Red (23 page)

Her mouth split in a jaw-cracking yawn.
“What time’s’it?”

I checked the digital readout on my watch.
“Seven.”

She jolted. “AM or PM?”

“
PM, I think.”

“
Holy crap, we slept for
fifteen
hours?
”

“
I’m guessing we needed it.
You in particular. Why? Did your escape plan include a schedule?
Are you supposed to be somewhere right now?”

“
No. I just . . . I never
sleep that much. That’s the best sleep I’ve had in months. I
actually felt . . . safe.”

She gave me a sweet smile before leaning
over for a quick kiss. I tried to grab her as she rolled away,
because one kiss, one taste wasn’t enough, but she only laughed and
said, “Hungry!”

I didn’t think I would ever have enough of
Elodie. I snagged her around the waist and pulled her into my lap,
pressing my lips to her throat. “It can wait.” God she tasted
good.

My stomach growled again and called me a
liar.

“
You were saying?” I didn’t
imagine the breathless tone of her voice.

I smiled and let her go. With an exaggerated
put-upon sigh, I said, “Fine. Feed me, woman.”

She made a beeline for the stuff I’d brought
and began picking through the cans and packages.

“
Beef ravioli? Mac and
cheese? Corn beef hash?
Beanie weenies?
Have you
ever
been camping before?” she asked.

“
First, don’t knock the
corn beef hash; it’s good. Second, I told you I was in a hurry and
grabbed what was available in our kitchen. I wasn’t taking time for
a supply run when I left.”

“
An all male kitchen is a
truly frightening place,” she said. “Do y’all eat
anything
that qualifies as real food?”

“
We are men. We eat meat. I
didn’t think you had a fridge installed in the back of your getaway
cave. Plus when we’re out like this, we usually hunt for
game.”

Elodie went a little pale at that.

“
You’re not one of those
don’t kill Bambi
girls, are you?” I asked.

“
No. I’m perfectly at home
with my carnivorous nature. I just prefer not to meet my dinner
face to face. It’s gonna be a long time before I can look at any
kind of fresh kill and not see what was done to Rich.”

I wrapped my arms around her from behind,
absorbing the shudder that ran the length of her body. “The concept
will feel less weird after you shift. The hunt is part of our
instincts.”

“
All the same, I think I’m
going to stick with fish for fresh food while we’re out here. The
river isn’t too far. It’s got good trout fishing.”

“
Fishing, huh?”

“
Unlike normal girls, I’m
not squeamish about cleaning and gutting them. I do know how to use
this for other things.” She plucked the knife out of the bag of
rice, where I’d flung it last night and slipped it back in the
sheath.

My fingers itched to take it away again. I
didn’t think she was really in danger of using it anymore, but just
having it near her made me twitchy.

“
How did you do that
anyway? That’s the second time I’ve seen you get rid of it with
freakish accuracy. Did you do knife throwing as a hobby back in
Montana?”

“
Not so much specific
training as heightened reflexes,” I shrugged. “I can teach you.
You’re probably already showing signs, you just haven’t noticed
yet.”

“
Cool. Maybe we can do a
session after dinner. Grab the camp stove and cook
pots.”

We set up our makeshift kitchen at the mouth
of the cave. Within five minutes, Elodie had coffee percolating on
one of the two burners and a pot of . . . something that smelled
really awesome on the other.

“
Are those spices?” I
asked. “You actually packed seasonings in all your emergency
survival gear?”

She gave me a bland stare. “What? Just
because I’m on the run, I’m supposed to eat flavorless crap?”

“
You probably even know
which mushrooms are safe to eat, don’t you?”

“
No. Dad wasn’t into
mushrooms, so that wasn’t on his list of Must Teach. Speaking of
dads, yours should be back from Knoxville. What exactly did you
tell him? Please say you at least left a note before you came after
me.”

“
Of course I left a
note.”

“
Which said . . . ?” she
prompted.

“
That I needed space, and
I’d be back in a few days.”

One dark brow winged up.

“
What?”

“
And you habitually just
disappear like that for days at a time without him calling out a
search party?”

I shrugged. “Not usually for days. But we’re
at a point where we’re having dominance issues being under the same
roof. He’ll get it.”

“
Uh-huh.”

I really hated the skeptical way she said
that.

“
And where did you leave
your Jeep?”

I thought about it. “It’s still at the
lab.”

“
You think your dad isn’t
gonna know something’s weird since you didn’t take your Jeep? And
didn’t apparently leave from home?”

“
Not if he assumes I left
on four feet.” I shrugged. “I don’t know. It’ll cover my ass for as
long as it’ll take us to get back.”

“
Get back?” She stopped
stirring whatever was in the pot.

“
Of course. You know the
truth. There’s no reason for you to stay out here and keep
running.”

“
No reason— Sawyer, did you
forget the fact that
someone is trying to kill
me
?”

“
Of course not. But it
seems to me that it would be a good idea to bring in somebody else
to help. There’s no reason for you to face this alone
anymore.”

I wasn’t what you’d call thrilled with
bringing in my dad. We still had a ton of unresolved issues between
us. But I wasn’t about to let my pride or ego or whatever the hell
get in the way of doing whatever I could to keep Elodie safe. If
that meant tucking my tail and seeking out his guidance, I’d choke
it down.

“
And who would we bring in?
The sheriff? Some other authorities? What would we tell them? That
there’s a lunatic out there who is the latest in a long line of
lunatics who are determined to exterminate my family line? Because
that’s what this is, Sawyer. This goes back eighteen generations.
We may have had the details about what we are completely wrong, but
it doesn’t change the fact that someone’s been trying to wipe us
out for the last three hundred years.”

“
How can you trust anything
you think you know about this?” It was so . . . ludicrous. And yet
I couldn’t deny that someone had absolutely tried to run her
down.

“
Because unlike the
specifics of turning into a werewolf, death records can be
verified. Most of my ancestors were slaughtered by now, at least
the ones who didn’t die in childbirth or by suicide. And I can only
assume that I’m still here because my dad ran and changed our names
and did every possible thing to keep us from being
found.”

“
Except that apparently it
didn’t work. Look, I understand you not wanting to go to the
authorities, but my dad could help. He has contacts—”

Elodie was already shaking her head. “No.
I’m not bringing anybody else in on this. I’m not
risking
anybody else. I don’t
want
to risk you, but I know precisely
where you’d suggest I shove it if I tried to send you home, so I’m
not wasting my breath.”

“
At least we’re on the same
page about something.” I paced out into the hollow. This was so
stupid
and reckless. How could she not see how reckless it
was? How could she not care?

I paced back. “What exactly is your plan
then?” I knew I was echoing her father, and I could tell by the
mutinous look on her face she didn’t appreciate it. But it was a
valid question.

“
I don’t know,” she said
quietly, adding some more liquid to the pot—was that chicken
stock?—and giving it another stir. “I admit I hadn’t thought
further than leading him away from Dad. From you. Rich was bait,
Sawyer. I know it in my gut. I have no idea
why
the hunter
would choose him. But that whole scene was a trap meant for me. By
extension it could have revealed you.”

The muscles across my shoulders tightened
with the memory of fighting the wolf for control and nearly
losing.

“
How do you know it was
meant for you? You’ve said yourself Rich wasn’t someone important
to you.”

“
Maybe that didn’t matter.
Maybe he was convenient. Or maybe the hunter saw Rich hitting on me
and mistook that for us being involved. I don’t know. But you said
it yourself. It was on the freaking anniversary of Mom’s
disappearance. That’s a pretty fucking big coincidence.”

“
Then how would the
hunter—” I felt ridiculous calling him that, but I didn’t have a
better term, “—know that you’d be the one to stumble upon
it?”

“
Presumably because he
knows I’m into search and rescue.”

“
And how would he know
that
? Unless—”

“
Unless he’s been tracking
me for a long time.”

The thought of someone researching her,
learning her interests, her habits, all the things you should know
about your prey, made my blood boil.

“
Dad picked a small town
because strangers would stand out. We’d hear about anybody who was
around for longer than a few days. Anybody who didn’t act like a
tourist to the park. I think whoever this is has been around longer
than that.”

“
You think it’s someone you
know?”

Elodie shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe.” She
swapped out the coffee pot for a skillet. “All I know is that by
leaving I draw him out.”

“
Not if he doesn’t know you
left. Or thinks you left town.”

“
I’d planned to lay a
trail. Deliberately draw him in once I have it sorted out how I
wanted to handle things. That way I become the bait, and maybe I
get a chance to stop him.”

“
Stop him how?” I knew the
answer, but I needed to hear her say it.

She raised her eyes to mine, her face grim.
“There’s only one end to this. Either I die and my line ends with
me or he does.”

“
And you’re prepared to
kill someone other than yourself?” I knew the answer to that too,
and I felt like an asshole for pushing her. But maybe it would
cause her to see some sense, to agree to go back.

Her movements were lupine when she rose from
her crouch and paced the same circuit I had minutes before. I
wasn’t surprised to see her eyes flash gold when she turned back to
me. “No. Of course I’m not. How can I be?” she demanded. “How can I
possibly take another life and not become the very thing I fear
most? How does that make me anything other than the monster he
hunts?”

I could explain to her how it worked. How,
as a wolf, you still mostly retain your human reason, human
faculties. How, with training, she’d be able to control it. But she
wouldn’t believe me. Not yet. Not until she shifted and felt it
herself. I caught her as she stalked within arm’s length, tugging
her close and wrapping my arms around her because I needed the
contact and she needed the comfort. “You aren’t a monster. And
defending yourself doesn’t make you one.”

Her wolf faded as she looked up at me,
replaced by a look of miserable skepticism. She may have believed
everything I told her last night, but after how she’d been raised,
she had a long way to go before she actually accepted the truth of
it. If I had anything to do with it, she’d never be put in a
position of having to make that life or death choice that I wasn’t
entirely sure she could live with.

“
What if there were another
way?” I said, my brain taking the seed of an idea and turning it
over, enlarging it.

“
What other
way?”

“
Well, you think that the
person who’s after you is the same person who kidnapped Rich and
his sister, right?”

“
Yes.”

“
Kidnapping is a major
crime. If we could find evidence to link him to that, figure out
who he is, we could let the actual cops take over. He’d be
prosecuted, convicted, and put away. Then he couldn’t touch
you.”

It was skepticism rather than hope I saw
kindled in her eyes.

“
And what kind of proof
could we find that they couldn’t?”

“
The cabin. Rich said they
were held at a cabin. The cops never found it.”

I could see the wheels of her brain starting
to turn.

“
If we could find it,
there’s bound to be at least trace scent left that would help us
identify who it is.” She curled her hands in my shirt, and began
speaking faster. “And maybe there could even be some kind of actual
physical evidence. It would give the cops more leads, a means to
focus their investigation. We might even be able to give them a
name.” She threw her arms around me. “Sawyer, you’re a genius!” She
gave me a hard and fast kiss then raced back into the cave,
probably after maps.

I wasn’t so sure about genius, but it gave
her hope, and that was a valuable commodity just now. And at least
it gave us something to do other than just running. Something
resembling a plan. I knew she’d feel better with one. I wished I
did.