Dark Heart Wolf - Haley Weir Page 0,61

the tracks until a strange opening was discovered nestled among the stones. He dropped in first before she could argue him down like Jesse had before getting hurt.

The walls were covered with the same thick mucus that the wendigo themselves wore all over their flesh. Mary Ann grimaced and curled in on herself. "How many do you think there are down there?" she whispered.

"I can sense so many. It's impossible to tell like this. They’re all blendin’ together.”

Sam’s instincts kicked in, and he spun the revolver out of its holster, firing a shot into the darkness. A body fell at his feet. The mangled face of a half wendigo stared up at him. Mary Ann grabbed her rifle and cocked back the hammer. She aimed down the sights. “Do you hear that?” she asked. “We should push back.”

A chorus of screeching voices blared in their ears. Wesley jumped down into the tunnels and helped them up. He unclipped the modified grenade from his belt and ran towards the main chamber of the tunnel system. Mary Ann dove behind a felled tree. Sam hid behind an outcrop. Only seconds after he cleared the blast area, a rumble shook the earth.

~*~

Shards of fiery wood flew past her face. Mary Ann peeked from around her cover. Wesley barely made it out in one piece. He limped over to the tree beside hers. Sam called out a warning, but it was too late. Gunfire rained down upon them like a violent hailstorm of bullets. Outlaws surrounded the tunnels. A bullet grazed Wesley’s shoulder, and he cursed under his breath. “Sam! They’re using the tainted bullets!”

Mary Ann saw Boone stumbling over with three bullets in his arm. He used his strength to expel them. He would live, but it would hurt like hell.

“I didn’t get to set the charge.”

“But they’ll escape,” she snapped.

“We’ll get them another time.”

“That’s not good enough.” Mary Ann raced through an onslaught of gunshots and slid across the ground, coming to a stop beside Boone. She grabbed the modified grenade as well as two sticks of dynamite. Boone moved too slow to stop her, and Mary Ann ran to the other side of the tunnels. She lit the fuse of a stick of dynamite and tossed it at the outlaws.

They dove for cover, allowing her to get to the tunnels. Mary Ann pulled the pin and rolled the modified grenade inside. She hit the ground and covered her head with her arms. After the explosion went off, the wendigo that hadn’t been caught in the blaze came running out. Mary Ann didn’t panic. She flipped her rifle off of her back once more and loaded the special rounds. Her fingers worked in a flurry of motion.

She pulled back on the hammer, aimed, pulled the trigger, flipped the lever, reloaded, and repeated the process over and over. Bullets hit their mark with a wet thwack. Mary Ann could hardly breathe, and her fingers began to cramp, but she didn’t give up. She fired and fired her revolver until the click of an empty chamber filled her ears.

Mary Ann tossed the rifle aside. There were only three wendigo remaining.

She threw one of her knives and hit a wendigo. The second attacked her at full force. Mary Ann slashed her blade, carving up the creature as if she had been born to hunt them. Sam and the others cleared the area and came to find her kneeling in a puddle of blood. Mary Ann wiped her face with her sleeve. She breathed harshly, trying to calm her heartbeat. “I...did it.”

Sam, Boone, and Wesley stared at the gruesome sight with slack jaws and wide eyes.

“Mary...you did this, sweetheart?”

“Yes.”

He holstered his revolver and walked over to her. Sam picked Mary Ann up off the ground and carried her to the horses. She was tired and invigorated all at once. Boone and Wesley whispered to themselves. “What happened with the outlaws?”

“Not outlaws at all,” Sam grumbled.

“Then who?”

“It was the sheriff and his deputies,” he replied with a hint of amusement in his voice. “If any of them survived that shootout, they’ll head to town and spread their nonsense that I’m an outlaw again.” Sam helped Mary Ann into the saddle and climbed in behind her this time. She was grateful that she didn’t have to support her weight as she leaned back against him.

The ride back to the ranch was long and quiet.

Beth met them at the gate and shook her head. “Another attack. They made off