The two humans stared at him in surprise.
“I am all that,” he explained. “But I am also a man out in the wilderness, in the night, with friends, a mountain lion, a cowboy, and a cow pony, on an adventure. And I thank you.”
“Friends?” Eli said, still uneasy but better. Then the human warrior smiled. “Yeah. You keep your mesmerism to yourself, so affirmative. Friends. You’re welcome.”
In the distance, the bull fight grew loud again, the death throes going on and on, weaker and weaker. Finally, even that sound fell still.
Sam offered them his flask. Eli declined for them all and sipped espresso from a small insulated mug. “Can’t see shit,” Alex said.
“Language,” Eli warned softly. “You say that where Beast can hear, she might swat you.”
“Yeah, whatever. Beast probably pulled the bull into a depression or under an overhang. I can’t even find them on infrared.” Disgruntled, Alex recalled the drone and put it away. The computer screen went dark.
Bronco Sam said, “You folks do know that the meat on that bull is gonna be hard as jerky. Animal that runs and feels fear? Meat’s ruined.”
“Yes,” Eli said. “We’ll have it all ground for hamburger.”
Bronco tilted his flask into the air. “That’s a lotta barbeque. Feel free to invite me. I got a pepper sauce recipe that’ll roast your eyebrows off.”
Edmund had no idea if that was a good thing, but Eli seemed pleased.
The wind freshened. The night deepened. Ed leaned back in his seat and watched the stars overhead, brighter so far from city lights, remembering when the night had always been this dark, the stars this bright, before electricity and the brilliance of humans. There was little he missed about the past, hating the stench of sewage, the lack of fresh water, the smells of unwashed bodies, the sight of starvation, the sounds and stench of illness and pain, the remembered agony of losing loved ones so easily to whooping cough, measles, the flu. Back then even vampire blood was often not enough to save the sick and dying. The past was dark and full of grief. But the stars in the night sky... that he missed.
Twenty minutes later the cat leaped from the darkness into the high backseat. Alex yelped. Ed hid a smile. He had known by the scent of hot, fresh blood that she was coming. “Did you eat your fill?” Ed asked her placidly.
She yawned, showing off her white fangs and bloodied muzzle before beginning to groom off the blood.
“Is the bull where we can find it?” Eli asked.
The cat turned her head to the right of the vehicle and Eli started the engine. She stepped over the middle seat and stood with her paws on Eli’s chair back, nudging him in the right direction. They found the dead bull in a small depression beneath a rock overhang, and Eli and Bronco applied the Hummer’s winch to drag the two-thousand-pound bovine to the vehicle and up onto the flat ramp in back. The bull’s weight rocked the Hummer hard.
The puma dropped down over the bull and sniffed all over it. In the beam of a small flashlight, the men studied the longhorn bull. There was relatively little blood or gore. The cat—Beast, as the Youngers called her—had dug in her claws and fangs on the bull’s shoulders and the back of his neck, letting him run and buck and tire. Then she had, somehow,gotten in front of him and gripped his throat. She had held on until he suffocated enough to be rendered unconscious. And then she had torn out his throat and eaten her fill from his belly.
Sam said, laconic, “Yup. That meat’s good for nothing but ground burger. I foresee a lot a barbeques in your future.”
Beast
Beast chuffed at the sight of her kill.Is good kill. Is big prey. Bull with trees on head. Big bull with big trees on head. Was good chase and good hunt and good kill.Beast was happy like Ed was happy. Was good feeling.
Beast wanted more.
Edmund
The six-hundred-plus-pound wildebeest bull was much smaller but much faster, and no less dramatic. The wildebeest herd was asleep when they located it. They got into position, turned so the prevailing winds worked to their advantage. Beast chuffed and panted in excitement. They waited for some time as Bronco trotted into the darkness and got into position.
Eli sipped another espresso. The Kid complained under his breath that it was taking too long. But when Bronco fired his pistol into the air and yodeled his patented yell, the Kid flinched. The wildebeest scattered, confused, panicked. All but the old bull. He put his head down and charged Bronco.
Sam galloped into the night. Without headgear to help him see and guide the pony. It was a very dangerous move, over uneven terrain. The horse might trip or step into a hole and fall and roll. Break a leg. Kill Bronco.
“There!” Edmund pointed, shouting. “Eli?”
“Got it.” Eli spun the Hummer’s wheel and hit the lights. Tried to cut off the bull.
The puma leaped to its back. A half a second later she was bucked off. The bull went after her. The cat leaped, twisted madly in midair, and landed on his back again. This time she got her teeth and claws into him. He bucked and threw his head. He twisted into impossible positions, most of them in midair, the fight caught in the lights of the Hummer.
Alex had his cell camera out.
Eli brought the Hummer to a stop and the fighting pair fought and roared and screamed. Then they thundered off, the cat, Beast, now hanging on to the bull’s haunches. Alex already had the drone in the air, and here the land was flatter; he was able to keep the camera on their trail. The fight was long and violent. The four men watched the battle on the small screen, the fighting pair a bright green in the drone’s camera. When it was finally over, Beast tore into the bull’s belly and feasted while they guided the Hummer close enough to winch the bull in.
