Whispers of Darkness (The Deadwood Hunter Series)

by Rachel M Raithby

  Cheeky gold eyes met hers as she passed. He smiled the cocky arrogant smile of a man that loved himself far too much. He blocked the punch coming his way without even looking and gripped the hand he’d grasped. Winking at Lexia he twisted the hand and brought his foot down on his opponent’s calf. As his opponent hit the floor with a yelp, he laughed and glanced at Lexia again.

  “What’s your name?” Lexia asked.

  “Miles,” he replied with a smug smirk.

  “Derrick switch, you’re training with Miles now.”

  She said nothing more to Miles but continued to watch him closely. He was the largest man in the group and his fighting skills outmatched most in the group too, but he was also arrogant and his arrogance would be his down fall.

  “Belinda, you need to relax more, breath through your moves, let them come to you. Here try this.” Lexia stepped into a routine Lincoln had showed her the first day of her training, simple moves that taught her to relax and flow naturally into each move. “If you’re too tense, your moves will be forced and awkward. You need to breathe into your punches, move smoothly as you fight.”

  Lexia glanced up at the people watching her and noticed Miles and Derrick still sparring. Miles was making Derrick work hard but his only advantage was his size and strength.

  “Notice Miles and Derrick - Derrick is the more experienced fighter but Miles has height and strength on his side which is the reason Derrick hasn’t put him on his ass yet. But if Derrick stopped over-thinking, he’d move with more grace, he’d be smoother, quicker. He may only shave a split second off his move but in a real fight, a split second could save his life. And if Miles lost his ego, if he stopped putting on a show and focused his full attention on the fight, well, he could be an incredible fighter.”

  Lexia expected Miles to bite but instead he surprised her; his face hardened in anger but he never looked at Lexia. Instead Lexia saw him focus on Derrick as he dispelled his frustration with a breath. A small smile played on Lexia’s lips as she watched Derrick being pinned to the floor. Maybe I’m good at this after all...

  “That’s enough for today. Not bad Miles, maybe one day you’ll be able to pin me.”

  He laughed, the cocky smile lighting his face again. “I’d snap a thin thing like you.”

  “Oh really?”

  “Yes.”

  “Okay recruits, one more lesson for today.” She moved in front of Miles with a smile. “Make your move, Miles.”

  Lexia breathed in deep and let the world drop away. She watched him move and within a second had him pinned to the floor, her knee pressing against his throat.

  “Here ends the lesson. It doesn’t matter how big your opponent is, everyone has strengths and weaknesses.” Lexia stood and held out her hand to Miles. “Okay, everyone can leave now.”

  Miles took her hand and got to his feet. Your ego has no place here, Miles, I suggest you lose it.” With a nod he turned and left.

  “Not bad for someone who has no idea how to train people,” Derrick said behind her.

  “Don’t get too excited, Derrick,” Lexia muttered as she walked away.

  For a moment Lexia thought he wasn’t going to reply but as she reached the door his voice drifted towards her. “I know you’ll never be like us, Lex, but maybe that’s why I choose you to train them. Maybe it’s time for a change.”

  Lexia never answered. She could never quite make out Derrick’s intentions, maybe Derrick wasn’t even sure of his intentions. One minute he seemed one of the Hunters and the next he seemed just as trapped as she was.

  There were a few reasons she could think of for Derrick wanting her to train the recruits and she couldn’t quite see it being to protect her from her mother. It all depended really on what his goal was. Did he want to free the Hunters from Lucy’s cruel grip? Or did he want Lexia to become one of them?

  Either way, I will find out your intentions, Derrick.

  Chapter 35

  Caden ran his hand through his too long hair again. The spiky fuzz on his head was really starting to get to him and yet he still couldn’t muster up enough energy to cut it. He couldn’t even muster up the energy to sleep, to eat; he just sat staring at Lincoln, looking peaceful in his drug-induced sleep. He knew he’d have to wake him up soon. He’d been moved away from the public hospital to Caden’s parent’s home, ready for this moment, because when Lincoln woke he was going to go crazy. Just like he had in the hospital, screaming and fighting with staff, the panther nearly ripping from his skin. He’d been badly injured, his leg snapped clean in two, but it hadn’t stopped him. He’d gripped Caden’s shirt begging him to find her, they were torturing her, every cut, every bit of torment she felt, Lincoln felt it, too. Caden had thought his friend would die from the knowledge that he had no way to save her and he’d done the only thing he could think of at the time, he’d sedated him.

  That was four weeks ago. His body had completely healed now but still Caden kept him sedated. He did it because he was afraid; afraid to lose his friend, afraid to tell him he had no idea where Lexia was. Caleb had been out searching, desperate for any sign of the Hunters, but he’d heard nothing, not a single death since Lexia had been taken. Lucy had what she wanted and now she’d gone underground. He knew the Hunters would surface again. When Lucy Hunter decided to make a move, Caden knew they’d be the first to know. The problem was he wasn’t sure Lincoln would be alive to act.

  Caden’s mother, Patricia, walked into the room. “It’s time, dear, but maybe you should eat something and shower first.”

  Caden signed, pressing the heel of his palms into his eyes. “Any word from Caleb?”

  “No, darling, you go. Lincoln will need you to be strong.”

  “I’m not sure I’m going to be enough, Mother.”

  “Lincoln is stronger than you think, Caden, he got through his parent’s deaths.”

  “Yes, he did but Lexia is different. You’ve not seen them together, when she’s near him, no one else exists.”

  He left the room to shower and eat. His mother was right about one thing, he had to be strong. He missed Lexia too, but it wasn’t his place to fall apart. “Where are you Lexi?” he whispered, letting the hot water spilling from the shower head scald his skin.

  Lexia’s days repeated over and over. She was woken every morning by Derrick unlocking her door, she dressed in the identical clothes that hung in her wardrobe, tucked the panther necklace under her top, and slid her feet into her boots. She’d eat breakfast with Derrick, ignoring the eyes that followed her every move, and then go spend the afternoon in the training center. She’d eat supper with Derrick again before being locked back in her room for the night.

  As the days went on, Lexia noticed that Derrick’s plan was working. Fewer eyes watched her and fewer people cowered away from her. The recruits improved just enough that Lexia thought they wouldn’t be too much of a problem for a skilled shifter but still Lucy would notice Lexia had helped. But training the recruits didn’t help ease the war within Lexia because as she trained them, as she remember the things Lincoln had taught her, her fragile state of mind started to crumble. Things were not as she had first thought, not everyone in the Hunter compound were like the Elites, some still clung to their humanity, some needed as much help as she did and all this made it harder to see a way back to Lincoln, to see a path to the Hunters’ end.

  She almost wished she still hung in that room, slowly bleeding to death. She’d heard of people talk about pain, the grief you feel when you lose someone, sorrow that’s so strong you can feel it slowly eating away at your soul. But what Lexia felt now was far worse. At least before she’d felt something; now all she felt was numbness, a weak emptiness that made her feel like a ghost just floating through life. Her days blurred together and she became so weak and lifeless that she struggled to even draw breath and yet she couldn’t even muster the effort to care. All the things that made life worth living: color, taste, joy, laughter, love, it all just blurred together into a grey m
ass of nothingness.

  On the eighth night, Derrick paused before locking Lexia’s door. “It’s working you know, I think we may convince Lucy.”

  Lexia sighed, her shoulders slumping. “Hey Derrick?”

  “Yeah?”

  “What will Lucy do to you?”

  “Nothing, I think. She normally leaves me in charge when she goes, don’t worry about me.”

  “What exactly did she tell you to do with me?”

  “To leave you hung in that room but to make sure you didn’t die.”

  Her shoulders squared as she turned to look at him. “Why? Why would you disobey her for me, she could kill you.”

  “You know as well as I that there are far worse things in life than death. Lucy’s mad, Lexia. She’s a psychotic killer with power and money at her command. She gets carried away with things, she keeps me nearby because I tell her when she’s going too far. She’ll see this as better than what she had planned.”

  “What did she have planned?”

  “Nothing good, but she was angry at you for disobeying her. She wanted to punish you, and seeing as she couldn’t kill the shifter, she took it out on you.”

  “My dad’s dead, my life has been destroyed, isn’t that enough?”

  “She won’t be happy until the light leaves your eyes,” he whispered.

  Lexia’s hands slumped to her sides, her head hanging. “It already has.”

  “Has it? Because when I look into those crystal blue eyes of yours, I see life, I see humanity, I see hope.”

  Lexia’s mouth opened to question Derrick further, but the door closed with a click. Lexia sunk to the floor. He only confused her more. I see hope... Hope for what? Hope for the Hunters’ freedom? For Lucy’s demise?

  Lexia just wished Derrick would be straight with her. She wished he’d just tell her all the secrets he kept locked inside, and she wished he’d just tell her what he wanted from her.

  That night as Lexia slept she was sucked back into the room with her mother, watching her cut her over and over, watching her take samples of her blood and DNA. Lexia couldn’t wake from the nightmares no matter how hard she tried; they morphed and changed over and over, tormenting her, until she became trapped in a dream that lessened her pain if only for a second.

  “I miss you, Lincoln.” He smiles at me, making the pain in my body disappear. “Oh why did I ever leave you? I’m trapped Linc, she’s.... my mother... Lucy, Lucy, she’s doing horrible things to me.”

  A scream leaves my lips as a shot of pain attacks my body. “Please help me, please Linc come find me. It hurts, Linc, God it hurts.” I’m sobbing but he still just smiles at me. This isn’t a dream after all it’s a nightmare, a nightmare with Lincoln’s face because he’d never sit by and watch me getting tortured. I scream again.

  “Please don’t leave me baby, please Linc. I need you, I can’t live any longer like this...I can hear her, she’s back. Please, my pretty panther, please make it stop.”

  The pain comes again and his face starts to fade, I can feel my heart beating so fast. “Don’t leave me,” I scream but it’s too late. His smiling face is gone and all that’s left is the pain.

  “Wake up, my dear little Hunter,” Lucy cooed.

  Lexia squeezed her eyes shut; this can’t be real, it was just a nightmare, Lucy wasn’t even in the compound.

  “I said wake up, Maura!” Lucy snapped.

  “Lincoln,” Lexia whispered as she opened her eyes.

  “Oh dear, you left him, remember? You’re all alone now,” Lucy cackled.

  A single tear slipped down Lexia’s face making her mother smile. “I see Derrick has been very naughty whilst I was away. Never mind, I’m back now. Hold still, dear, this will only hurt a little... Well, maybe a lot, but hold still anyway.”

  Lexia screamed as her mother jabbed a needle into the top of her hip.

  “Hold still, extracting bone marrow is hard enough without you thrashing.”

  “Lexia!” Derrick gasped from the door.

  Lucy smiled but didn’t turn around from her task. “Ah Derrick, my little pet’s been a very naughty boy, this doesn’t look at all like the room I left her in and there is a distinct lack of blood and misery.”

  “You’re back early,” Derrick mumbled.

  “Yes, why? Were you planning on having her hung back in there bleeding before I returned?”

  Lexia opened her scrunched up eyes and locked her gaze with Derrick. “No, ma’am, I planned to show you how Lexia is better put to use than being tortured.”

  “Oh really? So tell me Derrick, what has my dutiful daughter been doing that is of such use?” The needle left Lexia, she sighed in relief looking at the syringe full of what looked like thick blood.

  “She’s been training the new recruits.”

  Lucy walked slowly towards Derrick, her small frame seemed to fill the room with menace. Lexia tried to sit up but as she moved her hip, she cried out in pain.

  Lucy’s head whipped around. “Don’t move, dear, you’ll have to stay in bed today. I’m sure you will be devastated you can’t train your recruits.”

  Lucy’s hand caressed Derrick’s cheek lovingly. Lexia watched as Derrick stiffened, his hands clenching in revulsion. “Now, my pet, you have one day to show me why I shouldn’t kill you and have dear Maura hung from the wall again... Wish him luck, Maura.” Lucy clapped her hands in delight. “He’s going to need it,” she slapped his cheek. “Such a naughty boy.”

  Her door locked again with a click and Lexia let out the breath she’d been holding, her head slumping back on the pillow as tears spilled hot and raw down her cheeks.

  Derrick never came back that day or the next. She was left locked in her room, her meals were delivered to her by a cook. They would knock on the door, unlock it, and slide the food inside like Lexia was some kind of monster. Lexia thought it was funny really that the humans in the compound feared her, did they not know what the hunters did? That they were the killers and not her? Whilst locked in her room, Lexia exercised. The hole where she’d had her bone marrow taken had stopped hurting about an hour after Lucy left. The skin was a mixed splash of purple and black.

  Two days locked in a small room with nothing to do but exercise wore at Lexia’s thin hold on sanity. Eventually she gave up trying to distract herself, gave up trying to be strong so Lincoln couldn’t feel her emotions spilling over and down the bond. Stripping, Lexia climbed into the bathtub, turning the shower head on so hot it made her gasp and turned her skin a startling pink. With the scalding water raining down over her huddled form, she let out the pain she’d been keeping in. Her tears mixed with the water and eventually after hours of crying, Lexia climbed into bed, numb and exhausted and incapable of feeling anything but emptiness, devoid of any feeling.

  “Lexia, Lexia wake up!” Lexia rolled over moaning, her head hurt. She’d not slept well, spent most of the night clutching at her chest as if she could somehow stop herself from falling apart.

  “Lexia, get up!” Derrick whispered.

  “What? Why?” She cracked open her eyes and looked at the red numbers on her digital clock. “It’s only 4am, are you crazy?”

  Derrick laughed at her. “Maybe, but we have a job to do and I’ve volunteered your expertise.”

  “What?” she asked with a frown.

  “I’ll explain on the way. Get up we have to leave in five, you’re leaving the compound, Lexia.”

  Lexia jumped from her bed, Derrick went to her door and stood in his usual place, facing the door. “Oh I almost forgot, I got you these,” he said throwing them at her. “They’re more flexible than the cargos and are made of material that will deflect most light knife attacks, plus they’ll go better with your boots.”

  Lexia pulled on the black trousers Derrick had thrown her. He was right, they were more flexible and they clung to her like a second skin. She pulled on a tank and a long sleeved shirt and went into her bathroom. Two minutes later she was ready.

  “You’
ll want this as well,” he said, handing her a light jacket. But as her hands slipped into it she felt the warm soft fur lining the insides.

  “There, you look perfect now.”

  “Erm, thanks, I think.”

  She followed Derrick as he led her to a part of the compound she’d never been to. When she reached a door Derrick turned to face her, she couldn’t quite read the emotion that flashed across his eyes.

  “Sorry, but you’ll have to be blindfolded from here.”

  “What?” Lexia said, a note of panic in her voice.

  “It was the only way I could get you out. Lucy doesn’t want to you to know how to get in and out.”

  “Okay,” Lexia murmured, not sure if she was really okay.

  Derrick slipped a black sack over her head and as the cloth clung to her face her breath caught as fear closed her throat.

  “Lexia, it’s okay. Trust me.”

  “You keep saying that, Derrick, trust me, and sometimes I think I want to but I can’t. You’re a Hunter and you can’t be trusted.”

  “You are one, too,” he whispered, taking her hand and leading her forward.

  “I’m different,” she whispered back, letting her breath out in a rush.

  “Maybe I am, too.”

  “Are you?”

  She walked for two minutes. Lexia noted every turn she made, counted her steps as she went. She heard the clunk of a car door and was guided into a car. They drove for a further minute, stopping twice whilst Derrick talked to people, a further five minutes and he pulled over and took off the bag.

  She sucked in a deep breath and ran her hands through her hair wishing she hadn’t felt so frightened being stripped of her sight.

  “Wow,” she whistled low, looking at the piles of snow banks on both sides of the road.

  “Yes, winter’s hit hard this year.”

  Lexia looked around at the landscape, noted the familiar trees that could only be found in South Dakota. It was still dark out but the moon was full, reflecting off the blanket of snow covering every surface.