Wolf Hunting (A Wolf in the Land of the Dead Book Book 3)

by Toni Boughton

  “Why do you think he took off like that? He’s trying to impress you.”

  “What?!”

  Benjamin’s teeth flashed in a smile. “You can’t be that oblivious. The dude likes you, and I bet you like him too.” He looked at her and his smile faded. “Oh. Damn, you are that oblivious.”

  Nowen shook her head irritably and turned her gaze back to the dorm. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

  “I’m just saying - hey, there he is!”

  Everett was running toward them from the same direction he had disappeared, and when he reached Nowen he staggered to a stop and collapsed. “All the doors I found are locked or barred. Windows, too.” he wheezed.

  “Through the front doors, then.” Nowen said.

  “Shouldn’t we wait for the guards to move away?” Benjamin said as he touched her shoulder lightly.

  “They just did. Let’s go.” Nowen was on her feet and running before the last word had completely left her lips. She heard someone following but didn’t look to see who it was.

  The four guards had separated into groups of two. One pair followed their flashlight beams around the nearest corner of the building. The other pair headed to the other corner, still talking in quiet voices. The front doors to the dorm were less than twenty feet away when the still of the night was broken by a loud grunt of pain.

  Nowen glanced behind her; it had been Benjamin following her. Now he lay sprawled on the ground. She looked for the guards. The pair that had still been at the front of the dorm had stopped in their tracks and the beams of their flashlights crawled over the grass toward her.

  She slid to the side and ran at the guards. One of them gasped and she knew Benjamin had been spotted. Nowen launched herself through the air and slammed into the nearest person. They fell to the ground in a tumble of limbs.

  She had ended up underneath the guard, who she now knew was a woman. Gotta move fast. Nowen wrapped her arms around the woman and rolled so she was on top. Her hands plunged into the guard’s long hair and she hauled up on the guard’s head and then smashed it back down on the hard ground. The woman struck out at Nowen with a fist and she repeated the motion, banging the woman’s head harder this time against the earth. The guard stopped moving.

  She heard the other guard move toward her. Nowen threw herself forward in a twisting roll so she landed on her back. The guard followed her, a wooden bat raised over his head. She braced for the blow.

  There was a muffled ‘thump’ and the guard’s eyes rolled back in his head. He fell like a dead tree, revealing Benjamin holding his shotgun by the muzzle. Blood slicked the butt of the gun. Nowen got to her feet and nodded at the young man. “Nice job.”

  He nodded weakly, and then his eyes shifted to something behind her. Nowen whirled, expecting to see another guard, and then relaxed when she saw it was only Everett. As he joined them he looked at the bodies on the ground. “Are they still alive?”

  Nowen frowned and turned to face the dorm. Does it matter? She heard Everett and Benjamin drag the bodies away as she watched the lit windows on the second floor. The first floor was dark. When she felt her pack members rejoin her she started toward the dorm’s front door.

  “Let’s go get Sage.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Nowen slipped through the door and up a stairwell, past the dark and quiet first floor, Everett and Benjamin close behind her. The stairs were of an open design and at the second floor let out onto a kind of foyer. Pictures of planes and people in uniform still hung on the dusty walls. The carpet that stretched away in two directions, leading to two sides of the dorm’s square shape, was splotched with dried blood.

  Nowen dropped to a crouch and hurried to the hallway on the left. A set of double doors was propped open and she ducked behind one and surveyed the corridor. Closed rooms ran down both sides of the hall. The thrum of generators was just audible and tall lamps illuminated the white walls and floor. She felt someone move up next to her and recognized Everett’s scent. He whispered in her, his warm breath curling around her cheek.

  “What do you see?”

  “Nothing right now - wait.” One of the doors opened and a woman stepped out. She was buttoning her shirt. Another woman followed her out, her clothes in similar disarray. They kissed, and then the first woman headed away down the hall. The second woman walked toward Nowen’s position, strapping a holstered gun around her waist as she did.

  The armed woman was still distracted as she passed through the double doors. Nowen pushed past Everett and grabbed the woman’s leg, pulling her down to the stained carpet. The carpet muffled her landing and Nowen was on her before the woman could catch her breath, flipping the prone body over and straddling the heaving chest.

  The woman, her long blonde hair spilled like tentacles across the floor, opened her mouth to scream. Nowen clamped a hand over her lower face and pressed; the woman’s dark blue eyes widened. Nowen leaned in close and bared her teeth. “I’m looking for someone. Tell me the truth and I’ll let you live.”

  The blonde woman did her best to nod her head.

  “A girl. About fourteen. Reddish hair. Dark eyes. Is she here?”

  Another nod.

  Benjamin’s gulp of relief mirrored Nowen’s internal feelings. She masked them behind her narrowed eyes and addressed the blonde woman again. “Where can I find her?”

  The dark blue eyes twitched, moving from Nowen’s face to a spot over her right shoulder and then quickly back again. At the same time her wolf picked up the soft sound of a foot sliding over carpet. Nowen moved without thinking, pushing herself forward over the blonde woman. A twinge of pain shot up her knee as it collided with the woman’s face.

  Nowen hit the floor and rolled, the flat crack of the gunshot ringing in her ears. Someone shouted. A loud boom from a shotgun followed. She pulled herself to her knees and looked wildly around for her pack.

  Benjamin was next to her suddenly, helping her up to her feet. Everett stood over the body of the blonde woman’s companion. He was facing away, staring down the hallway from which the sound of rising voices and fast-moving footsteps came. “Company’s coming! What’s the plan?” Everett shouted back over his shoulder.

  Nowen paused next to the blonde woman, who was curled on her side and weeping. She raised her foot and then slammed her heel into the other woman’s temple. Bone crunched. The woman’s body jerked spasmodically and blood pooled beneath her head. Nowen looked up at Everett. “None of them deserve to live.” she moved past him.

  “Christ!” Everett cursed and grabbed Nowen. With a strength that surprised her he pulled her back behind him. “You don’t have a weapon!”

  “I don’t need one.”

  “Right now, you do. I count four people coming towards us. Do you agree?” Everett said. She nodded. He turned his attention to Benjamin. “Kid, are you ready?” Nowen looked at the young man as he nodded with a seriousness she hadn’t seen in him before. “Ok. Follow my lead. Don’t get yourself killed.”

  The first armed guard plowed through the open doorway, some type of long-barreled gun held before him. A second person followed closely behind, and Nowen watched as the two guards stumbled to a confused halt, weapons sweeping the open space before them. They can’t see - too dark. Everett must have realized the same thing, for he stepped up behind the second guard and slammed the butt of his weapon into the man’s skull.

  The guard dropped with a grunt that brought the first man around. He raised his gun at Everett. Nowen saw the guard’s finger tighten on the trigger and knew Everett had no time to move. She started toward the armed man but knew with a sickening truth that there was no way she would reach either of them.

  The guard’s head exploded in a spray of brains and bone. Blood fountained from the ragged skull and as the body fell away Benjamin stepped forward, his shotgun held in steady hands. Everett laughed. “Good job, kid, you saved my life!”

  A loud blast scraped across Nowen’s ears and simultaneously, surreally, blood shot o
ut from Everett’s side. The grey-haired man groaned and fell forward. Nowen launched herself with all the strength she possessed, and as she landed on Everett’s shaking body she saw from the corner of her eye Benjamin raising his weapon.

  The shotgun went off, again and again. Nowen looked up to see two more armed guards stagger backwards and fall, gaping wounds in their chest. She glanced at Benjamin. He returned her gaze, and though she could see that he was shaken his hands never slowed as he re-loaded his gun. “Guard the door.” she said and turned her attention to Everett.

  The grey-haired man lay on his side, one hand pressed here blood still coursed from his wound. She tilted his head up; his lips were pale and only a sliver of white could be seen from beneath his eyelid. Her fingers found his pulse; it was thready and weak. Running out of time. Everett’s hand fell away from his side to land palm up on the carpet.

  Nowen could think of only one thing to do. She drew her hand back and slapped Everett across his face. The red imprint of her palm flamed on his cheek but he made no response. She slapped him again, harder, and this time his eyelid fluttered. Nowen hit him again, so hard this time that her hand ached. Everett’s eye opened, the copper-colored orb fixing on her. She grasped the sides of his head between her hands and pulled it roughly up to her face. “Everett!” she shouted. “Everett, you need to change, now, or you’re going to die.”

  The single eye began to roll back in its socket. Nowen shook Everett’s head and when he seemed to see her again she repeated her exhortation. Awareness suddenly flared in his face. She eased his head down to the carpet and sat back, watching as Everett’s clothes shredded from the force of the wolf tearing free.

  When the wolf finally stood on shaky legs Nowen called Benjamin over. “Any more movement from the hallway?” she asked.

  The young man shook his head. “I could swear I heard voices coming from the far end, but I haven’t seen so much as a finger.”

  She motioned at Everett. “Keep an eye on him. I’m going to check things out.” The grey wolf whined, gazing up at Nowen entreatingly. The change had healed Everett’s wound but had obviously taken a lot out of him. “Give yourself a few minutes to recover, then follow.” She stepped over the dead guards and started down the hallway at a jog.

  Nowen pushed her wolf’s hearing to the limit. Nothing. Why so few guards? Opening a door at random showed an empty room with dusty carpet and dark blue curtains. She tried one of the lit rooms next and found three simple cots. A couple of thin blankets lay on the floor and, on a hunch, Nowen touched one of the cots. It was warm. Someone was just here. Guards’ room?

  A sound from the hallway brought her on edge and she peered carefully around the door. The corridor was empty but there was a sensation of something alive nearby. Nowen slipped her sneakers off and started toward the end of the hall. She set her bare feet carefully and made no sound as she went. A door near the corner opened and someone stepped out. Her wolf tensed at the familiar scent, and Nowen slowed as she recognized the woman.

  Her hands clenched into fists by her side but she kept her gaze locked on Zoe as the other woman stood and waited. There was little of the person she had known two years ago, although she had to admit her memories of that time were very faint. The girl with the open, occasionally-friendly face and hazel eyes that had so easily showed her shock and horror at the changed world. A woman stood there, trim and muscled, a gun held with the ease of long use in one hand. The long brown hair was still there but only in a ponytail that descended from the back of Zoe’s shaved head. A rough tattoo in black ink marked the right side of her face, arcs and spirals wandering down from the corner of her eye. The other woman was dressed head to toe in black and an equally black wolf’s skin was draped around her shoulders. The flattened wolf head lay across Zoe’s chest; the eye sockets were set with jagged teeth.

  Zoe raised the gun. “That’s far enough.” Nowen stopped. In the silence of the dorm her words rang with anger. Zoe’s eyes never left Nowen’s face. “I heard the gunshots and came running. Saw your handiwork. As usual, Nowen, you leave nothing but death and destruction behind.”

  “Where’s Vuk?”

  “Hiding, probably.” Zoe smiled. “He’s not much of one for combat. I, however, have learned well the lessons you taught me.”

  Nowen frowned. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “You came into our life, got Lennon killed, got those children killed, show me that monsters exist, and then leave!” Zoe’s voice rose as she continued until she was shouting. “You showed me that there are worse things than the dead-heads! Worse even then those men that held us captive! You showed me that to survive in this world you have to be more brutal, more cold and unfeeling than everyone else.”

  Zoe took a step down forward. The eye of the gun barrel didn’t waver. “You left me outside that charnel house! Surrounded by the dead-heads with no protection, alone, and no idea what to do! When Vuk’s people found me I was so close to crazy that I would have asked the devil himself to save me!” She started moving toward Nowen, lowering her voice to an almost conversational tone. “And then Vuk showed me that you weren’t the only monster out there, that more of you, you, things existed. He wanted me to help find more people to create more monsters. I wasn’t going to; why the hell would I want to make more of you creatures? But what else was there for me to do?”

  Zoe stopped a foot or so away from Nowen. She gripped the gun in both hands now, aiming at Nowen’s forehead. “Vuk offered shelter, and safety. He knew I found the wolves hideous, so he gave me the very enjoyable job of helping to train the new ones. And to dispose of the rejects. Then, he offered me the best treat of all - the chance to hunt you down. He wanted you alive, but I had other ideas. Imagine my surprise to find that you survived.” Zoe grinned, a skewed rictus that didn’t reach her eyes. “Now I get to kill you all over again. You, the reason I live this life, the reason I do the horrible things I do. Why, it’s like my birthday and Christmas all rolled into one!”

  Nowen looked at Zoe for a moment. “Oh, shut up.”

  The other woman blinked. “What?”

  Nowen crossed her arms over her chest. “I said, shut up.”

  Zoe’s mouth opened and closed like a dying rabbit gasping for air.

  “I didn’t make you do those things. No one made you do anything except you. I’ve spent more time with humans these past few months than I ever wanted to, and the one thing I’ve noticed in every single one of them is that they all willingly do whatever the hell they want. Even if it’s stupid, evil, counter-productive, or completely against their own well-being.” Now it was Nowen’s turn to take a step forward. Zoe’s hands were trembling. “You can no more blame me for how your life has turned out than you can blame the sun and the stars. You didn’t know how to be safe? Then you learn.” She moved forward another step. Zoe’s eyes were wide and vague, as if she was looking at something far away.

  Nowen continued. “You didn’t know how to survive? Then you learn. You didn’t know what else to do with yourself? Then you learn! You learn, you adapt, or you die. It’s that simple. Humans make things so much more complicated than they need to be. In the wild you would have been dead long ago, which would not be that bad a thing, actually. If you can’t contribute to the pack you don’t deserve to be a member of the pack.”

  “No! No, I won’t listen to your lies! You did this to me, you made me take this path!”

  “I did nothing!” Nowen roared. “I saved your life, and I left. That’s all. Everything you did afterwards is no one’s fault but yours. I mean, look at you. You embraced this life fully, I’d say. And then lied to yourself that it was done to you. You asked me back in that clearing if I ever thought about Lennon. No, I don’t. He’s dead and gone, and nothing will change that. But I bet you do think about him. What would he say if he could see you now?”

  Tears slipped down Zoe’s face. “You don’t know what it was like. I was so scared, and so alone...”

 
Nowen sneered. “I’ve seen other humans who were scared and alone. Somehow, they didn’t become the worse that humanity could offer.”

  “You have no sympathy for humans!”

  “Actually, I don’t have much patience for humans. I have no sympathy for someone who willingly indulged in hurting others.”

  The gun in Zoe’s hand’s wavered, the barrel pointing at the floor. “Are you going to kill me?” There was something very close to longing in the woman’s voice.

  Nowen looked her. “I’d planned to. You shot me. You took my pack members away from me. You hurt them, for a purpose you don’t even agree with. You are sick, and a sick wolf would be driven away or killed by the rest of the pack.” Zoe looked away. “But you’re not a wolf. You’re a human. You deserve to live with what you’ve done for the rest of your life.”

  “No!” Zoe’s empty eyes looked up at Nowen. “You’re not going to leave me again with nothing!” In a flash the gun was level, the unblinking eye of the barrel aimed straight at Nowen.

  A crimson spray erupted from Zoe’s throat as a jagged metal point punched through the skin. Zoe gagged and the gun fell to the floor as she raised her hands to her neck. Her hazel eyes rolled in their sockets like a frightened animal’s. To Nowen it looked as if Zoe was trying to speak, but all that came out of her mouth was more blood. Her head fell forward, the long ponytail sliding down to shield her face, and then Zoe slumped to the floor. Protruding from the back of her neck was a length of curtain rod.

  Nowen raised her eyes to see a young woman standing before her, a young woman dressed simply in a t-shirt and sweat pants, with close-cropped russet-colored hair and dark, dark eyes staring out of an olive-skinned face. “Nowen?” the young woman said, and there was a world of hope and fear in that single word.

  Nowen’s eyes skimmed the woman in the space of a heartbeat, seeing the sunken cheeks and thin arms, the bruises that marched up each of those arms, the spiked leather collar around the woman’s neck, twisted so the spikes dug in to the soft flesh of the throat. “Nowen?” the young woman said again, and thin lines of blood slid down her neck from the collar.