Kelley Armstrong - The Calling

“Then three of us will get caught instead of one. Go.”

She pushed Daniel. When he hesitated, she shoved him hard enough to knock him off his feet.

“You know it’s the right thing,” she said as he scrambled up. “They won’t hurt me. Without you, I’m the only benandanti they have.”

We didn’t know that, of course. But she was right that we’d never escape carrying her.

“We’ll come back for you,” Daniel said.

“After you have backup, please. No offense, but you guys aren’t up to fighting these people.”

Daniel nodded. “But we will come back.”

“I know.” She hugged him. It was an awkward, one-armed embrace that caught him off guard. She pushed him away before he could say anything. Then she turned to me. “Look after him. Don’t let him do anything stupid.”

“I will.”

When I looked for Rafe, he wasn’t there. Then I saw him jogging back from the woods.

“Debugged,” he said to me.

Daniel gave us a look, but I couldn’t explain then.

We ran into the forest just as the service truck was on us. Kenjii brought up the rear, herding us. When a man shouted, she wheeled and snarled. Then she charged.

“Kenjii, no!”

The shot hit her square in the chest and she reared up, toppling over backward and hitting the ground, and if Daniel and Rafe hadn’t both been holding me back, nothing would have stopped me from going to her. But they held me and all I could do was fight and scream at them to let me go, until Daniel said,

“It’s a dart, Maya.” He pointed at her, struggling to rise. “Just a tranquilizer dart.”

That stopped my heart from pounding, but it didn’t mean I wanted to abandon her. They had to drag me away, Corey helping, until I heard someone say, “Load the dog in the back with the girl,” and I knew there was nothing I could do.

So I ran, stumbling at first, still seeing Kenjii lying in the dirt, struggling to rise. Daniel kept me upright and kept me moving.

“They aren’t following us,” Corey said. “Why aren’t they following us?”

“They know it won’t be hard to find four kids tearing through the woods,” Rafe said. “Daniel’s right. We need to split up. Better than that, we need a target. One person to make more noise than all the others put together. That’d be me.” A wry smile my way. “I’m good at causing trouble.”

“It’ll work better if there are two targets,” Corey said. “Rafe and I go separate ways. We make noise. You two keep going. We hope that splitting their attention means no one gets caught.”

“I’ll do it,” Daniel said.

Corey thumped him on the back. “I know you would, but you and Maya are our best chances of getting help. Don’t worry—I don’t plan to get captured. We’ll meet you guys…”

“At the ferry,” I said. “They won’t expect us to follow the same plan.”

“But how would they know what we had planned?” Corey said.

“They must have planted bugs,” I said quickly. “Maybe in the house or in the truck. We’ll meet at the ferry. They won’t expect that.”

Before they left, I took Rafe aside. “Will you be coming back?” I whispered.

“They double-crossed me. I don’t know what that means for Annie.” His eyes darkened, but he shook it off. “I can’t trust them. Better I come with you, and try to rescue her.”

“Good. I mean—”

“I know what you mean.” He turned to leave, then came back with a folded note. He shoved it in my pocket. “Just something I was going to give you before I left.”

He jogged away. Then Daniel and I took off. We moved as quickly as we could, making the least amount of noise possible.

“They know everything,” I said finally. “The St. Clouds. They—”

“—had Rafe bugged. He told you.”

I glanced back, but his face was expressionless. Intentionally expressionless.

“The St. Clouds caught him coming into Salmon Creek,” I said. “They have Annie. They used her to get him to trap us. But that’s not what happened here. He was supposed to get us to Vancouver so they could grab us there. Once we arrived, I was going to turn on him, say I knew he was working with them. We’d take off. They’d think he’d done the best he could. That was the plan.”

I looked back again. Daniel’s face still wasn’t giving anything away, but he nodded, as if he understood.

“Obviously they figured out what he was doing,” I said. “Or they fed him a false plan, so they could make sure he didn’t double-cross them.” I stopped and turned around. “I’m sorry, Daniel. I tried to tell you.”

He paused, then swore. “Back at the house.”

“I should have tried harder. I’m sorry.”

“You did try hard. I was too distracted to listen. It wouldn’t have changed anything anyway. We have to keep going.” He turned me to the west. “We’ll head toward that ridge. Find a place to hole up.”

As we raced toward the ridge, I heard a cry. Then a shout. Rafe? Corey? There was no way of knowing. When a second shout rang out, I told myself they hadn’t both been captured, but I wasn’t sure I believed that.

Daniel and I kept running. We could see the ridge now. Safety. Just get—

Something whizzed past me.

“Dan—!” I whirled, shouting a warning, only to see him stagger backward, a dart embedded in his shoulder. Another zinged past my arm. Daniel yanked me to the ground. We crawled into thick bushes.

I tugged the dart from his shoulder. He blinked hard, eyes unfocused. He shook his head to clear it.

“I’m fine,” he said. “Just a little woozy. Must not have gone in deep enough.”

I scanned the ridge, and I caught a flicker of light reflecting off metal.

“Sharpshooter,” I whispered. “But you can’t do that with tranq darts.”

“These people can resurrect extinct supernatural races, Maya,” Daniel whispered. “I think their technology goes a little beyond the norm.”

“Right. Okay.” I took a deep breath. “Follow me.”

I started crawling through the brush. I’d gone only a few steps when I realized Daniel wasn’t behind me. I turned to see him on his stomach, blinking hard.

“Nope,” he said. “It went in deep enough.”

I scrambled back to him.

“Go on, Maya,” he said.

“No.”

Ignoring his arguments, I tried to lift him, arm over my shoulders. When that failed, I tried dragging him from the bushes, pleading with him to help me, to just get himself a little ways away from where he’d fallen, please just a little ways. But he was almost unconscious, fighting just to keep his head up.

“Go on, Maya,” he said, words slurring. “Remember what we said. Only one has to get away.”

“Then it’ll have to be Rafe or Corey. I’m not leaving—”

“They got Rafe and Corey. You know they did. Go.”

I shook my head. “I won’t.”

“One of us has to get away.” He managed to look up at me, his eyes so unfocused I knew he couldn’t see anything. “Please, Maya. Go.”

He dropped then, a dead weight, falling on his side. I could hear a team coming.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I’ll make it up to you.” I bent and kissed Daniel’s cheek. Then I left.

ONLY I DIDN’T LEAVE. Not the way he wanted. I couldn’t. I hunkered down nearby as two strangers retrieved Daniel. They said nothing, just loaded him onto a stretcher and carried him away. Two others continued the hunt for me. I waited until they had passed, then hurried after the stretcher.

They took Daniel back to the cabin. I prayed this meant they’d set up camp there, so that would be where they’d hold the captives. Of course that would be too easy. I arrived to see them loading Daniel into the back of the van. They were talking to someone inside.