Page 90 of A Light in the Dark
Something required mustering more will than I had left.
Someone crouched near me, and a warm hand, vergingon being scalding, supported the top and center of my back. “Hey. You all right?”
Roger. I blinked, turned my head, and regarded the man, who wore jeans, a t-shirt, and a windbreaker for his hike in the woods. Were all the hunters tall, handsome men? Roger wasn’t in the dark category, but he did himself justice in the looks department. “What are you doing here?”
He chuckled, reached into his pocket, and pulled out a phone. “Your phone is on, and I was able to track it. You can thank Joel for that later, as he stole the device long enough to install the tracker, as he is a worry wart. He spied you tapping in your passcode and memorized it. You can get mad at him later.”
I wiggled enough to dig the broken phone out of my pocket, which still had a dead screen. “But it’s broken.”
“The device is still running, the screen is definitely dead, but that’s probably why the tracker was still working. The tracker uses satellites, so we were able to follow your progress. We got worried when you stopped during that storm, but we couldn’t get to you because of the weather.”
I regarded my poor phone with wide eyes. “It’s still turned on?”
“Yep.”
“What sort of device withstands a dunking in a river with a broken screen?”
“A model that has waterproofing under the screen and is designed to have emergency functionality in case of accidents that break the screen,” Roger informed me, and he grinned. He reached into a pocket and pulled out a plastic wrapped protein bar, which he offered to me. “Don’t choke on it.”
I snatched it, thanked him, and went to work getting it into my stomach, breathing a relieved sigh after the first few bites eased the sting of my hunger. “I was starting to think I’d never find people or civilization.”
“You might have made it. There’s a road with a tourist trap about three miles downriver, so you would have been able to get help. And since you’re on our turf, you would have gotten a quick trip to Moonriver by helicopter. You’re still getting the quick trip to Moonriver by helicopter, but we’ll be bringing the helicopter straight to here to spare you from walking that far. Honestly, I’m impressed with how far you made it. After you got snatched, what happened?”
“First, is Joel okay?”
“Joel has a pretty nasty concussion and spent the first two days of your adventure in the hospital. Your neighbor, who recognized your kidnappers, called the Hunters, thus getting a hold of us.” Roger pointed at the wolf, who waited next to me with more patience than I had on a good day. “That’s Coraline. She’s a sea wolf, so she’s happiest doing river searches. The rest of the pack is fanning out in the woods. Why don’t you give a howl to summon everyone?”
Heaving a sigh, the kind I used when someone imposed upon me, the wolf lifted her head, breathed deeply, and let loose a calling howl.
Throughout the woods, numerous wolves answered.
“I think she was enjoying having some time away from Calden, truth be told. When I’m working, I tend to be quiet, and one thing Coraline does not get nowadays is quiet.”
The wolf bobbed her head and graced us with a canine grin.
“I’m sorry I tripped over you, Coraline.”
“Don’t worry yourself any, Valerie. You’re exhausted, and it was pretty obvious you hadn’t seen her. What happened?”
“The assholes tried to poison me with strangleberry and threw me in the river.”
Roger grunted. “I’ve been told about your enjoyment of rather poisonous berries.”
I shrugged. “I could go for a few right now, I won’t lie.”
Coraline regarded me with a rather unimpressed expression.
“Alas, we have strangleberry’s less lethal cousin here. They look almost identical, and you’d only be able to tell the difference looking at the leaves and knowing that strangleberry is a few shades darker. But if you want some of those, I’m sure we can provide a pint for you once you’re at the hospital being checked out. Berries are good for you.”
“I only ate the berries I knew are safe,” I informed him. “But now I’m disappointed I didn’t cave in and try the local strangleberry. They really took me all the way to Moonriver?”
“According to the GPS data, they dumped you near the border, where you got washed downstream for several miles before you made it to shore and headed this way. The storm made things difficult. The lightning activity was no joke, and we couldn’t get the helicopter safely up in those conditions. In good news for us, Joel was not conscious for that stage of things.”
“He’s all right, though?”
“He’s cranky, which is to be expected. He’s back home, and his flutter is making sure he stays there. The only thing he’s allowed to do is tend to your house and roses while waiting. He still has to go to the hospital daily for checks.”
“What happened to him?”
