A Justified Kill (16 page)

Grabbing the kit, she opened it up and inspected its contents. It was exactly what she needed.
Pealing the mud from her si
de, she grabbed the bottle
of water
she had
stashed in her pack and quickly washed the
remaining
mud from her side. Clenching her
teeth she refused to allow a sound to escape when
the water ran into the wound. L
earning to apply field dressing
s
at a young age, Amber knew how to bind the
injury. He had sliced her
deep enough
that
it needed stitches, but not enough to see ribs, so that was good.
Taking a deep breath, she
gritted her teeth and pulled the skin together, applying the bandage in a way t
hat forced the wound together,
taped it closed, then applied gauze and more tape to keep the cut from seeping
blood
onto her clothing. 
If she had been able to stay in her were-form for another couple of minutes
,
the wound would have healed
completely. As it was, in the short time it took her to shift, she had already begun healing she probably would not have been able to stop the bleeding so easily. Although it hadn’t closed up completely, she would mend fairly quickly even in her human form, another plus at having werewolf genetics. Although she had a feeling it was going to leave a scar.

She was uncomfortable
while she moved around the campsite
, but
pushed it out of her mind
and
continued
.
She couldn’t help but think of how her first kill had turned into one
big
mess. Werewolves killed things
every full moon phase
, why
was this such
an ordeal
for her
?
While she worked, she couldn’t stop the attack from playing over and over in her mind.
What her wolf should have done differently.
The cut could have been fatal if he had gotten a
better
hold
on the knife
. Amber shook her head at the thought
and had to face the fact that it cou
ld have been a huge possibility. It was
a hard but good lesson the wolf had to learn.
She would definitely have to be more careful in the future.

This time, f
ixing her screw up would be easy s
ince
he smoked and everyone knew
he drank a lot, and
conveniently
there happened to be a bottle of whiskey next to his grungy mattress in the tent. Amber
dragged
him
over to the
bed
and rolled him on top of it. Positioning
his body
, he looked
like he had crawled in
to
bed to go to sleep
. She draped his hand across
his chest, placing a
cigarette between his fingers and
poured whiskey
across his face and
down his
mangled throat.
Her plan was to make him look as if he
had merely fallen asleep with the cigarette in his hand
. Well, he would
if it weren’t for the gaping hole in his throat and gashes ripped through his chest
and belly
.
Tipping the b
ottle of whiskey over
, she poured the liquid down the front of him, and
the remainder
into his mouth. T
he
old
mattress
quickly
soaked
up whatever rolled off his body
and
would
become the perfect
ignition source. She knew the tent would quickly bec
ome engulfed in flames.
Glancing around one more time, making sure
there
was
not
hing around the campsite
to show
anyone but Gerald had been there
, Amber stepped back
. Unless they were werewolf, the local sher
iff and fire department would not suspect a thing.
She hoped.

Amber
held the flame of the mat
ch to the end of the cigarette.
She hated the smell and had never tried smoking because she didn’t see any reason to. It was a nasty habit and not good for
anyone’s
health
. She looked down at
Gerald once
more. N
either was pissing of
f
a werewolf
. She laughed at the
thought and dropped the book of matches beside the mattress
. Holding the flame under the
cigarette
, she watched it
slowly catch
fire. Once it did, the fire spread quickly and his body immediately
burst into flames.
Escaping the inferno, s
he r
an deeper into the woods, turning around
in time to watch
the tent with
Gerald’s dead body inside blaze
brightly
in the darkness of the early morning hours
.

****

The Forestry Service responded to the fire, but the campsite and everything inside the tent
that would burn had been
reduced to ashes by the time they arrived.
Anything that wouldn’t burn was charred or melted. The men’s
main goal was to prevent the fire from sprea
ding throughout the forest. This
was one of t
he reasons Amber had stuck around
as well. She didn’t want the forest and its inhabitants to suffer from the death of a
sick man. The heavy rains from a couple nights
before still had the ground wet, so the flames only singed a few of
the closer trees branches.
The men quickly doused the remaining flames

Amber watched
from her hiding place
deep in the forest where she remained still and quiet. She
heard them talking amongst themselves when they disc
overed th
e charred bones of the body which
lay inside.

“I think
this is Gerald, the drunk who was
always staggering through the woods, his van is parked on the side of the road where it usually is.” The one with his back to
her was talking loud
and his voice carried in the still, quiet morning. The
other three men agreed.

“I was getting ready to kick him out of here anywa
y. Guess there’s no need for it
now.”
Amber recognized
Trigger
Michaels from the time he had come into the bar. He was
taller than the other three.

From what she remembered Catherine saying he had just been named the
Deputy Conservator
over that
area of the forest
. Trigger was Hunter’s younger brother, so that must have given Catherine bragging rights since he was
over the
Assistant Conservators. Who knows? Amber shook her head at the thought and continued listening when Trigger spoke into the radio he had looped over his shoulder.

“Base, this is Michaels.”

A
young
male voice
crackled
over
through the small speaker
.
“Go ahead Michaels.”

“Fire i
s contained, but we have a body
, might want to call
the
Sheriff and get him out here, Fire Department to
o.
I’m sure they
’
ll want to investigate this. Oh,
might
as we
ll go ahead and call Bob, he
’ll
wanna
rule on the death
.”
Trigger
dropped the radio, allowing it to fall against his chest
while he listed to the response.

Amber could hear the deeper voice of the Director responding from the base station.
“Copy that,
Sheriff was notified when the fire was reported
. He
should be there soon.
Keep the area secure and let me know if you need anything.”

The
four men stood outside the camping
area and stared out into the dark
forest
.
They never realized they were being watched.
“Sheriff needs to hurry up and get here, I’m tired!”
Trigger
grumbled
shuffling his feet, hands dug into his pockets
against the cold night air
.

“How could you be sleepy?” One of the shorter men asked, snorting a laugh. “You slept all day
and half the night
‘
cause you were up
most of the night with Sue Ann
the night before
.
”

His response was lost in
the sound of the Sheriff’s SUV’s sirens
coming closer. The vehicle drove through
trees,
bouncing along the trail
the rangers had cut getting to the fire.

D
uring her search
of the campground to ensure there was no trace of her presence to be
found, Amber had discovered the haphazardly discarded clothing and
small purse which
Gerald had tossed
out
in
to the woods. Inside the purse
was a
p
icture of Hanna
with
whom
she assumed were her parents.
Hanna stood between the man and woman and they all had a big smile on their face. The woman was looking down at Hanna like she was the most precious thing. They looked like the perfect, happy family.
There was a cell phone
which
h
ad
been
tucked away in
the bac
k pocket of her jeans
, of course it
was d
ead and of no use. Gathering
her discarded
belongings, Amber wrapp
ed the jeans around the items, rolling them up. She
them into her small bac
kpack and made her way
back to
her own
campsite
.