by HK Savage
“Is everything okay Gabrielle?” Becca kept her eyes forward, watching Salvo talking to a few of his brethren gathered across the bodies from them. Sensing her eyes on him, Salvo turned and his expression softened. Several glanced up and followed his gaze to land on Becca. One elbowed Salvo in the ribs and he grunted something below her audible range. Redirecting, she went back to watching Ryan. Salvo shifted to see what had caught her eye. Following once again, the rest of their eyes turned to take in Ryan hunkered over the dog. Becca watched a sheriff pale and turned, catching Ryan putting a finger in dark snow and pulling it out to smell it. She fought a smile, knowing if they hadn’t been watching, he might have licked it. The sheriff put a hand over his mouth and his eyes went wide. Becca didn’t have to look back to know that he had just put that finger in his mouth.
“We’ve put in a lot of miles since we got here.” Gabrielle sighed. “It’s tiring running all over the countryside following a smell that’s everywhere.” She nodded her head back toward where Ryan was standing and sniffing at the branches. “He’s distracted, because of me.”
Becca was seriously trying hard not to laugh at the one sheriff who was supposed to be lamenting the new guys with Salvo and company while he was completely distracted by Ryan’s unconventional scene exploration. She couldn’t help sniggering imagining what the young man would do if he saw Ryan do the half-wolf thing where only his head changed. He’d probably shit.
Hearing Gabrielle’s measured air intake beside her, Becca worried she’d mistaken the laughter as being directed at her. “Oh Gabrielle, I’m sorry. I was just…”
“Forget it,” she said absently.
Catching the odd tone in her voice, Becca’s head whipped around to check on the woman beside her. Only Becca could see that she’d already lost her, her eyes were focused on something in the distance, something out past where the trees started. Quick, so she didn’t miss it, Becca turned and followed her gaze. There was nothing.
“I’ll catch you later.” Gabrielle started walking, her eyes never wavering from some fixed point only she could see.
Becca was used to the woman being distant. This was checked out. “Um, okay.” She watched her go, making note of the direction before taking off to find Michael.
He was crouched beside the chest cavity of the human’s body. The forensics team was packing up and the other cops were comparing notes off to the side so he was alone. Becca hurried over and leaned in, speaking quietly in his ear.
Startled, his eyes shot up, searching a moment before landing on the woman in question currently maneuvering her way past the cars and heading into the trees.
“I’m worried about her and I think Ryan could use a break from the stress.” She glanced down and pointedly ignored the worried look he gave her, nodding instead toward the group of uniforms hovering uncomfortably a short distance away. “I’m going to follow, but I don’t want them out there just in case I run across anything. Distract them for a minute?”
Watching her, knowing he couldn’t make a scene without drawing unwanted attention, Michael gave her a deliberate nod. “Careful. This thing is close, can you smell it?”
Lowering her sleeve, she took a deep sniff of the human. Too deep. The iron and bile scents of blood and guts filled her nose. There was a hint of something else she caught on the back of her tongue and, cautiously, she took several smaller sniffs. Underneath the overpowering immediate whiffs lay the faint sweet smell of decay. “I smell it. Is that the thing?” She didn’t use its name even though no one was near enough to have heard.
He gave a tiny head tip in Gabrielle’s direction. “You smell that out there, get the hell out. No questions. Don’t try to handle this thing on your own.” The severity of his expression allowed for no arguments. “Do you have your gun?”
“Loaded with the good stuff.” She patted the holster under her arm where she carried her 9mm loaded with pure silver, guaranteed to kill any supernatural creature they might encounter. “Buy me some time?”
“Alright. I’ll follow as soon as I can run these guys out.” He straightened up and marched over to Salvo’s group, putting on his darkest glare.
Becca was glad it wasn’t aimed at her and felt a twinge of guilt for sending him over, tempering it with the knowledge of what might happen if one followed her into a windigo’s den or worse.
“Who the hell’s in charge of this scene?” he shouted. “This damned place is a zoo. There are footprints and puke everywhere. Is there any evidence that hasn’t been contaminated?”
Smiling at his ability to play the role of massive jackass all too well, Becca walked past staring straight ahead. When she’d met Michael she thought he was hot, but an ass. She was more than happy to have discovered how wrong she was. Handy the local officers didn’t know that. She moved like she was going to the car and, after checking that no one was watching her, zipped back up to the trees and cut in where she’d lost sight of Gabrielle.
At first she followed the footprints, then when they looped back, she feared she’d been ditched. It didn’t make sense that Gabrielle would want to lead her in circles, or even that she’d seen her. Why would she want to hide her tracks? Was she hiding something else? Kneeling down in the snow, she saw that some of the tracks had a fresh dusting of snow in them.
“She’s been here before,” she breathed aloud, tracing the outline of a heel with her fingers. “But why?”
Becca, after some quick discerning, sorted the old from the new and backtracked to find where she’d gotten confused. The tracks crossed themselves repeatedly. Gabrielle wasn’t leading her anywhere, she was searching for something. Deliberately and tediously, she followed each boot-shaped indent. It wasn’t easy. Even with the lack of leaves, the density of the trees and fallen debris hidden by snow and snarled where patches were packed down with the weight of fallen matter and the white stuff made for slower and more difficult going as she progressed. Then, mercifully, it opened up in a few spots. Several times she lost Gabrielle’s tracks in the leaf litter and had to resort to following the direction and, staying true, recovered them. “What are you looking for?” she muttered, taking a moment to catch her breath. What might not have been a brisk pace for the wolf was punishing for the already taxed human. The freshness she’d woken with that had sent her out for a run this morning was gone now, replaced by a weariness she felt in her bones.
After over an hour of spine straining crouching and ducking limbs, her back smarting from a few new scrapes and her lungs threatening to explode, Becca saw movement up ahead. Instinctively she dropped into a crouch behind a log and branch combo that provided some amount of cover if she stayed low.
Gabrielle was alternating between slow steps and halts. Her eyes were aimed at something up ahead, her focus disturbingly fixed.
Her quads were burning and her panting was like a freight train ringing off the frozen surfaces. The detective was right, sound did carry in the winter. Becca tried adjusting to give her upper thighs a break and Gabrielle’s head whipped around, her nostrils quivering. Becca stopped breathing and her lungs burned, her entire being froze. For several painful moments, she stared at the exact spot where Becca crouched. Neither moved. At last, Gabrielle seemed satisfied that what she smelled was of no consequence and snapped instantly back into her entranced state. About ready to believe her teammate was hallucinating, following some unknown ghost, Becca had to cover her mouth to stop the sound that wanted to come out when a pale glow in front of Gabrielle illuminated the outline of a tree trunk up ahead.
“Wait!” She reached out a hand and darted forward. “Don’t go.”
The glow moved ahead, matching the blonde’s speed, keeping the distance between them even. She caught her foot in a tangle of underbrush covered by snow and went down on her knees. Becca used the noise of Gabrielle’s fall and subsequent recovery to cover her rapid surge forward. The burst drained her yet she pushed on. She wanted to see what it was Gabrielle was following. Was it the windigo? But if
it was, why was Gabrielle pleading with it instead of fighting it?
Chapter 16
“Well, that’s the last of them,” Ryan chuckled. “I gotta hand it to you Mike, you sure know how to clear a room, or scene. Whatever.”
“Yeah, I have special skills.” Michael watched the dark sedan pull away, a few loose stones thrown by its tires coming dangerously close to him. He refused to budge, seeing Salvo watching in his rearview mirror. Tempting fate, he raised a hand and heard the engine roar in response.
Ryan laughed beside him. “I think you made an enemy.” He ruffed his hair then smoothed it. “You want to tell me why you sent Becca after Gabs instead of me? She’s not as fast and if they find this thing, I’d be better suited. No offense.”
“None taken.” Michael frowned and kicked one of the stones that had nearly hit him. “You’ve been out with her the last two nights. We thought you could use a change. Plus, you were the one who was being so obvious. It’s not like you could have snuck away with that kid locked in on you.” Michael snorted. “I thought he was going to puke when you licked that blood off your finger.”
“That dog must have really gotten a hold of it. The spatter in the snow looked like it was femoral.” His tongue traced the inside of his lower teeth, his jaw hanging partway open to pull air over the scent receptors. He was recalling the elements he’d tasted in the windigo’s blood.
“So,” Michael crossed his arms over his chest, “what did you get? Thoughts on where it’s been hanging out?”
“Yeah.” He slapped his hands together. “It’s a combo of minerals I smelled the first night here.” Ryan rubbed a palm on his thigh. “I’ve smelled it on Gabs both mornings she’s come in.” Pained, he made fists and turned to face Michael straight on. “She had to see it. I mean it’s only in a few places out here. If she’s been hitting those spots, she had to cross paths with it. Why didn’t she tell us?”
“No clue Ryan. Let’s see if we can find out though.” He aimed for the hole in the trees where Becca disappeared. The need to follow and make sure she was okay was making him twitchy. It would feel good to let loose and run. Glancing up, he watched the clouds rolling in and smelled snow.
The advantage they had over Becca was that their senses were stronger even than hers, and the sources were doubled. Being mindful of where their feet fell, careful not to make too much noise, they followed. Both men were focused on catching up to their team, each for a different female reason.
Gabrielle’s progress had brought her to a place on the far side of a tall, triangle-shaped pile of pale brown limestone. Becca continued to duck and dodge, weaving her way between trees and stones as the terrain grew more rocky. She stumbled repeatedly. Scrapes burned on her knees and the bruising beginning on her shins was going to hurt before it cleared up by tomorrow. A tic on the positive side for having Michael’s blood in her: quick heal time. The glow continued to pull them along, further into the wood, which had changed from birch to oak. That meant they were moving to higher ground, away from the reedy wetland that had been hanging them up. They walked until the upper canopy of dead leaves, those not due to fall until the spring growth pushed them out, worked with the coming snow storm to block out the light. Soon it was dim as dusk in spite of it being just past the noon hour.
There was something Becca wanted to try but she needed to be still in order to do so. It wouldn’t be a good idea to jump and be distracted in one head, while the other body was weaving between trees and marching over dense knots of brush. As if to prove her point, her toe caught a large stick and she had to jerk her foot twice to loose her lace from a chunk of bark.
The glow stopped moving and Gabrielle, completely engrossed in her dance with it, halted as well. Sensitive to every crunch, Becca wished she could be walking on the rocks like Gabrielle instead of shadowing her from the trees. At least her head wouldn’t feel like it had been plucked bare by the countless tree fingers hanging down.
“Finally,” she breathed raggedly. Ignoring the nervous energy racing up and down her exhausted body, Becca concentrated on the tall blonde balanced precariously atop a large boulder. If she could only see what Gabrielle did, she could help or at least understand what had cast such an enchantment on the seemingly untouchable woman.
The blonde hovered in a half crouch, her hands out to her sides, balancing. Her lips moved only Becca was too far to hear. Choosing to stay and focus on jumping, she gave up on hearing what was being said. She’d get both if her attempt was successful. Briefly, she considered that she might be too tired to be successful, then shooed the thought away. Black wanted her to do this, she needed to do this, so here she was and she was going to jump. Eyes narrowing to keep from blinking, Becca slowed her breathing and brought calm to her being. When she was ready, really only a minute or so later, she reached.
When she did, several things happened right on top of each other. The twitching she’d willed away returned with a vengeance and her skin was alive with thousands of needles pricking her flesh. Her teeth ground together and she doubled her efforts, forcing her mind to neglect the body she needed to leave in favor of the one she was hoping to get into.
It was no use. Try as she might to push her way in, there was no opening. No thinning of the barrier that separated their minds provided the opportunity she required to jump in. Becca pushed harder, throwing herself out recklessly and felt something warm latch onto her psyche. There was a feeling of being yanked sideways, and then of being trapped. In a flash she was blind as spots gave way to a sheet of blinding light. The thing that had latched onto the part of her reaching out to Gabrielle tightened its grip and her body caught fire. Every fiber of her being, inside and out, was alight with pain. Without being bidden, images of the fire demon popped into her consciousness and terror paralyzed her mind and body. Her skin was once again being charred and her mind screamed out while her body began to shut down.
“No, come back!” Gabrielle shouted desperately as the glow disappeared. Snapped out of her trance with a rude shove, she felt the tether that had pulled her along let go. The backlash of its release upset her balance and she fell. Waking suddenly, she tore her fingers and ripped off a nail clinging to the boulder she found herself perched on.
The same disorientation she’d experienced coming off her tracking shifts the previous nights left her shaky and weak. If she changed to her wolf form she could be strong, but that same pull that had called to her had urged her to stay human. It blocked her will to call her beast and share its strength, leaving in its place a human; weak, confused, and bleeding. Tears of unknown origin wet her cheeks. She touched her face, leaving red streaks as she wondered what had possessed her to depart the crime scene. The last she could remember, she’d been talking to Becca. Now she was here. And why did she feel like someone kicked her in the stomach? Without understanding why, she hid her face in her hands and gave in to the overwhelming grief threatening to tear her apart.
Becca fell to her knees, blissful oblivion closing in and taking with it any conscious thoughts she might have had. It didn’t register when she struck her head on the rocky ground nor did she notice when warm blood began leaking out onto the snow. Images of the cabin where she’d faced down the demon, the images that had haunted her dreams for weeks, flooded her mind, numbing it. The smell that wafted to her on the air made her gag. Her mouth opened in a terrified scream, only nothing came out.
Neither woman noticed when a third figure emerged from the woods where the glow had disappeared. The creature scuffed a bare foot against the ice-crusted rock it crested to come into the opening. Taller than a normal human male, the creature had to weigh less than a young girl. Skeletal limbs covered in sagging gray flesh protruded from a rail thin body barely covered by the filthy rags that draped it. Too short pants exposed bony ankles and threadbare patches in several places offered glances of more sickly physique underneath. Long, shaggy hair hung in mud-fused clumps leaving little of the dull brown color showing through. The mop of d
irt and debris also served to cover the majority of the creature’s face. Aimed down at the sobbing form ahead, it kept its features hidden. The sickening sweet smell of rot perfumed the crisp air around it.
“You smell that?” Ryan was in the lead when he picked up the new scent. “There are two somethings we’re following.”
“Just figured that one out.” Michael grunted. The vampire was shrieking for him to run, to fly to Becca. A windigo was challenge enough. The second creature was something else. It smelled of something old, nothing he had encountered before, he was sure of it. He knew it had to be the thing using the windigo, which made it something to be feared. And he’d let Becca go after it? That had been careless on his part. But working with her these past few months he’d learned once she got it in her head to do something, there was no stopping her. He hoped she’d caught Gabrielle and they faced it together or that he and Ryan would get there before there was a confrontation. Exchanging a glance, both men doubled their pace. Stealth was compromised only a shade as they flew through the woods.
What felt like hours could have only been minutes. Michael and Ryan held back very little as they leapt fallen trees and ran over the tricky footing as only the supernatural can. To a normal human it would appear they floated without care over the ground when in actuality, their hyperawareness allowed them to scout the ground just as carefully as any pedestrian without slowing. Combined with their sense of urgency, they all but flew.