The Hunt (The Wilds Book Two)

by Donna Augustine

  “No way to prove it until recently,” Dax said, and all three of them looked at me.

  “Guys, I can’t see through metal walls.”

  “You won’t have to. There’s a party heading back from the stump,” Tank said. “And one of them definitely didn’t look like they belonged.”

  We hadn’t been there long when the people we’d been waiting for approached the gate. We were positioned so that hopefully we could get a glimpse inside when the large gate opened.

  It was a party of three. We’d been passing around the one set of binoculars from person to person, but as soon as they hit the clearing, Dax handed them to me. It took me a moment to find the party through the view, and Dax put his hand on the binoculars and pointed them in the correct direction.

  Two of the men in the group looked rougher around the edges, both clothed in mostly leather, from their pants to their shirts. Their hair hung long and straggled. They didn’t have as many marks as they’d had in Fudge’s memory, but they each had a line across their forehead.

  The third in the group was a woman. She looked like she didn’t belong, mostly because she appeared to be cleaner, if still in rough attire. It was too dark to tell more than that as they crossed the clearing toward the entrance.

  “Well?” Rocky asked.

  “It’s too dark and I’m too far away.”

  The door was opening and I was just about to hand off the binoculars back to Dax, figuring he’d be able to pick up more information on defenses on the inside than I would, when I gripped the binoculars tighter. The party walked right beneath the torches that lit the entrance. I was grateful that, even though I might have lost some of my magic, I hadn’t lost it all.

  “The woman with them—she’s a Dark Walker.” I handed off the binoculars to Dax so he could get a glimpse of her. He passed them to Tank quickly after, just before the entrance closed.

  “Are you sure?” Rocky asked.

  “I’m positive.” Tiffy could be in there right now—not only with Skinners but Dark Walkers as well. I turned to Dax. “What did you see of the defenses?”

  Dax shot me a look so intense I could almost see a little of the beast glowing through his stare. “Almost nothing.”

  “We’re going to have to do whatever it takes,” I said to him.

  “We’re finished for tonight.”

  Chapter 20

  Sweat beaded on my forehead in the afternoon heat as I waited for Dax’s next move.

  He came at me, and I didn’t have it in me to block anymore. If he hadn’t pulled his kick, I would’ve been in bad shape. As it was, I ended up lying on the ground gasping.

  He was relentless today, and I wondered why I’d thought some sparring would be a good idea. I didn’t ask him what was wrong. I knew why he was in rare form. It wasn’t because we’d put the note in the stump a day ago and not received a reply, even though we’d watched the Skinners plus one return from there. We were stuck waiting, which he definitely didn’t like, but I didn’t think that was the issue.

  He wasn’t mad because we were trying to negotiate with the Skinners. Pretending there was the possibility of handing me over made sense, and he was far superior to me in tactics and saw the logic of it. No one argued that point, not Rocky, Bookie, or Dax.

  No, Dax was fuming because he knew me, better than Fudge or even Bookie. In some ways, Dax and I were as different as the night sky and high noon. Other times I wondered if we were too similar, just viewed from different vantage points at different times, both the light from stars at the heart of it. Perhaps I was just an earlier version of him, what he was like when he was my age, however long ago that might have been.

  I leaned up on my elbows, and that was far up as I got. He was pacing around me, waiting for me to get back on my feet, visibly angry right now and not hiding it. I’d never seen someone who could shut their feelings down the way he could, but this morning he seemed to be in more of a let it all hang out kind of mood.

  It was probably because of the real reason he was angry. He knew I wasn’t going to stop at negotiations. If the only way to free Tiffy was to sacrifice myself, it was going to happen, even if I had to march to the Skinners’ home all alone in the middle of the night.

  I wasn’t foolish enough to think this anger stemmed from some personal adoration for me. Yes, there was loyalty there, as he considered me part of his crew, but the real truth was he didn’t want to lose the one person who could finger the Dark Walkers for him. He wouldn’t allow anyone to steal his vengeance.

  Rocky had sent more people to spy on the Skinners’ compound, but from what I’d seen, unless you had X-ray vision, it was a lost cause. The place was locked up tighter than my fist around a piece of bacon. Or how my fist used to be. Even bacon wasn’t the same these days.

  Dax didn’t understand, though, that I could handle whatever came, and I’d survive even the Skinners. I’d make it out the other side, magic or not, because that was what I did. I wasn’t so confident about Tiffy.

  That was all I could think of. Tiffy with those people. The thought of her, what they might be doing to her, was stealing every thought in my mind. Even eating was becoming a problem. I’d never lost my appetite, and I could barely eat breakfast this morning. I’d eat and all I’d think of was where was Tiffy? Were they feeding her? Was she starving, being tortured?

  He paced his way over to me. Probably only stopped moving because it was more convenient to scowl down at me from a fixed position.

  “Are you getting up?”

  “Maybe we should call it a day. I don’t have it in me right now to practice.” Sparring today had been a bad idea, but I was trying to force the magic to come back. I’d hoped that if I battled it out with Dax something would click into place, light the fire in my chest again. If it didn’t do that, I’d counted on it at least keeping my mind off things while we played this waiting game. But nothing was going to keep my mind off Tiffy, and the magic was still fizzling out every time I reached for it.

  “Get. Up.”

  Dax could be as stubborn as an ox, another similarity. Was this what I’d be like in fifty, maybe a hundred years?

  “Dax, I thought that this would be a good idea today, but I can’t.” Tiffy was gone. I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t try and listen to people’s memories to glean some hidden kernel of knowledge that might help. I couldn’t even throw a knife that well anymore. This wasn’t time to practice anything. This was a time to either knock down doors on suicide missions or lick your wounds, and I couldn’t figure out which one I should be doing yet.

  Dax didn’t budge. I looked up at him, unable to see his expression with the bright sky behind him, but sensing the mood well enough. “Cut me a little slack. It’s a bad day.”

  “You’re not quitting.”

  My face wrinkled at the mention of that word in connection to myself. “Of course I’m not quitting. I don’t quit. What I’m doing is taking a break.” Every part of me felt sapped a thousand times worse than I’d ever felt at the compound. The idea of her out there felt like it was draining everything I had.

  “Get. Up,” he repeated.

  “Don’t you hear me?” He should, as my voice was nearing a yell. He’d defend me over a plate of food and yet he couldn’t understand that maybe this was a bad day? The guy was a lunatic.

  He took another step until his toes were pressed against the side of my hip. He leaned over, casting my upper half in his shadow. “Get. Up.”

  “Or what?” Man, could he be stubborn, but this still wasn’t happening today.

  “I’ll kick your ass where you’re sitting on it.”

  “Tiffy’s missing. Cut me some slack.” I didn’t want to fight, but I didn’t want to go back to the house. I didn’t want to do anything other than get to Tiffy, and the frustration of not being able to do that made me feel both violent and frozen all at once.

  “You want to help her? Get your head on straight and step up or you won’t have anything to do with this.”<
br />
  The only thing my brain grabbed on to was him trying to cut me out of the loop. “What exactly are you saying to me?”

  “You know what I’m saying.”

  “Spell it out.”

  “I won’t have someone on my team who can’t keep their emotional shit together.”

  That got me off my ass like the grass had been lit on fire underneath me. I got right in his face, almost nose to nose, as I went on tiptoes to look him dead in the eye, and stabbed him with a finger in the middle of his chest. “Who do you think you are? Don’t lecture me. I’ve spent years keeping my emotional shit together.” I wanted to rip his head off right then. Some of the anger might have been misplaced, but I didn’t care. He deserved a healthy dose of it. He was far from one of Fudge’s saints.

  “Act like it. You think you’re so tough, then show me. Get your shit together, because I’m not letting you go anywhere like this.”

  “That’s bullshit. The only reason you don’t want me to go anywhere is because you don’t want to lose the one person who can ID Dark Walkers for you.”

  “Then you better get your head out of your ass and make yourself invincible if you want to be involved.”

  “Invincible is over. I’m a normal human being now. I don’t have any magic beyond IDing monsters, but if you think that’s going to stop me, you’re wrong.”

  “No. You’re wrong. You are going to get stronger even if I have to drag your skinny ass every step of the way. I’m going to make the magic come back even if I have to squeeze it from your body.”

  His eyes were nearly blazing, and I realized that he might really be walking the edge, one I’d only glimpsed at. “You’re completely insane,” I said, and right then, I believed it. That was how intense he looked.

  “I’m glad you’re finally catching on. Now fight or I’m going to kick your scrawny ass all the way back to the Rock.”

  Holy shit. He was going to beat the hell out of me just to push me. How far would he take this? Would I end up laid up in a bed recuperating for weeks? Was this the plan? Screw me up sparring so I couldn’t do anything even if I wanted?

  I was near burning with anger when he took a swing at me. I spun, missing his hit, and countered with a kidney shot, a burst of warmth spreading from my chest as I did.

  He took another shot and I dodged it. When he turned and came at me again, I noticed he was moving slower than he was capable of. It was an act. An experiment on his part. Every ounce of magical warmth died in that instant.

  He swung and I landed back on the ground, thankful that he’d pulled the punch at the last second, or I might have really ended up in bed for weeks.

  He walked over and looked down at me. “What happened? You were doing good.”

  “Nice try, but it’s gone again,” I said as I got my air back. “I guess the crazy act only works once but you really do it well.” Too well, I thought, and wondered how much of that was him and how much had been an act.

  He took a couple steps away as I sat up, still recuperating—not that he seemed too concerned. I got myself back into a sitting position and then rested my arms on my knees.

  “Whatever is wrong, adrenaline, fear of a threat, is overriding it. You’ve got control on some level. Tell me exactly how it feels to you now when you try and call the magic forth?”

  “It sputters out. I don’t know how else to describe it.”

  He took a couple more steps around the area. “Did you do something weird before it happened? Eat anything unusual? Was there anything out of the ordinary?”

  “No, no, and no.”

  “What about the night before we got to the Rock? When you woke, you seemed off.”

  “I’d had a bad dream.”

  “Tell me what it was.”

  “I don’t remember most of it.”

  “Tell me what you do remember.”

  My palm went to my forehead before my fingers worked their way into my hair. I wanted to pull it out in frustration. “All I remember is the sensation of being covered in cement when I awoke.”

  “It was just a dream.” Wasn’t that what I’d kept telling myself?

  “It was a dream, right? You don’t know anything that could cause this, do you? Anything at all?” Like invisible friends, maybe? I waited, seeing if there was something he thought was capable of it.

  He shook his head, but damn if I didn’t think he was holding back on me.

  “Dax!” We turned to see one of the teenage girls from the Rock running up to us. “Dax,” she said with a smile as she got into range, and I was a bit surprised this one ever left the walls, even if it was to get close to Dax.

  “What?” he asked.

  He didn’t realize how curt he was being with her, but I knew why he was so distracted. The girl didn’t, and I could see her heart-sized crush get a little banged up.

  “Rocky said there’s a message.”

  I jumped to my feet, shaking off the workout as I rushed back to the Rock, not waiting for either of them.

  Rocky was outside the gate when I got back, Dax and the girl not far behind. Rocky handed me the piece of leather in his hands as Dax lost the message girl and then headed over toward us.

  “What’s it say?” Dax asked.

  I handed him the hide. “They want the pirates to host a meeting between us and the Skinners tonight.”

  “Good,” Dax said.

  “It could be a setup,” Rocky said.

  “No. It won’t be. They know better than to cross me.”

  Rocky looked surprised, but I wasn’t. Dax had his fingers on a lot of different pulses, and sometimes a knife on the jugulars, too. Pressure could always be applied when you were the one with the control of the oil and gasoline. I guessed that pirates got their fair share of that pressure when trading with Dax.

  “I’m going to go get ready,” I said, putting it out there before Dax thought there was any chance of stopping me from going.

  Dax didn’t say anything, and then he looked at Rocky. “You got any plans tonight?”

  “I guess I do now.”

  Chapter 21

  The closer we got to Hell’s Corner, which I’d just learned was one of the strongholds of the pirates, the more the hair on my arms stood on end. It seemed to grow darker and darker the deeper we got into the marsh, and I didn’t think it had anything to do with it being night, the thick canopy of trees, or the marsh area we were entering. There was something evil that clung to this place, even though I couldn’t put my finger to it.

  The place was just creepy, no other way around it.

  “This place is fucking creepy,” Rocky said, as if he were reading my thoughts. “Remind me why we agreed to meet here?”

  “Neutral ground,” Dax said as we walked deeper and deeper into the area and I wished the bikes weren’t a few miles away at this point.

  Up ahead, there was a man standing beside a small boat that had a box hanging off the back.

  “Give me a minute,” Dax said to the two of us, and walked forward alone.

  “How are you feeling?” Rocky asked as I watched Dax greet the pirate.

  “Like I can handle whatever comes,” I said, having made up my mind that I would do whatever it took to get Tiffy back where she belonged tonight.

  Rocky only smiled, and I wasn’t sure what he found so amusing about my response.

  Dax waved us forward and then got in the boat. I followed and Rocky squeezed in on the other side of me, while the pirate sat in the back and steered the strange box thing.

  The boat moved through the swampy waters until the sky opened up a bit and a large ship sat in the near distance. The pirate pulled the small boat up to the side of it where a rope ladder hung down.

  Dax climbed up first, then I went, and Rocky afterward.

  Once we were on the deck, the two Skinners were easy to pick out among the crew, with the strange lines on their foreheads that may have been made with blood. There were pirates around as well, giving the Skinners a wide be
rth.

  But there was no Tiffy. Maybe she was close by? It would be smart for them to keep her hidden. At least, that was the lie I told myself. As much as I’d disagreed with Dax when he made the decision not to tell anyone where we were going, now I was glad. I’d hate to have to go back to a hopeful Fudge without Tiffy.

  A door to below deck opened and a tower of a man stepped out. All eyes shot to him, and no one needed to tell me he was in charge. He was massive, muscles bulging from his arms like I’d never seen on a human. He might’ve been the closest I’d seen a male come to the size of a beast. He still wouldn’t be a match for one unless he could grow some claws and fangs. I’d seen what claws could do to a person.

  The large man stepped in front of our group. “It’s been a long while, Dax,” he said.

  The way the pirate was looking at him made me realize I’d finally found someone who knew something was up with Dax’s age.

  “Very long,” Dax replied.

  The pirate didn’t say anything else, but nodded to Rocky before looking at me. “I’m glad I was able to offer you safe meeting grounds. If you don’t mind, I’d like to speak to your companion for a moment.”

  What would the guy want to talk to me for?

  “That’s fine,” Dax said as I was still trying to figure out the situation.

  The man started walking toward an empty corner of the deck, but Dax grabbed my wrist before I could follow.

  “It’s fine. He’ll be a bloody pulp before I let him hurt you,” Dax said softly.

  I paused for a second even after he released my wrist. The woman who finally won Dax’s heart was going to be one lucky lady. The feeling of a man like him having your back was like nothing I could put into words.

  The pirate was waiting, and I stepped forward, having no clue what this guy wanted from me, but knowing that we were in a delicate spot.

  “I’m Jacob.”

  “Dal.”

  “I’m the Pirate King.”

  My manners weren’t up to royal standards, even pirate royalty, so I said the first thing that sprang to mind: “I don’t know how to curtsy, if that’s where you’re going with this.”