Page 82 of Chased

She had to remember that kind of safety was an illusion.

Even so, it took all her courage to break cover and head cross-country when she got near the cave. She was starting to tire, although the noise of the foxes had dropped back to where she could barely hear them. Maybe they’d lost her at the tributary?

Don’t count on being lucky. She’d heard Sanchez say that. Assume the worst-case scenario.

So she had to assume they were still behind her.

She streaked up a hillside, finally getting a view of the surrounding country, and she saw them. Three red foxes, milling around and yipping. About a half a mile away, with a ravine between them. Why hadn’t they followed her?

She stopped for a second, watching.

Then she saw one of Henri’s strike team step out from behind some rocks with a tech device in his hand. Henri Changed, his body all bronzy in the sunlight. He had no right to be that good-looking, when he was such a monster.

And he had a boner, the fucker.

Henri’s minion looked at the device, and pointed in Madison’s direction. She froze.

Holy shit. Fucking Henri had hacked the tracker. Their foxes had lost her, and he was using it to get her trail again. Cheater.

Anger gave her new energy, and Madison raced off across the hillside. They knew where she was, so her only chance was to get to the cave and the signal beacon before they caught up to her. With the weapons there, she could hold them off until someone from the Ridge came to get her. They had to realize by now that she was missing.

The sight of Dealer falling to the ground came back to her, and again she shoved it away. Right now, she had to survive. If Dealer was hurt or dead, there was nothing she could do for him. And if he’d died defending her and Breanna, she owed it to him to make his sacrifice worthwhile.

Madison ran her heart out. She could see the cave ahead. She couldn’t hear the foxes. Had Henri just decided to forget the referees and stay human? How long would it have taken him to get dressed and find the trail down the ravine?

Maybe just enough time. She couldn’t risk stopping to look, though. She found the cave and dashed through the front entrance, scampering down to the main room.

And now she had a problem. She was a rabbit, and they’d given her a drug to keep her that way. She remembered the hunt video on her tablet. Someone had given the woman an injection at the end, just before she turned human. Madison had assumed it was something to calm her down, but what if she needed it to Change back?

Vixen, she said. We need to Change.

We need to kill them.

Agreed. We need hands for that. And also to call our friends.

But Vixen was too upset. Madison wondered if the drug was amplified by her stress state. Fight or flight.

She had to calm her rabbit down.

Vixen, she said. Listen to me. They want us to be scared. They want our heart to pound. Because that makes it easy to hunt us. We have to breathe slow. Be calm.

Vixen didn’t want to. She was pissed off.

We’re stronger than they are, Madison told her. We’re not scared bunnies. We’re sly like a fox. We are calm. Angry, but calm.

Slowly she got Vixen to listen to her. She slowed their breathing, listened to their heartbeat calm.

And slowly, painfully, they Changed back.

As soon as she’d made the Change, Madison opened the signal beacon case and slammed the button to activate it.

Next thing, weapons. There was a rifle there, already loaded, and she put it where she could get it quickly. Then she grabbed clothes and put them on, rolling up the pants and shoving her feet into the smallest boots she could find. The combat vest was too big as well, but it had extra ammo and supplies, so she’d have to suck it up and make it work.

Finally, she grabbed a holster with a handgun. As she was buckling it on, she heard Henri’s voice outside, at the front entrance. She glanced behind her. Hopefully they hadn’t found the back door.

“Maaadisoooon!” It was a creepy singsong. “Do you think you found a little burrow? That’s adorable. Come on out, or we’ll come in and get you.”

She crept out to the back door, and through the cleft. It was only about ten feet long, with a view-hole out over the ravine.