Chapter 10
We dragged Drew into the camp, and the rest of his team was already there. It would have been hilarious to hear so many men squawking about a monster, if I didn’t feel the very real threat staring at me from the water.
He’d been behind us the entire time, stalking us. Me.
But every time I searched the water, there was no one there. Yet, every time I looked forward, his gaze seared down my back, as if he was angrily studying every inch of me.
Shannon and I tossed Drew onto the medical cot. He started seizing, and we rolled him onto his side. “He must have a history. The stress probably overloaded him.”
“The shock is going to kill him,” I concluded at the same time she did. I remembered last night. “Do you have any more of that cocktail from last night?”
She frowned. “Doubt he can drink it.”
“Everyone calm down,” Professor Gale said in a tone meant to calm the hysteria. “What you are experiencing is delirium. We told you to be careful about the native wildlife.”
My eyes went to the blood coating Shannon’s hands as she stitched the ripped mess on Drew’s thigh. Flashes of stark white managed to make it through all the red. The creature had gone all the way to the bone.
Yeah, it was all delirium.
“My girls are well versed in emergency first aid. They will get your friend taken care of.” In times like this it was easy to see him as the voice of reason. Calm, cool, and ready to tackle problems head on.
“The med kit should have emergency morphine,” Shannon told me.
“Got it.” I dug in the medical supplies, trying to find anything that would ease his pain. Outside of the med tent, the softest splash of water ripped my attention. I froze, waiting for the monster to burst through the weak canvas.
“It’s not him. Move it, Talia.” Shannon meant to be sharp and authoritative, but I heard the quiver in her voice. She was scared, too.
I found something for the pain, prepping the IV. I missed Drew’s vein, when a much louder splash on Talia’s side of the tent snatched my attention.
Shannon braced herself for an attack, and after a few seconds, we both wearily rushed back to work. She sniffled and took a deep breath. “He’s playing with his food.”
“Yep.” I finally slid the IV into his arm and got the drip going. Now maybe he had a chance of making it.
“He’s gonna need a hospital!” Shannon snapped at Gale with fire in her eyes. “You know, for the delirium.”
Gale sighed as if that was a huge inconvenience to him.
No doubt his precious expedition would be cancelled if a student had a major injury.
One of us conservationists was one thing, we signed up for a hazardous career.
The future lawyers and business moguls were another.
He glanced at his phone and frowned. “No bars.”
Damn it.
I dug through the med area and came out with a CB Radio. I turned it on and started with the channel it was already on. “Mayday.”
“He lost a lot of blood,” Shannon told me. “His blood pressure is on the floor now.”
“No blood bags,” I told her, changing the channel. But I found the medical records, thumbing through them. “Mayday. Medical Emergency.”
“It was the Lizardman,” one of the boys squeaked.
“The Lizardman doesn’t exist.” Gale chuckled nervously. He had the same tension in his shoulders that he had when he was about to politic his way out of a situation. “It was an alligator.”
“Alligator or not, can you do your damn job?” Shannon snapped at Gale. “Why don’t you have the med bay properly set up?”
“I was just getting to it, Miss Fredricks.” His eyes cut to her in warning. The use of Miss instead of Dr was a soft threat not to cross him, but she was too busy saving a life to care.
“Shannon, he’s A- blood type. So am I,” I told her, flipping the channel, trying every setting possible, but there was nothing. Surely there was a ranger or a hermit in range of us.
The only response I got was static. My heart dropped to my stomach.
Dread dripped down my back.
The water stilled, like he was waiting for me to figure out what he already knew. As if we’d taste sweeter with defeat weaved through our bones. Even the bugs and frogs went quiet, because we were the only ones who didn’t know.
My hand froze where I’d been placing an IV in my arm. Tears pricked my eyes, but didn’t fall.
Help wasn’t coming.
He was.
My breathing hitched. Everything flew out the window, and I struggled to remember even one survival tactic.
I could feel his presence deep in my chest.
One of the boys backed up from the group with panic in his eyes. The kind of fear that made reasonable people run right into the jaws of death.
“Stay with the group!” I yelled. “Get away from the water!”
Without warning, the boy’s feet came out from under him, and he hit the ground with a painful grunt. Tears were already streaming down his face as he rolled over to face the monster, walking out of the water on all fours.
As wrong as he looked on two legs, this one made my entire body quiver. His arms and legs were too tall to look natural.
His special blend of human and monster rang every prey alarm in my mind, that we were his food, and we were already between his teeth.
The fabric of Shannon’s pants darkened, but she never stopped working on Drew.
Her reaction woke me out of the state of purgatory I was in. I took a step forward to see if my body cooperated again.
“There’s only one of him. Jump him!” A student gave a battle cry, running toward the creature with a walking stick and his ego. The group joined him with yells of their own.
“Stop them!” I told Gale.
But he watched as the monster smoothly slid to two legs and grabbed one of the men by the throat, and held him two feet above the ground. The others stopped, waiting to see what the monster would do with his hostage.
The man gurgled and desperately kicked to escape. The monster’s lip lifted with a snarl before, squeezing his fist closed, until a sickening crack filled the air and the boy quit fighting. Then he tossed him aside as if he was nothing.
There was a long moment where no one responded, everyone stuck in shock at the suddenness. Until the creature flicked his forked tongue threateningly.
Gale took a step back, shaking his head no with disbelief. The mob ran away faster than they’d approached the monster. One guy fell, getting trampled by the others in their rush to escape.
The monster’s red eyes locked onto me, and the intensity made me breathless.
Think, Talia.
I ran over to my hammock as he stepped on the guy on the ground, and the sickening snap of vertebra almost made me falter. Another guy fell to the ground and vomited in the bushes.
I didn’t have time to let my brain process what happened, not if I wanted everyone to make it out of this.
Except those students he ruthlessly murdered. I fought to keep my stomach down as I slid the last stretch to my equipment. My hands shook as I grabbed the long box at the bottom of my things, sending the stack tumbling down. Countless expeditions, and I’d never once had to use this.
My fingers struggled to undo the latches. I glanced over my shoulders to see him shoving through the camp, tossing grown men to the ground with a rough shoulder.
“Talia!” Shannon shrieked with terror that twisted all my organs painfully. All her fire was replaced by pure desperation. “Gale! Do something!”
Shannon needs your blood.
A simple goal that steadied my hands, and I pulled the tranq gun out of its padded case. The warm metal was familiar, despite the fact I’d only worked within the gun range. I loaded it with a single shot without even looking down.
On my knees, I aimed the scope at his tender underbelly, guessing his scales were weaker there. Just like an alligator.
As soon as the shot was lined up, a foreign fear crawled up my throat. It was uncomfortable and made it impossible to swallow the rock suddenly lodged there.
He stood there, putting both arms in the air as if to dare me to do it. His confidence irked me. Cocky asshole.
“You can’t kill something that is a part of you,” he told me with a growl that vibrated underneath my skin.
My fingers tensed on the trigger, but refused to pull the little lever. Come on, two pounds of pressure. That’s all it takes.
“It’s just a nap,” I told myself more than him.
I breathed in deep through my nose to steady myself. With every ounce of strength in my body, I pulled the trigger. The dart flew from the gun, hitting my target right in the neck.
Betrayal filled me, making me nauseous. What did I do?
Dealt with a threat.
So why did pain shoot down my neck and turn my shoulder in a smear of pain. I dropped the gun when my shoulder couldn’t hold the weight of the gun anymore. Had the blowback gotten me?
Why did guilt and shame fill my gut? My face grew hot as if I’d publicly humiliated myself.
The monster snarled, running at me with rage in his piercing eyes. I refused to run, holding my ground. He stomped through the sage, only to retreat a second later.
Fire burned my feet and ankles hot enough, I checked myself to make sure I hadn’t combusted or something. Only to find I was perfectly fine.
Then what was this lingering throb slowly easing away?
He reached in, but I was right out of his reach.
Why wasn’t the tranquilizer taking him down?
He was huge. He was a creature that we didn’t have known tolerances for. Sweat dripped down my temple. It won’t work.
Right before the panic could fully set in, he did a couple of slow blinks. More chinks in his armor. He wasn’t infallible. Everything alive had a weakness.
If we could exploit that, we might make it out of here.
An insane laugh cackled out of me like a hyena. I’d make it out, like I always did. I went to my feet, steadier than I had been since this creature’s eyes first appeared in the swamp.
“Sweet dreams.” I let out a sigh of relief. For the first time since I’d laid my eyes on him, I was in control.
Control over the monster that had everyone else screaming. There was something twistedly delicious about that.
His eyes drooped. “Fight all you want. It won’t matter.”
He fled into the water, but I noticed he was wobbly on his feet. It took too long for the drugs to have an effect.
He’d be back sooner rather than later. Once again, I’d only pushed him back.
Tiredness hit me full force, dropping me to the ground. My eyes went to the still open case. There was only that one dart.
Hell, the only reason the gun was here was because Gale brought it, and he must not have checked the case.
“I’m losing him, Talia!” Panic filled Shannon’s voice. “I need that blood.”
Keep going. If you stop fighting now, you’ll drown.