Reid binds the unconscious hunter with more rope from the soldier’s blind while Marcus checks for approaching forces. The other two hunters are dead, Kieran flushed and grinning fiercely from his kill while Milo and Alex, surrounded by more kids they rounded up, pant their way back onto the trail to claim the second. Safe for the moment, Reid sends them on ahead while he finishes gagging the creature, careful of its very sharp teeth. When Reid bends to lift it, Marcus immediately takes the feet, grunting from the weight. Reid hefts the creature by the shoulders, amazed at how easy it is.
As they make their way to the next established rendezvous point, with Marcus cursing and sweating from the effort, Reid realizes he could shoulder the hunter and carry it himself without a problem.
He again thinks about the powder, the effect it has had on him, and stares at the back of Marcus’s head. It would be nice to tell someone, share what he has learned, but the guy struggling ahead of him is the last person he is willing to go to. Reid simply doesn’t trust Marcus not to use this information to his own advantage.
But Reid has to tell someone. He can’t keep this to himself anymore. It frightens him to think he is all alone in the knowledge and experience of it. He runs through his friends in his mind. Cole? No way. The kid is pretty smart but too excitable and impulsive for his own good. Same for Milo. Telling those two would be like setting loose a pair of giddy kids looking for a fix. Leila? Reid shudders from that. They already have issues, aside from how he feels about her. He doesn’t want to add to those.
His mind settles on Kieran. The new guy seems stable enough, a good head on his shoulders. Trustworthy. He certainly has a powerful sense of protection for the girls who travel with him.
Speak of the devil, Reid feels him nearby, in time to turn his head and see Kieran pop up out of the underbrush. Marcus shouts in hoarse surprise and almost drops the hunter’s legs.
“Sorry,” Kieran looks both ways before crossing the path. It makes Reid grin.
“No cars around here,” he says with a surge of good humor.
Kieran grins and blushes. “Old habits. Need some help?”
Marcus willingly dumps the hunter on Kieran who staggers a little under the weight, his slim frame swaying, but doesn’t complain.
“Let’s go.” Reid follows Marcus’s order only because he agrees with it.
The tall guy’s willingness has made up Reid’s mind in the mean time. First chance he gets, he plans to share what he’s learned with Kieran.
They turn off the path and into the forest, dragging the inert form of the hunter with them. It’s a little harder going, but Reid is able to lift the creature’s torso enough to get past the worst of it, taking on as much of the thing’s weight as he can.
Still, by the time they reconnect with the pack, Kieran is staggering and panting heavily. As soon as he is able, he stops and looks back over his shoulder at Reid.
“Letting go.” Nice to have the warning. The tall guy releases the hunter and steps aside, rolling his shoulders to ease the tension in them and drawing deep breaths.
Reid lowers his end more gently, watching the pack’s reaction. At first they retreat, some squealing softly, others silent, plainly terrified. But when they realize the thing is tied up and can’t hurt them, they come closer, as they had in the mine, sliding forward inch by inch, their fear and curiosity at war. But not one of them fails to come in for a closer look. Dangerous or not, Reid knows their need to face their enemy. Reid understands their fascination, feels it himself, a sick need to look despite everything. Like watching a train wreck or a bloody car accident despite knowing you should really look away from the death and destruction and stray body parts.
Reid sees the hunter’s eyes flicker open. They immediately meet his. He can’t tear his gaze away from it, locked in silent intensity. The hole inside him gapes wider, calling to him, beckoning him home. Reid is falling into that hole, unable to hold himself back.
The hunter twitches, looks away. Reid feels the connection between them snap, finds himself crouching next to it, hands reaching out. He knows, without finishing the act, he was in the process of taking out the hunter’s twisted rope gag. Reid jerks himself back, not knowing what kind of hold the thing has over him but swearing to himself that’s the last time it will get the chance to make him do anything.
Reid glances up to see what distracted the hunter and sees Alex at its feet. He is holding a twisted branch. While Reid watches, the boy jabs the hunter with the stick.
Reid laughs. Alex looks startled, then grins and pokes it again.
They all have a good look, including Reid, though this time he avoids its eyes. It looks human, skin ghostly pale, rows of teeth flashing around the gag. The claws are extensions of its fingers, the last three on the hand, leaving the thumb and index normal, almost ordinary. There is a feline quality to the thing, but a reptilian feel as well. Reid wonders how whoever created them ever managed it.
“Some kind of hybrid construct.” Nishka speaks what Reid is thinking. She glances up, meets his eyes. “I’m taking advanced genetics in University next year.” Shrugs. “If I have a next year.” Looks back at the hunter. “This shouldn’t be possible. It’s like science fiction.”
Reid can’t help but smile, hearing Drew’s teacher voice in his head. “Obviously not.”
She nods. “Obviously.”
“Okay, great, fine.” Milo is scowling, arms crossed over his chest. “Who gives a crap what they are? Or why, even? I don’t.” He looks around, meeting other pairs of eyes, as though seeking support. “I just want to kill them and get the hell out of here.”
Murmurs at that. They do agree with him. So does Reid. Mostly.
“The more we learn about them the better,” Reid says, stilling their muttering. “Finding out what makes them tick might give us an advantage.”
Marcus shakes his head, holding up the GPS and his rifle. “I have all the advantage I need right here.”
The others are grinning and nodding. They look like a pack of rebel fighters, the last of their kind, just them against the odds. Reid can’t help himself. He smiles with them.
“Still,” he says. “I’m going to ask it some questions.”
They don’t protest. In fact, they look eager and crowd even closer, like they are waiting for a show to start. Reid leans in, hands on the gag on purpose this time, staring at the end of the creature’s nose instead of in its eyes.
“If you make a sound to call the others,” Reid says pleasantly, like he’s inviting the hunter to lunch, “I’ll cut your throat.”
It doesn’t move or make a sound, just lies there and waits.
Understanding made, Reid unties the makeshift gag and slides it free.
The hunter’s tongue snakes out, wets its lips. It remains silent. In his peripheral vision, Reid can see its eyes rolling around, looking at the kids hovering near.
“I know you can talk,” Reid says. At least, he’s pretty sure, ever since the night of the fire at the station, when the hunters celebrated together. And the gate, when the injured one spoke to the woman in the lab coat. He couldn’t make out what they were saying but was sure they spoke to each other. “What are you?”
The lips pull wider, teeth shining. “You smell delicious,” it says. And laughs, low and soft, the chilling sound Reid has grown to hate. Its voice is deep, guttural and almost echoey as if coming from a vast pit. But its English is flawless, without accent.
Reid slaps it lightly across the face. The laugh turns to a snarl of rage.
“Don’t like that, huh?” Reid smiles at it, still avoiding the eyes. “Too bad. Answer the question.”
“The blonde girl is especially succulent.” It speaks in a whisper, for Reid’s ears. “She is so pale, like moonlight. I shall savor her to the last bite.”
Reid’s anger rushes around, screams at him to act, to kill this thing, but he holds it off by sheer will, knowing it is only taunting him.
“What is all of this about?” Reid waves around at the woods, knowing the hunter will understand the gesture. “What’s the point?”
“I will save the youngest ones for last,” the creature says. “Let them watch their protectors die until their hope is gone then drive them forth to run and run until they fall. And then I will take them at my leisure and the joy of my brothers and sisters and we will feast well.” It licks its lips again, grotesque and disgusting.
Reid flinches, not from that act though it sickens him, but from the realization that some of the hunters are female. Though it makes perfect sense to him when he hears it, that not all of them are male, the idea that they are a whole race is somehow more horrible than ever.
Marcus is on top of the hunter before Reid realizes the guy has moved, fist driving into the thing’s face.
“Shut up, shut up, shut up!” Kieran and Milo dive for Marcus, pulling him off while he continues to shout, “Shut up!”
Reid shoves the gag back into the hunter’s mouth, refusing to look at the red smears left behind on its white teeth, knowing he won’t get any answers from it. When he straightens, Leila is wrapping Marcus’s fist, blood dripping from his cut knuckles, sliced by the thing’s sharp fangs.
“We have to kill it.” He scowls at Reid, fury still simmering just below the surface.
“Agreed.” Leila looks up, finished, her hands trembling. “I don’t want that thing anywhere near us.”
They all weigh in, most in agreement. “Let me do it,” Milo offers, all bravado and young courage. “I’ll hold it for you,” Cole says. “Make it run, then kill it.” “Break its legs first.” “Yeah, break its legs and gut it then make it run.” Reid listens to them grow more and more bloodthirsty, the suggestions getting wilder and more violent as they work themselves into a murdering frenzy.
“Enough,” he says at last. “It lives. For now.”
“Better keep an eye on it,” Sarah mutters. Milo and Cole fist bump her, death in their expressions.
Reid sighs. “Everyone get some rest.” He glances at Marcus. “If we’re safe here?”
Marcus glances at the GPS. “Seem to be,” he says. “But not from those other things.”
Reid almost forgot about the hulking creatures the hunters brought with them this time. Oddly, when he thinks about it, they remind him of dogs.
“We can’t worry about that now,” Reid says knowing he can warn them in time but not able to come up with a reasonable explanation to tell the others. “We’ve survived this long without knowing where the hunters were. We will again. Now, everyone get some sleep. I’ll take the first watch.”
They grumble their way into their nesting places, the first light of morning washing over them as they group off for comfort and safety. It’s been a long and eventful night and it isn’t long before most of them are asleep, deadly intentions forgotten.
Reid feels like he’ll never sleep again. His body is so wired it’s like he’s taken some kind of drug that won’t let him rest. The rising sun doesn’t help matters any. He paces the perimeter of the site, trying to order his thoughts. When he circles around for the fourth time, he notices the creature watching him. Reid jerks his eyes from its gaze, knowing better by now. When he does, he sees its tied hands are beckoning him. He glances around, sure the rest are asleep, and decides it’s worth it to find out what the thing wants.
Reid slips the gag free. “What?”
The hunter smiles. “I know what you’ve done.”
Reid flinches inside but plays dumb, hoping for information. “What are you talking about?”
It laughs this time, a sickening sound that clenches Reid’s stomach into a knot of disgust, its pale skin almost transparent in the new light. “If you’re not careful,” it whispers, “you’ll be dining on them yourself, baby brother.”
His whole body stills in shock and the most absolute horror he has ever felt. Being chased is nothing compared to this realization. Dying even would be preferable. Reid lurches back from the hunter, soul shriveling even though he denies the truth out loud.
“No,” he says. “You’re lying.”
It simply shrugs and closes its eyes. “Keep it up,” the hunter says, “and you’ll see.”
Reid jams the gag back into its mouth, tying it with vicious tightness before stumbling away. He hugs himself in what remains of the dark, hunched on his haunches, rocking back and forth. He can’t be turning into one of them. There has to be another explanation. And yet, he knows the truth, feels it inside him, is pretty sure he understood all along but didn’t want to admit it.
Reid weeps, wishing he was dead while the blackness inside him laughs in the hunter's voice and continues to suck him in.
***