Ruler (Wolves of Royal Paynes #2) - Kiki Burrelli Page 0,9

back a pain that he was able to keep muffled at any other time.

Neither of us spoke for the next several hours. The sun dropped fully below the horizon, off to bring morning to some other part of the world. The highway dwindled down to one lane going each direction, and I saw fewer and fewer headlights approaching.

It had been an hour since I'd seen another car.

Dog sat up, rising abruptly from a dream. I watched him in the rearview, thinking at first the excitement from his dream had jolted him awake, but his gaze darted immediately out the window, and he woofed softly.

Diesel drew in a sharp breath, his eyes darting from one side of the highway to the other. "Faust, look at the trees."

Large pine trees lined both sides of the highway. The branches drooped low, sagging to the ground, and it wasn't hard to see why. They were full of crows. Hundreds of them, dark, silent sentinels. Each had its beak pointed our direction. I pulled the Hummer to the side of the road.

The birds on the branches nearest Diesel's door never moved. Their espresso brown eyes focused harder through the windshield.

"First seagulls, now this…"

"If you make a joke about how we've gone to the birds, I will knock a tooth out."

Diesel sucked his front teeth. "I wouldn't joke about this shit. Birds are freaky."

I pulled out a coastal map from the glove box. If possible, I preferred paper under my fingers to a screen. "There's not a lot around here. A couple of county roads that don't empty out anywhere useful."

The perfect area if you didn't want anyone to know what you were up to.

"The next road is a half mile ahead." I pulled onto the highway, speeding to the turn.

The narrow road was rocky and unkempt. Large thickets of weeds grew in thick patches. There were old tire marks cut into the earth. The ground there was smooth and flat, but the tracks didn't look new, definitely not used recently. Some of the branches that thwacked the vehicle on either side would've been broken if it had.

A deer darted in front of us, leaping entirely over the county road and disappearing on the other side. I eased the vehicle slowly forward when four more deer came sprinting the same way, like they were being chased.

"What's got them so spooked? Do you think it's our guy?"

The notes, the crows and seagulls, now these deer—it was all connected. A foreboding thrill ricocheted down my spine, but while I was wary of what we were driving into, I tapped my fingers against the steering wheel in impatient anticipation.

Several trees laid ahead on their sides, their branches a gnarled mess as they'd twisted around each other. Unlike the tracks in the road, this looked fresh, and it completely blocked the path forward. I cut the engine, giving the silence a second to creep in.

Diesel stared straight ahead. There weren't as many crows lining the branches in this section, but there were still more than what was considered natural. "The point of no return."

"Do you want to stay in the car?" I asked him, keeping my eyes wide. "So you don't have to be scared by the widdle birds?"

Diesel growled and pushed open his door. "Shut the fuck up."

Inside the Hummer, the rumbling engine had acted as a buffer, muffling the nature sounds. But now that the engine was cut and we were on the outside, the forest roared with activity. Small squeaks and squawks mixed with larger growls and snarls. Movement stayed just on the reaches of my night vision so that I could see figures, some low to the ground, some a little higher, but not enough details to guess what the animal was. And detection by smell was a lost cause. It smelled like a zoo had sex with a pet store and then left the animals to run rampant.

"Do you think your guy is making this happen?"

Not only did I think that, I didn't have another suggestion. "We're getting closer."

Dog took the lead. He didn't appreciate so many other animals surrounding him at one time and took to charging, hackles raised, teeth bared, clearing the way forward.

We continued that way for several hours. The sheer number of wildlife that surrounded us was mindboggling. It was as if every bird, deer, and rodent in the entire forest had migrated here, to this county road. I sensed predators as well—cougars, bobcats, coyotes, and wolves—though they stayed farther away,

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