The woman cursed softly. That should have stopped it. These animals were tough, and she knew it. Swinging her rifle again, she just missed landing another solid hit with the Winchester repeater. Nearby, her ears picked up a similar curse from Lijuan as she came under attack.
Notoriously short tempered even in the best of times, Lijuan snarled back at the little bearlike creatures as she brought her hammer down from where it had been raised over her head with the full force her muscular arm allowed. The lovely Chinese woman had scored a blow to a creature’s shoulder staggering it, but it managed to regain its footing. Tough little bastards for something that looked like a cross between a bear and some type of overgrown weasel, she thought, allowing a modicum of respect. It was going to take a good solid blow to lay one of these things low.
"Yeahhh!" Lijuan cried out swinging sideways with her beloved hammer. She connected squarely with the beast's face and side of the head. She heard a loud crack of bone, and it flopped on its side, growling and convulsing in the snow with its red blood staining the whiteness in a circle around it. "Got one! The first kill goes to me!" Lijuan shouted not even making any attempt to hide her unbridled glee. Still, on guard against the wolverine pacing back in forth in front of her, Honor Elizabeth still managed to shoot her older sister a look.
“I was not given the note that a fight for our lives was a contest. You must forgive me!” Lijuan ignored the sarcastic barb and brought her hammer up again at the ready.
"Alright, sis!" Catalina cried out, having no reservations about how Lijuan wanted to declare her victory. If anything, Lijuan's success gave Catalina some hope, and she swung her whip, again and again, cracking it over the head of the wolverine bent on taking her down despite one of its eyes being swollen shut, and its stubby ear was torn from the lash of her whip. With a jerk of her wrist that came from the many years of practice since her uncle Hector had first taught her the way of the whip, she brought it to bear against one of the critter's sides causing it to howl, and it backed off.
Regrouping, it came in low from her left. She had hoped to try to strangle it by looping the length of the whip around its neck, but she mistimed her loop, and it leaped at her. Only the most artful of dodges saved her as it missed, but it still managed to land a swipe at her, tearing through the fabric of her winter coat, the tips of its claws digging into her shoulder. Like bursting fireworks pain shot through her, and Catalina dropped her whip. The animal's momentum continued to carry it forward, and she used that to her advantage to scramble to get her whip back in her hand.
“Peppercorn?” Cassandra’s voice was heavy with concern having watched the mauling her little sister had just taken.
“That’s going to hurt in the mornin’! Actually, who am I kiddin’? It hurts somethin’ fierce right now! Looks like I got me another scar to add to my collection,” she gasped through gritted teeth as she got her weapon up. “Good thing we’re all ambidextrous,” she muttered to herself, taking her whip up in her other hand. The pain in her shoulder was sharp and slowed her movement with that arm.
“Are you going to be all right?” She heard Cassie shout, who wasn’t putting any stock in Catalina’s bravado.
“Yeah, I’ll be okay. My coat took the worst—HEY LOOK!’ she called back.
Cassandra's momentary distraction emboldened her wolverine that had been pacing back and forth waiting for the right moment to strike and it charged at her again. She recovered quickly enough to swing her rifle again, smashing the stock against the side of its head, but it managed a glancing strike as one of its paws swept across her right calf. Through her clenched teeth, she failed to stifle a yelp. "Damn that hurt!" It made yet another charge at her. Cassandra gripped the end of the barrel with both hands and raised the Winchester above her head. When it came down propelled by all the strength that she put behind the strike, she cracked the thing's skull down the middle killing it instantly.
“Take that you little beast! Draw blood from me, will you? Right back at you!” Cassandra snarled, and Cat threw her a glance with a fierce grin. Despite her shoulder pain, it was a rare and welcome treat for her to see their leader who was usually the portrait of calm, cool and collected let her hair down for once and blow off steam.
Honor Elizabeth, having just heard the voices of her strong and victorious sisters, twirled her knife between her fingers, gripped the hilt tightly and brought it down in one fluid motion at the wolverine that was making its own charge at her. A guttural roar burst from the wolverine as her Bowie handily sliced open the other shoulder of the violent creature. It rolled over on its feet as she let loose with her knife in a quick horizontal slash across its throat. Getting in its last licks, one of its paws shot out flailing, but only two of the tips of the claws hit home, slashing through her clothes, leaving twin vertical scratches on her thigh. Honor staggered backward, but moved right back forward with a limp, kicking the dead animal over. The ground around them was getting slick with the slushy red snow, and she had to fight the sickening feeling it was giving her.
"Another down!" she shouted listlessly, still unhappy the pack had forced them into a fight to the death. Honor considered herself a learned woman, and the opportunity to view a species like this she had never seen before should have been a thing of wonder. Instead, it was kill or be killed, so the choice had been made for her.
"Nice work, Honor!" Cassandra shouted back, always happy to encourage her sisters, especially when they had placed themselves in danger like this by coming along on her missions at her request. She swung at another of the beasts, and it jumped back, then forward. Cassandra kept her gun moving as she would a staff, twirling and flipping it around to confuse the animal. Its jaws snapped relentlessly away, its paws swiping madly through open air.
“You’re one determined son of a bitch, aren’t you? Then take this!” she growled and took another swing with the rifle. The butt of her long gun came down on its neck and the resounding crack that told her it would not be getting up again.
“Another one down here!” she called out.
Meanwhile, during Cassandra's battle, Catalina had started swinging the thick handle of her whip as a weapon at the wolverine that had injured her shoulder. It was too long, and the animal was too close to her now for her to entirely make use of her whip the usual way. The handle was hard leather around a steel handle, special made. She smacked it against the side of her opponent’s head. It bellowed in pain and lunged sideways, not seeing Honor Elizabeth with its eyes swollen shut. The afternoon sun glinted off Honor’s blade as she brought it down to finish the bloodthirsty creature off.
"Teamwork, eh, my sister," Catalina called out to Honor Elizabeth. Nearby, Cassandra felt pride in her younger sisters and then refocused on the attack, hearing a growl from Lijuan, who was in the middle of becoming very frustrated.
The animals kept dodging back out of reach, and it was annoying her. She kept her eyes open and on guard until one came in low and she was ready. As it leaped up, its jaws wide open intent on ripping out the pale, yellowish flesh of her throat, she timed it perfectly. A direct hit with her hammer into its glistening snout collapsed it like an accordion driving splinters of bone into its brain. Lijuan gave a cry of victory as it died instantly, crumpling to the ground on its side.
“It’s dead!” She added her count to the others.
“We just might get out of this alive. So glad you came with us, Lijuan!” Cassandra called back, always the motivator, making Lijuan sprout the same grin she had given as a little girl on the rare occasions she had drawn praise from her older sister. In those long-ago days, the two children had been estranged over Cassie’s jealousy at Lijuan’s sudden addition to the family. To this day, as strong and as fearsome of a woman as she was, Cassandra’s approval still carried such considerable weight with her. Though, of course, she would never admit that to anyone save her beloved brother, David, whom everyone called Dutch.
Lijuan's kill should have been the end of it, but the fight had pushed
them back to the very edge of the clearing. Suddenly, a wolverine that had been sitting out the conflict emerged from the big tree next to Catalina who had her back to it. Its only mistake had been snarling and alerting her to its presence. Moving quickly and relieved to see that it was the apparent runt of the litter, this time she was able to succeed in looping her bullwhip around its neck.
Giving it a savage kick, it fell over on its side, and she threw the handle of her whip up and slung it over a low hanging branch. Leaping up, she grabbed the dangling handle with both hands and dropped down on her heart-shaped ass all the Wilde sisters had been blessed with along with their notorious endowments and hourglass figures. Screeching and bellowing, the wolverine was yanked into the air where it struggled, its claws swiping at the bullwhip it was being hung with but to no avail. In less than a minute the form grew limp in the stillness of death.
Letting go of the whip, she watched the body drop to the ground as she struggled to her feet. Her three sisters, she saw, were looking at a final wolverine that had also remained hidden on the other side of the clearing. It was loping across the open ground at full speed through the snow.
“We’re not doing this. I say this ends now,” Lijuan said looking from Cassie to Honor Elizabeth. As it closed on them, she flipped her hammer once in the air, caught it and threw it striking the advancing wolverine’s front leg. It yelped out in pain and did a one hundred and eighty-degree turn fleeing with a limp back towards the forest from which it had come.
“Whoohoo!”
Catalina gave a war cry that echoed through the forest, as she pulled out her pistol from under her coat and raised it in the air intent on firing off a shot in a victory celebration.
“Stop!!” all three sisters yelled at her, their eyes wide with panic.
Catalina looked up guiltily at the still raised pistol over her head mortified that in the heady moment she had forgotten the reason they hadn't merely shot the attackers in the first place.
“Oops,” Catalina said sheepishly.
Not long after leaving the scene of their near-fatal encounter with the wolverine pack, they emerged at last from the tree line with the summit of Verde Grande coming into full view. For just a moment Cassandra looked back the way that they had come. On the left was the tree line they had just emerged from and to the right was a sheer drop she guessed to be about thousand feet. Making it even more menacing looking were the four jagged rocks at the edge of the cliff rising like macabre fingers reaching out from a snowy grave.
Now she turned her attention to the steep terrain rising above them. Cassandra held up her hand for them to stop, and with her other hand pointed upward with urgency. They looked and saw emerging from behind a boulder, a figure many yards up the slope continuing to make his way while clinging to a rifle.
“Downey.”
"I for one would like to know how he made it past those wolverines," Honor huffed as Catalina shook her head in agreement. "Too bad they didn't get him and save us a whole passel of trouble!" Catalina said as she let the coil of rope she was carrying drop to the ground.
Lijuan drew the rifle she had slung over her back and took careful aim at the fleeing killer. “Cattie, we could end this right now. Remember the railroad told Uncle Nate dead or alive. It doesn’t matter. Dead works for me.”
Annoyed, with a flash of her arm Cassandra reached out and grabbed the barrel. “Put that long iron away! You want to bring the mountain down on us?” Wrinkling her nose, Lijuan did as she asked. “I wasn’t going to really shoot, but hell that might be preferable to fighting hungry wolverines and this unending slog through a frozen hell. I should be back at Cedar Ledge right now preparing for that cattle sale to old Man Garcia down in Mexico in a few weeks.”
Cassandra looked back at her in frustration. It had been two days since the chase for Downey had entered the high mountain ranges of Arizona, and still, they were unable to catch up with him completely. This was the closest they had come yet. The exhaustion of the chase and their near-fatal encounter with the brood of wolverines hit home the hardest when she looked into the face of her youngest sister, Catalina. There was barely a trace of the usual exuberance on display from the perpetually cheerful half Mexican woman. Then there was Lijuan, the smallest of them all who had been struggling mightily with her short legs to keep up with them in the deep snow. She had, in fact, trailed somewhat behind the group. This had to end here and now. Cassandra knew it was time to play her card to end this.
"All right … I'll tell him what we know, and maybe we can get him to stop."
“Now that I like the sound of,” Lijuan snorted in the thin air.
It pleased Cassandra to see Catalina’s face brighten as she spoke, “I sure as sugar hope you’re right. This little desert flower needs to be gettin’ back to the heat right quick! I wasn’t made for this cold!”
Cassandra felt a twinge of guilt run through her. She was the only one of the four who was officially an agent of their uncle, the Arizona territorial governor. However, whenever she called on them to help, the trio always stepped up without hesitation … even Lijuan. Cassandra knew her sister reveled in running their family's ranch and always hated to be away from their business affairs but could 100% be counted on to be with her when she needed her. In the thick of things, Lijuan was absolutely someone you wanted to have at your side. She smiled to herself as she thought of how their complaining would inevitably creep in as it had now, but in her heart, she knew the bickering was all blowing off steam … they would always have each other’s back … all for one and one for all.
“You ladies know I appreciate your help … all of yours. Let’s end this and get our little Cattie back to somewhere that sunshine isn’t just for show but has some warmth! What do you all say?”
With a laugh, Honor replied, "I think I speak for all of us that a Wilde always gets her man, so let us see about getting this scoundrel up the slope."
Cassandra made the rounds to each one of them patting them on their shoulders through their heavy coats. Then she turned and looked at the fugitive continuing to move away from them. She was about to shout to him when Honor grabbed her wrist.
“Your shouting is not going to set off another avalanche, now is it?”
Cassandra had considered that as well, but it was simply a chance they were going to have to take, she told the group before turning and cupping her hands around her mouth.
“Downey!! Listen to me! Give it up! There’s no point in you running! There is something you have to know!” Her voice echoed throughout the mountains, but it had no effect on the snow and ice. Neither did it have any effect on Downey who continued his relentless trudge.
“Your partner gave up where you stashed the gold from that train robbery. Even if you elude us and double back to Prescott there won’t be any gold for you there!” she continued and was pleased to hear a murmur of happiness from her sisters behind her as the man halted and slowly turned to look back down at the group and shoved the butt of his rifle into the snow.
“Why haven’t you bitches given up chasin’ me? Most men folk woulda stopped by now! If you think lyin’ like you just did is gonna get me to surrender, you got jack for brains!”
"No lie, Downey! Bert Newell is sitting in jail having sung like a canary!"
“Consarn you! You’re lyin’ you wench! Newell would never tell where it was hid!”
She let loose with the rest of it, only wishing she could see his face up close. “He was caught by the sheriff in Carlyle Springs. You two killed five men on that train. He cut a deal to avoid the gallows by turning over where the gold was. You surrender now, and maybe we can help you make a deal!"
"How you figure that you she-devils?!" the contempt in his voice was like a thing alive.
“My father is Judge William Henry Wilde. I might be able to convince him to have words with whatever judge handles your case … maybe we can get you a life sentence at Claymore Prison!”
They all found it strange to hear his
laughter flowing down the slope.
“I’ve served time in Claymore Prison and others like it. I’d rather swing from a rope than go back there! No deal! Can’t believe you was tryin’ to get me to give up with that bait! I swear to God, women are only good for two things … cookin’ or fu-”
She was tired, bone tired from the hike up this mountain and bone tired from this ass and she cut him off. “There is no way out for you! Give it up. We will catch up to you eventually!” she snapped.
For well over a minute the man just stood there like a statue. She knew he must be considering all his options. It was a very short list, and they both knew it. Whatever he said next, she had a feeling this was it. Finally, he spoke, his voice sounded equally tired if not outright defeated. Cassandra immediately became on edge because there was nothing more dangerous than a man with nothing left to lose.
"You're right, aren't ya … there isn't any way out is there, bitch? And now with that money gone there ain't nothin' to live for. It was gonna see me to the end of my life of crime. I was gonna get me a nice hacienda down on the Baja free from the long arm of the law … all that's ash now, isn't it?
The women tensed as he yanked the rifle out of the snow and pointed its barrel at where they stood down the slope. Instinctively all their hands except Cassandra’s moved for their own weapons.
“Don’t draw on him, girls!”
"He shoots at me, and I'm firing," Lijuan snarled as her fingers wrapped themselves tightly around her rifle ready to bring it to bear in a heartbeat. Next to her in a low voice Honor said what they were all wondering. “What is he thinking? He cannot possibly get us all before one of him blasts him.
The words barely left her mouth as Downey suddenly swept the gun skyward, and Cassandra knew his gambit … suicide and he was going to take them with him.
The Reaper 0f The Rio Sangre: Special Edition HBH Version (Half Breed Haven Book 10) Page 2