EDGE (39 page)

“‘
O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us,
’” Jed quoted as he brought the knife up. The sun glinted off the blade, turning it silver, then the color of fire as it arced downward.

The stab of the knife burned as it sliced into her shoulder. She screamed. Pain flared like fire as he yanked the knife free and raised it again. Blood oozed out of the wound.

“No, stop!” She needed more time. “Th-the candles. You can’t do this without nine candles.”

He shook his head. “Don’t worry. Our father has advised me to mark the nine points of the body in order to symbolize the Ascension star.” He smiled and seemed so very proud.

Think, think.
What other details?
She’d tried for so long to forget the sacrifice. It was hell, digging into her nightmares for the horrific particulars. “I c-can’t a-ascend until I’ve been washed and anointed.”

The knife hesitated, shook with indecision in Jed’s hand. He gazed off to some unseen thing and nodded. “Yes, AnnaMaria, while you’re correct, our father has instructed me to continue without the full ceremony. After all, the ceremony has been done. You just did not ascend completely. Now you will.” The knife rose again.

Oh God. If she had to die, why couldn’t it be quick, preferably without her knowing it was going to happen?

Rustling interrupted from the bushes. A brown bear lumbered out of the alders.

The three of them stared at each other in shocked silence, until two little versions of the mother bear crashed through the brush on either side of her.

Mama bear bared her teeth and roared.

Jed dropped the knife and scrambled for the shotgun he’d rested on the bank.

Cache climbed out of the raft onto Ramsey’s beach, his body shaking. Damn, he felt like shit. Sergei hadn’t fared the trip across the cove any better than he had. Together they struggled to pull the raft onto shore out of reach of the high surf in the tall grasses on the bank, dropping it right next to a kayak that looked like a match to the kayaks The Edge owned.

The hair on the back of his neck rose.

He pointed at the kayak. Sergei nodded that he understood. They each slipped their weapons free and crept up the bank.

There was no sound from the cabin. As quietly as he could, Cache stepped onto the porch, crab-walked under the big plate glass window even though his leg screamed from the forced movements. He reached up for the doorknob and slowly turned it. He glanced at Sergei who nodded that he had his back.

Cache burst into the cabin, gun drawn, followed by Sergei. Nothing. He swung the gun around, searching out shadowed corners, but still nothing. Had they beaten Mel here?

“Cache,” Sergei called him over to the desk. Fresh blood stained the floor. Right next to the blood was Mel’s backpack and the shotgun she favored. On the desk were a hunting knife, can of bear spray, and her .357, and Quentin’s walkie talkie.

She’d been hurt, disarmed, and taken.

“He got her,” Sergei stated with a finality that stabbed at Cache’s heart.

“They can’t be far.” Cache headed for the door.

Sergei grabbed his arm. “Think. Ve can’t go off half-cocked.” He motioned to the radio. “It’s on. Looks as though she had her back to him vhen he grabbed her. Ve need backup.” He reached for the radio and called the troopers in Homer, asking for Garrett.

He was right, but Cache needed action. He slid Mel’s .357 and knife onto his belt, and grabbed the can of bear spray too. His head still swam, though he knew the dregs of the poison were slowly leaching out of his system. Both he and Sergei weren’t a hundred percent, but they were all Mel had.

Garrett’s voice boomed over the radio loud and clear. Sergei explained the situation, telling him they needed medical help at the lodge and that Mel had been kidnapped.

Again.

This time he’d had a part in it. He’d unwittingly put the woman he loved in the path of a killer.

“My ETA is roughly thirty minutes,” Garrett’s voice squawked over the radio.

An echo of a rifle cracked through the stillness.

They didn’t have thirty minutes.

C
HAPTER
T
WENTY-
S
IX

Jed got off a shot that went wild just as the brown bear was upon him. Instead of scaring off the mama bear, it only infuriated her more. Probably because he dared to shoot the gun in the vicinity of her babies. Babies who were frightened and bawling their little lungs out. The sound fueled on mama as she took a swipe at Jed, tossing him up the bank like a ragdoll.

He screamed.

The sound was so awful it caused Mel’s blood to run cold.

Mama lifted her massive head, the black muzzle of her nose twitching as she caught the scent of fresh blood.

Mel’s blood.

The bear rose on her hind legs and roared. She was huge and looked even larger from the prone position Mel was stuck in. Fear choked her. Every muscle inside Mel screamed, to run, but she was strapped down, laid out like a fresh buffet for mama and babies. She could hear Jed’s feet scraping the coarse sand from where the bear had thrown him. He was going to get them both killed if he didn’t stay put and play dead.

“Jed, don’t move,” she said in a flat, calm voice, though everything inside her was quaking. She heard him skid to a halt.

The bear moved its head from side to side, her enormous paws swiping at the air as she tried to decide who to sample first.

Then she turned her beady black eyes toward Mel.

Goosebumps erupted on her skin with every hair follicle following suit. This was it. Her swan song. Damn, this was going to hurt. She couldn’t fight. Couldn’t even run. Ascending to heaven Jed’s way didn’t seem so bad right now.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Jed reach again for his shotgun. That was all it took for the bear to change direction and charge. The bear’s roar followed by the horrific screams from Jed made Mel sick. Tears ran from her eyes at the horrendous, sickening sounds coming from the fight between man and beast.

A fight man would never win without the aid of a weapon.

She attempted to block out the noise and focused on sawing through the animal skin of the packboard. She gained enough room to yank her arm from the rope bindings and went immediately to work on cutting her way free.

Jed’s silence became clear. The snorting of the bear and the rushing sounds of the creek screamed in her ears. The two babies answered mom’s grunting and lopped out of Mel’s sight toward where Jed had been.

Mel’s heart stuttered in her chest as the mama bear lumbered toward her, paws digging into the sand, coarse fur rippling over sinewy muscled shoulders, her muzzle dark with blood.

The animal was terrifyingly beautiful.

If Mel could move, she’d probably relieve herself, she was so terrified. The bear opened her mouth, bared teeth with pieces of human skin and tissue stuck between them, and roared again.

She advanced, one big paw slapping the bank, sand sinking under her tremendous weight. Mel gulped and cold sweat broke out over her body.

For some sick reason she thought she heard Cache scream her name. That would mean hope, and her hourglass of hope was empty. Then the bear was there, her killing, razor sharp claws swiping toward her. Pain flared through Mel’s hip and thigh as the five-inch claws ripped deep into her flesh. Mel flew through the air, still strapped to the packboard, and landed with a splash in the creek, the air knocked out of her. The mama was next to her. Mel covered her head with her freed arm as best she could and played dead, fearing she wouldn’t be playing for long.

Cache and Sergei were gasping for breath when they came upon the horrifying scene. Mel lay face down in the creek, her blond hair floating in the rushing water from under the shredded skin of a packboard. A brown bear reached back with its powerful paw to swipe at her. Sergei fired the shotgun above the bear. She turned her immense head in their direction and growled.

“Get out of here,” Cache yelled, waving his arms, afraid if he shot in their direction he might hit Mel. He rushed into the creek, trying to draw the bear’s attention away from Mel.

He grabbed a washed-up tree limb, and brandishing it like a club, and went after the bear. Yelling and cussing, he swung the driftwood. The bear forgot about Mel and faced Cache down.

Cache swallowed in the face of death and swung at her nose. The bear just blinked and bared her teeth. Cache hit her again, which only seemed to piss her off further.

Another shot rang out, and the bear jerked and lifted her head. Sergei ran toward them, firing off another round. The bear roared, tucked tail and ran. Two little cubs scurried after her into the brush.

“Mel!” Cache yanked the packboard over, sinking to his knees in the freezing creek, next to Mel’s lifeless body.

The water ran red with blood.

“Damn it, Mel, talk to me.” He dragged the board out of the water onto a sandbar and checked her pulse. He couldn’t find it. She wasn’t breathing. He began CPR. Puffing air into her lungs, depressing her chest, and repeating.

Mel suddenly jerked and coughed up creek water, gasping for breath. He turned her to the side, having to pick up the edge of the packboard to do it. When she finished retching, Sergei helped him carry her farther up onto the bank. He caught a glimpse of what used to be Jedidiah Dawson Jr.

They carefully set Mel down, and he knelt, blocking her view of Jed Jr. Her blue eyes, bluer than he’d ever seen them, stared up at him wide and frightened in her pale face. It took her a moment to really focus on him.

“Am I dead?” she asked in a hoarse voice.

Cache didn’t know whether to laugh or sob with relief. “No, honey, you’re alive.”

She moaned again. “That’s too bad. I’m going to feel this tomorrow.”

He chuckled, so happy to hear her complain. “And the next day.” He brushed her long, wet hair away from her face.

“Bear could return any moment,” Sergei said, his weapon still at the ready. He gestured with the shotgun. “Let’s move.”

Cache looked down at Mel. With all the blood, he had no idea how badly she was hurt. “Honey, I know you want out of this thing, but we need to carry you out of here on it.”

“No, I can walk. Just help me sit up.”

Cache pulled on the ropes still wrapped around her and helped her sit.

Mel looked down at her legs. “It’s just a…flesh wound.” She went white and weaved.

He caught her in his arms. “Right, a few stitches and you’ll be good as new.” God, he hoped so. There was so much blood and a hospital wasn’t conveniently down the street.

Her hand reached up and grabbed his. “Thank you,” she said, eyes swimming with tears.

“You can thank me later.” He tore off his shirt and tied it around Mel’s upper thigh, where it was bleeding the worst. He secured her to the packboard, while Sergei kept watch for the bear in case it returned. “Let’s get you back to Ramsey’s.”

“What about Jed?”

“You don’t want to look.” Cache nodded for Sergei to take the end of the packboard, while he took the head.

“Check on him. See if he’s…if he’s still alive.”