by Kim Faulks
A boom rocked the sky behind her. Orange sparks shot high, making the pretty blond reporter throw her hands over her head and duck for cover.
Gunny pressed the button and just stared at the screen for a second before she looked up. “Holy shit.”
Her phone vibrated. The name Roth in red letters. She snapped to attention, pressing the button and lifted the handset. “Senator.”
And the smooth bass-filled voice of Senator Artemas Roth spilled through the room. “Where are you?”
“Still at the Major General’s.” She looked at the folder in Alpha’s hand. “We’ve come across some interesting reading.”
“They found Stokes, what’s left of him anyway—in an unmarked grave off Thompson Highway. They’re notifying his next of kin now.”
“Jesus…Jesus…” Gunny seemed to sag. “Irwin’s just sent me the link for Headquarters. First Slater, then the bombing, and now Stokes. What the Hell’s going on, Artemas?”
“Someone is cleaning house. Someone very powerful. I want…” His voice deepened, seeped with concern. “I want you to be careful…all of you. I’ve got a bad feeling about this whole thing. Too many moving pieces, too many enemies.” This was the first time I’d ever heard the Senator shaken. “You said you had information…”
“We found files, from the very first compound. They took young men, Artemas. Young men in their prime…and they broke them.”
Silence echoed, until the stoic voice growled down the line. “Anything that might locate the Major General?”
Gunny licked her lips. Her gaze riveted on the file in Alpha’s hands, and then turned to stare at the small slip of paper and the six digits…numbers important enough to this sick sonofabitch to use as his safe code. “We might have an idea. A place where no one would bother to look. A place here no one would know.”
“And you’ll keep me updated?”
The hunter raged in her eyes. “Yeah, stay safe Senator. We’ll keep you updated.”
4
Ghost
Human moved. Human touched, sliding fingers along my skin.
Human breathed in my face. Human words smothered my mind, stealing me from the power of my spirit, taking me deeper into the dark.
“You’re a pretty little thing.”
My legs trembled. Heart beating…too fast…like a hunt…like a kill…
I tried to swallow, tried to move.
But Human held me, wrapping cruel fingers around my arm and yanked.
My feet slipped, fingers thick and numb swiping the doorframe too late. Bright red smeared across flaked paint. The smell sharp, searing. Stealing the hunger from my belly to turn me weak.
“Pretty beast…beautiful.”
Shadows moved closer, lifting me, ache around my chest as he dragged me deeper into the cold and terror.
“Thought your kind left here forever.”
I hit the floor and stayed. My feet wouldn’t move, not running, not scurrying. Panic welled in the back of my throat. But there was no fighting, no fleeing…no wind in my hair, no grass under my feet.
Hide little Ghost! My father’s roar trembled my mind.
Hide now!
There was nothing but heavy…and tired. Trees blurred outside as the door swung open and then closed. My fingers carved a track in thick dust, pushing my head from the floor.
Run…run now…leave this bad place.
The stench welled in my nose, twisting and biting. Making water in my eyes…and a fist around my throat.
“Thought you’d come for revenge for a second…until I saw what you hunted. Hungry were you?”
The flare of brightness, like the sun…he held the sun. The burning, hot sun. It danced and laughed against sticks and leaves on the floor, turning brown to black.
I pushed harder driving fingers farther, reaching until wet kissed my fingers…and the sweet scent of blood bloomed.
The fawn stared at me, Spirit now gone in its empty gaze, and for a second I was no longer the hunter and no longer the bear. I was simple, small, leaking from my eyes as it leaked from its throat. My toes twitched, moment slow as I pulled my knees closer.
Human wrenched the carcass from the floor and hacked with a metal tooth, slicing skin from its body and meat from its bones. Bright red glistened, flopping through Human’s fingers. “You want it? Eat.”
I winced as water slipped down my cheek and fell between my lips.
“Suit yourself,” Human growled and hung it over the sun.
Sickening stench flooded the air, making me swallow and swallow. I closed my eyes and willed my body to move.
“She’ll come for me, you know? Hunt me down like a goddamn animal. The bitch can come all she wants. I won’t go down without a fight.”
My belly howled, agony savaged as the sickening stench flooded my nose.
“I’m still a goddamn Major General. I still hold the fucking stars. They think I’m some kind of damn pawn, well they’re mistaken. I’ve kept everything. Every record, every photo. Enough to tear this place to the ground—and them along with it, if I have to.”
I closed my eyes to the human words while acid burned my throat.
“It wasn’t safe to move it before, but I guess there's no damn time now, is there?”
Silence closed in. The kind that made my muscles tremble—the kind that made me stare at the monster. Human watched me. Human with his food and his hunger—and his words. Human’s lips glistened as he bit and chewed.
His gaze drifted over my body, lingering at my chest. Human licked his fingers and growled. “You are a pretty beast, aren’t you? You remind me of her, you know, the first one I saw… So fucking animal. Terrifying really. I just had to have her.” Human rose and took a step. Black boots shone against the glow of the sun as he knelt. “Just like I had to have you. You’d like that, wouldn’t you? Hmm?”
His fingers smelled of food, leaving traces behind as he touched my hair and my face. Hard fingers slid down my chest and pressed over my heart, pinching my flesh, making me whimper. His dark eyes sparkled with something else now. Another hunger—another need.
He pushed the skin of my spirit aside, heavy hands skimmed my thighs all the way down and then slipped under to linger between my legs. “You want me to touch you like this?”
A sharp bleat made me flinch. Human stilled for a second and then rose. He grabbed the pouch at his side…no, not a pouch. A thing that howled until he pressed it to his ear.
“About damn time. Are you ready to get me out of here?” Human spoke and stared. “What? You’ve got to be shitting me? No…how? The bitch is dead? She’s finally dead.”
Human eyes widened until the whites sparkled.
Run now little Ghost…run away… My toes moved, tightening and curling, finding movement where there was none before.
“Acheron will come for us.” Fear bled into Human’s words. The scrape of metal wrenched his gaze toward the darkness. “He’ll blame us for it all. Fucking Vampires, I told you to stick with the damn wolves.”
Toes worked, ankles slid. The heaviness welled in my belly, drawing away from my feet. Fingers moved, scratching the floor…scratch…scratch… Human turned toward the window, and then to the door, panicked…just like the fawn…just like food.
“I had nothing to do with her goddamn death. No, Hell no…you can tell Acheron it wasn't me, or my men…I need to get out of here. They’ll be coming for me.”
Human barked into the thing and then stood there, swaying for a second before he growled. “Then you don’t know my nephew as well as you think you do. He’ll be after blood. I’d bet he’s on his way right now…” Human’s lips curled from his teeth. “Bet my life? You’d like that, wouldn’t you, Carlson? Get me out of here now.”
Scratch…scratch. Move feet, hands. Fingers trembling, ready to fight as Human dropped the thing from his ear. Human stood there, watching the mountain while the terror of this place closed in.
“She’s dead, after all this time.” Human turn
ed to me, lips curled, dark eyes glinting. He wanted to hurt me…wanted more than flesh and blood.
He wanted Spirit. He wanted soul.
He took a step. “She’s finally fucking dead.”
Run…run now. Pain in my hands, movement in my feet. But Human didn’t notice. Human didn’t care. My heart was deafening, drowning out the sound of his steps—it drowned out everything. Spirit filled me as he reached.
The bear, the earth. The hunger and the pain melted into my body, turning nails into claws.
My hair flew as I rushed forward, and drove nails into Human flesh. Human stilled as movement found me. He stumbled backwards, carving a path through the dirt and the dust.
Human screamed behind me as water blurred my gaze. I clawed, pushed to my feet only to stumble. The clang of metal rang loud as I hit something in the corner. Darkness pushed in, bringing with it the smell of blood…different blood, sharp, bitter…not sweet like the fawn.
“Fucking bitch!”
A boom rocked the air. Something hit the wall in front of my face, fragments flew into my eyes. Run…run…hurry now. Human killing…Human rage.
I stumbled, grasping the doorframe, and lunged outside. Sweet outside where the leaves sank under heavy feet. I pulled, pushed…fell and hit the ground with my knees.
“Goddamn it! I’m going to fucking kill you!”
Hurry now, Spirit urged making me whimper…making me fight. Heavy feet hit the ground like heavy paws. I speared my fingers into the cold earth and pushed forward, past the building, my gaze fixed on the open jaws of the metal.
The mountain swayed, blurring into sleep. I held on, fighting the tiredness and grasped the metal. Edges scraped my skin and the sting followed.
The boom came again. Fist punched my side, slamming me into the pointed barbs. I shoved my head through, shoulders followed, dragging against the metal thorns.
“Get back here!”
Human roared, his words too close. I wrenched my gaze over my shoulder and his shadow reared against the sun.
My lips curled, a snarl slipped free.
Don’t make me hurt you…don’t make me kill.
Heartbeat slipped from my chest to thunder in the sky as big black bird descended.
Its tail whipped, casting wind into my eyes, throwing leaves to the wind.
Human was drowned out in the terror as I shoved through the other side.
The fawn’s mother still waited, bleating, running, long legs pounding the earth turning this way and that. But there was nowhere to go as the big black bird descended. Human came. Human killed. Human filled my world with crimson and green. I shoved my toes into the ground. Pain came at my side. I swiped. Blood…fresh blood…and agony—stealing the cry from my lips.
Run now, Spirit whispered.
Run and hide.
5
Ace
Tires skidded, dust billowed. Gunny’s Jeep came to a shuddering stop long enough for me to shoulder open the door and hit the ground running. There were no words of encouragement, no whispers of warning as I gripped the semi-automatic rifle and speared through the trees.
I was out first, always first, scouting the way…making sure my team was safe when they hit the ground. Two more trucks followed. I had them to watch out for as well. Alpha’s men were young and untested...very fucking untested. Gunny’s voice cracked in my ear. “Coming up on marker three.”
I gripped my weapon and drove my heels into the ground, moving fast through the forest toward the derelict compound, four clicks from the drop-off point in the goddamn middle of nowhere.
Satellite imagery of the area showed nothing until two days ago—when a black SUV appeared outside the compound and that was where it stayed. The sonofabitch made no move to cover his tracks, or hide the fact he was there alone. I clenched my jaw, and ducked under a branch.
He wouldn’t be alone for long.
We were here to keep him company…here to make him feel right at home in the brutal horror of what his goddamn Operation Immortal left behind.
“Guys, we’ve got some action coming in.”
Irwin’s voice crowded my head as the faint sound of a chopper filtered through the trees. The sound too high-pitched, too tight to be a robust engine of a carrier. Civilian, it had to be.
“The bastard’s making a run for it,” I growled and then curled my shoulders pushing harder—digging deeper, flying past tree after tree. “Called one of his rich buddies to take him home I see."
“Like fucking Hell he is,” Gunny mirrored my words.
My lungs were burning, thighs felt like lead. Still I kept going, past the ache and the hurt, finding something much deeper. Hate was fuel, violence was precision. This was where I belonged, out here in the woods with a rifle in my hand and a target in my sights.
A punk with no past, only a present. Only the here and now. Only the breath between shots. A twig shattered at my right, darkness blurred and moved away. This place was as deep as deep goes. The track in was barely worn, spearing off northwest to an unused camping ground in the middle of nowhere.
Only the suicidal or the corrupt would venture out here. This was the shifters’ world. The animal world. Humans hated their kind just as much as they feared ours. We infected them, captured them—killed them.
But out here they could be free—and they had been—for a while.
The beat of the chopper’s blade echoed in the distance. Sweat slipped into my eyes. I blinked away the sting and kept on moving as fast as this terrain would allow.
A growl echoed to my right, something dark and feral hunkered in the shadows—and that was where it stayed. Heavy boots smacked the ground. The slick terrain fell away under my feet, crammed pines and firs were a hazard themselves.
My thighs trembled as I hunkered low, riding the fall of a soft slope and then lunged forward. My weapon grew heavy, palms slick against the steel, but it was the sound of the chopper above that drove me, and the cold need for revenge.
“Coming up on marker two.”
Gunny’s growl spurred me on. They’d be heading straight for the compound now after detouring with the untested dirt road, and straight into enemy fire without a scout. I punched the air, pressing harder, lunging over fallen logs to hit the other side hard.
The trees thinned out ahead. I scanned left finding the hulking decrepit buildings in the distance and brought my rifle up, scanning the broken tree line to my left. The thunder of my heart filled my ears, drowning out Gunny’s growl as she huffed. “Two clicks from marker three.”
There was no growl of an engine in the background. From here on out they were on foot. A blur of brown flew out from the corner of my eye. I dragged my weapon high, sight trained on the beast as the deer leapt, cutting across my path.
An ache flared across my chest. The muscle squeezing, shuddering. I dragged the air through my nose and watched the beast cut and run, only to turn back and start all over again, as though she were panicked.
An icy touch trailed along my spine as the throb of the chopper descended. I dragged my gaze from the deer to the sky. The damn thing lingered for too long—it wasn’t natural—not for an extraction or an insertion. I reached for my earpiece and pressed the button for my mic. “Something doesn’t feel right.”
I trained my sight across the terrain, cutting through the trees and swung back to the deer as she raised her head high and flew between the saplings. Animals didn’t act like that, especially when faced with danger.
It was almost as though it was trapped.
I scanned the area and moved to marker one. The only place high enough to get a view of the compound. The fence was broken, falling down in places, but it was the building that suffered the most damage. Shattered windows left the inside open to the elements…and it was those elements that took this land back.
Young saplings burst from the wooden floorboards and moss ate away the walls. I scouted the four buildings, searching for movement and found none as Alpha’s voice cut through. �
�There’s no one in that chopper.”
I kept my sight fixed on the open doors. The damn pilot was here for a reason.
“I’m going in,” I growled staring through my sight from one darkened window to the next.
“Wait for us,” Gunny snarled. “Ace…goddamn it.”
That icy feeling grew as I skirted the rusted fence line and found a break wide enough to move through with my weapon aimed at every damn twitch of a branch. The chopper wasn’t military, so I wasn’t concerned with the damn thing casting more than wind into my face.
Alpha’s voice tried to cut through the drone, but there was nothing but me and this place, and what I saw through the end of my scope. The deer raced along the fence line on the other side, drawing my focus for a second to see Alpha and Gunny haul ass toward me.
“Fucking…made…me…sprint…motherfucker.” Alpha’s stutter made me smirk as I eased through the severed links and around the back.
Three more grunts made up the team, eating Gunny’s dust as she sprinted with an awkward gait. She had her weapon raised, cutting between the damn chopper and the grounds, covering my ass as best as she could. I mounted the rotten stairs with one well-placed step and moved inside the first building.
Dust and filth stole my breath. I blinked into the darkness as the floor howled under my feet. I reached for my mic. “Careful here, the floors are unsafe.”
I dropped my hand and swept where I could. This placed hadn’t been touched in decades. No one came here…not the animals, or Newman Slater. I carved a trail through the inch thick dust, leaving markings where there were none before and stared at cages that lined one side of the building…cages big enough for a man…or a woman.
That icy feeling stayed, wrapping talons around my damn spine.
“Jesus…are you seeing what I’m seeing?” Alpha snarled into my ear.
I reached for the button as my stomach clenched. “For your sake, I hope not.”
The drone of the chopper moved away from above the compound. Whatever the pilot wanted to see, or wanted to capture had been done. I scanned the rest as I exited the other side and moved toward building two.
