Book 1 - Page 31 (2/2)

“That’ll take us off course,” Fade said. “But I think we’d better.”

I didn’t say so, but it wasn’t like we had a course. Another path, overgrown with gra.s.s, led east. It had been made of that poured rock too, but time and rain had worn it down, so it was mostly broken, more dirt than anything else. It led away from the river, but maybe we could get back to it once we skirted the danger. Unless those ruins had a small human population, the Freaks must be preying on one another. That would make them more desperate and more feral than the ones we’d fought.

Or they could be hunting … like we did. The comparison worried me. I didn’t want to find them like us in any fas.h.i.+on.

“I can’t believe they’re here too,” I said.

“They’re everywhere.” Fade’s voice was grim, his face cast in sharp relief by the rising moon. It silvered the world, making it soft and cool.

A grim thought—everywhere we went, we would be hiding from them, running, or fighting. Maybe we should’ve stayed at the little house by the river. At least there hadn’t been any Freaks in the area, and we’d had food. But we’d all wanted to try to find the place Fade’s sire talked about, where things were better. I was beginning to think it was hopeless.

Coming over the next rise, I froze. There were ten Freaks, and at first they seemed as surprised as we were. Still hideous, still terrible, but they looked healthier than the ones we’d left behind. The Freak hunting party raced toward us; they dropped their kills—animals, as I’d guessed—and snarled in vicious antic.i.p.ation of bigger, sweeter meat. I whipped out my daggers.

“Get behind us,” I called to Tegan, but she had my club and she took a position beside me with fierce determination.

“I’ve been practicing with Fade,” she said.

There was no place for her to hide here anyway. It hurt a bit when Fade and I didn’t go back-to-back like we used to, but I had other things to worry about. Stalker fell in on my other side, blades in place on his hands. The Freaks surrounded us, no doubt expecting an easy win. They couldn’t be used to prey that fought back.

These weren’t as hungry as others we’d encountered, so they attacked with their claws first, teeth second. I used my elbows to block like Stalker had taught me while going for the quick slashes against their torsos. I didn’t have his speed, but I managed to avoid most of the hits and protect my chest. We each needed to take down two, and then split the difference.

Beside me, Tegan swung wide and hard; I gave her plenty of room. She drove them off while I caught them in the recoil. The world narrowed to the stab and punch, kick and thrust. Blood spattered. I swiped it from my eyes and kept fighting. I had no time to look at anyone else, now. These Freaks weren’t going down as fast as the others.

Kill them, Silk whispered in my head. Kill them all.

My Huntress nature emerged, sharp and clean, like a new knife rising from the hissing steam. These were smart. I saw in their eyes, as they tried to learn my tactics and lunged to test my reflexes. My daggers flashed in the moonlight, blood on silver, and my heart sang with each spin, each press of the attack. I hardly felt the wounds I took. I didn’t know how bad they were. I lost sight of everything until the last Freak fell. Fade killed it with a clean slash of its throat. Beneath the stars, on the gra.s.s, it showed dark as the night sky. The gurgling, choking breaths slowed, then stilled.

My breath came in hungry gulps. “Everyone all right?”

“Few cuts,” Stalker said. “Nothing serious.”

Fade smeared some blood off his palms and onto his s.h.i.+rt. “I’m fine.”

I turned to Tegan just as she crumpled. Fade caught her as she hit the ground. She dangled in his arms, pale and wan. Her eyes looked big and scared.

“Where are you hurt?” he demanded.

“Her leg,” I said softly. The fabric of her pants had torn, revealing a long gash on her upper thigh.

With my dagger, I cut the bottom of her pants into strips and Fade tied off the wound. It helped with the bleeding, but she didn’t look good. That won’t heal on its own, I thought. The claws had rent her flesh deep.

The pain of having the slash tended put her out, or maybe it was the sight of her own blood. I’d seen people react that way before. Whatever the reason, she went limp in Fade’s arms.

“Let’s get out of here,” Stalker said.

I paused and glanced at Fade. “Can you carry her?”

A sense of having been here before came over me. I remembered asking him that about the blind brat—and look at how that turned out. His face went tight. “I can. We need to find a place to rest and see if we can do something for her.”

No arguments there. Since I had the best night vision, I set the pace and scouted ahead for more Freak patrols. The farther we got from their ruins, the more I hoped their numbers would be spa.r.s.e. I couldn’t count on us finding a safe spot to rest soon, though. I had to a.s.sume they were all around us. My one comfort—that I’d smell them before I saw them, even with my good sight.

We walked through the night with Fade and Stalker taking turns carrying Tegan. She woke up eventually and asked us to let her walk. I just shook my head and kept moving. I hadn’t been this exhausted in a long time. Living aboveground had made me soft in some ways. As if from a distant dream, I remembered our run to Na.s.sau and how only willpower kept me going. I called on it now to keep moving—and I wasn’t even helping with Tegan.

I felt like I had to offer. “If you want me to take a turn with her—”

“We need your eyes,” Fade said. “At least until it gets light.”

“Do you think we’re far enough to stop?” I sniffed the air experimentally and it smelled clean, only the crisp scent I a.s.sociated with trees and plants, mingled with a hint of musk from some animal that had marked the bark, and a trace of rotting leaves. I also got the tang of blood from Tegan’s wound, so anything hungry in the area would scent her too. Bad situation. The Huntress in me suggested we should leave her behind, too much dead weight. I silenced that voice with an angry clench of my teeth. It wasn’t a choice I could make; maybe I did have part of a Breeder’s heart, and that possibility didn’t shame me anymore.

Stalker answered, “Best to keep going until daybreak, at least.”

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