Alex Archer - The Soul Stealer

Just as she was about to close her hands over it, a hand slid over her mouth and she felt herself being taken down from behind. Another hand kept her from hitting the ground hard. And then she felt brute force keeping her pinned, but without hurting her.

A voice hissed in her ear. “Quiet.”

Gregor.

Annja relaxed some, trying to twist to see him and ask what was going on. Instead of releasing the pressure, Gregor pointed off to the right.

Annja could see that the ground fell away, forming a steep cliff that dropped down into some sort of valley. At the bottom of it, perhaps a half a mile away, she could see a dim glow.

“Do not speak. It will hear us,” Gregor whispered.

From half a mile away? Annja frowned. She’d never heard of a person who could pick up a whisper from that distance.

Gregor’s breath felt hot against Annja’s neck.

She strained her eyes to see what he was so interested in. But any detail seemed to elude her. She could make out some kind of figure stooped over, huddling in front of something.

A campfire?

No. The light would have been yellow or orange. This light was a pale shade of blue-green.

Gregor pulled her back away from the edge of the cliff. He released Annja, who rolled to face him. He held a finger to his lips. “Whisper only.”

“Why did you sneak up on me?” she hissed.

Gregor pointed. “You would have fallen over the edge if you’d kept going.”

Annja looked again. He was right. A few more steps ahead of her there was a shallow depression that gave way to a deep gorge. A pocket of snow inside it would have caused her to slide right over the edge.

“Thanks,” she said.

He shrugged. “Your scream would have alerted that thing down there.”

“Thing? Don’t you mean person?” she asked.

Gregor looked at her. “Did you not see the color of it?”

“I don’t know what I saw. It’s too dark and I can’t see that far.”

Gregor nodded. “Perhaps we will find out when we reach Yakutsk later.”

He stood and helped Annja to her feet. “We should return to camp. It will be light in a few hours.”

“You haven’t slept yet,” Annja said.

“No.”

“Why not?”

Gregor stopped and turned. “Because that thing back there was hunting earlier. And it was only by luck it did not stumble across us. Otherwise, we might not be having this talk.”

“You’re kidding me, right?” Annja asked.

Gregor leaned in close. “You should know one thing about me—I do not joke about life and death.”

With that, Gregor turned and slid back into the night’s embrace.

Bob was tending the fire when they returned, an anxious look plastered across his face. He jumped up when he saw Annja and Gregor come out of the darkness.

“Thank God! I was worried sick when I woke up and found you both gone.” He tossed another stick into the fire. “I thought perhaps my snoring had driven you away, Annja.”

She smiled. “No harm done. Although it’s great to see your volume has increased since we last met.”

Bob shrugged. “Can’t figure it out. It’s not like I’m carrying extra pounds or anything. And no matter how I sleep, I always carry on like that.”

Gregor knelt in front of the fire. “I need to sleep,” he said.

Bob looked at him. “You should have woken me sooner. I would have gladly taken your place.”

Gregor looked up. “We might be dead if you had.”

Bob’s face grew pale. “What?”

Annja shrugged. “Gregor says there was something lurking in the darkness tonight. Something…that was hunting.”

Bob looked at Gregor. “You’re kidding?”

“No.”

Bob glanced at Annja. “You saw it, too?”

Annja shrugged. “I’m not sure what I saw. At least not yet. It was too far to see and too dark to get any detail.”

“But you saw something,” Bob said.

“Yes.”

He leaned back on his haunches. “I think we should get out of here as soon as possible.”

Gregor cleared his throat. “At dawn. We will ride on. I think Annja is suitably mended enough to ride with us to Yakutsk.” He crawled into the lean-to and within seconds, no more sound came from it.

Bob sat down on the log. Annja sat next to him. “Sorry we gave you a scare there,” she said.

Bob grinned. “I thought maybe you and Gregor…you know—”

“What?” Annja said, shocked.

“You and him…” Bob shrugged. “It’s not out of the realm of possibility. You’re a beautiful woman. He’s a good-looking guy.”

Annja almost laughed. “You thought we hooked up?”

“Well, sure. I mean, the thought did pass through my mind.”

“I woke up and saw he’d vanished. I went looking for him. He snuck up behind me and took me down, trying to keep me from alerting whatever it was to our presence. That’s all.”

Bob nodded. “He seems concerned.”

“I think so, yes.”

“He’s never steered me wrong as long as I’ve known him. If he says we should be concerned, I suppose we should be, then.”

“What if it puts your exploration in jeopardy?” Annja asked.

He grinned. “There was a time I might have thought there was nothing more important than achieving the glory of a new find over everything else. Those days are long behind me. I value my life and the lives of those I’m close to. If it looks like we’re in danger, we’ll head for Magadan and get the hell home.”

Annja nodded. “I think I should get some more sleep, too. You okay here?”

“Yeah,” Bob said.

Annja crawled back into the lean-to and burrowed under the bed of boughs and her blanket. She glanced once at Gregor, but he was already seemingly asleep. He breathed deeply, but made absolutely no noise.

Me and Gregor? Annja grinned. He was okay-looking, but she wasn’t sure she could ever picture herself with a guy who could so easily sneak up behind her and catch her completely by surprise.

As she settled down and closed her eyes, she smiled once more.

Then again, who knew how things would turn out?

G REGOR NUDGED Annja awake just as the first tendrils of dawn crept over the horizon. Annja blinked her eyes a few times and then crawled out of the lean-to.

“Good morning.” Bob handed her a cup of coffee and Annja drank it down, feeling the hot liquid warm her insides. Gregor accepted a cup, as well, and seemed to gulp it down.

Annja looked around the campsite. “You’ve been busy.”

Most of the lean-to had been dismantled except for the portion covering the sleeping area. The fire had also been doused and the ashes scattered across the blanket of snow.

“Well, Gregor was kind enough to make it. I figured the least I could do was break it down.”

“We can go now,” Gregor said. “That is good.”

Bob tore down the remaining bit of structure of the lean-to and threw the branches into the woods. Gregor got his bike and started pushing it up the hill, back toward the road.

Annja felt stronger and her head was clear. She got her bike and pushed it up the hill, feeling the strain in her legs as she did so. But it felt good to be exerting herself again.

They crested the mountain and got back onto the pockmarked road. Bob turned to Annja with a grin. “How about I bring up the rear this time? That way, if any more trucks come looking for someone to smoosh, they can have me.”

“Wise guy,” Annja remarked.

He smiled. “Just thought I’d offer.”

Gregor slid onto his bike. “I will go ahead. Make sure the road is clear.”

He pedaled off and Annja got on her own bike. “He’s very serious this morning.”

Bob nodded. “He was awake before you.”

“Big surprise.”