Wolf Hiding (A Wolf in the Land of the Dead Book 2) (8 page)

The night called to the wolf. A thousand different scents filled her nose, a thousand different sounds filled her ears. The near-silent flight of an owl, and the squeak of a mouse caught in its talons. The rustle of a hare through the grass nearby, and the small thunder of deer in a copse of trees further away. The night would enfold her, would conceal her, would nourish her.
No.
But the other, the human who was her partner and her captor, wouldn’t let her go. With a muted snarl the wolf turned away from the dark.

She flew down the back of the long row of motel rooms, reaching the opposite corner in seconds. Three seconds after that the wolf lay on her belly in the wild grass at the edge of the office and watched her prey. The two humans still stood in the same spot. One of them flashed his light again. The wolf tilted her head and caught an answering flash from the room next to her human’s room. The strange males started quietly across the pavement.

The wolf ran. In the space of a heartbeat she was behind the strangers. She sank her teeth into the calf of one of them and planted her paws on the pavement. The male fell forward, hard, and the wolf smelled blood as his face smashed into the ground. He had time only for a startled gasp and then she was on him, claws digging into his back, sharp teeth clamping onto his neck. She bit, and her jaws met through the male’s flesh and bone. With a jerk of her head his body went limp. The pungent tang of his bladder letting go filled her nose as she opened her jaws and jumped free of the dead human.

All this had taken less than five seconds. The human’s warm blood was still coursing down her throat as the wolf whirled to face the other one. Suddenly there was a bright flash and a roar like a winter storm coming over the mountains. Fire streaked down the wolf’s body and instinctively she leapt aside. The gun discharged again.
Run!
The wolf turned and darted back into the dark grass.

The door to one of the rooms swung open, and the wolf heard the voice of the male with light fur calling out. The strange male hesitated, and then he turned and ran off into the night. The wolf followed.

The human ran down the dark highway, led by his light. He slowed as he approached a metal box
car it’s a car you know that
and slumped against its side. The human looked back in the direction he had come from, but the wolf was whispering through the grassy verge, invisible. She swung wide and approached the human from behind.

As with the other one she grabbed the male by the leg and dragged him down. His screams flooded her ears, and somehow he managed to twist around and hit the wolf on her head. Startled, her grip loosened and the human rose to his knees. The wolf snarled and lunged. She sank her teeth into the flesh of his back and yanked. The human’s body fell toward her. She heard the sharp crack of bone as his legs broke.

The wolf watched as the male screamed and thrashed.
Enough.
Death in the wild was as quick and painless as she could make it.
Enough.
She killed to eat, and so there was no purpose served in making the prey linger in pain and helplessness.
Enough!
But this human had hurt her, had threatened her, and she felt a strange and rare desire to keep him in agony -
ENOUGH! End it!
The wolf angrily shook her head but did as the other commanded.

She ran back to the motel as fast as the pain blazing along her side would let her. The body of the other human lay in the parking lot. The male with the light-colored fur
Anton
stood over it, his flashlight a yellow beacon in the dark.
He’s alone.
The wolf trotted across the pavement to the dead human. The male shone the light at her and took a startled step back. “Nowen?” he whispered.

The wolf gave him one spare amber glance. She latched onto the pant leg of the dead human and began to drag the body across the parking lot. Behind the male the door to his room opened, and the female with fur like aspen leaves called out. By the time
Anton
had looked over his shoulder and then back again to the wolf, she had dragged the body into the tall grass behind the office.

The wolf left the dead human and paced slowly back to the far end of the motel. She stopped below the open window and gave the night a last, longing look. Then the other was forcing her back into the cage and grudgingly the wolf went.

Nowen pulled her shirt back on, running a hand down her side as she did. The wound from the gunshot was healed. She heaved herself onto the windowsill and then paused, examining the interior of the room. Sage, somehow, seemed to have slept through everything. Nowen climbed into the room and replaced the window screen.

She had no more than hit the mattress when there came a banging on the door. Wearily she rose and crossed to the door, opening it just a sliver to reveal Anton’s worried face. “Yes?’ she said.

“Uh, is everything ok?”

“Yes. Why wouldn’t it be?”

Suzannah appeared behind his shoulder. Even without the wolf’s senses Nowen could tell that the redheaded woman was upset.
Very upset. I wonder why.

“I heard - or thought I heard - gunshots.” Anton’s ash-grey eyes were asking her a question.

“I didn’t hear anything. But noises carry...if they were gunshots, they might have come from miles away.” She lowered her voice. “I don’t think there’s anything else to worry about tonight.”

Anton hesitated, and then nodded. “Ok. I’ll talk to you in the morning, then.”

She closed the door as he walked away.

Nowen leaned against the motel wall and waited. She kept one eye on Sage; the girl was standing where the parking lot met the highway, staring back in the direction they had come from. Inside the room next to Nowen she could hear Anton and Suzannah moving around. She looked at the sky; the sun had been up for an hour, and she was ready to hit the road.

Finally the door opened and Anton stepped out. He held a shotgun in one hand and only glanced at Nowen, not meeting her eyes. “Ready to go?” he asked.

“Yes. Suzannah?”

Anton looked resolutely at everything except Nowen. “Another couple of minutes. She had trouble falling asleep after the...excitement of last night.”

Nowen laid a hand on Anton’s muscled arm. She could feel his skin twitching under her touch. “I’ll go help Suzannah. Would you mind checking the office? They have some souvenirs, and maybe Sage would like something to take her mind off everything.”

The white-blonde head dipped slightly. “Good idea.” He headed toward the office, calling the girl over to him. Nowen waited until the two of them were well away, and then she slipped into the room.

The room looked much like the one she and Sage had shared, except only one of the beds was disturbed. A noise came from the bathroom. Nowen closed the door gently behind her and followed the noise. At the bathroom entrance she paused.

Suzannah stood in front of the small mirror, brushing her hair. She seemed lost in thought. Nowen took advantage of her distraction and stepped behind her. Suzannah saw the movement and, gasping, whirled around, the hairbrush raised like a weapon.

“Oh, it’s just you.” The redhead relaxed. “You startled me! I thought-” Whatever she was going to say was cut off by Nowen’s hand clamping around her throat.

Nowen moved in close. She lowered her voice to just a few shades above the wolf’s growl as she said “Who were those men?”

Suzannah’s already milk-white face drained completely of color. She wrapped her hands around the wiry arm that held her, tugging ineffectually as she choked out a denial.

Nowen shook her head slowly. “Don’t lie to me. I don’t like it. You knew those men; I saw someone from this room signal them last night, and I’m very confident it wasn’t Anton.”

The woman’s pale green eyes swam with tears. “I didn’t have a choice! They made me!”

“Explain.”

“I-I-I met them, about a month ago. The soldier was dead and I thought I was next, the CZs were everywhere. And then, then Willie and Mac found me. They rescued me!” Her eyes pleaded for understanding. “We’d heard about the New Heaven place and we talked about going there. But they didn’t want to join any group and end up as the shit-hole diggers.” Suzannah paused and swallowed; Nowen could feel the muscles of her throat work.

“So they started picking off people going up I-25. They were going to start their
own
place, but they needed food, guns, drugs, shit like that to get other people to join them.”

Nowen frowned. “All of that is available in any town.”

Suzannah still had her hands on Nowen’s arm but everything else about her had relaxed as she told her story. “Yeah, but the fucking CZs are everywhere! It was just easier to sit here and let people bring the stuff to us. The roads are so empty now you can see anything coming for miles. We’d sit up on the roof of this old garage with some binoculars and just wait. If it was people on foot, they would stop them right then and there. If it was people in cars, they’d scope them out, see how dangerous they were.”

“What part did you play?”

“Almost everybody stops for a pretty girl. I’d get a ride, and the guys would follow. Then, when we’d stop for the night or a break the guys would just take whatever we needed.”

“So we weren’t the first.”

Suzannah shook her head silently.

Anger strummed Nowen’s nerves. She tightened her grip, her fingernails lengthening and sharpening as they began to change into claws. The redhead’s eyes widened until they seemed to take up half of her face. The flesh of her neck dimpled around the points of the claws as Nowen dragged her up the bathroom wall. “Your friends were going to kill Anton last night. So why shouldn’t I just kill you right now?” Nowen snarled.

Suzannah’s limp arms fell to her sides but her heels drummed the wall. Like a rabbit in the shadow of a hawk, the closeness of her death was evident in her eyes. She spoke in a pleading whisper. “I didn’t kill anyone. I had nowhere else to go, and they took care of me. I just worked with them. I never hurt anyone. I swear. I
swear
. And, if Willie and Mac killed anyone, I never knew about it.” Her voice trailed off

“How could you not know?”

“When Willie and Mac showed up, I would go back to the car and wait for them. They’d bring the supplies over and I’d drive us back to our place.” Tears overflowed the pale green eyes and tracked down the woman’s colorless face.”They told me that they let the people go. I believed them.”

Nowen snarled and let the other woman go. Suzannah raised a trembling hand to her neck, and Nowen stepped back and pierced her with an amber gaze. “You were either woefully or purposefully ignorant. Killing you is more trouble than you’re worth. I won’t stop you from coming with us. But I have a goal, and if you do one more thing to keep me from that goal, I
will
make you regret it.” She turned away from the other woman and crossed to the door. Her hand was on the doorknob when Suzannah called out.

“What happened to them?” The words were colored with uncertainty.

Nowen looked back over her shoulder. “Do you really want to know?”

Suzannah just stared without answering.

Chapter Ten

They crossed into Montana three hours after leaving Douglas, and an hour after that the city of Billings rose out of the prairie before them. Anton and Suzannah talked quietly in the front seats. Nowen tuned them out and watched the landscape fly by, her mind in turmoil. She endlessly debated her decision to spare Suzannah’s life until she tired of the thoughts and shoved them ruthlessly away.
She’s not trustworthy, but neither is Anton. I let her live; it’s over and done with.
She rubbed her aching temples and looked at Sage.

The girl was turning something over and over in her hands, but her dark brown eyes were staring at Nowen. Nowen stared back, and the girl looked down at the object she was holding.
I should say something. Right?
“What do you have there?” Nowen asked awkwardly.

Sage held her hand out. Balanced on her flat palm was a small snow globe. A tiny deer in a tiny forest stood in the midst of a miniature snowstorm. Diamond-white flakes settled slowly to the forest floor, and when the water had cleared Sage gave the globe a gentle shake and set the snow flying again.

“Oh, that’s nice. And pretty. Did you get that back at the motel?”

Sage nodded and drew the little souvenir back. She held it up to her face, her gaze tracking the bits of glitter as they drifted around the globe.
Now what?
Nowen cast about for something else to say. “I bet you don’t get much snow in Texas, huh?”

Sage gave her a look, a mix of pity and humor. “I’ve seen snow before.”

“Ah.”

“Two years ago, when I was visiting Uncle Fernando in Amarillo, it snowed so much everything closed. That was fun.”

“I see.” They looked at each other, and Nowen thought that the girl wanted to talk about as much as she did.
But it’s not right, is it, to just ignore her? Think of something to say!
She cleared her throat and said “Do you like school?”

Again the pitying look. “Yes. But there’s been no school for awhile.”

“Oh, right. Right.”
I’d rather face down a rampaging horde of fast Revs.
“Well, do you like to...read?”

Sage tilted her head to one side. “You’re not very good at this, are you?”

Nowen surprised herself by laughing, something she’d not done in months. She smiled. The girl gave a small answering smile. “No, I’m not too good at this. I thought it wasn’t right to share this space with you and not try to talk. But if you want me to shut up and leave you alone, just say the word.”

Sage’s face grew serious. “Can I ask you something?” the girl said, so low it was almost a whisper.

“Sure.”

Her dark brown eyes seemed to spear right through Nowen. “Did you eat those men last night, after you killed them?”

Without warning there was a loud, flat ‘bang’ and the car swerved violently to the left. Sage was thrown from her seat and slammed into Nowen, who automatically wrapped her arms around the girl’s slight body and held on. The car slewed back to the right, and only by the judicious planting of her feet against the edge of Sage’s now-vacant seat did Nowen keep the two of them from tumbling across the interior. From the front Anton cursed, Suzannah screamed, and the brakes screamed back as the car juddered to a halt. For a moment, they all sat in stunned silence. Then Anton cursed again as he turned off the engine and opened his door. He stepped out and the rest of them followed.