27: Twenty-Eight

It was difficult to say when exactly I'd woken up; since the prior night's events unfolded I'd felt vaguely awake much the entire time. That intangible line separating reality from dream had been erased for several miasmic hours. What I had dreamed and what had actually occurred mingled together in a singularly toxic, fleeting memory. What I knew at present was the warmth of another humid day; the gentle, purring rise and fall of Shail's shoulder; the eye-pounding throbs of a massive headache and that uncomfortable sleepy reluctance to get up, not because you want to, but because you had to pee. There was no doubt in my mind that that was the real reason behind my abrupt awakening.

In those first few moments a small level of confusion settled onto my shoulders. I sat fully, turned back around. The crag cat's head lifted. Shail watched me for a moment, then settled his snout back across his paws. Not shortly after that, he flopped completely onto his side, clubbed tail grinding through the partly-dried soil. In the dark, and with what I now understood to be some kind of poison running through my veins, I hadn't been able to see much of Chiro's cave. My flat cat and I were sprawled several feet away from the drippy overhang, situated in the brief stretch of dirt, small grasses and stone.

By that point I had recovered just enough mental acuity to realize something was wrong with this picture. I searched through my fragmented recall. I didn't remember Chiro leaving or anyone else arriving. There was definitely a huge chunk of time missing.

And then Dakota stepped past the ashes of a dead fire. "Nice of you to join us," she said, nodding her head backward. Past the greying, wet ash, beyond Dakota's skinny frame and blood-rusted gown, sat several pale and dirty shadows of the women we'd rescued. I scanned their curious faces, and by head count alone knew there were more than we'd had. I lifted my hand dumbly and waved at the newcomers.

Dakota clutched a hunk of jerky-like meat in one hand. "You hungry?" she asked.

"Have to pee," I said, pushing myself off the ground. I paused to peer into the cave once more: neither wolf nor demon lurked among the white gowns. "Where's—?"

"Hell if I know. " She shrugged. "Dot wouldn't stop screaming whether he was man or beast. Attracting all kinds of attention. We had to shut her up. If he didn't move off, I'd have had to gag her. He went out to make sure no one's come close. His creepy pet keeps coming back to sniff you, so I'd wager he's not far."

"When'd the wolf last visit?" I asked, allowing myself a languid stretch.

"Fifteen minutes ago? It'll be back soon."

"I'll follow him," I decided. "In the mean time..."

The woman let me pee before my bladder exploded, then did her best to fill me in on what'd transpired since early this morning. Apparently Chiro had left me here in the cave and gone to fetch my own potential 'brides' back at the waterfall. Dakota and some of the others were a bit shocked that he'd known exactly where to go, but I wasn't. Of course he'd known where we were; among other things, like having a wolf that kept trying to get on my good side even though he dragged away my calf, Chiro had given me directions on how to befriend a cat like Shail. Last night, the demon had warded off some silly sticks and a very pissed Dakota before she'd surrendered. They talked. He told them about packing up and heading to the castle as soon as possible- which was set to begin, apparently, soon after I awakened.

While many of the women remained huddled in the cave, unsure when we were leaving but more than ready to leave the somber forest, Dakota and I sunned ourselves beside Shail. Not to be rude, of course. Mostly because I wasn't feeling well enough to hear a round of names that I'd immediately forget thanks to my headache and current mess of thoughts. I'd talk to them after my aches and pains subsided and I figured out our game plan moving forward. Knowing their names and where they came from and what they liked to do wasn't going to be of any use to anyone if we were all dead or enslaved. And then there came, as Dakota scratched Shail's chin, the realization that my high school enemy was actually my closest friend here.

"Thought he might be lying about you," she was saying over the cat's rocky purrs, "but when I climbed onto that thoroughbred and looked across the fire, I thought for sure you were about to mount your own stallion."

"No," I said quickly, glad today was hot and humid so my cheeks didn't look any redder than they felt. "We were—"

"Forging an alliance. Yeah, gotcha," she said in good humor, rolling her eyes. "You shouldn't be fucking around with monsters, but hey, if that's you're thing, whatever. At least do him on your own time, okay?"

"I stabbed him!" It sounded more like an excuse than I'd have liked.

She grinned. "Sure he didn't give you a poke?"

"Okay, nope. No." Flustered, I got up, walked a few paces around the small clearing. Perched on distant, low tree branch and swinging her feet, Val watched us curiously. The woman in the cave seemed focused on me as well. With their eyes on me I retreated back to Dakota, who looked about as smug as her feline companion. "We are not talking about this," I hissed in much a lower voice now that I was keenly aware of everyone's observations. "We're waiting for the wolf. We'll follow him to Chiro and go about getting out alive. Or you know what? We don't have to see him. I'm up now. We can get gone."

"He said to wait," Dakota continued, patting the grass beside her. "We don't have anything but a few sticks and stones to protect ourselves. We're trusting you, and by extension that asshole you're flirting with. So why don't you take a seat and tell me what the hell happened with him last night. You look exhausted, and not in the 'I just had the best sex of my life' kind of way."

I plopped back beside her with an annoyed sigh and let my fingers run over Shail's tough hide. "Let's start by saying there was no sex whatsoever."

"Fine," she said. "Be boring. I'll pretend you didn't have sex. So what happened?"

I looked back at the flattened grass where I'd been laying beside Shail. "He didn't tell you?"

"Even if he didn't want to leave it up to the imagination, he had no choice with Dot screeching." Dakota looked me over. If I didn't know any better, I'd have called her concerned. "I figured there had to be a good reason you were out cold. Was thinking your mom called again and you were having a chat or resting from the stress of being in two places at once. You seemed a little shaky last night, and we don't know what effect that has on you if she summons again."

"Lingering side effect," I surmised. Good conclusion, if not wrong. "Chiro really said nothing?"

"Honestly, he wasn't keen on talking to any of us more than he had to. Some of the other girls he'd captured said he mostly just fed them and kept them warm with fires. Won't say or do anything beyond that unless something's the matter with one of 'em. They've thought about escaping a few times, but they're afraid what's out there is worse. He hasn't hurt them, not a one." She paused a moment, playing with the end of her braid. "I guess maybe not killing him was the right way to go, for now."

"For now." I was a bit too eager to agree, maybe overcompensating for what devious thoughts I knew raced through her head. She'd left us at an awkward moment. I almost wished she'd at least seen me try and stab him so I'd have more proof than a knife somewhere in the cold fire. In the past few minutes Dakota had quit asking me about protein, but my stomach rumbled anew.

"You hungry?" she asked instantly. "We saved a bit for you. You need your strength."

"Nah," I said, again a bit too quickly. Chiro claimed I'd been poisoned; this morning I felt like I'd been poisoned. And I was beginning to suspect that maybe, if he hadn't gone and told everyone, maybe I should keep that info to myself for now, until I've sussed out more information. "Did we learn what happened to Leda?"

"And that right there is why you need to be careful," she said, sitting straighter. "Your monster claims he brought her to the others, that she was alive, but she's not anywhere. He left too quickly to get away from Dot before I could ask him where she went."

Frowning, I glanced back toward the cave. As the day warmed, more than a few women were edging forward to enjoy the serene peace, at least for now. "And what do the others say?" I asked.

"None of them saw her last night. He'd stashed them in a smaller cave about a mile from here, they say. Fetched them maybe an hour or two before you woke up. I think they'd remember traveling with a bloody, damaged girl, don't you? Leda was in such a sorry state. I'm still not sure I believe him when he says she was alive."

I gave Shail's ear a good massage. "What would he get from lying?"

"You tell me. You're his girlfriend."

"I'm not. I'm just using him."

She winked. "In more ways than one."

It was my turn to roll my eyes. "How many of us are there now?"

"Twenty-seven," she rattled off. "Twenty-eight, if Leda's kicking around alive somewhere."

From her perch, Val whistled. Dakota and I sprang up. Shail lifted his head to watch the distant forest. Within a matter of seconds Gabe's ears popped through the low brush. He lingered maybe a moment or two, just long enough to earn a warning, halfhearted hiss from Shail, then trotted back the way he'd come. He paused, orange eyes watching mine through the leaves, until I rose and started to follow. Dakota pushed herself in front of me.

"Clearly you need a chaperone," she explained, hand on hip.

I turned back around. "What about them? We can't just leave them." I was a bad enough mother hen as it was. Now I had everyone all in one place and was about to trot away. It didn't sit right with me, even if I knew we weren't going far. Bad things could happen either way, but that number (twenty-eight) was fixed and fragile in my head, like when you're holding a movie prop or jewelry or driving a car worth more than your college tuition. You don't want to do anything to harm it.

"Val's got us covered." Dakota gave a thumbs up toward the scout's tree.

When we stumbled across him and his horse, Chiro was napping high in an oak. The horse was tethered to a nearby branch. Its ears rotated toward us, its body shifting as it turned one big brown eye upon its late night thief. The demon himself didn't look particularly comfortable up there in the winding branches, his back leaned against rough bark, and yet he seemed perfectly at ease and relaxed, the way a leopard might as it rested beneath the hot savanna sun. When the horse started he opened his eyes, glanced the thirty feet down at us and made his descent without relying on any lower branches.

Dakota made a small noise as his hands took on a more clawed appearance. "I thought these things had two modes: human or beast," she said, unable to take her eyes off the inhuman claws that dug and scraped against the bark. I'd known Chiro could shift in other ways; he'd scratched me before in the palace with those same claws, but it was still an alarming sight, that he could transition from one thing to another as if he were changing his shirt.

He wore a shirt today, which made me feel a little better as we watched him flex his fingers back to normal and calm his pale steed. I turned against Dakota. "Give us a minute?"

She frowned. "Is that really a good idea, Tay?"

"Just for a couple minutes," I assured her, pulling away. "We'll stay right where you can see us."

She let me go with a quick warning then settled down near Gabriel to wait just out of earshot. Chiro watched her go, took a few more steps backward, then waited for me to join him.

"So about yesterday," I began, careful to keep myself at least a few feet outside his personal space.

He rested a hand on the horse's neck; the other hand was busy untying its tether. "I'd rather not recall."

"Neither do I, but I lost my mind last night and have a few things to say as a result." When he didn't respond, I rubbed the side of my head like that eased my headache. "First, I'm grateful for your help. Not everyone is," I said, sparing a glance toward Dakota. "But frankly, they don't have to be. I'm also really sorry for what I'm guessing was a miserable night for you."

"And for shoving a knife into my shoulder?"

"You put a sword through me first."

The horse's mane hid half his pointed smile. "Feeling like yourself again, I see."

"And wondering how I got ...poisoned," I said softly.

"You trust your people?"

"Never had a reason not to," I continued, resisting the urge to look back at Dakota. I'd just assumed everyone wanted out, everyone was okay with how things were running and that we were all on the same side. Maybe not always the same page, especially in the case of Dot, but we wanted the same thing: to escape. I just assumed....too much, really. "I didn't notice anything out of the usual for what's normal in this world, I guess. We were just going about our business, and then apparently I was trying to make you my business. How'd you know what it was?"

"Your pupils were enormous," he said simply, ticking off the reasons. "You seemed a step behind your usual self. You were petting Gabriel like he was an old friend. I'm aware of a few toxins, and thought you might have gotten a hefty dose of one. So I played around with you, and sure enough, your brain, as you put it, was broken."

"We're not from the Mid," I said, shaking my head. "How would any of us have known what to use?"

"Unless one of you is or one of you was taught," he continued brusquely. "You were quite a problem last night. Now you aren't. So get going. I'd rather not be around for any more of your outbursts, accidental or otherwise."

"Yeah, well, what I said wasn't what I meant," I grumbled, watching the Prince walk his horse a few steps from the brush. "That was just the poison talking to a handsome man. I'm not personally into doing the dirty with strangers in the middle of nowhere. It's just, when the high-functioning part of your brain gets knocked out and you're running on the basic lizard instincts, it wants what it wants, whether that be a cheeseburger or in this case, the horizontal hula."

Chiro, who'd been largely ignoring my spiel, made a face at the last line. "The what?"

I shrugged. "Haven't heard of that? No, I suppose not. My mom hates dirty language. She's an EMT, and for some reason a lot of our friends and neighbors like to ask her for advice, medical and otherwise. And when I was growing up, she'd always come up with these euphemisms so my innocent mind would stay clean. She kept using them, all through high school, even after I'd spent plenty of alone time with my ex." Realizing how silly I sounded, and how much worse the rambling was getting, I brushed it off with a wave of my hand and a light smile. "Nevermind. I'm just saying I find you attractive, but also repulsive. You're a demon. I'd like to continue thinking of you as a menacing, enigmatic monster that I can possibly rely on, alright?"

He just nodded. "You've got your women as promised," he said. "Now get the hell out, Tay Wilson."

"What about you?"

He scowled. "One of those women was screeching so loud now I have to stay around and make sure you don't get ambushed along the way."

"And what do you get out of us arriving in one piece?" I asked.

He waved Dakota over. In his hand he held the horse's reins, which he passed on to her. It was actually a considerate gesture, given her bare feet. "Why don't you get there and find out?" he said to me.

The woman sauntered up with an air of impatience; she had been with me the longest since Jessie, and I knew just how important getting back was, and how much I owed her that. There were other girls out there, with terrible fates and horrible futures, but we needed to get inside those towering stone walls. Once we escaped the Hunt, we could work on freeing them. But first I had to know who I was with, who I could trust, and how we planned on getting out alive.

"We're missing a woman. The one you took, Leda," I told him as he set Dakota on top of the horse.

Chiro rolled his eyes. "I told you, I dropped her with the others."

"Alive?" Dakota snapped.

"She's wasn't dead," he said curtly. "Talk to the women."

"We did," I said. "They don't remember her. They only remember seeing you."

"Well there's your answer." Chiro started walking back toward camp. "Now you've got to ask whether she's one of our kind or working for one."