Hotbloods (Hotbloods #1)(78)

There was a cackling, hacking sound, and Navan and I both turned toward it. The shifter had dragged itself to the door and was halfway leaning out of it.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Navan growled.

“You two are both fools,” the shifter said. “I can hear everything you’re saying.”

“Yeah, well, we’re not the one who’s chained up and bleeding,” Navan retorted. “So I suggest you shut up. Go make yourself comfortable—we’re going to be here a while.”

“Coldbloods always want to act a lot smarter than they really are,” the shifter said. “We’re basically here. It’s maybe a ten-minute walk.”

Navan narrowed his eyes. “I don’t believe you.”

“Suit yourself,” the shifter said, “but you’re the one who’s going to end up looking like a fool if you sit around here waiting, only to find out you were right next to your destination.”

“Just go back inside!”

Navan waited until the shifter had disappeared back into the ship before he looked at me. “What do you think?” he asked in a low voice. “Do you think it’s telling the truth?”

“I don’t know. Maybe? Why would it lie about that?”

“It could be a trick. It might want to get us off the ship and in the woods so the others can attack us.” He frowned. “But the thing is right—I’d feel pretty stupid if the place we’re looking for really is right nearby.”

“Well,” I said, “I guess there’s only one way to find out.”

Navan ran his hand over the lower part of his face and then took a deep breath. “You’re right. But I’m not going empty-handed. I’m going to take both of the guns. I think I saw a holster in there with the rest of the weapons. It’d probably be a good idea to have both guns with us.”

It was hard to read the shifter’s expression when we told it that we’d walk the rest of the way. It only swiveled its eyes back and forth and then nodded. “Maybe you’re not as stupid as you look,” it finally said.

Navan flicked the chain. “You’re staying on this,” he said. “And if this turns out to be some ill-conceived little trick of yours, you’re going to wish that group of shifters really had torn you apart. The first thing I’ll do is rub salt over each and every one of your cuts, and then I’ll—”

“Okay!” I said. “Why don’t we get walking?”

The wind had picked up, and I shivered even though I had the jacket zipped up all the way. The shifter seemed unaffected by the temperature, and I hated that I was the weak link here, that I was the one who couldn’t deal with the cold.

“You okay?” Navan asked, his brow furrowed in concern.

I gritted my teeth in an attempt to keep them from clacking together. “I’m fine.”

“You’re cold,” he said. He looked at the shifter, who was probably about ten feet in front of us. “You better be taking us the right way,” he warned.

The shifter cast a casual glance over its shoulder. “Don’t worry,” it said. “If the girl dies out here, I’ll happily dispose of her body.”

Navan jerked the chain so hard the shifter fell back, gagging. “Keep moving, or I’m going to dispose of you.”

The anger ebbed on Navan’s face as he looked back at me, and though his protectiveness was comforting, a larger part of me didn’t like feeling as though he needed to take care of me. I tried to think of being in a hot tub, of drinking tea, a warm bubble bath, wool sweaters, down comforters. Anything that might help generate some body heat.

Luckily, we didn’t have much further to walk. After several more minutes, the shifter stopped.

“We’re here,” it said. “See? That took about fifteen minutes. We would’ve made it in ten if you hadn’t been walking so slowly.”

“Where is it?” I asked, ignoring that last comment. All it looked like was another forest clearing.

The shifter sneered. “We’ve protected the area with an invisibility shield. I highly doubt that any humans would be intelligent enough to stumble upon our settlement, but we knew the Fed might be lurking.”

I glanced at Navan, who was staring straight ahead, as though he actually could sense something there in the clearing.

“It’s telling the truth,” he said finally.

The shifter grinned, clearly pleased with itself.

“Great,” I said sarcastically. “So you told the truth. Now what?”

“Now,” the shifter said, “you are going to have the chance to look inside. And I can all but guarantee that you are not going to believe your eyes.”

Navan rolled his eyes. “I highly doubt that.”

The grin on the shifter’s face widened, exposing those yellow shards of teeth. A wave of revulsion washed over me, and an uneasiness rose in my stomach, though I wasn’t quite sure why. Our mission was almost complete—shouldn’t I be feeling something closer to relief?

The shifter took a few steps forward and then stopped, holding a hand up. It pressed its palm into the air, and though I couldn’t see anything, it was clear that its hand had come to rest upon something.

“Here,” it said, and suddenly, the air started to shimmer, and I could see the outline of a huge dome. The shifter swiped its hand to the side and a gap in the dome appeared. “Have a look.”