Gabe nodded, then motioned to something in the wall behind Mitch. Mitch felt the hair stand up on the back of his neck. He spun around.
At first, all he saw was what looked like fossils in the wall. But the more he stared, the more it looked like the wall was alive. A giant claw was embedded in the dirt and lava rock wall directly in front of Mitch’s face. The claw was attached to a foot that was attached to a leg that was attached to a body…
Mitch let out a startled gasp and leapt back. The creature in the wall wasn’t bone like the fossils all around it. It looked like a perfectly preserved body of something huge and scaly. Like a giant drifter. One even bigger than Ethan.
Mitch stepped back even farther and stared, letting his eyes roam over the beast’s shape. The creature looked as if an artist had painted it into the wall, except it was so realistic Mitch knew it couldn’t be a painting. It was brown and black, like the dirt and lava rock surrounding it, with a stocky body covered in scales, a long tail, elegant head, and a frill folded back against its neck. It looked very much like a drifter.
Its head rounded the corner of the tunnel, one eye visible from where Mitch stood. Its tail disappeared around the other corner and into another tunnel. Mitch’s heart rate kicked up as he let his gaze jog along the wall, taking in the creature’s entire body. He guessed the body to be around seven or eight feet tall from foot to shoulder, but he couldn’t be sure, because the front leg was bent at the first joint and the back legs were tipped back, as if it were running. It was impossible to tell how long it was unless he walked the length of the body around the corner where its tail disappeared. What the hell was it?
He jerked back to Gabe. While Mitch had been staring at the wall, Gabe had shifted back to his human form behind him.
“What the fuck is it?” Mitch demanded.
“I don’t know,” Gabe whispered. “But I have a pretty good idea.”
Mitch quirked a brow. “And?”
“I had a dream about something huge and frightening coming up out of the volcano. Something that looked like that thing in the wall.” He motioned at the beast.
Mitch glanced back at the creature’s body in the wall. “Yeah, me too. It looks kind of like a giant drifter. Except…” He broke off as he peered more closely. “Holy shit. Are those wings?” Above the beast’s back, barely visible in the dark wall, was what looked like a partially spread wing that reached up toward the ceiling.
“Jesus,” Gabe murmured from beside him. “I think so. That’s not a drifter, Mitch. It’s a fucking dragon.”
The ground shifted beneath them, throwing them both off balance. Gabe stumbled on his one leg, falling against the wall.
He jerked back instantly, his eyes wide. “It moved. That thing moved.”
Uneasiness crept down Mitch’s spine. He glanced back at the beast’s head.
At its eye.
Its yellow, reptilian-like eye that Mitch swore was focused on him.
Mitch stared, unable to look away.
The eye stared back.
“If that’s a dragon, then what are the drifters? Small, flightless dragons?”
Gabe made a noncommittal grunt. Mitch felt Gabe shifting back into a jackal next to him, but he couldn’t take his eyes off the single eye in the wall.
The sounds of many clawed feet racing through the tunnels reached Mitch’s ears. The drifters were coming. In a huge swarm.
Gabe yelped a jackal warning and raced back down the tunnel they’d just come from.
Mitch hesitated. He backed away slowly, his eyes still on the eye in the wall.
The eye followed his movements across the room, never wavering from him.
Holy shit.
Mitch turned and bolted for the entrance to the tunnel.
The drifters didn’t scare him. Not really.
But that thing in the wall…
It did.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Ronin faded in and out of consciousness, unable to decipher dreams from reality. He hurt everywhere, his body a huge ache of misery that he couldn’t escape from. Was he dead? Had the lions eaten him? Was he alive? Had he imagined Maddy saving him, telling him they were now even?
Time passed, memories swirling around him. He dreamed of his childhood, of Maddy when she was young, how annoyed he became at her persistence. His father’s voice telling him over and over that Maddy was just a girl and needed his protection.
Ronin had been reluctant at first. He didn’t want to be bothered with a silly little brat hanging around all the time. Girls were stupid. Annoying. But his father had insisted. No, demanded.
“Okay, I’ll protect her,” Ronin had whispered, cringing when his father pinned him back against his bedroom wall.
“Yes, you will, son. Isabel is your new mum and Madison is now your sister. Part of your job as her brother is to protect her with your life.”
Ronin had swallowed hard and nodded. “I promise I won’t let anything hurt her.” It was a promise he’d tried to keep. But he’d failed. And now, if he hadn’t been dreaming, Maddy had threatened to leave him. She’d said she was done. He couldn’t allow that. He wouldn’t allow that. He’d failed her before. He couldn’t fail her again. He would protect his stepsister to his dying day. Even though she irritated the hell out of him. He’d let Maddy get away with things no one else ever had. No one else dared to. She was his only “sibling” and the only person besides his parents he’d ever cared about. He supposed in a way he was obsessed with her, but not in an inappropriate way. His obsession was more to make his father proud than anything. Because when he’d gone to prison for killing those men, for failing to protect Maddy, his father had disowned him.
“You failed Maddy,” his father had snarled. “You failed me. All you had to do was protect her. Now the Dred name is tainted by violence. You’re a disgrace to this family. You’re no longer my son.”
Disowned, forgotten, Ronin had been left to rot in prison. That was his punishment for failing Maddy. He should just let her go, be rid of her once and for all. Be free of the past.
But he couldn’t. She was the only link to the life he’d once led. To the boy he’d once been. The only thing keeping him human. If he lost Maddy, he feared he’d lose his soul. Though a part of him enjoyed the power, the beast’s desire for blood that raged inside him, and though a part of him enjoyed the terror on people’s faces when they realized what he was capable of doing, deep down inside, he was ashamed. He was sick. A beast. His father was right to be disgusted by him, right to have disowned him. Ronin wasn’t worthy of a father’s love. Of anyone’s love. He was a monster. A cold-blooded killer.
He would never regain his father’s love or respect.
Maybe it was time to let go of the past.
Time to set Maddy free.
Let go of his humanity.
If Ronin wanted to rule, he couldn’t be weak. Maddy was a weakness he didn’t need.
“Ah, you’re awake. That’s a good sign.” Maddy’s voice jerked him out of his thoughts.
He blinked up at her, trying to figure out if she was real or just a dream. She was nothing more than a faint blur hovering over him.
“I can’t…see. Everything is just a blur. Are you real?”
“Yes, I’m real. You can’t see because you only have one eye now. The lions tore off the right side of your face, including your eye and part of your nose. You were badly mauled. If you were ugly before, you’re doubly so now.”
He let out a snort. Blunt and honest to the bone, that was Maddy.
“Am I going to live?”
“It looks that way. If you were a normal man, you would have died from your injuries. But we both know you’re not normal, don’t we?”
Was that a condescending tone he detected in her words? Was she referring to the drifter in him? Or just his horrible character?
He tried to focus on her face, but she was still just a blur. “Will I get my vision back in my left eye?”
“Eventua
lly. There’s a lot of swelling and bruising on your face right now, which is probably why you can’t see out of your remaining eye. But knowing you, that won’t stop you.”
What did she mean by that? Was she complimenting him? Not likely.
“What other injuries do I have?”
“Too many to detail them all. I pieced you back together as best as I could. Let’s just say you’re very, very lucky to be alive.”
“Tell me,” he insisted.
She hesitated, then said bluntly, “When you discover the truth, you might wish you’d died. Chances are, you will never walk again, Ronin.”
A tense silence followed. What the fuck did that mean? He craned his head, trying to see his legs, but all he succeeded in doing was make his head spin with dizziness. He fell back with a moan.
“Why won’t I walk again, Maddy? Tell me.”
“The lions chewed up your legs pretty bad. Your right leg was mauled clear to the bone. You have no muscle left on your shin. Your foot is barely attached to your leg. I’m still debating whether or not to amputate it. I decided to wait and see if it gets infected. But honestly, I don’t see how you will walk on that leg ever again.”
Ronin swallowed hard. Fucking lions. “And my other leg?”
“Your thigh was mostly torn off by the lions’ fangs. I sewed together the little bit of tissue that remained. I don’t see how that little bit of muscle can support your weight. I’m sorry, Ronin. But I seriously doubt you will ever walk again.”
He closed his remaining eye and breathed out harshly through his partial nose. No. It couldn’t be true. He was meant to rule Africa. And he would, dammit. He would.
He jerked his eye open, trying to find Maddy through the blur. “And the rest of my injuries?” He focused on what he thought was her face.
She sighed. “Your right arm is badly damaged, the tissue torn clear off. I sewed it back together, though there’s not much chance of you using that arm ever again. The rest of you got chewed up pretty bad. I had to cut out over half of your colon and a good chunk of your small intestine. The lions had a heyday with your innards. Your stomach was torn apart, but I managed to sew it back together too. Like I said, it’s a miracle you’re even alive.”
It’s a miracle you’re even alive.
Fuck that. He was alive for a reason.
“You will not amputate my limbs, Maddy. You hear me! I will heal. I will walk again,” he growled, a strong conviction in his words. “I will use all of my limbs. No one, not even you, is going to tell me otherwise.”
* * *
Mitch and Gabe finally emerged from the crater. About halfway back down the tunnel, Mitch could hear the drifters chasing after them. Their low snarls and growls, the scuffle of their claws on the dirt and lava-encrusted floor. Heart pounding, Mitch raced after Gabe’s jackal form. The tunnel narrowed, and Mitch soon had to crawl.
Finally, after what seemed like forever, they reached the surface.
Mitch burst out of the hole and sucked in several deep breaths. The air was much cooler out here than it was inside the mountain.
Gabe stood near the bushes off to his left, back in human form, pulling his shirt over his head. He’d already donned his pants and attached his prosthetic foot.
“That thing was alive,” Mitch panted out, trying to catch his breath.
“Yeah.” Gabe scowled. “I don’t think it came after us. Which tells me it can’t. Not on its own.”
Mitch drew in another deep breath. “Do you think that creature in the wall is what’s waiting to be released from the mountain? Fuck.”
Gabe shrugged. “I don’t know. But it was fucking creepy, whatever it was. I’m not sure if I want to set it free.”
Neither did Mitch. What had they gotten themselves into? Was it too late to rebuff the mountain? To run away?
A drifter burst out of the hole behind them, its eyes glowing eerily in the darkness.
Then another. And another.
One after another, the drifters came out of the ground until they surrounded Mitch and Gabe in a wide circle. Still, they kept coming, crowding around them like vultures swarming around a fresh carcass, ready to feast. Hundreds of them.
Gabe cast an uneasy glance at Mitch. “Now what? If they attack, we’re dead.”
“Let me handle it.” Mitch lifted the bow from where he’d left it laying against a rock. Snatching up an arrow from the wildebeest hide quiver he’d made a few days ago, he turned to face the beasts. “Ready to hunt, guys?”
The drifters let out snarls and growls and several flipped up their frills. Their eyes glowed with eagerness. The beasts wanted to hunt and they wanted Mitch to lead them.
Gabe eyed him warily. “You’ve hunted with these beasts before?”
Mitch nodded. “Many times.”
Gabe’s brow shot up. “Are you crazy?”
Mitch shrugged. “I’m more drifter than human now. The hunting instinct in me is strong. I can’t resist it. This will be a test. If they follow me, and if I manage to kill for them and still retain my humanity afterwards, then I think we’re good. At least for a while. You should find a place for us to spend the night. I’ll bring back some meat for dinner.”
“Will do. I think I’ll make a fire over by those bushes over there.”
Mitch nodded. Surrounded by so many drifters, the urge to hunt continued to grow, swirling inside him, until it nearly strangled him. He couldn’t ignore it even if he wanted to. Its pull was too strong. Much like the mountain’s persistent voice in his head.
The beasts parted, moving out of the way to let him pass.
He headed down the mountain with the drifters trailing after him like a pack of dogs following their master.
It was time to go hunting.
Time to show them he could be trusted.
If Mitch succeeded in pleasing them, the three cones might soon be on their way to controlling the mountain. And whatever that thing in the wall was. Dragon? Mitch shuddered.
If they didn’t control it, then Ronin would. And they couldn’t let that happen. No matter how much the creature in the wall freaked Mitch the fuck out, he couldn’t coward out now. Too many lives depended on it. His and Kate’s future depended on it.
He desperately wanted a future with Kate. A forever.
So if becoming a hunter—a drifter—for a short time was what it would take to have his happily ever after, then a drifter he would become.
* * *
Three days later, they made it back to Gabe’s treehouse where the women waited. Mitch had hunted with the drifters each night, always bringing back dinner for Gabe. The hunting instinct remained strong, the predatory instinct to stalk, chase, subdue and kill roaring through his veins. The desire to kill and devour nearly overwhelmed him. The bloodlust had never been so strong before. Mitch imagined it was because he was surrounded by so many drifters, their predatory instincts swarming around and into him. Thinking of Kate helped Mitch control it. Her pretty face. Her confidence. Her strong determination. Her loyalty. Her strength. Her gentleness. Her love.
Kate.
I’m a hunter, a killer. A beast.
That was who he was now and something he’d have to accept. Being away from Kate for so long made the beast inside him stronger. He missed Kate desperately.
It was dark when Gabe and Mitch finally climbed up into the treehouse. While Claire and Honor hugged Gabe, Kate hurried to Mitch, her eyes wide and anxious, and wrapped her arms around him. “What happened? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” Especially now that I’m back with you.
Mitch and Gabe told them about their journey, what they’d seen along the way, and about the dragon-like beast in the wall of the crater. “We probably should have stayed and investigated further,” Mitch told her, “but that thing in the wall freaked us both out, so we ran.”
Kate narrowed her eyes. “I’ve never known you to be afraid of anything. Can I go with you when you go back in?”
Mitch shook
his head no. “You’re safer here. There’s no telling what else we might encounter inside the mountain. It’s too dangerous.” He glanced over at Gabe. “It might be wise for us to wait for Ethan before we go back in there.”
Gabe nodded. “I agree. If he’s been studying the drifters all these years like you said, then he will probably know more about what we might be dealing with in there.”
Honor stepped forward, her eyes wide. “Was there really a dragon in there, Uncle Gabe?”
“Yeah, kid, there was. It looked like it was trapped in the wall.” Gabe glanced at Mitch. “I felt it move when I fell against the wall, but it was like a small tremble, not a big movement. I don’t think it can free itself. I think it’s stuck somehow.”
Mitch agreed. If the beast could free itself, certainly it would have already come after them. Was that part of what their “task” entailed? Freeing the beast?
Mitch glanced around the treehouse, taking in everyone. “Who knows the history of Mount Kilimanjaro?”
Claire stepped forward. “I know a bit about it. Why?”
“Tell me what you know.”
Claire glanced at Gabe, who nodded. She cleared her throat. “Well, I researched it years ago before I came to Africa. My memory might be a little rusty. I know that the mountain is situated in the fault-line of two tectonic plates and its last major eruption was over 360,000 years ago. You already know about the three cones, which died out one by one, Shira being the first to go, then Mawenzi. Kibo continued to explode until around 150,000-200,000 years ago, or something like that.” She smiled. “It’s not expected to erupt any-time in the foreseeable future. That’s all I really know.”
That was actually more than Mitch knew about the mountain. He was impressed. All he’d known was the part about the cones and that Kibo was dormant, while the other two cones were extinct.
“But that was all before the asteroid shower. Something tells me that mountain is about to erupt, and that when it does…” He trailed off, meeting everyone’s gaze. “It will be catastrophic.”
Silence followed. Then Gabe said, “If that mountain erupts, we won’t be safe here. We won’t be safe anywhere.”
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