Splinter (Whisper Walker Series) (4 page)

After finding nothing amiss with my workspace, I was still puzzled over the guy’s presence. But not enough to go hunt him down and interrogate him.

I made a great deal of progress this shift, despite remaining sidetracked by being angry with myself at becoming an emotional wreck about Drake. I caught up on yesterday’s work and got today’s done as well.

Drake getting home had been the best part of the week. When I’d heard him walk in the door, I think my heart skipped a beat before speeding up like a machine gun. As soon as I’d seen him, the tension had melted away, replaced by a rush of emotions. I’d felt the strongest urge to squeeze him to death. To feel his strong arms around me and breathe in his familiar scent while soaking up his warmth.

Okay, so much for the scent part. He’d smelled like he had been in the woods for a few days…and something else that I couldn’t identify. Still, it was all mixed with
him
, so it wasn’t terrible.

By the end of my shift, I could hardly hold still with curiosity over what Drake wanted to talk to me about. As the clock struck quitting time, I was gone like the wind. I jogged the entire way home, not even caring if I got sweaty.

I burst in the door of our house, throwing it open much too hard. I made my “oopsy” face out of habit, then burst out laughing as I saw Drake jump a foot off the counter where he’d been sitting when I slammed the door, startling him.

“Dammit, Kelsie! Scared the crap out of me!” Drake exclaimed, holding his hand over his heart as if he could slow it down manually.

I smirked mischievously. “I noticed. It was really funny.”

I moved in past the door, shutting it behind me and kicking off my shoes. Pushing a hand towel out of the way, I hopped up on the counter, lightly pressing against Drake.

“So, what’s the surprise? I’m dying, here.”

His face took on mock concern. “Dying? Uh-oh. Guess I can’t tell you what I found. It might be too awesome for you to handle. Wouldn’t want that.” He shook his head solemnly, slipping off the counter and drawing a mug of water from the faucet.

He kept his back to me while he took a drink, which I could only figure meant he was smiling and doing a poor job of hiding it.

I took the moment to admire his shoulders. They were broad, really broad. I could see the taut muscles moving under his lightweight shirt as he lowered the arm that was holding the mug. It was so fascinating. I couldn’t decide if I was more fascinated by how the muscles worked, or the fact that they were connected to him and those wonderful shoulders.

I didn’t say anything. I knew he would turn around eventually.

“You’re not going to believe what I found last night while I was running for dear life,” Drake said.

I forced my gaze from his shoulders, preparing for him to turn so he wouldn’t catch me. “I’ll bite,” I said in an overly dramatic voice. “Whatever did you find?”

He whipped around, his eyes flashing in excitement. “Remains. Lots of remains.”

“Like building remains?”

He gave me a crooked grin. “Nope. Human.”

I felt my eyes widen involuntarily. This could be bad. I mean, he said remains. Not skeletons. If it were skeletons, or something that showed the people had been dead a long time, I wouldn’t be all that interested. What with the war and harsh daily life, people used to die all the time. Many were buried in mass graves. All it took was a mudslide or heavy rain and the bones would be exposed. Still…

Drake took my silence as amazement and continued, unprompted. “Yup. Real human remains. I found them in a cave. It was pitch-black, but it’s hard to mistake a human skull when it’s in your hands. So I want to go back today with lights. I was thinking you might want to tag along. You want to?”

I didn’t want to seem too eager to escape the Gates. “Well…I dunno. I kinda wanted to hang out and do nothing. Maybe darn my socks.” I was just screwing with him and he saw right through it. He knew me so well.

He gently smacked my shoulder. “That’s what you’re going with? Knitting? You abhor knitting. More than I do. So, you coming? I’ll go without you if you don’t want to.”

I grinned. “Yeah, right. You can barely contain yourself. There’s no way you would go without taking someone to share it with! Let’s get going though. I want to get back before dark; you know how I get outdoors at night.”

I must say I was shocked, and more than a little disappointed, by Drake’s
big
surprise when I’d gotten home. I’m not really sure what I had expected, but him saying that he’d found some sort of mass burial site was not exactly in the realm of anything that I had in mind. I was hoping maybe for him to say he was going to be home for the next couple of weeks or…I don’t know, something cooler than a bunch of decomposing bodies. But Drake had always been a curious one. Besides, to his knowledge, it had been ages since I had been outside the Gates. It would be a perfect opportunity for me to let him protect me – maybe even put myself in situations where he’d think he saved the day.

My thoughts were momentarily interrupted as I ducked a branch that swung back at me when Drake pushed past it. We were outside the Gates, picking our way through the forest to where this cave was. The path evened out, and I slipped back into my thoughts.

“Hey!” I exclaimed. “That could’ve hurt me!”

Drake turned, looking alarmed. Then he saw the branch still swaying back and forth. He grinned sheepishly. “Sorry. You okay?”

I nodded, giving him a playful glare.

If I made him feel strongly enough that he constantly needed to protect me, maybe he wouldn’t be gone so much. You know, give him more of a reason to stay.

I needed a little excitement in my life. What better way to get it than with Drake? Maybe an adventure would help clean out the pent-up emotions that seemed to be overflowing lately.

I started to form a plan. Something simple. I might not even have to implement it. Maybe I wouldn’t need to. Maybe I would have the perfect opportunity for him to save the day.

“It’s just through here,” Drake said, pulling back a bush to allow me to go ahead. “The opening to the cave should be to your right in a few meters.” He paused and looked around, making sure we were alone.

I searched around for a second, finding a small dark opening on the right. “Found it,” I said, my voice muffled from sticking my head in the small opening. “I can’t believe you found this in the dark. It’s tiny. I almost missed seeing it in daylight!” I exclaimed.

“Yeah, well, I run for my life quite often, so I tend to notice escapes easily. A survival-instinct kind of thing.”

“The Cave Finder,” I said, giggling. My voiced echoed off the walls of the tunnel as I crawled in. “Has a ring to it. You should add it to your portfolio. Something like ‘
I’ll find your hole
’ or something corny like that.”

“Haha. You’re hilarious.”

Drake followed me into the tunnel. We had to crawl. Luckily, Drake had brought us both head-lights so we could see.

“It’s weird being able to see the tunnel now, as opposed to last night. In the dark, I formed a picture of what the tunnel looked like. Now, with light, it’s completely different. Like, it’s made of dirt. Weird. I thought it would have been shale or rock.”

“Yeah. It’s probably old,” I said. I paused for a second, grimacing. I brushed my hand at chunks of dirt and sharp gravel that had dug into the skin of my knees. I took that moment to regret my clothing choice.

The tunnel started widening after a few more minutes of crawling. Drake spoke up. “Hey, so we should be getting close. Be careful or you might fall into the pit like I did. Wouldn’t want you breaking something.”

I turned my head over my shoulder and started to reply when the ground in front of me was gone and I dropped into the dark. A second later I hit the bottom with a thud and a girly squeak.

“You all right?” Drake called down.

I sat up, brushing myself off and checking for injuries. Looking around, I snatched up my light that had been knocked off my head from the fall. I scowled when I saw how dirty I now was. “Yeah. I’m fine. Get down here. It stinks.”

I looked up at the edge of the pit. I saw Drake stand and remove a small pack from his back, pulling out a rope and anchor stake. He took a mini sledge and drove the stake in as far as he could.

He tied one end of the rope to the stake and drew back to throw the other end around the corner, calling out, “Hey, move away, I’m throwing down the rope.” With that, he tossed the rope, and it plopped down on the ground next to me.

He grinned, saying, “It’s way easier to take the rope down, you know.”

I scowled at him, rolling my eyes. “Naw, it was pretty damn easy falling on my ass.” I looked around. “So, where are the skulls and bones at?”

Drake raised his eyebrows in question. “They’re everywhere. You’re standing on a femur.” Drake pointed at my right foot.

I looked around, lifting my foot and setting it back down. I’m sure I looked confused, since I was. “What are you playing at? Is this some kind of joke? There are no bones down here, Drake. None.”

He laughed. “Ha, you’re funny. They’re everywhere. See? Here’s a skull.” Drake reached down and picked up something by his feet. He held his empty hand up for me to see, palm upward and fingertips bent up like he actually thought he was holding something. “See? The skull in my hand?”

“I think you maybe hit your head last night when you fell. Or you need more sleep. Cuz, you’re holding air.”

I looked at him in concern. There was absolutely nothing there. I put my hand on his arm, trying to be reassuring.

“Stop screwing with me, Kelsie. It’s right here. In my hand. I can see them everywhere.” Drake glared at me. He took my hand and set it on his.

My hand landed on top of his palm. Nothing between our skin. Just my hand on his. I looked at him and sighed, wrapping my fingers through his and squeezing.

“Drake. I know you don’t get along with the herbalist, but I think you should pay her a visit, for my sake.” I made eye contact with him, trying to plead with him.

He pulled his hand from mine. “I don’t get it. I can see them. I can feel them: touch, weight, texture. Hell, I can
smell
them! Why can’t you?”

He turned and walked to the other side of the pit. “It’s so real. I don’t see any way that I could be imagining this.” He ran his hands through his wavy hair in exasperation.

He looked up at me, making eye contact. “Okay, I have one last idea. Here, pay attention.”

I nodded assent. Might as well humor him, I figured. Maybe then he would figure out he was imagining things.

Drake bent over and picked up another imaginary item. He drew back his arm and threw whatever he thought was in his hand at the wall of the pit.

I thought maybe I heard something. But wasn’t sure. I stepped over to the wall in front of Drake and saw a small indention. For all I knew, it had already been there. But Drake took it as a sign that I had seen it.

“See? I’m not crazy.” He looked relieved. Then bent down and picked up another invisible item.

I wasn’t convinced. Honestly, I just wanted out of there. I’d agree with him simply to get him to leave.

I watched him turn his hands over, looking intently at whatever he could see. His eyes grew big. He tossed the object in his hands and picked something else up. Repeating it. His eyes grew to the point they no longer looked human.

“What’s up? You look like you’ve seen a phantom,” I said.

“You have no idea,” he replied, turning to climb out of the hole. He paused and looked back around the pit. I took the opportunity to head for the rope.

“Hey, Kelsie.”

I turned around to answer him. “Yeah?”

“See that hole in the roof over there?” He pointed his hand off into the darkness. I was able to get the general direction from the way his arm was pointed. I could make out a faint circle slightly lighter in hue than the rest of the roof. I had to lean out precariously to see around the corner of the tunnel.

“Uh-huh.”

“Do you have any idea where it comes out, in relation to the top side? I’d like to find it if we can.”

I thought about it for a second, tracing the tunnel into where we were, using my memory. “Well, the tunnel curves a bit. But then it curves back, I think. For the most part I think it’s a straight line. I guess we could get a rough distance on the way back out. That would help give us an area to check.”

He snapped his fingers. “Great. Good idea. That’s why you’re in Developing and I’m an Acquisitions Specialist. Now, excuse me so I can get out of this graveyard.”

I felt myself flush at his praise. Luckily in the dark he couldn’t see it. I obliged his request, stepping back to allow him up. I started crawling back down the tunnel. I did my best to keep track of the distance on the way out, like I had suggested.

We estimated distance from the pit back to the opening. Once we made it out, Drake figured we had forty-five minutes of daylight left. That was one of the talents he had that I didn’t, secret or otherwise. He could tell direction and things like estimating daylight and weather. We started our way up the hill over the tunnel, bushwhacking through the foliage that did its best to push us backward. Soon, it became evident that the tunnel must slant downward because the hill lowered in elevation to the level of the area around the entrance. We looked thoroughly, using the leap-frog system to help us maintain a reasonably straight line.

“Whoa. Stop,” I said, dropping to a crouch. “I’m pretty sure we just crossed onto Briln Water Guild land.” The Briln Water Guild was the enemy Guild that shared the island with us–the Sven.

Drake looked around, seeing a totem that marked our side. “Yeah, so?”

“Well, I don’t exactly want to get caught.”

He grinned. “Me either. It’s daytime, for now. So if we’re careful, maybe they won’t find us. Besides, I really want to see where the hole comes up.”

“The sun’s almost down. If we’re caught out here, it’s going to be bad.”

“Yup. But you’re with
me
. So don’t worry. Let’s just keep low and talk quietly. Hopefully, we’ll find it really quick. We’re over three-quarters of the way there, I figure.” He paused for a moment. “Oh, and I brought a gun.”