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ChapterForty
“Cody.” A hand taps my cheek. “Wake up. I heard something outside.”
West is hovering over me when I open my eyes. The only light comes from the aurora outside and I stumble a bit as I stand up from the bed where Blake and Cherry are cuddled together. I pull a hoodie and sweatpants on before stumbling down the stairs behind a buzzing West.
A quick glance at the living room tells me that he hasn’t slept at all tonight. His laptop is set up on the coffee table and a mug of hot tea sits beside it, still steaming. He’s wearing the same clothes he changed into after his shower when we got home.
“What’s up?” I ask, blinking several times to clear the sleep from my eyes. I startle when Blue flies down from the rafters and lands on my shoulder. “Jesus. Where’d you come from?” I reach over and run a finger down their wing.
“Flew in about two hours ago. Right after I heard the noise the first time. I thought maybe it was a bear or a moose or something. I could hear what sounded like footsteps on the gravel.”
“Okay.”
“Then about ten minutes ago, I thought I saw a shadow move across the window. Too small to be either animal. So, I turned on the cameras at the front of the property, and look.”
He hits the play video on the camera at the entrance to the campground. A car drives slowly down the road and out of the frame. A minute or two later, the picture shakes and goes black.
“The fuck?”
“Oh, yeah.” He switches to a different camera feed. “It gets worse.”
The camera that sits in a tree halfway up the drive shows nothing interesting until the same thing happens, the picture shakes and then the screen goes black. The cameras along the entire front perimeter of the property do the same thing.
“John?”
“I think so.” He walks over to the duffle bag we have our guns in. “Who else could it be?”
“Why now, though?” I take the pistol he hands me.
“Maybe the box didn’t have anything? Or he’s coming for Vi.”
“Like fuck.”
“We need to wake up Blake and Violet,” West says. “We can’t leave them sleeping.”
“She’s going to put up a fight.”
“She can just deal with it. She’s not leaving the cabin.”
A few minutes later, he comes downstairs with Blake and Cherry trailing him. She does a double take when she sees Blue on my shoulder, holding her hand out. Blue goes to her, knocking their head against her chin.
She and Blake are both yawning and sleepy eyed as West starts to explain. By the time they’ve watched the footage, they’re both wide awake. Violet starts pacing around the kitchen and muttering to herself.
“Where are you two going?” she asks as we put our shoes on.
“Out to check.”
“Are you fucking insane? It’s not just some psycho out there. There are wild animals. You can’t just stroll around.” She stands in front of the door, as if that will stop us.
“We’ll be together. You two will be together.” West picks her up and sets her to the side.
“At least take Ghost and Storm.” She grabs their spiked collars and wraps them around their necks. “They’ll hear any predators before you do.”
“Shouldn’t one of them stay with you?”
“No, we’ll lock the doors. They were trained together as a pair. I’ll feel better with them together out there.” She kisses both on the head and then stands, kissing me and then West.
Blake grabs me and presses a rough kiss to my lips. “Be careful.” His eyes look black in the low light as they move back and forth between mine. “I love you.”
