Authors: Bec McMaster
It didn’t come.
“Keep walking,” he murmured. “We’ll strike a light up ahead. Just hold on to me, and don’t let go.”
His hand was hard and callused around hers. An odd feeling. Riley staggered through the darkness, feeling almost trapped in some airless vacuum. The only link to the world was Wade’s hand, and the knowledge that his warm, broad body was just a step ahead of her. She had to fight the urge to grab hold of him with her other hand, just to reassure herself that he was there.
He stopped and Riley hovered at his side, her body trembling. “You need to calm down,” he whispered. “It’s a wonder they haven’t heard you breathing.”
Riley swallowed, her eyes rolling. “I can’t help it. It’s just so dark. I can hardly breathe.”
“There’s plenty of air.”
“I know that,” she snapped. “It’s just so still in here. No wind. I can almost feel the mountain pressing down on me.” The thought sent a droplet of sweat between her breasts. “Oh, God,” she whispered. “What if the tunnel narrows? What if it collapses?”
Warm hands cupped her face. An electric presence she could almost feel along her skin as his breath trembled over her cheeks. She found she could breathe a little easier, knowing he was there.
“The tunnel doesn’t narrow. I’ve been this way.”
She could see nothing in the dark beyond his faint silhouette. But she looked up anyway. The soft pads of his fingertips stroked lightly across her cheeks.
“Where’s your courage now?” he whispered. “Where’s that brash, in-my-face attitude you’ve been throwing at me at every chance?”
Riley licked her lips. “You left me underground.”
“I left the lights on.”
“There was something coming. Something deep in the facility... And you left me there.” Her breath was a harsh pant. She clenched her fists, hating the vulnerability. She’d always been tough. Her daddy had taught her to pick herself up when she fell, and this was no different. But she couldn’t chase away the fear prickling over her skin, or the sensation that a vise was slowly squeezing her chest.
“I won’t leave you here, darlin’. I promise.”
Riley looked up, though the world was nothing but darkness. The words were close, whispered. But how much could she trust them? How much could she––
Warm lips brushed her own. The world stilled, and Riley froze with it as Wade kissed her. So light, almost a phantom touch, the whisper of his mouth like cool silk after the hot desert sun. Her lips parted on a gasp, and he stepped closer as if that were permission, hands cupping her face, his mouth covering her own.
He kissed her slowly, as if there were all the time in the world. As if he knew she wouldn’t – couldn’t – push him away. The first brush of his tongue made her shiver, her hands rising to his chest hesitantly. This was madness. She’d never felt the way she did right then. All hot and shivery, her nipples hardening into tight peaks. His tongue brushing her own, dancing with it, tempting her to kiss him back.
Before she could realize what she was doing – what she was letting him do – he lifted his head. “There now,” he murmured, humor thick and lazy in his voice. “Now you’re not breathing at all. Won’t nobody hear us coming now.”
He laughed softly.
“Son of a bitch.” Riley shoved him away, her hand drifting to her lips. She could taste him still, feel the imprint of his chest against her fingertips. What the hell had she just done? Or let him do, rather? She could pretend as much as she liked, but she’d offered not one ounce of token protest.
She spun around, but the world was a wall of blackness. “Don’t you ever do that again.”
“Now she protests,” he muttered under his breath, turning away from her. “Don’t get excited. Just tryin’ to take your mind off things. Looks like it worked.”
Worked?
Her lips burned and she could taste him still, the imprint of his touch burned into her skin. “I wasn’t getting excited,” she retorted. “Just so you know.”
Faint laughter. Her hands balled into fists, but he was right. She wasn’t thinking about the oppressive dark anymore. She couldn’t get the memory of that kiss out of her head.
The sound of flint striking echoed in the darkness and a small light flared. Wade held his piece of tinder up, searching for something along the walls. “There it is.” He reached up and flipped a switch. “Emergency lights. Solar-powered.” Tracks of light sprang up along the walls, shooting away into the darkness. It was just enough to highlight the tunnel ahead, some of them buzzing and spitting from disuse. “Come on, princess. This way.”
Riley stared ahead. There’d be more dark, more enclosed spaces. And maybe whatever had been making that noise. But this was the only way to get Jimmy back, and though she didn’t have any family left, out here in the Badlands, the people of her settlement
were
family. She’d been in charge of their expedition, and she’d made the choice to hunt one more nestling, knowing the sun was sinking toward the horizon. If she’d left it alone, she and Jimmy would have gotten back nice and early, and none of this would ever have happened.
Steeling herself, she took a deep breath and brushed past him. “Call me ‘princess’ again, and I’ll crown you.”
A soft chuckle followed her down the tunnel.
The floor was worn smooth, the tunnel carved from the mountain. The light was just enough to see by. “This is obviously man-made,” she whispered. “Who makes a tunnel that ends at a cliff face?”
“Someone who wanted an escape route.”
“Escape from what though? What were they doing out here?” Silence greeted this question. Riley risked a glance toward him, certain she’d find him still gloating, but the only expression on his face was an intense one. “How’d you know this existed?”
Blue eyes flickered toward her. “Maybe I did some exploring when I first set up camp.”
“Yet you never came across anything that might have been making a noise?”
“Maybe it didn’t want to come across me.” Wade glanced ahead. The tunnel ended in a corner. He put a hand out and Riley stopped, letting him go ahead. The shotgun in hand, he peered around the corner, and then slowly stepped around it. “Lights are out in this section,” he said. “Strange.”
Riley wet her lips.
Buck up, princess
. Somehow, her inner voice sounded a lot like Wade. “You hear anything coming?”
“Barely.” He gestured her forward. “You’re making more than enough noise to cancel anything else out.”
Scowling, she stepped closer to him. “How far does this section go?”
“A quarter mile,” he murmured. “Then there’s a heap of steps that open into the lower level, where most of the quarantine cells were.”
“Are there lights ahead?”
“Hopefully.” A slight pause. “Though there should be lights here too. The globes can’t all have busted.”
“Come on then.” She swallowed hard. “You’re a warg. You should be able to smell anything coming, shouldn’t you?”
A long, weighty silence.
“Follow me.” All traces of humor had dropped from his voice. She was surprised at the brusque tone and no-nonsense nature.
Was there more to Wade than she’d first expected? Hints of an almost military efficiency kept sneaking through. As though the devil-may-care attitude was just a façade, easily worn, easily cast aside.
Footsteps shuffled and she scurried after, running straight into his broad back. He caught her by the hip, holding her still as he sniffed the air. His palm was warm through her jeans, the heat of his body seeming to leech through to her skin. “Hold my shirt,” he said. “Don’t make any noise. If I tell you to run, you get the hell out of here.”
“What is it?”
“I don’t like this.” Wade breathed deeply. “Something stinks.”
“Like what?” Riley could detect only the faintest, slightly musty odor.
There was a long moment of silence. The darkness only made it heavier. “How badly do you want the boy back?”
Riley’s heart leapt into her throat. “Why? What is it?” What could scare a man like Wade? What would a monster fear? Unfortunately, her mind could provide all sorts of answers, here in the dark.
“You were right,” he murmured. “There is something here. Something that stinks of rot.”
Her breath caught in her throat. “Revenants?”
“Revenants,” he confirmed. “So, I’m asking again... How much does the boy mean to you? Because I’m fairly sure we’re not alone down here.”
W
HEN THE WORLD
blackened and turned, the wargs weren’t the only creatures to come out of the shadows. Stories had been passed down from the old folk at Haven about men who’d hidden in underground bunkers and caves near the Great Divide. Years passed, the skies cleared, and settlers began to venture back into the world. Communities began to form, and traders travelled from bunker to bunker. There was a rumor of precious minerals being found near the site where the meteor hit. Minerals that were rare on Earth, like iridium. Hundreds headed into the Great Divide, near the landing site, digging in and settling down, trying to scrape out enough to sell to the tech whizzes in the Eastern Confederacy.
And then, one day, the meteor site went quiet, where they'd been digging below to get at chunks of the meteor. All the miners who lived there never came out of those tunnels again.
The nearest mining camp sent others in, shielded by gas masks and old pre-D hazmat suits. They found every single one of the bodies down below and took them back for a decent burial. A gas leak, some claimed.
Three days later, the bodies crawled out of the earth they’d been buried in, and one thing became very clear – they weren’t human anymore.
Whatever the pathogen was, it hadn't come from Earth.
Riley’s breath caught in her chest, and she shook her head. “Revenants.” Only one thing frightened her more than the thought of being alone in the dark. They said once a revenant got hold of you, they didn’t stop to kill you first before they started eating. And being eaten alive made you one of the lucky ones.
Her fingers curled in Wade’s shirt. For a moment, fear was so thick in her mouth that she thought about turning around, leaving Jimmy to his fate.
Coward
.
She’d never forgive herself. But at least she’d be alive.
“Well?” Wade’s sultry voice pushed at her. “Your choice, darlin’. Though I’m inclined to get the hell outta here.”
“They might not smell us,” she whispered, arguing with herself as much as him. “We might get past them. There’s a lot of tunnels down here, aren’t there?”
“Dozens,” he confirmed. “But I don’t like your chances.”
“Why?”
“Can’t you hear that?”
Riley cocked her head. Silence. “Nothing.”
“I can hear something moving. They like the dark, the cool,” he said. “That’s why you find ‘em in mines and caves. Which means they don’t see real well. They hunt by scent. Best we go back.”
Jimmy
. She bit her lip. When he was just born, she’d been only a little girl. Mabel had let her in to see him, with his bright thatch of fine red hair and blinking, sleepy expression. He’d been the little brother she’d never had. A bit too scrawny to keep up with the other kids, he’d been mocked by the boys for his red hair. Riley had taken pity on him, teaching him the things every borderlander needed to know. How to hunt, to fight, to use a gun, knife and bow.
Heck, she’d only recently taught him to drive.
“How do we kill them?” she asked.
Silence.
“Better to ask how do we avoid getting eaten ourselves?” he said in a disgusted voice. A sigh. “We’re going after the kid, aren’t we?”
Riley nodded, before she could change her mind. “I’m not leaving him in the hands of reivers.”
“You’re a fool,” he said softly.
“You’re still going to help me?”
“Gave my word, didn’t I?”
Another incongruity. “I wouldn’t have expected that to hold.”
His hand slid from hers. “You know nothing about me.” He gave a jerk and his shirt tore from her grasp. Riley found herself half-reaching for him.
Fabric rustled, and she could hear his breath near her waist. “What are you doing?” she asked.
He rifled through her pack. “Need a torch,” he grunted. More fabric rustled. The sound of his shirt sliding over his shoulders. “Hold this.”
He shoved the gun into her hands.
Two seconds later, flint rasped and fire flickered, highlighting Wade’s kneeling form. Riley caught just a glimpse of burnished skin and his tight black tank before it died, leaving her retinas scarred with the image of him.
One more flicker, and the light caught. Wade yanked a battered flask out of his hip pocket and tore his shirt into strips. He dampened the shirt, wrapped it around a stick, and lit the end. Fire bloomed. It wasn’t great, but it would do.
Stuffing the flint into his pocket, he lifted the homemade torch high, the muscles in his shoulder straining. Both of them peered down the passage.
“I assume you know how to shoot? Something more than a man’s foot?” he asked.
“I hunt,” she replied. The shotgun’s weight took away some of her fear. That and Wade’s brusque tone. He moved like a man who knew what he intended to do. That was almost as reassuring as the gun.
“Hold this,” he said, handing her the torch. Its heat scalded her skin, but she held it. Wade knelt and dragged the hem of his jeans up, revealing heavy boots and a knife sheathe strapped around his calf. The knife glided free with a steely rasp, and he spun it in his fingers as if learning the feel of it. Blue eyes met hers. “You see anything, you shoot it. Between the eyes if you can. Don’t go for a body shot. It barely slows ‘em, unless the impact knocks them down. If you can’t hit the head, go for the knees. Don’t leave one at your back, you’ll be amazed what they can survive. So a shot to the knee, then one to the head when it goes down. Stop shooting when it stops moving, not before. Don’t get within range of their hands. They’re faster than you think.”
“You’ve come up against a revenant before?”
“I used to hunt ‘em.” His gaze roved the corridor. Head cocked. Listening. He reached back for the torch. “Was a bounty hunter once. Out on the Rim.”
“Is that how you got clawed up?”
He shot her a short look. Question time over. “Only other way to kill a revenant’s by fire.” He gestured at the torch in his hand. “I don’t need to see. That’s there to make sure they stay down.”
“Got it.”
He gave her his back, standing lightly on his toes, peering into the darkness ahead. Tension rippled across his broad shoulders, and his grip flexed on the hilt of the heavy hunting knife. “You get bitten, and I’ll shoot you myself.”
A terrifying thought. Her mouth went dry. “Thanks.”
“Try not to get bitten though. I need you in one piece.”
Riley shot a hard glare at his back. Prince Charming in all his glory. “Won’t the wargs hear the shots?”
“Plan’s changed. Do you want the boy or not?”
“Yes.”
“Fine. They know we’re here,” he said. “The shot’ll echo through the mountains. They’ll think we’re coming from outside.”
“But they’ll still know we’re coming. We’ve lost the element of surprise.”
He shot her one last hot look over his shoulder, the flames glinting off the hard sapphire of his eyes. “Darlin’, your task is to survive the revenants. Then think about the job ahead.”
D
amned foolish quest
.
A frown tugged his brows down, and Lucius stared into the dark as he crept along the passage. The cause for the lack of light soon became clear – every fluorescent globe had long since been smashed, pieces of it littering the floor and crunching beneath his boots.
He didn’t even know why he was doing this. Why bother with the boy? He had what he wanted – a way to get at McClain. All he had to do was gag Riley, toss her over his shoulder, and head out into the desert. He’d never even give the boy another thought.
Riley swallowed hard behind him. And that, he thought, was his reason. Fear rolled off her in waves. Terrified of the dark, of being left alone, of the revenants, and she was still willing to risk this. If she could face her fears, then he wouldn’t stop her. An odd mix of admiration and frustration rolled through him. The woman was hellish tough, yet strangely vulnerable. A damned tempting combination.
Besides, he’d given his word.
Something shuffled in the dark ahead. Lucius held his hand up, and the sudden silence told him she’d frozen. A little rasp sounded as she sucked in a breath.
Dust stirred. One. Two. Maybe three creatures. More behind them. Dull cataract-filmed eyes reflected the firelight. No sound of breathing – they didn’t as a rule. Which meant they couldn’t make a single noise. Silent predators that haunted the dark depths of the borderlands. More a soulless construct now, rather than a personality. All they felt was hunger.
His grip on the knife eased.
Come on, you bastards
. It had been a long time since he’d hunted revenants. Out on the Rim, when he’d ridden as a hunter, they’d earned fifty credits a scalp. A man could feed his entire settlement on that kind of money. Course, the risk was greater than the reward, and he’d been human then. Indestructible. Young and fucking stupid.
Lucius took a step forward, knife held defensively. He wasn’t stupid anymore. He knew the monsters bit back now.
It didn’t take long for them to overcome their wariness. Wasn’t much to eat out here in the desert, besides the odd coyote or rabbit. Human flesh was just too irresistible, even if the scent of him warned them off.
The lead revenant loped out of the shadows with an odd shuffling gait. It moved quickly, despite the shamble, and the stink hit him full on. Lucius twisted out of the way, sinking the knife into its throat and slicing through the thick, corded muscle. He spun on his heel, torching the straggly ends of the creature’s ratty hair. The stink of burnt hair made him gag, but the fire spread like a lightning strike on dry tinder. Leapt from the dreadlocks to the rough shirt the revenant wore, turning into an inferno.
The creature’s mouth opened in a silent scream, and it tore at its burning hair.
“Oh, my God. Oh, my God,” Riley panted. She worked the shotgun with both hands, her eyes showing far too much white as she pumped it. Strain tightened her mouth, but she aimed into the shadows and pulled the trigger.
The shotgun roared.
Lucius stepped back, kicking the creature in the chest. It staggered back into the oncoming rush of revenants, and three of them went down in a twitching, burning heap. Decaying flesh melted like wet sludge as the cleansing flames leapt from creature to creature.
The one Riley had shot twitched on the ground, a hole blown clean through its forehead. She stepped up to his side, pumped the shotgun, and blew the rest of its head off.
Good girl
.
“Come on,” he growled, shoving her in the back. “Keep moving. We’re only drawing attention here. There’s more coming.”
A pair of them shuffled back in the darkness as he stepped forward, waving the torch in a threatening arc. Keeping an eye on the burning heap, he stepped past and gestured Riley after him as she frantically reloaded.
The torch was slowly dying. Lucius reached down and ripped the smoldering femur off one of the revenants before discarding the torch. The sticky flesh and rotting clothes burned a sickly green at the end of the bone, but it was light.
He arched a brow when he saw her sickened gaze. “What?” he mouthed.
He’d seen a hell of a lot of worse things in his time. He’d done worse things. The urge to survive had driven away the last of any squeamishness he might have had.
The corridor was littered with bones as they stalked down it. Mostly squirrel and coyote, but the occasional human skull gleamed in the shadows. Revenants hovered just out of sight. They hunted in packs because they were cowards at heart. One sign of weakness though and they’d be upon him, burying him in numbers, their blunt, stained teeth tearing at his flesh.
A shadowy figure swathed in rags lunged at them from a niche in the rock face. Riley shot it in the face, stepping forward grimly as she blew holes in its head. Her expression was stark, her eyes panicked. But her hands never shook.
“You’re gettin’ the hang of that,” he said.
She gave him a thin-lipped smile, reloaded, then jerked the barrel to her shoulder and aimed at him. Lucius swung his arms up to cover his face, but the shot went wide.
Something hit the floor behind him. He looked down at the twitching creature that’d dropped from the ceiling and was silently screaming. One sweep of the improvised torch and the revenant started burning, its body writhing in sickly green flames. Lucius looked up. Son of a bitch had been waiting for him.
“You get bitten and I’ll shoot you myself,” Riley threw his own words back in his face, stepping past him with the gun held warily.
“That’s one of the benefits of being a warg,” he replied, following her. “Immunity from certain infections.”
“Didn’t ever think there’d be a benefit,” she muttered.
He bared his teeth in a smile. “Silver linings and all, darlin’.”
They reached the stairs with no further mishaps. Something had carved a tunnel just past the stairs into the cavern systems. A revenant hissed at him from the shadows, and Lucius stepped forward threateningly. It scurried backward, its milky-white eyes gleaming. He flung the femur after it, and a wall of flame surged up as it struck the creature’s dry clothes and flesh, revealing a whole horde of the damned zombies in the cave beyond.
Dead eyes watched them hungrily, making even him take a step back. The skin on their faces had tightened and drawn back with death, so their stained teeth looked longer and their eyes bulged. There was nothing left of the men and women they’d once been. The pathogen that fueled their cells and made them viable again existed only to feed, to spread the revenant disease.
“Jesus.” Riley wet her lips, easing up the stairs backward, one foot at a time.
Lucius eyed the pack, then followed her. “You don’t usually see so many together.”
“A lot of folks went missing here, years back.” She took another step. They were moving deeper into the shadows now. One of the revenants crept out of the cavern, watching them with hungry eyes. “Folks from Haven,” she murmured. “I keep wondering if I’ll recognize faces.”
Lucius grabbed her arm. “Come on. Let’s move. Save the sentiment for later.”
Riley yanked her arm out of his grip. “You’re a cold-hearted bastard, you know?”