Eventide

Chapter 3. Exposed

CHAPTER 3

EXPOSED

(Mysterious Ways, by U2)

     For daytime hunts, the name of the game was discretion.  I gunned the engine as I worked my Jeep farther down the seldom used trail to my special parking spot.  No other tracks marred the trail, so I was fairly confident of my privacy.  At this time of year, the ground was still frozen with a healthy blanket of snow.  Later in the spring, as snowmelt from Denali saturated the ground, the whole area would transform into a bog, turning hunting trips like this from a winter wonder land to a messy, mosquito infested mud bath.

     My tires grabbed for traction in the snow and ice as the trail opened to a meadow.

     A snowdrift in the clearing put an end to my forward progress as my tires finally lost traction, digging the high riding undercarriage to the ground.  I sighed and cut the engine.

     One sharp yank on the bumper and the front tires jumped out of the holes they had dug for themselves.  I walked the front around until my Jeep faced back the way I had come up the trail, then stripped off my clothes.

     The icy breeze cut across my skin as I secured my cloak to my leg, my clothes neatly folded and stacked on the front seat.

     It wasn’t like I didn’t feel the frigid air nipping at my skin, it just didn‘t matter.  My internal temperature ran at a steady one hundred and nine degrees and that heat radiated from beneath like a warm balm to the biting cold.

     I sent the fire tearing down my spine as I leapt hands first at the ground and exploded.  My front paws landed and pulled me forward before I even spotted my nose at the end of my muzzle.  Once my hind legs joined the action, I blended the beat and tempo into a blazing pace.

     One quick patrol, then I would hunt down something to fill my freezer.

     The residents of Trapper Creek took advantage of the break in the weather to enjoy the outdoors or take care of yard work, so I steered clear of them, sticking to the deep brush as I made my rounds.  The snowmachines were easy to avoid as they rumbled miles away in the distance, but I had to let my hearing range to detect the other humans, pinpointing their locations from the noise they made as they labored and the soft beats of their hearts.

     The only vampire stink-trails I found as I completed the first leg of my patrol belonged to Kate, Garrett, and that other bloodsucker that had got away a few days prior.  Nothing new, so no vampires I was allowed to tear to pieces were present.  Too bad.

     Quil phased in to begin his patrol of La Push and Forks.  Like Seth, he kept his presence unobtrusive, his personal thoughts mere background and not directed at me.

     Clair, the object of his imprint and center of his universe, had drawn a picture of her family during kindergarten.  In it, she had drawn multicolored stick figures of herself, her mom and dad, and a scribbled, giant dog.  Quil nearly burst with pride at the memory of that picture every time he thought of it, as if Clair were the next Picasso or Monet.  Her teacher thought Clair had a huge dog named Quil.  

     To say I was no longer jealous of Quil would have been a lie because I would have given anything in this world to imprint on a soul mate of my own.  I wasn’t such a bitter harpy that I couldn’t also be happy for him, though.  Besides, I honestly liked Quil.

     Garrett had stood high on a hilltop at our common border as I shot the line.  He had only nodded at me by way of greeting before he returned to his own patrol.  I hadn’t seen Kate, but she must have been close.  No way would they separate if there was any chance of an attack.  I didn’t believe vampires were even capable of love the way real people were, but when they did take mates, the leeches sure put on a good show of it.