The pack moved in two sloppy lines, silent as we followed a path into the forest. Rex took the lead, Ilume and I trailing some feet behind him. Every now and then I’d look at her, but she would never spare me a glace. She was distant today, almost acting like I wasn’t there. It must’ve been because of Rex, or the weird moment we’d had last night. I was still trying to figure out why I had that bizarre, needy feeling when she wasn’t with me.
The woods were alive with bird calls, chattering squirrels, creaking branches, and flowing creeks. It felt like my senses had been flicked to off over the past couple days, for today everything was heightened. I heard the wings of a hawk as it landed overhead, ruffling its feathers. Mice and voles scurried in the underbrush, crunching leaves as they dived for their holes. The scent of wildflowers was more potent than an old lady’s perfume. Where had I been these last forty-eight hours?
The hunter in me took over. In minutes, I had latched onto the traces of a faerie—a dryad to be exact, seeing as she smelled of flesh and bark. Since it wasn’t what we were looking for, I crossed over her tiny footprints. None of the wolves bothered to glance at the evidence.
Several other traces of faerie appeared, along with a scent trail from an elf and some silver pixie dust from a northern sprite. Knowing my nose hadn’t betrayed me since my stay among Otherworlders thrilled me, happy to be back to doing what I was made for. Even though it was for someone who deserved a shovel up his you-know-where, it still made me smile.
We came up on the second hour when I found a dirty, urine and lake water scent. The pack came to a stop, ears perking. Rex sniffed and gave me a look. I read his expression: go find it. Leaving Ilume’s side, the odor took me off the trail. Debris crackled beneath my feet, sticky weeds snagging my jeans. I crushed them the best I could, trying to keep quiet.
It wasn’t long before I found the source of the smell. Imprints in the mud made their way around the trees, either covered with fallen leaves or misshapen from sliding. Bending down, I pulled back a prickly bush.
The hair on my neck spiked.
I stared at the long prints, thinking they were almost human-shaped—only with spindly ends. Their claws were twice as long as a dog’s, the impressions deep in the ground. These were not normal wolf feet. I stood up feeling itchy, unnerved, like I’d just crossed a ghost. It wasn’t what I expected, but I knew it was what we’d come for.
These had to be Jackal paw prints.
I felt a presence behind me. Ilume had followed, sniffing as she examined my find. “Good job, Jared,” she whispered, the first time she’d talked to me since we left the porch. “Can you follow them?”
I could, and I did. Unfortunately, after about twenty feet they disappeared into a shallow creek, and the scent became difficult to track. Rex ordered everyone across the water. We searched several different directions in a failed attempt. Everyone returned to the house for a break and lunch; when we came back we found no more signs of the Jackals. The smell never reappeared and the sun sank behind the trees.
We headed back to the trail.
The next day we tracked for several hours, finding new evidence and losing it to the creek every time. The remainder of the week continued much the same. Tracking the Jackals became my obsession. It was like a treasure hunt, their scent a map to hidden gold. There were pieces missing of course, mysteries that I needed to solve. I knew they used the creek as a walkway, for this explained their missing tracks. Every day we went a little farther, trying to see where the water led. The creek grew wider and wider, although never very deep. Every day I felt it: we were getting closer to a hide out, or maybe even to their headquarters.
The weekend arrived in no time, and suddenly my focus altered. On Friday night, we came home to find a group of other wolves at the house—well-groomed canines with brief cases in their jaws, purses around their necks or on their backs.
My heart stopped. I’d forgotten about the plan.
The hunt for the pack’s enemy had wiped out my idea to disappear. I’d completely forgotten that tonight was the night I meant to sneak out, escape and head home. I knew what way to go now, too, since I’d been introduced to the woods. I could smell fast-food, gasoline, the city lingering in the workers’ tracks.
The hunters raced out of the trees to greet them. Ilume and I stayed behind. She still acted strange, not saying much to me or looking me in the eye when I addressed her. For some reason, it annoyed me.
Why do you care? I thought. You’ll be gone tonight anyway. In a couple months, she and this whole experience with her will be a flicker in your mind.
Plus, once I returned I would have to turn them all in. They were untagged, and a pack this big that PIU didn’t know about—people would flip their lids.
The wolves wagged their tails, licked each other’s faces. They looked so happy. Free.
You could get in severe trouble if you don’t tell.
It was true. I would be withholding information should I decide to not say anything to the government. It was a legal violation. They could expel me from Hunters High, fine me or put me in jail.
Inside, the mansion’s main floor was crowded and loud as families reunited. I managed to slip through them, sneaking upstairs with minimal stares. I went into the bathroom, locking the door behind me.
Moving to the window, I lifted the glass to the roof. Only one question remained: where was the lowest part of the house? I would need a drop point that wouldn’t break my legs. Crap. Well, even without a drop point, there were always the trees. Two leaned in, their branches kissing the mansion’s side. I could climb down.
But do I want to? I ran my hands over my face, thinking about what to do. Tons of Finders had tried to hunt the Jackals, pinpoint their exact whereabouts. No one had done it. If I could find them, I’d have the locations for two untagged packs versus one—I could kill two birds with one stone. PIU would pay huge rewards to know such things about rare Otherworlders.
My heart sputtered. There was something else, too. Something outside of the Jackals that grounded me here. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but a tan face with green eyes kept coming to mind.
What is wrong with you? I pulled on my hair, leaning against the sill. No. No way was Ilume part of my desire to stay. She’d kidnapped me! Sure, I felt bad that she was stuck here with that overbearing dumb ass, but it wasn’t my deal. Not my problem. I didn’t care.
But what if? I left the bathroom, feeling like all my energy had drained out my feet. What if by some weird, twisted chance I did care about her just a tiny bit?
I flopped down on my bed, staring out the French doors. A few dark clouds had hid the sun earlier, but now they covered the entire sky. No orange and pink sunset decorated the balcony this evening—just dull, grey light.
I need a sign. I closed my eyes. Some kind of sign to tell me what I should do.
The bedroom door opened. Ilume glided in, cocking an eyebrow as she spotted me on the floor. “Oh. I wondered where you disappeared to. What are you doing?”
Contemplating escape. “I’m just tired. Not really in the mood for a crowd.”
“Yeah. I know what you mean.” She crawled onto her bed, flicking the lamp switch on. Plucking her memoir off the nightstand, she nestled into her pillows, adding, “I’ll grab you some food shortly. They’re having a party down there. It gets kind of crazy Friday nights, but you’ll get used to it.”
I’ll get used to it. Was that my sign?
A loud rumble echoed outside, causing us to snap up our heads. The sound of splattering echoed off the windows. A flash streaked the sky, lighting up the woods right before the downpour.
A thunderstorm. Rain would wash out the workers’ scents in no time. It would be hard to follow them now, and I didn’t exactly have clothes for this kind of weather.
Ilume smiled for the first tim
e in days. “I love thunderstorms,” she said.
Water cascaded down the iron rails of the balcony, promising not to let up any time soon. It would be impossible to get out of here tonight, I realized. Oddly enough I found that I wasn’t all that disappointed. The opposite, actually—it was like a weight lifted off my chest and I could breathe again.
It might be crazy, but I was staying. Just until I found the Jackals.
“Yeah. Me too,” I said.
Chapter Twenty
Ilume,” I whispered, excitement welling in my voice. My tennis shoes were soaked from wading through the water, and the cool air gave me goose bumps, but it didn’t matter. As I crawled onto the grass of the opposite bank, I could smell it.
It was Wednesday afternoon, and I’d just found the rest of a Jackal trail.
Ilume was barefoot, walking along the creek’s edge. Straightening up, she slipped into the water, wading across the pebbly shore. “What is it, Jared?”
I inhaled deeply, taking in the enemy’s scent. “I found it,” I whispered, walking away from the bank.
A large, spindly footprint appeared in the dirt. One led to another, then another. I grinned, proud of myself. We have a lead. At long last, a lead.
Rex and the wolves were moving grey and black blobs in the distance, scouting the area behind us, unaware of my discovery. Ilume slinked up behind me, staring over my shoulder. Her eyes widened. “Wait here. I’m going to tell Rex.”
“Hurry up,” I said, but I couldn’t hold still. The second she jogged away, I followed the tracks. Might as well get a head start anyway, make sure they didn’t just dissolve into nothingness again—if there was another creek to deal with, I swear. . . .
I walked maybe fifty feet when the trees grew dense. Weaving tighter together, they muffled the sounds of the water. The birds had been singing, but were now quiet overhead. Even the breeze had deserted me. Everything went from lively to still.
I started to feel claustrophobic, when the trees opened up. I stepped into a clearing, keeping an eye out for any movement along the ground. If the Jackals were here, I would go back to the pack. If they gave into chase . . . well, luckily I was the top runner in Training.
A crosswire fence spread out before me, three rows of barbed wire strung tight across its top. Rusty, wrought iron gates divided the fence in half. Chains had been twisted through the bars so many times and in so many directions, they looked impossible to unwrap. This gate was designed to be closed. Forever.
My insides felt prickly; the sensation started in my stomach and moved outward. Kind of an odd place to put a fence, wasn’t it? Who would’ve put this up so far out, and in the middle of the forest? The wolves?
“Whoa,” I muttered, picking up on some noise. Strange. It came from under my feet. Odd scuttling sounds reverberated below the earth, but as quick as they came they were gone again.
Okay, really bad feeling coming on.
The breeze returned. The trees creaked and whistled. A clacking sound made me glance to the side. Yellow signs clipped along the fence swayed with the wind. Taking a cautious step forward, I honed in on the nearest one.
DANGER
NO TRESPASSING
Blue symbols were painted near the sign’s bottom. In the right hand corner, someone had spray-painted a funny two-shape with a curly tail. A black star hovered in the tail’s center, a dot beside it.
It was a Finder’s Mark. I’d learned all about them sophomore year in a class called Decoding. It was one of few classes I actually aced, for the lessons were interesting and our teacher was the awesome young Mr. Flancher. Decoding taught us about Finder’s Marks and Codes (not to be confused with Tagging Numbers). They were sets of letters and numbers that identified Otherworlder rebels. They were used on those being held captive by PIU, on uncooperative beings. They were also used on ferals, on their holding cells spread around the world. You see, not all Otherworlders have human intelligence; some are more like wild animals. Those that are dangerous and cannot be tamed or trained, the government rounds up and sticks in reserves that are out of human sight and mind. Kind of like the nymphs at Siren Lake.
Canada made a great place to station a reserve, especially for this. The curly-tailed two was a Danger Mark. In the sign’s left hand corner I found the code. It started with a HW, which meant high warning. Beside the HW, a bold 25 was written. That meant whatever was behind the gate? There were twenty-five of them. For a second I wondered if it was the Jackals they were caging (had the government caught them after all?) but the code finished off with the wrong initials. If it were werewolves here, a WW would’ve been at the code’s end.
There wasn’t. Three bold letters made up the ending: TDS.
I scrunched my eyebrows. TDS. Crap. I couldn’t remember what that stood for.
“Jared.”
I tore my eyes off the sign. Ilume had arrived. The pack crept out of the bushes, gathering behind her. Oblivious to the bad aura here, they looked more enthused than they had in days, except for Rex.
Bringing up the rear, Rex slipped through the crowd, casually sniffing the air. Without glancing at me—the person who found his enemies’ trail—he followed the scent right up to the gates.
“They went through,” he whispered.
I jumped as skittering sounds came from below again, more this time, the sound growing louder as they moved closer to the surface. Think, Jared, think. Something that lives underground. Something that has the initials T—D—S. Why couldn’t I remember?
Rex’s fingers curled through the chained gates. He stared past the gates at the isolated acre of branches and leaf skeletons.
“We’re going through.” He backed away from the fence, eyeing the pack. “If the Jackals can do it, so can we. We can’t let them get away this time.”
The wolves looked iffy at first, then growled and nodded in agreement.
Ilume’s eyes flicked toward me. “What do you think, Jared?”
The pack quieted. All eyes turned to me.
I hesitated, feeling Rex’s glare. “I think it’s a bad idea—”
“Why?” Rex demanded. “Never scaled a fence before, mortal? Funny. I thought your kind had trained you better.” He smirked.
“That’s not the problem,” I snapped, then jabbed a finger at the yellow sign. “Look. Do you see that funny two with the star in the tail? That’s a Finder’s Mark, and the code on the other end tells me that beyond those gates there are twenty-five dangerous Otherworlders waiting.”
“Where?” Rex held his arms out, gesturing toward the empty space. “I don’t see a thing. Nothing, except a trail that we can’t afford to lose. It already smells old to me. Whatever path the Jackals are following, this one is fading fast. We can’t wait to find another. We go through.”
Rex and I stared each other down as the pack made funny noises, flattening their ears and shifting on their haunches. My words had hit their confidence. They seemed unsure now, like Ilume—whose arms were crossed, front teeth clamped down on her lip. The way her eyes moved between us, it was clear she was trying to pick a side.
“Rex,” she said softly. “The gates are chained shut for a reason—”
“Oh my God,” he sneered, rolling his eyes. “You’re not seriously taking his side on this, are you?”
“I’m not taking a side, I’m choosing by my own intuition—”
“But you agree with little white-bread, American boy here that we don’t cross the fence? That we lose the Jackals’ trail?”
Ilume’s nostrils flared. Her temple pulsed. “I’m saying that Jared is thinking about our well-being while you’re being a stubborn twit who just wants to win,” she snapped. “I’m saying your idea could be risking lives.”
“Oh, and hunting the Jackals isn’t risky business?”
The wolv
es all took a step back, a few sitting down. Rex’s face was tighter than an athlete’s behind. His hands curled into fists as Ilume went into statue mode, not moving or faltering under his glower.
No one noticed me when I started. Once again, I was caught up in the noise below the ground. An Otherworlder who stays primarily underground. That was why the clearing looked so untouched, so empty. Whatever had been trapped here was a dirt dweller.
Trapped. Wait a second. TDS.
“Fine.” Rex grumbled then spun toward the fence. Sticking one callused foot in the wire, he stated, “I’m going over. If no one joins me, so be it. However, Ilume, should you decide to I’ll make you a deal. You might want to listen to this, mortal.”
Trapped. Trapped. Reluctantly, I looked at his royal wolf-assness, still thinking about that word.
“If you come with me, Ilume, as should the alpha female when she is asked,” Rex paused, hoisting himself up the fence. He climbed quicker than a monkey, like he did this every day. “If we find the Jackals’ headquarters, I will grant your pet, Jared, freedom. He can return home to his life as a Finder, so long as he’s monitored and swears to not reveal us to anyone.”
My thought process crashed. I soaked in the alpha male’s words. Freedom. Did he just say he would offer me my life back? My life, in exchange for finding the Jackals? I could get out of here alive. I would see my mom, Jess, Peter.
Too bad I didn’t trust him. “You’re full of shit, you know that?”
Rex chuckled. “Fine, mortal.” Sliding easily under the barbed wire, he dropped down to the other side with a light thump. “But note that I will not make such an offer again, and it is true: not one troublesome mortal to cross my path has lived.”
Now he’s threatening me. I rolled my eyes, shaking my head. What a jerk.
Ilume stepped forward. She narrowed her eyes. “Do you mean it, Rex? If I go and we find the Jackals, will you let me set him free when this is over?”
Predator Girl (A Paranormal Romance) Page 11