Chapter 16
Finally, I’ve had success.
The first two boys died within twenty four hours of the transformation. After one died during the stress of the change and the other turned into a transfigured blob, I was sure this trial was a complete failure.
Defects.
But the third boy had the strength to withstand the ritual.
He screamed and begged me to stop. There were moments I almost gave in, the boy barely looks thirteen, but I held my composure until the ritual was done.
And reaped my reward.
He stopped screaming when his bones finished twisting into his new grotesque shape, and instead he snarled and snapped at me like a gator would.
Stay strong, my family. Help is coming.
This wasn’t any science I knew. An altar with the heart of an alligator, brain of a crocodile, spine of a snake, with a chant said to be the ruin of the lost colony, Roanoke, and a moldavite wand.
I’d hoped the process was similar to ancient traditions that seemed obscene, but had scientific backing. These were the scribbles of a mad woman.
And she’d gathered this ‘technique’ unheard of by her sisters from distant branches of the family.
It was official. My umbilical cord was a crazy straw.
The rushed squish of feet, running though wet mud, made me press the book to my chest. Not wanting anyone to see what I’d found.
Shannon came into view, halting in her tracks to stare at me like she thought she’d never see me again. Her shoulders straightened as if a weight was lifted off of her, and let out a breath that sounded like she’d been holding it since that thing dragged me into the water.
Her pack dropped unceremoniously on the ground, and she flopped beside me in my hammock without waiting for an invitation. After she took three measured breaths, she finally whispered. “You stupid bitch.”
I chuckled, but it sounded heavy even to my ears.
“Are you okay?” she asked in a soft tone that wasn’t normal for her, and I immediately hated it. Who knew that deep down inside I appreciated Shannon’s sharp, unforgiving tongue?
“Don’t talk to me like that.” My breathing shuddered. “Please.”
“I ruined my new boots trying to swim after you.” She kicked her boots off and peeled the socks away as if to prove her point. “Expect an invoice.”
“Best of luck to you.” I fought the urge to smile. I needed her normalcy more than I cared to admit.
“Oh I will be getting my seventy-nine ninety-nine plus tax. I can promise you that.” She humphed, but relaxed next to me.
“You went cheap on your boots?” I snorted at her.
“Bitch,” she gasped, genuinely appalled. Her fingers drummed on the book in my hands. Once she touched it, her attention zoned in on the leather cover. “What is that?”
Multiple sets of footsteps behind us made squishing sounds as the rest of Shannon’s search team arrived.
“Answers,” I whispered. “Hopefully.”
Her hazel eyes grew bright in the soft lighting of the bonfire. She opened her mouth to speak, but her mouth snapped closed as Gale came into view, with one of his handsome smiles that made people look the other way. “I knew you’d be okay.”
“Always am,” I answered casually, sinking back into a character I’d almost forgotten existed. One that had to make sure men didn’t see my weaknesses. It made me miss the monster.
He patted my shoe, his hand settling for two seconds too long. Anger that wasn’t mine boiled deep inside my chest. It was wild and animalistic in a way that was foreign to me. It took me too long to realize it was him.
I sat up, casually kicking his touch away. His eyes tracked the subtle movement with displeasure in his eyes. Instead of acknowledging his irritation, I whispered, “Carter didn’t make it. I found her body.”
His mouth turned grim. “Where is she?”
“I couldn’t safely get her out of the water.”
He nodded his understanding. “Did you tell anyone else?”
I shook my head.
“Good. Don’t.” He walked over to another search team coming in.
“Can he say that?” Shannon lifted an eyebrow. “Seems unethical.”
Something akin to shame filled me. On the surface she was right, but what was best wasn’t always morally clean. I wished I had her naivete.
“It will start a panic, and it’ll become every man for himself,” I explained with a heavy sigh. As much as I didn’t trust Gale, he was right. “People will die.”
Humanity was only ever a few missed meals from devouring itself.
She frowned and behind us the water moved. I could feel him thinking about how every man for himself sounded perfect. It would make it easier to pick everyone off, one by one. Especially the one that kept touching what was his.
I froze as the understanding of his thoughts truly sunk in. The possessive edge made my chest grow tight.
Shannon grabbed my arm in alarm, as if she expected me to be ripped into the swamp again.
“He can’t get us here,” I whispered in her ear.
“Why?”
“I don’t know.” Hopefully the book could explain that part too.
He left, but I still felt his mental presence. His annoyance that I was behind the sage barrier. The protective aura emanating from his thoughts. If survivors left, hunters, tourists, and cops would come to investigate. The entire swamp was in danger as far as he was concerned.
He was right. I wouldn’t be able to argue hard enough to preserve it now. Failure weaved through me.
Maybe I should let him pick everyone off.
Heat filled my face when the thought truly sunk in.
Whose thought was that? His? Mine?
“Shannon, can you check on our friend here?” Gale pointed at Drew from across the way.
“It’s bad. I did what I could an hour ago.” That way she didn’t get the same surprise I did.
Shannon rolled out of the hammock, stealing my flip flops for showering, and flipped me off. But I could tell she didn’t like my warning. The proper amount of sass wasn’t in her eyes.
I watched her expression as she pulled his bandages back.
It was worse than earlier. I could see it as plain as day on her face.
I didn’t want to leave the safety of my sage patch, but I had to see what had Shannon silently restraining herself.
“How are you feeling, bud?” I asked him, trying to appear like I was simply checking in. As soon as I was within a few feet the rancid odor hit my nose, like meat spoiling on the counter, well past its expiration date.
Sweat dripped down his forehead like he was in a sauna, but wrangled together one of his puppy dog smiles. His breathing was a wet rattle like he was drowning. “Been better never.”
I pressed my lips together and didn’t bother correcting his confused sentence. His mental confusion made the bad feeling sitting on my stomach like a weight turn into a boulder.
My eyes went to his leg, and I fought my reaction with every ounce of control I had.
In an hour, it had gone from looking like a gnarly infection had taken hold to looking like the meat smell I’d compared the odor still lingering in the air to.
Gray in some places. Green and brown in others.
It looked like something that should be triple bagged and taken right to the trash can outside, not something connected to a man.
Shannon leaned into my ear to whisper as softly as possible, “Toxin or venom? He’s…”
I watched her struggle to come up with the word, but I suddenly realized why Levicy Rinah named the monster the way she did, making the nausea worse.
“Rotting,” I offered.
He was alive yet he was decaying.
“That’s it.” Her perfect eyebrow scrunched as she thought it over. Her face grew pale. “Maybe we should cut it off. Otherwise, he won’t make it to morning.”
I would have agreed with her, except an hour ago I was already thinking about sepsis. My fingers hesitated at the edge of his shorts, unsure if I really wanted to know the truth.
“Fresh get don’t,” Drew giggled, half out of his mind.
I pulled the edge of his shorts up to find his veins big, swollen, and blue, with discoloration trailing up his body.
When I lifted his shirt I saw the same thing leading all the way to his heart. He was rotting from the inside out. Shannon covered her mouth with both hands, and I fought the tears pricking my eyes.
His gaze locked onto us, and the first inkling of fear shadowed his eyes. The hum of bugs hovering nearby buzzed in the air, waiting for their meal.
The rot had already reached his heart.
It was too late to cut off his leg.