Page 97 of Fangs
“Will you show me?”
I hesitated for a moment but then nodded. I could force myself to endure one more. Mac frowned like he was about to question me, so I quickly pulled up the memory so I didn’t have to answer.
I was in the med tent bandaging up a wound I’d just stitched shut when Vulture burst inside. My heart started pounding. We weren’t supposed to be anywhere near each other. Juck had made that real fucking clear. The brand on my chest still fiercely hurt, and other more intimate parts of my body ached with pain, all of it a constant painful reminder of who I belonged to. Vulture’s eyes met mine for a second, and then he turned to the several injured people in the tent.
“Everybody outside,” he ordered.
I stared at him, bewildered. I’d never seen Vulture order people around like this.
“Trust me, you don’t want to miss this,” he added with a cruel smile before vanishing outside.
I quickly tied off the bandage with shaking fingers as the Reapers began getting up to go outside. This couldn’t be anything good. What the fuck was Vulture doing? Did hewantJuck to kill him?
When I followed everyone outside, Vulture stood on a pile of broken cement blocks. His eyes found me immediately, and I knew this had something to do with me. Oh fuck. My heart rate quickened until I felt lightheaded and sweat dripped down my back. I quickly glanced around at the growing crowd but didn’t see Juck—yet.
“How many of our brethren did we lose to the fever?” Vulture shouted.
I blinked, taken aback. I’d never heard him speak like this before. He sounded like he was pretending to be someone else.
“Well, I come before you to share the truth!”
I tried to catch his eye, shaking my head desperately, but he ignored me.
“Bones has the power to heal wounds magically.”
Everyone turned and stared at me, and I shrank backward.
“But Juck only lets her heal himself! She could have saved everyone who fell ill, saved all the people who died in the raid last spring, and healed every horrible, painful injury you’ve ever had. But Juck kept it all for himself! He forced her to keep this a secret from you because he doesn’t care if you live or die. He only cares about himself! You are nothing but disposable game pieces!”
I expected people to start jeering at him, to throw shit and laugh, but the energy in the crowd shifted to something dark. I’d seen the Reapers get riled up about things before, and it didn’t feel like this. Something was happening; something was wrong.
“You follow Juck because he claims to be a god, immortal and untouchable, but he is nothing more than a fraud!”
The people around me shifted restlessly, eying each other and muttering to themselves. I slipped backward, to get away from the crowd. This situation would get ugly quickly, and I had no idea what the Reapers would do. I reached the crowd’s edge and ran but stopped as I passed a parked bike. A holstered knife was discarded in the sand as though someone had just dropped it there and followed Vulture. I snatched it up, shoving it under the band of my pants and pulling my shirt and jacket over the top.
I was almost to Juck’s tent when the first gunshot rang out. It stopped me in my tracks, and I turned and glanced back toward the crowd, my heart in my throat. There was a pause, but then multiple shots rang out, along with voices screaming and yelling. Who were they fighting? Wasn’t Vulture trying to get them to turn against Juck? Had Juck shown up? Did he shoot Vulture? Oh fuck, oh fuck.
I ducked quickly into the tent, expecting it to be empty, but stopped so fast I almost fell over. Juck was standing in the tent, quickly packing a bag. He’d turned toward me, drawing his gun, but he lowered it at the sight of me.
“Good girl,” he said as his eyes flashed with fury. “We’re gettin’ outta here. I shoulda put that pup down.”
I had to fight to keep from being sick. Fuck fuck fuck. I thought Juck would be out by the crowd, trying to threaten them into submission. The sound of the fighting seemed to be getting louder.
“You got one minute to grab what you want,” Juck snapped, startling me from my panicked thoughts. “Then we’re gettin’ on the bike.”
I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to go with Juck, but I was terrified the Reapers would tear me apart. What the fuck was Vulture doing? The brief moment where I hesitated made something dark and ugly cross Juck’s face, and my heart leapt into overdrive. I forced myself to move, to go to my small corner and grab a few things. I wasn’t even paying attention to what I grabbed. My brain was empty of everything except desperate terror.
“Get your coat,” Juck said as he approached the tent doorway. “We’re gonna?—”
A gunshot echoed, and I jumped with a shriek. Juck stumbled back, his upper arm bleeding, but he recovered quickly, darting around the bed to grab me by the arm, roughly jerking me in front of him. The cold muzzle of a gun pressed against my head as I stared horrified at Vulture standing in the doorway, gun drawn. He looked furious.
“You’re done, old man,” Vulture said in a soft, menacing voice that didn’t sound like him at all.
“Like hell I am,” Juck sneered, still holding his gun to my temple. “You think I haven’t dealt with an uprisin’ or two? I’ve been doing this longer than you’ve been alive, boy.”
“Let her go,” Vulture demanded.
“How stupid do you think I am?” Juck laughed. “I know what this is about, but you can’t have her.” His hand tightened painfully around my arm. “She’s mine—always has been and always will be. The gods delivered her to me. If I die, she dies with me.”
