by Alisha Rai
He changed the subject. “We will stay here for a few hours and rest. Then we will continue.”
“Continue to where? Do you even know what direction we’re going in next?”
“Any direction. We must find better shelter than this.”
“How do you know we’ll find anything at all?”
“I don’t. But we’ll die for certain if we have no protection. Carrie needs to be within a secure place.” He glanced down at the teen. “Her body is growing warmer.” Jules was surprised when he touched her cheek. “Your cheeks are flushed now as well, and you are hot.”
She laid her hand upon Carrie’s puckered brow, but her own fever made it difficult to tell if the girl really was warmer. “We’ll have to find that shelter before night.”
“Rest, then. We’ll leave in a couple of minutes.” He closed his eyes, looking for all the world like he was going to command his body to sleep for the short period of time they had.
Jules continued to stroke Carrie’s hair, thinking, worrying. James had said he would be at the van by evening. Would he even see her trail in the dusk? How would he know where she was? What if they were dead by then? What if he was injured or died before he could get to her?
She must have slept during the midst of her fretting, because she felt herself getting shaken awake by a hard hand. Instinct had her coming up swinging, but Erik pulled back to avoid her fist connecting with his nose. He already had his sunglasses on, obscuring his eyes. “Come. I think I can manage to go outside now.”
Groggy and tired, she came to her feet and gave a cursory inspection to make sure everything had been packed up, before swinging the smaller knapsack on her back. She followed him outside, unobtrusively dropping her energy bar wrapper on the ground in front of the building. This littering is justified.
They walked down Main Street but stopped when the road split at a fork.
“Which way?”
Erik looked back and forth between the two roads. “Do you have a preference?”
He was asking her opinion now? Shocker. She studied their options for a long moment. “Two words diverged in a wood/and I, I took the one less traveled by/and that has made all the difference,” she murmured, recalling the end of the poem she’d read while resting inside.
“What does that mean? These roads look the same.”
She shook her head, hoping that her increasing sense of lightheadedness was due to exhaustion and not sickness. “One is more worn. Look, see how the pavement is cracked and falling apart? How there are less plants and weeds growing along it?” She walked a few feet onto that road. A tree root had popped part of the pavement up, and she stumbled upon it, tripping. He caught her by her arm before she fell, though her knapsack tumbled. “Thanks,” she said, and picked up the bag.
“So you propose we take the one that looks less traveled upon?”
She gave him a dark look. “What are you, crazy? We take the one that looks like it was traveled the longest. Hopefully that means someone actually took it every now and again, though why you’d come to this ghost town is beyond me. Come on.”
“Then why…?”
“You asked for my preference. Come on.”
He only followed her for a second before his longer strides brought him ahead of her.
Another crumpled piece of paper fell to the ground.
Chapter Thirteen
James was so damn tired, even watching the tracker, he almost ran into Jules’s van before he saw it. He slammed his brakes on and jerked the wheel to the side, his heart pounding as his front bumper barely missed the back of the battered vehicle.
He came to a stop side by side with the white van, his hands clenched on the wheel. No more dings, or Gabriel may kill you. Their ramped-up vehicles weren’t infinite.
The hope he had had that Jules had simply stopped her vehicle in front of some shelter died a rapid death. There weren’t any structures around here.
He wouldn’t realize until later that he felt only a trace of his usual anxiety when he got out of his car. He was too focused on Jules and the fact that her van was most definitely abandoned.
He rounded the vehicle. The driver’s side door opened easily, the slight wind setting the key in the ignition switch swinging.
He slid inside the driver’s seat and tried the key. The engine didn’t turn over at all. Dead battery.
Raven had acquired only a few of the special batteries, since they’d never entered mass production, and so far the things were remarkably reliable and allowed the car to function without the precious commodity of gas. They ran for a long time, but all batteries pooped out sooner or later. He might have been able to fix this with a jump of his car, but as usual, he had been too far away to help.
She must have been stranded. Sweat popped out on his brow. It was going to be dark soon, and she was off somewhere, in the middle of nowhere.
Shaking off his despair, he jumped out of the car and studied the ground. No one would ever call him a tracker, but he knew what footprints looked like. The tall grass on the side of the road had been flattened here and there. By feet?
Yes. Right there, where the soil hit the road, was a clear patch of dirt with four impressions.
Two were small. Two were large.
A man’s print.
A growl ripped from his throat, low and primal. Up until now he had known that it was likely, given this crazy road trip, that Jules wasn’t alone. But this—this was confirmation.
She had been traveling with some strange man for days, possibly under duress, possibly hurt and vulnerable. And now she was out there, without even the dubious protection of her van. Goddamn it.
He wheeled around and took his frustration out on the closest thing, slamming his fisted hand into her dead, useless van. He stalked back to his own vehicle and got inside, pulling up the GPS and trying to clear his brain of worry long enough to study the map.
She had broken down in the morning. She could literally be anywhere. “How am I supposed to find you now, kiddo? Why did you have to leave the van?”
When James spoke, Jules fell to her knees, uncaring that the asphalt on the shoulder of the road was digging into her knees.
He had found the van but hadn’t discovered her trail, and she couldn’t even tell him. There was no way he would be able to find her. Her fever was raging, her entire arm felt infected, her leg muscles burned, and all she wanted to do was sleep.
She’d always taken pride in being the plucky girl from the wrong side of the tracks. But her pluckiness had just run out.
Stop it. What about James and your worries over him?
All she could do was pray that he’d give up quickly. Maybe she could leave some sort of message for him, scrawled on a tree nearby. In her blood.
You melodramatic little—
She hadn’t been keeping pace with Erik and Carrie for a while now, so he was a good ten feet away before he finally realized she was no longer walking. He turned to look at her and loped back. The fading sun caught in the silver of his hair.
“Get up,” he said, his tone hard and brooking no nonsense.
She shook her head. “I’m slowing you down too much. You should have ditched me back in Bounty.”
He glanced up at the sky. “We don’t have much time to find a decent shelter before it becomes full dark.”
Before the monsters came out. “I know. Take the girl and go, before it’s too late.”
His jaw set. “No. I will not leave you here like some sort of martyr. I can carry you both.” He shifted Carrie to his other arm.
Yeah, he was freakishly, inhumanly strong, but he would still get seriously slowed down if he took the time to carry her weight in addition to Carrie’s. “It’s fine, Erik. I absolve you of all guilt in leaving me here, really. I don’t think I can make it. Get the girl to some sort of shelter. Hell, go back to Bounty, if need be.”
“Get. Up.”
“No.”
“I have known you as an addict, an eage
r pupil and a competent warrior,” he said softly. “But I have never known you to be a quitter.”
Tears stung her eyes, and she couldn’t tell if it was from hurt or the strain of keeping them open any longer. “Why are you being so stubborn?”
“It is a matter of honor. You helped rescue me,” he said stiffly. “I am not a complete animal. I cannot repay you if you are dead.”
Oh. It shouldn’t sting that he would be doing the same for anyone who rescued him. It wasn’t personal. It wasn’t about her. “Consider my rescuing of you repayment of you rescuing me.”
He shook his head, impatience in every line of his body. “All I did back then was give you an excuse to live. You rescued yourself. Come.”
Jules swallowed. “I don’t feel real good, güey.”
A muscle in his cheek twitched as he stared down at her. He surprised her by falling to sit beside her on the road, arranging the adolescent in his arms. “If you stay, I will stay here as well. I need not pay back a debt to a dead person if I am dead too.”
She gaped at him. “You cannot be serious.”
“If you wish to become a midnight snack for the predators out there, I will join you.”
“Your honor means more to you than Carrie?”
His eyes flashed. “Sometimes there is nothing but honor. So, yes, I will stay here and we can all die. Let it be on your head.”
“You’re not a nice man.”
“I was, once. There is no room for nice men in this world.”
James. “That’s not true.”
“Nice people die. And they allow others to die. You should be grateful I am not nice. Now, will you walk on your own accord, or shall I carry you?”
“I’ll walk.” She struggled to her feet, biting her tongue at the resulting dizziness. “But you need to not wait for me. If we find nothing, we have to figure out some way of making shelter for the night.” She cast an eye around the flat land. “I wish this area had more forests or trees.”
“The North is more arboreal. It would have made an excellent place to hide, had your vehicle decided to not give out on us.”
“It got us this far, didn’t it?”
“Yes. It brought us to all this loveliness.”
Her eyes narrowed on his broad back. Smart guy. He knew needling her was the best way to keep her on her feet. She was too busy thinking of comebacks to concentrate on her pain.
When she got to an incline, though, her body betrayed her. He paused a couple feet ahead of her and turned. The sun was dying behind him. For a second, her vision wavered, and she wondered at the fact that there were two of him.
“Keep going,” she said softly. “I won’t stop. I can’t go uphill very fast.”
He hesitated before giving a reluctant nod. He disappeared over the crest of the road, his silver head catching the last rays of sunlight.
One foot in front of another, she kept her head down and continued plodding. So focused was she on the rhythm of her boots on the pavement, she couldn’t register anything else.
Some distant corner of her mind recognized that her shoes and the path were getting harder to see. Yet, she didn’t fully equate that with the fact that dark had fallen until she heard the noise.
She stopped, swaying, and looked up.
The wind had picked up as night fell, and it whistled through the overgrown brush on either side of her. It was getting too chilly for birds, but an owl hooted faintly somewhere in the distance.
None of that mattered. The breathing, that familiar panting breathing, filled her mind, canceling out everything else.
She turned her head an iota to the left, and there it was, standing barely a hundred yards away in the wreckage of vegetation. A male Shadow, visible because his silver skin practically glowed in the darkness. His pigmentless eyes were locked on her.
Adrenaline pulsed through her, refreshing her woozy brain. Running was an option, but she knew she wouldn’t get far before he took her down like a lion chasing a gazelle. No, she would need to stand and fight.
He crept a step closer, and she shrugged her knapsack to the ground, figuring the freedom of movement couldn’t hurt. He came even nearer, his hallowed chest rising and falling faster. He looked like a starved animal scenting its first prey in a long time. There probably wasn’t a lot in the way of human snacks out here. Put a bow on her, and she could be his Christmas and birthday present.
She pulled her gun and pointed it. Her hand and the weapon shook, but there wasn’t much she could do about that.
He was coming closer, moving faster than she could track. Trying to make her mind as clear as possible, she waited until she was certain she would hit him, and pulled the trigger.
Missed.
He roared at the noise and ran faster. Clumsy, her finger pulled the trigger again.
The clicking noise made her heart stop. Her extra ammo was in the pack. No way she’d be able to rummage inside, reload and take another shaky try at him.
Erik.
But Erik wasn’t here and, frankly, wasn’t likely to come to her rescue. Fucking A, why was she always on her own?
You don’t need anyone.
No, she didn’t want to play the constant damsel in distress. But Christ, was it crazy for her to wish she had a hand? Just once? When she was sick and tired and traumatized?
Irrational anger filled her and she fed it. Anger at all the people who were always absent when she needed them the most. Her father, jetting before she was born. Her mother, leaving her to raise herself. Her homegirls, splitting at the first panic of the Illness. Erik, abandoning her after teaching her about real friendship and kindness and platonic love.
And finally, yes, even James. That anger was the most irrational and unfair of all, since he was on a suicide mission to reach her. But he wasn’t here now, was he? And she knew better than anyone how fickle love and loyalty could be. Even if he found her, there was no guarantee he would stand by her side forever.
Her mouth firmed, and she threw the useless gun aside. She was on her own. Which was just fucking fine.
Jules pulled her blade from her pocket, hitting the switch on the side, and waited for the attack. With an unholy shriek, the thing launched through the air at her, a blur of white skin and red veins.
She threw all of her remaining energy into delivering a kick hard enough to shove him back before he could get his hands on her. Though he looked weaker than most Shadows she’d encountered, it didn’t knock him to the ground. He growled and came at her anew. This time, she let him come closer, close enough for her blade’s reach.
She was aiming for his heart, but her aim was unsteady here too, and it stabbed him in the middle of his chest. She pulled the blade out. It dislodged with a vulgar sucking noise that turned her stomach.
Not surprisingly, the Shadow wasn’t pleased. He roared and rammed himself at her again. This time, he knocked her off balance.
The anger that had been powering her drained once she was on her back, leaving her weak and tired. The gravel of the path felt as soft as a bed to her tired muscles. Curling up and falling asleep was a very real possibility.
Despite your moment of melodrama back there, you did not come all this way to lie down in the gravel and get eaten. Suck it up, Girl Scout.
There was a knife in her free hand and a Shadow on top of her. This was an easy kill.
And then she could sleep.
That was some good motivation there.
Jules stabbed the Shadow in the back as his head was descending to her neck. He squealed and jerked up, the rankness of his breath making her want to heave. She pulled the knife out and stabbed him in his jugular. Blood sprayed over her. He gave a final rattling gasp, the blood gurgling, before slumping over her.
Her hand fell at her side. Her fingers hurt from clenching over the handle of the blade, but she could not let go. Not yet.
His blood was warm on her. She could feel it on her face and neck and clothes.
Footsteps.
No, she’d never been one to back down from a fight. But then, she’d never been quite as weak as this.
Jules closed her eyes and shrank under the Shadow’s body, wishing he had been larger. Would it fool another Shadow if she hid under a dead one’s body? Praying had never been her strong suit, but she prayed now. Please God, not now. Hide me. I can take care of myself, I swear, but not right now.
The footsteps slowed as they came closer, and she cringed, ducking her head so her face was tucked into the dead Shadow’s neck. The blood from his wound was dripping on her cheek. She closed her mouth and eyes, hoping that would keep the tainted blood from entering her body. It had to come into contact with her blood to hurt her, she knew that, but she wasn’t taking any chances.
“Jules. Oh my God. Jules.”
Surely that panicked voice wasn’t Erik’s? Not stoic, angry, brooding Erik.
But it was. She opened her eyes when the Shadow was effortlessly lifted off her and tossed aside like garbage. Its body landed and disappeared into the brush.
He knelt beside her, his face grim. “Is any of that blood yours?”
She managed a shake of her head.
Erik released an imperceptible sigh. “I heard the gun. I thought…” He surprised her by gathering her close, not put off by the stiffening of her body. After picking up her knapsack, he rose to his feet.
She dared to open her mouth. “Carrie.”
“She’s fine.”
“Shelter near.” Jules was surprised by how weak her voice sounded. Part of that was because she was trying to speak through her teeth, lest the blood get in. “Shadow came so quickly after turned dark, musta come from shelter nearby.”
“I don’t know where he came from, but there’s a house less than two miles up the road. I left Carrie there and came back for you.”
“Checked it?”
“I checked to see if anyone was within, or if there had been signs of the same. It has been abandoned for some time.”
The dude had everything covered.
He glanced down at her. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I left you.”
This was the most emotion he’d shown since they’d been reunited. Yet she wasn’t certain why he was sorry. “Could handle it.” Could? She had handled it. She didn’t need to depend on anyone.