Predator Girl (A Paranormal Romance) (14 page)

DANGER
NO TRESPASSING

Blue symbols were painted near the sign’s bottom. In the right hand corner, someone had spray-painted a funny two-shape with a curly tail. A black star hovered in the tail’s center, a dot beside it.

It was a Finder’s Mark. I’d learned all about them sophomore year in a class called Decoding. It was one of few classes I actually aced, for the lessons were interesting and our teacher was the awesome young Mr. Flancher. Decoding taught us about Finder’s Marks and Codes (not to be confused with Tagging Numbers). They were sets of letters and numbers that identified Otherworlder rebels. They were used on those being held captive by PIU, on uncooperative beings. They were also used on ferals, on their holding cells spread around the world. You see, not all Otherworlders have human intelligence; some are more like wild animals. Those that are dangerous and cannot be tamed or trained, the government rounds up and sticks in reserves that are out of human sight and mind. Kind of like the nymphs at Siren Lake.

Canada made a great place to station a reserve, especially for this. The curly-tailed two was a Danger Mark. In the sign’s left hand corner I found the code. It started with a HW, which meant
high warning
. Beside the HW, a bold 
25
was written. That meant whatever was behind the gate? There were twenty-five of them. For a second I wondered if it was the Jackals they were caging (had the government caught them after all?) but the code finished off with the wrong initials. If it were werewolves here, a WW would’ve been at the code’s end.

There wasn’t. Three bold letters made up the ending: TDS.

I scrunched my eyebrows.
TDS
. Crap. I couldn’t remember what that stood for.

“Jared.”

I tore my eyes off the sign. Ilume had arrived. The pack crept out of the bushes, gathering behind her. Oblivious to the bad aura here, they looked more enthused than they had in days, except for Rex.

Bringing up the rear, Rex slipped through the crowd, casually sniffing the air. Without glancing at me—the person who found his enemies’ trail—he followed the scent right up to the gates.

“They went through,” he whispered.

I jumped as skittering sounds came from below again, more this time, the sound growing louder as they moved closer to the surface.
Think, Jared, think.
Something that lives underground. Something that has the initials T—D—S. Why couldn’t I remember?

Rex’s fingers curled through the chained gates. He stared past the gates at the isolated acre of branches and leaf skeletons.

“We’re going through.” He backed away from the fence, eyeing the pack. “If the Jackals can do it, so can we. We can’t let them get away this time.”

The wolves looked iffy at first, then growled and nodded in agreement.

Ilume’s eyes flicked toward me. “What do you think, Jared?”

The pack quieted. All eyes turned to me.

I hesitated, feeling Rex’s glare. “I think it’s a bad idea—”

“Why?” Rex demanded. “Never scaled a fence before, mortal? Funny. I thought your kind had trained you better.” He smirked.

“That’s not the problem,” I snapped, then jabbed a finger at the yellow sign. “Look. Do you see that funny two with the star in the tail? That’s a Finder’s Mark, and the code on the other end tells me that beyond those gates there are twenty-five dangerous Otherworlders waiting.”

“Where?” Rex held his arms out, gesturing toward the empty space. “I don’t see a thing. Nothing, except a trail that we can’t afford to lose. It already smells old to me. Whatever path the Jackals are following, this one is fading fast. We can’t wait to find another. We go through.”

Rex and I stared each other down as the pack made funny noises, flattening their ears and shifting on their haunches. My words had hit their confidence. They seemed unsure now, like Ilume—whose arms were crossed, front teeth clamped down on her lip. The way her eyes moved between us, it was clear she was trying to pick a side.

“Rex,” she said softly. “The gates are chained shut for a reason—”

“Oh my God,” he sneered, rolling his eyes. “You’re not seriously taking his side on this, are you?”

“I’m not taking a side, I’m choosing by my own intuition—”

“But you agree with little white-bread, American boy here that we don’t cross the fence? That we lose the Jackals’ trail?”

Ilume’s nostrils flared. Her temple pulsed. “I’m saying that Jared is thinking about our well-being while you’re being a stubborn twit who just wants to win,” she snapped. “I’m saying
your
idea could be risking lives.”

“Oh, and hunting the Jackals isn’t risky business?”

The wolves all took a step back, a few sitting down. Rex’s face was tighter than an athlete’s behind. His hands curled into fists as Ilume went into statue mode, not moving or faltering under his glower.

No one noticed me when I started. Once again, I was caught up in the noise below the ground.
An Otherworlder who stays primarily underground.
That was why the clearing looked so untouched, so empty. Whatever had been trapped here was a dirt dweller.

Trapped.
Wait a second.
TDS.

“Fine.” Rex grumbled then spun toward the fence. Sticking one callused foot in the wire, he stated, “I’m going over. If no one joins me, so be it. However, Ilume, should you decide to I’ll make you a deal. You might want to listen to this, mortal.”

Trapped. Trapped.
Reluctantly, I looked at his royal wolf-assness, still thinking about that word.

“If you come with me, Ilume, as should the alpha female when she is asked,” Rex paused, hoisting himself up the fence. He climbed quicker than a monkey, like he did this every day. “If we find the Jackals’ headquarters, I will grant your pet, Jared, freedom. He can return home to his life as a Finder, so long as he’s monitored and swears to not reveal us to anyone.”

My thought process crashed. I soaked in the alpha male’s words.
Freedom.
Did he just say he would offer me my life back? My life, in exchange for finding the Jackals? I could get out of here alive. I would see my mom, Jess, Peter.

Too bad I didn’t trust him. “You’re full of shit, you know that?”

Rex chuckled. “Fine, mortal.” Sliding easily under the barbed wire, he dropped down to the other side with a light thump. “But note that I will not make such an offer again, and it is true: not one troublesome mortal to cross my path has lived.”

Now he’s threatening me.
I rolled my eyes, shaking my head. What a jerk.

Ilume stepped forward. She narrowed her eyes. “Do you mean it, Rex? If I go and we find the Jackals, will you let me set him free when this is over?”

“Ilume, he’s lying!” I exclaimed. Holy mother of pearl! She really believed the junk coming out of his mouth?

Rex snatched up his chance. Putting on a mask of seriousness, he nodded. “Unharmed and set free, but Lume, you need to listen to me from now on and stop being such a solitary.” He tossed an arm at me. “And he has to help us find the trail should we lose it again.”

“Ilume, don’t.” I tried again, wishing I could pound Rex into the ground. He was conniving and manipulative. No wonder he’d kept his place as alpha.

Ilume wasn’t listening. Her eyes roamed the fence, estimating the height and examining the barbed wire. With a heavy sigh, she moved in, slipping one foot into the fence.

Ah, hell.

Spinning on his heel, Rex started across the field.

The skittering below my feet went crazy. The sound was louder than fans at a rock concert. I could feel the vibrations now as creatures moved out of the ground, tons of legs thrumming the earth. Too many legs for a mammal. As I watched Ilume slip down after Rex and glanced again at the blue spray paint on the sign . . . I remembered.

“Ilume!” I yelled, startling everyone as I violated the quiet rule. The birds, silent until now, cried out and fled their trees. Ilume shot me this incredulous look as I pressed against the fence. “Don’t! Wait, I know what’s in there! Both of you have to come back here
now
!”

“Jared, lower your voice,” she whispered hastily. “What are you talking—”

A high-pitched scream interrupted her. The earth lurched, and a chunk of leaves and grass popped up like a lid. Two sharp, fuzzy fangs swallowed Rex’s leg, sucking him into the ground.

Now everyone dumped the quiet rule.

Hackles raised, the wolves snarled and barked, charging the gates. In the blink of an eye their paws had returned to hands. Several glowing bodies swept up and over the fence with ease. Just before hitting the ground, the glow grew brighter, and they became wolves once more, racing into the fight.

A fight they won’t win,
I thought. There were now only eleven wolves against twenty-five of them.

Twenty-five enormous trapdoor spiders.

The second the wolves hit the ground, doors came up left and right. Spiders the size of Clydesdales emerged, colliding with the claws and jaws of the hunters.

I pressed against the fence, an onlooker—something I had never been before. I hated it. I hated standing here, being a side stool while the wolves battled, taking all the wrong approaches. With the right weapons, I could be what I was trained to be. I could help. I could show them how to fight Otherworlders like these.

Or maybe I couldn’t. Howls of pain surrounded me as fangs collided with flesh and fur. I’d seen some vicious things in my time, but nothing compared to the horror I felt as I watched Althea’s sister, a red-coated wolf named Daisy, pawing at the ground. An arachnid had her by the leg. Daisy expelled a terrible noise before being dragged into the earth. Althea didn’t hear her sister as the lid slammed closed—she was too busy gnawing the head off another hungry monster.

On the ground behind Althea lay a silver wolf, someone who I had come to know as Lenny, a quiet wolf at the mansion, a kid who liked comic books and avoided the crowd. Now he was covered in blood, purple venom oozing from the wound in his leg. His pursuer wrapped its fangs around his limp body. Poisoned, Lenny couldn’t fight as the spider took him into its tunnel.

I searched left and right for Ilume, but there were three black wolves on the field, making it impossible to tell which was her. One bit its enemy in the leg, another guarded a fallen wolf and the last ran around a hole, leading its follower on a goose chase.

I couldn’t stand it anymore.

Sprinting back into the trees, I found a broken pine branch. Using my foot I snapped it in half, making a sharp edge. I ran like a track star back to the fence, throwing myself over in record time. The barbed wire caught the back of my neck, but I ignored the pain.

The ground quivered where Rex had disappeared. Suddenly dirt and debris exploded into the air, and a golden wolf emerged. Rex, bitten and bloodied, went barreling into a spider that almost took Lola. In one chomp he ripped into the spider’s abdomen. The creature let out an ear-splintering cry, stumbling into its hole.

My damp sneakers pounded the ground. I heard the monster below my feet, getting ready to leap out. I slid to a stop just in time as a small trapper jumped up in front of me. I jammed my stick into its face, gouging out a middle eye. It let out that same nasty shriek, yellow liquid streaming its face. It disappeared.

“Yeah! Take that, sucker!” I yelled, charging in to take the next one.

I had shish-kabobed three other spiders before one of the black wolves crossed my path. Seeing the green eyes against that coal-colored coat, I knew it was her, Ilume. My stomach plummeted. A pair of brown trappers circled her, waiting for her to falter.

I raced in her direction. Two Otherworlders like those are worse than one, because they’ll fight each other over food. As I closed in, Ilume leapt out of the way just as the pair fanged each other, front legs raised high.

“Ilume!” I called, seeing that she was about to bolt off. “Wait! Stop!”

She slowed to a halt. As her head jerked in my direction, another trap opened up behind her.

It all happened so fast after that. The spider swooped down, jamming its fangs into her hip. Ilume squealed, kicking out and thrashing in the air. It stepped back, about to slip into its tunnel when I speared it through the top of the head. The spider collapsed. I grabbed Ilume by the fur, jerking her up just before the lid slammed shut.

“Ilume,” I gasped, sinking down beside her on the ground.

She trembled in the leaves. She couldn’t hold her shape. Glowing faintly, her fur coat disappeared. She curled in a naked ball, arms clasping her chest. The color drained from her face as she saw the blood and venom mixing on her thighs, trickling over her legs and lower back.

A howl filled the clearing. This must’ve meant retreat, for the last of the wolves bolted toward the fence, following Rex.

I estimated our position. It was too much of a risk to run back across the clearing. We were the farthest from the fence, and to follow the pack would be like trying to race across a field of explosives. No way would we make it back alive.

We’ll have to take the forest.
Behind Ilume, I stared at the curling tree limbs and curtains of moss in the forest. Trunks grew closer together, blocking out the sun. Brambles crept over the dirt, consuming nearby bushes. No trappers among that kind of terrain, but what else could be hiding in there?

“Jared.” Ilume’s voice quivered, catching my attention. She looked up at me, and for the first time I saw no trace of the alpha in her eyes. The warrior in her, the wolf, seemed to have been replaced by this terrified, injured girl.

That nagging feeling returned, stronger this time. My mind glazed over, only one thought clear: get her out, get her help. The venom of a large trapdoor spider is designed to kill large prey like wolves. These weren’t your average rodent, bird-catching spiders—they ate everything from foxes to young bears.

Bitten, poisoned, Illume would die.

“Hang in there,” I whispered. Ripping Aspen’s sweater off, I draped it over her cold body. “I’m going to get you help, okay? But you can’t go to sleep. Do
not
fall asleep, understand?”

“The wolves.
My
wolves. Rex led them into an ambush.” Her eyes welled up with tears.

“I know. I told you he was an ass.” Tucking the jacket around her, I picked her up and started toward the woods. The last of the trappers didn’t notice us. They stabbed at the fence, at the wolves that’d made it to the other side.

“You’ll listen to me next time, I hope. You should’ve just let the idiot go on his own,” I said. “God, did you
really
think he would’ve let me go? Seriously, Ilume, why did you believe him?”

“I didn’t,” she retorted. “But I have a way with Rex. If he makes me a promise, I make sure that something comes out of it.”