Thud-a-thump.
Thud-a-thump. Closer.
Thud-a-thump. Almost here…
I lunged for the grappling two-legs. I sank my teeth into my enemy’s arm.
Thud-a-thump. So close…
My enemy swung his other arm, hitting the side of my head.
Darkness.
“Jack! No!” Without thinking, I crawled out from under the wagon and lunged for my dog. My lips retracted, and an inhuman snarl crawled up my throat as I wrapped my good arm around his limp body.
Our attacker paused, halfway to his feet, and cocked his head to the side. “She-drifter…” He watched me, but not for long.
The sound of hooves pounding on earth drew his attention, and he snapped his head to the side. My mind was linked with his, and I could hear him ordering the horse to stop.
Wings trampled him without hesitation. He fell, bones crunching under her hooves, and she turned, rearing up and stomping on him a few more times for good measure. She snorted and tossed her head, then met my eyes. “Protect herd.”
I nodded. “Protect herd.”
I loved my herd—my pack—humans, horses, dogs, goats, birds, and even the wild animals I spent time with only fleetingly. But I’d never loved them as much as I did when I saw them spread out in the dark field behind Wings.
There were still several enemy two-legs, skulking in the cloak of darkness…laying wait. I could sense them through the animals and could still feel the mind of one just beyond the opposite side of camp. I’d heard a bevy of gunshots and shouting while I’d been in Jack’s mind, but only a few had actually hit home. Our attackers’ tactics were too wild, too unpredictable, and it seemed it was far too dark for my people to be very effective with their guns.
As the mountain lion neared, I warned her to leave the horses alone while I let them know the predator was a part of our herd, at least for a short time.
More gunfire. Another shout. An inhuman, human snarl.
I dragged a limp Jack closer to the wagon, where Ky was kneeling next to his brother’s body. I swallowed roughly, forcing back a wail. Ben…was gone. But I had to focus. Mourning could come later; we didn’t have time for that now.
“Zo!” I whisper-shouted. “Keep Jack safe.”
She tried to hand me my knife, but I pushed her hand, knife and all, back under the wagon.
“Protect them,” I told Cooper before I stood and faced Wings.
She was prancing nervously, eyeing the graceful, deadly creature slinking closer.
“Thank you for coming to our aid,” I said to the mountain lion.
She was huge, far larger than either Cooper or Jack. She sat on her haunches and opened her mouth, emitting a soft, almost purr-like growl. “Your enemy is my enemy.”
I nodded. “Come,” I said, both to her and to Wings. I turned and led them around the back end of the wagon, toward the heart of our camp, picking my way across the uneven ground carefully. “Don’t fire,” I called ahead as I touched the single enemy mind I could sense. “Which one of you is pack leader?”
“I am, she-drifter.” He was on the opposite side of the ring of tents.
“Stop attacking.”
“Your pack-mates killed three of mine. Only one thing could make us stop.”
I assumed he meant killing us all. “And what’s that?”
“A female, she-drifter. You.”
Surprised, I blinked. And then I smiled. If he wanted me, then he could have me. “Fine. Deal. Gather your pack. I will come to you now.” Of course, I never said I would come alone. “Jason?”
“Yeah?” he said from almost dead center inside our camp.
I continued forward, shifting trajectory slightly and aiming for where I’d heard his voice. “They’ve agreed to a ceasefire.” As I entered the circle of tents, Wings remained outside, but the mountain lion trailed after me. I could sense my other human pack-mates’ eyes on me, on her. Soon I was standing in front of Jason, my hand resting on his forearm and my eyes scanning his moon-shadowed face.
But he wasn’t looking at me; he was staring at the mountain lion flanking me.
“Ben…he’s dead,” I said softly. Pain and sorrow were overshadowed by the absolute need to protect the rest of my herd—my pack. This had to end.
Jason’s eyes shifted to me, grazing over my face before traveling lower, scanning the rest of my body. “Zoe and Sarah?” His voice was barely a whisper.
“They’re fine. Everyone else?” I glanced around at the shadowed forms of our other companions, barely visible as they crouched within the circle of tents.
“Jake’s wounded.” Jason nodded toward the ground, toward a smoking body.
I focused on the man’s charred face, and for a moment, I feared that it was Jake’s.
“That one took a chunk out of his arm when he dragged him in here, before Carlos got his hands on him,” Jason said, and I exhaled in relief. “What’s going on?”
“I can speak to their leader—telepathically,” I said as quietly as possible. I hesitated. “They’re like me,” I told him, holding my head high and keeping my gaze steady. “So is he.” My eyes flicked to our attackers’ prey, huddled in by the flameless fire pit in the center of camp. “They agreed to stand down if I went with them.”
“No.”
“Jason…this has to end. Ben’s already dead. He’s dead.”
“There’s no fucking way you’re—”
I dug my fingernails into his arm, wishing they were claws. “I agreed to go with them, but I didn’t say how long I would stay with them.”
Jason shook his head. “I’m not letting you—”
Irritation flared, and beside me the mountain lion stood, lashed her tail, and roared. I offered him a small, sad smile. “You can’t stop me.”
Starlight glinted in his eyes.
“I have a plan, Jason. Trust me. Please.”
He didn’t respond, so I released his arm and pushed past him, but he grabbed my wrist before I’d taken two steps. “Don’t fucking die.”
I grinned. “I wouldn’t think of it.”
Nobody else tried to stop me while I moved through camp. I could hear Jason speaking to the others behind me, too far away and his words too hushed for me to make out what he was saying.
“Be ready,” I told Wings.
“Protect herd,” she said. “Protect you. Destroy enemy.”
When I reached the leader of the enemy pack, he and his remaining companions stood, one by one. There were four of them in total, and they were all male and of various ages, as far as I could tell, and the leader appeared to be the youngest, a tall, sturdy man in his prime.
I stopped a few yards away from the leader, my feline guard still at my side me. “Here I am.”
“She-drifter,” the leader said as he stepped forward. He moved closer, until he was standing less than a foot away from me, and my blood turned into liquid nitrogen, then lit on fire. His face, though shadowed, was one I would never forget. It was the last thing Ray had seen before he’d snapped her neck.
Shock. Recognition. Rage. “You.” A sound started, a low rumble that was nowhere near human. The growl was coming from me, from somewhere deep inside my chest, born of a sudden, desperate hunger for vengeance. “You killed her.”
The man’s eyes shone with awareness of what he’d done. “Had to get your attention. You belong with us. With me.”
My growl ceased, and a grin spread across my face. Anticipation melded with my hunger for vengeance. With my lust for blood. “Do I? Then take me away from here.”
The pack leader returned my grin and held his arm out for me to walk beside him…away from my old pack. “We will worship you.” He touched his hand to my lower back, and I fought the urge to twist around and tear his arm out of its socket. It didn’t matter that I was far from strong enough to accomplish such a feat, the desire still swelled.
I walked with these strangers, this small pack of apparently wild men, for minutes. When we were halfway
to the tree line, when I was certain that we were far enough away from camp that all of my people would be safe, I spoke to Wings. “Now.”
Thunder filled the air.
The earth quaked under the beating of dozens of sets of hooves.
And as I slipped out of my body, the mountain lion pounced on the pack leader.
I was Wings.
I led the herd, racing through the night toward our enemy. Close.
So close.
There.
I skidded to a halt while the rest of the herd stampeded onward. I guarded her body from the horses trampling the rest of our enemies, guarded my predator-ally while it tore into the enemy leader.
Rearing up onto my hind legs, I screamed in triumph. The battle was done, and the enemy was no more, nothing but lifeless flesh, bone, and blood under our hooves. We won.
~~~~~
I made it back to camp less than ten minutes after I’d left, feeling numb, both mentally and emotionally. My feline companion had already gone her own way, returning to her regular routine of nocturnal hunting.
The horses, however, moved as a mass behind Wings and me, clingy in their post-fight euphoria. They remained just beyond the ring of tents as I, alone, entered camp.
I felt exhausted, wrung dry of energy and emotion. “It’s done,” I said hollowly. “They’re dead.”
Jason strode toward me, closing the distance between us in three steps. His arms wrapped around me so tightly I could barely breathe, but at the moment, I didn’t really care. I wanted him to hold me like that, suffocate me with the strength of his relief, for all eternity. Possibly longer.
Seconds later, he set me back on me feet. His mouth covered mine, his lips gentle, but demanding.
“Why couldn’t you fucking warn us?” Ky shouted, and the kiss ended abruptly. Jason and I turned our heads in time to see Ky stalking toward Becca. “My brother is dead. You see the fucking future. What the fuck is wrong with you? You should have warned us! You should have fucking warned us!”
Jason and I exchanged a wary look.
“Back off, Ky,” Harper said, stepping in front of Becca and blocking her from Ky before the irate man could reach her and do something really stupid. “It doesn’t work like that.”
Jake joined Harper in shielding his sister.
“I didn’t know,” Becca said, a tremor in her voice. “I swear it…I do.” I’d never heard the chronically composed Re-gen sound so distraught. “I’m so sorry about your brother, I—”
Ky threw his hands up in the air. “You know what? Fuck you.” He pointed around Harper at Becca, then aimed his finger first at Harper, then at Jake. “Fuck you and you.” He swept his arm around in a broad, sweeping gesture. “Fuck you all, very much.”
Jason took a step toward him. “Ky—”
But Ky flung his hand up, turned, and stalked out into the night. “I’m taking Ben. I’m done with all this bullshit.”
Again, Jason and I exchanged a look, bafflement this time. “He’ll be back,” I said, my chest clenching.
“Yeah,” Jason agreed.
But neither of our voices contained any amount of certainty.
A dog barked, a second joined it, and I felt Jack’s mind as he and Cooper trotted into the ring of tents. My eyes closed, and I exhaled in relief. At least Jack was okay.
16
ZOE
APRIL 28, 1AE
Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, Nevada
It was the dead of night. Ben was dead, Ky was gone, Becca had practically been assaulted by Ky, and a piece of Jake’s arm had been torn off; sleep was the last thing on any of our minds. Well, except for Dani. She was exhausted after melding with the minds of the animal battalion that had come to our aid.
Sitting by the fire, I tried to collect myself. My mind had already felt a little fried after sneaking in a quick, headache-inducing electrotherapy session with Gabe and Carlos early today. And after I’d seen Jake’s arm—a bloody mess that needed tending—followed by the mental replay of the wild man who’d literally torn a piece out of him with his teeth, it was all I could do not to burst into hysterics.
Other than questioning the guy who’d been fleeing from the pack of wild men, a middle-aged man named Ralph, Jason hadn’t said much; his concern for Dani had become all-consuming. My concern for her was heightened as well, but for another reason. What’s to stop Dani from becoming like them? I knew she’d been drifting more and more, and now that I’d seen some of Ralph’s memories, I knew Dani wasn’t safe…from herself. Even as she lay inside her tent, trying to sleep, I could feel her mind drifting.
Hearing Jake’s rumbling voice behind me as he thanked Carlos for frying the man who’d gnawed on his arm, I glanced over my shoulder at him. I could see that Jake’s sleeve was dark with blood, and I knew someone needed to look at the wound. Harper had taken a walk with Becca, trying to reassure her that there was nothing she could’ve done for Ky or Ben, leaving me a sorry standin.
Whether it was overexertion or his body actively regenerating itself, I could feel Jake’s exhaustion, prompting me to head over to the chuck wagon. I dug around inside one of the cubbies for the medical kit I thought had been crammed in there somewhere. I was considering where else it might be hiding when I finally found it behind a stack of paper plates and napkins.
Ready to put on my nurse cap and attempt to look like I knew what I was doing, I turned back toward the fire, my gaze automatically gravitating to Jake, who was still standing with Carlos by his tent.
I made my way over to them, then stopped a few yards away and waited for their discussion to end. When Carlos noticed me, he nodded in my direction, and Jake turned around. I held the medical kit up and gestured toward the fire that was ever present in the center of our camp. It wasn’t usually blazing in the middle of the night, but tonight was obviously an exception.
After Jake dipped his chin in acknowledgement, I headed over to the campfire to find a place for us to sit. I knew he was different than the rest of us, that he could heal faster than everyone else, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t in pain or that he didn’t need to take care of himself.
Plopping down into an empty folding chair, I anxiously waited for him to join me. Mase had built the fire to roaring, and its flames would provide ample light to tend Jake’s wound. Losing myself to the sound of crackling fire and the undulating flames, I thought about how many other times he’d been injured, about the memories I’d seen of his burned body…
“This seat for me?”
My gaze slipped away from the mesmerizing pull of the fire and met Jake’s. He offered me a lopsided smile, but it wasn’t reassuring. I could feel his exhaustion even more acutely with him standing beside me and could see it plainly enough on his face. He needed rest.
“Of course,” I said, leaning forward in my seat. “Now, how are we going to do this?” I asked, holding up the kit again as he sat down.
Using his good arm to tug the long-sleeved shirt over his head, Jake grimaced as he gingerly pulled the blood-dried fabric off his arm. “You playing nurse again?”
Suddenly, I realized Jake had removed his shirt. I cleared my throat and busied myself as I opened the medical box. “Nurse? No, I have no idea what I’m doing.”
“That’s comforting.”
I glanced over at him with a smirk, in time to see Jake’s smile…and exposed chest. It was the first time I’d ever seen Jake without a shirt on, the first time I learned of the light brown hair dusting his chest and leading down his lower abdomen.
But as much as I wanted to study his body, I zeroed in on the chunk missing from the inside of his forearm—a fleshy, gaping hole layered with folds of blood-crusted, unevenly torn muscle and tissue, some of it more pink than red, a sign of his quick healing. Even the traumatized skin surrounding the wound was colored with faint green and yellow bruises, as if they were already days old.
While I felt my heart seize at the sight of the bite wound, Jake seemed unfazed. “You sure you w
ant to do this?” he asked. “I can have one of the others—”
“No,” I said quickly. “I don’t mind, really.” I squeezed his hand before turning my attention back to the medical kit in my lap. “I want to make sure someone tends to it before it heals wrong or gets infected or something.”
“It won’t heal wrong,” he said, “and it won’t get infected.” I saw an image of him lying in the snow, a bullet in one hand and his other palm against his chest.
I glanced up at his torso, seeing no scar from a bullet wound. “Maybe not, but it still hurts, doesn’t it?”
“Like hell.”
“Well then, let’s do what we can to help your body instead of making it do all the work.”
I evaluated the contents of the kit, trying to decide where to start. “I suppose cleaning it is the first order of business,” I thought aloud. I curled my lip as I examined the flesh once more. “I take it you’ve not done that yet…”
Jake tried not to smile. “No, I haven’t had the chance.”
I cleared my throat and swallowed. “Clearly.” Removing an alcohol pad from its wrapper, I cleaned the skin around the wound, which was half the size of my palm.
Jake chuckled softly.
“Am I entertaining you?”
“Your determination is very…you.”
My eyes met his for a brief a moment. “Thank you, I think.” We were quiet for a few breaths, the fire and the chatting around us only white noise. I held up a small bottle of rubbing alcohol. “What do you think?”
Jake frowned. “I don’t think you need to go that far.”
I smiled, happy to be the one amused this time. I gave an innocent shrug. “I’m just trying to help.”
“Helping or hurting?” he asked glumly.
Shaking my head, I relented. “You’re no fun.” I exchanged the bottle of alcohol for one of saline solution and squirted around in the wound, repeating the action a few more times until I felt it was sufficiently clean. I reached for the alcohol pad to wipe the excess saline solution dripping from his arm. “I’ll wrap this up for you and then you can go rest.”
Out Of The Ashes (The Ending Series, #3) Page 18