“It’s okay. I did.”
With that, he turned and made his way into the darkened interior of the semi-hidden shaft.
Lucius and Annika continued to chatter, but I paid no attention to what they were saying, their flirting the furthest thing from my mind. With every minute that ticked by, I thought of more reasons why I shouldn’t have let Bo go in there alone. In fact, I had al but decided I was going in after him when he final y emerged, brushing cobwebs from his hair and shirt as he walked away from the yawning mouth of the mine.
Relief flooded me and, on its heels, concern that he seemed to be alone.
“No Devon?”
“No Devon.”
Bo turned to Lucius.
“Are there any more mines that you know of in this area?”
“Just one, but I know of two more down in Southmoore.”
Bo sighed.
“Wel , let’s start with this one and then we’l make our way south if we can’t find him here.”
“Do you have any idea how close this particular mine is?”
Lucius asked.
“No, but they only just took him, so I figure they couldn’t have gone far,” Bo surmised. “Unless, of course, your vision has yet to happen,” Bo said to me. “Maybe they’re stil traveling.”
A hopeless, helpless feeling overwhelmed me at his words. We real y were flying almost completely blind.
Cade’s abilities wouldn’t do us much good if we had no way of putting them in context or ascertaining some kind of time line.
Bo sighed.
“Let’s just hope they decided to keep him close.” Bo turned to Lucius. “Lead the way to number two.”
Lucius nodded and we struck out through the forest again, winding our way around hil s, climbing slight inclines and weaving our way through trees.
Lucius had been in the midst of a lighthearted account of his adventures in Paris over one hundred years ago when he stopped suddenly.
“Did you hear that?” he asked Bo.
Bo cocked his head and listened, as did I.
The soft huff of heavy breathing teased my ears. I tried to locate the sound, but it seemed to be echoing on al sides, as if we were surrounded by it. I scanned the dark forest, but saw no movement, nothing that looked amiss.
But then, like a bark in the night, I heard one sharp grunt and then it seemed that al hel broke loose in the woods.
The crunch of leaves and the snap of twigs erupted like a firestorm of activity, disturbing the stil ness. Then there was thunderous stomping, as if a herd of cattle was stampeding toward us.
Instinctively, Bo and Lucius put their backs to one another, pul ing Annika and me in close to them so that we had eyes on al sides. It was as I faced the black forest to the west that I saw the red eyes appear as tiny dots racing through the trees.
“Bo,” I whispered. “Something’s coming.”
“I know. I see it, too.”
I tore my eyes away from the ever-approaching red spots only to find that there were a dozen other pairs coming from al directions. The closer they got, the more I could hear.
Their hearts beat erratical y, their breathing labored and excited. They growled—slobbering, vicious, mad sounds that made the hair on my arms stand up.
“Bo, what are they?”
“I don’t know, just be ready to tear their heads off.”
At his words, I felt the rise of fear innervate my muscles.
They tensed, readying themselves for action, for a fight. I had no idea what kind of woodland creatures had glowing red eyes, but I felt sure it wasn’t anything that I should feel sorry about kil ing.
“Remember, Ridley, they can’t hurt you if they can’t get to your heart.”
Keep them away from my heart. They can’t hurt me.
Keep them away from my heart. They can’t hurt me, I reminded myself over and over as the stomping grew louder. It echoed through my head like stilettoes in an empty library.
It was with those thoughts in mind that I caught the first one as it hurled itself toward me. Its mouth closed around my forearm and held on tight. I used that to my advantage and turned to throw it to the ground. It struggled and squealed, gnawing furiously at my flesh, trying to tear its way through my arm. I pul ed my arm to one side, forcing its head in that direction, and I used my suddenly-extended fangs to rip its throat out.
When the movements of the creature had al but ceased, I lifted my head and, without a heartbeat of hesitation, grabbed its porcine mandible and twisted with al my might. I could see that I didn’t tear the mad bore’s head off, but it was close.
As I pushed myself to my feet, a heavy torpedo hit me between my shoulder blades and knocked me to the ground.
I managed to catch myself on one elbow and one knee, using my free hand to reach behind me and drag the boar over my shoulder and fling it to the ground.
It was on its feet within a fraction of a second, facing off against me with al the fury of something possessed. As we stared at one another for the space of about two heartbeats, I tuned out the grunts and squeals and growls from around me and put al my focus onto the thing in front of me.
The huge boar’s tongue hung out of one side of its open mouth and its lips curled back over its tusks threateningly. Its barrel-like body heaved and twitched as if the creature was uncomfortable in its own skin. But it was the eyes that gave me pause.
The glowing red seemed to seep into the darkness around the pig’s head like blood spreading in a pool of water, and in them was an intel igence that made the hairs at my nape prickle uneasily. There was something ancient and evil about them, assuring me that this was no wild, mindless animal. This creature was very much aware of what it was doing and to whom it was doing it. It was on a mission to kil me and it would let nothing stand in its way.
The instant before I moved, I purposely bunched my muscles and reminded them that I could move with lightning speed. And so I did. Before the boar could even take its first step toward me, I had reached inside its open mouth and wrapped my fingers around its upper and lower jaw, pul ing sharply and separating the pig’s head and snout from the rest of its body.
The lifeless boar’s corpse had only just slipped from my fingertips when something hit me from the left and from behind at the same time. Face down in the leaves, I scrambled to get turned over, but it seemed as though there were too many mouths and hooves tearing at me to al ow for me to move.
I kicked with my legs and made contact at least once with something firm, but my struggles didn’t seem to even slow the ravenous creatures that bit at me. I felt a slobbering mouth at my neck just before two thick tusks penetrated the skin there.