Into Shadow Read online

  “Rivers,” I exclaimed. “Hey!” I raised my hand to wave at him in greeting. He smiled and raised his hand in return.

  “Little Bit,” he responded. “I see that you made it safely to Lucas’ territory. You found Sharra?”

  “Yes,” I assured him. “Apparently if Mateo had just been honest in the first place I could have found her much earlier.” I didn’t turn to watch my jibe hit home, but I could almost feel Mateo’s angry glare scorching the side of my face. I really needed to stop needling him if we were going to make it through this patrol without killing each other; but he was just so irritating that I had a hard time restraining myself. In that spirit I added, “That’s not an issue though. Totally forgotten. Anyway, how have you been? I tried to come back and let you know I was okay, but you weren’t there.”

  “Sorry,” Rivers apologized. “We had some minor crises pop up and I couldn’t come meet you. I was going to head back down tomorrow to look for you. Now I guess I don’t need to.” He smiled at me, clearly relieved to see me settled safely with a pack of my own.

  Mateo interrupted, obviously peeved at our audacity in having a cheerful conversation without him.

  “Rivers,” he said stiffly, “A bit out of your territory, aren’t you?”

  “I guess so. But I don’t believe I’m required to clear it with you before I go visiting other packs.” He glanced up and down the street as if to be certain of his position. “Speer is still neutral territory, as far as I’m aware. So since I’m not on Liberty territory, I’m not sure why you think you can question me here.”

  Mateo flushed at the rebuke and replied stiffly, “Not questioning, just curious. I was expecting to see Jessie from Monarch pack. We usually bump into each other on patrol.”

  “I saw her a few minutes ago,” Rivers responded. “She was already headed back to her base.”

  Mateo glared at me. “If we hadn’t gotten off to such a late start for our patrol we wouldn’t have missed her,” he informed me.

  I smiled at him. “If you hadn’t decided to start our patrol by insulting me and Sharra, we wouldn’t have been running late,” I reminded him.

  His glare deepened. I wasn’t sure why meeting up with Jessie had been so important to him, but he was well and truly furious to have missed her. Seeing the curious looks both Rivers and I were giving him, Mateo seemed to make an effort to pull himself together and hide his anger. He said nothing more, simply turning on his heel and heading south along Speer, ignoring me as usual. Rivers looked bemused at this behavior. He stepped closer to me and leaned down to speak softly in my ear. His soft black hair fell forward to brush my cheek, and I shivered at the soft stroke of his hand as he swept his hair back. I stared into his dark eyes rimmed by gorgeously thick, dark lashes. I was so busy gazing into his eyes that I almost missed his words as he breathed,

  “Watch your back, Little Bit. After what happened before, Mateo is not your friend. He’d be just as happy if you never came back from patrol.”

  “I’ll be careful, Laughing Boy,” I promised softly, leaning closer to breathe in his spicy clean scent. Whatever soap they had found or made in Wolf pack smelled much better than what we had in Liberty.

  “Good,” he said with a sweet smile. This time when he touched my cheek it was not an accidental brush; he used his index finger to lightly trace the blue ink trailing down my cheek. “Take care of yourself, Pretty Poppy.”

  My life had definitely not been sheltered up to this point. Traveling with my father and later as the First Lady I’d dealt with war, suffering, destruction, and the mostly bloodless carnage that is “civilized” politics since I was a tiny child. But since I’d always been surrounded by security teams, I’d never exactly had a chance for one-on-one time with a boy; this was breathtaking new territory for me. Inside my head I wanted to squeal with excitement: A boy, a cute boy had stroked my cheek. He had whispered in my ear. And he’d called me pretty! Eeeee!

  I kept my mouth firmly closed so no embarrassingly girly giggles could spill out. Playing it cool, I gave Rivers a smile and a little wave then turned and ran to catch up with Mateo as he strode away.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  Mateo and I followed the diagonal street southeast until we came to another street still boasting a street sign. We turned off Speer to head east on the mostly cleared 11th Avenue. In this section it was easier to see why the pack would want to claim the territory. There were dozens of high-rise apartment buildings in this neighborhood, many of them still partially intact. If the buildings were still being explored, there could be all sorts of useful things to scavenge.

  I kept close watch for anything threatening as we continued east. Mateo conducted spot checks on some of the intact buildings by giving the doors a firm shake to ensure that they were still chained closed. I was tired of just trailing along behind him, so I moved to the other side of the street and started doing my own spot checks. He ignored me but kept to his own side of the street and left me to mine.

  11th Avenue came to an end at another wall of debris. Instead of climbing this one, Mateo turned north then headed east again on the next street. 12th Avenue, I would assume. We continued our silent patrol, conducting spot checks on opposite sides of the street and watching for anything out of the ordinary. We followed the numbered avenues as much as possible to criss-cross the section several times as we worked our way north toward the wall and the transport station.

  I wasn’t certain where the wild territory shown on the map would be in real life, but I thought we must be getting close. Even the little animals we had seen scurrying through the streets had disappeared. I hadn’t even realized that I was hearing sounds from birds and other wildlife until all their noises stopped; now it was disturbingly quiet. I moved as quietly as possible as I walked toward a squat red-brick building. Whatever might be out there, I didn’t think I wanted its attention. A blaze of bright red paint streaked the doors and part of the walls.

  “Mateo?” I asked softly, “is the red paint some kind of boundary or warn-away?” He glanced at me dismissively and turned back to his side of the street.

  “Vandalism, I guess,” he said shortly.

  Not particularly reassured, I still moved carefully when I approached the door. I didn’t have to tug on it; the door stood slightly ajar. It was obviously not locked up anymore.

  “Mateo,” I called again. “The door is open.”

  He raised an eyebrow; he didn’t do it nearly as well as Rivers had managed it. “Well then, I guess you’d better go inside and check it out. I’ll wait for you here.”

  I glared at him. I was quite sure that sending your partner in alone was not the proper procedure. On the other hand, having Mateo as my backup was so unappealing that maybe going in alone was better after all. With a last scowl in his direction, I eased the door open.

  Before stepping inside I listened intently for any sounds. All the windows here were covered, so the interior was very dim. I couldn’t see more than a foot or two inside. I swallowed hard, very aware of my racing heart and shaking hands. Anything could be hiding in the darkness.

  Taking a short step inside, I paused for a moment to let my eyes adjust to the lack of light. My vision improved slightly after a couple of minutes, and I could at least see the outlines of furniture still in place; so I started a quick walkthrough to look for intruders.

  This building had once been a small school apparently. The hallway was mostly empty with a bench or two placed along the walls. Open doors lined both sides of the wall, gaping pools of deeper dark opening off the main path. I tried looking inside a couple of classrooms, but it was too dark to make out anything. Instead, I settled for a quick tour of the main hallway, promising myself that once I reached the end of the hall I could turn and race back to the outer doors. Mateo was waiting outside and wouldn’t know of my headlong sprint to leave the building.

  I walked faster, anxious to have this over with. I saw nothing to indicate that a person was squatting in this buil
ding. Maybe someone had intended to move in but disliked the dark rooms as much as I did. I was only yards away from my destination when something caught my eye. A tiny gleam of paleness against the wall where it should have been dark. I turned my steps to investigate and crouched down against the wall where I had seen the object. It took me a minute to realize what I was looking at; when realization came, I shoved my hand hard against my mouth to hold back a whimper. The white gleam came from bones piled in a jumbled heap against the wall. Judging by the empty skull peering from the mound, the bones were human.

  Even worse, behind the first heap of bones was another. And another. I wasn’t sure how many there might be continuing back through that hallway. I wasn’t going to find out either. Investigating this was not a job for one guard on her first patrol. I stumbled to my feet so I could turn and run for the exit. Suddenly, I heard a noise behind me. Not much, just a whisper of sound like a sliding footstep against the tiled floor. I whirled, trying to locate the source of the noise, but I could see nothing.

  “Is someone there?” I called. I admit it, my voice shook a little. Silence answered me. “Hello?” I called again.

  A heartbeat later, strong arms wrapped around me from behind and yanked me off my feet. All my training was not for nothing though. I didn’t freeze in surprise or struggle uselessly to escape his arms. I immediately threw my head back as hard as I could manage. Because my assailant had lifted me, my head was in perfect position and I heard the distinctive crunch of cartilage as the back of my skull smashed his nose. He howled and dropped me as he staggered back clutching his face. The only reason I didn’t follow up with more strikes was because I had recognized his voice when he screamed. It was Mateo. Doubtless he thought it would be a funny prank to sneak up on me and terrorize me in the dark. I wanted to hit him again but restrained myself.

  “Bitch!” he shouted at me, his voice muffled by his hands cupped over his face. “Look at dis! You broke by dose!”

  “You deserved it,” I responded icily. “You are an ass with the emotional maturity of a ten-year-old.” I stalked past him, determined to make my way back to the bikes and leave immediately. I had spent more than enough time with this jerk. I was stomping down the hall when I heard another slither behind me. I spun around to confront Mateo, incensed that he would try to sneak up on me again. What I saw instead was the biggest freaking snake in existence sliding down the hallway toward me.

  The snake’s head was easily the size of a watermelon – a large watermelon. The snake’s body was a couple of feet in diameter and patterned in dark green and black diamonds. Each individual scale was as large as the tip of my thumb. The snake’s dead-white eyes were bigger than my clenched fist, and when its tongue flickered out to taste the air it was as thick as a rope and very long. Though the snake was still about three feet behind me, the tongue almost touched my face.

  The near brush of the snake’s tongue snapped me out of my stupor, and I bolted down the hall. Mateo’s footsteps suddenly pounded behind me as he ran up from the end of the hall, hurdled the snake, and brushed past me, disappearing through the door and slamming it closed behind him.

  “Mateo!” I screamed, “Open the door! Please, Mateo, I can’t see! Let me out!”

  I reached the end of the hall and frantically felt along the wall for the door but couldn’t locate it in the pitch black. I could hear the dry slip and slide of the snake’s scales as it undulated toward me. It wasn’t in a hurry; it knew I had nowhere left to run. I stared back into the darkness trying desperately to get a glimpse of the snake. Finally I saw its outline; it had almost reached me. If I took time to find the exit door, it would have me.

  The snake was sliding along the right side of the hallway, so I jumped left, running with all my might for one of those open classroom doors. The snake realized I was trying to escape and moved to stop me. It struck with terrifying speed, and only sheer luck let me duck and dodge just in time. The snake’s jaws closed on empty air as I dove through the first door I came to.

  Jumping to my feet I grabbed the edge of the door and slammed it shut as the snake struck at me again. The door swung closed but not quite fast enough. The snake’s head was inside the room, pinned just behind the jaws by the heavy steel door. I thanked whatever city code had required classrooms to have reinforced fire doors as I braced myself against the door, pressing it closed with all my might.

  The snake’s head was just above mine and I could see and feel its tongue lashing the air frantically as it tried to escape. I heard the snake’s body thrashing against the tiles in the hallway. It was big and strong and really determined to move the door crushing its throat, but I was fueled by life-or-death adrenaline and had the assistance of pneumatic hinges attempting to do their job of closing the door.

  I had the stunner in my pocket, but I was afraid to shift my grip on the door to grab it. I wasn’t sure what a stunner would do to the monster snake anyway. Unable to think of anything else to do, I braced my feet against the floor and shoved back even harder. I heard a dull crack and felt the snake’s thrashing slow. Slower. Slower.

  When it finally stopped moving altogether I still couldn’t bring myself to open the door. I stayed there, door pinning the snake tight, for at least ten minutes before I dared to move. When I finally left the doorway, I did it in one huge leap to the other side of the room. I didn’t want to be anywhere near that thing if it wasn’t dead after all.

  Without me bracing the door, the snake’s weight pushed it open again. The head fell limply to the floor, striking the tile with a thud. I stared through the darkness, barely breathing. The snake seemed to be dead, but the thought of walking past the enormous thing to leave the room was nauseating. In the end it was only the realization that the snake might not live here alone that got me moving.

  I took a deep breath and bolted for the doorway. I raced past the snake at top speed and almost knocked myself unconscious when I slammed into the wall at the end of the hall. Gasping for breath, I ran frantic hands over the wall looking for the door. At last my hands touched the smooth metal bar of the door handle, and I wrenched it violently open, leapt through the door, and slammed the door closed again behind me. I leaned against the door shaking from head to toe.

  Mateo was nowhere in sight. When I found him I was going to skin him alive.

  I took a few minutes to recover while I figured out my next steps. I could see the wall with the transport center rising behind it. They were only a few blocks north, and it was tempting to just cut through the streets and head directly for safety on the other side of the wall. But when I ventured past the school building I had barely escaped, I could see red paint marking the walls of all the buildings along that path. I no longer believed Mateo’s explanation of vandalism; it seemed much more likely that the blazes were warning people to stay out of the dangerous wild territory. I didn’t want to go through there and take any chances that the snake had a family.

  I decided to retrace my steps instead. It would take longer, but at least I would be on streets I’d already walked without incident. I followed the streets back to Speer and from there found my way back to the wall where we’d rendezvoused with the previous patrol. Feeling a hundred throbbing aches by now, I painfully worked my way over the wall. I felt a huge rush of relief when I dropped to the ground on the far side. I still had to get through the transport center, but that creepy dimness seemed minor now in comparison to the dark and snaky school.

  I trudged slowly up the stairs. I was really dragging by the time I got to the sixth level and wondered grumpily if there was a good reason for parking this high instead of in a nice ground-level spot. I wanted nothing more than to go back to base, clean up in an icy cold shower – since there was no other option – and fall into bed. And in the morning I was signing up for a domestic rotation. Scrubbing toilets couldn’t be worse than this.

  I had almost reached the platform where we’d parked the bikes when a figure stepped out of the shadows. It was Mateo. Some
where inside I knew that I was furious with him, but right now I was just too tired to care.

  “Get out of the way, Mateo,” I said wearily.

  “I cannot believe you made it back,” he said, astonished. “That snake was big enough to snap you in two.”

  “Well, you would know,” I said acidly, finding some of my anger. “After all, you did jump right over it in your rush to abandon me in that building. Speaking of which, I suppose the red paint on the building was supposed to mark dangerous territory?”

  “Mmmm … do not enter,” he agreed absently. He was looking at me very oddly and it made me uneasy. I really wanted to get out of here. I took a step back from him, but he just stepped forward in turn.

  “Let’s get back home,” I told Mateo. “I’m wiped.”

  “Back home … so you can tell everyone that I sent you into a red zone on a prank? And brag that you broke my nose? And share stories of my cowardice? I do not like that idea.”

  I talked fast now. I wasn’t sure what Mateo had in mind, but I had a feeling it wasn’t anything good for me. “Hey, I don’t need any credit for taking down the snake. It was all you, okay? You investigated the open door while I waited outside. You fought the snake and killed it. The snake broke your nose. No one else ever needs to hear the whole story.”

  He looked at me for a long, long moment as he considered my words. He gave me a charming smile, and I relaxed just a little. My efforts to mollify him were working.

  “You know,” he said, “there is a saying for moments like these. ‘Two can keep a secret,’ it says, ‘but only if one of them is dead.’”

  I was sore. I was tired. I was lulled by his calm voice and pleasant smile. And so I was unprepared when he suddenly lunged at me. He had me around the throat pressing me back against the atrium railing as he choked me. I clawed at his hands, carving deep scratches in his skin; but he didn’t even notice. He shoved me harder against the rail. I wasn’t sure whether I would die first from choking or from being pushed off a six-story drop, but one or the other seemed inevitable.