Amanda's Wolves(78)

Zach and Sharon were walking sideways, pointing out the local fauna while glancing over their shoulders every once in a while to watch where they were going.

Amanda crouched down low to the ground. “Rock in my shoe,” she said loud enough for everyone to hear. “We’ll catch up.”

Sawyer glanced around, knowing there was no rock in her shoe, while the others went around the bend.

And then he saw it. “Shit,” he muttered.

“Yeah.” She stood back up next to him, grabbing his arm. “That’s what I was thinking. So glad you guys warned me. I might have pissed myself.”

Approximately four yards off the path to the left hovered a black cloud of smoke. It shimmied back and forth enough to draw attention, except no one else had seen it. That fact alone freaked Sawyer out.

“What does it want?” Amanda asked, inching closer.

Sawyer grabbed her hand and held her back.

“It won’t hurt us.”

“Yeah. I get that vibe too, but still…”

Suddenly, it turned, as if it had been facing them, and floated alongside the path in the direction they’d come.

“We have to follow it,” Amanda said.

“Uh-huh.” She was right again, though he didn’t know why. It was an instinct. They didn’t have any way to alert the other hikers, but hopefully Zach would figure it out. Or Sharon. More than likely the two of them would think Sawyer and Amanda simply couldn’t go another step without fucking, but there was no way to avoid that misconception either.

The shadowy figure was about the size of a large bear, and it was intent on returning down the path the way they came. It moved at whatever pace they set too. Weird.

It seemed as if it was hiking with them, staying a few paces ahead and speeding up and slowing down as necessary. Neither of them said a word, not even telepathically, as if in mutual agreement that it might disturb the spirit.

The path they were on was barely wide enough for both he and Amanda to walk side by side. The strong scent of pine was pungent in the air. This late in the season many of the leaves had fallen from the lower trees, although the forest was still green from the pine needles that would remain. It was easy to keep the spirit in sight as it hovered in front of them, winding its way down the path.

The hike back to the bottom took half as long as the way up, and when they stepped out of the tree line, the spirit turned toward them, seemingly agitated, and then folded in on itself and disappeared, leaving not a trace of evidence it had been there.

“Holy shit,” Amanda whispered.

“Yeah.” Sawyer pulled her back against his front and set his chin on her head, his arms wrapping around her. He needed her touch. And her shaking frame told him she needed it just as much.

“You guys okay?” Logan asked.

“Yeah. We were just led down the mountain by your crazy spirit thingy.”

“No shit? When?”

“Just now. It disappeared seconds ago.”

“Then there’s definitely more than one of them, because we’ve been following one also.”

Amanda shuddered in Sawyer’s arms. “What does it mean?”

“No idea. We’re on our way back there now. See you in about thirty minutes.”

»»•««

Melinda leaned over the long table in the break room at the lodge and tapped on the map spread out in front of them. “It’s so random.”

“Seems that way,” Logan said. He couldn’t imagine what they were up against.

“And the craziest part is we’re definitely not stumbling upon the spirits. They’re coming to us.” Melinda stood upright, her gaze still on the map where they’d marked the spots they’d encountered the spirits in the last few days.

Sawyer spoke next. “Why do you suppose it wants to lead us out of the forest?”

“It’s not like we were lost,” Amanda added.

Melinda shook her head. “I really thought it had something to do with the loggers in particular, a warning, a message. But why the hell did you see one all the way up here at the same time?”

Logan’s mother folded her arms across her chest and sighed. “What did you see at the logging site?”

“Nothing out of the ordinary as far as we could tell,” Logan said. “Same as when I was there Thursday.” He’d wracked his brain the entire time they watched the workers, trying to see anything that jumped out at him, and came up blank. No one looked their way.

“Any shifters?” Adam asked.

“No.” Logan shook his head. “They’re all human. No one even glanced at where we stood inside the tree line.”

“Did you get a good look at the space cleared by the trees?” Amanda asked.