Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

We found a house not far from the dock to settle into for the night.

“I’m going to round us up some wood for the fireplace. Holler if you need me,” Kicks said.

“I think I’ll be fine.” I didn’t have the same fear of being alone in this wild world that I used to. If anything, things should be afraid of me .

I walked out onto the back deck, the leaves all budding and ready to burst with renewed life. The air had that fresh spring smell. And yet I had this nagging feeling of unease, as if I were being watched.

I closed my eyes, trying to listen for noises that shouldn’t be there, but didn’t pick up anything unusual. If anything, it was too quiet, as if the birds and all the other critters were hiding.

My gaze drifted along the tree line, and I thought for a second I spotted a glimpse of dark movement. The wind was blowing, moving the branches and creating shadows, but I couldn’t rid myself of this nagging feeling of being watched.

Had we trusted Rod too soon? Had he sent someone to follow and rob us?

I kept staring at the tree line, and then I saw it.

I blinked, hoping it would be gone when I opened my eyes again. But no. It was still there, more solid now, as if it had stepped out of the shadows just enough to be seen clearly. The cloak it wore blended with the darkness of the woods, but there was no mistaking the outline of a man. It knew I saw him, but he didn’t make a move toward me or try to speak. Just stood there.

I couldn’t see his face, but I felt his gaze locked on me. As I stared, he disappeared. He didn’t walk away or disappear into the shadows. He was just gone.

“Pips?”

I jumped, turning to see Kicks walking up onto the deck.

“You okay?”

“Yeah. I just… I thought I saw someone out there.”

He looked at where I pointed, taking a deep breath. “I don’t smell anything, but I’ll go see if I can pick up a scent. I’ll be right back.”

He wasn’t going to find anything. Whatever had been there hadn’t been human—or of this world.

First the wolf, and now this creature. Was I imagining them? Disassociating from reality? Was the darkness making me see things from different planes? It was hard to know what to think with no one to ask, other than maybe Death. I wasn’t sure that was the best idea either.

Then she appeared, the timing suspicious at minimum.

“I’m doing what you want,” I said through my teeth. “So I’m not sure why you feel the need to try to scare me with your weird goon. It’s not appreciated.”

Her head cocked to the side, her solid black eyes widening. I looked back at the trees, hating the way she appeared, her movements always so alien.

Who do you speak of?

Was it possible she didn’t know? Could there be something she wasn’t aware of? She hadn’t known how my ankle healed. Was she not as all-knowing as I feared? Maybe more vulnerable, if that were the case?

Suddenly the darkness in me was in a frenzy. Was it her or something I was doing? I forced it down, trying to keep its power contained.

I saw her jerk out of the corner of my eye. It was a slight movement, but it was enough. Had she been trying to control whatever was inside of me? Had I stopped her? If I had, could this power inside me be used against her?

“Don’t do that again,” I said, forcing my voice to be calm even as my pulse was racing. My hands might’ve trembled if I weren’t gripping the deck railing. “I don’t like you poking around inside of me. That wasn’t part of the bargain.”

I thought she might lash out, that she might strike me down right there. But she didn’t move. She just stared at me, her eyes boring into me. I turned and held her gaze, refusing to back down or show her an ounce of hesitance.

You’re stronger than I thought, she finally said. She seemed to withdraw slightly, as if reconsidering something.

I said nothing, just kept my eyes on her.

Perhaps I underestimated you, she continued. But don’t get too confident. Your life is mine, whether you want to see it or not.

As suddenly as she had appeared, she was gone, leaving me alone on the deck, barely able to breathe. We’d had words before, but this had felt different, more significant.

For the second time, I’d seen cracks. She hadn’t known anything about the creature staring at me in the woods, which left open other possibilities. If it did exist, was it a possible ally?

She didn’t know how my ankle had healed. Had I done it myself? Had the wolf in the woods? Was the wolf connected to the man? There were more questions than ever spiraling in my mind, but one thing had become clear: Death wasn’t as powerful as I’d feared.

I was settled in a chair under a thick blanket by the fireplace when the satellite phone rang. Charging it was a struggle on the road, so Kicks only turned it on for an hour every night in case there was a pack emergency.

And it was ringing.

Kicks was on it right away. “Yeah?”

I was immediately ready to vomit because I heard the person on the other side asking for me. The voice sounded vaguely familiar but I couldn’t place it. It couldn’t be about Charlie, because it wasn’t someone from our pack.

“She’s here.” He held the phone out to me. “It’s Fifo, the guide from the California pack.”

My lungs inflated again. It wasn’t about Charlie.

The guide had said he was going to do some digging around, try to figure out why some people survived and some didn’t. Maybe he’d found something. I didn’t care about my lineage, where I’d come from, if I had some shifter blood in me. All I cared about now was what was coming. Still, he’d thought he was doing me a favor.

“Hey, Fifo,” I said, more worried about how quickly I could get him off the phone. I wanted to be able to call Charlie and check in. Hopefully the boat would have electricity we could use.

“I’ve been trying to reach you but haven’t been able to get through.” Fifo spoke as if the world was still going along like it had for decades. As if we were all sitting around with cell phones and having trouble getting in touch was an anomaly.

“We’re traveling, so we’re only leaving it on for short periods. Is everything all right?” I wasn’t burning through the battery for this. He needed to get to the point, and fast.

“I’ve been gathering as much information as I could on you, and your background. I think I have some answers.”

“That’s great.” I held the phone away from me, checking the charge.

It’s okay, Kicks mouthed.

Eighty percent. I guessed Fifo could talk for a few more minutes. But if he kept going, I was going to accidentally lose the connection.

“It looks as if your line goes back to a particular line of shifters many, many years ago,” Fifo said, seeming more interested than me.

Kicks moved closer, as if he didn’t want to miss a word. Everyone seemed more interested than me. You’d think it was their heritage.

“So somewhere in my family, a shifter like you or Kicks slept with someone in my family? That’s very interesting. I really appreciate you calling, but—”

“No,” Fifo said. “Your line predates what we are. Our type of shifters branched off the line in your ancestry. I believe that is why you not only survived Death Day but were able to take on the powers of Jaysa, and in an extreme manner.”

Kicks was hanging on every word, while I still couldn’t figure out what was so interesting. Maybe if I’d been told about this before I knew there were shifters, I’d be more interested. But I had…what? A speck of shifter blood? Who cared?

“You’re a descendant of the original line,” Kicks said softly.

“Yes. Yes she is,” Fifo said.

“Why do you both seem so weird about this? What’s the difference? I’m more human than anything else, and probably by a very large percentage.”

“The line of the originals was potent, no matter how far back the connection,” Fifo said.

“What side was it passed to her from?” Kicks asked him.

“As far as I can tell, her paternal line.”

I held out the phone to Kicks, since he seemed much more interested.

“Did you find out anything else?” he asked, not bothering to take the phone.

“No. That’s all I have right now. I’ll let you know if anything else shows up.”

“Okay, many thanks.” He looked at me rolling my hands, asking him to wrap it up, and waved back at me, as if he were getting to it even as Fifo continued on about how rare this was. “We need to conserve our battery, since we aren’t anywhere we can reliably charge, but many thanks. We really appreciate your looking into it.”

Fifo kept going, but Kicks ended the call pretty fast after that. I could practically feel the stiffness in him from where he stood not a few feet from me.

“I’ll go look for some more blankets and we can sleep in front of the fire tonight,” he said.

“Sure,” I said, watching him as he left. Why was he looking strange? If anyone should be weird, it was me, and I didn’t care.

He was still looking off when he returned and then laid out two different spots.

Since when was he looking for separate spots?

Then I remembered his former mate, the one who died after she got pregnant. Did this make pregnancy with a shifter more possible for me? Could I have children with Kicks? Could I die the way she had? Had I just stripped away what had made me safe?

He was taking off his jacket and rolling it into a pillow when I asked, “Hey, do you think that’s part of why they were able to successfully turn Charlie? Because we both have shifter blood?” It wasn’t the exact question I wanted to ask, but it would do.

“Probably. Whatever Groza thought she knew about turning people might not have been the whole picture. It was probably in part what kind of genes they had to begin with.”

“Since I have the same blood, it might change things for me, too.”

He finally stopped moving around the room and looked at me. “I know.”

I’d been so worried about hurting him, not being me after this was over and doing something that could kill him. Or because I couldn’t fully integrate into the pack. I hadn’t thought of him walking away from me because I wasn’t human enough.

“We’ll talk about it after we get back,” he said.

I didn’t know what that meant, but I nodded. For once, we were on the same page—neither of us wanted to deal with this now.