by ST Branton
Either way, this body did not belong to the werewolf girl I’d killed, and that was what mattered most. It was, however, still someone I knew. The clean cut across the shoulder gave it away as belonging to the beast that had attacked Deacon in Mormouth. A little thrill of pride swelled in my chest. I knew I’d landed a hit. And now it was dead.
But it wasn’t a werewolf anymore, and that continued to make me extremely uncomfortable. I was looking down at the mangled remains of a regular man who’d undergone a radical transformation. In some ways, it was almost good that he was unrecognizable. It kept me from ascribing too much humanity to a thing I knew for sure had been a monster the last time we met.
“Okay, ladies and gentlemen,” someone said. “Let’s back it up and move along now. Nothing more to see.” The words were too practiced to be coming from anyone other than an accredited official, so I sped up my analysis of the scene, kneeling down in the mud to examine the body for any subtle signs of vamp activity.
Unfortunately, the guy’s throat had been raggedly slit, all but obscuring the most tell-tale indicator. I supposed it would have been too easy that way. I got back to my feet just as a portly officer stepped free of the slowly dissolving crowd.
“Sir,” I said, a little tightly. The badge pinned to his front pocket said Sheriff on it, and so did his ambling walk and kind, mustached face. He did not look like he was equipped to be dealing with this type of thing.
He raised his bushy eyebrows. “And who might you be, young lady?” Even his voice was painfully benevolent, more like a grandfather than an officer of the law. “Is there a reason for you to be trespassing on a crime scene?”
Shit. I opened my mouth without a good answer and was miraculously saved yet again.
“Sheriff Rosewood, I can vouch for her.” Maya came up, adjusting her coat and catching her breath. “She’s fine. I treated her for an injury at my clinic this morning. I suspect she just thought the attack might have something to do with the animal she encountered earlier.” Maya looked at me to signal that I should agree with her.
I nodded. “That’s right, sir. I apologize if I’ve stepped out of line. I was just curious.”
The sheriff put his hands on his hips and sighed, casting a deeply forlorn look over toward the body. “I guess I can’t blame you. A sight so grisly shouldn’t be for anyone’s eyes, that’s all.”
Maya jumped in again. “Let me take in the body. We’ll put it in the clinic so it’s not just out in the open like this. I’ll take a look and see if I can’t figure out what happened here.”
I blinked. Now she was the coroner, too? “Not that I don’t trust or believe in you, but shouldn’t it go to a hospital or a medical examiner’s office? We were just talking about how you’re a small-town vet.”
“I’m the only choice we have. The storms we’ve been getting washed out the roads in and out of town, so as far as medical expertise goes,” she spread her arms, “you’re looking at it.”
I glanced at Sheriff Rosewood, who didn’t appear to be even a little perturbed. He just nodded and began to direct the removal of the corpse. “I’ll have to ask you to move back now,” he said to me with a note of apology in his tone. “We need to secure the scene.”
“Aww, don’t you worry, Sheriff!” I cringed at Wade’s brash, grating voice. Maya’s eyes nearly rolled out of her head. “Me and my boys’ll find the rat bastard and be dragging it through the streets before tomorrow morning.”
I thought of the term Smitty had used to describe Wade—village idiot. Never had a phrase been more apropos. “That’s a dumb idea,” I said out loud, turning to face him.
A brief, dark frown crossed Wade’s face before he recovered his composure. “Hey, Diner Girl,” he said. “Thought I told you it wasn’t safe to be out here. You need to work on those listening skills.”
My hand itched to form a fist and go flying into his giant, smug face. “You can’t just hunt it. What if it’s got rabies?” It was the first excuse I thought of, and it wasn’t very impressive. I could tell right away it hadn’t had any impact. Wade stared at me for a moment before he busted up laughing with his crew.
“I’m not gonna make out with it, sweetheart,” he said between gasps. “I’m just gonna send that thing straight to hell. If it’s got rabies, it can give it to the devil for all I care.” He elbowed his friend. “You see this chick, thinking she’s gotta warn me about rabies?” Wade smiled. “Your concern is real sweet, but I promise I can take care of myself. We’re not all girls here.”
He pulled back his jacket to flash a gun longer than my forearm, holstered at his hip. Giving me a toothy grin, he said, “Around here, we call this a problem solver.”
I raised a brow. “Where I come from, we call that compensating.”
“Now, now,” the sheriff said, trying to stifle a laugh. “Last thing we need is more trouble.”
I needed to figure out a way to delay him so that I could get to the Were first. All their idiotic bravado aside, Wade and his friends stood absolutely zero chance against a Forgotten—any of them. I would’ve been surprised if their shitty guns did anything except piss the thing off. If I didn’t beat them to it, the mess and the body count was only going to grow. Plus, catching one of these things alive was my best chance at figuring out where they came from.
“You don’t understand,” I persisted, against my better judgement. “You can’t kill this thing, okay? Trust me on this. You’re the ones who are going to be dragged through the mud.”
Anger lingered in Wade’s face a bit longer this time. “All right, it’s getting less cute the more you talk, girlie. I’m gonna go ahead and suggest you leave this to the big boys. Run along now.” He turned on his heel and strode back toward the road, his flunkies following in quick succession, like a tribe of asshole ducklings.
I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. A whopper of a headache was germinating behind my right eye, but I no longer had time to waste. The body, covered in a tarp, trundled past me on a gurney. Yellow tape was going up around the spot where it had lain on the bank.
Things were moving on, which meant I had to as well. I took a deep, stabilizing breath and struck out toward the road myself.
The diner was slowly filling back up as I reclaimed my seat in the corner. No sign of Wade, which was excellent. He had probably gone home to get ready for his little monster-hunting expedition. I took the reprieve from his presence to scarf down the last of my cold eggs and drain my coffee mug. When I paid my bill, I asked Irma the waitress if she knew of anywhere local I could stay. I had a feeling I was going to be around for a few more days.
“There’s an inn just on the other side of us,” she said, signaling with her thumb. “Tell them I sent you, and you’ll likely get a nice discount.”
***
Fifteen minutes after exiting the diner for the second time, I sat on the bed at the inn up the street, fighting the urge to drop on the mattress and get some much-needed rest. My brain struggled to organize a list of things to do: get supplies, find a map, pick up some new clothes. And all in a limited amount of time. I couldn’t let that dumbass and his band of merry men screw everything up for us. “Hey, Marcus. What do you think about the body?”
I am still working that out myself. It is certainly not a normal death, but I am having trouble visualizing an attack that would leave those results.
“Yeah,” was all I managed could manage. Maybe I had just expected the body to look even worse, given the way I’d seen other victims treated by the werewolves. “I don’t get any of this. We need some answers.”
You must move quickly. Our best hope of understanding lies at the bottom of this mystery surrounding the most recent corpse.
“Right. And our friend Wade is hellbent on screwing it all up.” I heaved a sigh and pushed myself onto my feet. “Let’s get going. I need some damn sleeves.”
CHAPTER TEN
Across the street from the inn, I found a general store in the truest sense of the
word, with everything from bullets to snowshoes for sale inside. It was manned by a teenage girl with a haircut too slick for the town she was in. She had her booted feet up on the counter, and I saw a smoldering butt in the ashtray by her heel.
“G’morning,” she said as I walked in, stifling a yawn. Then her interest piqued. “New in town?”
“Been getting a lot of that today,” I muttered. “Yeah. I was trying to just be passing through.”
“Aren’t we all?” She sat back again. “Can I help you with something, or are you just looking around?” Her sharp, inquisitive eyes took in my ripped-up, bloody sweater. “Jeez, what kind of hell did you go through to get here?”
I gave her a look. “Don’t ask. I’m fine. But I could use a new wardrobe.”
The girl laughed. “Not much I’d exactly call a ‘wardrobe’ here, but be my guest.” She waved toward the back of the store and went back to thumbing through a magazine.
I headed to the clothes racks and rifled through the sweaters and outerwear, looking for something basic and warm, but not too warm. She was right, of course. Nothing off the rack would look like it came from a shop in SoHo, but fashion was the least of my concerns. The boots stood in a neat line on their own shelf, and I chose a pair of those, too. Mine were starting to wear through the soles so that the wet ground soaked into my socks. I was getting tired of squishing everywhere I went.
The girl looked at my choices as I laid them out in front of her. Then she looked at me. “It’s okay. I went through a goth phase, too. You’ll get over it.”
I smiled. “A lot of goths up here in the woods?” I asked, moments before realizing that everything I’d chosen was pitch black.
The girl took a drag from her hand-rolled smoke. “Not nearly enough.”
“I just need stuff that’ll keep me dry and warm in the woods.”
“Well, then you want those boots.” She pointed to a different pair on the shelf. “And that coat. They’ve both got a thermal lining and a waterproof seal. Costs a little more, but if you’re really gonna be dicking around in the woods, it’s worth it.”
She spoke with such plain honesty that I took her word for it, exchanging my stuff for her recommendations. “Do you have rope?” I asked upon returning to the counter. “And maybe some traps?”
The girl frowned. Her expertly layered bangs fell into her face, and she blew them back automatically. “You’re not a trapper, are you? That’s illegal around here unless you got a special permit. We don’t sell traps without seeing a permit.” She pointed toward the back wall. “Rope’s over there. We’ve got a million different kinds. Take your time, and feel free to ask if you have questions. Lord knows I’m not doing anything else up here.”
I was poring over ropes when Wade strutted into the store. Much to my chagrin, he was already at the register when I came back with my selection. “Fancy meeting you here, Diner Girl,” he said expansively. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were following me. Not that I could blame you.” I glared at him. He looked at the rope in my hands. “What’s that for? Wouldn’t have guessed you were into the 50 Shades shit.”
“Don’t be a pig, Wade.” The register girl took the rope from me and put it with the rest of my things.
Wade sneered. “Playing outdoorsman, are you?
“Outdoorsperson. Dickwad.” I shot the girl a look, and she passed me a smile back. Finally, someone on my team.
He ignored me. “Gonna go out in the woods and pretend you can hunt? What are you looking for, huh? Bunny rabbits? Squirrels?”
“Bigger than that.” I stared straight ahead, all but ignoring him.
“Oh, what, you think you’re gonna find whatever hell beast is leaving a trail of bodies behind?” A short, barking laugh broke out from behind his shark’s teeth. “You’ll get ruined out there all alone. I tried to warn you.” He scoffed. “I told you not to worry about it. My crew and I have got this in the bag.”
“I’ll believe that when I see it,” I told him.
“Well, you’re in luck. You’re gonna be seeing a lot of this.” He dropped a box of twelve-gauge slugs on the counter. “One last piece of advice for you, little lady. You better stay the hell out of my way. Wouldn’t want anything unfortunate to happen to you while you’re playing pretend in the woods.”
“Is that a threat?” I kept my voice flat. “Because if it is, you’re going to have to do better. I’ve had more intimidating yoga instructors.”
Wade slapped a bill down and snatched his ammo up with one of his giant mitts. His lip curled. “Think you’re so damned funny, Diner Girl. We’ll see who’s laughing tomorrow.”
“Spoiler alert: it’ll still be me.” I brushed past him, stepping up to the register, and listened to his heavy bootsteps stomping from the store.
The cashier grinned. “I gotta tell you, there aren’t too many people ‘round here who can stand up to Wade like that. Keep it up and you’ll become a local legend.” She rang up the items, then punched in a code. “Just for that, I’m giving you my employee discount.”
“You don’t have to do that.” I hoped I didn’t sound ungrateful. It was just kind of weird to be getting a break from a kid so much younger than me.
“Already did it.” She counted the money I gave her with impressively swift precision and popped it in the drawer. While she made my change, she said, “You know, though, Wade’s a huge asshat, but he’s not totally wrong. It’d be a terrible idea to try to do whatever you’re doing all by yourself.” She hesitated. “What are you doing, anyway?”
I weighed my options in my head. This kid couldn’t possibly be older than eighteen, but she’d already seen enough back and forth between me and Wade to know something was up. And she was definitely the type to sniff out a suspected lie on her own time. I recognized the blaze of intelligent rebellion in her eyes.
She reminded me a little bit of my younger self. Maybe that was why I ultimately decided to run my mouth.
“Look.” I pulled up what was left of my sweater and pointed at the bandage job I’d gotten from Maya. “See this? Maya thinks it was a coyote, but I have reason to believe it was the same thing that killed the guy they just found in the river. And I want to get my hands on it before Wade and his dumbshit posse find it.”
She cocked her head to the side. “How come?”
“I’ve got my reasons.”
“Ah.” She bagged up my things. “Well, I gave you a discount, and now I’m going to cut you an even better deal. Let me help you track this thing down. I guarantee I’ll find it faster than those jerkoffs.”
The doubtful look was on my face before I even had time to think about it. “You?”
“The hell does that mean? Yeah, me. I guess I don’t look like much, but I’m the best tracker this sorry little town has ever seen. Miles better than Wade or any of his cronies. Those dipshits couldn’t track a drunk to the local liquor store.”
I folded my arms. “How old are you?”
“Twenty,” she snapped.
“Bullshit,” I said through a grin.
“Okay. Seventeen. And my name is Amber. Thanks for asking.” She pushed the bag across the counter and mimicked my stance, watching me defiantly, daring me to turn her offer down.
“Not a chance. If this thing is what I think it is, I’m not putting you out in those woods. Not to mention you’re young as hell and somebody’s kid.”
“And you’re not?”
“I’m twelve years older than you. And no, I’m not anyone’s kid anymore.”
Amber sucked in her breath. “Shit. I’m sorry.”
I have to admit I sort of baited her into that one. I’d learned over the past five years that mentioning my dead parents was a guaranteed way to shut down virtually any unwanted conversation. A shitty move that I mostly reserved for sleazy men at happy hour, even though it worked every time. But it was unfair, and I immediately felt guilty.
I waved her apology off. “Don’t worry about it. That was a shit move.
” I sighed. “It’s just, it’s complicated. I don’t want you getting caught in the middle of something you’re probably not going to understand.” She opened her mouth, and I kept talking. “I’m not saying that because you’re a teenager. I’m being honest. This is out of everyone’s league. Including mine.”
She gazed at me evenly. “Then what the hell are you doing here?”
We held unwavering eye contact for thirty seconds, inviting either a challenge or a truce. Finally, I dropped my arms and picked up the bag. “Call me Vic. You swear you’re good at hunting?”
Amber beamed. “Of course I am. I might be a kid, but I don’t screw around like the others. Also, I can tell when someone’s getting desperate.”
I arched my brows. “How’s that?”
“You came to the general store, for one. The kind of stuff you’re buying, it would be easier to go into the nearest city and hit a big box store. More choices, maybe better quality, cheaper prices. But you’re here acting like you don’t have that kind of time because the roads out, and whatever trail Wade is on is too hot for you not to follow. Even for a day or two.”
Smart kid. Maybe too smart.
“Not bad,” I acknowledged. “Be ready at dusk. That’s when we leave.”
“Nice.” Amber shot me a smirk and a thumbs-up. “Why don’t you just swing by here? I’ll be waiting.”
I left the general store, and Marcus finally piped up.
You just recruited a child to a war. Are you mad, Victoria?
“How old were you when you first marched into battle, Centurion.”
Thirteen, he voice dripped with pride. But I wasn’t—
“Oh, hell no. You’re not going to say ‘a girl.’” Marcus wisely stayed quiet. “And besides, I can’t pretend we don’t need help, all right? She knows this place approximately a thousand times better than I ever will. If she’s down with it, it beats getting lost, killed, and/or humiliated by that prick and his garbage friends.”
