“And what are the chances that Creed has been there already?”
“I’m guessing about fifty-fifty. The guard’s liable to know nothing useful so he might have decided to skip over an unnecessary kill. But then again, I haven’t known him to ever miss an opportunity to exact a bloody revenge on Shifters for daring to live.”
“Well, in his defense – not that I agree with him – he believes that all Shifters are responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent children whose only crime was being born with a genetic abnormality.”
“I guess he’s not wrong.” Dannon let out a low sound that Jaelle guessed was some sort of pondering hum. “I wasn’t always blind, you know. Had a bad accident when I was a pre-teen. My parents were told to drown me, as I’d never be able to survive as a Shifter without night sight.”
“Isn’t that decidedly illegal?”
“Is now. Wasn’t when I was younger.”
“Wait a minute. How old are you?” Sure, the blind man had some age lines in his face and plenty of scars along his arms and hands, but he couldn’t be older than forty.
“I haven’t exactly been keeping track but I would guess… I dunno. Maybe around sixty. Sixty-five?”
“What? Are you kidding me?”
“Hey, you know the phrase, honey. Black don’t crack.”
Jaelle let out a scoffing sound. “Yeah, I’ve heard of it, but I thought it was like most idioms.”
Javi sputtered beside her before finally breaking into a long laugh. Dannon joined him and all hope for Bradley staying asleep was lost.
“Hey, what’s going on in here? Did I miss a good joke?”
“Just me,” Jaelle muttered. Despite her glum tone, she was actually quite enjoying herself. She had never had a circle of friends before. People to go on a road trip with, or hang out together and throw back a couple of beer. “I’m the joke.”
“If that’s so, why aren’t you laughing?”
She rolled her eyes at that, but the pleasant feeling remained. After so much somber melancholy it was a welcome bit of levity. Who knows? She might be able to get used to a life like this, even if it was a short one.
She just wished she could call David and tell him she was doing all right. But she also knew that she couldn’t. One syllable from his lips and sure she would go running back to him, putting him in danger, bringing death to his doorstep.
“Speaking of terrible joke,” Javi said. “I heard this one at the gas station.”
“That’s it,” Dannon said. “I’m turning the walkie off.”
“Hold on,” a new voice came over the line and Jaelle guessed that it was Micah. “I want to hear it.”
“All right, so two birds walk into a bar—”
Jaelle turned her attention back to the road, just basking in the ambiance of it all. Sure, they were probably heading toward death again, but hey, it couldn’t be worse than fourteen Wendigos.
She hoped.
Chapter Eight: Recognizing the Pattern
Jaelle never thought she would get to the point where ‘only a day’s drive’ was hardly any time at all, but that was the boat she was in.
Or Jeep, rather.
She ended up driving the rest of the night and the first part of the morning, giving Bradley the break he deserved to seriously zonk out, as well as rest his hands. Not for the first time, she was grateful for her Shifter healing ability, lest she get carpal tunnel from gripping the wheel so hard for so long.
However, the leader of their ragtag little pack was back at the wheel as they grew closer to the outpost. Interstate turned to highway, highway turned to road, road turned to off-roading trail. Just when the GPS was counting down to the last fifteen miles, a bit of a chill went down Jaelle’s back.
After everything that she had experienced, she knew better than to ignore her gut feeling. Something was wrong, even if she didn’t know what it was yet.
She snapped her head to the window, looking outside for any sort of clues. But there was nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
Squinting harder, she searched for several more seconds before grabbing the walkie.
“Hey Dannon.”
“You called?”
“Tell me what you’re hearing right now.”
“This some kind of test?”
She let out a growl. “Just tell me what you hear.”
“Our car engines are getting close to needing an oil change. Javi chewing on something like a goddamn cow in your car. Micah’s stomach rumbling like it’s having a regular party.”
“And that’s it?”
“Yeah, why? Why am I— Oh… oh you’re right.”
“What’s going on here?” Bradley asked, turning off the cruise control. “Wanna clue us in?”
“There are no animals. Anywhere. We should be able to hear birds chirping, squirrels fighting, some sort of predator hunting. But nothing.”
“Stop the cars,” Bradley said without hesitation, slowing down and pulling to the side. Once everyone was in park, they all piled out and gathered around the Jeep’s hood. “So,” Bradley said cautiously, his arms crossed. “You think this is a trap.”
“Definitely,” Jaelle said with a nod. “Even with the Wendigos there was some noise. Sure, it was reduced, but it wasn’t like all the animals were completely silent.”
“So, what are we thinking then? More Wendigos? Another gang? A gang of Wendigos?”
Jaelle shrugged. “How am I supposed to know that? I just recognized that the landscape is ridiculously quiet. This is a kinda swampy area so there should be insects, birds, the works.”
“What do you think?” Dannon asked. “Seems like this would be the time to scout ahead.”
“Normally, I would agree with you, but normally we have a full troupe of at least ten men and plenty of supplies.”
“Well, what do you suggest? Going in blind is liable to end up with one or more of us dead just as much as sending a scout forward on their own.”
“I’ll do it,” Jaelle said with a bit of a sigh.
“Um, the last time we sent you to scout ahead, it didn’t exactly work out so well.”
“Last time I was bait and we were trying to trick gangbangers into following me that were already warned that we were coming. All things considered, I think we did pretty well.” They still didn’t look like they were buying it. “Come on, guys. We all know that Creed doesn’t want to kill me and has gone to some pretty great lengths to make sure I don’t die. Can any of you say the same about yourselves?”
“She does have a point.”
“Exactly. I do, don’t I?” She crossed her arms and did her best not to look nervous. “So, let’s cut to the part where you guys realize that this is the best course of action and we can get to the part where I fly overhead.”
“But with all the animals gone, won’t it be real obvious when a lone one flies over the outpost?”
“Probably. But if Creed’s already been here, everyone will be dead or whatever is waiting there will already know we’re coming. Either way, I don’t see myself tipping off anyone who will matter.
“Besides,” She allowed herself the tiniest hint of cockiness as she continued. “I have a bit of a plan to get as close as possible before zipping through in the bird’s eye view.”
“Oh, yeah? What kind of plan is that?”
“You’ll just have to wait and see.”
****
Jaelle scampered forward, her heart going a mile a minute because, well, that’s what a mouse’s heart did. Normally, she would never dare to cross such a large distance as a tiny prey animal, but she knew that she didn’t have much to worry about. She couldn’t sense another living thing for miles, and that just made her all the more nervous.
Even with the Wendigos, there had been animals a couple miles out. Stressed animals, obviously, but animals, nonetheless.
But now there was just…nothing.
She tried not to let it get to her and hustled alo
ng. It was hard to pass by all the yummy food just laying around, waiting for a little nibble, but she persisted.
Hunger seemed to be the running theme for her as of late, and she tried not to think about her time in a Wendigo’s skin. She needed to focus on the task at hand.
She paused to sniff at the air. She was close to the edge of the outpost. She could smell the day to day town scents like oil, sweat, gas and exhaust. But… there was something else there. Something she couldn’t place with her rodent’s nose.
Well, time to get a better view.
She slid into her human form as quickly as she could, hunkering close to the earth so no one could spot her – just in case someone was alive to look – then pictured the bird she had in mind.
Her body shrunk, none too happy about it, and she grew lighter and lighter until she was practically a feather. Well… a few feathers at least.
A streak of shimmering vermillion, she darted into the town. She zipped through the streets like a breeze, her little mind observing anything and everything around her at an impossible rate. But that was probably because she was an impossible animal; her mother had always said hummingbirds were more fairy than avian, and Jaelle still found that to ring true.
The only downside, the tiny little hummingbird body needed food almost instantly. She could push herself, but even if it only took her two minutes to zoom through the town, she would still need to stop, lest she lose her form.
There, to her right, a flower. She zoomed up to it, sticking her needle-like nose in before drinking deeply. While she satiated the needs of her near-vibrating body, her mind stretched out, searching for anything living.
Just like the woods, there was nothing. And although her bird vision wasn’t quite like human vision, she didn’t spot any corpses, either.
That hadn’t exactly gone well the last time and her apprehension started to rise again, before she noticed that there was no blood. At least that was an improvement.
Unless vampires were suddenly real now and had drained all the outpost citizens of their vital red liquid then tossed the bodies to the Wendigos. Now, that would be a crossover that Jaelle wanted nothing to do with.
She would have shaken her head if she still had it, and told herself to focus again. Finishing up her feed, she flitted off again through the streets.
The closer she got to the center of the outpost, the more signs of battle that started to pop up. It started with a few busted out windows, before progressing into doors ripped from their hinges, and then entire vehicles flipped over.
Geeze. Whatever had happened, the town must have sounded some sort of alarm and gathered someplace they thought was safe, just to have whatever they were running from appear in the midst of them. That sounded like a Creed tactic if there ever was one. She just hoped he didn’t leave any surprises for her or the rest of the Hunters.
Seconds went by slowly, her wing flapping dozens of times within each breath. She reached what looked like a modern-day panic-room blown up to building size, but it was covered in scratches and scorch marks.
Fire? Now that wasn’t very Creed-like. Sure, he had set an outpost ablaze to free her, but that had been a special circumstance. Also, she didn’t know how much of that was intentional and how much of it might have been caused by people trying to fight him off.
Unfortunately, the entrance was completely closed. Not something that would be a bother to her normally, but definitely not something her hummingbird body could handle. Settling down, she transitioned back into her human body.
She stood there a moment, stock still as she listened and scented for any sort of attacker. After about a solid minute, when she was absolutely sure that nothing was around, she stepped forward and inspected the door.
While she certainly wasn’t as adeptly trained as the Hunters, she knew a few basic booby traps to look out for. Wires, trips and the like. But as far as she could tell, it was a regular ol’ doorway.
Surely, it at least had to be locked?
She stepped forward cautiously, slowly turning the knob. She wasn’t sure what she was expecting more, for the bit of metal to electrocute her, or for an onslaught of Wendigos to come barreling out. As it turned out, neither happen. The door just clicked in the lock and slid open with a slight squeak.
“That’s convenient,” she murmured, taking a cautious step forward.
She wished she had never taken that step.
The moment she was truly inside of the room, the smell of blood came barreling down the hall so thickly that it made it hard to breathe. She coughed against the cloying tang of iron, copper and piss, pulling her shirt up over my nose.
She tread forward with all of her senses on high alert, or at least as high as it could be considering her eyes were watering and her stomach was threatening to revolt at any moment. The room was dark, so it took several moments for her eyes to adjust. At first, she saw nothing, just blackness. But then she realized it was another wall, and in the center of it was a jet-black door.
Jaelle had already done the slow and cautious thing with the first entrance, so this one she kicked in with gusto. If she thought that the smell was bad before, it tripled, and she flinched away. Her eyes shut on their own, tears welling up as coughs wracked her body.
It took her several minutes to contain herself, acclimating her senses to the onslaught of unpleasantness. And when she finally opened her eyes to take in what was causing the scent, she promptly lost all the contents of the last meal she had ate beside the door.
When she was done, she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and stood up, looking over the carnage. There were dozens upon dozens of bodies crapped into the small space, all of them in various states of dismembered. Jaelle could tell from the wounds and the blood spray that none of the torture was performed post-mortem, meaning that these people died terrible, drawn out deaths.
Their eyes all seemed to stare at her, lifeless, bloodshot orbs that felt like they were accusing her of something. After all, she had met with Creed twice and had done nothing to stop him. If she had, maybe all of these people would be alive today.
But still… she couldn’t just leave them like this, huddled over each other and bleeding like it was a mass grave. They deserved so much more.
And suddenly, Jaelle understood the trap. It wasn’t some sort of deadly set up. It was playing on her morals. Would she stay, and give these people the burial they deserved, or would she walk out of here and tell Bradley and his men that there was nothing in the town? Creed was playing her, but she was willing to bet that he was the type who would want to stick around to see which path she picked. Which meant he couldn’t be that far away.
It was still within him time limit, wasn’t it? So, she still had her window to tell him her new and improved plan with three hundred percent less killing. That would be an amazing turn of luck. However, it was one thing to ask the Hunters to check their morals and work with her, but another thing entirely to ask them to team up with the same Aberrant who’d led them on a murderous, blood-soaked trail across the entire continent.
So, what did she do? The truth, or a carefully constructed lie?
Eh. She had never been one for telling stories.
She was shaking with repressed heaves as the left the room and rejoined the outside. Somehow, she managed to keep it down and instead focused solely on the long, quiet walk back to the others.
“You’re back,” Bradley said, looking relieved once she came into view. He jumped down from the top of his Jeepand jogged to her, although he slowed down once he seemed to be close enough to catch sight of her expression. “You all right?”
“Yeah,” Jaelle breathed.
“So, is there a trap?”
“Yes, but not in the way you’re thinking.” She collected herself to steady her voice. “He massacred this entire outpost. Every single person. And he shoved them all into a room to rot together.”
“Why? What’s the point? And if that’s all he did, why would that clear
out all of the animals?”
“He did it because he wants to see what we’ll do. We can either bury them and give them their last rights, which will lose us a day, maybe even more. Or we can leave them here to decay together and continue on our mission.”
“What a petty thing to waste time on. What does it matter?”
“Well, its information, and the greatest thing you can have on your enemy is info. The more you observe them in different situations, the easier it is to predict their patterns and beat them.” She crossed her arms, trying to warm herself against the inky coldness that was spreading through her. Probably the after-effects of her fright wearing off. She wouldn’t be surprised if she was in a mild state of shock. “If we leave them, he knows that we’re putting him as our first priority over everything else. If we stop, he knows that there are things more important to us than him, like the health, safety or dignity of others. He knows what he can and can’t exploit.”
“So, what’s the right answer then?” Javi asked. “I feel like you’re saying the first one is, but I can’t let those people just turn into Shifter soup in a room out there. It doesn’t seem right.”
“No, it wouldn’t be and I’m not asking you to,” Jaelle said slowly. “I wouldn’t leave them behind either. But—”
“There’s always a but.”
“The reason the animals all cleared out is because there’s a predator here they think is dangerous. And who’s the most dangerous predator that any of us know?”
Bradley’s face darkened, and his jaw took on a determined. “Creed.”
“Exactly. He’s still here because he wants to see exactly what we do and how long we debate on doing it. He wants to see if we’re unified, or a fractured mess that can be separated further.”
“You already have a plan,” Dannon said, a certain dryness to his laugh. “You’re just telling us all this to be polite. You know exactly what we’re going to do.”
Jaelle shrugged. “I want to see what you guys think first.”
“I think we should hear your plan. You’ve gotten us this far.”
“I think we should bury the bodies. Then, at night, I’m going to leave while you all sleep and walk as far as I can.”
The Aberrants Box Set (Books 1-5) Page 30