Unbound (40 page)

“How are you holding up?” Laney asked, her voice shaky.

“They gave me Morphine.” Leslie closed her eyes. “So I’m ok right now.”

I thought of the only Pricolici I had come up across. It was horrible and terrifying and vicious and evil. And I thought I was crazy the first time I saw it.

“A dog did all this?” Josh asked, disbelief in his voice.

“Mmh,” Leslie said, meaning yes. “It was huge.” She opened her eyes and a flash of panic twitched on her face. “Lucky to be alive, at least.” She closed her eyes again. “And lucky Amanda was there.”

“You weren’t alone?” Ethan asked.

“Nnn-mm.”

“Amanda, do you know her?” Ethan whispered to me. I nodded. “We need to talk to her.”

“I kinda know her,” I whispered back. “She’s in high school and is a year younger than me, she has a horse at the barn, but that’s all I know.”

“Good enough.” He let go of my hand and went out of the room, probably to call his dad or Julia to fill them in. I shook myself and walked over to the hospital bed.

“I’m so sorry, Leslie.” I put my hand on one of the few unbandaged areas on her right arm.

“Thanks.” She turned her head towards me and smiled faintly.

“I’ll take care of Henry for you,” I told her, knowing that her horse was a definite concern for her. I hated seeing her like this. Leslie was always happy and hyper. She rarely got sick and even rarer she was anything but chipper. Now she looked weak and defenseless and battered. And it was all my fault. Someone knocked softly on the door; it was Mom.

“Hi Leslie,” she said, entering the room. “Glad to see you’re awake.” She smiled in that motherly doctor way that conveyed how much she cared. I pulled her out into the hall.

“Mom, be honest and tell me how she is. And keep it simple, I can’t keep up with your doctor talk.”

“Well, she’ll be fine,” Mom assured me before going on. “Most of the wounds are superficial. Her arm is broken, as you can see. She was bitten probably twenty times, but not every bite broke the skin, and the worst one is on her left thigh. Thank God your friend Amanda was there, or Leslie would have bled to death.”

My breath got caught in my chest. Mom hugged me. “I promise, Anora, she will recover. But it’s gonna take some time for her to heal, of course.”

“What else?” I asked after I was able to speak again.

“She has several bruised ribs and is covered in scratches. I don’t want you going to the barn anytime soon Anora, if I didn’t know otherwise, I would have thought this was a bear attack. And that dog is still out there.”

“Mom! I told Leslie I would take care of Henry, and I have to see Mystery.”

“Anora, be practical for once.”

“Ethan has a gun,” I blurted out.

Mom didn’t look impressed. “And why does he have a gun?”

“Hunting,” I recovered quickly. “He and his dad hunt deer and uh, rabbits every fall.”

“Oh, ok.”

“So if he brings the gun, can I go to the barn please?”

“We’ll talk about it later, with your father.”

 
“Thanks, Mom. I’m gonna go visit with Leslie again.”

“Don’t stay too long; she really needs to rest.”

“Ok.”

“And is Ethan here?”

“Yea, he went outside to call his dad. Probably about hunting,” I added, in case my mom overheard part of his conversation.

“Alright, I’ll see you at home.” She kissed my forehead. “Love you Anora.”

“Love you too, Mom.” She turned to go but stopped. “How’s Harrison? Dad called and said he was sick.”

“Oh, yea. Food poisoning. He’s, uh, getting better.” I felt bad for not thinking of calling to check on him. A page for Doctor Benson made my mom hurry off. Leslie and Laney were making fun of Ramona and laughing when I rejoined them. I sat on the edge of the bed, careful not to bump into Leslie. She chatted like normal, complaining about her overbearing mom telling her she needs to find a husband and how glad she was to have a legit excuse to not go to her annoying cousin’s baby shower.

Ethan came back in and stood behind me, rubbing my shoulders as I talked to Laney and Leslie. When Leslie closed her eyes for the fourth time in a minute, I stood to leave.

“We should let you rest,” I said, expecting her to protest and ask us to stay. I was surprised when she just said ‘ok’ and didn’t object. She must really be in pain. “Let me know if you need anything,” I told her.

“Yea, we’ll do anything we can.” Laney smiled.

“Thanks guys,” Leslie said quietly. The four of us walked out of the room and Josh quietly closed the door. We walked silently to the parking garage.

“Well,” Josh said as we approached his car, “it looks like your friend is gonna be ok in the long run.”

“Yea, but none of this should have happened,” I muttered, stomping in a puddle.

“Of course not.” Josh looked at me like I just stated the most obvious thing ever.

“Are you still gonna go to the barn?” Ethan asked Laney.

“I don’t know; I’m kinda freaked out.” She looked at me. “Are you going?”

“Yea, I’m not going to let some stupid, evil dog stop me from doing the things I love,” I said bitterly, causing Josh to look at me funny again.

“Let’s meet there in an hour,” Ethan instructed. Laney nodded. We hugged goodbye and she and Josh got into the car and drove off. I scuffed my feet as I walked the few steps to our car. The tears I’d been holding back threatened to spill. Ethan noticed and wrapped his arms around me. But not even his love could ease my guilt.

***

Penny had called an emergency meeting at the barn. If I bothered to check my voicemail I would have known, but luckily Laney and I showed up ten minutes before it started. She said that the police were putting together a team to search the woods; everyone was scared and shocked by the brutality of the attack. Everyone seemed really shaken up. Laney and I set about brushing the horses while Ethan made rounds of the pastures and forest. I was nervous for him but he had his gun and Hunter and most of all, he knew what to do.

I looked at the door just seconds before Amanda came through it. Though I wasn’t sure what I was going to say to her, I rushed over anyway.

“Amanda,” I called. She spun around. Her eyes looked scared. “I’m glad you’re ok.”

“Me too.” Her face twitched nervously.

“Listen, I know you probably don’t want to talk about this, but I need to ask you about last night.” She shook her head so slightly I wasn’t sure if she was saying ‘no’ or if it was some sort of nervous tick. Since she didn’t object I continued. “Remember when I fell off Mystery a while ago? Well, I didn’t tell the whole truth. The thing that spooked him looked like a big, really creepy dog. But it wasn’t really a dog.” I paused gauging her reaction. Her eyes became wide. “Can you please tell me
exactly
what happened last night?”

“Come with me.” She walked into Ally’s stall and sat down. I squatted down to her level. “I was finishing up putting my brushes away and all, and Leslie was almost done too. She had just closed up the barn for the night. We decided to walk out together, since the parking lot is kinda creepy. I was waiting for her by the door when I heard her scream.” She closed her eyes, reliving the horror. “I ran to see what was wrong. That’s when I saw it. It looked like a wolf in some ways, but there was something...not right about it.” She looked into my eyes. “The thing growled at us. Leslie moved away from it, but it lurched and I swear it jumped at least ten feet. I was so scared, Anora, I didn’t even move. I don’t think I even breathed. Then it went over to Leslie and sniffed her. It looked like it was about to back off when it suddenly jumped on her, knocking her down.” Her hands started to shake. “Everything happened so fast. I ran to get a pitchfork or shovel or something, but the thing was gone by the time I came back.”

“I am so incredibly sorry Amanda.”

“Thanks.” She was back to being shy and looked down. She looked up and me and drew a ragged breath. Chills ran down my spine. I didn’t want Amanda here without me either. I stood and extended my hand to help her up.

“Ethan, my boyfriend, likes to hunt, so he’s gonna come up here with a shotgun until this is taken care of,” I said, realizing that I was making Ethan sound like quite the hill-billy. “So until then, want to meet here at five so you don’t have to be here alone?”

“Sounds great.” She nodded weakly. I walked with her to the tack room and then slipped out the back to look for Ethan, who was making his way toward the barn.

“I know why Leslie got attacked.” I ran over to him. Hunter wagged his tail and jumped up, happy to see me. I pet him while I spoke. “She had my jacket on. The Pricolici were looking for me. Amanda said they sniffed her. The smelled me because Leslie had on my jacket.” I sunk down to the ground, feeling overwhelming guilt again. “I told you it was my fault.” And then I started to cry. I couldn’t help it, I was so tired and that made me cry easily. Ethan pulled me off the wet gravel.

“Anora,” he said in a stern but caring way. “I know you feel bad, but feeling sorry for yourself isn’t gonna help.”

“You’re right.” I felt a bit ashamed and wiped my tears. “Did you find anything out there?”

“Nothing.”

I sighed. “I was hoping to see Hunter tear it to shreds, since I was busy being unconscious the last time he destroyed a Pricolici.” Hunter wagged his tail even harder now. I think he wanted to kill it just as much as I wanted him to. I hugged him, took Ethan’s hand and went back into the barn.

Not too many people were left; I think most were scared and wanted out of this place. Laney was ready to go too and she even put all my stuff away for me. She asked why I was crying again and I told her about the jacket. She hugged me and promised me everything was going to be ok. I smiled and thanked her, but her words felt like empty promises.

“Do you think it’s safe for other people to be here?” Laney asked me. I didn’t know the answer so I looked at Ethan.

“Honestly, I have no idea.” He scanned the remaining people milling about the barn. “I’d say yes. The Pricolici were sent after Anora, and they shouldn’t have attacked Leslie. Even if they got the smell confused from the jacket, it would have known right away that it wasn’t her when they tasted the blood. The Pricolici are supposed to be kept secret; they shouldn’t attack anyone but their bounty.”

“Since when do you know so much about Pricolici all of the sudden?” I asked him while buckling Mystery’s blanket.

“I talked to my dad’s friend, the one that knows about them, today.”

“Oh.” I turned my attention back towards him. “So why didn’t it stop once it realized that it wasn’t me?”

“Got carried away I guess.” He looked around to see if anyone could hear us. Deciding we were safe he said, “But it didn’t kill her. We all know how easily it could have.”

No one spoke, knowing how true that was. I glanced over at Amanda, who was still brushing Ally. I hoped she’d hurry up so she wouldn’t have to be here without us.

“Why didn’t it kill her?” Laney’s voice was hoarse.

Ethan shook his head. “I don’t know. The demon that’s sending them isn’t interested in anyone but Anora.”

“So it stopped it?”

“I guess. Killing one person attracts attention, and killing more than one person attracts even more attention. Demons don’t want to be known.”

I gave Mystery a hug and joined Ethan and Laney outside of Mystery’s stall.

Anora!

 
I whirled around in direction of the voice. No one was behind me. I turned quickly back to face my friends but dizziness crashed down on my like a ton of bricks and I struggled to remain standing. The dizziness got worse, to the point where I felt like I was being sucked down into a pool of icy black water. I couldn’t breathe.

The next thing I knew Ethan was holding me. “Anora,” he whispered. Concern muddled his beautiful brown eyes.

“What happened?” I tried to get out of his arms but staggered. He caught me again. Everything around me was fuzzy.

“Are you ok?” I head Ethan ask, but his voice echoed, like he was speaking under water. A figure moved at the end of the aisle. I strained my eyes to make out who it was. A familiar mop of messy blonde hair bobbed up and down.