Fated in Stone, page 15
The remaining red coals in the base of the firepit glowed through the surrounding ash. The stench still lingered in the smoke, but wasn’t quite as horrific anymore. They remained silently staring as the coals slowly dimmed. By the time Ben was satisfied the goo was thoroughly destroyed and no more of those mini-monsters would be popping out, no heat came off the ash anymore.
Without discussing it, he hunted up a thicker branch that would serve as a makeshift shovel and dug a hole in the damp soil next to the firepit. Then he pushed the ash into the hole. Elle quickly found another branch and helped him until they’d shifted every bit of the ash into the hole and covered it with more soil.
The burial of ash served to ensure the fire was completely out, no lingering spark to start and spread a dangerous fire, and it ensured all the monster remains were buried away from curious humans and most animals.
The process was more time consuming than killing the creature had been. But years of hunting and destroying monsters had only confirmed the full process was necessary. Any missed step, any attempt to rush the process, could result in a less than dead monster coming back to cause more havoc. And after those miniature versions popping out of the goo, Ben didn’t dare try to skip any of the steps.
“It’s past lunch time now and I’m not even a little hungry,” Elle said. “I normally have a good appetite, but that smell…” She wrinkled her nose.
“Let’s get back to the car. Maybe after we’ve collected my stuff and seen the house again, you’ll get your appetite back.”
He could eat or not at that moment. His body would need fuel soon, so he’d have to find something. But, unlike his youngest sister and her impossible-to-disrupt appetite, he wasn’t feeling particularly hungry right now either. He wouldn’t mind clearing the stench of the morning’s work out of his nose first.
Elle stared at the place where they’d buried the ash. “Those… I don’t know what to call them. The little monsters. That normal?”
“The goo isn’t normal, so no, the miniature monsters weren’t normal. Monsters have a host of ways to reproduce, some of them extremely unpleasant—”
“No need to elaborate.”
“Fair enough.” He wasn’t going to go into detail with her anyway. He wanted to keep her in his life, not chase her away with some of those horror stories. “But this way of creating new monsters is new. Not something we’ve seen before.”
“The things that were in the crates at the house…” Her brow furrowed as she looked between him and the disturbed ground over the buried remains. “They were made up of that goo. Do you suppose they could do—” She gestured at the ground. “And if so, was all that goo burned up enough in the explosion and fire to stop it?” She winced and looked at him. “Or are we going to find the burnt remains of the house covered in miniature monsters?”
Fuck. The idea was so horrible he cursed out loud. Then he gave her as honest an answer as he could.
“I have no idea.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
They went straight to the house instead of going to retrieve Ben’s gear first. The drive was quiet. Again. And Elle was grateful. She was so overwhelmed by what she’d just seen, and had to smell, she didn’t want to talk about it. She was a little horrified that what they’d find at the house from last night would send what was left of her mental fortitude running screaming into the void, leaving her a husk of gibbering terror.
And the knowledge that the monster hunter with her, the person whose apparent god-assigned duty it was to find and destroy monsters like this, had no idea what was happening with these particular creatures was almost enough to push her over that last fingernail-grip hold on sanity.
She’d been naive. She’d been so certain she’d seen the worst things life had to offer. The worst of humanity. And in that, she was probably right. But definitely not the worst things life had to offer.
She drove all the way to the house this time. No point in leaving the car hidden and hiking in. She wasn’t trying to sneak up on anyone. And frankly, she wanted the car close in case they had to make a fast escape. If there were dozens or hundreds of miniature monsters running around the place, she was going to run away so far so fast she’d make Ben’s head spin.
When they reached the patch of dirt that made up the house’s front yard, and Elle got her first view of the place since last night, she let out a low whistle.
The explosion had scattered wood all around the clearing where the house sat. Almost all of the building was black and shattered except for a few strangely intact sections of wall that looked essentially untouched by the fire. In the daylight, those sections of wall were a faded green color. A color that would have allowed the house to blend in with its surroundings if someone happened past. Since the building hadn’t had windows, there wasn’t a lot of shattered glass outside the building remains. One less thing to worry about. And the entire clearing smelled of wet, burnt wood, with only a faint undercurrent of that smelly goo.
She didn’t open the car door right away. She wasn’t entirely sure she’d be able to make herself open the door. She stared at the house, gripping the steering wheel, waiting for mini-monsters to swarm them.
Ben didn’t say anything, and he didn’t rush to get out of the car either. He watched the wrecked building in the mid-afternoon light, his expression closed and serious.
Ten minutes passed like that. With neither of them moving or speaking, just staring at the wreckage. Elle was the first to break the silence, and when she did, her voice sounded overloud in the quiet car.
“We should check the surroundings,” she said. “Shouldn’t we?”
“We will. Or…I will. It’s my job. You can stay in the car. I’ll let you know if it’s clear.” He finally glanced at her. “Will you be able to pick up the professor’s trail still? Has all this—” he gestured at the debris, “—complicated your abilities?”
“No idea yet,” she said, her gaze wandering back to the building. “But I doubt it. I wasn’t planning on using anything left in the house to get started.”
What she’d intended on doing was standing near where the cars had been, the ones that had driven off with Professor Arron last night, and letting herself orient to the direction they’d gone. Then following her psychic tracking sense from there. But the cars had been parked at the side of the house, and that meant getting close to the house, and that meant potentially being overrun by tiny monsters like a swarm of deadly bugs. And she wasn’t sure she could force herself out of her car with that possibility hanging in the air.
“I’ll make sure everything is clear,” Ben said.
His quiet tone brought her attention back to him.
“Stay here. I’ll be right back,” he said. “You’ll be safe inside the car. Okay.”
She swallowed hard and nodded. She wanted to be braver and get out and walk up to that house and not let all this immobilize her. She’d seen so much. She should be able to handle this.
But these weren’t the monsters she’d known her whole life. And she’d still have had a tough time facing those human monsters, even after all the therapy and the passage of so many years. Facing this new, deadly, unknown was maybe a step too far for her ability to bounce back and be brave.
Ben touched a gentle finger to her cheek. His hand still smelled faintly of pine resin but not the monster goo and for some reason that was as reassuring as the gesture. The stench could be washed off. The monster could be destroyed. And he knew what he was doing.
“I’ll make sure you’re safe,” he said quietly. “I promise.”
His finger brushed her cheekbone, and the simple gesture had Elle’s heartbeat pounding harder. Nice not to feel the fear for just a moment and instead feel…something else. “Thanks.” Her voice sounded breathless. She cleared her throat. “Thanks.”
He cupped her cheek with his whole hand then. His gaze dipped briefly to her mouth but most of his attention focused on her eyes, an intense sort of eye contact that didn’t help her breathing. With one last brush of his thumb, he pulled his hand away and turned to face the house. She noticed he fisted his hand in his lap and wondered at that. Then realized her own hands were fisted on the steering wheel, and not because of the fear.
She faced the house again, too, blinking.
“I’ll be right back,” Ben said. The car door opened and he was out before she could say anything.
Still, after he’d closed the door and started toward the house, she whispered, “Be safe.”
Watching him walk toward the burnt wreckage had her adrenaline climbing again, and her pulse hammered in her throat with fear. She was so tense, waiting for something horrible to jump out at him, she could barely breathe.
And then she blinked and he was gone. Just… He’d been standing in front of the house, seemed to move a little too the right, her brain registered a slight blur, and then he was gone.
Had he… Had he moved that fast? Or had something horrible just snatched him up?
Without thought, she reached for the door handle, but before she could unlock it and get out of the car, she spotted Ben again, standing at one side of the house, scowling at it. And then the slight blur and he was gone.
Whoa.
That was him moving. He was moving so fast she couldn’t see him. So fast, her brain wasn’t even registering it. She’d had some vague idea that he could move that fast of course. He’d whisked her away from the exploding house so fast, she’d blinked and they’d been far enough into the woods to avoid any debris. But honestly, she’d thought she was so shaken up by the night’s events, she’d blurred the travel time in her memory. Not that he’d really moved that fast, just that she’d blacked out or something.
And, yes, he’d leapt in front of a bullet to protect her, but human people did that and got shot. He hadn’t moved so fast then that she hadn’t seen the movement. Had he? She couldn’t remember the moment that clearly. Oh, she remembered the instant she realized he’d been shot, remembered him just appearing in front of her to take the bullet. But again, she’d assumed she’d blurred those memories.
Watching him suddenly appear and then disappear around the house… Now she was questioning her own memories. Again. This time, afraid they were more accurate than she’d assumed.
Well, Elle, what did you think? She shook her head at herself. He had a wolf spirit that leapt out of his body and his body turned to stone. He fought monsters because some sixteen-thousand-year-old god wanted him to, and there were seven whole families that did this monster hunting thing. And there were actual monsters in the world that weren’t just horrible humans. Him being able to move so fast she couldn’t track those movements didn’t seem all that far-fetched in the context of all the other stuff.
She remembered the feel of his hand on her face, cupping her cheek, reassuring and gentle. His fingertips rough from calluses. His palm so large he’d covered half her face with his hand. And yet, his touch had been tender and felt weirdly…familiar. Like he’d cupped her face that way before. She brushed her own fingers over her cheekbone, thinking of the brush of his thumb there.
Her pulse slowed the frantic rhythm of fear and dropped into something deeper, something that had her breath deepening. She could still smell him in the car. It was a very good smell.
When he flashed back to the front of the house, he stood there for a long moment, looking at the blackened shell of the building. Then he turned and walked back to the car at a speed she could see. Not flashing close and startling her by just appearing next to her.
The thoughtfulness made her smile as she unlocked and opened her door finally. “All clear?”
“All clear,” he called. “Looks like everything that could move inside burned cleanly. “The stuff inside the fridges seems to have died, too. We should be safe enough.”
He was beside her as he finished this retelling. And having him close, so big and capable and gentle at the same time, made it a lot easier to step out of the car and stand beside him. She might have felt weak, that his presence comforted her—she didn’t like showing weakness and she hated feeling weak even more—but for some reason, none of that seemed to matter around Ben. He made her feel safe to be weak around him.
“Is it too much to ask for you to stick with me while I get close to the house?” she asked, quietly, glad at least her voice wasn’t shaking. The sun was starting to go down on the early spring evening. She didn’t want to stand in fading light, the tree shadows stretching long across the burnt building, with her attention distracted. She’d have a hard time concentrating enough to pick up Professor Arron’s trail if she was constantly pulling her focus to her surroundings to make sure nothing was sneaking up on her.
“That was always my plan,” he said. “You’ll need to concentrate, right? I’ll have your back while you do.”
Oh.
Something moved through her, a feeling that left her throat tight and her insides soft. She felt all melty, and warm, and tingly. All things she hadn’t felt around a man in a long time. Maybe never.
How had it only been twenty-four hours since they met? How was that possible when it felt like he’d been in her life forever? Like she must have known him all along.
She shook off the weird sense of time collapsing on itself again, messing with her memories, and headed toward the house, toward the side of the building where the cars had been parked. Ben kept pace just beside and behind her.
Giving her room but, as he’d promised, guarding her back.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Ben scanned the surrounding woods, the long shadows growing as the sun got lower in the sky. The earlier hunt and thorough destruction of the monster and miniature monsters had taken up a lot of the shorter spring daylight. The sun was already dropping behind the trees, giving the late afternoon an orange glow. He could feel the sunset in his bones, the approaching night.
He wanted Elle as far away from this house as they could get by the time the darkness settled around them. She was scared. He could smell her fear. And it was driving him mad. Driving his instincts hard. Get her to somewhere safe, keep her there, feed her, make sure she was warm and protected. And then test the softness of her skin again.
Flexing his hand against his thigh, he kept his attention on trees so he wouldn’t get lost studying her. She needed him to protect her right now, not get sidetracked thinking about her soft soft skin and her lush lush mouth.
She didn’t do much once she’d reached the spot on the side of the building where the cars had been parked last night. She stood very still, and closed her eyes, and settled her breathing to a slow rhythm he found himself following, tracking, to ensure it remained normal. A lot of his awareness of her seemed to be instinct and not under his conscious control. He didn’t think, I need to keep listening to her breathe in case something changes and she needs my help. He just did it.
And was surprised by how reassuring the sound was. How much that settled his anxious wolf and his own nerves.
He glanced back at the house, letting his gaze skim over Elle, but not lingering. There were still sections of untouched wall here, showing the faint green paint and undamaged wood siding. The fire and explosion had destroyed and blackened almost everything but still left these occasional pieces unscorched. Those isolated, untouched-by-the-fire areas were the first places he’d searched. Looking for spots where the monsters could have found shelter, escaped the destruction, managed to wiggle out of the flames and get away.
When he’d found no evidence of anything possibly surviving, he’d checked the more damaged parts of the house. Most of it was a black shell, the crates and remaining monster goo just so much charred ash and wet soggy black wood. He’d poked around, moved things he dared moved. Nothing.
He still wanted a few of the Logans to get here and clear the house completely. Ensure everything inside was thoroughly burned and buried after collecting any possible clues and evidence that might still be in there. He hadn’t given himself time to hunt for clues. And he didn’t have time now to thoroughly destroy this lab. If they could reach Professor Arron soon, there was a chance they could get him out before the monsters decided he was more liability than asset. The worry that the monsters would simply kill the professor sooner rather than later had a clock ticking in his head, making him very aware of all the time passing, time they couldn’t afford to lose.
But like with the monster earlier, they couldn’t afford to leave things lying around for animals and humans to discover. That could be deadly. Or worse. Because it wouldn’t be the first time that monster remains had gotten inside a host and created something even more horrible.
The desire to ensure all this was thoroughly destroyed, and the push to reach the geneticist as quick as possible, all while keeping his Nam-tar safe, were competing priorities tearing Ben’s attention into pieces. Something he couldn’t afford.
He was going to need help, backup. He needed his Family.
But first he and Elle needed to find Professor Arron’s trail.
He glanced at her briefly. She was turning in a slow circle, her eyes half closed, her head tilted down. Her short blond hair caught some of the late afternoon light, adding little strings of gold and pink so that her hair seemed to glow like the sunset itself. He flexed his hand again, refusing to reach out and brush his fingers through those short locks. Despite a near overwhelming desire to do so.
Forcing his attention back on the surroundings, he waited patiently for her to finish doing whatever it was she needed to do. He knew she was done when her breathing changed, when she pulled in a deep gulp of air and let it out on a sigh. He was so attuned to her, he could practically feel her shoulders relaxing. He faced her, waiting for her to open her eyes.
