Dog Eat Dog World: Limited Edition Bundle (Black Dog)

by Hailey Edwards

  We dashed behind an old inner tube rental station, and he let the glamour drop and then shook off the alkonost aspect. He leaned against the wood and caught his breath while I allowed my sight to adjust to the faint glow from the streetlights. A quick scan of the area for hidden threats came up empty, but I couldn’t shake the sensation of eyes on us. Maybe it was simply awareness of our vulnerability wreaking havoc with my nerves, but I didn’t think so.

  A few deep inhales brought me a hit of the one-two punch combo that signified the pontianak’s presence, and I homed in on her scent in the hopes it was her gaze I sensed boring into my spine. The tinge of sweetness that dissolved into a sour aftertaste. She must have been one of the last to leave, that or she had been a straggler who returned home from a mission to realize home was no longer where she’d left it.

  “I can scent her.” Instincts on high alert, I trailed after her until I reached a decaying concession stand dappled with circular stickers boasting attractions from the park’s heyday. A quick search provided more evidence to support she had been here, and recently. Empty water bottles littered the floor, and packets of junk food crinkled underfoot. She’d made a cot from faded souvenir T-shirts ripped to shreds. I might have excused it all as litter had her potent scent not lingered at the mouth of the bottles and the edges of the bag. The bed provided the strongest proof. It reeked of her, a source so potent I had no trouble cataloging the smell so that I would recognize it if I crossed it again. “She must have crashed here before moving to the next location. Was she checking off a list of known hideaways do you think, or was there a hint left to guide her?”

  “Any clues would be subtle, so only the right people could interpret them. Nothing stood out to me, but this place is wrecked. It’s hard to pick anything out of the ordinary when you’re talking about a themed water park.”

  Wishing I could summon my wolf, I resorted to allowing her to climb to the forefront of my mind to guide me. She put my weaker, human senses to use, and soon we had cut a path to an old water slide that dumped into an empty pool. With my back in its current condition, no way was I about to pull an Old Dell stunt by jumping in feet first and crying out, “Jesus take the wheel” as I plummeted into a concrete basin without my wolf to haul me from the brink. I just hoped that meant Level-Headed Dell had a plan.

  “We need to get down there.” I sniffed the tube, which the pontianak had used. “For all we know, this might have once led to somewhere other than what exists now, a shelter that’s dissolved since the magic is fading.” I turned that over in my mind. “There are no crisscrossing paths. She arrived near our access point where I first smelled her, and she came here. The scents are exposed, so they’re bound to deteriorate faster, but I have a gut feeling she came here and then doubled back to the concession stand for the night before exiting the same way.”

  “Do you think she simplified her route on purpose?” He examined the tube for clues but found none. “It would make more sense to circle around and leave a complicated scent trail.”

  “I agree.” That would be the smart thing to do if she was worried about a tail. “That’s why I think she got here, noticed the decampment, and then came straight to the source. This must have been either a meeting area or a predetermined information-drop location. Whatever she found convinced her to spend the day and move out the next night. She didn’t waste time or energy searching. They were already gone, and all their belongings went with them.”

  “Give me a second.” He blew out a slow breath then adopted his alkonost aspect long enough to fly us down to the dry concrete liner of what was once a massive, rectangular pool. “I’m just going to…” His legs buckled, and he hit the cement on his butt. “No. It’s fine. Finish your search.”

  I sniffed the perimeter and didn’t catch another whiff of our mark, who I had decided to nickname Flower. I took my time so Isaac could recover. As much as I hated to go back to him empty-handed, I had a whole bunch of nada to show for myself.

  “Whatever she found wasn’t down here. I picked up no traces of her.” I stared up at the slide. “Which brings us back to the tube theory.”

  “I’ll fly you up there, and you can climb in. I’ll block the exit in case you slip.”

  “Are you sure?” I indicated the far wall. “There’s a ladder over there. We could climb out, haul ourselves up on the platform and then lower ourselves down the slide.”

  “This way will be quicker.” He shook his head, his hair slicked back, damp with sweat. “I’m getting the shakes. I’ll have to power down soon. We need to do this fast and get back to the RV.”

  The ascent was slow, and my gut clenched imagining impact with the concrete below if he dropped me. In our current conditions, I wasn’t convinced either of us would survive, and Tiberius was no help. He was stuck in the RV. The best he could do was call for help that would come hours or days too late.

  The smooth interior of the slide made gaining traction difficult. The gloom wasn’t helping matters either. More than once, I lost my footing and slid down to get caught by a hovering Isaac and shoved back up the tube. Finally, I reached the point where Flower’s scent was strongest and started examining the rounded sides. No handy map with an X presented itself to me. There was no graffiti to decipher and no indication a key or cypher had been taped in place for easy pickup except for a slight tackiness that might have come from one of the kid stickers dotting the park.

  “I don’t see anything,” I called. “I’m climbing out, okay?”

  I didn’t want to risk adding my weight to his again, so I dragged myself up and out of the mouth of the opening. He waited until my feet were back on solid ground to join me. When he sank to his knees to rest, I pressed a stick of jerky from my personal emergency stash into his hand.

  “Eat,” I ordered him. “We still have to make it to the RV.”

  Isaac ate.

  Pawpaw took me to the fair every summer when I visited him and Meemaw. Once we had watched a sword-swallower gulp down his weapon by tipping back his head and sheathing the blade down his throat. Isaac had the same method down pat. I was impressed.

  “Do you want to check the concession stand again?” He waved off my hand, no doubt concerned about adding pressure to my spine, and shoved off the concrete and back onto his feet. “I could use a short break before we make a run for the RV.”

  “Take a seat over there.” Forlorn chairs cozied up to empty tables as though searching for the warmth of patrons long past. “I’ll be right back.”

  I jogged to where Flower had bedded down, relishing the chance to stretch my legs, and conducted a thorough search of her sleeping area. With the exception of the trash, which fit the rest of the park’s décor, all I found was a single match with a large sticker wrapped around its base. I brought it to my nose, smelling cordite and…plastic. Was this what she had uncovered? If I folded the sticker flat, would it match the sticky spot inside the slide? What did the match mean?

  When no other clues presented themselves, I made my way back to Isaac and offered him my find. “It’s not much, but it’s all she left.”

  A frown puckered the space between his eyebrows. “I’ll need to see the list again to know for sure, but there’s something…” His lids fluttered, and he swayed. “I don’t feel so good.”

  Before he could topple off his barstool, I wedged my shoulder under his arm and cinched him against me. A twinge of pain protested the act, but I tamped it down and hustled toward the exit. I had made my peace with revealing ourselves—and the RV—in order to reserve his strength, but Isaac had his pride.

  “This is going to be quick and ugly,” he warned me. “Tuck and roll if I fall.”

  Swallowing hard, I watched him struggle to assume his feathered visage then shake in the throes of a near seizure to get his invisibility functional. He gripped me with enough force his talons drew blood then jerked me into the air in a half-hop that terminated in a jumble of scraped knees and scratched elbows on the other side.
/>   “’kay?” he mumbled.

  “Come on, handsome.” I wedged my shoulder under his arm, hefted him onto his feet, and we hobbled along together. “Almost there.”

  Using every drop of strength I had left, I hauled us into the RV and dumped Isaac onto the couch beside Tiberius. The teen grunted in annoyance but otherwise made no comment. I sank onto the floor at Isaac’s feet and face-planted in his lap. Operation Payback was put on hold, though. There was nothing sexual in the fact my face was jammed in his crotch. I was just too damn tired to move.

  “Do you require privacy?” A clipped note of disapproval entered Tiberius’s voice.

  “I require juice and food times two and maybe help into a chair.” The denim of Isaac’s pants muffled my sarcasm. “Do you think you can unplug and help with that?”

  “You only had to ask.” He set the tablet aside with obvious reluctance then gathered me in his arms in an awkward hold. I was too tall and too top-heavy for him to handle with his usual elegance. But he got me positioned next to Isaac on the couch and then went in search of fuel to recharge us.

  Light snores brought a tired smile to my lips. Isaac was out cold. Poor guy. He had pushed himself too far today. It looked like I wasn’t the only one who had trouble with hard limits. Reaching over, I pulled off the night vision goggles, tracing the pink outlines around eyes shadowed by exhaustion.

  “Will this suffice?” Tiberius presented me with a juice box of apple juice, a few blocks of cheese, grapes and a handful of nuts. He must have gotten into one of the prepackaged snacks Zed had stocked in the fridge. “Will he be eating as well?”

  “Yes.” As much as I hated to wake him, Isaac had to get some food in him. “Please, can you bring me another plate?” To take the edge off asking a royal to serve me, I sweetened the deal. “I’ll give you access to the pack’s line of credit and spring for some in-game purchases.”

  His sour countenance brightened. “I was eyeing this round, blue fruit that appears to conjure lightning storms to electrocute zombies.”

  Of course, he was. First birds and pigs, now fruit and zombies.

  I made appropriate noises of agreement while having no clue what he meant then nudged Isaac awake and forced him to chew and swallow his small meal. He choked once on the juice, which perked him up enough to help me get him to the bedroom and stretched out on the mattress.

  Since his phone was a mystery to me, I had no GPS to guide me as I pulled the RV into traffic. The best I could do for us was locate an isolated stretch of private beach with a long driveway boasting No Trespassing signs every half mile. I parked there, powered down and paid the prince his bribe. Trusting his new acquisitions, whatever they were, would keep him out of trouble, I joined Isaac in bed. I didn’t climb in so much as I flopped backward, blacking out before I absorbed the pang of discomfort.

  The moaning of zombies chased me into oblivion.

  Chapter 19

  Seagulls were calling dibs on clams uncovered by distant waves by the time I woke, but Isaac hadn’t budged an inch. His fatigue was familiar to me. I endured the same burnout each time I swapped places with the wolf too often in a short timeframe. As much as I hated to wake him, we had a job to do and five days left to do it before the pack expected us home. Four, really, if you considered the time required to make the drive back.

  Stretched out beside him, I tangled my fingers in his hair and listened to him breathe. I shut my eyes and drew strength from him the way I might from the pack bond. It was odd being tied so tightly to another person instead of a collective, but it was a nice kind of odd.

  Taking pity on him, I left him snoring fit to please a hibernating bear and ventured into the kitchen to fix breakfast. I fell into the easy rhythm and let my mind drift. An hour later, I plated up cheese omelets, bacon, home fries made with potatoes fresh from the Stoners’ garden, bacon, pancakes and more bacon. I even made drop biscuits. By the time I woke Isaac, I was in full-on domestic goddess mode and contemplating the merits of fresh-squeezing my own orange juice.

  “Hey,” Isaac mumbled, turning on his side and hauling me close. In retrospect, perhaps climbing on the mattress wasn’t the best way to convince him to leave the bedroom. “You smell good. Like greasy food.”

  “Well, I am a Southern girl. Most of our comfort food requires the liberal application of butter or Crisco.”

  “Mmm,” he agreed, stomach rumbling as his belly got on board with the plan. “Let’s eat.”

  Sleep and his earlier snack had done him good. He zipped to the table and left me in his dust.

  Tiberius elected not to join us. He took his meal on the couch and asked around a mouthful if he could have more gold coins. I agreed while hoping he didn’t mean that literally. It was hard to tell with fae and even harder to tell with royalty.

  Conversation was reduced to forks scraping, light smacking and the long groan I released at the end before flipping open the top button of my jeans. All this convalescence had made them a tight fit, and the morning’s indulgence wasn’t helping. My figure would be in danger of resembling an Oreo if not for my supernatural metabolism.

  While Isaac cleared the plates and loaded the dishwasher, I located the file on the Bloodless. I was flipping through the pages when he joined me smelling of dish soap and chlorinated water.

  “Give me half.” Isaac accepted his stack and started thumbing through them. “That match jarred my memory about a notation on one of these pages.”

  “We don’t know for sure that was the clue.” As the words left my mouth, I spotted an address and grinned at him. “Matchbox Avenue.” I tugged that paper out and skimmed. “There’s an empty grocery store, part of that chain that went bankrupt a few years back. The address is in Orange Beach.”

  “Let me check something.” He pulled out his phone and got to work. “I thought so. Orange Beach is only fifteen minutes away. Want to check it out?”

  “Sure.” I curled my finger so he leaned over the table. “If you tell anyone what I’m about to do, I will deny it, and you will never see me naked again.”

  “You’re a warg. I’m going to see you naked a lot, and I look forward to it.”

  Point to him. “Okay, fine. You’ll see me naked, but you can’t touch me.”

  “What could be that bad?” He cocked his head. “You’ve done some crazy stuff, Dell. What’s worse about this—whatever this is?”

  I plopped down in the passenger seat and lowered the window. He took the hint and got behind the wheel, guiding us down the private drive and back onto the main road. I waited until we passed the old water park to stick my head out the window, and he was lucky the air whipping around my head muted the sound of his guffaws.

  Due to the early hour, he was able to keep the speed low. That meant I could track Flower’s scent that much better and also got fewer bugs in my teeth. That was a win in my book. Her scent both tantalized and repulsed me in equal measure the entire length of the trip. Meaning she had walked the distance, an unheard of feat in this day and age.

  As I understood it, the king’s relocation effort meant the bulk of this army had once been enslaved in Faerie, so it fit. Modern transportation must be terrifying for those sheltered fae to behold. Not to mention ride in or drive. Walking, by comparison, was safe, familiar. The time it must take her to wander from place to place also explained how she had gotten left behind in the first place.

  Between my nose and the GPS, we located the shopping center with ease. I almost wished we hadn’t.

  The whole area had gone to seed. The grocery store was a massive eyesore, but it had plenty of company on either side. Depending on the size of the army, they wouldn’t have to do much creative space manipulation with this much room at their disposal. We rolled to a stop before the sliding glass front doors, and I tested the air.

  “She was here, and not long ago.” Though she hadn’t lingered on the cracked sidewalk. “I can’t tell if the trail dead ends at the door, or if it’s faint because she left soon after
she arrived.” I leaned forward, scanning the storefront for signs of vandalism or surveillance. “How do we get in?”

  “We should go around back. Typically outfits like this have a few exits in the rear along with cargo bays for unloading supplies.” He pulled around to the rear and killed the engine. “We won’t have long to figure out how to get in until we draw attention to ourselves. There’s nowhere to hide out here, and they could be making use of the existing cameras.”

  “I doubt it.” Flower’s aversion to cars got me thinking. “These fae are Faerie stock. Slaves. Most would have had access to few amenities, let alone luxuries. Branwen might have recruited more Earth-savvy fae to help during the acclimation process, but I’m betting this is a low-tech operation out of necessity to keep the Bloodless calm.”

  “I hadn’t thought of it that way,” he admitted.

  “That’s because you can’t imagine life without technology.”

  “You’re wrong.” A shudder rippled through him. “Sometimes I have nightmares about solar flares and the death of the world as we know it.”

  I patted his shoulder. “I wouldn’t let you suffer. I’d pull your plug too.”

  He covered my hand with his. “You’re a good mate.”

  “No, I’m a liar.” I cast him a pitying stare. “You’re my zombie apocalypse buddy. Well, Faerie apocalypse seems more likely. You don’t get to curl up and die if the Internet goes down or we lose power. I’m not going to be widowed the first time you press a button that won’t power up.”

  Blue eyes, snatches of summer skies, stared mournfully at me. “I thought you loved me.”

  “I do love you.” So much I wasn’t sure I could live without him.

  The shiver that walked up my spine left me cold. No. I could survive him. I was strong enough not to tie my worth, my purpose, into another’s life. I had to be, or I would never be my own person.