Wolf Hiding (A Wolf in the Land of the Dead Book 2) (25 page)

Nowen roared. She lunged forward and slammed her fist against the Rev’s nose, shattering bone and driving fragments up and into the brain. The Rev collapsed and it was only Sage’s pained gasps that kept Nowen from tearing the undead thing apart with her bare hands. She turned back to the girl.

Sage lay on her back in the bloody snow, her injured hand clamped to her chest. Her dark eyes were wide and shocked, and her breath rasped harshly from her gritted teeth. Nowen heard the moaning of the Revs, drawn by the sound of Sage’s scream. She scooped the girl up in her arms and, sparing only a glance at the remaining undead as they dragged their destroyed bodies toward her, ran.

Got to get her somewhere safe.
Nowen sped past the church; there was no guarantee that the place was clear of Revs. She swung around the side of the building. There were stands of trees here and the snow was deeper. A hill rose up at an angle to the church, topping out at, Nowen guessed, about ten feet high.
Revs can’t reach us there.
She held Sage tighter and headed up the rise.

The going got harder the higher Nowen went. Her legs trembled with each lunging step and Sage lay very still in her arms. Nowen kept her eyes on the top of the hill, afraid to look down at the girl. With one last, desperate push she reached the top.

The trees thinned out and she dropped to her knees in a little clearing. Gently she lowered Sage to the snow-covered ground. The girl’s body shook with tremors as Nowen carefully eased her injured hand out to look at it.

Ragged stumps were all that remained of the ring and pinky finger. The bleeding seemed to have stopped, but as Nowen tilted the hand and examined it in the sunlight she saw that blood still dripped - but it was dark and thick. She lowered Sage’s hand back to her chest and then looked at her face. The girl’s eyes were closed. Nowen thumbed one of the eyelids open; the dark brown iris was shot through with yellow threads.

Nowen fell back on her heels.
How fast does the virus spread? How long did it take those other people you saw, back in Colorado, how long did it take them to change?
Think, damn you!
She couldn’t. Her thoughts were scattered, running aimlessly though her head, battering against the walls of her mind like frightened animals.
What does it matter how long it took those other people? Sage is going to die. She’s going to die, right here, and there’s nothing I can do about it.

Nowen stilled. There
was
something she could do. Or try, at least, try and hope that it worked. She rested one hand on Sage’s forehead, beaded with sweat even with the snow and cold air. “Sage, hold on. Hold on as best as you can.” Nowen closed her eyes and gathered her thoughts before turning them inward.

She traveled far down through the echoing depths of her mind. She knew what she was looking for: a cave, dark and deep, set in a mountainside. The outside world was gone; all there was for Nowen was the blackness inside. There was no way of knowing how much time was passing. She followed the thought of a thread of a memory until she finally stood before a towering black mountain.

She walked up to the cave at the base of the mountain but didn’t go in. There was no outward indication that what she searched for was here, but she
knew
without knowing how that it was. She reached for her wolf.

I know you’re there. I know you’ve been hurt. I know I am as much to blame for that pain as Vuk is. I was afraid of your - no, our - power, afraid to give up control, afraid of losing whoever I am. I fought you, and you fought back in return. You didn’t want to be caged, to be locked away in the human. And so, in our fighting, we made ourselves weak.

And our enemy took advantage of that.

We can’t fight against each other anymore. Together we can be stronger than anything in this world. You need me. And I need you.

I need you, now. Please.

Please help me.

Please.

There was no response. Nowen stared at the cave opening and let her tears fall as despair swept over her.

And then wild amber eyes opened in the darkness.

The old crow perched on the skull of a white-clad body and snipped bits of flesh off a ragged gash in the forehead. A bigger, younger crow challenged him for the dead man, cawing in success when the older bird took to the air. The elderly crow rose up and alighted on the peaked roof of the church. Movement from the forest below caught his eye and he stalked to the roof’s edge for a better view.

A large black wolf emerged from the covering trees. The wolf stopped and scented the air, then looked back to the trees and barked. A smaller wolf, russet-colored fur shimmering in the evening sun, stepped out of the forest and limped over to the black wolf. The wolves touched noses for a moment, and then the black wolf turned and headed away from the sunset. The russet wolf followed, and together they disappeared into the fast-approaching night.

Some time later

Nowen kicked at a burnt piece of timber. The shard of wood crumbled into a fine charcoal dust which the wind picked up and swirled around her head. She coughed, waving the black particles away, and looked around at the remains of New Heaven.

The storage sheds, the huts and cabins, the log house where the leaders of New Heaven had lived - all had been burned to the ground. The clearing, close to three acres wide, was covered in scorched wood, fabric, and metal. The forest that surrounded the clearing showed the after-effects of the massive fire that must have raged here, with blackened tree trunks and limbs.

Nowen turned at the sound of foot-steps on burned dirt to see Sage walking toward her. The girl held something in her hand that, as she got closer, Nowen could determine used to be a pair of pliers. With a grunt of disgust Sage tossed the warped metal aside. She dusted her hands off on her jeans and looked up at Nowen. “What a mess! This couldn’t all have happened from that flare that Suzannah threw, could it?”

Nowen shook her head. “Notice what’s missing? All the vehicles.” Sage looked around, surprise evident on her face. “They packed up everything they could take and burned what they couldn’t.” Nowen said.

“But, why? It doesn’t make any sense.”

Nowen shrugged. “I don’t really care why. I just want to know where they went. Where
he
went.”

Sage sighed. “You still want to find Vuk, huh?”

Nowen turned away from the disappointed look on the girl’s face. “I haven’t changed my mind. He has a lot to answer for.”

Sage threw her hands up. “Well how are you going to find him now?”

“I can help you with that.” Nowen whipped her head toward the source of the unknown voice. From the corner of her eye she saw the girl move into a crouch, ready to change into a wolf at a moment’s notice. Nowen focused her attention on a stand of trees near where she stood.

With a slight rustling of leaves a man stepped out of the forest. He looked as tall as Nowen was, and his skin was lightly tanned. His gunmetal-grey hair fell past his shoulders. His face was all harsh and angular planes, and one copper-colored eye shone beneath thick grey brows. The other eye, his left eye, was gone. The healed-over socket was bisected by a long black scar that continued down his cheek and curled under his jaw.

The stranger moved further out into the clearing. Nowen tensed. The stranger stopped few feet away and looked directly at Nowen.

“Hello. It’s good to see you.” he said.