Gaslight (Crossbreed #4)(107)
“None of them do. But rest assured, the higher authority will see to it that his neck meets the blade. If you want, I’ll buy you tickets to the show.” He squeezed my shoulder. “Besides, it’ll take you at least twenty minutes to cut off his head with that puny little dagger.”
“That’s the idea.”
“Viktor’s coming up the pier. Do the right thing, Raven. We have to choose our battles wisely.”
“Fine.” I pulled out my dagger and then jammed it straight into his heart. “Keep the souvenir, you filthy vermin.”
I stood up and grabbed the crowbar, using it to pry open the end of the crate until the wood split. The end fell open, and I stared down at a brunette lying on her back. When I pulled the blankets away, her innocence really hit hard. She couldn’t have been more than nineteen, a gold bracelet on her wrist and fingernails painted purple. A stake grotesquely protruded from her chest, and someone had closed her eyes.
“So that’s how he kept them quiet,” I muttered. “Hang on. It’ll only hurt for a second.” I gripped the stake, which was the diameter of an arrow, and yanked it out.
She curled into a fetal position and made the most animalistic sound I’d ever heard. Once over the initial shock of the pain, her tears flowed.
Christian pulled me aside and gave me a pensive stare. “Let me do my job.”
“You aren’t going to hurt her.”
He held my gaze, but I quickly looked away. “No, I’m not going to hurt the poor lass. I’m going to make her remember everything, and then I’m going to make her forget.”
Before I turned away, I clasped his shoulder. “Make her remember something happy.”
We waited thirty minutes before the local Council showed up and collected our statements. They reached out to the higher authority in Cognito and spoke with our contact to confirm the details of the case. After that, they strongly advised that we be gone by morning, though it sounded less like a suggestion and more like a threat. Meanwhile, with it still being dark, we needed to find shelter before we froze to death. One of the investigators gave us the location of a friend nearby who would take us in, but we had to go on foot.
“You sure you don’t want me to carry you?” Christian asked.
I trudged through the snow behind Viktor’s wolf. “Unless I die, that’s not gonna happen. Does Viktor even know where we’re going?”
“Afraid of a midnight stroll in the woods?”
“Only if we get eaten by a bear.”
“Unless you run up on them, most bears will leave you alone.” He put his arm around me. “It’s the grizzlies you have to worry about. See one of those, you best lie down and cover your neck.”
“Fuck that. I’m running.”
“They won’t kill you, lass. Not unless you fight or run, and you won’t get far trying to flash through snow. You just let them gnaw on your skull for a little while until they get tired of you.”
I elbowed him away and found myself scanning the woods. Fighting a Vampire was something I could handle; being fast food for a wild animal wasn’t. Because Viktor was in wolf form, I’d worn his coat over mine for extra warmth. We’d briefly gone back to where the plane crashed to collect his clothes and get Blue. She remained in animal form, probably too tired to shift back. It was safer for her to stay that way since her clothes had burned in the crash. She’d perched on Christian’s shoulder for a short while before flapping from tree to tree ahead of us.
“How do we even know this guy will take us in?” I continued.
“We don’t. But do you think the locals back at the pier took kindly to a bunch of interlopers invading their country and causing all that trouble on their ship? I’m sure they were standing in line to board us for the night. Ever slept with one eye open?”
“It’s not like we were taking down random Vampires.”
“Aye, but they don’t know the details. Word spreads fast in a small town, and we’re better off taking the investigator’s advice and hunkering down with his friend for the night.”
I snorted. “He never said they were friends.” I switched my voice to mimic the investigator. “Go stay with Crazy Joe. He lives three miles deep in the woods. No one will find you there.” I stumbled over deadfall and regained my footing. “That’s hardly a recommendation. He probably meant no one will ever find our bodies.”
“Well, I don’t think there’s a hotel just around the corner, and even if there were, we wouldn’t be welcome.”
“I’m sure this is funny to a guy who goes skinny-dipping in Antarctica, but the rest of us are cold, and I can’t feel my feet anymore.”
“Worry not. You can’t get frostbite. Even if you did, it wouldn’t last.”
“That’s reassuring.”
The smell of charred wood thickened the clean air, and my nose twitched. Viktor’s wolf barked a few times before shifting to human form. What a relief. I was looking forward to a cozy bed and some warm blankets. I steered my eyes away while Christian handed Viktor his clothes.
“Let me do all the talking,” Viktor said.
We trudged ahead until we came upon a quaint cabin with smoke billowing out of a chimney pipe. The snow near the windows glowed orange from the candlelight inside. Someone had cleared a pathway that branched in two opposite directions, each leading to the woods. No driveway, no car, no sign of civilization.