“Nanuk is a stubborn old bear.” Saskia mumbled against the child’s head as she hefted him in her arms more securely and kicked the glowing rock ahead of her. Not that the kid weighed much at all, but with her hip, she didn’t want to stumble with him.
Every one of her senses was on high alert. Walking carefully, prepared for traps, she started after Sedge. Any second the Jinxioc could return. Trapped in the cave, they’d be slaughtered.
“Girl bear.” The boy’s whisper was barely audible, but it made her smile for a few seconds.
“Yup, that’s me. Every bit as stubborn too.” A wind swirled down the corridor letting her know they were closer to being outside. So close. “If any time on our trip back to the village Nanuk and I have to turn into bears, don’t be afraid. We won’t hurt you. We’re here to protect you.”
And she wouldn’t fail him this time.
Moonlight dimly lit the rock walls ahead. So close, but she didn’t rush herself. The crunch of snow told her Sedge had left the cave.
Distant drips in the cavern and the creak of trees in the wind. Natural sounds for a place that sheltered Unnaturals. Where were the little fuckers? Not that she wanted to fight them right now, but Sedge and she had waltzed into their den and taken their prey. If the Jinxioc were around, they’d have attacked by now.
Saskia’s breath caught in her throat.
The man had been in rough shape, and the boy in her arms was on the small side. Food was running low. The monsters had left on a hunt.
Oh shit, the village.
“Sedge!” Saskia rounded a craggy bend to find him standing at the entrance of the cave.
Sedge didn’t look back at her. His whisper came tight and urgent. “Come here.”
What the hell? She was moving as fast as she dared. Why did he stop?
Light snow fell and sparkled under the silver rays of the moon. She held the boy close as she hurried to Sedge’s side. “We need to get back fast. The Jinxioc are on the hunt.”
“Look.”
He still hadn’t moved. Saskia frowned and followed his gaze to the right between two birch trees. Under the moonlight, the skinny trunks and limbs appeared as phantoms of trees from long ago. They bent slightly toward one another, framing what stood under them.
The little people waved to her from on top of their fox. They were still here. This was exactly what they wanted. Saskia grinned and wiggled her fingers in greeting to them.
The fox pranced in a circle and then trotted into the woods. It flicked its tail and glanced at Sedge and Saskia as if saying ‘come on!’
Saskia didn’t need any more of an invitation than that. “Let’s go.” She ignored the stiffness in her hip and jogged to catch up. She bent her head to whisper to the child. “The little people have come back. They’ll see us home safely.”
“They’re going in the wrong direction. Kuci is to the east.” Sedge strode beside her.
“Maybe they’re taking a roundabout route to avoid the Jinxioc.” Saskia had no doubt of the little people’s intentions. With their help, two people had been rescued. That was twice as many survivors as she had expected.
Sedge huffed and said nothing more. Though he wasn’t the type to go roundabout anything. He took the straight path and dealt with whatever was in his way. Good thing Azarius taught her there were other ways to doing things.
The ache in Saskia’s hip grew as they continued to walk. The snow was deeper in some spots than others, and with the rocks and fallen trees, she had to move her injured body in ways it wasn’t quite ready for. She uttered not a peep about it. There was a boy in her arms who needed to be back with his family. A child she needed to make certain got there.
Twenty minutes later, they emerged from the trees to overlook a great field. The pristine snow shone and made her squint against the brightness. The fox leapt into the shimmering field and disappeared momentarily under the snow. It popped up five feet away and shook the snow from its fur. The little people no longer rode on its back.
Where did they go?
About forty feet away, a second fox jumped out from under the snow. It wiggled, tracking something, and pounced, vanishing again.
To her left, a third fox. Then a fourth. A dozen. Hopping and diving into the snow.
“What’s this?” Sedge grunted and blew a hard breath out of his nose like a disgruntled bull.
“I don’t…” Saskia gasped when she spotted it. A necklace around the neck of one of the foxes. It disappeared in the snow before she could point it out. “The totem. It’s the fox token.”
Sedge lowered the man on his shoulders to the ground, keeping his coat tucked around the still unconscious fellow. “Where?”
“To the right about forty feet… There!” Saskia laughed as she saw the fox pounce again. There must be a feast of mice under this snow or this was one hell of a show. Whichever way, she doubted it was going to be as easy as plucking the necklace off a frisky fox. It was a game.
Sedge stepped onto the field, and all the foxes froze. Becoming still, he waited until the foxes started jumping around again. This time when he walked forward, none of them stopped.
Of all the horror Saskia had seen in the cave, this was refreshingly comic. She knelt and kept the boy on her lap. “Look at the foxes. Have you ever seen such a silly thing? I bet they’re going to frustrate stubborn old Nanuk really quickly.” She caught sight of the totem again. “To the left now!”
Sedge turned and ran, but the fox was long gone by the time he got there. He spun, searching for the token, and when he saw it toward the middle of the field, he raced to it only to find it had moved again. “Dammit.”
“Behind you!” Saskia shouted, not disguising the amusement in her voice.
Sedge dove for the fox and came up empty-handed. He growled and swatted at the pile of snow he’d made. “You could come out here and help me.”
“But you’re doing so well on your own.” Saskia chuckled. Feeling a small shudder from the child, she peered at him within her coat to see a smile. If Sedge only knew how much more he could endear his people to him with a laugh rather than a bellowed command.
Ignoring her, Sedge ran to the left. Looking in the other direction, thinking to see the fox with the totem on popping out behind him, she instead spied a fountain of blood. One of the Jinxioc had a fox by its scruff and tore open its throat.
“Sedge! They’re here!” Saskia screamed as the boy curled into a ball in her coat and cried for her not to let them get him.
No. Not now. Not when they were so close to getting the token and returning the boy and the man to their village.
“Get out here! Help me get the totem!” Sedge yelled. A black blur raced toward him. He dodged to the side, grabbed the gnome, and used its momentum to fling it into a huge pine. Without pausing, he dug into the snow, swiping at and missing a fox’s tail. “Saskia, now!”
They needed the fox totem. The fate of all shifters rested upon it. Maybe she could hide the boy, but even as the thought entered her head, the screech of an oncoming Jinxioc decided for her. “I have to protect them!”
Saskia stashed the boy between her legs, and in the same instant, shifted into her bear form. The withered gnome leapt at her. She caught it with paws and jaws. She tore it three different ways and tossed the remains over the fresh snow.
“The totem is more important! Get out here now!” Sedge roared as he transformed and smacked together two Jinxioc that attacked him.
The little bastards were slinking in from all sides of the field. The foxes interested them just as much as Sedge and herself. What would happen if the Jinxioc got the token? If their speed, strength, and cunning had already been increased by the totem’s proximity, would they become unstoppable?
A gnome lunged for the unconscious man, and Saskia whacked it away with her paw. She nudged the boy closer to the other victim, but a Jinxioc jumped onto her back and bit into her shoulder. She cried out as she raked it off and pounded it into the ground.
When she turned her head back again, three Jinxioc had dragged the man halfway into the woods as they gnawed on his arms. A fourth hopped onto his stomach and ripped it open.
Saskia stumbled back. Not at the gore, but the vicious manner in which they took the man’s life. The child still bawled. His terror rang through to her very bones. She would not leave him. No matter how important that token, how the lives of every shifter in the world depended on the totem pole being reassembled, she refused to let the Jinxioc take him.
Two more gnomes snarled, mouths twisting and shark-like teeth glinting, and ran at her. She pinned one to the ground and tore off its head as the other reopened the wound on her hip. Fucker! It knew just what it was doing. She spun and hit it so hard it flew into its companions still feasting upon their latest victim.
Standing over the boy, she twisted her head to see Sedge hammer another Jinxioc with the body of its dead packmate. Six, seven, ten more circled around him.
Together, the two of them would be able to handle that many, but she couldn’t leave the child. Though her heart screamed otherwise, she had to trust Sedge to have the power to take care of himself. The boy needed her more.
When the Jinxioc leapt on Sedge, swarming him, a coughed sob escaped her. Fuck. Please, no. Her heart twisted, making it hard to breathe.
A few more of the little monsters got their claws into her sides, but she crushed them with her paws. Yet those digging into the man’s guts decided their feeding was done for the moment. Blood dripped from their mouths as they stalked Saskia and surrounded her like a pack of wolves.
She dared a quick glance at the field just as Sedge fell.
Her silent scream echoed in her head. There was no one left between the boy and the Jinxioc but her. She’d fight them off until her last breath, which didn’t seem very long now.
Sedge had fallen. The totem was lost. Saskia stood, swaying to one side and then the other. She heaved with every breath. The foul blood in her mouth reminding her work was not done.
She’d kill one Jinxioc and another would take its place. Roaring, she milked out another burst of adrenaline and slid in the slushy snow with another hit but managed to keep her footing and not step on the boy.
Wrapped head to toe in black, Death lurked in her periphery vision. She had a minute, maybe two. Would it make a difference for the child in the end? Not likely, but she couldn’t not fight. She would give every ounce of her life for this boy. Funny how she didn’t even know his name.
His family never spoke it. Not after they believed him dead. Superstition.
Saskia raked her claws through another gnome’s abdomen and jabbed another one in the throat, throwing it backward.
How desolate Aujaq and his family had looked mourning their boy. And when they found his body, if they found it, it would be worse for them.
Flattening a squirming Jinxioc against her chest, she crushed it with her arms and bit its jugular. She dropped its still twitching body into the bloody snow.
Would it be the same for her family? Saskia had been gone for many years training to be a Black Shaman. She missed Kinley and Ametta growing up. They were coming out of their teen years when she returned. And her father, Saskia and he had been close before her mother passed away. Only in the past few years had they started repairing that bond.
One thing she knew for certain, Azarius would hunt every last Jinxioc down and wipe them from the face of the earth. If only he were here to whisk the boy into the sky and carry him to safety.
Saskia sank her teeth into the side of a kicking gnome and rent him apart. She spit out its meat and was nearly flattened onto the ground when three Jinxioc climbed onto her back. Her legs quaked. It took all her strength not to fall and crush the boy.
One went for her hip and another her shoulder. She howled as a river of blood cascaded down her neck. Death crooked a thin finger at her.
A war cry rang out from the trees. Every Jinxioc lifted their head and turned toward the noise.
No. Not one shout. Several.
The people of Kuci burst into the field. Spears and machetes in their hands. A burst of light in a storm.
The tribe came, but how? And did it matter? Her heart sang and rocketed to the sky, only to plummet swiftly toward the ground.
The Jinxioc flowed toward the humans in unison like a flock of birds. With her attackers off her, Saskia stood and nearly toppled to one side.
There were more tribesmen than Jinxioc, but they were just human. They didn’t have the speed or strength, and three of them fell under the feral wave fast.
An explosion rang in her ears and then another. No, gunshots. She gave a whoop like a cough and steadied herself. Together they just might defeat the Jinxioc. She didn’t have to do it alone.
A massive roar shook her ear drums, and Sedge rose onto his hind legs. He was alive!
Blood matted his fur, and he seemed more a crimson demon than a polar bear. At his full height, he stood nearly twelve feet tall. Carved as he was by teeth and claws, he tore into the Jinxioc as if he had no injuries at all.
A wave of energy zipped through her. Sedge was alive. They could do this. This time when her heart flew, nothing pulled it down.
One demented gnome with a gash on its left cheek dared to come back to her and dove to reach for the boy. Saskia snapped it up by the neck and whipped it back and forth. Bones cracked as it howled. She didn’t stop until it was silent. Dizzy, she fell onto her side, splaying her legs so she had them on either side of the boy.
The boy who still cried. Scared but alive.
She dropped the dead Jinxioc as the world went momentarily fuzzy and shifted back to her human form. Cold snatched her, and she had enough sense to conjure clothes.
A cheer sounded. Victory.
Saskia couldn’t lift her arms or shout with them, but her heart sang in celebration.
Death passed by out of the corner of her eye wearing a new necklace. A fox charm gleamed in the center of his chest. Walking with unnatural speed, he didn’t even look her way as he disappeared between the trees.
She fell onto her back and closed her eyes. No one else would die today.
The boy’s mother wailed when she spotted Aujaq carrying their son—whose name was Pakak—into the village. She ran and threw her arms around them. They sank to the ground and held one another at the edge of Kuci.
Saskia bit her tongue to hold back the rush of emotion. She’d held out and protected the boy in the woods. The price of victory had been steep, but seeing the family embracing one another reminded her it was worth it. Even more so, it reminded her of how much her family meant to her.
Aluki, Silaluk, and Dave hurried forward to embrace the rescued boy. The whole tribe gathered around, huddled together, laughing and weeping simultaneously. Praises went out to Nanuk who was greeted with much affection. Great loss and victory. A pair to make any sane person sound crazy.
The sun hadn’t risen yet, but morning was near. The snow coating the village seemed so white compared to the killing field they’d just left.
Needing meat and sleep, not necessarily in that order, Saskia forced her legs to keep moving as she ducked behind a cabin. She’d walked all the way back. Only because she didn’t want Sedge to carry her. He’d helped with the bodies of the warriors that had fallen. Those men deserved the honor of Bear caring for them.
Would it have been easier to have been off her feet? Yes, but Sedge was almost in bad as shape as she was. She assumed that just like her, he didn’t want the humans seeing just how terrible their injuries were.
And to have him hold her after believing him lost, the comfort of his strong arms… It was a yearning she pushed deep down within her. The tribe needed him more than she did, and she refused to take him away from them even for a minute.
Now where was Aujaq’s cabin? All the little homes looked alike.
Using walls for support, Saskia walked on until she saw her pickup. Yes, the one with her truck out front. Dammit. She was going
to have to get a new set of tires. It would be hell dragging them out to Kuci.
Such a mundane worry. She snorted and entered the house.
Closing the door behind her, she went down on her knees in front of the stove. She stoked the embers and added a few logs before crawling to the furs.
She should be out there celebrating and mourning with the tribe. And it wasn’t as if she didn’t feel their joy and grief. They truly deserved Bear’s blessing.
And Sedge was alive. Her stomach did an odd flip and wiggle. A weird and lilting pant escaped her. Did she just laugh?
Sleep. She just couldn’t go anymore. Never in all her days had she been this exhausted that even the pain from her wounds couldn’t keep her from seeking rest.
Saskia didn’t even bother with her clothes as she slipped under the hides. She lay on her uninjured side facing the wall and smiled to see the small table and chairs. Whispering a thank you to the little people for helping save Pakak, she closed her eyes.
She snapped her eyes open five seconds later when the door opened. All she wanted to do was sleep.
Sedge’s scent wafted in with him. Bear, blood, and intoxicating masculinity. “Saskia.”
She didn’t turn, but instead closed her eyes again. “I need to rest. Go away.”
The door closed with a click, but he hadn’t left. He lowered himself down behind her and lifted the furs. “You need to be stitched up.”
“Not now,” Saskia groaned and buried her face against the soft fur. She didn’t have the strength to endure his heavy-handed doctoring. “It’s clotted. It’ll be fine. I just want to sleep.”
The heat and hardness of his body pressed against hers from behind as he lay down. He wrapped an arm around her middle just under her chest. His breath was warm as he nuzzled the back of her neck.
Saskia should tell him to fuck off, but it felt too good. The tenseness in her muscles eased, and her injuries seemed to throb less. He didn’t push it either as his body settled against hers.
Cloak of Snow (Totem Book 3) Page 7