Chapter 3

Chapter Three

The kids were running around and playing the next afternoon, buzzing around me as I headed to go get more flour from the miller. No one loved my bread, but they were eating it, and it felt good to contribute.

I tilted my head back, taking a deep breath, and picked up the scent of strangers. I was too new to these senses to gauge how far away or how many there were, but they were human. I should’ve only been picking up the smell of shifters.

I lifted my head, trying to pinpoint the direction. I should let it go. Kicks and I had finally come to a sort of truce. We weren’t singing camp songs and roasting marshmallows every night, but we weren’t at each other’s throats either. It was sort of a gray area, but I’d take it.

I tried to ignore the scents, knowing that Evangeline and Crackers could handle things if there was a problem. There were always shifters running patrols of the pack territory perimeter.

Then I caught sight of Crackers heading toward Evangeline with a hurried pace, lines clear on his forehead. Those two co-managed the pack whenever Kicks wasn’t here. Whatever was going on had made him walk a little faster than normal.

Don’t do anything stupid or rash until I return… Those had been Kicks’ last words.

There was nothing stupid about helping out during a threat when I was the deadliest person in this pack.

Evangeline wouldn’t bring the threat to my attention. It wasn’t how pack dynamics worked. They had a system, go-tos. I hadn’t been around long enough to be on that list, even though I could probably neutralize a threat better than anyone here.

I headed their way. Crackers and Evangeline both looked at me as I joined them.

“I know there’s a problem,” I said. We didn’t have the time to pretend they were talking about something else. If this was a dry well or a spoiled crop, I might’ve tried the fake ignorance for a few minutes. But there were humans in our territory, enough that I could smell them.

Evangeline parted her lips, looking as if she doubted her ears.

Crackers just came out with it. “You do?”

I hadn’t exactly tried to hide the changes in me, but I hadn’t broadcast them either. There never seemed to be a good time to yell out, Hey, I have something dark growing in me and now I can hear and see better than even you guys . It just never seemed like good small talk, something that should be blurted out over pancakes.

“I can sense them but I don’t have details. I’m assuming the patrols do. What are the reports?”

The two of them looked at each other. Evangeline eventually shrugged, and Crackers nodded.

“There are two separate groups of humans approaching, one behind the other, probably about twenty in total,” Crackers said. “They’ve got guns and are so heavily armed that they don’t appear to be coming to see if we’d like to trade.”

“No. Heavily armed is ‘we’re coming to take.’” I took a deep breath. “Coming in from the east?”

They glanced at each other, looking a little rattled.

Evangeline nodded. “We’re deciding on who to send, but since there’s so many, we don’t want to deplete the pack in case it’s a trap.”

“I’ll go handle them,” I said. “While I’m gone, get the kids and round them up in the schoolhouse. Set Magnum and a few others on guard. We don’t need them running off into the woods until this is handled. Spread out and make sure there aren’t any other groups nearby.”

Evangeline’s mouth hung open. Crackers looked back and forth from her to me.

We didn’t have time for them to come to terms with this new me.

“Where are Buddie and Rastin?” I asked, although I’d already sensed them close by.

“Right here,” Rastin said, Buddie close on his heels. Any hint of a conflict was like shooting out flares—he was drawn to a fight like a moth to a flame. It might’ve been the only thing he liked more than women although it might’ve been a tie. He really liked women.

“You two want to go take a walk with me?” I asked. “We need to have a chat with some people heading this way.”

“Sounds like fun to me,” Rastin said. Buddie shrugged, not looking like he cared whether he went or stayed.

“We’ll be back,” I said to Evangeline, who was still trying to determine what she was supposed to do in this situation.

“You sure about this?” she finally asked.

“Positive.” I nodded.

“Here, take this,” Crackers said, tossing me a short-range radio.

I caught it with a nod and headed out.

“You’re not nervous at all, are you?” Buddie said as we neared the edge of our territory and I took the lead.

“Nope,” I said. I was more put out by the patch of poison ivy I was climbing through.

“You’re getting kind of, like…badass.”

I wasn’t sure if that was the most accurate word, but if it made them feel better… It was hard to have nerves when you couldn’t die.

Which reminded me: “Make sure you stay behind me, okay? You’re more for visual effect.” I couldn’t get Rastin and Buddie killed. They were like uncles to Charlie. It would be very bad form.

“We’re what?” Buddie asked, as if his ears were clogged.

Rastin’s face screwed up and he turned to Buddie. “Is she saying we’re, like— trophy wives or some shit?”

Clearly these two weren’t comfortable in the arm candy column. I was going to need to be more careful with my wording going forward. “I didn’t mean it like that. All I’m saying is it might be easier for me to take the lead.”

They both stared at me like I’d dumped a bucket of freezing water on their heads.

“Holy shit. We’re her bitches,” Rastin said.

“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” I said, trying to think up a way to soften the blow. “If I walked over and said, Hey, my bitches, you wouldn’t think twice, would you?”

Rastin said, “We’re her bitches ?”

Buddie laid a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “It’s okay. So she’s scarier than us now? Did you really want to be able to compete with her kind of freak show anyway?”

Rastin shrugged out of his grasp. “She is not scarier than me. Take that back.”

Buddie shook his head. “She is. I’m sorry, but it’s true. She’s scarier than all of us, and we’ll have to come to terms with it.”

“I’m not coming to terms with shit. If I walked around in my beast form, we’d see who was scarier,” Rastin said.

“Yeah, until she walks up all cute and innocent and people start dropping like flies. I’d put my money on her ‘cause that’s some real creepy shit,” Buddie shot back.

I stepped in between them. “Can you please shut up? We have other things to deal with right now.” Once they seemed to agree, I began walking again.

“Her heartbeat is barely pulsing over a dead person’s,” Buddie whispered. “We’re about to confront a group that wants to kill us, probably rape her before they do, and she can’t even get her heart rate up. She’s scarier, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

I shot them a look over my shoulder. “Shut up. We’re almost on them.”

I scanned the area and spotted an arm here and a foot there, all tucked behind shrubs.

“I don’t want to have to kill you,” I said, my voice raised so they could easily hear me. “Leave now, and we won’t.”

A man stepped forward. His hair was overgrown and greasy, but he looked fit enough. He might’ve been in his forties, or thirties and just not aging well. The look in his eyes made me wonder what his life had been before Death Day, and I had a feeling he’d risen in standing with the demise of our laws. Another man followed him out, looking a little less hardened, a little smaller, a little less of pretty much everything across the board. The only thing he wasn’t second at was sticking out his chest.

I could spot more of them in the trees around us. As long as they didn’t have silver bullets, it wouldn’t be that much of a problem for Buddie and Rastin. Death wouldn’t let a bullet of any kind get near me. She’d burn this forest to the ground first.

“You three are going to kill us?” the leader scoffed, and then spat at the ground.

I hated when people spat. It was a personal pet peeve. I smiled anyway. “Yes. Well, technically, I will, but I like to give them some of the credit for coming along.”

“Is this shit for real?” Rastin mumbled.

“I’m sorry ,” I said. “That was just for effect. If you’d like to shift and show them how scary you are, go ahead. I’m not trying to steal the spotlight. I was just trying to finish this up quickly so we could have a peaceful lunch.” If this got ugly, I’d have to let Rastin kill at least one. He was really getting very sensitive about this.

“Rastin,” Buddie said, “Evangeline’s got her chili cooking. Can you let her do this quickly if she can? I’m hungry.”

“Oh shit. Forgot about the chili.” Rastin looked back to me. “Go ahead. Do whatever.” He waved a hand at the men.

Those men were now staring at us with more weariness than when I’d been threatening them. They might’ve been getting the picture that they really weren’t an issue to us.

I sighed. “I don’t want to have to kill you all. Not because I think you’re a stellar example of humanity but because there just aren’t that many people left in the world, and I’m hoping a couple of you might be redeemable,” I said, scanning the numbers in the woods. “So this is what I’m going to offer you: walk away now, and you all get to live. Get aggressive, and I’ll have to kill one of you as an example. If you still don’t heed my warning, I’ll kill three in the next round.”

There was a brief moment of silence. Then the leader snorted, taking a step closer. He looked me up and down. “I’m not leaving here unless it’s with all your shit and every woman here, especially you. I bet you’re a great fuck. I like my women feisty.”

A low growl rumbled from behind me. I wasn’t sure whether it was from Rastin or Buddie. Might’ve been both.

I didn’t need them to defend my honor, and I certainly wasn’t interested in letting this situation get any messier than it needed to be. I had plans tonight—a book I wanted to read, plus that pesky little promise to Kicks I wouldn’t do anything stupid while he was gone.

“This your friend?” I asked, gesturing to Mr. Lesser. The man in question shifted uncomfortably under my gaze, clearly confused by the shift in conversation.

“Yes. He’s my friend ,” the leader said, seeming to find some humor in my choice of names.

As much as I disliked this guy, I wasn’t crazy about his number two either. This was going to be a tough one.

“Which one of you has killed more people?” I asked.

The leader smiled, showing off a missing front tooth. “I have.”

Maybe not so tough after all. “Sorry, but I did say this was coming.”

With a flick of my wrist, the leader collapsed to the ground, turning that horrible gray color that happened to my victims. His friend gasped, staring at the ground as if trying to figure out what had happened.

“I killed your friend. He’s dead, but feel free to confirm it.” I waved a hand toward the body.

A flurry of shots were fired, but nothing touched me. I glanced back at Rastin and Buddie.

Rastin shook his head.

Buddie said, “Nope. Didn’t hit me either.”

“What the hell are you people?” Mr. Lesser asked.

“All you need to know is that was your warning,” I said, pointing to his now-deceased gray leader. “Next wave of my hand, I take three. After that, six. Have you had enough yet?”

The blood drained from his face. It didn’t take long for the panic to set in. He ran. They all did, even giving up their hiding spots in order to get out of here faster. They went crashing through the trees and branches in a frantic scramble to escape.

“Feel free to gossip with your friends about this!” I yelled at their backs.

I turned, and Rastin threw up his hands. “Okay, fine . She’s scarier, and we’re her bitch boys. I’m man enough to live with it.”

I couldn’t help but laugh, heading back toward the path.