Matt Archer: Bloodlines (Matt Archer #4) (19 page)

Tink hissed in my mind and before I registered the move, I
jumped onto an outstretched paw, using it launch me over one of the Bears.
Twisting in the air, I caught the thing in the back and sliced it open as I
fell. It crashed forward, banging into the other two. They pushed the carcass
out of the way, but I was already low, crouching in the dirt with the blade
pointed up. As one bent to grab me, I stuck the blade in its gut and twisted.
It flailed into its partner, who keened a cry of distress. Only then did I
notice this one was female…and from the pure hate in her eyes, I’d killed this
She-Bear’s boyfriend.

She launched herself at my head and I scrambled out of the
way, barely missing getting my neck broken.

Leader-Bear roared, “No! We need to find the girl, Tika!
Just incapacitate him and move on. No killing!”

Wait…why would they need to find my sister if they already
had her? Hoping, praying she’d run away somehow, I shouted, “Mamie! We’re
here!”

The She-Bear didn’t seem to hear either of us…or didn’t care.
She lunged after me, and I drove her in a circle, heading for a rocky incline
at the base of the mountains. Once I had a clear shot, I bounded up the incline
like it was an X-games ramp and jumped onto her back. She swatted at me and her
claws hooked in my jacket. They ripped through the canvas easily and scratched
my upper arm before catching on the metal button on the pocket. I almost lost
my seat as she dragged me forward but somehow plunged the knife into the base
of her neck. She toppled, taking me with her and we landed hard with her arm
caught under my chest. I felt my ribs flex and a stabbing pain shot through my
side. I sliced her claws free of my jacket and took a breath. The pain was bad,
but not bad enough to indicate broken ribs. Just a bruise. I could fight with a
bruise, even if it hurt.

I crawled to my feet. The three leaders stood at the edge of
the tree line, watching. A pile of dead Bears lay scattered on the ground, and
Will was actively fighting off another. Johnson knelt in the truck bed with his
shotgun in hand. Uncle Mike was stationed at the front bumper, shooting at
anything that got too close. The remainder of the Bears circled, looking for an
opening.

Why weren’t the leaders attacking? This thought consumed me
as I waded back into the fray. Two Bears advanced on the vehicle, skirting
Will. Johnson dropped the shotgun and came up with a lighter and a can of Axe.
A stream of fire shot out, but the Bear ducked. Its partner leapt into the
truck bed, denting the frame, and threw Johnson out. Before I could help, the
Bears by me attacked again, swiping at my head and torso. Will was cursing on
the other side, fully engaged in a fight of his own.

“Matt!” Mamie screamed from somewhere in the trees. She
stumbled out of the woods, running for the truck. Her clothes were torn, she
had scratches on her face, and her braids had come loose. But she was alive.

I swung wildly at the monsters hemming me in and slashed one
open from collarbone to rib cage in my hurry to get to her. The other backed away,
then turned and ran towards the woods.

Headed straight for Mamie.

Eyes wide with fear, Mamie tried to reverse course, but her
feet tangled and she went down. The Bear giving chase scooped her up and dashed
into the woods. The others left us and followed.

“Mamie!” I ran after the group of monsters as fast as Tink
could propel me. “Mamie! Keep screaming so we can find you!”

There was a muffled, “
Mmmmffftt!”
then nothing.

I raced onto the trail they’d taken, and stopped short. The
path was empty—completely empty. No rustling of brush. No snuffles or panting
as the beasts ran. The forest was quiet.

Oh, God…Mamie was lost in the dark. All my nightmares were
coming true right here, right now.

With a roar of rage, I left the trail and plowed through the
trees like a tornado, screaming for my sister. I hacked at the underbrush with
my blade, having totally lost my mind.

Hands grabbed my arms from behind. I tucked and rolled,
knocking the menace off my back and landed on it full force, blade drawn.

Will’s blade met mine, setting off sparks. “It’s me, you
idiot!”

Shuddering, sick at what I’d nearly done, I climbed off Will
and offered him a hand up.

“You’re hurt?” he asked. “Or just panicking?”

Any other time, I would’ve been embarrassed by the hysteria,
but not tonight. I took in gulps of cold night air and started coughing. It
took precious seconds for me to breathe right again and the delay nearly did me
in. “Not hurt. Just ready kill anything that keeps Mamie away from me.”

“Me, too. But listen…something weird is going on out here.
They weren’t fighting me earlier. Not really. They just wanted to knock us out
so we couldn’t follow them. This whole deal is all wrong, understand? We need
to figure it out.”

Had the Leader-Bear been telling the truth? Except for the
She-Bear—and she had reason to want me dead—the other monsters had been trying
to keep me busy…not kill me. It hadn’t sounded like they wanted to kill Mamie’s
friends, either.

Not that I cared.

“We’ll figure it out after we find Mamie,” I said. “Right
now, I’m going to kill them all.”

Footfalls approached from the direction of the highway. A
few seconds later, Uncle Mike and Johnson pushed through the foliage. Uncle
Mike looked like he wanted to rip someone’s balls off. Johnson’s expression was
even meaner.

“Track them,” Mike barked, seeming unable to say any more
than that.

We fanned out, walking a perimeter. Where could they have
gone? The trail was unmarked, pristine, like they’d vanished hours ago instead
of minutes.

“Did they go underground?” Will asked.

It was a reasonable theory, and a tactic we’d seen before,
but I didn’t find anything that looked like a tunnel or a bunker in the cluster
of trees. We searched for ten minutes, checking out every broken leaf or print
for clues. Baffled, and about to blow, I met the others.

“Nothing. Not one damn thing,” Johnson growled. “Where they
hell is she?”

“Could they have disappeared, like magic or something?” Will
said.

“Nothing disappears.” Mike’s voice dripped malice. “And we
haven’t seen any magic yet that says differently. They’re here somewhere.”

I started to suggest we go back to the truck, pack up some
gear and go deep into the mountains when a leaf fluttered down in front of my
face.

I knew where they were.

All along, I’d assumed they were too big to climb trees, too
heavy for any branches to hold them. But I was wrong.

In a clear voice, I said, “Let’s regroup at the truck and
pick up some supplies for a long hunt.”

At the same time, I held my hand close to my chest and
pointed up.

Mike’s eyes flicked that direction and nodded. “Fine. We’ll
get flashlights and tear apart every corner of this grid.”

Meanwhile, Will and I slid our knives out of their sheaths,
ready to spring on command.

I hear them,
Tink whispered.
But he’s listening,
too. You need to be fast and quiet. Go!

Without waiting for Uncle Mike’s order, I shimmied up the
closest tree, knife in hand. Will shot up a tree across the trail.

Branches exploded in motion as soon as they realized we were
coming. I caught one Bear as it tried to jump to the next tree and slit its
throat so violently, its head rocked back on its shoulders. I kicked it off the
branch and jumped into the next tree, where two Bears were climbing down.

“Where is she!” I shouted. “You give her back to us!”

“We can’t,” the Leader shouted from up ahead somewhere. “We
have
to take her.”

I leapt out of the tree, falling a dozen feet to land in a
crouch. Tink was on board now and just as pissed as I was. With superhuman
strength, fueled by adrenaline and a spirit’s rage, I grabbed a fistful of fur
and yanked the nearest Bear back to me. Never mind that it was nearly double my
height—somehow I wrenched its paw so that the wrist joint was strained near to
breaking. It cried out and squirmed, but I reached around to bury the knife in
the meaty tissue right below its collarbone.

“Where is she!”

“Please,” it moaned. “Please.”

I twisted the knife and bent its wrist farther. “No relief
until you tell me.”

The sounds of a scuffle came from my right, followed by a
yelp and Will’s battle cry as he launched himself at a fleeing Bear.

“See that?” I growled. “We’re picking you off one at a time.
You want to save your skin, tell me where my sister is.”

“She’s…she’s…” The beast gasped and arched its back, like it
was in terrible pain. Thrashing with a sudden onset of convulsions, it dropped
to its knees, taking me with it until I released my knife. It fell to the
ground and twitched before its eyes rolled back in its head. Finally, it lay
still.

“Whoa!” Will shouted. “What the…this thing just dropped dead
in front of me!”

“Stop! It’s over,” Leader-Bear called. “Bring the girl.
Bring her out.”

The Leader and his two friends clambered out of trees down
the trail, and were met by one more. Mamie was riding piggyback on this one,
her eyes wide and scared. It had grasped her hands in one of its paws,
preventing her from dropping and running away.

“Thank God,” Mike breathed. “Daisy, you okay?”

She gulped and nodded. The Leader Bear sighed and motioned
for her captor to turn her loose. As soon as her feet hit ground, she sprinted
toward me. I’d never seen her run so fast, nor had a hug half as fierce once
she reached us.

The four Bears stood watching the scene until the one who’d
carried Mamie whimpered and stumbled into the trees. It cried out in pain once,
twice, then went quiet.

“What’s going on?” Will whispered.

Mamie pulled away from me. “I need to talk to them. They
won’t hurt us now. Just trust me.”

I paused. I trusted Mamie in everything…but something about
this was so, so wrong. Yeah, my sister could talk a hardened criminal into
rethinking his life. I wasn’t sure it would work on monsters, though.
Especially not with monsters compelled to kill her.

Mike was shaking his head and gesturing that I should stop
her. I glanced at the three leaders. They still weren’t attacking. Instead…

They looked incredibly sad.

Not ready to decide yet, I blocked Mamie off by standing in
front of her. “Tink? Talk to me. What’s going on?”

Her sigh was conflicted. She liked to cut down dark
creatures, but she seemed as undecided as I was.
Remember how I said their
signatures were muted, and we thought that was because of the distance between
home and here? Now I wonder if it wasn’t something else. They don’t
feel
the same. Even the dark brothers who attacked us and were cut down seemed like
they were doing their duty, but took no pleasure in it.

“Like the Cats in Africa. They seemed to know they were
being sent to die,” I said.

Not exactly. The Cats came with malice, and they enjoyed
the hunt, but they came knowing it was a lost cause and were resigned to being
a distraction. These are different.
Tink paused a moment, like she was
mulling over our options.
It goes against everything I think is right, but
let Mamie speak to them.

“Tink says we let you talk to them.” I moved to Mamie’s
side. “But, you stay two steps behind me. We’re not going to get close—just
enough to hear each other—and Will’s going to guard our backs.”

Will took position behind us. “Coach Shaw doesn’t like it.
But he also says he doesn’t grasp emotion like his sister does. So, we do what
Tink says.”

That was a first. Tink must’ve thought so, too, because she
snorted.

Uncle Mike looked like he wanted to spit nails, but he backed
off and let us pass. When we were twenty feet away, I stopped and held an arm
out in front of my sister. “Close enough.”

She gently pushed my arm out of her way and squared her
shoulders. “You said you had to collect me…not kill me. Your people didn’t hurt
me, either, not even when we were running away from my school. Why?”

“It was his order,” the Leader Bear said. The other two
nodded slowly. “The Master compelled us to fetch you. He wanted wielder blood,
too, but we’ve…become more aware in our short time here. We don’t wish to kill,
nor do we wish to see you harmed. We’d deliver you because we must, but we
wouldn’t harm you.”

“But the others attacked anyway,” Mamie said softly, without
any accusation in her tone. “And you killed those two girls.”

“Because we can’t resist him for long,” the lone female
answered. “He is our creator and our destroyer. If we don’t take you, he’ll
kill us. Some have already been claimed, and our time comes soon.”

Mamie swallowed hard. “I’m very sorry. I can’t let you have
me, though.”

“We thought we were likely doomed to fail, but we had to
try. He wouldn’t allow anything but obedience,” the third Bear said. “In return
for sparing you, we’d ask a favor.”

“You kidnapped my sister,” I said. “What makes you think
we’re in a giving mood?”

Mamie held up a hand. “Shhh. Let them talk.”

Now she was taking their side? What was she doing?

The Leader Bear looked directly into my eyes. “If we don’t
take your sister, we die in agony, tortured as long as he can make us survive
it. We have no chance at life. We never did. We either die fighting, or we fail
and die in pain.”

Was that what happened to the Bears who just dropped dead?
Was the Master here somehow, taking his failure out on these creatures?

I thought back to the Cat I’d met in Africa, the one who
said he was created for one purpose, and that his life was destined to be
short. The Master created his minions as tools, then threw them out like
week-old leftovers when they were no longer useful.

“The monsters in Australia didn’t seem to share your fear,”
I said, wondering about this. “They just attacked us and killed or hurt a bunch
of our guys.”

“They were fed by blood,” Leader Bear said.

I didn’t understand that, but Mamie was nodding. “What favor
would you ask of us?”

“For the wielders to kill us,” the female said. “It would be
quick and merciful.”

“Sounds like a good idea,” Uncle Mike said, not sounding the
least bit bothered by it.

I was, though. Killing something that hurt other people or
wanted to kill me back was one thing. Dispatching a monster because it asked—no
matter why—didn’t sit well with me.

“I don’t know if I can do that,” I said, feeling partly like
a wimp and partly like I was being noble. “Just kill you in cold blood…it’s not
right.”

Mamie put a hand on my arm and I was startled to see tears
in her eyes. “I hate the idea of creatures of any kind being killed, but she’s
right. This time, it’s merciful.”

I turned to the Bears. “Tell me why you wanted Mamie, and
I’ll consider it.”

“We do not know why he wanted her.” Leader Bear said. “Just
that we were to fetch her. She’s important to him.”

Mamie went stiff next to me. “Are you the only ones?”

The monsters exchanged uncomfortable glances. How
weird
that they seemed so human right now. Finally, the female said, “For now. But
there…
could
be others. The Master’s arts are growing—”

Before she could get another word out, the She-Bear clutched
at her throat, gurgling. Her back arched so far, I worried she’d snap her
spine. With a whine that set my teeth on edge, she reached up and clawed at her
face, tearing fur and flesh from her jaw.

“Wielder, we’ve already shared more than we should. He’s
come to claim her.” Leader-Bear dropped to his knees, gasping. “He comes for me
as well.”

The leader tumbled to the ground and the final Bear stared
me down with sad, tired eyes. “Save us from this. Give us freedom.”

He knelt, the only one not writhing in pain…yet. Feeling
sick to my stomach, but unable to watch the She-Bear flay herself open any
longer, I went to her. “I’m sorry.”

Then I slit her throat. Before she died, she reached up to
touch my wrist, lightly pressing her paw against the star tattoo on my wrist.

I turned to help Leader-Bear, but Will was already there.
The monster stared upward, a look of relief on his face, which wasn’t reflected
in his sightless eyes.

That left the last Bear. He still seemed lucid but his paws
shook. I couldn’t tell if it was from pain or fear. Still he bared his throat
to us meekly. “Thank you.”

Will and I took care of him together, maybe so we’d share
the same amount of blood on our hands. Because that’s what this felt like. For
once, the monsters felt like victims instead of enemies…and I felt like an
executioner.

“I need a minute.” I staggered into the trees, sagging as
Tink withdrew her magic. She stayed in my mind, murmuring that she would keep
watch, while I puked up everything in my stomach. This was the most
understanding she’d ever shown me.