143. Chapter 143

Nicole spared a glance at her companions, seeing the determination blazing from their eyes as their eyes moved from the body to meet her gaze. Not one single word was needed or spoken as they started to move in the direction the tree had come from.

Their steps were light, training and skill keeping them from making too much noise as they moved between the trees. Even their breathing was light and measured though Nicole could hear it clearly as well as the sounds of Eliza and Doc’s high visibility clothing hitting the ground as they shed it on the move.

Over two hundred yards from where it had come to rest, they found the splintered stump of the tree and the pool of congealed blood at the base of it.

Doc looked around at the trees with the others, all of them seeing clear signs in the worn paths and claw marks gouged into the trees that it was a popular spot with the Wendigo.

It was also clearly visible from the lake.

“I am finding it hard to believe, even with the size of this forest, that something like this could take place as regularly as it most definitely has and not one damn person questioned it before… especially as I can see a farmhouse within sight and spittin’ distance.”

Nicole followed his nod and saw what he had, a house on the opposite shore of the lake. Going by the smoke rising from the chimney it was most definitely occupied. And it was also most definitely within sight of where she had been sitting while she had talked to Waverly.

“That wasn’t on any maps,” Eliza grumbled.

“Not even the Google-y Maps?”

“Doc, it isn’t even on the map from the super-secret spy satellite we’re not really supposed to access but Jeremy hacked into before we came out.” Holding up her phone, she showed them the crystal clear image of the woods they were in. “No farmhouse,” she pointed out with an agitated jab of her finger. Seeing the trembling in her hand, Eliza turned away from Nicole and Doc as she struggled to keep her emotions and breathing in check. She should have been several hours off needing to take any more of the medicine she was forced to rely upon but already she could feel the building coil of heat starting to work its way through her body.

“Eliza?”

“I’m okay,” she snapped back more tersely than she had intended when she saw Nicole looking at her with that gentle understanding in her brown eyes. “I’m sorry. Just… I can’t stand the thought that I might lose control and end up a charred body on a mortuary table. More than that I’m scared that I might lose control when I’m with Jeannie or anyone else.”

Nicole nodded as Doc quietly indicated that he was going to check around the area and keep an eye on them while she helped Eliza. “Are Jeremy and Rosita any closer to getting a new batch made?”

“The super-secretive one that neither of them will say whose blood it is…? Eliza smiled and shook her head at how furtive their two scientist comrades had been every time anyone asked why they were so optimistic about it. “They’ve got some ready to test but Jeremy was even more nervous and jumpy than usual and wouldn’t let me try it until we get this all sorted out.” Eliza looked at Nicole’s profile, putting two and two together she took a wild stab in the dark. “The blood, it’s yours, isn’t it? It’s okay, I wouldn’t let any of those jerks at Black Badge know after what they did to me.”

“Yeah, it’s mine. I just hope it can help you, Eliza. I know we had a bit of a rocky start with you trying to shoot me in the head and all… but you and Jeannie have both helped us out with all the crazy stuff here. That makes you a part of this crazy family.”

“And I thought that small towns were supposed to be quiet too,” she teased.

“It wasn’t Sheriff Nedley that sold you that line too was it?” Nicole was pleased to note that the chuckle that came from Eliza a stronger, less shaky than before. As were her hands. “Do you need to take your meds before we get going?”

“Naw. I’m okay now. I don’t want to take them too soon and waste them,” she explained at Nicole’s questioning look.

“Eliza… I understand, I do, but if we get into a situation I don’t think our Wendigo friend will stop and give you the chance—” Nicole broke off, her head lifting, a snarl forming on her lips in response to the inhuman, screaming howls that rang out through the trees from two different directions.

“No wolf but getting the feeling that that means ‘friends’.” And as the sounds were rapidly getting closer, Eliza knew that taking her meds sooner rather than later had become a moot point. They were out of time.

Pistols drawn, Doc backed up towards them, his eyes moving back and forth as he tracked the thunderous cracks and splintering of trees breaking under the force of the creatures. And creatures it was. Most definitely plural for even allowing for supernatural speed and strength there was just no way that the sounds could be coming from two completely different directions.

“Ladies, I hope you are in agreement but I would really rather not have both of them upon us at the same time.”

“Doc, you and Eliza take that one,” Nicole pointed off to their right as the trees swayed as one toppled amongst them. “I’ll take the other.” She shifted as she spoke, her body towering over them. Her senses sharpened, everything coming into sharp relief. There was still little for her to pick up from the Wendigo’s themselves, no discernable scent, but, she could smell the flesh beneath their nails and between their teeth and she could hear their movements as they brushed against the trees and plants, and their feet disturbing the leaves and mulch on the ground.

Nicole could see the determination, the anticipation of the hunt writ upon Doc and Eliza’s face and knew that if she could see her own face she would see the same there. She shared a nod with them. A silent expression of ‘good hunting’ and ‘be careful’ and then they went their separate ways.

The Wendigo’s actions seemed almost aimless as they crashed around as though they knew nothing except for how to cause fear. Rather than matching them, Nicole moved silently through the trees, her senses locked upon every sound around her as she kept low.

Her first glimpse of movement almost had Nicole wondering if she had been wrong about the forest being devoid of life as it looked like the outline of an Elk standing in the deep shadows of the trees. Or, she would have wondered if she had been relying only on sight and if she hadn’t seen the video.

Its head turned towards her, antlers dripping with gore as it watched her step from her own patch of shadows and shucked off the illusion of being a normal creature. It rose up, standing upright to expose its muscular but almost skeletal body. Red eyes blazing with hatred at her from a head that looked even more like that of a long dead rotting deer. All bleached white bone with scraps of dried flesh and fur smeared with blood.

A snarl rose up through Nicole and crawled out over bared teeth in response to just how utterly wrong the creature felt and how it was affecting the land around it. It struck at something primal within her, a side of her that wanted to just destroy the Wendigo and restore order and balance to the forest and the creatures that should have been living there. The human, the cop, in her wanted it gone. The wolf wanted it destroyed.

It stepped out at her challenge, its jaw splitting wide open to expose rows of sharp teeth with ragged bits of rotting flesh stuck between them as dislocated its jaw like a snake about to swallow its prey. Its roar split the air as it rushed towards her. Nicole rushed towards it, her muscles pushing her across the ground. It was so close she could almost feel its breath on her face as she shifted at the last possible moment. Ducking beneath its long claws, she drew the dagger Alexandria had given her in one fluid motion.

Forged by ancient Yiska techniques, wrapped in Nymph magic, the honed blade burned through the Wendigo’s flesh and its roar of challenge turned into an almost human scream of pain as it stumbled towards the ground.

Before it could recover, Nicole sheathed the dagger and changed back into her full wolf as she turned towards it. She leapt for its back, sinking her teeth into the dry rotting flesh of the Wendigo’s shoulder, her claws searching for purchase and she tried to take it down hard and fast. It took every ounce of restraint not to release her hold just to get the vile taste of it out of her mouth but in the end her grip was broken as the Wendigo managed to shake her loose and Nicole felt her body jar as she slammed back first into the solid, unforgiving, trunk of a tree as the Wendigo disappeared amongst the trees without a trace.

Picking herself up off the ground, Nicole looked around with every one of her senses, straining them for the slightest sight, sound or smell of the Wendigo but there was nothing to give her even a hint as to where it could have gone. She could, however, hear the sounds of Doc and Eliza still battling the one they had taken on. Giving up on the one she had wounded, she followed the sounds of gunfire back through the trees to where they were.

As Doc darted back to her and picked up his weapons, Eliza reloaded while he held the Wendigo at bay. Slick with sweat, her hand slipped across the metal of her weapon and she barely managed to catch it before it everything tumbled and became lost amongst the leaves.

“Eliza?”

“I’m- I’m okay… jus’ keep firing!”

It was a lie. She wasn’t okay and Eliza knew it. She could feel every beat of her heart pounding through her body. Each thud sending streaks of fire shooting through her veins and blackness creeping across her vision. She dragged the palm of her hands across her pants and swiped her forehead clear of sweat with her sleeve. She felt like she was burning up from the inside out.

With the heat came anger. Anger at the people that had done this to her. Anger that they had used it to control her. Anger that she was losing control. Anger that the lack of control meant she was useless to help Doc fight off the Wendigo!

Ignoring Doc’s questioning shout, Eliza surged to her feet and moved towards the Wendigo. Fists clenched at her sides she took in its vile rotting visage as it stood there absorbing every carefully aimed bullet as though it was nothing and released all the pent-up heat and anger boiling inside her at it in a roar of flames.

Usually, when she breathed fire it was controlled… or as controlled as it could be coming from a human not designed to spew fire from their mouth. This was rage and hellfire, pouring out uncontrolled in a roaring wave of red and black fury so intense it boiled the air around her as it slammed relentlessly into the Wendigo until she was spent.

Staggering back, Eliza dropped to her hands and knees. With trembling hand, she waved Doc and Nicole back as she saw the steam rising from where her skin touched the ground. She knew that if they touched her, they would be burnt. She glanced up, looking with weary but horrified eyes as the Wendigo stood there and burnt looking more like a straw effigy set on fire than anything that had ever been alive.

It collapsed to the ground. Crumpling down from a creature of near fifteen foot to reveal a man… a boy… looking far too fresh-faced and innocent and not at all like a creature that had terrorised the area and killed countless people in the brief seconds before his body crumbled to ash.

Eliza swallowed the rising fear that she might turn someone she knew or loved into ash that had become a part of her existence back down her singed throat and slipped a hand into her jacket for her medicine. She froze, a new horror rising as she felt the slithers of glass where the vials had been. They had been made from strengthened heatproof glass but it hadn’t been enough to protect them. Keeping her back to Nicole and Doc, Eliza removed the pouch and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that the one loaded into the injector was still intact. With as far as they had come though, she knew she needed to hold off using it for as long as possible.

“You okay?” Crouching down at Eliza’s side, Nicole handed her a bottle of water to soothe her throat. She could feel the heat radiating off of her body but it looked and felt like the worst was over.

“Nicole… if- if I start to go up, promise me—”

“No! Don’t you dare talk like that…” Nicole reared back as she saw clearly in Eliza’s eyes what she was asking. “We’ll get through this.”

“I’m not quitting, Nicole. I just need to know you’ve got my back if anything goes wrong. Please?”

“Pardon my eavesdropping but you have my assurance as well as I am sure you do Nicole’s… If the worst happens, you can count on us.” Doc lifted his head, sharing a look with Nicole as they heard the familiar sounds of trees toppling in the distance. “Might I suggest though that we track our last blundering friend and make sure this ends up a moot conversation?” Holding out his hand, Doc clasped Eliza’s and helped her get her feet under her while Nicole fished him out a spare set of sweatpants and shirt from his rucksack. With the adventures they seemed to keep getting in he was starting to think that a talk with Clarke and Alexandria might be in order to save his blushes and clothing.

Eliza looked at her companions. She could see it in their faces, maybe more reluctantly when it came to Nicole, but if it came to it… they had her back. Right then it was what she needed to hear and know to strengthen her resolve. “Let’s go take this bastard down and go home!”