Outback Spirit

by Nicole R. Taylor

  “Where is the key?” Roth shouted, kicking Drew. “Tell me!”

  He curled in on himself, taking the hits. He bit his tongue so hard, blood seeped down the back of his throat.

  Roth’s feet kicked up dust as he lunged, fisting a hand into Drew’s hair. “You want to be hunted? Huh? If you don’t tell us where you hid the key, I will drag this out for days. We will hunt you across this burned land and tear you apart.”

  Drew laughed, his teeth slick with blood. The Dust Dogs had killed his entire pack when he was no more than a pup, and now he was laying broken at the alpha’s feet. He had nothing to lose, nothing at all.

  Roth shook him. “What’s so funny?”

  “I challenge you,” he said, causing the Dust Dogs to fall silent. “I challenge you to a hunt.”

  The alpha pushed Drew back to the ground, his eyes flashing amber in the light.

  “You win, you get to kill me. I win,” he looked around at the pack, “I get justice.”

  The Dust Dogs began to laugh, their bellows carrying through the silence as the two men stared down one another—Drew on his back, naked and bloody, and Roth, the epitome of raw power.

  “Shut up!” Roth held up his fist to silence them. “You got yourself a deal, boy.”

  Roth’s power pressed down on him and Drew cowered, his dingo shape fighting to break free. He didn’t have the strength to hold out against the will of an alpha and he transformed, his bones snapping and growing, his skin sprouting fur, his broken nose elongating.

  “It’s time to hunt.” Roth’s cry was answered with a roar and a howl from the pack.

  Whining, Drew stood on all fours, his tongue lolling. His senses filled with the stench of his own blood, the coppery tang sickening.

  Roth kicked him in the ribs, sending him flying across the circle.

  “Run dog!” the alpha shouted as he began to shift. “Run!”

  Drew dragged himself through the scrub, his body bleeding and broken. He heard the howls of the Dust Dogs behind him as they transformed, their cries echoing across the open sky.

  Shit. He should’ve known Roth had no plans on holding up his end of the bargain. The entire pack was on his tail.

  Howls echoed across the outback as the Dust Dogs herded him towards an unknown end. He ran, his pain fading to a dull throb as the fight for his life took over.

  Which way was Solace? If he could make it far enough, he had a chance to get some help. If Hardy was outside, he would smell the blood. If he could make it to the Outpost, maybe Vera could fend the dingoes off with magic.

  No. He couldn’t lead them there.

  Drew’s paws thudded on the hard-packed earth as he fled through the wilderness. No matter how much he wanted to, he couldn’t go back to the town. He had to face Roth or die trying…and dying would be the hardest part of all. They’d keep him alive, torturing and tormenting him until he gave up the location of the key. No, dying wouldn’t be easy at all.

  He thought of his parents, their memory a faded image in his mind. A woman with long flowing blonde locks and a man with short, ruddy brown hair. Running with them as a pup. Their scent. Their warmth as they’d slept under the stars as dingoes.

  It was then that he realised he’d been running his entire life. Never stopping to face the music because it was too hard or too painful. Running was only putting off the inevitable.

  It was time to stop.

  Drew stopped on the edge of a low hill and looked down the slope. His ears pricked as he heard a dingo approach, the sound of claws scraping on stone and the low, predatory growl he recognised as Roth’s.

  Turning, Drew saw the glint of eyes in the darkness and he tensed, his breath heaving.

  He’d seen Roth in his dingo shape many times. The alpha was the largest dingo he’d ever seen, even compared to other bulky human men. He was broad-chested and powerful, with the jaws to match.

  Roth growled as he emerged into the moonlight, his lips curling back to show his teeth—incisors and fangs double the length of his own. His eyes shone amber in the darkness—the one thing that betrayed his supernatural nature to the world.

  It was now or never. One last ditch attempt at saving Solace and his own life.

  Drew leapt, colliding with Roth, and they rolled down the hill in a mess of blood and fur. He snapped at the alpha all the way to the bottom, kicking and scratching with his claws, anything to get the upper hand. He forgot his pain and his heart swelled with adrenaline.

  The dingoes landed in a heap in a small clearing and began to fight. Drew sank his teeth into Roth’s neck and shook his jaws, clamping down as hard as he could. Blood filled this mouth as he tore flesh, sending Roth into a frenzy.

  They thrashed, rolling, growling, biting, oblivious to the world around them. If the other Dust Dogs had caught up, Drew didn’t know. He was lost to the taste of blood, the fight for his life igniting every primal sense his shifter power instilled in his animal form.

  They broke apart and Drew staggered, his vision blurring. His torn flesh stung as his blood flowed freely onto the ground.

  Roth stood before him, his neck bleeding freely, and threw up his head and howled. The sound echoed through the stillness, and a moment later, dozens of cries answered from within the night.

  Drew lowered his head and growled, his knees buckling. To the death. His muscles tensed as his last remaining shred of power coiled in his haunches, and as he was about to leap, a shadow burst soundlessly from the darkness.

  It collided with Roth, the sickening crunch as shadow pounded against flesh made Drew recoil. The dingo rolled across the clearing and came to a stop. The alpha let out a whimper but didn’t get up, his dingo chest heaving.

  Drew limped, then collapsed, the last shred of strength failing him as he realised what had found them.

  Kadaitcha.

  He whined softly, his eyes focusing on the man-shape standing over him. He was done. He was tired. They’d never find the key now. He’d done everything he could.

  So, he closed his eyes.

  Chapter 20

  Vera stared at the geological map on her coffee table, the quartz crystals holding the edges humming softly with subdued magic.

  A whole afternoon of putting away stock hadn’t calmed her nerves a single bit. Usually, the act of organising a new delivery, putting away the invoices in her colour-coded filing system, and entering all the numbers into her spreadsheets made her Virgo heart sing, but not today.

  She promised she’d give Drew twenty-four hours, but she was worried. Her magic fizzed in her fingertips, popping and crackling, aching to be released.

  “Damn that bloody dingo,” she hissed.

  Snatching up her quartz pendulum, Vera wrapped the chain around her fingers and held it over the map. Calling on her magic, she let the crystal swing, focusing on the shifter. He better be out there and not in a shallow grave.

  Magic hummed through her fingers, the clear quartz tinting lavender. Purple was the colour of her coven, or what used to be. It’d been a long time since she’d met another witch with the same hue. There was gold, white, blue, green, pink, and orange magic…but no more purple.

  The pendulum slowed and shot towards the map like a magnet. Vera’s magic sparked, then the room went dark. Stars shone overhead, a shadow loomed, and every inch of her body stung with a pain she’d never felt before. Drew was in trouble. Serious trouble.

  The crystal shattered, bringing light back into her dugout with a crack. Vera gasped and jerked backwards, the pieces of quartz falling over the map. It wasn’t a precise location, but it was in the vicinity of the Dust Dogs camp.

  Oh God, Drew…

  Something tickled her upper lip, and when she wiped the back of her hand across her nose, it came back wet with blood. There was other magic at play. Magic in the night…

  Vera shook her head. It didn’t matter what paranormal crazy was lurking in the outback, Drew was out there, and he was hurt.

  Leaping off the couch, Vera s
hoved through the beaded curtain, stormed up the stairs, and into the night.

  Thankfully, the lights were still on at the back of Hardy’s shop. Vera ran across the road, her sandals filling with dirt and rocks that dug into the soles of her feet, but she was too panicked to care.

  She rattled the door to the workshop, but it was locked. Banging her fists against the glass, she shouted, “Hardy! Open up! Hardy!”

  The door wrenched open and she almost fell into the vampire’s arms.

  “Vera,” he exclaimed. “What’s wrong? You’re…bleeding.”

  She wiped her nose as Eloise appeared behind him, her eyes wide.

  “Drew’s missing,” Vera said in a hurry. “The Dust Dogs sent me a…package. He went… He went…”

  Hardy looked troubled as he brought her inside. “Take a breath,” he said as Eloise brought over a chair and handed her a wad of tissues. The vampire made her sit. “What package? What was in it?”

  Vera’s gaze met the vampire’s as she dabbed her bloodied nose. “A severed dingo head.”

  “The smell…” Eloise covered her mouth with her hand.

  Vera shuddered. “Drew made me promise to give him a day, but…” She fanned her face with her hands, trying to stem the flow of unexpected tears. “I used magic to check on him and he’s out there somewhere, running. He’s hurt bad. I can sense his pain, but I don’t know where he is.”

  “When did he leave?”

  “He went off this morning, promising to fix everything,” Vera said. “I should’ve stopped him, but I was too angry.” She grabbed Hardy’s forearms, her heart beating wildly. “He went to take on the Dust Dogs himself. I-I should’ve…” She choked back a sob. “I was so stupid.”

  Hardy glanced at Eloise. “We’re going to need help. Can you go see Kyne?”

  The elemental shifted uncomfortably. “I don’t know the way, I…”

  “Take my car,” the vampire told her, throwing her the keys. “Black Hole Mine is down the track by the water tank. Keep driving until you get to the end and you’ll find him.”

  Eloise’s hands shook, but she nodded and looked to Vera. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.” Then she pushed through the back door and was gone.

  “Hardy…”

  “We’re going to find him,” he told her. “He’ll be okay.”

  “The thing he took—” The vampire hushed her, but she dug her fingernails into his forearms. “He said he’d taken it to protect all of us. That keeping it a secret was in our best interests.”

  Hardy shook his head in resigned disbelief. “That damn kid.”

  “Hardy,” she pulled him close, “I think it has something to do with the seal. There isn’t anything else it could be.”

  The vampire frowned.

  “It had to happen sooner or later,” she murmured. At least they knew their enemy…this time.

  Hardy placed a reassuring hand on the witch’s shoulder. “Then we better find him before the Dust Dogs do.”

  Eloise gripped the steering wheel of Hardy’s 4WD, her heart thumping a wild rhythm.

  The headlights were the only thing that lit the pitch-black of the outback, and the beams bobbed as she bounced down the rutted-out track.

  It felt sketchy as, only second to running into the outback, without water, to escape a werewolf.

  She’d told herself she’d find her way out to Black Hole Mine in the morning when there was light, when she wasn’t as angry or upset with Kyne. She’d come find him when she’d calmed down and when she’d figured out what to say. There were half scribbled words in her journal that made no sense, and the twisting feeling in her heart made even less.

  Even spending all afternoon with Vera hadn’t cleared things up in her mind. Staying or leaving, liking or…loving. But none of it mattered now; Drew was in trouble. Eloise didn’t know the shifter, only having spoken to him twice, and briefly at that, but he’d been there with Coen when she’d stumbled into their camp when she was lost. He’d helped, so it was only right that she did the same for him.

  Eloise tightened her grip on the wheel as the track began to thin out. She’d help the dingo shifter regardless. It was the decent thing to do.

  The first signs of Black Hole Mine began to filter through the scrappy trees and she slowed the car. The hoist that carried the bucket out of the shaft, the glow of a campfire, the shadow of a ute. Then she made out the shadow of a man sitting by the fire as she braked.

  Kyne didn’t get up. He couldn’t see her behind the wheel with the headlights on. Maybe he thought it was Hardy, or maybe he could sense her elemental blood and just didn’t care. His kiss still lingered on her lips a day after she’d first felt it, and it made her feel worse. What if this was over before it’d even begun?

  Eloise turned off the key in the ignition and the dial for the headlights, plunging the track into shadow. The engine clicked as it began to cool, and she hopped out before she lost her nerve.

  Kyne tensed as she approached, his face half-lit by the firelight. “What are you doing out here in the dark?”

  “Hardy sent me.” Eloise flushed, her words thick on her tongue. “I was going to come tomorrow, but there’s trouble. Drew—”

  “Is that all?” Kyne jerked to his feet, the camp chair falling backwards. He’d clearly hadn’t had enough time to cool off, but she hadn’t, either.

  “Kyne, don’t.”

  “So I overreacted,” he said. “I’m hotheaded. I think I’ve earned a little anger, Eloise.”

  She flinched, her flight response shrieking at her to run and hide, but she took a deep breath and met his gaze. “You told me all that stuff…about how they didn’t want us. How they didn’t care. But you didn’t tell me you’d found them.”

  He said nothing, his jaw grinding.

  “Is that why you lost touch with your powers? Did they take them?”

  “No,” he hissed. “It was…” He sighed and ran his hands over his face.

  Eloise frowned, her heart breaking. “I see. It was the shock.”

  “Hearing and knowing the truth are two different things. I didn’t want to believe. I wanted to understand. A parent is supposed to love their child, to want them. He never wanted anything to do with me. I was nothing.”

  “I’m sorry.” She didn’t know what else to say.

  “I didn’t want you to know. I wanted to save you the crushing disappointment.” He shook his head. “I lost the part of myself that I treasured the most, but it was also the part that connected me with him…that part that is him.”

  “You’re not your father, just like I’m not my parents,” Eloise told him. “It doesn’t matter.”

  “It matters to me!” Kyne hissed. “I’m not like you. I can’t just accept things. It’s not easy for me.”

  “And you think it’s easy for me?” she asked. “I left home at sixteen. I lived on the streets! I had no one and if I did, I risked losing it all the moment I touched them. I know what it’s like to be abandoned, because I abandoned myself the moment things got hard.”

  Kyne laughed wryly. “Look at us. You’re the master of abandonment and I’m a stage-five clinger.”

  Anger flared hotly inside her. “I don’t care what your damn father thinks, and neither should you!”

  “Look who’s talking. You only kissed me because you can’t touch anyone else!”

  “I did not!” Eloise shoved him. “Don’t make this about me!”

  “It is about you! You’re the one who’s leaving!”

  “I never—”

  “You’re more elemental than you realise!”

  “Your power came back because of you, not me!”

  “It was because of you! If you weren’t there, I would’ve died down there!”

  “You really don’t see it, do you?”

  “See what? That I’m nothing?”

  “You’re not listening to me!” she shouted, clenching her fists. “I don’t care about the bloody elementals! I. Don’t. Care!”

>   An earsplitting crack shattered the still air and the ground began to shake. Eloise stumbled, holding out her hands to steady herself.

  “Eloise, stop!” Kyne grabbed her as the hoist swayed violently, then fell, the metal structure taking out several trees before landing with a boom.

  Her heart hammered in her chest and she shoved him back, her fingers tingling with a bad case of pins and needles.

  Screwing her eyes shut, she drew in heaving gulps of air, trying to recall what Vera had taught her about meditation. She was on a tropical beach in far North Queensland. Waves crashed on the shore, the air smelled like salt and earth. The fine, white sand was warm between her toes… The shuddering began to settle and the earth quieted.

  “Bloody hell,” Kyne murmured.

  She opened her eyes and gasped. “Oh no…”

  They stared in shock at the splintered earth, the jagged ends of bedrock caving into Black Hole Mine. Eloise didn’t have to tap into her power to realise the whole thing was flattened. The tunnels were full of rubble and the corrugated iron holding the shaft in place had been crumpled like an empty aluminium can.

  “I-I’m… I-I’m s-sorry,” she managed to force out. “I—”

  Kyne wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her close, his touch silencing her.

  “You’re lucky I’ve mined out that seam,” he murmured.

  “I didn’t mean… I-I’m…”

  “Shh,” he said, running his fingers through her hair. “I’m the one who should be sorry. I… I don’t handle things well. Never have.”

  Eloise sighed and swallowed her frustrated tears. “At least you’re admitting it.”

  He tensed and shook his head.

  “Drew’s in trouble, Kyne,” she said. “We have to go back and help.”

  Kyne frowned. “I feel like an arse right now.”

  Eloise tugged on his sleeve and filled him in on what Vera had told her and Hardy—about the package, how Drew had gone after the dingoes…all of it.

  His expression fell as he listened, his gaze flickering to his destroyed mine every now and then. When she was finished, he sighed. “If you’re going to stand with us against the Dust Dogs, then there’s something you should know.”