Creeping Beauty, page 11
“Tess,” he said in that deep voice, going all honey and charm. As if I was a fucking idiot. He might be gorgeous, but I was getting far too used to everything and everyone trying to kill me. Why should he be any different?
“We don’t have to be enemies,” he said, reaching out a big hand to touch a curling strand of my hair, where it rested on my chest. His knuckles brushed my breast in a not so subtle “accident.”
I grinned, showing my fangs. “No,” I said cheerily, startling him with my change in demeanor. “We don’t have to be enemies.” I leaned into his space, pressing my chest against his hand. “You could just go the fuck away and stop trying to get into my pants.”
He pulled back as if he’d been burnt. It was very likely that no one had ever turned down his advances before. “Wendigo,” his voice held warning. “Don’t test my patience.”
I rolled my eyes. “Then don’t fucking paw at me and pretend you are a nice guy. Out with it. What the hell do you want?”
He narrowed his eyes. “I am doing Kwan and Cloud a favor by not killing their pet. You need to remember that, monster.”
I flapped a hand. “Yeah, yeah.”
He tilted his head and regarded me with calculation as Ahanu came to land on my shoulder. I vastly preferred the honesty of that expression to the fake seduction. “You will help me track the other abominations in the area.”
I blinked at him. “I’ll what now?”
Anger got the best of him. As it often does with people when I’m around. “Abominations. Disgusting, abhorrent beings who walk the line between the human and creature world. Things that should never be permitted to exist!”
My mind whirled, trying to sort through his crap to what he was actually saying. He wasn’t just looking for the creatures that the hunters stalked—the ones in my backyard. He was looking for something else. Something that walked the line between human and creature.
Others like me.
I shifted from foot to foot, trying not to fidget. Trying to keep the thoughts from showing on my face. There were others?
And it was Brutus’s special mission in life to kill them.
“Fuck you, Dickwad.” I couldn’t help it. The fucking balls on him, demanding I hunt down people just like me.
He grabbed my throat faster than I could react. Squeezing, he lifted me until my toes barely scraped the deck.
“You are a tool,” he spat out. “A thing to be used. The hunters own you. We are your masters. You live only by our good grace.”
I kicked and squirmed but my vision was going black and my blood pounded in my head. And the damned bracelet kept me from wigging out and murdering the bastard.
Ahanu screamed and dove, scratching deep bloody furrows across the hunter’s face before he was swatted away. The buzzards took to the air, circling, making the air crackle with some sort of strange energy.
But none of that mattered. Because I’d noticed something the hunter hadn’t. Brutus tossed me to the ground, where I crumpled, gasping for air—and laughing like a lunatic.
His eyes widened as he finally noticed the shadows at the edges of the house. They pulsed and swelled. A cold voice whispered in my mind and I wondered if he could hear it too. I hoped he could. Because it was the song of his death.
“What…” his sword was out. But whatever was watching wouldn't care about a puny piece of metal.
Then Cloud burst through the shadows and they scattered. My shadowy watcher was gone.
Cloud looked between us and clenched her fists. I watched her visibly get control of her anger and decide not to kill a fellow hunter.
Shame.
I pushed up and stood, shaking my hair out and combing through it with my claws.
“What in the name of the Gods was that?” Brutus mumbled.
I shrugged. “Not sure. But maybe you don’t fucking touch me again and we won’t have to find out. Asshole.”
I turned and left him arguing with Cloud as I retreated to the house.
Once I reached my bedroom, I let myself stop pretending to be a badass.
Shit.
I sat on the edge of my bed and shook.
What the hell was that black presence? It hadn’t just been in my mind. Brutus had seen it too.
Had it really planned to defend me? Or just join in on the murdering?
And…there were others like me?
Kwan slipped through the door and closed it behind him. I could still hear Brutus and Cloud outside, his voice booming, hers deceptive and sharp as a knife.
For whatever reason, the golden boy seemed to rub her the wrong way too. Good. I hoped she gutted him.
Kwan sat beside me. “He wants you to help him hunt.”
I nodded, forcing down a growl. “You didn't tell me what he was hunting. You never told me I wasn’t alone.” I yanked at my bracelet for emphasis.
He covered my hand with his. “Gongjunim, there are no others like you.” He sighed. “Sometimes, through accident or attack, or just pure bad luck, human and creature blend together. But the results are never as…beautiful as you.”
He stroked my hair and I glared at the unwarranted touching. “They are still human. And he kills them. Wants me to kill them.”
He shook his head. “No, Tess. They are human in the way a zombie is human. And it is usually a blessing to release them from that life.”
I bared my teeth. “Usually?”
He sighed. “Most of us leave the other ones alone as long as they don’t harm humans—but the council prefers they be exterminated if we run into them, just in case. Brutus…they especially assigned him to the task. He…takes joy in the hunt.”
I shook my head at him. “And you think I should help him because he asked so nice?”
He snorted. “I would kill him myself for hurting you. But he is a brother. A fellow hunter. We do not hunt our own. Ever. “
“Screw your misplaced honor. He’s an asshat.”
He laughed, dark and bitter. “Tess, if you don't help him, he will tell the council about you—even worse, he will report your siding with the monsters. All the hunters in America will be at your door with death warrants.”
I scrubbed my face with my hands. “So, I really am nothing but a tool. I have no choice at all.”
He squeezed my shoulder. “You are more than a tool to some of us.”
I sighed, but didn't argue. I knew the answer to the question that wanted out.
If I said no…if all those hunters came for me—Kwan wouldn’t fight his “brothers” to save me.
Cloud certainly wouldn’t. If anyone was duty-bound and honor-blinded it as Hanging Cloud, avenger of the Indian nations. I wanted to think her recent Tess kink would save me, but I couldn’t be sure. The thing between us was too new for that kind of blind faith.
I doubted me, Tommy, and a bunch of birds had much chance of surviving on our own.
“Fine,” I said. Something inside me breaking. “Fine. But only the ones who have gone bad.” Even I knew that wouldn’t happen. They would make me kill harmless people—not even creatures this time. People. And what could I do?
I ignored the pathetic mewling sounds the creature made as I turned away. I knew I would never forget the human eyes that stared up at me from the furry face, pleading. I had located it when the hunter magic would have missed it. I had wounded it and brought it down. Cloud breezed past me, her axe flying, ending its life with a gurgle.
Brutus clapped a big hand on my shoulder. “Finding these things is much easier with a scent hound like you, Wendigo.”
I growled at him and shrugged out from under his hand. I held out an arm as I strode away, deeper into the forest, Ahanu perched on my forearm like a trained hawk. He croaked at me and I stared straight ahead, ignoring the way his form wavered.
“I know. I know, alright?” I slammed my free hand into the trunk of a nearby tree, the rough bark skinning my knuckles, tears finally escaping now that no one could see them fall.
The “abominations” Brutus hunted were harmless. Most of them were pathetic. Scared. As if they had found themselves turned into an animal and didn’t know what was going on.
Like I would have, if Cloud and Kwan hadn’t found me and given me a clue.
I swallowed burning bile as it rose in the back of my throat. I found them easily, just like Brutus said I would. I shooed a few away before he caught on…said they were just too fast for me. But it was easy to find them. Too easy. More often than not, I just stumbled right into them without trying.
In fact, I had the sinking feeling that they were finding me, not the other way around. And I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was betraying them. Stomping on a trust I hadn’t asked for or earned.
Cloud was the only reason I hadn’t lost it and killed the hunters or myself just to stop this madness. After the first time I had balked at killing one of the defenseless things, she had stepped in and taken over. I hated her for killing them. I hated myself more, knowing that she only did it so that I didn’t have to. Because she seemed to know what it was doing to me.
This couldn’t continue. I had agreed to help Kwan and Cloud fight monsters—things that preyed on innocent humans like we were candy. I had signed over control of my life, chosen to live as they dictated. But I had never agreed to slaughter innocent things—no matter if they were human, monster, or somewhere in between.
I had to get rid of Brutus somehow. I couldn’t continue to live like this. I wouldn’t, Goddamn it!
Surely the psychopath would run out of targets eventually. There couldn’t be that many of them around here. Michigan, and this part of the state in particular, wasn’t very populated. But I didn’t know if I could hold out long enough for him to finish up and get lost.
And part of me was waiting for the gravy topping for this shit sandwich. Things were always going to get worse. Because, my life.
The others joined me. Cloud was quiet and grim. I wondered for the hundredth time if I could convince her to help me kill the golden hunter. Between the two of us we should stand a chance. Especially if she took my damned bracelet off.
Yellow eyes met mine in the dark and I sensed her slight head shake. She stroked a hand down my lower back, quick and feather-light, invisible to the others in the darkness. Her energy rubbed against mine, trying to comfort, or maybe to remind me of my humanity.
I sighed. I couldn’t kill monster-human crosses. Could I really kill a full human? Did I really want to know the answer to that?
We neared my cabin and I paused. If Brutus wanted to keep his blond hair attached to his head, he wouldn’t step past the treeline. I continued on, content to leave without a word. But the asshat had other plans. He always did.
“Wendigo,” he called. “You are going to help me hunt a dog tomorrow.”
My shoulders tensed and I stopped, not turning around. His voice grated at me. “Those rumors of the Dogman this state loves to spread—I think there’s more to it than urban legend.” As was usually the case.
I drew a breath to tell him to fuck off. Even if it wouldn’t do me any good. The “Dogman” was probably just some poor guy with a lot of body hair or bad breath or something. And we’d track him down in his little hovel in the woods and gut him for existing.
Tommy appeared at my side. He pulled me into a one-armed hug. It looked comforting, but he was just sucking up my energy. His slightly milky eyes took on a clearer, more lustrous opal glow just from the contact.
“Dogman? Wow, you hunters are dumb. Everyone around here knows that is just a story the old drunks tell when they get bored.”
Brutus didn’t reply, just vanished. Kwan followed suit, and after a quick kiss on the top of my head, Cloud was gone too, leaving me with my ghoul and my birds.
“Tess,” Tommy said softly. “You can’t…just…if you find the Dogman, don’t kill him.”
I heaved a shuddery sigh. “I won’t,” I said in a flat voice. “One of the others will. I’m just the scent hound.”
He squeezed my shoulders. “Tess. Please?”
I looked up and realized he was being serious. As in, he actually believed that this thing existed. I narrowed my eyes at him, studying his pale face in the glow of the half-moon. “You know something.”
He shrugged and stuffed his hands in his pockets, turning away to head toward the house. “Not really. Just a hunch. And I think some things are better left alone. The Dogman doesn’t hurt anyone.”
I rolled my head around, trying to work out the tension in my shoulders. “I’ll see what I can do.”
I stopped walking and stared at Tommy’s back. “Hey Tommy.”
He stopped and looked back at me, his cheery idiot smile firmly in place. “Yeah?”
“Do you think you could kill me?”
He stumbled, and I would have laughed at his clumsiness…if I wasn’t dead fucking serious.
“What?”
“I know. You would die too. But I can’t do this Tommy. I can’t be used to torment creatures who have done nothing more than exist.”
He shook his head. “No.”
I started to protest, but he held up a hand. “I mean, I don’t think I physically could. Tess, I can feel it the moment you are in danger. I get this panic. I…I don’t think I could actually harm you. It’s like…a protective mechanism?”
I sighed.
“And even if I could, I wouldn’t.”
I thought of his obvious infatuation with my library assistant. No, Tommy obviously had reasons to want to live—or at least appear to live.
I nodded. “Okay.”
So much for that thought. A girl can hope. Ahanu pecked at my hair, nuzzled my cheek. And I felt eyes on me. Strange eyes belonging to things that thought I was supposed to protect them.
I walked away without looking back at the treeline.
Chapter 17
Unfortunately, my creature locator powers seemed to be getting stronger the more I focused on them.
The hunters could sense the general presence of a creature with human blood in a broad sort of way. They couldn't get specifics until they were standing right next to it. Cloud was, according to Kwan, very skilled at actual physical tracking, which was what made her so effective at her stalking, but even she had difficulty with the mixed creatures.
If Brutus had Cloud’s physical tracking skills, I never saw them. He seemed to prefer to get close then cast out some sort of magic. No wonder he wanted me to do all the work. From all I knew, using magic used a lot of energy. Cloud and Kwan preferred not to use it unless they had to.
Brutus dragged me out of bed the moment dusk started to fall and hauled me off on a trek across the country. He altered between transporting me and running through the woods, never letting me fully recover from the cold and nausea of the transports.
When I could run I nearly howled with joy, momentarily leaving my asshole companion behind as I dashed through the night-dark forest. I could sense it there. Another presence. Something foreign but familiar. And I hunted.
I almost got caught up in the hunt, but at the last minute I remembered what I was doing. I remembered Tommy's odd request and the frightened cries of every defenseless thing Brutus had killed.
I paused, sighting my prey on another rise a couple hundred feet away. Dogman. It was supposed to be a myth.
I wondered briefly if this was the same dogman from the sightings in the 1800's or if there were more of them. If it was that old, maybe it could hold its own against Brutus.
It stood upon a hill, outlined by moonlight. My monster-enhanced eyes picked out details in the dark. It was tall, a slightly hunched humanish shape, walking on two legs and covered with shaggy fur. It cocked its head, studying me with gleaming green eyes.
I willed it to move on, not to trust me just because I seemed like one of them. “Run,” I whispered, afraid to shout, knowing Brutus had almost caught up by now.
The thing froze for a moment, then dashed away into the cover of the dark forest just as Brutus emerged.
“Where is it?” he growled, grabbing my arm, always more than willing to get in my space. Sadistic prick.
I shook him off. “Lost it,” I said between clenched teeth. “It's fast.”
He growled his frustration. “We’ll loop around from the outside of that town we saw. Maybe head it off.”
I nodded and fell into step beside him. It wasn't until we were almost at the edge of town that I realized where we were. Harrison. Where my dad lived.
“I think I sense another of the things,” Brutus huffed, his eyes bright with anticipation. “Two kills. A productive night, Wendigo.”
Acid rose up in my throat and my heart sped up. Florence.
Her strange energy signature was relatively strong. Brutus wouldn't care if she lived like a human. In fact, I was willing to bet money that the sadistic fucker would take even more joy in the kill than usual if he knew my family was involved.
I doubled up, grasping my stomach, willing my fangs to elongate and my claws to split my fingers. I tried my best to growl the way I seem to when I was hungry.
“What's wrong with you?”
I grunted, trying to sound like a beast. “Hungry.”
He sighed. “Didn't you eat before we left?”
I shook my head. “I must have used too much energy.” I let a snarl creep into my voice. Let him think it was hunger.
He gripped my chin roughly and pulled me back up to standing, glaring into my eyes as if he could sense the lie. I snapped at him and let myself drool a little.
I saw him considering how far he could push me, considering whether he should let me go while he continued to hunt. I had to make him leave the vicinity. And what better method than flat out antagonizing the ass.
Snarling, I tore away from him. “I'm going home.”
He grabbed my long hair and yanked me back. Pain shot through my scalp. I swiped at him with my claws, slicing the hand that held me and forcing him to let go.
Spinning, I aimed a kick at his crotch. Of course, I missed and hit his thigh. I wasn't dumb enough to think I would actually hit him, but it was enough to piss him off.
