“Yes,” Dan agrees. “Definitely our next order of business. Just let me get ready, and we’ll head out.”
“I’ll be back on patrol,” Luke says. “I’ll call you if there’s anything.”
“Appreciate it,” Dan replies, disappearing into the hall as Luke leaves through the back door.
I go back to cleaning the kitchen, my emotions a raging storm of suspicion and fear.
Chapter 9 - Dan
I don’t even think when Luke shouts to me, I just bolt from the room. Everything is wiped from my mind except the purity of action, and it tastes like complete liberation.
This, I know how to do. I’d prefer a firefight to a difficult conversation any day of the week.
When we get to the site, though, I feel as if I might change my mind.
“What happened?” I whisper, my voice refusing to push through my throat. The air is practically singing with tension, as if it’s disturbed; the entire area could explode.
It looks like it already did.
At a perimeter point where our town limit meets Eccles, there is a huge trail of blackened debris. It looks like a forest fire screamed through the area, but in an extremely defined, serpentine shape.
“We don’t know,” Luke says, shaking his head. “And that’s what I don’t like about this.”
“Do we have a report?”
Luke nods and gestures to the nearby thicket of trees. I find two of our newest recruited warriors waiting for us. One of them is on the ground, clearly injured.
“Jesus, Declan,” I say, getting down on my knees to examine the wounded soldier. “Are you alright?”
“I’ll be fine,” he says in a strained voice. “It’s nothing, boss, I promise.”
I look over at Ryan, Declan’s patrol partner, and he shakes his head. Both of Declan’s boots look melted, and hispants are blackened all the way up to the knees. I reach out to take a look underneath, but Declan grabs my hand.
“Don’t, boss,” he mutters, hoarsely. “I haven’t got much skin left. It’s not worth seeing.”
“What the fuck happened?” I exclaim, worry for my downed soldier, clashing with my desire to attack something.
“There was an electromagnetic surge,” Ryan says. “Sloan is monitoring that through satellite. We came to investigate. There wasn’t much to see, just a burst of light through the trees. We went after it, and Declan ran directly into the scorched trail it was leaving behind it.”
“I thought once the fire passed, it would be cool enough to run on,” Declan groans. “There was too much scrub in the way, and I couldn’t keep up with it. I thought chasing it through its own trail would be the only way to catch it.”
“The path it left behind was hotter than a forest fire,” Ryan says. “I saw Declan’s clothes go black, and his boots melted. He went down like a ton of bricks, and I thought I was going to watch him get completely incinerated.”
“You shouldn’t have come in after me!” Declan snaps. “You risked your life for me, and the snake got away!”
“Hey!” I say sharply. “Ryan did the right thing. Are you hurt, Ryan?”
“No,” he answers, shaking his head. “I’m a bit toasted, but I was able to grab Declan and drag him to safety without completely entering the hot zone.”
“I’m the only one dumb enough to literally try and grab it by the tail,” Declan mutters.
“Have we got medical coming?” I ask.
Luke nods. “Brad is sending healers from Eccles. They won’t be long. They’ve got the best facilities there, and they can take care of him.”
I look down at Declan’s ruined legs again, feeling a hard knot in my chest.
He isn’t healing. Even a wolf would need some time to get over injuries as severe as these, but I can’t see any healing happening at all.
