Skye Cree 03: The Bones Will Tell (30 page)

S
kye heard wheezing and someone gasping for air. She didn’t realize she was the one having trouble breathing until she flicked open her eyes. She tried to focus. Unable to speak, she tried to block out the white bright light that wanted to blind her. As her eyes cleared, she saw two of Josh crouching above her. She watched as tears rolled down both his faces. Maybe it was the raging pain in her head that had her seeing double.

When the image finally merged together as one,
everything inside her seared with heat. She felt a flash of energy as it spread throughout her body, organ to organ, limb to limb. Every nerve in her tingled.

She tried to sit up
, swayed a little. “What happened to Berkenshaw?”

“You
got the bastard.”

“
He’s dead?”

“A knife
buried up to its hilt through his heart generally does the trick every time. That’s my girl.”

Her head still buzzed with a dull pain.
“Is Zoe all right?”

“I don’t know.
We need to find her.”

“
Go.” She pushed at his chest. “I told her to head back to the car. You have to see if she’s there.”

“I’m not leaving you here alone
, Skye.”

“
There’s another killer here, Josh. Did you get the other one?”

“There’s no denying s
omebody was here to bash your skull in.”

“It felt like t
hey used a baseball bat. You have to go find Zoe. I don’t know how long I was unconscious.”

“Not long.”

“But by now, he could already have her. Go!”

“Come on, get up and go with me.
Can you stand?” When she nodded, he pulled her to her feet even though she was far from steady or a hundred-percent. “We’ll both go find her. Do you think you can walk?”

About that time, her eyes
tracked to the spot where Kiya lay, spent. There, under a rocky mountain maple, with golden paintbrush all around, the silver wolf looked near death.

Skye’s heart
simple broke. She went over and kneeled to where Kiya struggled for breath. As the wolf’s violet eyes fluttered closed, Skye ran a hand through the thick coat of silver fur. Her fingers gripped the medicine bag around her neck. She began to chant, asking for help from the Great Spirit.

“
Fight like I fought and you’ll be okay. You have to fight, Kiya. Don’t die on me. Don’t let go. You will not die.”

Josh went down on one knee, stroked Kiya’s head.
“The merge took everything out of your wolf, Skye. Kiya’s weak just as she was before when she did the same for me. But she’ll be okay. You know she’ll be okay. All she needs now is time to heal.”

A sob caught in her throat
. “I’ll be back, Kiya, I have to go make sure Zoe’s okay. You understand that, right?” When the wolf lifted her head to howl, Skye got to her feet, still wobbly.

“Come on, we need to go find Zoe.” Josh grabbed Skye’s hand, leading her
through the underbrush, back through the creek bed.

Having been through the transformation himself, Josh knew about how long it would take for her to start feeling revitalized.
It wasn’t until half an hour later that he could tell that Skye began to gain her strength back twofold. He recognized the moment it happened. He saw a light come into her eyes—the aura around her brightened. Instead of sluggish steps, her pace quickened in the way she maneuvered around the vegetation.

A
s they made their way back to the road where they’d left the car, the two said nothing. It took them twenty minutes to reach the Subaru and when they did, they found it empty. 

“Damn it! Zoe! Zoe!” Skye shouted as she hit the
hood out of frustration with her hand. The force put a dent in the metal. In her dismay, Skye didn’t even notice to what degree her strength had increased. “Maybe she’s hiding. Zoe! Come on, Zoe! It’s us. Where are you?”

When she started to storm off to
search in what Josh termed was the wrong direction, he took her hand. “You’re still disoriented. Remember things have changed. Use your instincts, Skye.”

She leaned back on the vehicle, closed her eyes, thought of
her protectors, the wolf, the hawk, the crow. Channeling those positive forces into a ball of light, she took several deep breaths and let her new abilities take over.

“
Zoe’s in complete darkness, a room without windows. Wherever it is, it’s not that far away. We have to hurry though. Let’s move out.”

They headed east, talking as they went.

“Feeling better?”

“
I would if Zoe had been where she was supposed to be. I never should’ve told her to go back.”

“Not gonna work, S
kye. Even if you had done that and Zoe had stayed planted where she was, the other guy would’ve come along and likely snatched her after taking you out.”

“Okay. True.”

“So how do you feel?”

“
Energetic. Recharged. Like I could scramble up Mount Rainier in one climb. Now I know how you must’ve felt after it happened to you.” She sighed. “But poor Kiya.”

“
Even though we talked about two killers we never actually ran with it.”

“I
t’s one thing to theorize he had help in disposing of Willa and quite another to affirm he utilized another person. But you won’t convince me Berkenshaw started out relying on a partner,” Skye interjected. “He was a loner back then. I’m certain of it.”

“
I think that’s true. He killed Trisha Danes, Ellen Schreiber, by himself without the help of anyone else. But Vanessa Farrington, Maggie Bennett, Willa Dover, Selma Tolliver, and God knows how many others, he had an accomplice, which means he had to take his time finding the right recruit.”

“
Working in tandem? It’s not unheard of. There were the speed freak killers, Shermantine and Herzog, in California, and then Ng and Lake who worked together holding their victims captive for long periods of time. Then there was the pair of lovers, Coleman and Brown, who terrorized the Midwest in the eighties. And let’s not forget, the Hillside Stranglers who turned out to be cousins. Angelo Buono and Kenneth Bianchi worked together for three years, to name a few. I could go on but you get the picture. So it certainly isn’t the first time.”

He shouldn’t have been surprised at the way she could rattle off a
string of sick minds at the drop of a hat, and yet, he was. “You’ve done your research.”

“I’m always doing research into the mind of savage killers.
So who do you think we’re dealing with here, Josh? Berkenshaw’s son? His brother? A cousin? A BFF?”

Josh cocked a brow. “
Whoever it is has lost their other half. That leaves them vulnerable. When we split up back there, I felt someone following me. I was pissed off at you for separating until I heard footsteps behind me. Before I could do anything about it, I heard Kiya howl and knew you were in trouble.”

“You know what we have to do.”

“Yeah, we have to do whatever it takes to locate the lair.”

As t
hey plodded
up another incline and down a ravine, they went over what they knew.

“We know
the location is close to the base. We know there has to be a building around here somewhere that houses his dungeon.”

“
What about backtracking to that old train station? Maybe we missed something there,” Skye wondered. “But you didn’t pick up on anything when we were there last time.”

“As you’
ll find out on your own, it isn’t an exact science,” Josh explained.

Suddenly she stopped walking.
“The floorboards? The train station had a lopsided floor with space underneath. Could there have been—?”

“No. The train station is
due west from here. We keep heading toward the military base.”

“Right.”

They slogged through a
muddy marshland just as the sun peeked out behind another layer of pesky clouds. “It’ll be dark soon,” Skye noted.

“
Don’t worry. You should be able to see just fine with your new super powers.”

Skye found that funny.
“Really? I guess it’ll be an excellent test. I hope Kiya is okay. Maybe we should’ve brought Atka.”

Josh grinned
imagining the pup’s playful energy out here in the woods and her tendency to wander around curious about everything. “Atka would be all over this place. She needs seasoning before we turn her loose on the likes of Berkenshaw. And Kiya’s slow recovery is the price of her valor. Our wolf will be fine, just as she was after giving me her bloodline. Now, she’s given it to you. I hate to suggest this, but try to put Kiya out of your mind for now. Focus on the hunt, on Zoe. Keep your mind on the goal. You sure, you’re feeling okay? You aren’t a hundred percent yet, are you?”

“A little fuzz-brained still but I’
ll be fine. Stop worrying about me.”

Up
ahead, an open field came into view, a meadow laden with blue-eyed grass and golden lady’s slipper. They spotted a female hiker heading toward them from the opposite direction, the first person they’d encountered besides Berkenshaw. As the woman grew closer, in a friendly gesture, she sent them a casual wave of her hand as backpackers often do when they meet others on the trail.

After
the hiker had passed them heading in the opposite direction, Josh looked over his shoulder, muttered, “That’s strange. She’s the first sign of life we’ve seen since tramping all over this place from the road in and back again.”

“Except for Berkenshaw.”

“She seemed surprised to see us, especially you,” Josh decided.

“She did, didn’t she?”

They both stared at each other until all at once they came to the same conclusion. “It’s her!”

Turning on
their heels, they took off running. The minute they did, the woman looked over her shoulder and began to sprint to reach the thicket of trees.

But
Josh and Skye ran her down in a dozen long strides.

Out of breath, the hiker finally pulled up short of the woods.
“Hey, what gives? If you plan to rob me, you’ve picked the wrong person. I don’t have any money.”

“Maybe you could tell us
why you’re out here in such an out-of-the-way spot. Alone.”

“I don’t know what you mean.
I’m backpacking, found myself off the main trail in this place. Besides, two people start chasing me, I start trying to get away from them.”

About that time, Skye noticed
a series of blood droplets on the woman’s sleeve. The spots seemed perfect for castoff from whatever the woman had been used to bash Skye’s skull in earlier. “Where did you ditch the baseball bat you hit me with?” Skye asked. 

The woman’s eyes went on guard. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. You guys are talking crazy.”

About that time, Josh caught Skye staring at the woman’s jacket and followed her eyes to the red drops. “Where’d you get the blood?”

“Huh?” The
hiker looked down at her hoodie. “Oh that. I had a nose bleed earlier.”

“
Where’s Zoe?” Skye asked matter-of-fact.

“Who?
I don’t know a Zoe. Ah, so you’re out here looking for someone? This area’s pretty secluded. If they got lost you may never find them.”

“
Don’t count on it,” Skye shot back. “We were just about to call the cops. I thought you said you wandered from the main trail, just happened upon the area. You talk as though you know it well. Where were you two hours ago?”

“
Two hours?” The woman looked at her watch. “Not that it’s any of your business but I was over by the creek.”

“Cut the crap,” Skye snapped. “
Zoe isn’t lost. A serial killer by the name of Jason Berkenshaw abducted her. I think you know where she is because you put her there. So I’ll ask this one more time. Where is Zoe?”