Page 35 of Huntress

“You’d choose him over us?”

“If you leave, it’s because you’ve chosen your hate for him over your respect for me. I am choosing to keep him safe. Any choices you make in response are your decision alone. If the choice were mine, you would all stay.”

Marley and Trenton were mirror images, their jaws working, eyes narrowed. Trisse sat back in his seat with a huff, and Banks stared at a wall. The others looked thoughtful, with Grady and Steve appearing to have softened the most with her explanation.

“If there are no further questions, I’ve got a tram to drive.”

“I have another question. How long is Mutt going to be with us?” Marley asked, keeping her voice under tight control.

The hound’s lip curled. Apparently his tolerance for who was allowed to call him that was limited to Elsie alone.

“For as long as I remain a member of the Hunter Clans. I know this will take some getting used to, but I assure you, I’ve got him under control.”

“Of course you do,” Perrie said supportively. “You’re right, Captain. We all need to give him a chance.”

“Like hell we do,” Marley muttered. Elsie gave her a sharp look, but didn’t take the older woman to task. Everyone was miserable enough as it was. As long as nobody’s behavior got out of hand, more serious talk would wait until there was room to breathe and put distance between her squad and the demon.

“I know everyone was looking forward to a few days off, and I gave Roz hell over sending us out again. As a reward for our hard work, we have a signed and sealed week-long rest period guaranteed waiting for us when we’re done with these rats.” A few faces brightened upon hearing it. Elsie produced the folder and set it on the counter, where anyone who wanted the mission details could read it themselves.

“My door is open if anyone wants to talk.” She gave them a second to respond, then went back into the front car to their silence. Her hands were shaking when she reached the controls, and she took a long, settling breath.

“I can’t believe how fast this has spiraled,” she groaned, forgetting for a moment that she wasn’t alone. She turned in time to catch the demon switching back to his human form before perching on one of the chairs pulled up to the table. He didn’t sit, but crouched, ready to launch out of the chair at a second’s notice.

“You’re going to want to sit properly for a few minutes,” she cautioned. “Everyone else will be seated, too. They’ll eat, sleep, read some dirty romance novels, and sleep some more. Nobody’s going to bother you until we’re in the field.”

“That’s comforting,” he muttered sarcastically.

Elsie gave him half a minute to correct his position, but he refused. She slowly pushed the lever forward. The tram lurched and groaned, then started moving. She glanced back at the demon and smirked to see him clutching the table to keep his balance. He caught her look and scowled. She didn’t even have to say, “I told you so.” Sometimes the best lessons had to come from experience.

He watched out the window until they left the lights behind and the tunnel became a blur. Elsie reached out, trying to gauge his reaction, but there was nothing there. He’d closed himself off again.

‘It’s for the best,’ she told herself, but it bothered her that a tiny, annoying part of her brain wanted the connection back. It was easier to anticipate what he was thinking and planning if she felt it coming.

She stayed at the controls until they rounded a corner, officially leaving the compound, then she opened the throttle. The tram picked up speed quickly, its funneled shape not unlike the bullet trains in ancient Japan.

Elsie leveled them off, maintaining speed, then she nodded to the hound. “We have about an hour before I need to slow us down for the next turn. They designed the tunnels to be as straight as possible, but there are stretches where rivers, ravines, and such were unavoidable.”

He grunted in response. The scent of cup noodles drifted through the door. Someone else must have missed lunch as well. The demon’s nostrils flared briefly before his eyes wandered toward the door.

“Hungry?” Elsie asked. She rolled her eyes when he didn’t answer. Heading into the back car, she grabbed two noodle cups and heated them. Not one of her squad members met her eyes or tried to start a conversation. Three minutes later, she slipped back into the front car where the demon watched her with interest.

“They’ll get over it.” She handed the demon his lunch.

“You keep saying that, as though repetition is some sort of cure for emotional immaturity,” he remarked, taking the cup and opening the top.

Elsie sat down at the table and propped her chin on her hand, elbow on the table. She watched him stir his noodles and take a bite, all four of his fangs, upper and lower, on momentary display. He saw her staring and sat down across from her, a scowl on his face.

“What?”

“Do you like them?”

“Too salty,” he complained.

“That’s how they make up for the lack of actual flavor. There’s too much salt in pretty much everything we eat. Just remember to drink a lot of water to balance out the sodium intake, and you’ll be fine.” She slurped up a bite.

“Real, home-cooked meals are one of the things I miss most about living with my mother. Most hunters and humans have never eaten real food just thrown together from whatever ingredients were on hand. Even though they have massive orchards and produce farms, everything they eat is packaged crap.”

“No wonder your species is so aggressive,” he said, and Elsie smirked. Now the demon had jokes.