“Sage.” Nowen stepped forward at the same time as Sage, and as she wrapped her arms around her long-lost pack member the girl no, not a girl, no longer grabbed onto Nowen like a hawk to a hare. Sage’s head fell forward to Nowen’s shoulder and a great and weary sigh came from the young woman.
They stood like that for a minute and Nowen thought she could have stayed there forever. But Sage was the one to break the embrace, and she stepped back and looked at Nowen with dry eyes. A crooked grin spread across her face. “Please tell me you’re here to get me out.”
Nowen nodded absently, her attention drawn back to the collar. She raised her hands to it. “First, let’s get this damn thing off.”
Sage flinched away, a gesture that seemed automatic and honed by remembered pain. She half-turned, showing Nowen the back of the collar. A heavy keyed lock held the leather strap closed. The dark eyes glanced back at Nowen. “It’s punishment. I tried to escape a couple of weeks ago. It also keeps me from changing - I tried, but as my neck shifts and widens the spikes dig in something fierce.” Her eyes shifted to the dead woman on the floor. “One of her ideas. Bitch.” Sage looked back at Nowen. “She’d been here earlier today, overseeing a ‘training’ session. I thought she’d left, gone out on a recruiting trip, so when I heard gunshots and she came charging into the room, I knew something was up. I didn’t know it was you.”
“I’m sorry it took me so long to find you.”
The young woman raised a hand. “Don’t. Don’t apologize, Nowen. Zoe shot you. I thought you were dead, and then I got separated from Everett, and I realized that the only one who could help me was me. When things got...bad...I just pretended I was you.” The dark eyes glanced down at Zoe again. “The one thing I couldn’t do was let her live.” Her thin hand went to the collar, tugging at it absently. “Not after everything she did.”
Nowen reached out and pulled Sage’s hand away, wrapping her own hand around it, feeling the stubs of the missing fingers. “We’ll get that off. Don’t worry.”
Sage turned to face her fully. “We?” Again the combination of hope and fear colored her voice.
Nowen nodded and moved to the door. “Everett and Benjamin are just down the hall. Let’s go.”
“Wait.” Sage pulled free and darted back into the room behind her. Nowen followed, and the scene that met her eyes brought her to a standstill. A bare-bulb lamp in one corner of the former dorm room cast a harsh light on the people huddled against the far wall. No, not people. Children. Four children crouched together, arms wrapped around each other. Three girls and one boy, and to Nowen’s eyes they all looked younger than Benjamin. Like Sage, they were skinny and bruised, showing the signs of deprivation and abuse.
Sage pointed at the four children who hadn’t moved from their position. “They come with us.” She raised her dark eyes to Nowen’s face. “They’re mine.”
“They’re vukodlak?”
“Created from my blood.”
Nowen looked at the children. As one they looked away, focusing on Sage. “Of course they’re coming with us.” The young woman held her hand out and the children ran to her. “It’s a long run back to our truck. Can they keep up?”
Sage gave that crooked grin that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Don’t worry about us.”
Nowen moved to the door and checked the hallway. It was still empty. She motioned Sage and the others forward. The scent of Sage was in her nose and the comfort that brought, the sense of completion, was like a drink of spring water on a summer’s day.
“Is Everett ok? I saw him once at the hospital, and he didn’t-”
The roar of a shotgun blast cut Sage’s words off. Nowen shoved her and the children back into the room and was reaching for the door when Everett came pounding down the hall. He was back in his human form and was wearing the bloody clothes of one of the guards. “We got trouble!” he shouted, and then he saw Sage.
The grey-haired man stumbled but regained his feet as he stopped in front of the open door. His words were directed at Nowen but his eye was locked on Sage. “That other guard patrol - something tipped them off, I don’t know what. They came up the stairs but we saw them first. The kid fired at them but the bastards got away. Last I saw they were running for the chapel.”
Sage reached a trembling hand out to Everett. “Where’s Benjamin?”
Everett grasped her hand, twining his fingers around hers. “Damn, Sage, I’m so glad to see you again. The kid’s keeping watch.”
Nowen slid past the two of them and trotted to the end of the hall. It bent to the right and the corner and connecting hall were both dark and, seemingly, unoccupied. Halfway down the passage she saw a stairwell. She raced back to Everett. “I have a plan.” she said and then shouted for Benjamin.
The young man came at a dead run. Like Everett, he didn’t seem to believe his eyes. Sage dropped the grey-haired man’s hand and took hold of Benjamin’s.
“What’s going on outside?” Nowen asked.
“Shit’s hitting the fan. A whole bunch of armed dudes are running to the chapel, last I saw.” Benjamin answered.
“Follow me.” Nowen led her pack down to the end of the hallway. She pointed at the staircase. “Benjamin, you take Sage and the children down that way and out the back of the building. Get them back to the truck, and then get the hell out of here. Go back to that campground we were at yesterday and wait. Everett and I will stay behind and buy you time to escape, but if we don’t show up in a day or so I want you to get as far away as possible from this place. Understand?”
Sage grabbed onto Nowen with a desperate grip. “No! I don’t want to lose you again. There’s no need to stay, Nowen. Please!” The dark eyes shimmered with tears.
Nowen eased herself free of Sage’s hold. “You won’t lose me, I swear.” She stepped back and pointed down toward the stairs. “Go, Sage. Now.”
With one last despairing look Sage turned and ran toward the stairs, the children and Benjamin following close behind. Nowen couldn’t move until she saw them all vanish into the dark first floor, and then she held her breath until she heard the distant slam of a door.
Everett touched her on the shoulder. “They’ll be fine.”
Nowen looked at him. “I know.” She started back up the hallway, to the windows with the view of the chapel. She stepped over Zoe’s body without a second look.
Everett fell into step beside her. “That body - is that Zoe?”
“Yes.”
“You killed her?”
“No. Sage did.”
There was silence from Everett for a moment. “Good for her. What now?”
“Now I figure out how I’m going to kill Vuk.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
To the east a flush of palest pink signaled the rising sun. Nowen looked from the horizon to the chapel below. The points of the spires were shimmering with the first touch of sunlight. Gathered in front of the chapel were armed men and women, arranged in three rows that stretched in a semi-circle along the front of the chapel. The people had been moving in all night, on foot and by vehicle.
Nowen turned at the sound of footsteps behind her. Everett gave a slight smile as he dropped to a crouch next to her and looked out the window. “Situation’s the same?” he asked.
She followed his gaze. “Yes. I count about 25 people. No new additions in the last thirty minutes.” Nowen folded her arms on the windowsill, resting her chin on them. “I can’t figure out why they’re just standing there. Why haven’t they rushed the building?”
“I’ve been thinking about that too. There are a couple of Saviors, or whatever they call themselves now, over on the east side of this building - but none anywhere else. My best guess is they’re protecting Vuk.”
Nowen glanced at him from the corner of her eye. “All of them? From what?”
His mouth quirked in a half-grin. “From us. Think about it...Vuk has no idea how many people are in here, or even who we are. For all he knows, we’re a heavily armed
band of raiders, a coup inside the Saviors, a group of feral wolves - you name it. I spent more time with Vuk than you did, and he was never the type to charge into battle himself.” Everett pointed at the people guarding the chapel. “He’s waiting for something. More backup, different weapons - “
“Or Zoe.” Nowen raised a hand to the rough scar that traced a path along the side of her head. “He probably doesn’t know she came back here, and she wasn’t afraid to get her hands dirty.”
Everett sat down, maneuvering so that he could lean back against the wall. He stretched his legs out in front of him and looked at Nowen. “This is probably like talking to a stone, but...we don’t have to stay.”
She met his gaze equally, a calmness filling her mind. “You’re right. We don’t have to stay. You can go, Everett. It’s ok. You helped me rescue Sage. She’s safe now.”
“Then let’s both go, Nowen. Why try to kill Vuk? It’s a huge country, and there are places we can survive far away from any people living or dead.” Everett paused, his eye seeming to pierce hers. “Or is it personal? I know Vuk hurt you-”
She cut him off with a wave of her hand. “You have no idea what Vuk did to us.” There was a look in the single copper-colored eye that made her uncomfortable, a look approaching pity? that she didn’t like. Quickly she rose to her feet and took a few steps away. “At one time, yes. I wanted to kill Vuk in retaliation. But Sage is safe now.” She looked back over her shoulder. “Now. But for how long? It’s a big country. So many places where we can hole up and hide. Because if Vuk is so determined to create a master race of vukodlak that he will go to the efforts he already has, do you think he’ll let Sage - or any of us - alone?” Nowen shook her head, turning her gaze back to the empty hallway in front of her. “I’m not hiding for the rest of my life. Vuk has to be stopped.”
For a moment the only noise in the hallway was the whistle of the wind that wrapped around the building. Then Everett spoke. “I’m with you. So, next step. How do we get into the chapel?”
Nowen moved to a nearby window. It was open an inch or so, and she could smell dew-wet grass and young pine on the wind that funneled through the gap. Her wolf alerted at the fresh scents, pushing eagerly at Nowen’s skin. Her senses heightened and she could now hear birdsong, the distant ring of wind-chimes, the low murmur of voices from the guards at the chapel. “We need a distraction. Any ideas?” she said without turning.
Everett sighed from behind her. “Hmm. Fire-bombs. If we could find some gasoline and something to ignite it...and some bottles...or maybe there are some chemicals in here we could use.”
“Chemicals?”
“Oh, hell, I don’t know. I was anthropology. My high-school chemistry classes confused me. Let me, uh, let me think for a moment.”
Nowen looked out the window. The sun was almost at the point of cresting the horizon. The birdsong increased, different soft noises mingling with the delicate, sound of wind-chimes.
“What if we gave ourselves up?” Everett said. “That could get us in the chapel.”
Something was prodding at Nowen’s memories.
“Once in the chapel, we’ll be taken to Vuk. We wait for our moment and then - bam! Attack him!”
Deep snow covering a dead town. A corridor of wire fences. Dozens of chimes singing in the cold wind.
“And then we get our heads blown off.”
A shed, and locked in that shed-
She whirled to look at Everett. “I have an idea.”
The black wolf followed the wavering sound of wind chimes, darting from one patchy stand of trees to another. A couple of gunshots rang out behind her; the grey-furred male creating a distraction. She ran faster, her claws digging into the earth and propelling her forward.
A parking lot swept by on her right, and then the hard surface of a paved road unrolled beneath her feet. The black wolf followed the road as it curved to the east and straightened. Ahead lay overgrown fields, a mix of deep green grass and rough prairie. The ringing of the chimes was stronger now.
The same wind that created the noise that led the wolf on ruffled her fur and brought the first scents of what she was looking for. Her claws scraped over the pavement as she headed through another gentle curve, this time back to the right. There. The wolf’s target rose into view. Her pace slowed to a jog.
A grey stone building sat on a small paved circle. The road the wolf was on grew an offshoot that looped around the structure, and she moved down this side path. The building wasn’t her objective however; the large corral off to the right was. Just like Sheridan. A corridor of metal panels and wooden fence sections led to a wide circle of more metal panels. Wind chimes of every type hung from multiple points along the corridor. Inside the corral were Revs.
The wolf moved off the road, dropping to her stomach in a patch of high grass. While she panted, her tongue lolling from her mouth, her human watched the dead-not-dead. Too many to count, but over thirty. Mostly young men and women...and a lot in blue uniforms. Must have come from the Academy. Let’s get a little closer. The wolf rose to her feet and trotted toward the corral.
The dead-not-dead were ripe with the stink of decay and rotting meat. They shambled in endless, wandering paths or stood swaying, leaf-yellow eyes looking at nothing. The wolf came to the gate at the end of the passage which, unlike the rest of the corral, was a simple structure of wooden posts and heavy wire. A loop of chain held the gate closed.
The wolf slid her nose through a gap between posts and barked. One of the Revs turned its head. The yellow eyes, very similar in color to a nasty-tasting caterpillar she had eaten once, stared at the wolf - and then the gaze moved on. We’ve got to get their interest.
The wolf rose to her hind legs and grabbed a piece of the chain that held the gate closed. She pulled and the metal loops came free, falling to the ground with a rattle. A quick glance showed a few of the dead-not-dead had turned in the direction of the noise. Still not enough.
The gate, free of its makeshift lock, swung outward a little. The wolf nudged it further back until the exit from the corral was wide open. She barked again, and again only a few of the dead-not-dead showed any interest. Ok, what if we- The wolf raised her head to the sky and howled.
The unnatural creatures turned as one to face her. Well, that works too. There was a moment of perfect stillness. The wolf’s gaze moved from one Rev to another and her human noted the dangling limbs and weathered frames, the dirty bone and black intestines that protruded through torn moldy skin. They’re in bad shape; that could be a problem.
The Rev nearest the wolf, a tall man in the shreds of a blue uniform, tilted his head back as if in imitation of the wolf. His lower jaw dropped and a spiraling, ear-splitting, nails-on-a-chalkboard shriek climbed from his throat and shattered the morning. More of the dead-not-dead answered his call until the wolf couldn’t even hear her own breathing. Oh, damn. Run!
The wolf turned in a swirl of black and ran. Behind her the screeching Revs followed. Her instincts screamed at her to head for the woods or the hills or anywhere that would provide cover. Only her human’s will kept her on the paved road. We’ll lose them if we cross the fields. Keep going on the road. The wolf laid her ears flat against her head and increased her speed.
The junction of the offshoot and the main road was just ahead. Then it was behind, the curve of the pavement swinging back to the left. The wolf didn’t have to look back to know that the horde of the dead-not-dead were still following her. Their shrieks and cries flooded her hearing and made her head swim. She gulped great breaths of air, her sides working like bellows, forcing her legs to pump even faster.
Now she was on the straight-away, and ahead she could see the last curve in the road. The wolf was tiring but her pursuers weren’t. Over the thunder of blood in her ears the slap of the dead-not-dead’s feet on the pavement was getting closer. As if they knew they were running their prey to ground the creatures’ shrieks grew louder. The wolf’s throat burned. Her tongue was thick in he
r dry mouth. Her body moved in a steady rhythm but it was getting harder and harder to keep her pace up.
I know. Just a little longer, please. Just a little more, and then it’ll be done, and we can go home. A memory of racing through white fields of snow in the shadow of a mountain range with peaks so high they scratched the sky poured through the wolf. Home. She was ready to go home, ready to leave humans and their strange, wretched world behind forever.
And if her human said just a little longer, then she would run just a little longer.
The wolf lowered her head. She drew on the feeling of home and somewhere found the energy to run faster. The landscape was just a blur now, the abandoned cars in the parking lot flickering dots of color blending into dark stands of trees. A smear of beige marked the dorm where Everett you called him by name? was. The spires of the chapel gleamed beneath the sun. The armed men and women still held their vigil out front.
The wolf led her horde of shrieking dead-not-dead into the mass of people. As she darted between and around the guards the creatures following her fell upon their prey. Screams and gunfire both filled the air. Amid the sounds of cracking bone and rending flesh the wolf arrowed for the chapel door.
Wide steps on a staggered ramp rose up to the chapel. The closer the wolf got to the building the larger it loomed, and the set of double doors that marked the entrance looked minute in comparison to the edifice that rose above it. As she made for the doors one of them opened and a brown-haired woman peered out.
The wolf plowed into her before the woman had even seen her. As the stranger went down the wolf latched onto her throat and ripped the soft flesh away. The woman gasped and gurgled, the sweet smell of blood flooding the wolf’s nose as she ran past and entered the chapel itself.
Through another set of doors, and then a large empty space opened up around her. The walls rose high up on either side, stained-glass windows throwing shards of blue, gold, and red light on the polished wood of the floor. Long wooden benches were shoved piecemeal against the walls. At the far end several short balconies held a multitude of gleaming metal pipes. Below the balconies, on a small raised platform, stood a high-backed ornate chair. Someone was standing in front of the chair.
Wolf Hunting (A Wolf in the Land of the Dead Book Book 3) Page 22
