Guardian of the Abyss (19 page)
Read Guardian of the Abyss Online
Authors: Shannon Phoenix
Shannon lives in New Hampshire with her husband, her daughter, and their family cat. Her full time job is parenting, her part time job is as a mother's helper to a family friend, and her passion is letting the characters in her mind out on paper--or keyboard, as the case may be.
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By Shannon Phoenix
Hamish caught a scent, strong and sharp and dangerous. Fire. Close, too. Far too close. He had grown so weary running from the Darkwalkers that he found himself nearby some sort of human encampment. Panic closed in on him for a moment, until he remembered that he really had little to fear. It was unlikely that anyone would be out at this time of night, the smoke was likely from a wood stove. And if they were out, they would find him far stronger than any mortal wolf, though it was better he not be seen in a place wolves were no longer known to run.
"Well, well, lookie what I found!" said a slightly distant masculine voice, tainted with crude sexual innuendo.
"I am armed. If you know what's good for you, you'll turn and walk away," came the reply from a decidedly feminine--and frightened--voice. The woman was hiding it well, though. No human would have noticed that tremor.
"So are we, chickadee. And you're outnumbered," the gloating voice replied. "We ain't gonna hurt ya. We jes' wanna have some fun."
Hamish looked over the ridge, slinking low on his belly. Below him was undeniably a Forestry Office Outpost squatting on its stilt-like legs, its wood stove the source of the smoke. In front of it, two men confronted the woman whose voice he'd heard. Hamish scented the breeze, which this time had cooperatively decided to be in his favor.
He didn't blame the men for their interest in her. Even the bulky clothes couldn't hide her curves and the dark auburn hair that fell down her back in a braid. It was a lovely, rich red-brown color that gleamed even in the darkness of the night.
His wolf purred like a cat, and Hamish mentally rolled his eyes. He was waiting for his soulmate to return, he didn't want anything to do with women. For the first time in four hundred years, his wolf didn't care and hungered for this unknown woman, which was foolish because this was the first time he'd ever seen her. He'd have remembered.
Hamish sniffed again. He smelled four men in total. Two hiding in the woods and two confronting the woman. All reeked of urine, body odor, and various sorts of tobacco. Hamish sighed internally. He could go away. Rapes happened all the time. It wasn't his business. He was hungry. He was on the verge of bloodlust. And of course, he wasn't supposed to be there--in any form.
Yet something in him balked decidedly at leaving her to her attackers. It went against everything he believed. It violated his personal honor system, and violated the werewolf code. Hamish crept slowly along the ridge until he was behind the first hidden attacker in the trees. It was a human big-game hunter, though-- not a Deathwalker. Deathwalkers were never this disorganized or slovenly, and their stink was that of carrion, not general filth from lack of hygiene. These were mere human poachers.
Hamish gathered himself and sprang, catching the man on the back of his leg. A mortal wolf could never have bitten through the heavy layers of trousers and snowsuit, but Hamish scored a good bite to the man's hamstring. Leaping, he was away before the man's scream had even died in his throat.
The scream was followed by two consecutive gunshots. The concussive noise knocked snow from the trees and made the hunter Hamish had just attacked start shouting, "Gus? Trivet? Ah damn, I been bit!"
"What kind of name is 'Trivet'?" Hamish asked, having shifted to his human form, despite the snow.
Petrified to find himself facing a massive, naked man who seemed to appear out of nowhere, the hunter lost control of himself. "Who... what..." and in his terror, the scent of urine became fresh and grew stronger as Hamish snapped at his face, shifting in mid-leap. His human form had actually been better for sneaking back up on the man, because his wolf had to hop while his human form could walk in the snow.
When the man was dead, Hamish hopped in wolf form close enough to see the odd structure that housed the Forestry Office, where he saw the woman with the gun in her hand. She was hunkered back into the dubious protection of the open bottom of the structure, trying to scan the dark forest around her. 'Brave girl', Hamish congratulated her mentally.
It was clear that she had no idea what was going on. She was scared; her fear floated on the breeze as clearly as the hunter's cowardice had done a moment before... yet she had taken down the first two attackers before they could even get a shot off, utilizing the distraction from his attack.
He'd taken down the third man hiding in the woods, but had to find the fourth.
"I know you're out there. I need to know that you're leaving, that you understand the danger you've put yourself in here," she called out. As bluffs went, it was a good one. She was smart, too, because getting him to talk would give her a sense of his location. Brilliant, really.
The fourth shouted something crude and obviously uncooperative. He followed that up with, "You just signed your death warrant," and called the woman several choice names.
She moved further back under the towering structure that combined both housing and an office at the top of it, but it was scant protection there on the lowest levels. It was essentially a tower built on stilts so that snow could pile up under it and not prevent its inhabitants from reaching the top. It also had an observatory, so it was tall and had very little in the way of structure for the bottom.
Hamish stalked around the clearing, finally locating his quarry. He was tired, so very tired. And he couldn't remember having been as hungry as he was for a long time. He hadn't eaten for what would be two days now, and his metabolism required multiple meals per day.
He hoped he had the strength left to lend her what help he could.
A shot rang out, a barking roar that streaked bright yellow from a tree not far from his position. Bingo! He had a lock on the fourth hunter. But when he heard the woman's breathing turn to rasping groans, he feared he might be too late.
He shifted then, back to human. It wasn't as stealthy from a distance, but these 'hunters' didn't seem to notice anything around them. It was easier for him to move around, and quieter in deep snow like this. It was long moments before he was behind the man. Coming up right under him, he reached up into the tree and jerked him down hard.
This one had better reflexes than the first one. He swung the gun, getting a shot off before Hamish could jerk it from his hand. Hamish's half-shifted jaws ended the man's life, but the cost had been high. Blood trickled down his shoulder, and Hamish felt the invading weakness as he finished shifting. Throwing his head back, he howled his victory for all the world to hear... thin and meaningless as it ultimately was.
Then the world was darkness and he knew no more.
