Chapter 11 Target Practice
ELEVEN
Target Practice
My eyes flashed open to Osso trying to hold me without touching any exposed skin. He stared at my face in horror and picked me up, carrying me over the tape.
The captain was beside us. “Rosen. Get the first aid kit.”
My left eye was watering. It felt like it was on fire. “What happened?”
Osso shook his head. “Your eye is bloody and there’s a huge black ring around it.”
I thought about what I’d seen as I slipped my glove back on. “He shot an arrow into my—his eye.”
“Who did?” the captain asked.
Rosen walked up with a first aid kit under her arm and a cold compress in her hand. “Put this on your eye. Last time, the injury didn’t last long.” Rosen had been with us when we’d been in a different forest, looking for a different child killer.
The cold did help dull the pain a bit. “I don’t know who,” I told the captain. “He was a kid too, though older than…Eli.”
“Eli?” Osso echoed. “That’s the victim’s name?”
I nodded.
Osso looked at his captain. “Hernández is doing research on this place. She’s been texting me updates. She says the last year they were open, they lost a camper named Eli Tate. He disappeared. They called in the cops and formed a search party, but he was never found.”
“Until now,” Rosen murmured.
I moved the cold compress from my eye and asked Osso, “Any better?”
He shook his head and guided my hand back to my eye.
“I think this was the cabin they used for all the summer camp equipment.” I told them what I’d seen in the vision.
“Can you read the other two now?” the captain asked.
I considered and shook my head. “Not right now, and not both. Pick one. I’m going to walk around and try to shake off getting an arrow to the head.” I walked past the annoyed captain and felt a wave of nausea hit me. Oh, no.
When I tried to go around the back of the next cabin to vomit in peace, I realized it wasn’t morning sickness. It was the cabin. I motioned to Osso. “It’s this cabin too. I think the person beneath it was poisoned.”
He leaned back into view of the others, barked an order, and dropped a flag.
I’d already moved on, weaving between the cabins.
Three more cabins had at least one body hidden below them.
The activity level and voices ratcheted up a few notches as I walked along the edge of the forest and pointed out two more spots where shallow graves had been dug and bodies left.
As far as I could tell, the rest were adults.
“I think as the killer got older, so too did the victims,” I told Osso. Every new discovery had felt like a punch to the gut. I had a gloved hand gripping his arm, trying to keep myself upright.
“Can we move to the pond? Maybe the water will help.” It was wide and lovely, with trees hanging over the surface, creating hidden bowers under the branches. The campgrounds were pummeling me psychically. I was hoping a serene pond would cleanse the sticky residue of death from me.
I took off my glove to touch the water and snapped my hand back like the pond was filled with piranha. Sighing, I turned to Osso and found him texting. “You need divers,” I told him. “There are bodies at the bottom.”
Osso cursed, led me to a rock so I could sit down, and jogged back around the cabins so he could call for the captain. When Osso returned, it was with others in tow to discuss dragging the pond. I asked for my backpack.
This was one of the many reasons why having Declan on these jobs helped. He would have reminded me to use the seawater in the octopus bottle long before now. I took off a glove, poured water into my hand, and lifted my hand to my eye. The pain lessened and I was able to think clearly.
“What’s in the bottle?”
I turned and found Officer Rosen standing beside me, her eyes on the octopus bottle.
I put my glove back on, closed the bottle, and returned it to my backpack.
“It’s just water. It helps me, though. Except when your buddies”—I gestured to the cops around us—“decided it would be hilarious to rifle through my backpack and piss in my water bottle. That was awesome.”
Rosen’s eyes went wide and her jaw hardened like she was clenching her teeth. “They did what?” She was fuming, which made me feel better. “And you still help the department?”
I shrugged a shoulder. “It’s not the victims’ fault some of these guys are assholes.”
She rubbed her forehead. “Listen. I know you work with Arthur and Sofia, but if you ever need someone and can’t reach them, call me.” She pulled a card out of her pocket and passed it to me. “I’ll do what I can to help.”
“Rosen,” the captain called. “See how quickly we can get divers out here.”
“Yes, Captain.” She nodded and walked back toward the original crime scene while talking on the radio attached at her shoulder.
“Any idea how many we’re looking for?” the captain asked me.
I thought about it and shook my head. “It feels like maybe five. I’m not sure, though.”
“Your eye looks better,” he said. “Can you read a second one now?”
My phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out and saw a missed call from Declan. “Give me a minute. I’ll meet you back near the entrance in a few.”
The captain didn’t seem thrilled with that answer, but I’d given him more than enough to be getting on with.
Me: Hi. Sorry I missed your call. Is everything okay?
Declan: [image of a mattress in the bedframe]
Me: Hot damn! We get to sleep in a bed tonight <3
Declan: Who said anything about sleeping? Where are you? I ran over to the gallery at lunch but couldn’t find you. Did your mom pick you up?
Me: No. I’m out at a crime scene. Osso wanted my help.
Declan: Why didn’t you call me? I should be there taking care of you.
Me: New client and mattress. I’m okay. I made Osso promise to catch me if it looked like I was going down.
Declan: That’s my job. I don’t want some other man putting his hands on you.
I stared at the text, feeling like this conversation had gotten away from me.
Declan: Where are you? I’ll come now.
Me: I’m fine. I don’t need you here and I don’t appreciate being talked about like I’m your possession.
I turned off my phone and returned it to my pocket. Swinging my backpack into place, I walked far too aggressively back toward the demolished cabin. Stupid men left, right, and center. I should have been in my hot shop working on my order.
One of the heckling officers from earlier gave me a shitty look as I went by. My fingers twitched of their own volition. Mostly. I heard strangled yelps behind me as he tried to swat away a very determined wasp.
Osso caught up with me a minute later. “What’d he do?”
“Which he?”
He took one look at my face and held up his hands. “Nothing. I don’t want to be chased by a swarm of locusts.”
We walked through the cabins and were about to turn a corner that would put us back where the three bodies were when he caught my arm. “You weren’t angry before you started texting. Is everything okay?”
I really wasn’t sure what to do with a considerate Osso.
It felt wrong. “Declan’s going all caveman with me.
He’s pissed I didn’t tell him I was going with you to a crime scene, and he’s especially pissed that you might catch me instead of letting me hit the ground.
Apparently, I belong to him and no one else is allowed to touch me—even if it means keeping me from landing in human remains. ”
He pulled out his phone. “I knew I should have called him.”
I flicked my fingers, effectively yanking the phone from him and dropping it into my hand. “Don’t you dare,” I ground out.
Osso looked like he wanted to throttle me, but he kept his huge fists locked at his sides. He walked away and angry paced for a minute before stopping in front of me with his hand out for his phone. “Don’t spell me again.”
I handed it back. “Then don’t treat me like I’m a toy you and Declan are fighting over.” Magic boiled in my blood. “Do. You. Know. Who. I. Am?”
He held his hands up while looking over his shoulder. “Okay. Quit it. Calm down,” he whispered. “Your eyes are glowing and you’re levitating. We’re surrounded by humans here.”
I closed my eyes and tried to get my rage in check. It wasn’t easy.
“Are you ready?” the captain called.
Osso replied, “Give us a minute. She needs to prepare.”
When I heard footsteps recede, I opened my eyes. “Better?”
Osso nodded. “I told you when you first started seeing him that you had to be prepared to deal with a wolf’s nature, and an Alpha no less. Your condition is going to push his protective nature into overdrive.”
“What condition?” I was still angry, but it was fun to screw with him.
“Fine. Be a pain in my ass. I’ll say that when my wife was pregnant, I would have ripped the arms off any man who dared to touch her.” He shook his head. “Bloody stumps would have been on the ground before I had time to think about what I was doing.”
I turned on my heel. “Let’s get this over with so you can take me home. I’m sick of everyone.”