Page 6 of Fangs
I pressed my trembling lips together hard, trying not to think about all the times I watched Juck cut people’s tongues out. Wolf scanned me again with those sharp eyes, taking in my filthy, muddy clothes and the dried blood all over my front.
“Whose blood is that?” he demanded.
I looked away. I was not going to cry. I was going to be numb and empty.
“Godsdamnit, Em, if you don’t tell me, I’m gonna have to search you for injuries.”
Em.The familiar nickname hurt, but his threat terrified me.
“Not mine,” I choked out.
“So she does speak.” He smirked, looking so satisfied that fury roared through me. “Who’d you kill this time?”
My anger fizzled out like he’d dumped a bucket of ice-cold water on my head. I dropped my eyes again, staring at the ground. The fierce ache in my chest surprised me. Apparently, I still had a heart, or just enough of one to break again. Gods, I wished he’d just kill me already and be done with it.
“Here.”
He held out a bottle of water as though offering me a drink. I looked between his face and the water bottle, hesitating.
“It’s just water,” he frowned.
I leaned forward and let him tip some water into my mouth, feeling awkward. After I got a drink, he reached into his pack again, and I tensed, but he just pulled out a piece of dried meat and held it out to me. I shook my head and knew he was glaring at me before I even looked. I couldfeelthe heat of it.
“We’re not stoppin’ again until nightfall. You should eat, now.”
I shook my head again, my stomach churning. If I ate anything, I’d just be sick with all this anxiety.
“Fine,” he snapped, dropping the food into his pack and taking it with him as he strode away.
I rested my forehead on my knees, trying to take deep breaths. Was my brother waiting for nightfall for a reason? At least I had an idea of their timetable. I could hear the low mumble of their voices and feel the weight of their eyes, but no one else spoke to me.
Maybe I would get lucky for once in my miserable life and see Trey after I died. I didn’t know what I believed about the afterlife, but I did know if there was any chance to find him, I would take it. I’d teased him when he said he’d wait a thousand years for me, but I understood with painful clarity now. I would live and die and claw my way back a thousand times over just to have one more moment with him.
My throat ached with the force of holding back tears. It’d been over three months, but the pain hadn’t dulled; I’d just grown more accustomed to feeling it.
They only rested for about an hour before they were packing up. When Wolf’s boots appeared in front of me again, I uncurled from my protective position, and he grabbed my upper arm and hauled me to my feet without a word. He lifted me onto the horse again and then marched around to the horse’s head to take the lead.
As we traveled, I could feel exhaustion creeping over me. I tried to fight it, watching Wolf and the others in an attempt to distract myself. All of them stalked through the woods with an unnatural grace. Wolf had always been that way, able to adapt and move through his environment like he was a part of it. He either found others like him or taught them his tricks. They were quiet, but the few times they interacted, it was with an easy camaraderie that reminded me of Mac’s crew.
I swallowed hard. Mac must have realized I was gone by now. Would he even think of searchingoutsidethe hold? I might be dead before they realized I wasn’t in the Vault. The ache in my chest worsened. Talking to Mac,actuallytalking, had felt like gasping in air after being underwater. I wished I could have said goodbye and told them I wasn’t abandoning them—not of my own free will, anyway.
How would Wolf kill me? A bullet to the head? A knife in my gut? The bloody images flashed through my mind—Dune bleeding out on the rooftop and Madame slicing into Mac’s stomach in the dungeon. I forced myself to recite an entire chapter on medical annotations until I felt nothing again.
I made it a few hours before exhaustion won and pulled me under. I woke up to the sensation of falling from the saddle and somebody shouting. I couldn’t even try to catch myself because my damn hands were tied behind my back, so I ended up going face-first into the brush. My chin scraped on some ice, and there was a sharp stabbing pain in my cheek. I didn’t move, stunned and burning with humiliation, but someone yanked me up by my jacket. Wolf glared at me, swearing under his breath. As soon as I got my feet under me, I jerked away, only to run into Tuck—again. He caught me by the shoulders to keep me from falling and frowned.
“She sliced open her cheek,” he said.
The concern in Tuck’s face looked real. Maybe I could manipulate him?—
A vise squeezed the air from my lungs as memories of Trey overwhelmed me.
“Lemme see.” Wolf sounded annoyed.
Tuck started to turn me by the shoulders like I wasn’t fucking capable of moving on my own. I jerked free, flooded by the familiar queasy feeling of being surrounded by men I didn’t know—even my brother was a stranger. I turned to Wolf just in time to see his arm moving toward my face, and I flinched. He froze with his arm still outstretched, and my face flamed hot. Godsdamnit, I’d gotten better at not doing that, but all this adrenaline and anxiety had me on high alert. He pulled his arm back, and in the silence, I stared at the snowy ground, willing myself not to cry.
“Wolf,” Sable’s voice had a sharp edge.
“I know,” Wolf snapped. I heard him take a deep breath. “Lee, can you grab the kit?”
