Oh God! I pull away from Roma. I’m still on my knees, curled in a ball, my arms over my head. “Oh God shit to hell!” I suck up saliva, straighten up and spit. The taste is still there, the images too strong to overcome. I stand, open my eyes, walk in circles, look at trees, dirt, grass, the face of the big cat who is now also back on his feet, trying to ground myself in the present. I spit again even though I know the taste is only in my mind, and then notice that all of the cats are agitated. Did they all just receive the same images as did I or am I putting them on edge?
I stop, take a deep breath, and then another.
“Okay, Roma. Where is everyone?” I give him pictures of Mandi, Sharon and Matt. At first I expect another horrible movie. Instead he and the others take off southeast, around the meadow. I follow at a fast clip.
It is only a few minutes when I recognize where we are. This is the scene I just viewed from Roma’s memory, the gouge in the side of the mountain where two men died in Roma and Vadik’s jaws. I expect to see Sheriff Dan and Deputy Dog. There is no one. We all stop fifty yards away and crouch down in the grass. I see nothing, not even Nadia or two savaged bodies. Images from Roma and a barely perceptible nod sends Vadik off to the right, and Yulya to the left. He is sending out the scouts.
He, Gosha, and I wait.
I send out my own mental probe and find Mandi. They are close, just to the south, hiding in the trees. They witnessed the battle and the bloody death of the two men. Mandi is in bad shape mentally, emotionally. I find Matt. He is better, being strong for the two women. I am continually amazed at how far he has come since last summer when he was such an emotional mess. I can barely touch Sharon, though from what I do I get the sense that she is the strongest. Blood is nothing new in her line of work. She is sick over the deaths, though. She doesn’t yet know what I know . . . that Sheriff Dan’s intention is to shoot us all as soon as he finds us, and there is no way he’ll use only the sleep darts. They’re reserved for the cats.
All is clear. We move forward until I’m looking down at the blood. That’s all there is . . . blood. No dead bad men. No peacefully sleeping sabre-toothed cat and frantic kittens. I leave the scene and head south along the base of the mountain until I come upon a smaller alcove and a dense group of trees and rocks. Mandi, Matt and Sharon are sitting together looking at Nadia who is relaxed about thirty feet away, the kittens lying against her. Only Nadia is aware of my presence. I move in on their flank and squat down about six feet from Sharon, closer to Matt.
There is an evil side of me that wants to say, Boo! “Hey,” I say instead, quietly. It’s just as effective.
Sharon and Mandi jump at least a foot. Mandi screams. Matt leaps to his feet. The gun he is holding comes around at me. With a lightning reflex, not unlike that of a cat, I duck away and catch the barrel in my hand. My eyes come up to meet his.
“Sorry,” I say.
“Shit! Where the hell have you been?” Sharon scolds me like I’m her little child.
Matt holds the tension in his jaw for an easy count of ten, and then relaxes. I release the gun. He sits back down, trying to pretend like everything is cool. It isn’t.
“Damn it Reba! Where the hell did you go? Do you have any idea what the hell has been going on while you’ve been off fooling around?”
I want to ignore her. I don’t like her tone of voice; not at all. I turn my beady cat eyes on her. “While you guys were out here having a good time, I was swimming in ice water and being shot at by Sheriff Dan and his deputy. Luckily for me I was carrying canned ham.”
“Good time!” Mandi gasps.
“Shut up!” I say to Mandi without taking my eyes off of Sharon. “Yes, I know what has been going on with you guys, but at the time I was battling for my life. You’ve apparently given Nadia and the kitten a drug to counteract what was shot into them by the men who Roma and Vadik killed.”
We have a lengthy stare down. She breaks and says, “He was shooting at you?”
“Yes. But not before I overhead him and his deputy talking. This is much bigger than we’ve even thought, though I still have no idea what exactly is going on. First of all, he intends to kill all of us as soon as he finds us.”
“He said that?”
“What he said was, and I quote, ‘We’ve got to find her and her friend, and anyone else they might be working with and get rid of them.’” I look at Mandi. “He knows who you are and where you’re from. He knows that we finished the semester on Friday and that we were last seen together Friday night having dinner. He knows that my dad and sister were up here in the fall. He knows about my conversation with my sister yesterday morning, that we had a fight. He has my house bugged, or my sister’s phone, or maybe my phone. He probably has everything bugged.”
“What the hell?” Sharon is truly shocked.
“He doesn’t know about you two. From his comment, though, he does suspect that there’s someone else here besides Mandi and me. You guys could book out of here and he’d never suspect you. You’d be safe.”
Sharon and Matt look at each other. She shakes her head at me. “No way.”
“Mandi and I are already targets. There’s no point in getting you dead, too. Why don’t you guys go?” I look at Mandi. “Take Mandi with you, hide her for a while.”
Sharon thinks in silence.
“You couldn’t do anything here anyway,” I say. “Go home and call the FBI.”
“What about you?”
“I’ll be fine. I have the cats, super night vision, super hearing. Leave me any food you have. My appetite is horrendous right now.”
“I don’t know.”
“The FBI will be very interested if you tell them that whatever is going on is related to Victor Vandermill. Sheriff Dan is working for someone by the name of Lance. I remember that name from my dad’s journals. He was a big mucky muck in Vandermill’s organization. I’ll bet he took it over when Vandermill died and that whatever evil Vandermill was involved in is still going on.”
“What would they want the sabre-toothed cats for?”
“I don’t know. I think Lester and Sarge were rouge opportunists. If they aren’t dead now, they will be, I’m sure.”
“Why don’t you come with us? If they don’t know we’re involved then they won’t know to look for you at our place. You both can hide there until we get authorities in here.”
I shake my head. “I want to keep a watch on them. Leave me the sat-phone. Call when you get home. I’ll call you if anything changes.”
We both go silent. Edik walks in and lies down next to Nadia. His white bandage is spotted with blood.
Suddenly the sat-phone makes a strange ringing buzz. We all stare at it where it lie next to Matt. It rings again. He picks it up.
“No!” I extend my hand to him. “If it’s the sheriff, he already knows I’m here. Don’t give yourselves away.”
Matt hands me the phone. I find the correct button, punch it and say, “Yeah.”
“Rebecca Price, I presume.”
“That’s right, Sheriff. I’m not that easy to kill. But your men are. You’re next.” I disconnect the call.
Mandi and Sharon look at me with their mouths hanging open.
I grin. “As my grandma used to say, keep them guessing. As any good coach would say, keep them on the defensive.”
The phone rings again. I punch the talk button. “What?”
“So is Christi.”
Chapter 37
It’s like someone has punched me in the solar plexus. I can’t breathe; don’t want to breathe. I want to die right here, right now. My body refuses to let me. I drop to the ground, gasping. Sharon forces me onto my back, pulls my arms over my head, and then lifts me up and throws her arms around me, under my breasts. I can hear Mandi fussing nearby, frantic. Sharon thinks I have something caught in my throat. I can’t get a breath to tell her that it is only that my sister is about to die. Suddenly she squeezes me with a jerk and I am forced to breathe or she is going to crush my
ribs. I suck in the entire world, toss her arms away and stumble forward a half dozen steps.
Seconds, minutes, and many wheezing breaths later, I turn around and face them. Mandi’s face is white in the moonlight. She is hanging onto Matt’s arm. The pretty couple. I look down at the phone lying where I dropped it, pick it up and listen. Sheriff Dan disconnected immediately, like I did with him. Tit for tat, only his tit is bigger than my tat.
I punch in the phone number I know so well and wait. The three of them are watching me, waiting to find out what the hell is going on. There is a ring, and then a second. I’m shaking and I have to pee. A third ring.
Shit to hell! Pick up!
It stops in the middle of the fourth ring. Shit! Voice mail. “Hello?” Not voice mail. He’s groggy.
“Dad!”
I’m afraid he’s going to hang up on me. I don’t hear a click. I also don’t hear his voice.
“Dad! Don’t hang up.”
“Why shouldn’t I?” He sounds tired and bored.
“You and Christi have to get out of the house, now!”
A long pause. “Why?”
“Vandermill is back. Someone is on their way there to kill Christi.”
“Vandermill is dead.” He sounds a little more awake, but far from believing me.
“His organization isn’t. I’m in the mountains right now, where Mom died. There are men here and they’re after me.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” He is fully awake now.
“I did a really stupid thing. I threatened one of them. He threatened me right back with Christi’s life. Dad, there are still bugs in the house, or on the phones. I talked to Christi yesterday, and these guys know it, know what we talked about, know that we had a fight.”
“Are you sure?”
“What’s going on?” A voice in the background. Suzie’s voice. Aunt Suzie is in bed with my father! Holy even more shit to hell!
“Rebecca!”
Something rises inside me. I push it back down. “Yes, Dad! I’m positive! This guy is probably on the phone right now to someone in Fort Worth by the name of Mick, one of his hit men. Remember Lance?”
“Yeah.”
“He’s the boss now, I think. That’s who this guy is answering to.”
“Who is this guy you’re talking about?”
“The sheriff, Dad. The sheriff who called Vandermill last summer and started all this shit to begin with. He is one of them and he just told me Christi was going to be killed.”
“Get dressed,” he says, not to me, but to my slut aunt. I want to hang up so bad I can’t stand it.
“Christi!” he hollers. There are noises and then the phone hits the floor. “Get dressed!”
“Why?” I hear Christi’s shrill voice off in the distance.
“Zach!” Suzie’s voice again. “Tell me what the hell is going on!”
“We’ve got to go, now! . . . don’t argue with me, either of you! You’ve got two minutes . . . hurry!”
There is no more arguing. He picks up the phone. “We’ll be out of here in two minutes,” he says, “and then we need to talk.”
I am seething; a little part of me keeps me from saying, “No Shit!” and hanging up. Instead I say, “I’ll call you back,” and then manage to disconnect without smashing the phone against a rock.
I look around. Mandi, Matt, and Sharon are huddled close, their faces white and eyes huge in the moonlight. Every sabre-toothed cat is on his feet, even Nadia and the kittens, pacing in a circle around us. Nadia and the kitten that was knocked out are a bit sluggish. I have raised the hackles and hairs on every man and beast in the forest.
I still have to pee.
When I return from my visit to the prehistoric facilities, my three charges have relaxed, as have I a little, though I’d sure like to get eye-to-eye with Aunt Suzie. The cats are still pacing, but they’ve moved just out of sight a ways, under my orders, except for mother and youngsters, who have settled again. I consider the three humans as my charges because I am responsible for them. It is because of me they are here. I start pacing . . . thinking.
I need to do something about Sheriff Dan. Sheriff! He doesn’t deserve the title. Shit Head Dan would be more appropriate.
“Reba.”
I stop and look at Sharon.
“I think your idea about going to our place and calling the FBI is good, but you have to come with us.”
I shake my head. “No. I need to be here.”
“You can’t do anything more about Christi. You’ve made the call and it’s in your dad’s hands now. There’s nothing more you can do.”
“Yeah,” Mandi says, “let’s get out of here.”
Matt turns on his GPS receiver and begins punching buttons. We all watch, interested in what he is doing. He looks up. “The moon sets in a little over four hours. We should get going before it gets too low, while we still have decent light.”
“Then just go,” I say.
“Not without you,” Sharon says.
“She’s right, Reba,” Mandi says. “Come with us.”
“No.” I shake my head. “It’s not up for discussion. Do me a favor, though. On your way stop at the cave and leave any food you have. My pack is still there along with one I took from Lester. His is wet so put the stuff in mine.” I retrieve the sat-phone and hand it to Sharon. “On second thought, take this with you. The phone book is evidence. I could lose it.”
I hold my hand down to Mandi. She takes it and I pull her to her feet.
“Jesus, Reba,” she stammers. “What’s with you?”
“What do you mean?”
“You practically lifted me right off the ground, like I was a little kid.”
“I don’t know,” I say as I hug her, though I do know. Along with my increased feline senses, I have increased muscle mass. I feel heavier and stronger. “You’re like another sister to me, Mandi. I love you, and I’m sorry.”
She doesn’t have to ask me what I’m sorry for. She just hugs me back.
I hug Sharon. “Thank you for coming, and helping.”
“You’re welcome,” she says.
When I hug Matt something happens. A hot fire flares up inside me and I suddenly have a strong desire to hug him even harder, to do other things with him, animal things, down and dirty grunt in the dark things. I break contact, push him away and then avoid his eyes. I look at Sharon.
“I can send Vadik with you if you like. I don’t expect you’ll have problems finding your way to your truck.”
“No. Shouldn’t.”
“We don’t need an escort,” Matt says.
“Fine.” I suddenly feel awkward with him, with all of them. Especially him. I continue to avoid his eyes; the heat of our contact burns my breasts, my nipples, and spreads a hot tingle through my body. I step farther away and look at Sharon. Her eyes are flicking between Matt and me. A mother knows?
“Later.” Without another word I turn my back to them and walk straight into the forest, taking all the cats with me.
Chapter 38
It’s five minutes of fast, steady walking before I stop. The sabre-toothed cats circle around me while I force my mind back to the issue at hand, away from the feelings that jumped up inside of me. I have never experienced anything like that before. I’ve had the hots for a guy, but nothing like this. Not even close. I know almost for certain that if it wasn’t for Sharon and Mandi standing there, I would have . . . God, I hate even the thought of it, the thought of the word, but there is no other way to say it.
I would have . . .
. . . I would have raped him.
I am animal! Hear me roar! I have gone way off the deep end.
I push it all away and then send Nadia and kittens, along with Edik, who needs to rest, back to their cave. Communicating is becoming much easier. I just think like a cat and my mind translates my human thoughts into sabre-toothed cat thoughts. They understand me.
Sheriff Dan. You’re next.
Ne
xt for what?
Next to die.
Shit no!
I’m talking to myself, or thinking to myself. My feline self is arguing with my human self.
Shit yes! He deserves to die.
No! No one deserves to die.
How about if we make him think he is going to die? He definitely deserves that. I don’t have to think about that for very long. My problem is how to pull it off.
As I consider the difficulty of such a thing, we head toward the meadow where the big helicopter still sits. It has no pilot. I figure that out because there were four men who got off when it landed. The sheriff, his deputy, maybe another deputy, and the pilot. That means that the last two are the ones who Roma and Vadik enjoyed.
Does a pilot taste like chicken?
Shut up!
I squat in the midst of my feline friends and look at the helicopter; probably a Bell something or other. I wish I knew how to fly it. I don’t. I don’t even know how to start it. But it has lights and I bet I could figure out how to turn them on. Since it sits facing the cave entrance, it’d get Sheriff Dan’s attention. He and his deputy would come out to investigate and I’d have them.
Sounds too easy.
I give it another long look and then instruct Vadik and Yulya. They take off to the southern edge of the meadow. I send Roma and Gosha to the northern edge to standby as backup. Placing the helicopter between me and the cave entrance, I step into the meadow and then run until I’m squatting next to the open door. I listen, get a sense of exactly where the cats are, and then climb up inside.
I sit in the pilot’s seat for a few minutes, first looking at the entrance, and then analyzing all the instrumentation. It’s not as complicated as I thought it would be, though I don’t see anything that says headlights. There is a Nav Lights switch and another that says Strobe. I touch them with my fingers, reconsider my plan, and then flip them up.
I scramble out of the helicopter, dash behind the big metal cages, and look back. Three lights glare out from the front of the helicopter. Green on the left, red on the right and then a white light in the middle. The strobe is on the tail and it pulses a white light that bounces off the trees and the mountain. If the three lights don’t, that one will definitely get their attention.
Sabre-Toothed Cat Trilogy Page 108