Blackteeth Page 13

  I’ll tour it, Hesper thought, on the way as I run out of here. Then she made a list to make herself feel marginally better. Sleep. First light. Steal Moss’s money. Steal the owner’s ecofriendly vehicle like a Prius or a Chevy Volt because that had been another thing she’d mentioned; that the lodge and the farm were very ecofriendly. They also raised bees and had a garden that had won 1st place in the 2010 United States Perennial Plant Association. Hesper would have been impressed if her knees weren’t shaking, and she didn’t need to be gone in a timely fashion. Oh yeah, I can’t drive. Maybe a Prius or a Chevy Volt is on the easy side of the bell curve for my first time driving.

  Hesper hit the drain handle and listened as the water went away. She stood up and hooked one of the fluffy oversized towels to dry herself off. She briefly wondered if she should have removed the bandages on her back before the bath but disregarded the thought. If she was still alive the following day, she’d get to it.

  Stress flowed out of her like the water down the drain. The concept of safety wasn’t easy for her. She hadn’t been safe for over a decade, and the idea that she could be safe once again was foreign. Even in the days that had run together while she lived and worked and studied books from the library and learned how to evade choke holds and how to kick someone with the ball of her foot while pointing her toes up so that she wouldn’t break them, she knew that she wasn’t truly safe.

  Pinehurst Lodge wasn’t safe, either. Not really. She could trust Moss for the moment because she had no choice. But the Blackteeth were searching for them. The Blackteeth were ruthless. The Blackteeth wanted to gut Hesper and use her intestines to tell their fortunes. But first the Blackteeth wanted to keep Hesper alive so they could torture her ad nauseam, and when they were tired of that, they would then gut her.

  Hesper dressed in the new clothing and went back into the room. Moss sat in one of the stick chairs that was obviously sturdier than she would have given it credit and tapped at his phone. He had it plugged into a charger, and he looked at her for only a moment. “There’s nothing on the news about my father,” he said.

  Hesper would have said, “I told you so,” but there wasn’t a point to it. “Told you so,” she muttered regardless. She yanked back the bedding on the king size bed and plumped pillows. “Can you sleep?”

  “I’m thinking no,” Moss said frankly.

  “I’m going to,” Hesper announced. “Wake me up when the sun comes up. If I look like I’m having a nightmare, wake me up. If a Blackteeth comes to the door, the window, or any other opening, wake me up. If someone knocks at the door wake me up. Also, is there a do not disturb sign? Because you should put that on the doorknob.”

  Moss stood up and took care of the sign while Hesper snuggled into the bed. She didn’t know what kind of bed it was, but it was comfortable and soft. She pulled the blankets up and motioned at him to turn off all of the lights. “Leave the bathroom one on,” she directed.

  Hesper heard him moving around, and just as she was about to drift off, he said, “How did you live with all of this without screaming?”

  Hesper sighed. “One day at a time because that’s all you can do. Plus, screaming will get you killed.”

  Moss didn’t answer her.

  Hesper dreamt about the Blackteeth. That wasn’t an uncommon occurrence. Sometimes the dreams were reflections of the scariest moments she’d spent in their company. They liked to bite. They liked their prey frightened. They enjoyed the hunt. Other times the Blackteeth would speak to her although they never had in reality.

  In this particular dream she sat on a rock while a Blackteeth sat on another rock not too far away from her. The backdrop was black and not even the brightest of stars could force its light through to them. Hesper wasn’t nervous in the dream but she was wary.

  “How did it feel to kill our kin?” the Blackteeth asked her dispassionately.

  “How did it feel to kill so many children?” Hesper asked back immediately.

  “It felt as if it is our right to do so,” the Blackteeth said as if such a thing had never occurred to it.

  “It is your…right to murder small children,” Hesper said carefully.

  “Humans are stupid and populate beyond control,” the Blackteeth said. “They need moderation.”

  Hesper had to think about that. “You mean the Blackteeth are a population control method. You kill us because we are too many?”

  “Do not predators need to survive in your world?”

  Hesper had to think about that. “The lion hunts the gazelle. The crocodile the water buffalo. Cats hunt mice. They kill to eat. They don’t torture. They don’t play with their quarry. They have to in order to live in our world.”

  The Blackteeth’s smile grew wide and showed a thousand jagged coal-colored dentition. “But we are not of your world and you’ve wronged us.”

  Hesper thought about that, as well. “I killed to survive. If that’s so, then I’ve only done what you’ve done.”

  “Perhaps that is so, but we cannot forgive, and we will never forgive.”

  “Ditto.”

  “Ditto?”

  “It means I feel exactly the same way as you do.”

  “This I understand,” the Blackteeth said. “It’s a shame that you’re a human. You should have been born one of us.”

  Hesper considered that. “Because I killed your kind?”

  “Because you have shown your ruthlessness and cunning, traits we hold in high regard.”

  On some level Hesper was supposed to be flattered. “I did what I had to do in order to live. It wasn’t noble. It wasn’t honorable. It was me versus your kind. Frankly, I prefer me.”

  “I remember when you were a small human,” the Blackteeth said reflectively. “Your hair was so red it almost glowed like fire and now it is black like ours. You’ve taken on our qualities as if you are proud of them.”

  Hesper almost choked. “You’re not the only things chasing me. It’s a disguise and nothing more.”

  “A disguise?” it repeated. “It is like when we pretend to be human. From a distance your kind doesn’t know the difference, although they feel the fear roiling in their bowels, they hear that all the prey has gone silent, and they know they are not alone because we are watching. But stupidly they ignore the signs and proceed along their given path right into our traps.”

  Hesper turned to look more closer at the Blackteeth. It had a long face, white like chalk, and eyes like unending depths in the deepest oceans. It also had a long scar down the side of its face where it had been shredded horribly in the past. Some…thing had cut it with whatever tool they could find in order to escape its long-fingered grasp.

  “I remember you, too,” Hesper said, remembering the splash of tar-like blood on her skin when she had thrown everything she had at the creature sitting so closely to her.

  The Blackteeth touched the side of its face, fingering the lengthy scar. “The child who eluded us. The one who fought with all of her might. The one who killed us and took that which does not belong to her.”

  It was Hesper’s turn to feel the pendant at her neck with her hand. If she looked, it would have appeared to be a piece of polished obsidian fashioned into a long bullet shape. If one stared at it for a moment, then one might see the sticklike figure of a Blackteeth as it waited for its opportunity to strike.

  “I hope the cut hurt you,” Hesper said. It had been done with a jagged piece of metal that she’d found in a pile of debris and sharpened for hours on a stone. When she had finished it, she wrapped one end with cloth, until it resembled an axe. She’d used it like an axe, as well.

  The Blackteeth glanced at Hesper’s scars on her arms and shrugged in a manner that seemed all too human. “And I return the sentiment, little human.”

  “You should stop chasing me,” Hesper advised matter-of-factly, “or I will kill more of you.”

  The Blackteeth seemed to consider that for a long time. “That is not in our nature. You’ve wounded us. We will seek
you ceaselessly.”

  Hesper sighed. “There’s a saying my mamaw used to tell about making your bed.”

  The Blackteeth stared at her and finally asked as if it couldn’t help itself, “What is it?”

  “As you make it, so too, must you lie in it.”

  Hesper opened her eyes to the waking world and knew immediately that they had been found again.

  Chapter Twelve

  If you’re going to do something carelessly,

  it would be better to give it up entirely.

  – Russian proverb

  Someone knocked on the door. Not particularly muffled voices could be heard in association with the knocking. Hesper was out of the bed before she registered that she was moving. She saw that Moss had fallen asleep in the elaborate stick chair. His chin rested against his chest. One hand held his cellphone still plugged into its charger. The knocking hadn’t woken him or even disturbed him.

  Still dressed in the new t-shirt and sweats, Hesper thumped Moss on the side of his head and over he went, splattering himself on the floor.

  “The hell…” he snarled as he scrambled to his knees and hands. He still clutched his phone as if it might save his life.

  Hesper frenziedly gestured with her right hand, slicing it across her throat. Moss shut his mouth immediately, and his gaze shot to the door.

  “…police department, and I need to speak with Miss Hesper White and Mister Moss Symmes…” the voice was interrupted by another one. Hesper recognized the second voice as the woman who had shown them to the room hours before.

  Hesper also registered that the sun was now up, streaming into the edges around closed curtains, and they had slept for more than a few hours. That was hours longer than she would have liked.

  “I can see you’re from Multnomah County,” came the owner/manager’s voice clearly, “and I happen to know we’re on this side of the Hood River County line, so you’re a little out of your jurisdiction. I also happen to know the sheriff of Hood River personally because his daughter had her wedding here at the lodge last month, and let’s go back down to the front desk to wait for him. I’ve got other guests, you know.”

  Hesper scrambled for her flip flops. She motioned frantically at Moss to get whatever he needed and follow her.

  “It’s the police,” Moss whispered with an emphasis on the word police.

  “Maybe so,” Hesper whispered back, shoving the flip flops onto her feet, “but how did he know we were here when there’s no news about your father?”

  “Your boss knows my name,” Moss whispered back. “And yours, too. Could be just random follow up. I’m sure she called the po-po about you. You just up and vanished and all that.”

  “Maybe, but why would someone from Multnomah County drive over here? Wouldn’t they call the locals, and furthermore, how do they know we’re here?”

  “Duh. I used my credit card.”

  “The police aren’t that quick in real life,” Hesper said. “Out the balcony, quick! We’re going to have to steal a ride. Do you know how to hotwire a car?”

  “No one knows how to hotwire a car,” Moss whispered. He gathered stuff, shoved other things in his pocket to include his cellphone and wallet, and looked out the window. “It’s a short drop to the woods, then we can go out the orchard. There was a road going that way to the farmer’s market.”

  “How do you know that?”

  Moss pointed to the wooden table beside the stick chair he’d fallen asleep in. There on the top was an unfolded pamphlet map of Pinehurst Lodge to include all the areas clients might want to visit: the award-winning gardens, the orchards, the winery, and the farmer’s market.

  Hesper opened the window and looked both ways. All she saw was a man wearing a wide-brimmed straw hat pulling weeds in the orchards, and he wasn’t the personification of a police officer ready to take down a wily perpetrator. “Hurry,” she whispered, “before the guy decides to come in.”

  Moss leaned over the log bannister and looked around. “I can’t believe they wouldn’t have someone waiting for us.”

  “They think the name of the law is enough,” Hesper whispered back. “Plus, there’s a strong possibility it’s just one man. I can’t imagine that they would have found two to corrupt.” She slid over the bannister and dropped about five feet into pine straw. She tried to think of the roads out of the area and came up blank. She’d been tired and hurting the night before. She was still tired and hurting. A night of rest had been too tempting to think about an exit strategy.

  There was a rapid thumping on the interior door to the suite. “Open the damn door!” someone yelled.

  “I’m calling the sheriff!” the woman yelled. “You can’t come in here and—”

  There was an abrupt loud boom that cut off the woman’s words.

  Moss froze for just a second as he seemed to understand just what the noise had been. Hesper decided she didn’t want to wait for him to make up his mind. The police officer from another county had likely just shot the lodge’s owner and they were next. She darted for the orchard imagining the map of the property in her head. She could head for the road and look for a ride along the way. Poor lonesome girl with black eyes. Who wouldn’t give her a ride? She could blink her eyelashes along with the best of them.

  As she went, she comprehended that Moss was right behind her, keeping up with a long-legged stride that seemed to go on forever.

  They dashed into the orchards, and Hesper ducked so that it wouldn’t be obvious where she’d gone. She hoped that Moss would follow suit because he was so much taller than she was.

  So the Blackteeth had a police officer on their payroll. That was going to be a problem. When the other residents of the lodge said something about him, he was going to have to explain why it was that his gun was used on the lodge owner. Hesper didn’t doubt that some kind of story blaming Hesper and Moss would be used. She also knew it would mean that not only would the Blackteeth be looking for them, but so too would the police. If the Blackteeth wanted her hale and hearty, they would have to think quickly before police without connections to them got her in their cells. It wasn’t their way to draw too much attention to themselves. Based on her post-escape research, they never hunted in the same places more than once in ten to twenty years. They didn’t like to be seen by adults. If it could be helped, they didn’t leave evidence of their passing.

  But their desperation to get Hesper wasn’t like their normal actions. Events were escalating in a way no one could control.

  “Was that a real police officer?” Moss demanded from behind her.

  “Probably,” Hesper said. They ducked into elaborate gardens, and she paused behind a massive sculpted-hedge animal shaped like a dragon about to take flight. “If they’re shooting people in order to get us, we’re in big trouble. Bigger trouble than before,” she amended. “We need to disappear and quickly.”

  Hesper squatted near the dragon and considered options. She touched the pendant at her neck. She looked at Moss who squatted next to her and scanned the area around them.

  “I think you could have explained your actions with a few lies,” Hesper said carefully. “I think you should keep that in mind in case you have a chance to explain to anyone but the man who just shot the owner.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, you came to Portland to pick my brains for information about your sister,” Hesper said. “Leave out the kidnapping part because self-incrimination and all that. Your dad followed you and together you were going to get whatever you needed out of me. You could even tell them about the $100,000. Then we took a little trip because…oh, trying to sway me or something. Then your father took the rental truck for some reason like antique hunting and didn’t come back. Then the police came, and we heard a shot. We got frightened. You lost me in the orchards, and you don’t know where I went.”

  Moss stupidly stared at her.

  Hesper sighed as she really thought about that option. “However, I think that ship h
as sailed,” she said. “If they killed the lodge owner, then they’ll most likely kill you, too. Right after they ask you some pointed questions.”

  “What did you do?” Moss asked.

  “I told you what I did,” Hesper said. “Do you remember where the nearest stream is located? You were looking at the layout of the rivers, too.”

  Moss glanced left and right and then up at the sun that was peeping over the horizon. Mount Hood could be seen to the south, proudly and magnificently towering over all else. He nodded as he patently ascertained the proper direction. “There’s one to the north, down across the field and down into a ravine. Then there’s one to the south, but it looks like it’s dry most of the time.”

  “We’re going to the northern creek,” Hesper announced.

  “What about hot-wiring a car?”

  “Well, that’s not going to happen, is it?” Hesper asked. “Right now, people are calling the police left and right from the lodge because there were five other vehicles parked outside when the Uber dropped us off. You said last night that this was the last suite available. Someone, more than one someone, is freaking out about the gunshot, and soon we won’t be able to take a step without being seen. We can’t get out of here without running into the cops, and now we know we don’t know which cops to trust. Sure, most of them are probably just fine and dandy, but that’s a gamble I don’t want to take.”

  Hesper stood up and stretched. She tilted her head. “I hear sirens. Time to go before the bad guy finds us.”

  “I thought going near water was bad,” Moss said.

  Hesper grabbed his upper arm. “Time to run. Time to do what they don’t expect. Do you have any weapons?”

  “The Taser. A pocket knife. A bag of M&M’s.”