Page 4 of Scout’s Honor

The hawk that had been following Aven dive-bombed the ground near the women and shifted to a man right in front of them! Dallas couldn’t believe it. Didn’t ‘The Cause’ try to hide themselves from humans? The male was tall, tanned, with shaggy black hair. His clothes appeared around him—camo pants and a black shirt. One of his boots was untied, the laces dragging in the dirt. The clouded leopard also shifted into man, right there in full view.

The blue sedan came barreling around a tree, making Dallas and Shiloh turn. They snarled at it. Thorn slammed on the brakes. Shiloh moved closer to the caves, easy to see in the dark, her belly low to the ground.

Dallas ducked behind a tree and shifted into a man, not sure what his role was here. His clothes appeared on his body, making him shake his head in absolute wonder. This shit was fucking awesome. His belt was undone and he hastily buckled it, peeking around the tree. Dakota and Aven had disregarded the group of women altogether and were heading for a cave entrance. They entered the cave and Dallas lost sight of their glow. Shiloh ran after them, and then Ryder backed away, following his sister.

Near the van, the women were packed close together, looking like shipwreck survivors, or hardcore drug users—with torn clothing, matted hair, wild eyes, plus red sores on their wrists and necks. They looked weak and anemic, with bags under their eyes and their skin hanging off their bones.

Dallas rubbed his eyes. Now that Dakota’s glow was gone the light was dim, and still the women appeared blurry… or covered in a thin gel-like haze. It was harder to see, but definitely still there.

The guy who’d been a hawk lifted his hands and motioned to the women that they should back up. The women murmured, then angry shouts rang out and the ragged group rushed him! Dallas swore and sprinted into the melee. He pulled a few of the women off the hawk, but they leapt back, furious, clawing and screaming. The hawk wasn’t fighting—he was protecting his face and neck, while blood flowed from multiple furrows on his arms already.

Dallas grabbed two women by their elbows. His fingers moved right through the gray haze on them like it wasn’t there. It felt like nothing, scented like nothing.

“Hold on, now!” he yelled. “What’s going on? What’s your problem?”

“Don’t bother,” the hawk yelled. “They’re charmed outta their minds. We’ve got to keep them out of the caves—there’s vampires in there!”

“My sister’s in there!”

“She’s safe—she’s a switch! These women are…” His expression darkened. “Food.”

Dallas got a strong whiff of the guy’s scent for the first time, and it caught him off guard, making him falter.

“Who the hell are you?” he snarled.

“I’m Maze. I’m new, too.”

“How do you know so much then?” Dallas demanded. “And why do you smell like a dead man?”

Pain sliced down Dallas’ neck and shoulder as one of the women clawed at him, drawing blood. She shrieked and he backed out of her reach, now thinking if this was what working with ‘The Cause’ was like, then he was out.

Maze backed away with him, saying, “I heard this already.”

Dallas threw him a what-the-fuck look.

Maze shook his head once. “The eagle already told me I scent like some dead guy.”

“Not some dead guy. Cage.” Dallas snarled. His friend.

A memory from that awful night when Cage was last seen and Dallas got shot pushed its way into his mind, surpassing everything.

Dark sky, dangerous operation, secrets, and hours spent spying, then creeping under cover with his uniform soaked with ocean water and his senses muddled by cold. Something fell on him from above. The night lit with gunfire. Pain, confusion, enemy attack, blood everywhere—

Dallas shook his head, pulling himself from the memory with massive effort, focusing on the palms of his hands, then the sole of his foot, breathing with long exhales, looking sharply to the sides—using every trick he'd been taught by the military shrink.

Somehow, he managed to haul himself out of the memory before the memory pulled him under, but it left him weak and shaking... and realizing Maze was staring at him with something like pity. Dallas snarled. He didn’t need anyone’s fucking pity. He looked at the women, and they still looked fucking blurry. FUCK! Was he seeing things? The whole house of cards fell in on him. He wasn’t fucking better. He still was having flashbacks to the horrible night, and now he was seeing things, too? He was a liability and he hated it.

“We’ve got reservations!” a short, curvy woman yelled, running around Maze to get to Dallas. She had limp dark hair and was wearing only a dirty nightgown in the chilly evening air, her face contorted in rage, her feet bare. She twitched hard, seeming knocked dumb for a moment, then her sneer returned. Her skin and the edges of her body looked even more blurry up close, like Dallas was viewing her on a malfunctioning television. Dallas threw a look at Maze, but he didn’t seem to see it.

“Yeah!” another woman shouted indignantly. “Reser-fucking-VA-TIONS!”

The group reformed, standing close together for warmth or strength, some of them with bloody fingernails, all of them fuming with anger, looking ready to make a rush for the cave’s entrance at any time.

From the direction of the washed-out road, a man came close. It was Thorn. “What’s going on?” he asked, looking directly at Dallas.

“Got me,” Dallas said, forcing the words out. He looked at Maze.

Maze shrugged, making blood rivulets flow faster down his arms. “No clue,” Maze said.