End Game (Vampire Hunter Book 6)

by Reynolds, S. C.

  “Really?” I asked in surprise.

  “Not as consistently – or diligently – as Lucas and Nicholas, but yes, before the vampire community bonded together, before I was the head vampire, I used to take hunting assignments.”

  “That makes me feel better,” I said, trying to muster a smile. At least Jet knew what the fuck he was doing.

  When we arrived at the wooded area, Jet parked his car on the outskirts. “Just stay close behind me,” he said in a low voice. “And hang on to those pliers.”

  I got out of the car, trying to shut the door as quietly as possible.

  Jet started walking and I did as he had instructed, shuffling forward so close to him that I was almost touching his back. I didn’t look around, instead just focusing on keeping my steps light. I didn’t want to disturb a wendigo – or anything else, for that matter – by making too much noise.

  Suddenly Jet stopped and I lurched forward, smacking into his back with a low “oomph.” Jet turned to look at me, holding out his arm to help me regain my balance.

  “Sorry,” I whispered.

  “This is where we enter their lair,” Jet whispered back.

  I looked around in confusion. There were trees in every direction. Were the wendigos hiding among them?

  “No,” Jet said. “Down here.” He kicked with his right foot. I leaned over, squinting, to see what he was pointing out. And then I saw it. A tiny opening at the base of a tree.

  “That’s the entrance?” I asked incredulously.

  “It’s a tunnel to an underground cave,” Jet said in a low voice. “Trust me, if I can fit through it, so can you.”

  Without waiting for me to answer, Jet lowered himself flat on the ground on his stomach. He slid his head, then the rest of his torso through the hole as I watched in disbelief. How was I going to follow him? I hated small spaces! I had a sudden, terrible flashback of being surrounded by dirt when I crawled out of my grave. Why hadn’t Jet told me about this part before I agreed to go with him?

  Because you wouldn’t have agreed. Come on, Aurora. You can do this. You don’t even need air! It’s not like you can suffocate.

  Jet’s feet disappeared from view and I scrambled to the ground. The thought of getting stuck in the middle of the woods by myself was almost as bad as pulling myself through a tunnel.

  I could tell Jet had a flashlight by the faint beam I could see in the distance. It barely offered enough light for me to see the backs of his shoes. I tried not to think about the bugs that were probably crawling all over us. But bugs weren’t the real danger.

  Jet had better be right about the wendigos being settled in their lair, because if we meet one right now, we’re toast.

  Just when I was afraid the tunnel was going to go on forever, it abruptly ended. Jet pulled himself to his feet and helped me to mine. He shined the light around the cave. I half expected to see some creatures lurking in the corner, but there was nothing.

  “Let’s get this over with,” Jet said grimly. There were two narrow hallways off the main cave.

  “Do you know which way to go?” I hissed.

  “Nope.” Without any further explanation, Jet headed towards the hallway on the left.

  It was a short passage that opened up into another wide cave. Jet stopped at the end of it and pressed himself against the wall, motioning for me to do the same.

  I stood against the wall next to Jet, trying to make my body as flat as possible. “They’re in there,” Jet whispered. “Both of them. On the ground to the left when you walk through. Have a look so you know what to expect.”

  I peeped around him. At first I didn’t see them in the almost pitch black. But then my eyes focused, and I had to clamp my hand over my mouth to keep myself from making any noise. They were on the ground, leaning against rocks jutting out from the wall of the cave. The wendigos were the same gray color as the rock. Their bodies had the basic shape of a human, apart from being incredibly thin and wiry looking, but their faces – if you could call them that – had no features at all. It was like a blank canvas.

  But that wasn’t the worst of it. Above where they were sitting were shackles on the wall, and hanging from one of them, was a bloodied, decaying human arm. The remains of their last meal.

  I pressed myself back against the wall next to Jet, not wanting to see any more, thankful I couldn’t vomit.

  “You ready?” Jet practically mouthed the words, they were so low.

  I nodded, too terrified to speak.

  And then, before I knew what was happening, before I could try to prepare, Jet was tackling the first one. I stood there, watching, paralyzed. But Jet had the element of surprise on his side – not to mention his incredible speed. He easily jabbed the knife through what must have been the life center, as he called it, because the wendigo crumbled to dust before my very eyes.

  It all seemed to happen within seconds. One down, one to go.

  But the second one was up now. And really pissed off. It was then I could see that the wendigo towered high above Jet – it must have easily been ten feet tall. I cowered in the entrance of the cave, not wanting the thing to get near me. But it’s beady eyes, which I could barely make out, were trained on Jet.

  With a noise that sounded like a cross between a hiss and a growl, the wendigo lunged at Jet. He ducked down and rolled his body away from the long, sharp claws that were swiping at him. With another ferocious sound, the wendigo tried again.

  I watched Jet, mesmerized, as he dodged another attack. His eyes were wild and his teeth were out. Jet had gone into full vampire mode.

  Jet circled back around the creature. The wendigo spun wildly, lashing out at him. It can’t see very well. That was the only explanation for why it seemed to swipe at the air around Jet, never quite focused on an attack point.

  Jet kicked out with his foot, knocking the wendigo to the ground. He tackled it, sitting on top of the creature, pinning its arms down. “Come on!” he shouted at me.

  I sprung into action. As I approached, the wendigo tried to lunge up towards me. Drool and foam pooled from its mouth, which was snapping open and closed.

  “I don’t have a third hand,” Jet yelled. He was out of breath from the struggle. “You’re going to have to get the pliers in there and yank as hard as possible.”

  With shaking hands, I brought the pliers near its mouth. It turned its head to the side, snapping and spitting. “I don’t know how!” I said in a panicked voice.

  “I can’t restrain him forever! Come on, you have to do this,” Jet bellowed.

  I leaned in closer and jammed the pliers into the wendigo’s mouth. Ignoring the spit and drool and horrible sounds it was making, I methodically clamped and unclamped the pliers, trying to grasp onto something that felt like a tooth.

  “I think I’ve got it!” I exclaimed, feeling the scrape of something hard against metal.

  “Pull!”

  But I didn’t need Jet to tell me. With both hands, I pulled back, yanking and tugging as hard as possible until the tooth broke free. I was thrown back and the pliers – along with the tooth – flew out of my hands.

  “I’ve lost it!” I said, panicked.

  “We’ll find it in a minute! Hand me my knife!” Jet yelled.

  My eyes searched the cave floor frantically. “By the other one – the dead one,” he directed.

  I picked up the knife by the pile of ash and held it out for Jet. In one effortless movement he swiped it from my hands and plunged it into the wendigo’s life center. Like the one before, it crumbled into a pile of unrecognizable dust.

  Jet climbed to his feet, panting. His eyes were less wild now but his teeth were still out. “Haven’t seen these before, huh?” he asked, noticing me staring at him.

  “I – I have,” I said, picturing Lucas.

  “Let’s get the hell out of here after we find that tooth.” Jet shined the light on the cave floor. I picked up the metal pliers and put them in my pocket. “Surely it’s near here,” I said. W
e searched for what felt like an eternity – but was probably only two or three minutes at most – until Jet finally located the tooth. He held it up, roots still attached.

  We both backtracked through the hallway into the main cave. “Never have I been so glad to get into a tunnel in my life!” I said as I hurriedly got onto my belly and started crawling towards the woods, towards safety.

  “You and me both,” Jet said, close on my heels.

  We had been crawling for a few feet when Jet grabbed my ankle. “Do you hear that?” he hissed.

  “Hear what?” No sooner than the words were out of my mouth I heard a scream. It took me a minute to realize it was Jet.

  “Jet! Jet!” There was barely enough room in the tunnel to turn my head sideways. Jet’s flashlight was laying directly behind me. And Jet was gone.

  Chapter 6

  “No, no, no,” the words spilled from my mouth. We hadn’t come this far just to be defeated. I snatched the flashlight up and started moving backwards as fast as possible. There must have been another wendigo in the lair, and now it was going to get revenge on us for killing the other two.

  It didn’t take long to get to the main cave. As soon as I was back on my feet, I knew my fear was right. There, looming over Jet, was a wendigo even taller than the ones he’d already killed.

  But that wasn’t what frightened me to the core. There was Jet, on all fours, desperately trying to crawl out of the wendigo’s reach, dragging his right leg along with him like a wounded dog.

  “Jet!” I screamed his name. He looked up, his face twisted in pain, sweat pouring down his face.

  The wendigo barely acknowledged me. No, it had its sights set on Jet. I looked around frantically for the knife Jet had used – or any type of weapon – but came up empty. Get the life center! a voice in my head screamed.

  The wendigo moved forward towards Jet, slowly, painfully, letting out a low guttural sound the whole time. Jet, who had been so powerful, so fast just minutes before, was now moving at a snail’s pace, looking like the agony of dragging his bloodied leg was about to kill him.

  This isn’t right. He should heal almost instantaneously. Was I about to watch Jet die?

  I had no time to spend wondering about it. I had to act – now.

  With a terrified scream, I tackled the wendigo to the ground. My body was getting hot, so I knew the strength would be there. I pummeled it’s gray, disgusting face, but the wendigo barely flinched.

  “The only way to stop it is to stab it,” came Jet’s weak voice.

  The wendigo threw me off of him and climbed back to it’s feet. It had no interest in me. All it wanted was Jet. And I was the only thing that could stop it.

  There was no knife. I’d have to improvise.

  Feeling like my body was on fire, I pressed forward, positioning myself in between the wendigo and Jet. It hissed and spat at me, but I didn’t flinch. I clenched my fist and pulled it back by my side, then punched the wendigo as hard as I could, dead in the chest.

  My hand broke through slimy skin and I felt it connect with something hard. And before I had time to comprehend what was happening, there was a heap of dust around me.

  “Is it dead? Is it really dead?” I shrieked, my voice sounding hysterical even to my own ears.

  “It’s dead,” Jet echoed, clutching his leg in agony.

  I rushed to his side. “Why are you so hurt?” I asked in a shrill voice. “Why aren’t you healing?”

  “I didn’t tell you beforehand,” Jet said through gritted teeth, “because I didn’t want to worry you. But excruciating pain isn’t the only reason to avoid wendigo claws. They release venom. Into your bloodstream. If you didn’t notice, they aren’t exactly quick movers. That’s how they stun their prey.”

  “Are you going to be okay?” I shrieked. “We have to get out of here!”

  “I can’t move,” Jet said. “I’m in too much pain and the venom is paralyzing me. You’ll have to go get help.”

  “I’m not leaving you!” I said, fighting the rising hysteria that was threatening to take over.

  “You don’t have a choice!” Jet boomed.

  “Please, Jet.” I reached out and pulled back the leg of his torn jean, which was soaked with blood. The gash from the wendigo’s claws looked incredibly deep and painful.

  “It’s not so bad,” I lied.

  Jet choked out a laugh. “Nice try.”

  I leaned in to study the wound. The cut ran from his ankle up to his knee. “What if I help move you?” I asked.

  “I can’t even lift my leg.”

  As gently as possible, I slid my hands under Jet’s injured leg. “If you can crawl, I can brace your leg, carry it,” I said, wondering how the hell we’d get through the tunnel with me trying to carry Jet’s leg. But I couldn’t leave him, and if we stayed here we were sitting ducks. Jet had been wrong about there only being two wendigos – what if even more were going to show up?

  Jet winced at my touch.

  “I’m sorry,” I said hurriedly, “but we have to leave. I don’t care what it takes, but I am getting you out of here.”

  “Wait,” Jet said.

  “Please, we don’t have time!” I exclaimed.

  “No, wait,” Jet repeated. “Something’s happening. Your touch – it’s almost like it’s numbing the pain.”

  “What?” I asked in surprise.

  “I’m serious,” Jet said. “See, look, I can move my foot now. I couldn’t even do that before.” He twisted his ankle from side to side to prove his point.

  Excitedly, I moved my hands closer to the oozing wound. “What about now? Is it getting better?”

  “I think it is!”

  And before our very eyes, the gaping, hideous wound closed up and faded into skin.

  Jet and I looked at each other, mouths hanging open. “I can move my leg!” he exclaimed. “What the fuck? Aurora, you healed me!”

  “I – I don’t know how,” I stuttered.

  Jet let out a whoop. “I don’t care how. I thought – if I could make it out before I lost consciousness – that I was going to have to get a blood transfusion. But now, I think the venom is gone. You neutralized it and healed my wound.”

  Jet climbed to his feet, tentatively putting weight on his formerly gimp leg. “It’s fine. It feels 100% normal,” he said. Jet’s face, which had been a ghastly white, was starting to return to its normal pale color.

  “Let’s go!” he said.

  I didn’t need to be told twice. We crawled through the tunnel, raced back to the car, and hit the road in record time.

  Chapter 7

  Emmett was waiting for us when we got back. He must have been watching from the window because he flung the door open before either of us could knock. “You’re alive!” he said, relief washing over his face.

  “Barely,” Jet replied. We sat down and told Emmett what had happened.

  “So now you can heal people.” Emmett shook his head in disbelief, staring at the massive rip down the right pant’s leg of Jet’s jeans.

  “You didn’t have any, uh, psychic premonitions about that, did you?” I asked him.

  “No, I haven’t been able to see much of anything lately,” Emmett said.

  Jet stood up. “I have to go. Aurora, it’s been real, and it’s been fun…”

  I laughed and finished the sentence. “But it hasn’t been real fun.”

  “Do you need a ride home or anything?” Jet asked.

  “No. It’s almost 3 a.m. My parents would flip out if I walked through the door right now. Emmett said I could stay here.”

  Jet shook Emmett’s hand and hugged me goodbye. When he’d left, Emmett turned to me. “I’ve got get some sleep. Make yourself at home. What’s the plan for tomorrow?”

  “Mom thinks she’s going to pick me up from Kelly’s house and meet her parents,” I said. “But I’ll get Henry to pick me up from here and tell mom I’m hanging out at his house or something.”

  “When are you going to
tell Lucas about your excursion tonight with Jet?” Emmett asked.

  “I guess tomorrow. Er, later today,” I said, realizing that it technically was Sunday. I shrugged my shoulders helplessly. “He’s going to be pissed.”

  “He’ll get over it,” Emmett said.

  “Is that psychic Emmett talking or are you just trying to make me feel better?” I asked.

  Emmett smiled. “Perhaps a little of both.”

  ###

  The next morning I called Henry. “Can you come get me from Emmett’s house?” I asked.

  “Emmett’s house?” Henry echoed in surprise. “That’s not what I expected you to say. Is everything alright?”

  “Yes,” I assured him. “But it’s a long story. I’ll tell you when you get here.”

  “Wow,” Henry said when I’d finished. “I guess I’m glad I didn’t know, though. I actually got a decent night’s sleep, for a change. I’d have been beside myself with worry if I thought you were getting the wendigo tooth.” He paused. “But at least it’s over with now. And it’s exciting to find out you can heal people. I’m pretty sure Tobias doesn’t have that ability.”

  “What about you?” Emmett asked Henry. “Are you ready for Saturday? It will be here before we know it.”

  “Yeah, I think so,” Henry said, sounding nervous. “I just have to see if Lucas and Nicholas got the rest of the junk last night. And I need to study the spell a bit more, but I’ll be good to go by Saturday.”

  “I hope I can say the same,” I mumbled. “If Tobias realizes I’m trying to double cross him, he’s going to be furious. You know how crazy he is. Who knows what he’d do? Hell, he might try and kill me if he wasn’t lying about knowing how.

  “It’s not going to come to that,” Henry said sharply. “I’ll get the Gates open and Lucas and Nicholas will push Tobias and Magnus in. Then I’ll close them.”