The Hunt (The Wilds Book Two)

by Donna Augustine

  “I know you know where he went.”

  “I really don’t.” Not since that morning, or I would’ve been stalking him myself. “Why are you so set on looking for him?”

  “No reason.”

  That was a load of bull. He wanted to talk to Dax so they could gang up on me about not going. Even if I could tell Bookie a more definitive answer on Dax’s location, something that didn’t have anything to do with running through the woods and possibly eating raw meat, I wouldn’t.

  He looked at me, his head tilted forward and to the side, and then started shaking it slightly.

  “You can give me all the condemning looks you want. I know what you want to talk to him about, and I’m not helping. I’m also not going to walk into the Skinners’ camp all willy-nilly, so don’t worry about it.”

  He switched tactics and went completely still, just staring now. It was a familiar look. He’d been taking lessons from Dax, I guessed. “Why the change in heart?”

  It didn’t work with Dax and it certainly wasn’t going to work with Bookie. “You and Dax have been making sense, is all.” As far as he and everyone else knew, the Skinners had Tiffy, and that was what I’d keep pretending until I could figure out something better to say.

  His stance softened into something much more Bookie-like. “Will you let me know if he comes back?”

  “Maybe.”

  His eyes rolled upward but he left without an argument.

  When the door swung open again a few minutes later, I expected to see Bookie getting ready for a second round, but Dax had finally returned. I tossed my book on the couch and jumped up.

  “What took you so long? Forget it. Just tell me? Did you sense it? What’s left?” I asked as I went and locked the door behind him, not wanting to be accidentally interrupted if Bookie sniffed him out somehow.

  He walked farther into the living room. He wasn’t flushed like he normally was after the change, so he must have changed back a while ago. Why did he have to take so long? He knew I was waiting to find out what he’d sensed.

  “It’s still there, and still the strongest I’ve ever felt. But there’s something off.”

  “But what? How did it feel?” I asked, wanting more information, and quicker than he was speaking.

  “It feels like there’s some sort of dam, like it’s blocked or being held back. I’ve never felt anything like it. It’s not gone, but it’s not flowing like it should.”

  I dropped onto the couch.

  I was sitting with Tiffy on the back porch and she said, “I think I managed to salvage some things, but I’m not sure. Time will tell.”

  Only a few days prior she’d said they were making a decision about me. It had to be these Wood Mist things. But why? For what reason?

  Had Tiffy known that they were going to take her? Had she gone willingly? Was it somehow my fault because they were upset with me? Did this have something to do with the Dark Walkers thinking I was the key?

  And the chimes. Had the Wood Mist been trying to lure me to my death?

  “What are you thinking?” Dax asked, startling me from my thoughts. His eyes narrowed, and I knew he was going to press me, because Dax didn’t back off from the scent of blood.

  I wanted to tell him, but what if I was really the last Plaguer, his only chance at vengeance against the Dark Walkers? If he knew the Wood Mist were the ones that took my powers, would he want to help me get them back, or would he fear what that would lead to? Right now, I could do what he needed, and it was in his best interests to help me.

  If this Wood Mist didn’t want me to have my powers, would he still be willing to help me get them back and possibly upset his apple cart? Would he even let me take the risk of trying to talk to these creatures that had Tiffy, or would it be the same as with the Skinners once he knew they wanted me?

  “Nothing.”

  He opened his mouth, and I knew he wasn’t going to let it go, so I took the first shot. “Why didn’t you come back right away when you knew I was waiting?”

  He walked over to the kitchen and took a swig from one of the water containers. “Because I had things to handle.”

  I got up from the couch and took a few steps toward him, hands on my hips. “Why is it that when you turn into the beast, this vicious-looking thing with fangs out to here and eyes glowing red, you can’t stand to be near me afterward?”

  He stared at me with a deadened look in his eyes and flat out lied to my face. “Not true.”

  I thought about his answer for less than a minute before I determined it definitely was a lie. He was a better liar than I was, I’d give him that.

  The first time he’d been a beast, I hadn’t known it was him. When I’d seen him shortly after, he nearly lost his shit on me. He’d been all rough edges and not smooth ice. Almost every time after that, he’d kept his distance for a while afterward. Just as he had today.

  Margo’s voice popped into my head suddenly. We’d spent more than one afternoon with her trying to fix my inappropriate behavior. She used to tell me that sometimes people lied, and even though you knew they were lying, it was because they didn’t want to discuss something with you. Polite society left the subject alone.

  I used to disagree and ask her what good would come from that. So as I knew he was lying to me, the memory of Margo’s words replayed over and over in my head. I should listen to them, since she wasn’t here to argue her case. I’d already moved the subject of discussion from the matter I’d wanted to avoid.

  Then again, the Wilds was far from polite society, and I found I really did want this answer.

  “No. I think you definitely do avoid me, and I want to know why,” I said.

  He plunked the water container down on the counter and walked back to where I was in the living room. “Maybe I’m afraid I’ll eat you. Ever think of that?” he asked, and I wasn’t sure if he was kidding or trying to alarm me.

  I was stunned into silence for all of half a second. “No freaking way. You’re nicer to me when you’re the beast. Hell, you lick me when you’re Hairy.”

  His entire body froze; even his hair seemed to stiffen. “I avoid everybody. Not just you.”

  That answer might not have been bad if he hadn’t accented the word you like people used to say the word Plaguer.

  He headed toward the door, and I didn’t try and stop him. Whether he would talk about it or not, I’d get my answers eventually. The best thing about this whole confrontation was it bought me some time.

  I settled back on the couch with my lousy book, but I didn’t read it. I kept looking at the door in between trying to mentally sift around inside myself. If they’d somehow shut my magic down, there had to be some way to break it free.

  The door swung open, and I thought it was going to be Dax back to confront me. “Is he here?” Bookie asked, five minutes too late.

  Tank walked in right behind him. “Dax here?”

  “No. He left a few minutes ago.”

  Bookie scratched his head, and his sigh said he was giving up for now. “I’ll see you guys later. I told them I’d go help out with Becca anyway. She’s having contractions.”

  “What?” I asked, a rock hitting my gut as I tried to count the time that had passed. How long ago had she left? No, it couldn’t be Dax’s. Even if she’d been pregnant when she left the farm, she couldn’t have been far along enough to be giving birth, and her stomach had been completely flat last time I’d seen her.

  “I thought she was barren?” Tank asked, and my eyes shot to him.

  “Not our Becca. The one from here,” Bookie said, neither of them paying attention to me.

  Bookie left, and Tank hesitated at the door, telling me to leave a message for Dax that he was looking for him.

  I nodded as my brain did double duty.

  Becca was barren? The only woman I’d been able to connect Dax to, and she was barren. No way that was a coincidence.

  Chapter 24

  Screw the book and this house. I needed wide-
open air and a sky full of stars above my head. Maybe then I could recharge enough to get this magic kick-started and break through whatever they’d done to me.

  I left the house, determined to get my head clear instead of sitting there and staring at the door. I headed straight to the wall and walked along to the place I’d seen an uneven surface with a few bricks missing, a spot I could use to help me scale to the top. With the way the trees were, if I positioned myself just right, I’d bet no one could see me up there. Made me wonder why they hadn’t fixed it.

  Had to be a soft point in defense. I’d alert them to it…just as soon as I left here for good.

  I scaled the wall and found a nice, cozy place to settle in. It was a smoother seat up on top of the wall than I could’ve hoped for. If I had a blanket, I could’ve slept up here.

  There was a beautiful view of the skyline, and the sound of the stream running close by drowned out any of the human noises.

  I lay on my back, so all I could see were stars.

  “You took my spot.” Rocky’s deep voice startled me, and he grabbed my arm as I jerked back toward the edge.

  “Don’t fall off the wall. Dax will think one of my people killed you.”

  He let go of me and I sat up and scooted over, making room for him as I hung my legs off the ledge.

  “Sorry. I’ve been known to steal spots in the past.”

  He settled in next to me, legs hanging beside mine, completely at ease, like a guy that was used to having a lot of friends and was comfortable with people.

  I did the same, except I was faking it.

  “How do you like it here?” he asked.

  I hated it, but even I didn’t need Margo to tell me that was the wrong answer. “It’s really nice.”

  He laughed, a husky sound that emanated from his chest.

  “I don’t blame you. I wouldn’t like it either if I were you.” He leaned forward, resting muscular forearms on his legs as he looked out over the expanse of land. “It wouldn’t always be like this. If you stayed, they’d get used to you.”

  “Sure.” I wasn’t going to be here long enough. I didn’t have any interest in anybody getting used to anybody else. I wanted to go home, which had turned out to be a pretty yellow farmhouse.

  “When Dax said he was bringing someone by that was a little different, I knew what he meant. I was nervous. It might be different where you come from in Newco, but superstition runs deep in the Wilds. I’d never met a Plaguer before. I didn’t know if any of the rumors were true or if you could still get people sick. When Dax told me how long you’d been at the farm, I figured there wasn’t anything to it. Like I said, they’d get used to you. You have options.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked, looking away from the stars and at him.

  He turned his head and did the same. “I know your only concern is finding Tiffy right now, but after you do, you could stay here. It wouldn’t be charity. There’s a worth to what you can do and who you are.” He was staring at me in a way that made me unsure whether I should be leaning in closer or jumping off the wall.

  I looked back at the stars, trying to shake the uncertainty. “So you really believe in the Dark Walkers?”

  “Most of us here do. I’ve seen some crazy shit in my life, Dal. Dark Walkers aren’t that far a leap. Once the people here realized that you offered us another layer of protection from the outside, which I would make sure they did, they’d start to embrace you. You could have a good life here.”

  I felt his fingers push back a strand of my hair behind my ear, and I panicked as I realized Rocky might not only be offering me a job. I looked at him and wondered: was this it? Was he going to kiss me? Did I want him to? He wouldn’t be such a bad choice. He was a survivor, like me.

  And he made me feel good.

  “I’ll definitely think about it,” I said, not sure what was going to come next.

  “Do that,” he said, and then disappointed me because he got up. “I’ve got some business I still have to go handle, but I’m sure I’ll see you soon,” he said, smiling as he left me alone on the wall while my heart was doing laps around my chest.

  * * *

  I was walking back to the house to go to sleep. I really was, because I didn’t want to think of men or magic or Tiffy or Becca or really just about anything else tonight.

  The first thing that screwed up my plan of crawling into bed in the next ten minutes was looking over to my right at the exact right moment to see some guy backhand a girl who was nearly a foot shorter than him. My second mistake was looking around, hoping someone else was still up and over by the lake and would notice and handle the problem. I should’ve just kept walking and assumed there was, but of course there wasn’t.

  I had my own problems. I didn’t need more. I should have kept walking away, but I walked toward them instead.

  “Everything okay?” I asked the girl, realizing I recognized them both from the first dinner I’d had here with Rocky.

  “Mind your own business,” the guy said, while the girl said nothing.

  I shook my head. He didn’t get it. I wasn’t here because I wanted to be. They’d stolen my steaks. I didn’t want to help them. “If only I could. I don’t particularly like either of you, but I can’t allow you to strike her again.”

  “You need to go,” he said. She still hadn’t spoken.

  “I told you. I can’t.” He had no idea how much I wanted to. It was tempting, but I’d told myself after I got out of the Cement Giant that I’d never watch someone get abused again without doing something, even if I really, really wanted to. “I walk away, pretend I don’t see this, and it’s a slippery slope. One day I wake up and realize I’m an asshole like you. Not what I’m looking to do.”

  “You think because you came here with Dax, I give a shit what you want?” The guy wasn’t only a foot taller than the girl he’d hit, but me as well, I discovered as he got closer. The way he was eyeing me up and down, he’d noticed, too.

  “No. This has nothing to do with Dax. I can handle a small problem like you on my own.” I really hoped so, anyway. He didn’t say anything, and then he took a step back.

  “I thought so.” Actually, I hadn’t thought anything of the sort. But had hoped he’d think twice about laying hands, or fist, on a Plaguer.

  “I think it’s time to call it a night,” Dax said from somewhere behind me. Damn, it hadn’t been me after all.

  The guy said nothing, but huffed a bit before he turned and took off before Dax reached me.

  “You okay?” I asked the girl who, even after I’d come to her aid, still seemed afraid to get close to me. She nodded and mumbled something about having to get home. She took off toward the houses, the opposite direction the guy had gone.

  “Come on,” Dax said as we followed the girl at a distance. “You shouldn’t have gotten involved.”

  “How am I supposed to walk away from that?” I said, waving a hand toward the girl, who was now pretending we didn’t exist.

  “That woman has been offered help more times than I can count, and continues to go back to him. There’s nothing you can do for her.”

  “How come that never happens at the farm? Huh?” I knew for a fact that Dax had laid a beat-down on more than one guy who’d thought it was acceptable to hit women back at the farm. Lucy had told me during one of her morning tirades about some guy at the farm she hated who she wished would step out of line, just so he would earn one of those beat-downs from Dax. “You’ve got all these separate rules for what I should do opposed to what you should do.”

  “You’re absolutely right, but we’re different. You’ve got a savior complex because of what happened to you, but you can’t back it up yet. If you aren’t careful, it’s going to get you killed one day. I know what you went through before I got you out of that place, but you need to keep your head on straight.”

  It was the last thing I’d expected to hear from him. I’d thought we didn’t go there with each other. We left the bad shit al
one. Saving my ass didn’t give him a pass, and dredging it up did nothing good. Yet here he was digging around, looking to find himself some skeletons.

  We paused as the girl walked into her house. I crossed my arms in front of me as I stared at him. “That place was a lifetime ago. Leave it there.”

  “What if burying all your feelings about that is also burying your magic? You want me to help you, but only up to a point, only if I don’t step on your toes too much.”

  “Because that stuff doesn’t matter anymore.”

  “It’s doesn’t?” His eyebrows shot up, daring me to deny it again.

  “No. It doesn’t.”

  “You still can’t sit down to a meal without looking at it like it’s your last, or how you eat like someone is going to steal your food from you. What about the way you look at the walls, and the way you avoid spots that are a little too tight, like someone might shove you in and not let you out?”

  What did he think I was going to do? Cry about the hole? He’d found me in it. He didn’t need to know how many times I’d been there before, or for how long. It was bad enough I couldn’t look at a small space without getting a chill down my spine, or talk about the laundry list of other injustices.

  I was among the lucky. I’d made it out. Some hadn’t. I didn’t see any good in dragging out the sordid details of what had happened in my life before now.

  I turned and headed toward our house, wishing he wouldn’t follow me, but I wasn’t that lucky.

  “Don’t act like it doesn’t matter,” he said.

  I’d decided a long time ago that you were as strong as you wanted to be. I wanted to be carved from stone, so I forced away every horrible memory he was trying to pull from me, refused to let them surface. “Because it doesn't. That’s not the problem with me.”

  “How do you know?”

  Shit. Now what did I tell him? I was convinced the Wood Mist did this to me? Maybe they’d even want to kill me if I got it back. Would he choose Tiffy or his vengeance?

  “Because what I went through isn’t anything new, and it wasn’t a problem before,” I said, and walked into the house and straight into the bedroom, slamming the door for good measure.