Pack

by Cassandra Chandler

  “Redcaps can climb up that thing without you being aware,” she said. “It’s like you’re giving them a ladder to get to your neck. Plus, a lot of things are going to be on fire soon. Do you really want a bunch of flammable fabric flapping around you?”

  He didn’t say anything, but he turned around and set the bat down inside the van.

  As he slid the duster from his shoulders, Tessa immediately noticed two things. His shoulders and back were incredible. Broad at the top, tapering down to a narrow waist and trim hips that she couldn’t wait to wrap her legs around and squeeze. His arms weren’t overly huge, but they were ripped. And they had been ripped. Repeatedly.

  That was the second thing. Glimmering in the dim light, row after row of shiny pale scar tissue covered his arms. Some scars were jagged, some straight lines, some grouped in rows like a cornfield planted with pain. They continued up under his sleeves with no sign of stopping.

  “Holy shit,” she breathed.

  He didn’t respond with words. Instead, he picked up his bat, then slid the side door shut and slammed the passenger’s door. When he turned back to her, there was an unmistakable challenge in his expression.

  She wasn’t going to ask. She didn’t need—didn’t want—to know anything else that would make her sympathize with him more.

  “Let’s go.” She leveled the flamethrower. “Stay behind me, watch your back, and I’ll do my best not to set you on fire.”

  “I’d appreciate it.”

  She lifted her tracker monitor and started heading toward the blinking dot that represented the Redcap she had tagged when the hunt began.

  This was not how she had envisioned things turning out. She didn’t have any complaints, though. Yet.

  They were headed toward the wall of cars near the compactor. That made sense. The Redcaps would need stable ground to dig through. The cars made great spying spots, but the tunnels the Redcaps lived in could collapse if they dug too close to that much weight.

  As she suspected, the entrance to the nest was in a stretch of clear ground right behind the compactor. It was wide open—tall enough for them to walk straight down into the earth without having to do more than duck their heads.

  “What’s wrong?” Marcus came up behind her when she paused.

  “I don’t know. I’ve never seen a nest with the door open like this before. I expected there to be a car or something blocking it.”

  “I thought these things are small.”

  “Redcaps are small,” she said. “Their queens are big.”

  “How big?”

  “About the size of an SUV.”

  “Seriously?”

  Tessa laughed. “And you thought grenades were overkill.”

  “I will never doubt you again.”

  She glanced over her shoulder at him, her breath catching at his smile. Damn, she could get used to this.

  The floodlights were bright, reflecting off his glasses, but she could still see his eyes glittering strangely. That plus the scars…

  No way she was about to walk straight into a Redcap nest with a werewolf watching her back. She suppressed a shiver. Her life was weird, but that would just be crazy.

  Marcus was a Blade. That was strange enough.

  She gave herself a mental kick, remembering to focus. There had been too many surprises already.

  “The queen shouldn’t be a problem,” she said. “They pretty much just sit at the bottom of the nest spitting out Redcaps. But if our repeller batteries die, its brood will come at us from all sides. Redcaps like to drop down from above most of all. Sometimes, they can fall on you when the sound immobilizes them. If that happens—and I can’t stress this enough—do not shoot, hit, or stab me.”

  “Got it.” His cocky smirk returned at last.

  She felt herself grinning back at him, even though she tried not to. “Stop it with the sexy smile. It’s distracting.”

  His smile only broadened. “I have to deal with your gorgeous face, rack, and ass. I think you can handle my smile.”

  Her brain started spinning in happy circles like a dog chasing its tail. He thought she was gorgeous. It shouldn’t matter as much as it did. Dammit, she shouldn’t care.

  “No distractions.” She managed to force her smile back to a scowl and spoke more harshly than she intended, but she was mad at herself. If he thought she was yelling at him, so much the better.

  She didn’t want him to like her. Their situation was already too complicated.

  Every nest she cleared, every threat she neutralized, she did while being fine with dying in the process. She was a dead hunter walking. It was part of her edge. But Marcus deserved to keep living his cushy Blade existence. Especially with the badges of honor crisscrossing his arms. She had to get him out of this alive.

  “Into the rabbit hole, then.” Tessa pointed her flamethrower at the opening to the nest and did a quick burst to fry anything just inside.

  The recent rain had made the ground wet and slick near the opening to the nest. She checked her bug repeller to make sure it was still on. The tiny green light cast a steady and reassuring glow. The flickering ball of orange from the ignition flame at the end of her flamethrower was even better.

  She was used to operating in near darkness. The light from the rising sun wouldn’t make it far into the nest. She hoped Marcus wasn’t depending on some fancy flashlights to keep from tripping.

  Redcaps weren’t very creative, at least. The trail led straight down at a forty-five degree angle. Eventually, it would widen into the queen’s lair. What worried Tessa most were the smaller holes that shot out from the main tunnel—service corridors for the enterprising Redcaps looking after their queen.

  She let out another burst from her flamethrower. Only one Redcap fell from above, its tendrils flaming as it shriveled up on itself before that eerie blue light consumed it. So far, so good.

  “You okay back there?” she said.

  “Yeah.”

  Marcus sounded a little tense, but who wouldn’t be? She crept forward, clearing the tunnel with a burst of fire, watching a few Redcaps burn, then vaporize. She didn’t look back over her shoulder. She didn’t feel the need. It was weird to almost-trust someone again.

  “This nest is deep,” she said. “We should have reached the queen by now.”

  “Tessa, look.”

  A few steps further, and the tunnel started to widen. The flamethrower must have been messing with her eyes for him to see it before her.

  “Finally.” She ran the flamethrower over the ceiling, fire licking every surface as if claiming the territory for its own. “Prepare yourself. These things are butt ugly.”

  She stepped forward into the lair, sweeping her flamethrower over the space. A dozen Redcaps skittered against the far walls, just out of range of the bug repellers. The fire took care of them, along with the dozen more frozen in place at her feet and that fell from the ceiling and walls.

  “This is wrong,” she said.

  “No kidding. There are so many of them…”

  “No. There are barely any here. And where’s the queen?”

  Tessa’s heart dropped through her stomach. In the same instant, her body felt electrified with adrenaline. The ground beneath them started to shake and a rumbling noise echoed down the tunnel behind them.

  “Oh shit!” She turned around, hitting Marcus with her arm to keep him away from the flame that was already arcing from her flamethrower.

  The fire flew up the tunnel, illuminating the enormous body of the queen galloping toward them on hundreds of dagger-like legs.

  It looked like a giant lawn grub, white and pasty, but with sharp spikes sticking out all over its body, raking the sides of the tunnel and causing clods of dirt to rain down around it. Its face was pocked with different sized black eyes in no particular pattern.

  Tessa had never seen one this close or this mobile. What the hell was going on?

  The queen let out a screech and reared back when the fire reached its
face, knocking more soil and rocks into the tunnel as it hit the roof with its head.

  “Shit, shit, shit!” Tessa was not going to be buried alive. She was not going to die under the ground.

  She let out a more controlled burst of fire, pointing it at the earth in front of the queen. The queen let out another ear-piercing screech. Arms ending in pincers extended from its mouth and clacked at them.

  “Back up, bitch!” Tessa took a step forward, keeping the fire going—a low and steady stream that was eating up the fuel way too quickly.

  She couldn’t think of that right now. She had to focus all her energy on willing this thing to back the fuck up.

  Slowly, the queen undulated her body backwards. It was still moving its head from side to side, searching for a way to get at them.

  “Come on. Come on!” Tessa aimed the flamethrower higher and let the fire hit the queen’s face. It screeched once more, then started backing up more quickly. Tessa pressed her advantage.

  “Are the repellers still working?” she said.

  She didn’t dare look. She had to keep her eyes on the queen.

  “Yes.”

  Thank God Marcus was there.

  “Take the grenades.” She managed to get the bandolier over her head and passed it to him. “When we get to the surface, we’re going to need to box it in someplace so we can use those to best effect. If that doesn’t work, we need to get the queen to my van. It’s rigged to blow and should take out anything within fifty feet when it goes off. There’s a controller wired into my wristband. If both of those plans fail, run to your bike and get the hell out of here.”

  “What about you?”

  “We’re so far past plan B in these scenarios, I’ll already be dead. I’m a hunter. I’m okay with that.”

  “I’m not.”

  The queen was still steadily backing up, though it didn’t like the situation one bit. Every grudging screech marked another foot closer to fresh air and a chance to go out the way Tessa intended. Preferably alone.

  Sunlight seeped into the tunnel around the queen as they reached the surface. The flamethrower’s tank was already noticeably lighter from burning through its fuel.

  Every time Tessa had encountered them before, Redcap queens were in some kind of trance, spitting out their little spider-demon spawn. Chucking a couple of grenades at a stationary target in an enclosed space would do the trick, especially after a good spray-down with the flamethrower.

  Her heart pounded even faster as she glanced around at the level, open area surrounding them. Grenades weren’t going to work.

  She had a clear path to her van. She just had to make sure the queen followed her and was close enough when Tessa set off the explosives.

  “Marcus, you need to run. Get to your bike. Now.”

  Marcus didn’t answer. Tessa dared to look over her shoulder.

  He was already gone.

  A stabbing pain radiated through her chest. Not the familiar physical kind, but one from much longer ago. From when she’d lost her family and been “taken in” by the thing that killed them.

  Edgar.

  She’d lost everything she loved, everything she knew of the world, and been thrown into a nightmare—alone.

  This is not the time.

  Marcus was a Blade, and Blades were sheltered cowards. Maybe when he saw the queen illuminated by the sun, he’d lost his nerve and bolted. She had wanted him to run, anyway. To save himself. But to have him leave like this, so quickly…

  He could have at least left the grenades.

  Fuck it. She didn’t need grenades to take this thing out. All she needed was her van. Tessa hit the queen with a brief burst of fire.

  The flamethrower sputtered and went out.

  Her eyes threatened to fill with tears. She wanted to scream at the injustice of it. There was nothing she could count on in the world. Nothing but herself. And she could count on herself to go out on her own terms.

  She was going to take this monster—and all the wriggling alien parasites in her arm—along with her. She wouldn’t become like the dweller who had killed her family and infected her.

  Tessa shrugged out of the harness and dropped the flamethrower. It would only slow her down now. She pulled the knife from her right boot and held it in front of her face.

  “Okay, ugly. It’s just you and me.”

  The queen paused for an instant, then reared back and let out a howl that rattled Tessa’s teeth. It fell forward, legs gouging furrows in the earth.

  Tessa tucked her body and rolled to the side, lashing out with her knife as she came up in a crouch next to the thing. Gray ichor rained from its body where her knife landed.

  That seemed to make it really mad. The queen turned faster than Tessa would have thought possible. She ducked, choosing to keep her balance over striking it again. She still didn’t understand why it was mobile.

  She turned toward her van and managed two running steps before something wrapped around her ankle, tripping her. She landed hard, teeth clacking together as her chin hit the packed dirt. The iron-sharp taste of blood filled her mouth.

  Rolling to her back, she saw a Redcap on her leg, its tendrils twined around her calf. She kicked at it, crushing it between her boot and the ground. The queen had reared up over her again, ready to crash down and do the same to Tessa. She spun out of the way right as its chalky girth slammed into the earth.

  Lying on her stomach, Tessa had a perfect view of the ground erupting in front of her. Dozens of little holes were appearing as Redcaps crawled to the surface to help their queen.

  She glanced at her bug repeller. No green light.

  No light at all.

  Chapter Eight

  “What are you doing?”

  Marcus had never felt his dweller so worked up, never fought against a change so hard. His guts were cramping, skin itching as it tried to take over.

  He wanted to be at Tessa’s side, fighting that…thing. But if he let himself change and ran back to her, she’d be as good as dead.

  The queen was huge. It had scores of those little head-spiders running around protecting it. Two grenades couldn’t kill him. He doubted they would work on something so massive, and Tessa’s flamethrower had started stuttering as it ate through its fuel.

  If he tried to kill the queen himself, all the Redcaps running around would have time to cut Tessa to pieces. The high whine of their bug repellers had gone silent.

  They needed another solution.

  “You fool. Stop thinking and change.”

  Stop thinking. Stop fighting. Let the beast inside take over. The problem was, if Marcus let go of his control, he didn’t know if he would get it back. He didn’t know if he’d save Tessa or kill her.

  He glanced in the section of his glasses that would let Vaughn know Marcus needed help, holding his gaze there to get his partner’s attention. While he did, he ran toward the junkyard’s crane. Its claw hovered thirty feet above the ground, but looked big and heavy enough to crush the Redcap queen.

  “Come on, Vaughn. Where are you?”

  Knowing Tessa’s attention was focused on the queen, Marcus didn’t hold back as he ran—or when he leapt the last ten feet to land on the high door to the cabin that controlled the crane.

  He dared a glance over his shoulder and saw Tessa squaring off against the queen…with a knife.

  The packed soil rippled as Redcaps dug their way to the surface, breaking through to scurry toward Tessa. A Redcap had grabbed her leg and she was on the ground. She kicked it hard enough to crush it, then leapt to her feet.

  Marcus growled, felt his fingertips start to split. Dark hair covered the backs of his hands.

  “Marcus, what are you doing?”

  The voice that barked in his ear wasn’t Vaughn. It was Porter. Somehow, Marcus could always sense which twin he was talking to.

  “Getting a better weapon,” Marcus said.

  “You are the weapon. You need to protect her.”

  Dexter
would take care of Marcus, if he couldn’t bring himself back under control. But they didn’t know how far gone he was. They didn’t know he was a threat to Tessa, too.

  There was no time to explain. Instead, he said, “I can’t do damage quickly enough to take out the queen before its brood kills Tessa. If you want her alive, give me Vaughn.”

  Marcus tore the crane’s door off its hinges and tossed it away. It landed on a stack of nearby cars with a crash. He would have thrown it at the queen, but Tessa was engaging it too closely. He sat at the controls, baffled by the array of buttons and levers before him, then glanced out the front window.

  Tessa was dancing in and out among the Redcaps and their queen, kicking the smaller opponents away and slashing at the queen. She would be overrun any moment.

  His dweller howled.

  The only chance she had was for Marcus to control himself. He closed his eyes briefly, took deep breaths, and pushed back against the change as hard as he could. His skin still prickled, but his fingertips stopped burning.

  Vaughn finally spoke in Marcus’s earpiece. “What is that?”

  Marcus ignored Vaughn’s question. “How do I control the crane? I need to drop the claw on the queen.”

  “Queen?”

  “The giant lawn grub thing,” Marcus roared. “Help me kill it before it kills Tessa.”

  “Right.”

  He heard a hail of keystrokes as Vaughn sprang into action. The engine of the crane rumbled to life.

  “How the hell do you do that?” Marcus said.

  “A magician never reveals his secrets.”

  He didn’t care how Vaughn did it. Marcus just wanted to kill the things that were after Tessa. Vaughn talked Marcus through the controls, helping him figure out how to position the claw.

  His attention snapped back to Tessa. She was on the ground again. The queen lurched up, trying to crush her. Tessa rolled out of the way before the queen threw its weight on the ground, then launched herself to her feet, sprinting past the queen and leaping over the seeking tendrils of the Redcaps. When she reached her van, she vaulted up the side, pulling herself to the roof.