with her left hand and placed her right hand on Robertson’s face, just below the bruising eye. He groaned as she pressed down on the tender flesh. “You get one chance to tell me what I want to know. Lie to me and I’ll rip your eye out.” The small man’s chest heaved. She pushed harder on his face. “Where is Sage?”

  He tried to shake his head but her grip prevented it. “I don’t know any Sage - I swear it!”

  She watched his good eye as he answered. It never moved from her own gaze. Damn. He doesn’t know. “I believe you.” Robertson’s gasp of relief was audible. Nowen leaned in closer. “Where’s Vuk?”

  This time when he answered there was the slightest hesitation in his voice, the smallest twitch in his face. “He’s not here. I think he went back to Nebraska.”

  The words had barely left his mouth when she brought her right hand over to his good eye. The tips of her claws slipped over the wet orb and burrowed behind. Nowen could feel the eye flickering beneath her palm as she tightened her grasp and pulled. The muscles and nerves gave little resistance and in less than two seconds from beginning to end the eye came free of its socket. She tossed the thing, trailing severed bits of flesh, aside.

  It took a moment for Robertson to understand what had just happened. It took Everett and Benjamin a moment longer, and as the half-blind man began to scream Nowen heard Everett call her name in a shocked voice. She looked at him. “I warned him not to lie to me.”

  “Yeah, but...Nowen, Jesus, that’s-”

  Nowen cut him off with a sharp motion of her hand. “You saw what he willingly did to those vukodlak back at the Fort.”

  The grey-haired man ran a hand over his face. Behind him Benjamin doubled over and threw up. “I know, he’s not a nice guy. But I’m not ok with torture.” Everett said.

  “That wasn’t torture. I’ve been tortured. Those children at the Fort and at the hospital - they were tortured.” She turned her gaze back to Robertson. “This is persuasion.” His screams had trailed off to a steady whimpering. His hands jerked weakly in her grasp, and his body stiffened when she returned her free hand to his face. “Let’s try this again. And if you lie to me this time-”

  “They’re at the academy. The academy!” Robertson screamed, high and panicky. His right eyelid flapped over the bloody socket underneath.

  Nowen frowned. “What academy?”

  “Air Force Academy!” came the quick reply.

  “Who’s there?”

  “Everyone! Everyone! Zee and Vuk and the Saviors and doctors and those, those...”

  “Vukodlak?”

  Robertson was eager to please. “Yes, yes, yes. Those things. Please, please, let me go. Ok? I’m sorry, really, I’m sorry, and if you let me go I’ll go away and never return. Ok?” His head twitched from side to side as he pleaded, a few tears managing to squeeze out from his swollen eye.

  “No.” Nowen said. She took his head in her hands and twisted violently up and to the side. Robertson’s neck snapped with a crack and his body went limp. Nowen rose from the grass, wiping dirt and blood off her hands, and turned to her companions.

  Everett and Benjamin were staring at her with almost identical expressions of combined queasiness and shock. The grey-haired man opened his mouth and again she silenced him with a motion of her hand. “I don’t want to hear it. From either of you. He was a threat to our pack and other wolves. I removed the threat.” Nowen stalked past them to the truck where she wrenched the door open before turning back. “We need a map of this academy. Let’s go.”

  The Air Force Academy lay south of them. Acres of grassy fields separated the buildings of the academy from the road that Benjamin had driven down several hours before. The truck had been stashed in a stand of trees, and as Nowen crouched in the high grass she wondered, absently, if any of them would see the battered vehicle again.

  Everett moved up next to her. His shotgun was slung over his shoulder, and he offered her Peterson’s weapon. She shook her head. He shrugged and slid the gun into his waistband. “Anything new?”

  She shook her head again. “The place of most activity is that building,” and she pointed at a multi-spired structure that shimmered white and red-gold in the setting sun. “The patrols start and end there. There’s another spot, that building just south of the first place that looks like a big, open square. I’ve seen people going in and out all day.” Nowen passed the dusty binoculars to Everett and waited while he peered through them.

  He lowered the glasses and glanced at her. “The first place is the chapel, and I believe that other building is a dorm. I took a tour once, when I was much younger.”

  Benjamin dropped down next to them. “Wanted to fly planes, huh?”

  Everett nodded and handed the binoculars over to the young man. “At one point, yeah. Until I realized I was scared of heights.”

  “I was considering the Air Force, too. I always liked the thought of military service.” Benjamin said as he took a turn looking at the Academy. “Where are we going first?”

  Nowen turned to the western mountains. The sun was sliding below the peaks, painting the sky with streaks of orange and red. The eastern overhead view showed deep blue shading to indigo, studded with early stars. She looked at her pack members. “The chapel’s probably a very fancy place, right?” Everett dipped his head in a ‘yes’. “It’s a good bet that Vuk is there. We’ll hit the dorm first.” She brought her gaze to bear on Benjamin. “Last chance to stay here. Things could - no, are, going to get intense. Everett and I have a better chance to come out alive. You’re just human.”

  The young man’s eyes narrowed and she saw his grip tighten on his shotgun. “I’m coming. This human can survive as well as you wolves can.”

  Nowen surprised him and herself by smiling widely. “Good.” She looked back at the sun, now just a sliver of burning fire resting atop the mountains. “Thirty minutes. It should be very near full dark by then. We’ll go straight ahead through the fields, and swing to the right when we get near the chapel.”

  The night was reluctant to come and it was closer to an hour later when Nowen led her pack toward the Academy. As she moved at a fast jog through the overgrown fields she brought her wolf’s vision to the forefront. Her wolf was eager to fight, pushing gently but insistently at her skin, ready to spring forth at a moment’s notice. Or a moment’s inattention on my part, Nowen thought, and tightened her hold on the wolf.

  She glanced from right to left as she went, checking that Everett and Benjamin were keeping pace. They were, seemingly with no problem, and she brought her attention back to her target. The Academy was mostly dark, just the shapes of abandoned buildings and vehicles sketched against the night -with two exceptions. The chapel glowed with a mellow light, and the second floor of the dorm had several windows that shone brightly.

  A low exclamation came from Benjamin as a large silhouette appeared in front of them. The three of them had seen the remains of two jets that had crashed here some time ago, remarked on them, and moved on to more important matters. Now, though, as Nowen led Everett and Benjamin between the burnt-out hulks, the strangeness of the planes grounded so ignominiously took on a new depth.

  One of the planes, patches of white paint still showing beneath the char of a long-ago fire, lay upside-down. The other rested on a slant, one wing stub jammed into the ground and the other, whole, wing pointed at the sky. The two planes had crashed in close proximity to each other. As Nowen moved beneath the open cockpit of the single-winged plane she glanced up. The still-strapped-in pilot, hardly more than a thinly-fleshed skeleton in an olive-green jumpsuit, turne
d his head as she passed.

  She could hear the Rev thrashing weakly in his restraints as she came out from the shadow of the plane.

  The fields came to an end finally, and they crossed a paved road and into some patchy woods. Scattered here and there were small, non-descript, dark buildings. Nowen angled further west and led her pack down another paved road. The night was perfectly still, only the slightest of breezes sifting through the grass and the trees, and there was no moon in the black starry sky. There was a desire deep inside Nowen to keep running like this forever.

  The road they were on led between two large parking lots where cars sat quietly rusting away. The pavement curved back to the left and Nowen left the road, moving across the grassland. The chapel was visible, shimmering from within with a soft yellow light. She spared a glance at the multi-spired building as she swept past. Soon, Vuk. Soon.

  The dorm was just ahead. The lighted windows faced the chapel, and the bobbing beams of flashlights marked the bottom of the building. Nowen came to a stop, dropping to a crouch and waiting for Benjamin and Everett to join her. “Four guards.” she said in a hushed voice.

  “Right outside the front door.” Everett replied. “Wait here; I’ll check the rest of the building for another entrance.”

  Before Nowen could stop him the grey-haired man was off. She watched his fast passage until he disappeared from even her wolf’s vision. With a groan of frustration she dragged her attention back to the guards. The four people were chatting in low voices, and she could only hope that they stayed where they were until Everett returned.

  The grass rustled as Benjamin moved up next to her. “Man, why don’t you two just make out and get it over with?”

  Nowen looked at the young man, sure that her utter confusion was visible even in the pale starlight. “What?”