The Wilds: The Wilds Book One (20 page)

“Dal,” Dax said, waiting outside the door.

I threw my shoes on as quickly as possible, wanting to be prepared if I had to make a run for it. With no knife to defend myself, this could get ugly. Dax wasn’t freaking out or screaming, but that meant nothing.

He moved quickly down the stairs and out the door, only pausing briefly to make sure I was behind him before entering the woods. The guy at the gate didn’t say a word as we passed.

I let the gap between us grow gradually as we walked, building up a healthy space. He was bigger. I’d have to be faster.

He stopped and so did I, keeping the invisible boundary in place.

“What happened?” His arms were crossed, feet spread, expressionless.

There’s two types of people in this world. Ones who know what they know, and are sure of it, whether it’s true or not, and others willing to step beyond what their experiences are and see things for what might really be. Dax had known Bark as a normal guy he’d traded with. It was time to see what kind of person Dax was. “Bark was a Dark Walker.”

“Bark was?”

“Yes,” I responded, waiting for a crack in the cement to give me an idea whether I should be running for it or not. I waited, not knowing what would come. Would he try and kill me now? I scanned the landscape, wondering what would be the best escape route.

He let a disappointed sigh and all of a sudden a human being with emotions peeked through again. “I wanted one alive. Did you have to kill him so quickly?”

He believed me. I hadn’t even tried to convince him. He’d just believed me. All the energy that had been building up inside me released in one sudden swish. Even with Margo and the girls, I’d had to win their trust over years. I’d never had someone just believe me before. He’d known Bark, done business with him. I’d lied to him and he still was willing to take me at my word.

“I have no control of where I hit. I just let it go,” I said, my voice soft as my brain was still absorbing the shock of being believed. His body was relaxed. He really wasn’t going to kill me?

“Next time, try and do better,” he said, not even a little mad. I might have been wrong, but it almost sounded like he was partially joking about it.

“I’ll do what I can?”

He shrugged and started back toward the house.

I had still identified a Dark Walker for him, though. He might have been dead, but Dax had never said anything about alive. “He still counts, right?”

“No. You killed him. Only live ones count.”

“But you never said that. You can’t negotiate after the fact.”

“Fine, I’ll consider it a partial credit if it makes you feel better.”

“Good. It does. And what took you so long? He might have been alive if you hadn’t dallied.”

His eyebrows shot up. “Let me guess, it’s my fault you killed him?”

“Yes, exactly,” I said as I realized Dax was actually kidding around with me. And I was joking right back, like two normal people, maybe even…friends?

Chapter 28

I got up in the morning and it was as if nothing had happened. The breakfast buffet had a line extending out to the living room. No one gave me a second glance as I joined the hungry. If the area rug hadn’t been gone from my room, I might’ve thought it was a nightmare.

I heaped some favorites onto my plate, kind of digging the fact that I had favorites now, and made my way to the back porch.

Bookie squeezed into the seat next to me ten minutes later. “Dax told me to tell you to be ready in ten,” he said, and then reached in his back pocket and handed me my knife.

“Thanks.” I tucked it into my boot and waited to see if he was going to follow this up with anything having to do with me murdering the guy he was laughing with last night.

When he started scoping out the ears in the vicinity, I knew something was coming. I’d realized once I had a choice in the matter that I detested waiting, so I preempted the conversation I feared was coming.

“Are you pissed off I killed your friend?” I asked, not expecting a good answer. I mean, seriously, I had
killed
his
friend
.

His gaze swung back to me, startled. “I hated that dick.”

The loud guffaws of last night rang in my head. “But you were laughing with him at dinner?”

“He’s a dick, but a funny one.” Bookie dug into a pile of eggs as a couple people walked by. As soon as they were down the stairs and partly across the lawn, he started talking again. “So what exactly was Bark?”

“Why do you ask?”

“He wasn’t human. That shit was clear.”

“Spill.”

“Don’t tell anyone I’m repeating this.”

I rolled my eyes. “Duh.”

“So I had him laid out on the table and was about to cut him open, per Dax’s orders. He said he wanted my eyes only on the guy. By time I started, he was already turning to a pile of sludge. The skin was still there but everything inside was one big mixed-up mess. Couldn’t find a bone or organ to save my life. Now you spill. You killed him. I know you know what he was.”

“I don’t know what they are. I only know what we call them, Dark Walkers.”

“So they’re real.” He leaned back, plate resting on his lap and food forgotten. “That’s some freaky shit.”

“I know.”

I heard the bike roar to life somewhere on the other side of the house and realized how much time had passed.

“Give it here,” he said, motioning toward my plate.

“Thanks! I’ll talk to you later,” I said, and made my way to the front of the house, already in my work clothes and with the knife tucked in my boot. I’d gotten dressed that morning thinking anything could happen.

***

Dax and I were in the newest trader’s hole and I was realizing why they were all called holes. This one was dumpier than the others, but it wasn’t long before I spotted a Dark Walker. I’d seen one at every single place so far, so it wasn’t a big shock, but how I wished it wasn’t here. This had nothing to do with having to ID one either. It was the cold reality of how many were out here. There truly was no getting away from them. I’d thought that after I broke my friends out, I’d just have to get us to the Wilds. Now I wondered if I’d have to make it all the way to the Country of California, and that might not even be far enough. Maybe there was nowhere far enough.

Dax started walking toward a table not far from the Dark Walker until I tugged at his sleeve and pulled him to a different one close by. I might be willing to tell him but I wasn’t looking to be overheard by the Dark Walker while I was dropping the dime on him.

I slumped into the seat and he sat down across from me, his eyes already intent. He was probably tipped off, because I’d never cared where we sat before. “The dingy guy in the shadows, wearing plaid.” Damn, this was a realm I hadn’t wanted to go, but I was still here. I leaned across the table, making sure he heard me. “And just for the record, I want nothing else to do with whatever it is that comes next. No part of it.”

He scoffed. “Who invited you?”

I leaned back in my chair, seeing the amusement there. I watched Dax around people. When he got all cold, that was when they scattered, not knowing what to do or how to handle him. But this was the Dax that scared me. I liked this Dax. If I had slept with cold Dax and this one had shown up, things could’ve gotten really sticky in the emotions realm.

The amusement faded. “Don’t leave this spot and don’t talk to anyone.”

“Sure,” I said, surprised when he left abruptly after that. Was he really so used to people following his orders that he hadn’t heard the sarcasm dripping off that one word?

I watched him walk across the room, pull out a chair and sit across the table from the Dark Walker. The Dark Walker looked as surprised as I did. I couldn’t imagine what he was saying. What could you say in these situations?
Hey, I know you’re a monster but let’s be best buds
?

Shit. I was so clueless about what Dax wanted, even after living in his house, that I couldn’t even come up with a hypothetical conversation to mock him appropriately.

The two of them got up a minute later and walked out of the building together, but not before the Dark Walker shot a look at my hand, wrapped in rags. I caught a final glimpse of his face as the door was swinging shut. The expression I saw on it said I’d pay for this.

I’d had to do this, but that didn’t mean I felt good about it. This could rain down a lot of heat on me, and if I didn’t have other people I was worried about, I’d take it no problem. I kept my butt in the chair for ten minutes, and that felt like a huge accomplishment, but fifteen wasn’t going to happen. That thing couldn’t leave here with knowledge of me and who I was with. Invitation or not, I was joining the party.

Decision made, I couldn’t get out of there quick enough. I pushed open the door and scanned the woods that surrounded the building, looking for Dax. He came strolling out of the woods a minute later, his eyes rolling as he saw me waiting. He walked toward the bike and I met him there.

“You don’t listen well,” he said as he got on the bike.

“My hearing isn’t the problem. Where is it?” I asked, not willing to go anywhere until that loose end was cut. I’d delivered one Dark Walker alive, but that didn’t mean I was letting him leave that way.

“He’s gone,” he said right before he stomped on the bike to wake it up. “Get on.”

“Where?” I asked. I raked my hands through my hair, making it messier than it already was as I scoured the forest with my eyes.

He leaned back on the bike to get a better view of me. “Gone as in
dead
.”

“You killed it? I thought you wanted them alive?” Wasn’t that the whole problem with Bark? That I’d killed him? Unless he’d gotten whatever he wanted, but if he had, it had been small, because it didn’t look like he had anything new.

He hooked a finger behind him. “Get on.”

I did as he asked, quite amicable now. “So what did you talk about before you killed it?”

“It was one of those things you had to be there for,” he said, and then the bike was too loud to keep a conversation going. I didn’t even care if he dodged my questions. The thing was dead, no Dark Walker to finger me. My plans were still in place with no one being the wiser.

Chapter 29

I’d lain in bed forever but my mind was still spinning with plans. One Dark Walker delivered, two Dark Walkers dead and I was still on track for bombing the hellhole to pieces. I hadn’t gotten the bombs back yet, but Dax wouldn’t renege on his end.

“Dax!” It was Bookie hollering in the hallway that had me sitting upright in my bed. I ran and opened the door just as he was getting to the second floor. Dax was already standing outside in the hallway.

“Lookout said they saw a beast close to the perimeter and it was hurt,” Bookie said.

Dax nodded but I could see the immediate change in him, the urgency with which he moved.

“Stay here,” he said to all of us, standing outside our doors in the hall. He took off down the stairs without putting on shoes. No one followed.

I looked about, and still no one moved. Why were they all standing there listening to him? I wasn’t staying behind. “You’re letting him go alone?” I asked, looking specifically at Tank and Lucy.

“He told us to,” Tank said.

I shook my head but didn’t verbalize the word
losers
. I ducked back into my room but not to stay. I grabbed my knife and shoes, not quite so tough that I was willing to tear my feet up.

“Where you going?” Lucy asked as I ran back into the hallway and then past her.

“After him,” I said as my feet hit the stairs.

“He said we should wait.”

“And?” I asked like that was the stupidest reason I’d ever heard as I left her looking down from the top landing. Not one of my friends could have stopped me from going after them if I thought they might need me. I wasn’t sure exactly what Dax and I were, but as I ran after him, I realized whatever blurry category he might have fallen into, it merited some sort of loyalty within me.

By time I got downstairs and out the front door he was ducking into the woods already. I ran after him. He was much quicker but I wasn’t too far behind.

Sister-lover didn’t hesitate when he saw me coming and had the gate open by the time I reached him. We’d come to an understanding, him and I. He didn’t look at me like I was a freak anymore. He just didn’t look at me. In return, I didn’t taunt him or have to tell anyone what a freak he was. I thought we’d settled into a healthy place.

I could run a lot quicker than when I’d first gotten out—Fudge’s cooking got partial credit there—but if he hadn’t slowed down on his own, I would’ve lost him. As it was, I still lost sight of him for a few minutes. When I finally caught up, he was squatting beside a beast.

Even with it lying down, I could tell it was probably about seven feet tall and massive, covered in dark gray fur with a protruding jaw that had huge canines visible. I could see the moon reflect off places where the fur was wet, and there wasn’t a rise in the chest area to indicate any breathing was going on. He must have just killed him.

I walked closer and Dax looked up as if surprised to see me, which was unusual for him, since he always seemed so alert to his surroundings.

He looked back down at the creature whose eyes were closed. “Go to the house and tell them it was a false alarm. There was no beast in the forest. Then when they go back to their rooms, get me a shovel out of the shed.”

I didn’t ask why as I turned to do as he asked.

When I brought the shovel back to him thirty minutes later, he was leaning against a tree, staring at the dead beast on the ground.

He took it without speaking to me and walked back to the beast. He knelt beside it and hoisted the massive creature over his shoulder. Holding the beast steady with one hand and the shovel in the other, he walked deeper into the forest.

I watched his back, not knowing whether to follow him or not. He was acting stranger than ever—or to be more accurate, colder. It was only a mere second or two before I headed after him.

I wasn’t sure how many miles we walked for before we came to a clearing next to a small waterfall that bubbled along into a pond. In my mind I remarked on the beauty of the place, but I said nothing aloud.

He didn’t seem to be paying much attention to me anyway as he laid the beast on the ground and began digging.

I sat down on a fallen tree, not far away.

He dug slowly and methodically and I wondered why he was burying the beast, but I knew instinctively he didn’t want to speak. His wall was up thick and tall, and I wasn’t sure if he wanted me there or not. He didn’t acknowledge my presence in any way. He made fairly quick work of the hole and threw down the shovel beside it.

I took a tentative step forward to help lift the beast but he waved me off before I took a second. I went back to my seat wondering what was going on with him.

He lifted the beast and then jumped down into the hole with it. He didn’t get out right away, and when he did, he seemed even heavier now without the burden. I sat and watched as he covered the creature with dirt, not understanding why this was so painful for him but knowing it was, wall or not.

He knelt beside the covered grave for a very long time until he finally stood.

“Come on,” he said.

I got up and started walking along after him, wondering why he’d let me stay but afraid to ask.

He walked into the house and then to his room without saying anything.