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Adrian hesitated for a second and then moved on, walking out of the shed. I waited for the door to close before I looked back at Jamie.
“Are you okay with this?” I asked him. “It is risky, especially if we’re doing this alone.”
He pressed his lips together and looked down at the box of explosives. He shrugged. “We have our orders.”
“Jamie, we both—”
He held up a hand and glanced past me. “Regardless of our orders, I’d still be out there planting the explosives. I want to keep our pack safe.”
“If you say so,” I said. “I’ll grab some duffle bags we can fill them up and then hike up near the ruins. It’s the farthest away from the hiking paths.”
“Sounds good.” He nodded pulling a pile of what looked like dynamite from the box. He set it down on the table off to the right, he grabbed a second pile, and I started to walk down the aisles until I found the bags I was looking for. I grabbed five of them. For a forest full of who knew how many walking skeleton shadow monsters, I had to hope five exploding duffle bags would be enough to at least do some damage. After that I could do the rest with teeth and claws if need be.
Walking back to the armory, I paused, watching Jamie setting out some kind of wiring. My existence was putting him in danger, and that made me uncomfortable. It was in large part why I’d left the first time. To many people were getting hurt because of me.
“Hey,” Jamie called out, breaking me free from my spiral. “What’s wrong? Did you get the bags?”
“Y-yeah. I’ve got them.” I cleared my throat and walked the rest of the way into the cage. I set the bags down on the end of the table. “I’m not exactly well versed in bomb making.”
“We’re not making bombs exactly. We’re going to bind some of the dynamite together, then we’ll use these,” he said, holding up a small black device.
“What is that?”
“It’s something Dillon developed actually. It’s a spark timer. One of the pups got wounded setting off fireworks a few years back. So, he tinkered around and developed these. They’ve come in handy a few times since then.”
“Cool.” I nodded, sidling up to him. “Teach me your ways Obi-wan.”
Jamie snorted and we set about crafting the perfect bomb. We filled the bags, divided them between us and then set off into the woods, marching ito the north.
We were about halfway to the ruins when Jamie sighed, shifting the bags in his hands. “You are sure that these things aren’t moving around these woods during the day, right?”
“Yeah,” I nodded. “Why?”
“Because this place is giving me the creeps,” he said.
“It’s daylight,” I shrugged. “Think about it this way, real monsters only come out at night.”
“Real monsters don’t follow the rules,” he said.
“Alright,” I said. “I have to ask. What’s with the dark and brooding routine?”
“What do you mean?” He barely winced, but I caught the slight falter in his stride.
“Since I got back, we’ve seen a lot of each other. We’ve talked a lot more than I ever thought possible,” I said. “You’ve flirted, you’ve teased, and you’ve gotten weird. Like…real monsters don’t follow the rules. What does that mean? And you said you’d lost someone. Who? Your mom moved away, and from what I remember you never knew your dad. So…who?”
“Why do I get the feeling you’re not going to let this go until I answer you?”
“Because you know me.” I shrugged.
“Alright.” He set the bags down on the ground at his feet and ran his hands over his face. “About two years ago, a girl showed up on my doorstep. She was sixteen and terrified. She didn’t know what she was. She didn’t know anything. All she had was a note from my mother. It said the girl’s name was Avery. She was my sister, and unlike me, she never came into her wolf, not until about a week before she showed up at my place. My mother didn’t know what to do, her new pack didn’t want the girl around, so she sent her to me.”
A cold weight sank in my gut. “What happened to her?”
“I took her under my wing. I tried to teach her how to control her wolf, but then the walkers came. Adrian started sending us out on patrols. I didn’t want him to send her, she was too new to everything, but…” he hung his head. “Orders were orders.”
I closed my eyes, regretting that I’d ever asked the question. “One of the beasts caught her.”
“I found her the next morning, still in wolf form. Torn to pieces,” he said.
“Jamie…I’m so sorry.”
His lips curled up in a halfhearted smile. “Needless to say, I have my own reasons for wanting these things gone and the witch who made them six feet under.”
“Then let’s go get them.”
