Chapter Twenty-Nine
Forests dressed the Allegheny Mountains in a thick canopy of green, but I couldn’t appreciate the sight.
I’d rather get operated on without anesthesia than be here.
The only reason I’d come was because of those campers.
Right now, people who loved them would be getting the worst news possible, and I was the only one who could definitively say whether or not a Beast had done it.
And possibly track that Beast, if legends were correct.
“There’s the clearing,” Remy said. “Put us down there.”
“Roger that,” the helicopter pilot replied.
The chopper touched down with surprising smoothness. We waited for the rotors to slow, and then me, Remy, and Setreg got out. At once, a myriad of scents hit me like a backhand to the face. I closed my eyes, fighting the surge of memories.
I laughed as I ran ahead of Mom and Gran on the trail. “Come on! Last one to the river washes everyone’s dishes!”
“You’re using youth to cheat,” Gran shouted after me.
“And you’re using age as a cop-out!” I yelled back.
Her laughter rang out. “Oh, you’ll pay for that.”
Leaves crackled close behind me. Gran was catching up.
A stick flying by caught my attention, and I almost stumbled on a root in front of me. I slowed to catch myself, and iron-gray hair flashed past me. Then I saw the back of Gran’s head along with her orange parka as she ran past me.
“Who’s the cheater now?” I said in outrage.
Her laugh lines melded together as she threw a grin back at me. “That’s not cheating. It’s strategy! You learn it with age.”
“You two,” Mom panted as she caught up, but she was laughing, too.…
“Raine.” Remy’s voice drew me back. “Are you okay?”
No. The happy memories hurt almost as much as the horrible ones. “Yes,” I said with only a slight rasp. “I’m good.”
Remy stared at me another moment before handing me a water satchel while Setreg pulled two large backpacks out of the chopper. He tossed one to Remy and put the other one on.
I snorted. “What do you need all this stuff for? We’re only hiking two miles to reach the site, right?”
Remy slid the backpack onto his shoulders in one smooth motion. “In case it is a Beast, and it’s still close.” His gaze grew pointed. “These don’t contain camping supplies.”
The neckline of my crew-neck shirt suddenly felt like it was rising up to choke me. It had been bad enough to see the Beast on video. What if I saw another one face-to-face?
Remy took one look at my face and said, “This is too much for you. Stay back with the pilot. I’ll bring you things from the campsite to look at.”
Oh, that was so tempting. But Remy was only guessing that that would be enough. He didn’t know for sure. Besides, if it was a Beast, I might need the whole gory, immersive experience to see if I could sense it enough to track it, too.
I took a deep breath and silently cursed the heady bouquet of pine, oak, and spruce that came with it. I’d come this far. I’d see it through. I just needed a little something first.
I went to Remy and yanked his head down to mine.
For an instant, he was stiff with surprise, and then he nipped at my lips before his tongue dueled with mine.
His skillful kiss soon chased away that awful choking sensation.
I let myself feel every bit of the growing heat inside me before pulling away.
“Thanks,” I said with a slight gasp.
A knowing look lit his eyes. “For the distraction?”
“Not distraction,” I said with a mental salute to my grandmother. “It’s strategy.”
Setreg coughed.
I turned around with a small laugh. “I know. Let’s get going already, right?”
His brows rose in false innocence. “Just clearing my throat.”
Remy let me go. “Follow me.”
I kept my gaze trained on Remy’s back instead of our surroundings. Setreg brought up the rear behind me. It didn’t escape my notice that Remy had put me in the middle of our convoy, aka the most protected spot.
I didn’t mind. I might have kissed Remy out of strategy earlier, but I had definitely been staring at his ass for distraction since we started the hike.
His jeans molded to him like the denim loved the shape of his ass as much as I did.
Still, even that sight couldn’t chase away the harsh tang of smoke that now filtered through the other forest scents.
I’d been ignoring it for the past twenty minutes, telling myself it was a false memory, but no. There had been a fire nearby.
Remy paused next to a break in the tree line. Beyond him, I caught a glimpse of green. “The clearing is right through here.”
A gust of wind carried the unmistakable scent of blood.
I was used to smelling it at the hospital, but there, it was with a strong undercurrent of antiseptics.
Here, it was layered with that hated aroma of burnt underbrush.
Bile rose that I swallowed back. I’d already trekked uphill through these damn woods for an hour. I wasn’t chickening out now.
I walked past him and stood at the edge of the clearing.
More trees and a rocky outcrop encircled its large, bowl-like shape below us.
From this vantage point, I had a clear view of the many colorful fabrics dotting the flat, grassy earth.
It took me a few moments to realize it was the remains of two tents and various scattered pieces of clothing.
Wear bright colors. Every hiker knew to do that.
You didn’t want to get shot by a beer-guzzling hunter just because they mistook you for a deer.
These campers had picked vivid colors for their tents, too.
And something had ripped through their clothes and those tents until only scraps of fabric remained.
In the next blink, I saw the bodies. Or, to be accurate, the pieces of them. I winced even as relief hit me.
It’s not a Beast!
It couldn’t be. The carnage was too extensive. I counted nine—no, make that ten—detached limbs. This had to be a bear. Maybe even a rabid bear, considering the frenzied limb-ripping.
A large burn mark on the ground caught my eye. It was about twenty yards away, and it curved in the center, kind of like an oversized boomerang. Ice raced up my spine as I continued to stare at it.
Why did that look familiar?
I moved toward it without thinking. Faint tendrils of smoke drifted up from it despite the recent downpour. Whatever had burned here had been hot. If it hadn’t rained heavily overnight, the fire would have spread to the nearby tree line, and this whole area would’ve turned into a blazing nightmare.
“Just like the other site,” Remy said, low.
I hadn’t sensed him coming up behind me, and I should have. I should also turn around and look at him, but I couldn’t bring myself to stop staring at that large, slightly curved shape.
Why was my heart beating so fast? And why did my skin itch as if something invisible was crawling all over it?
“It’s a Beast,” Remy stated.
“A Beast wouldn’t leave all these bodies behind,” I argued, still unable to look away.
“There’s usually nothing left except ashes after a Beast attack, and those ashes are cold because the Beast devours every bit of remaining energy from them.
Beasts also don’t rip people apart to kill them. They don’t need to.”
“True,” Remy agreed. “But this Beast seems to enjoy tearing its victims asunder. It also changed hosts here.”
I scoffed softly. “How could you know that?”
Remy gestured to the burn mark. “Because of this.”
My throat felt like it was being squeezed by an invisible fist. I tried to swallow past it and couldn’t. “What about it?”
He sighed. “You don’t remember what this is?”
My heart was now pounding, and if the pressure in my throat grew any thicker, I’d choke on it. “Remember what?”
“A host’s body spontaneously combusts when a Beast leaves it,” Remy said quietly. “These types of burn marks are all that’s left of their former hosts.”
The large scorch mark seemed to rise up and swallow me.
For a second I couldn’t see anything except darkness.
The next thing I knew, I was kneeling on the ground, Remy crouched next to me, speaking in tones that thrummed through me like acoustic Xanax.
My vision blinked back into the normal darkness of the charred earth that I was still staring at.
I stood, trying to brush away the new stains on my knees.
The recent rain made the soot goopy, leaving dark streaks behind.
And this had once been a person. That was why I hadn’t been able to look away when I first saw it.
My subconscious had remembered this same thing happening to my Beast’s former host even if the rest of my mind had blocked it.
“Let me help you,” Remy said as I slapped at myself.
“No.” Embarrassment and other, darker emotions sharpened my tone. “I’ve got it.”
Remy didn’t argue. He must know I needed to busy myself with something. It gave me a chance to wrestle back my control.
“No,” I finally said when I felt steady enough to speak again.
“I didn’t remember that the host’s body burns up once a Beast leaves it, but I’m glad you told me.
Park rangers always blamed Mom and Gran for the wildfire that nearly killed me.
Said they must have been careless with our campsite, but I knew better.
They’d always been vigilant about fire safety. ”
“Raine, that fire couldn’t kill you for the same reason you can’t drown. Beasts can’t be killed by any of the elements. The magic they’re made from predates earth, air, fire, and water.”
“Bullshit,” I breathed out.
“If only,” Setreg muttered. “Then your kind wouldn’t be so difficult to kill.”
My gaze swung to him. Setreg had been scouting the clearing’s perimeter with an oddly thick rifle in his hands. I hadn’t seen him pull it out from his backpack, but he must have done so when I’d been transfixed by the human-sized burn marks.
“Bullshit,” I repeated more loudly. “I remember my feet blistering from running on burning ground. How would that happen if I was immune to fire?”