There was no answer. Which was decidedly bizarre. Nervousness – which she had managed to keep at bay so successfully over the past few days – began to bubble up in her.
That’s when she heard it.
It began as the tiniest whine just beyond her hearing, her senses still returning to her after so long spent confined within a wolfbane infused. But as she focused, that tiny, miniscule whine rose in volume until it solidified into a chorus of screams.
“Shit!”
How could she had not recognized it right off the bat? The sounds of terror were universal, no matter what kind of town one was in.
The cries grew louder, and rolling along with them came the sounds of destruction and the crackling of fire. Roars from all different types of Shifters rumbled through the hall, telling her in no uncertain terms that something terrible was happening.
And it was getting closer.
Fear rushed over her in a deluge and suddenly she wasn’t ready to die at all. The comfort, the resolution, the entirety of it disappeared, replaced with an ardent need to get the hell out of there.
She pulled at her straps only for them to stay solidly in place. Damn wolfsbane was still doing a number on her. But she didn’t have the time to just wait for it to flush out of her system.
She guessed that she was going to have to sweat it out.
Snarling, she jerked at the straps again. And again. And again.
They didn’t budge an inch, but she felt herself grow slick with perspiration. That was good, as the cacophony of sounds were now surrounding the entire clinic, as if the entire world outside had been plunged into hell and this was the only refuge.
While half of her wanted to sit tight and see if her haven remained safe, an equal part was telling her to get the hell out while she could. After all, if she stayed, she would die for certain. Out there was still an opportunity for life.
Yeah, a lifetime of running.
Despite that very thought sounding so unappealing to her just minutes before, the idea sounded great compared to eternal death. She wasn’t sure she bought the normal Shifter belief of reincarnation, and she didn’t want to find out if it was accurate or not.
Yet.
There was still more she could do.
She could practically feel in real time as the last dregs of wolfbane began to leave her system, stinging as their leftovers slithered out of her pores along with her sweat. Digging deep into herself, she reached for that bundle of energy that always burned within her.
Then promptly shifted into a fox.
She chittered as her body slipped out of her bonds, then took off. Handles were easy enough to take care of with either a tackle or jump n’ catch and no one else seemed to be around to stop her. Without anyone or thing to stop her, she reached the last door to the outside and hesitated.
What if what was out there was worse than the fate that awaited her in here?
Well, she supposed she was going to have to find out.
Mustering her courage, she vaulted at the door, her momentum forcing it to open and let her out into the grand world.
Nothing could have prepared her for what was waiting.
The entire town was ablaze, hardly a single building untouched by the flames. The smell of blood and burning flesh filled the air, almost churning her stomach if adrenaline wasn’t keeping it in place. Bodies were everywhere. Or rather… parts of bodies.
She sniffed the air, the foxes’ senses doing her a far greater service than her human ones. There was so much carnage that she couldn’t really find any details in the scents, other than a possible escape route.
It was to the right, and past a line of cookie-cutter ranches that were currently ablaze. She could hear whimpers, cries and death rattles coming from that direction, but no fresh screams of pain. Perhaps whatever had caused this maelstrom of death had already moved on from that area?
She could only hope.
She took off, her little feet flying across the ground as quickly as she could. She wasn’t quite sure why, out of all of her small animal forms, she had chosen this one, but it felt right.
She reached the houses and darted past them, the trees promising her safety growing ever closer. But, as she escaped between collapsing architectures and flames, she heard a decidedly childlike crying coming from somewhere in the debris.
Jaelle came to a stop. All of her instincts were screaming at her, telling her to keep going, to run until she couldn’t run anymore.
And then the child let out another sob.
She couldn’t. As much as she might like to think her mother had raised her to survive no matter what, she couldn’t just leave a youngling to burn. Quickly, she shifted back into her human form and called out.
“I’m coming! Just keep making noise, okay? I’ll find you!”
She didn’t know if the child would be comforted by a stranger’s voice, or even if they could hear her, but they sobbed again. Without hesitation, she melded into a wolf’s body and caught the sound once more.
It was to the left, faint, and slightly above her. Dashing to the side, she barreled through a window, now caring where the shattered glass embedded itself.
Once she landed, she was up the flight of stairs then barreling down a hallway. Of course, the kid couldn’t be in one of the easy ranches. They had to be up, where the heat and smoke liked to hang out.
But she didn’t let that slow her. Even though the smoke burned her eyes and nose and left the acrid taste of destruction thick on the back of her tongue, she didn’t stop.
However, it all payed off as she barreled through a door and heard the sobbing coming distinctly from under a bed.
She howled, and a little girl with skin as dark as onyx slid out, tears dribbling down her cherubic cheeks. Thankfully she didn’t seem to need any encouragement or direction, running to Jaelle and climbing onto the wolf’s back, her tiny fingers gripping fur with all the strength in her little body.
Once Jaelle was sure she was on, she went running again. The entire hall was truly ablaze now, and she didn’t think she could get through to the stairs.
Although… there was a window at the back of the hall.
Hold on, she thought to the child, unsure if she was able to hear her as grown Shifters could. But she felt the little girl’s fingers dig in harder, and that was her cue.
Bounding forward, she flew down the small length, picking up speed as she went. She heard the little girl whimper behind her, but didn’t complain other than that.
And then they had reached the window and she was launching herself through it.
It was much more difficult to get the proper air this time, but she managed, and the two of them were sailing through the night sky.
It was peaceful for a split second, suspended there against the velvet purple-black of darkness. There were no worries, no enemies, just Jaelle, her little passenger, and the slight breeze carrying away the smoke that was so choking on the ground.
But then the roof of a garage was coming hurtling toward then, and she landed with a resounding thump. Spikes of pain went up her legs, but she pressed on, jumping down to the ground then running off toward the trees.
They made it well into the forest before she allowed herself to slow to a stop, and the girl slowly slid off her back. Returning to her human form, Jaelle wiped the tears from her eyes and pressed a quick kiss to the top of her head.
“Are you okay?”
She nodded. “My mama?” she whispered, voice ravaged by the amount of smoke that she had inhaled under that bed.
“I don’t know, sweetie.”
“I need my mama.”
Jaelle tensed. Once more her body was telling her she needed to run, but her conscious was pulled in another direction.
She couldn’t just leave this little girl in the middle of the woods, alone, during a crisis. And if there was one little girl, there was bound to be others.
“Dammit!” she snapped. The girl jerked back in surprise and Jaell
e quickly comforted her. “Oh sorry, baby, not you. Never you. I just… I’m gonna go back there and look for other people and then I’m going to bring them right here. Do you think you can wait for me to do that?”
“You’re gonna go save people?”
“Yeah. And hopefully your mama. What’s she like?”
“She’s a doggy sometimes, and her hair is really long braids. She’s so tall and I look just like her.”
“Got it. Think you can hold tight?”
She nodded and Jaelle gave her a quick squeeze before tearing off again.
This time, she took on the form of a huskie as she ran long, hoping their unique double-coat of fur would help insulate her against the flames.
Never in her life did she think she would be willingly running into a raging inferno/slaughter, and yet she was without hesitation. She didn’t know when she had gotten to be such a hero, but it was a terrible development for her chances of survival.
It didn’t take her long to reach the edge of the destruction, and she paused just long enough to listen. A few seconds passed, before she caught the ragged sound of pained breathing. Turning toward it, she rushed off.
She found the source of the noise under a half-collapsed garage, pinned by some sort of metal debris. She shifted into a gorilla – that one she had learned at the zoo when she was fifteen – threw the junk to the side and discovered a young man. She picked him up before he could probably even figure out the situation, then took off again.
The night dissolved into constant movement. Running toward the blaze, running away, dropping off survivors, finding new ones, finding bodies. She didn’t know how long she went on, always running, always searching, but eventually the smoke and fire got to be too much.
Her fleet running turned into sluggish steps, until finally she was stumbling along, barely able to outrun the flames.
Finally, as she dropped what seemed to be a bleeding housewife next to the original little girl, her body gave out, and she collapsed into a human puddle at their feet. She felt concerned gazes on her, but she couldn’t bring herself to offer them any comfort.
Instead, she let out a few rasping breaths before the darkness claimed her.
Chapter Four: Let My People Go
Consciousness snapped to Jaelle like a rubber band, knocking her from the comforting confines of her sleep into the starkness of reality. She was confused for several seconds, expecting to see night sky and flames above her, only to find pleasantly white ceiling and fluorescent lighting.
A few more seconds and a lot more blinking later, she realized she was in some sort of giant tent akin to the ones you saw on disaster specials on TV.
She jerked up, heart frozen in her chest and her lungs wheezing in protest. She looked around wildly to see that the tent was full of other cots just like the one she was lying on, and that they were all occupied by other injured persons. Did… did they not know who she was? If that was the case, and they thought she was just another injured civilian, she needed to get out of there before any of them got wind of who she rea—
“Oh, hey, you’re conscious.”
She jolted and whipped her head to the side to see Bradley walking straight toward her, small smile on his face.
There went her theory for them not knowing who she was.
“Where am I?” she asked, bringing her hands up to gesture only to realize that she was chained to the bed. “What happened?”
“Your Aberrant friend attacked. Did a real number on this outpost.”
“He’s not my friend,” she countered, rubbing her wrists which seemed to be quite irritated in their bonds. No doubt they were laced with wolfbane just as her cell had been. No wonder she felt like such shit. She couldn’t heal properly if her Shifter abilities were being suppressed by the nuisance of a plant.
“I’m beginning to believe that, actually.” He pulled up a stool next to her bed and handed her a bottle of water. “You could have made a run for it and probably bought yourself several more years of free living. But you didn’t.” He sighed, rubbing his temples. It was only then that she noticed the deep, purple bruise across his forehead which had been previously hidden by his bangs. “In fact, according to six townsfolk, you spent the entire attack saving them until you passed out from exhaustion.”
“Was it exhaustion? I was thinking more along the lines of toxic smoke inhalation.”
“Whichever. The point is, you could have gotten away, but you didn’t.”
“And now I’m chained to a bed, slated to be executed again. Lucky me.”
“Actually, that might not be the case.”
“Come again?” she asked, eying him warily.
“I’m going to petition the Clan Leader here to let you come with us.”
“What?!”
“Whoa, easy there.” He laughed very lightly, holding up his hands in a gesture of peace. “It’s not a done deal, but I think I can be pretty convincing.”
“Why on earth would you do that?”
“Simple. You’ve met this guy face to face three different times and you’ve survived. He either wants something out of you or he’s finally met his match. Either way, I think you could be the final weapon that could give us the edge we needed on this monster.”
“But why would you trust me? I’m a monster, just like him.”
“I wouldn’t say that. Are you both Aberrants? Yes. But he’s raving mad with hundreds of murders under his belt and you’re still quite sane. Besides, it would be a pretty cursed thing for us to thank your heroism with a death sentence.”
“Chasing after that man is a death sentence.”
“Good point. I’ll make sure to use that on the elder.”
“You should take me with you.”
Now, it was his turn to look at her in awkward surprise. “What was that now?”
“So far, I’m just an idea to him. An abstract conglomeration of factoids about the older Aberrant to ever be found who isn’t insane. I’m not Jaelle. I’m not a small-town mechanic who has a near fanatical love for diner fare. Bring me with you. so he can look me in the eye and see that I’m someone who could be useful to him.”
“I… I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”
“Goddamit! I risked my life to save six of your own, and I would have saved more if I hadn’t passed out. You owe this to me.”
The man’s chin raised and his chest puffed up. She could tell that his pride was about to kick in, but before he could try to lay down the law, he sighed and deflated a bit. “Fine. I don’t think it’ll help your chances, but you’re right. You’ve earned as much.”
“Thank you.”
“All right, well settle back there. I know they’re not going to let you out of there until you finish the IV in your arm.”
She looked down to her elbow to see indeed there was a line there, delivering vital nourishment to her fairly battered body. Strange how much effort these people put into keeping her alive considering the current plan was to schedule her for death again.
“I don’t know if I can exactly ‘settle’ in this situation.”
“Well, you’re going to have to. One of the Leaders is dead and the other lost their arm. It’s going to take me a bit for them to even agree to a meeting at all. So, you relax. You’re going to need all your strength to convince them you’re not too dangerous of a liability as it is.”
“Aren’t you worried about the Aberrant putting too much distance between you and him?”
“Of course. But with the number of bullets he took last night, I have to assume he’s at least slowed down. Besides, after so many times almost catching him just to have him slip through our fingers, we all know we need something to help us close the gap. You’ll be more than worth the wait.”
She let out a dry laugh then allowed herself to sink back on the cot. It wasn’t bad, as far as beds went. She’d certainly slept on worse.
Bradley nodded, then walked off. She watched him as he went, appreciating the view, but
she couldn’t help but be dubious about this Hunters plan.
Actually, she couldn’t help but be dubious about the Hunter himself. Sure, he was cute and all and had a smile worthy of a magazine, but he was essentially her mortal enemy. Almost all of the terrible things in her life, from her childhood in solitude, to the death of her mother, to everything else, were due to Hunters. Teaming up with them seemed akin to shacking up with the devil himself.
And yet, that exactly was planning to do.
Boy, life had turned out a funny way, hadn’t it? For it being such a joke, why wasn’t she laughing?
*
“So, let me repeat what I think you’ve said to make sure I’m understanding correctly,” the old grizzly man said, voice like an ice scraper scratching across a frosted windshield.
Jaelle almost winced at his tone, but managed to contain herself.
It was one full day since her awakening in a tent, and now she was in yet another tent. It reminded her of her fourteenth year, which had been spent backpacking through several dense forests, away from all civilization.
Two Clan Leaders sat before them, the old man and the armless wonder. Neither of them looked impressed by the Hunters and Jaelle standing before them, which was more intimidating than the Aberrant would like to admit.
“Your sworn duty as a Hunter is to eliminate Aberrants or deliver them to us for their final escort. Our sworn duty as a last haven is to give them the sendoff they deserve for their honorable sacrifice then scatter their ashes so their souls can be reborn.
“And yet, you stand before us, requesting that we let one go. Mind you, one that is so old that they are bound to take the Aberrant madness at any moment.”
But there was only so much Jaelle could take of people talking about her like she wasn’t there.
“With all due respect, sir, how do you know I’ll go mad at all?”
His lavender eyes turned to her, giving her a hard look. Bradley stepped between them, obviously ready to try to extricate her foot from her mouth, but she would not be quieted.
“All Aberrants go mad.”
The Aberrants Box Set (Books 1-5) Page 14
