Winter Prey

Chapter 43

Instead, it stood there, glowing eyes cutting through the densely falling snow with the intensity of a laser, the beams dropping to the trail right in front of the snowmobile. The sight should have filled her with terror, but instead, she found herself waiting for it to mentally communicate with her again.

It remained silent, though, and behind her, Nodinens shifted to the side.

"Don't, Grandmother," Kymbria cautioned. "Stay still."

"I know he is here without even seeing him," she replied as she inched upward until her chin was on Kymbria's shoulder. "He is not here to attack us, is he?"

"I don't know. He can't come close, not with our protections barricading against him. I believe he's been following us. I think he's trying to tell me that I've chosen the wrong fork, that I need to go the other way."

The laser beams of the beast's eyes died as soon as the last word left Kymbria's mouth, except for enough light around its head for Kymbria to see it nod. Then it disappeared as though it hadn't even been there.

As Nodinens settled once again against her back, Kymbria turned the snowmobile around. Five minutes later, relief filled her as she caught sight of a shadowy vehicle through the blur of the blizzard. She had made the right decision, understood the beast's appearance and taken the correct fork.

She didn't bother with the snowmobile. She left it in a ditch, safe from an unsuspecting driver encountering it around a bend in the road. She and Nodinens managed to get a nearly unresponsive Caleb into the rear seat of the double cab pickup, and fish the keys out of his jacket pocket. Seconds later, she carefully drove the truck along the roadway, Nodinens shivering beside her, while they waited for the heat gauge to move off cold.

"It's closer to your cabin than to the clinic in Neris Lake," Nodinens said when they reached a Y in the road.

"And I'm a nurse," Kymbria said. "We'll go there and trust that Hjak can get more medical help to us, if Caleb needs it."

A long half-hour later, the faint glow of a light intruded past the nearly impenetrable snow: the glow of the outside security light beside the driveway to her cabin. Kymbria groaned under her breath in relief, at last allowing herself to ease the tenseness and pain in her rigid shoulders. She headed for the light and drove down the driveway, straight up to the back door before she turned off the engine. Caleb stirred.

"How are you, Grandmother?" she asked first.

"I am not hurt," Nodinens replied from the depths of the jacket hood.

"Caleb?" Kymbria asked.

He roused and lifted his head. "I'm...alive."

"You don't sound like that's good enough," Kymbria said as she twisted around and tilted his chin up. "Open your eyes." When he obeyed, she shone the beam from the tiny flashlight on the keychain to check his pupil. "You don't look concussed. Are you able to help us get you inside?"

"Yeah. Just get me out of here."

Kymbria got out of the pickup and walked around to open the rear door closest to the cabin. He groaned and sat up, then started to slide across the leather seat towards her. She restrained herself from helping him, wanting to gauge his injuries. When he managed to get to the edge of the seat, she wrapped her arms around him and helped him slide to the ground.

She said to Nodinens, "Please get the door for us, Grandmother. There's a key beneath that turtle shell on the windowsill."

"Stupid place to leave a key," Caleb muttered as Nodinens retrieved it.