Jamison walked around the truck, the wind whipping his hair. He retied part of a tarp that had come loose in her pickup bed, brushing snow from the top of it.
Towering pine trees grew thickly on either side of the road, and Naomi saw something moving under them. An elk maybe? Or a deer?
It came closer, a large animal lumbering on four legs. Elks were big and could be dangerous if they charged.
Jamison turned around and stilled. It was a bear. Two bears, one shadowing the other.
Black bears roamed these mountains, but Naomi would have thought this deep into winter they’d be hibernating. These bears didn’t look lean and hungry, and were nowhere near sleepy.
They stopped, snouts swiveling to point straight at Jamison. They sniffed the air, then with enraged growls, they charged.
SIX
Naomi screamed. As Jamison leapt back into the cab, Naomi instinctively slammed the truck into drive and stomped on the accelerator. The pickup lurched forward a few inches, then the tires spun, digging them deeper into snow and mud.
“Stop!” Jamison said in a commanding voice. He was yanking off his coat, shoving the boots from his feet.
“Making noise might scare them away.”
“Those aren’t bears,” Jamison said grimly as he hauled off his shirt and kicked out of his jeans.
“They’re Changers.”
Naked now, he grabbed Naomi by the back of her neck and gave her a rough kiss. “Stay in here.” He slammed open the door, changing into a snarling mountain lion as he jumped from the cab. The bears charged. Naomi cried out as Jamison met them head-on, teeth and claws clashing.
Holy shit. She couldn’t just sit here and watch them tear Jamison apart. Maybe she could scare them, distract them. She punched the horn, letting it sound in loud bursts. One bear jerked its head up, then as the other bear tackled Jamison, the first bear rushed the truck.
The cab rocked as the bear slammed into it. It was a Changer, Jamison said. That meant the bear could morph into a human who could open doors and drag her out into the snow.
She slammed the locks shut and flipped open her cell phone, punching 9-1-1 and praying she had reception. “Hey,” she shouted at the person who answered. “We’re stuck in the snow, and bears are attacking.”
The calm-voiced woman on the other end asked her where she was and promised help was on the way.
She advised Naomi to stay inside the truck with the doors locked.
“You think?” Naomi screamed as the bear slammed its paws into the driver-side window. Glass shattered and cold air poured in.
The bear suddenly howled and went down when a huge, tawny-colored beast jumped on it. A wolf?
Naomi wondered as the two animals rolled away. Could this get any worse?
A moment later she wished she hadn’t thought that. Another mountain lion bounded out of the woods, this one nearly twice Jamison’s size. He was snarling, foam flecking his red mouth. The bear with Jamison backed off, and the two mountain lions met with a crash and a wildcat scream.
The bear hovered outside the fight, breath steaming in the air. He was watching like a referee, his head moving back and forth as the two combatants wrestled and struggled.
“Jamison,” Naomi sobbed.
The broken window darkened, and Naomi whipped her head around to see the man who called himself Coyote standing next to her, stark naked and breathing hard. Gone was the man who wandered Magellan’s streets and teased tourists, who smiled at Julie and signed to her. His eyes were yellow and glittering, his lips pulled back from pointed canines.
“Get out,” Coyote said to Naomi. He yanked open the door and unlocked her seat belt himself, pulling her out by the arm. The bear that had been attacked lay still, groaning, the snow stained red around it.
“If you stay in there, they’ll crush the truck,” Coyote said.
“If I’m out here, they’ll crush me.”
Coyote ripped the tarp from her truck bed and pulled out a shotgun, one she hadn’t put there.
He thrust the gun into her shaking arms. “You know how to use this?” Naomi nodded, hands automatically moving to hold the gun in a safe position.