The Hunt (The Wilds Book Two)

by Donna Augustine

  I’d never tried to entertain for anyone but the girls at the Cement Giant, and I was a little stunned to see how amused the dinner group was as I retold every story with my own personal flair.

  They laughed with me, and the sound was sincere. Some of them were laughing so hard they had tears in their eyes. Rocky joined the group at some point, and instead of sitting at the other end of the table, he squeezed in down by the group surrounding me and joined in the laughter.

  Wine and ale was flowing liberally as others started adding their own stories, and the dinner took twice as long as it had last time, with all the laughter.

  When dinner was finally coming to an end, something I’d never expected to see happened. They were sorry I was leaving them when I stood to leave. Not only did they ask me to hang out longer, their eyes showed disappointment. This group of people, ones who’d feared me when they’d seen the scar on my hand, wondering what had been there before—they didn’t want me to leave.

  “I want to go check on Fudge,” Bookie said, and I waved him off, as the group was still trying to talk me into staying a while longer.

  Rocky got up and sat beside me, taking Bookie’s seat, carrying a bottle of what I guessed to be whiskey and a couple of shot glasses. “Come on, Dal,” Rocky said. “Hang out. Have a couple of drinks.”

  I saw a blur of movement in the corner of my eye that appeared to be Dax’s head turned toward us, and in my gut, I knew he didn’t want me to sit here and drink with Rocky.

  Rocky knew I could spot Dark Walkers. Dax was afraid he’d lose his Dark Walker IDer or something. Maybe I should let him think he could. I hated the walls, but Rocky seemed like a decent guy. His people liked him. He was in charge of this place and I hadn’t heard one bad word about him from anyone.

  I smiled and placed my hand on the empty glass. “You pouring or what?”

  “How old are you?” he asked as he filled the glasses, and I noticed for the first time he had a killer smile. He smelled pretty good, too.

  “Why? Is there a legal drinking age at the Rock I should be aware of?” I asked.

  “Nope. I was just curious. Some people think you’re a bit young.”

  He tapped his glass with mine. We both tossed back the whiskey, and a nice warmth filled my chest.

  “I have a very old soul.” Old and battered, but why get into the gritty details? This was the first time I’d had a pleasant night since Tiffy had disappeared, and I didn’t want it to end. I didn’t want to think of the pile of dead Dark Walkers I’d left outside the walls. I didn’t want to think of anything. I wanted to have a good time.

  “I bet you do.”

  The smile deepened and a single dimple dipped into his left cheek. This guy wasn’t just looking for someone to watch out for Dark Walkers; this guy wanted me. Like, as a woman. This was a seasoned and hardened man, not a boy, and I was the one he wanted.

  The question was, did I want him? Not that I wanted a fulltime mate. I had too many other things to worry about besides finding a man, but there were other aspects I was interested in learning about. But did I want to learn them from him? His wasn’t the face that I’d pictured seeing when I had my first time, but maybe it should be?

  I watched as he refilled our glasses. He had nice hands, big but gentle looking. His hair was thick and his body was filled out in a way that seemed perfect. More importantly for a person in the Wilds, he was tough.

  I leaned an elbow on the table and flipped my hair to the side, liking the fact that I was this man’s object of desire. I’d bet this was a man that could pull off chapter ten with flair.

  The only thing screwing up the moment was I felt Dax’s stare land on me. I could’ve been wrong, though, because my radar was getting a little fuzzy as the whiskey kicked in. How had I forgotten how great this stuff was?

  I caught sight of someone walking toward the still mostly full table, and saw it was Tank making his way over to Dax. Then I saw the two of them staring at me. That was when I knew the good times were coming to an end. He got up and started walking over to me, and I stood, knowing what was to come. Killjoy.

  “Dal, you need to come with me,” Dax said as he stood over me.

  “Can’t it wait? We’re having a drink,” Rocky said.

  I looked at the two men and realized this could get ugly really quickly. I couldn’t handle any more ugly. A pile of corpses were about my max for one night.

  “It’s all good. I’ve got something to handle with Dax.” I patted Rocky on the shoulder, realizing I’d just touched him without thinking about it. I never did that with people. I pulled my hand back and Rocky grabbed it.

  “Anything I can help you handle?” he said.

  “No,” Dax said, cutting that conversation off.

  “I’m good,” I mouthed, and walked off, hoping Rocky would stay and Dax would follow. It worked after a second of delay and a slightly hostile look between the two men.

  Chapter 28

  Dax didn’t say anything on the way back, but his magic was cranking. It wasn’t until we were in the house alone and the door closed that he finally spoke. “What were you doing back there?” he asked.

  Even with my whiskey buzz, I heard the underlying anger. “I don’t know,” I said, walking in and plopping down on the couch, feeling kind of limber myself.

  It was the truth. Rocky was the first man I’d ever flirted with. I wasn’t sure what I’d been doing exactly. I wasn’t going to tell him I was flirting and risk sounding like a total fool. Maybe he was talking about something else.

  “Don’t do it again.”

  “Don’t do what? Take a shot of whiskey or talk to Rocky? What’s my orders now?” I asked, kicking my ankles up onto the arm of the couch.

  “Rocky isn’t the man for you.”

  Okay, we were talking about the same thing, so I must’ve been doing it right. That was a very useful thing to know for the future, because there was a high likelihood I’d be doing that exact thing again. Why shouldn’t I? I was a single woman and that was a part of life, and I was going to live it. Seemed logical to me.

  “Did you hear me?” he asked, and I was thinking I could’ve used one more shot of whiskey right now. One more would’ve been useful to quiet down that last little part of me that was warning me to tread softly right now, because Dax was very agitated for some reason.

  “Why? Who’s right for me? You don’t think Bookie should be with me. I heard you tell Becca that before she left the farm. You didn’t—”

  I stopped short. Even with whiskey, I didn’t want to discuss that.

  “Now Rocky shouldn’t be with me. Who am I allowed to be with, Dax?”

  I stopped looking at the ceiling and turned my head toward him when I didn’t hear anything.

  “Well? What am I supposed to do? Should I wait for your approval?” I mocked.

  He walked farther into the house and came to stand by the couch. “Yes. Especially since you seem to be clueless about it. Rocky wants you for one reason, and that’s to use you to spot Dark Walkers.”

  Anger had me sitting up. “He likes me.”

  “Because he can use you.”

  That comment got me to my feet. “And what about how you’re using me?”

  “You get something back from our arrangement. I’m not trying to get in your head and twist you up so that you do what I want.”

  For someone who wasn’t trying, he’d done a fairly good job at it anyway.

  “What about Becca? What’s she get?”

  “What are you talking about? There is no me and Becca.”

  “You use Becca because she’s sterile. That’s why it’s okay to be with her, isn’t it? It’s not a guess for you, is it? You can smell it on her or something. You and Becca keep your secrets and I’ll do my own thing.”

  “Don’t do it.”

  “I can do whatever I want, and kiss whoever I want.”

  He grabbed my arm when I would’ve turned and walked away from him.

  “Ge
t off me.”

  “He kissed you?” he asked, a little too softly.

  Now I was sure he was angry. I wanted to lie, but what if he said something to Rocky and then I looked like a fool? “No. But I’m saying I could.”

  His eyes shot to my arm and then he was pulling it closer to the lantern on the table. “Why do you have a bruise forming?”

  Huh? I looked down and confirmed that there was nothing there. “I don’t have a bruise.”

  “You will by tomorrow. Tank said you were covered in mud when you came in. What happened?”

  I was gearing up for the second leg of the fight, letting my temper get the best of me before I realized this was the exact thing I’d wanted to do all night. Tell him what had happened. Then I’d found him sitting there with Becca giving him moon eyes and I’d changed my mind.

  At some point in the future I’d have the liberty of choosing who had my back, but right now I needed Dax. I had to shove all the other things to the side. I’d let him keep the illusion of control if that was what I needed to do. I was good at that game. I’d been playing it for years.

  “I was attacked by Dark Walkers.”

  “Where?”

  “A little bit from here. Down to the east and around the bend by where the stream drops off. I dragged the bodies under a bush. I could use some help getting rid of them.”

  “Stay here,” he said, and walked out of the house.

  I waited ten minutes and walked out too.

  * * *

  “What’s wrong?” Bookie asked as he caught up with me on my way toward the part of the wall I could climb.

  “Nothing,” I said, altering my path, since I didn’t want to share that place with anyone else.

  “I thought we were friends?”

  “We are. That’s why you’re not going to press me to talk about it.”

  Bookie was looking at where I’d just run from. “I don’t know why you let him get to you so much. I know you were putting up a front at dinner, but you were amazing. You don’t have any idea how fantastic you really are.”

  “Bookie, I’m fine. Let’s just drop it.” I didn’t need my ego inflated to feel better. Even if I had seemed that great for one night, I was a Plaguer first, and that tainted everything about me.

  “No. I won’t. Back there tonight at dinner, instead of being the Dal that hangs back from strangers because you expect them to hate you, you let them see what I get to see all the time. They were blown away by you.”

  “I think you’re laying it on a little thick now.” I knew I’d entertained them, but that was a far cry from liking me. Like Dax said, I had a use. And according to him, that was all that Rocky wanted from me.

  “No. I’m not. You’re special. I see it, and tonight they did too. Dax knows it but he acts like an ass. I swear, I don’t know what his problem is. He doesn't want anyone else near you but then does nothing.”

  "Bookie, Dax doesn't want me.” I stared at him, hoping he’d understand and let the subject drop, because I wasn’t sure I had it in me to explain it any further or argue the point. It sucked enough that he didn’t want me. I wasn’t in the mood to have to convince anyone else of that fact.

  “Yes he does.” Bookie was digging in, and I knew from previous experience that he could shovel as well as Tiffy used to. I started a lap around the lake with Bookie beside me.

  “Really? Because you haven't heard him tell me that I could leave at any time. That’s not something people say a lot when they want to keep you around. Sometimes I’ve felt like I’ve practically had his boot on my ass.”

  “He’s full of shit. I don't know what he's doing or waiting for, but he’s not letting you go anywhere.”

  I stopped walking halfway around the lake and said, “The only thing he wants me around for is to spot Dark Walkers. That’s it.” I turned and headed back to the house, thinking my bedroom might have been the smarter bet.

  “You don’t get it. You aren't the type of girl you let get away.”

  I shook my head but stopped arguing. Bookie didn’t understand. He hadn’t seen him let Becca walk away and she’d been perfect for him. She’d be perfect for any man. Even now I could see how he regretted it. If he could walk away from her, he certainly wasn’t going to be stuck on me.

  Chapter 29

  Dax was predictably gone by the time I woke up. I was becoming more and more convinced that he didn’t need as much sleep as a normal human, if he needed any at all. After last night, I was glad. The sting of what had been said was still smarting.

  I dragged a brush through my hair, cleaned up a bit, and headed next door for breakfast. Fudge was the only one there when I walked in, and even she wasn’t really there anymore. She might’ve looked older, but she’d never acted it, until now. She’d never looked so depleted of the life that glowed within. The fierce woman I’d known was gone.

  I grabbed a piece of bacon from a mound that I knew was fried for me and folded myself into the kitchen chair opposite her.

  “This is the best bacon I’ve ever had,” I said.

  “I’m fine, Dal.”

  She looked anything but. “Do you want to go look for herbs in the forest today?”

  “I’m okay, really. Or I will be once I know something one way or another.”

  She was looking down at her plate and I didn’t know what to do. Did I tell her we might never see Tiffy again? Should Dax? Was it better to let her think she was dead? What if Tiffy was? We didn’t really know, not for sure.

  I smiled and ate a few more pieces of bacon and some eggs as quickly as I could choke them down, literally. Watching Fudge like this was the final nail in my appetite suppressant. If it wasn’t for the fact that I knew the magic needed fuel if it was going to ever make a return, I might start willingly forgoing meals for the first time in my life.

  By the time I left her, I might not have the burning fire of magic in my chest, but I had one burning urge in my gut.

  I poked in the house but didn’t find Dax there, or at the town hall. Luckily, he wasn’t hard to find. I was making my way out of the gate as he was heading back. We stopped a good fifty feet from the Rock.

  “I took care of the bodies,” he said.

  “Thanks.” The conversation was stiffer than it had ever been between us, even after all the fights we’d had in the past. I’d stepped over a line last night, questioning him about Becca’s fertility, and I knew it. He’d crossed a few of mine, insinuating Rocky would only want to use me. We were standing in the middle of the emotional fallout, but there were things that had to be dealt with.

  “Fudge is…” I didn’t like any of the words that would fit. They all hurt my heart too much, so I left them unsaid. There wasn’t anything about how Fudge was doing that Dax didn’t already know anyway.

  I didn’t fault him for not having said anything to her. I hadn’t been banging down her door to tell her either. Tell her what? A mysterious Wood Mist took the child you’ve cared for since she’d been a baby? She may never come back or she might?

  “We need to do something. We can’t wait anymore, not even a few days. She deserves answers, one way or another, even if they aren’t the ones she wants to hear. This situation is eating away at her.”

  “I know,” he said, and I could feel the mood shift between us, a weird truce of sorts for the sake of Fudge. I wouldn’t rail at him for saying those things about Rocky. He wasn’t going to say anything about Becca.

  “I’m going to tell her. She might not believe it, but she deserves to know what we know.” I pushed my hair behind my ears, waiting to see if he’d fight me for the job. He could have it if he wanted it.

  He crossed his arms and his brow furrowed. “The Skinners might not have Tiffy, but they know something. They have to. They had her rabbit.”

  I nodded. “What if we kidnap one of their people in exchange for information?” We were both grasping, and I knew it was because neither of us wanted to give up. Telling Fudge that Tiffy might be gone forever f
elt a lot like quitting to me.

  He shook his head. “Others have tried kidnapping their people for exchanges. It doesn’t work. The Skinners don’t care. They feel that if you’re weak enough to get caught, you’re better off dead.”

  “So we’ve got nothing.”

  He stared at me, and there was a long pause before he said, “I think we march right up to the gates and demand answers.”

  “How many people do you think we can get to help us?” I’d had a better reception at last night’s dinner than the first time, but I wasn’t sure if it was good enough to get anyone to accept a suicide invitation. But damn, I liked the way Dax rolled sometimes. Only a true badass would have the balls to do something like that.

  “We aren’t asking anyone else to come. Just me and you.”

  Or…maybe I’d overestimated his sanity. “That’s a death wish.”

  “When has the threat of death ever stopped either of us?” he asked.

  The man did have a point. Was I losing my edge? Was I becoming—the word was even worse than “quit” and “pity”—boring?

  He turned his back on me and walked a few paces away while he said, “Do you trust me?”

  Maybe? Sometimes, depending on the day and whether our goals were running parallel? Did that count? I settled on: “I trust information.”

  “It's a yes or no.”

  “Trust isn’t my strong suit.”

  He turned, pulled out his gun in plain view of me, and lifted it in my direction.

  “Dax, I don’t know what you’re doing, but I’m not in the mood for your crazy maybe I’m gonna try and kill you shit today. Fudge is in bad shape and that stuff only works once or twice, tops.”

  Then a bullet whizzed by my head.

  My hands went to my hips. This guy was pissing me off now. “What the hell is wrong with you? I told you, not today.”

  He holstered the gun. “I needed to know if you trusted me before we did this. You didn’t flinch. You didn’t even budge,” he said, seeming pleased with himself.