Monster Mine (17 page)

I knew none of the others, but they
all wanted to work with me and teach me. Maybe I’d proved myself
last night. Maybe they were just following Hex’s orders. Either
way, I wasn’t passing up the opportunity.

“
Good,” Hex said, seeing
the decision in my eyes before I could say anything. “First off,
your whip is a medium-range weapon. It’s effective, but if you
can’t keep your opponent back far enough, you’ll be left exposed.
You need something for close-range combat.”

“
Okay. Like a
gun?”

Tully shook his head and said, “No. A
gun is a long-range tool. You need something you can use in a fight
without needing to aim or reload.”

“
Tully’s right,” Hex said.
“That’s why I brought you this.”

He held out his hand. A knot of metal
and crystal caught my eye, and I had to trace its joined circles
for a moment before I recognized what it was.

“
Brass knuckles? Really?”
But then I looked closer at the silver rings spiked in crystalline
points. “Wait, are those diamonds?”

The redhead behind Tully smirked as I
gaped, but Hex said dryly, “They are. Diamond cuts through
anything, even ’swang.”

“
Hurts like a bitch,” a
thick-necked guy said.

“
More importantly, it’ll
make your punches more powerful. And . . .” Hex paused to
fit the knuckles over his slender fingers. They had clearly been
made for him. He pushed a smaller diamond on the side of the silver
ring around his forefinger. A slender, three-inch blade flicked out
the opposite end by his pinkie. “It makes for an easy, stealthy
kill.”

“
Wow.” I might have been
drooling. I couldn’t say for sure.

The blade retracted with a hiss, and
he slid the knuckles off and weighed the piece in his hand. “My
father gave this to me when I was thirteen, the hunting age for
us.” He met my eyes. “Now, I’m giving it to you.”

He held out the diamond and silver
knuckles, which caught the dust-laden light of the warehouse and
glittered. I forced myself to look up from the weapon. “Are you
sure?”

He smiled what I imagined was the type
of smile fathers often gave their daughters, one like pride. “I’m
positive.”

My heart stuttered a bit, and a voice
in my head whispered not to trust that swelling sensation pressing
against the backs of my stitches. It was too close to something
good, something too much like love, so I shoved it down.

When I reached out and took the
knuckles, my words came out evenly, almost coldly. “Thank
you.”

They were heavier than I’d thought,
the diamonds even brighter up close. I slid them onto the fingers
of my left hand, moving the cool kiss of silver so it rested
against my knuckles. The rings fit securely enough; I wouldn’t lose
it in a fight. I pressed the diamond by my thumb and the blade
swiped out along the back of my fist.

I looked up at Hex, who was watching
me. “Let’s get to work then.”

I tightened my grip and grinned at him
as the others fanned out around us.

“
Here, you’ll need this.”
I turned in time to catch my whip, which Tully had tossed to me,
taking it from where I’d left my jacket on the railing. I hadn’t
even noticed him moving away.

“
What if I hurt
you?”

The redhead laughed. “If you land a
shot, A.J. has to cut his hair.”

The thick-necked guy scoffed. “I think
the better deal is we get to cut those locks, pretty
boy.”

“
Nobody is landing or
cutting anything,” Tully said. He glanced at Hex. “She’s still
healing. Should go easy today, right?”

Hex cut his gaze to me, his eyes slits
above a smirk that crinkled his cheek. “It’s not like she’ll feel
it.”

Hex lunged.

* * *

My legs felt like overheated rubber as
I tried to haul myself up the stairs. If I could just make it back
to my room and sit under the shower’s cold spray, I might feel
human again. Maybe.

A trickle ran down between my breasts
that felt too thick to be sweat. It seemed I’d proved Tully right
and pulled a stitch somewhere. Not that I didn’t appreciate his
worry, but I hadn’t given him much time to keep admonishing Hex
when his turn came up.

He’d had to focus too much on avoiding
my whip’s metal tip.

I’d landed a blow, so A.J. had to cut
his hair.

The redhead, whose name I’d learned
was Squeak, now sported a busted lip.

I would need to clean the
diamonds on my knuckles.
They probably
have some blood on them
, I thought, a
sloppy grin on my face.

When I managed to reach the hallway, I
picked up my speed. I needed to hurry. Hex had told me to meet him
and the others outside in an hour to hunt the
Manananggal.

To hunt with his pack.

Not even Thad’s Bravo Team got that
privilege. They only supported the pack or followed orders, but
never hunted alongside them.

Hex only gave me the offer after I’d
busted up Squeak’s lip—and probably for taking my punches with
curse words and growls instead of whines and whimpers.

I felt like I could do anything. I
felt strong. Capable. Solid. I hadn’t felt that way in a long time,
and it was on no one’s terms but my own.

Just as I grabbed the doorknob to my
bedroom, it twisted in my loose grip and the door sprung
open.

“
Where the hell—” Luke cut
off when he nearly ran me down. He had an arm wrapped around his
middle, his chest bare and bandaged.

“
Look,” Sunny said,
popping her head around him, “there she is. Totally fine.” She
lowered her voice, her eyes sweeping back into the room. “Now calm
down before you upset Hatter.”

“
I don’t know about fine.
What happened to your eye?” Luke scrutinized me, his eyes sweeping
over every inch of me as Sunny took a few steps back toward Hatter,
who was sitting on the edge of my bed, his eyes cast to the floor,
his lips moving around silent, hurried words.

I wanted to push him back so I could
get to the shower, but the thought of touching him threatened to
take away the brief happiness I felt.

“
I was training with Hex,”
I said when Luke spotted my numerous new bruises. Nothing serious,
but Hex had told the guys not to hold back, though I suspected
Tully had. “Move.”

As soon as I stepped inside, Luke
slammed the door shut and slid the lock home.

I rolled my eyes. “Isn’t that a little
dramatic? Those people out there did save your life last
night.”

“
Oh, really?” Luke crossed
his arms over his chest. Black circles smudged the areas beneath
his eyes, and his collarbones popped out sharply whenever he moved.
“Those same people who waited to save you?”

I bit my tongue to keep it
from saying the bitter, hateful words that wanted to roll off
it.
You couldn’t find me. You couldn’t
save me.
I hated myself for them. I didn’t
feel them. I told myself I didn’t.

“
You’re
bleeding.”

I glanced at Sunny. Her eyes were on
my shirt, but she didn’t move toward me. “Just pulled a stitch, but
they needed to come out anyway.”

She nodded.

I took in her unusual silence, Luke’s
prickliness next to me, and Hatter’s faraway, lost gaze. “What’s
wrong?” I asked, looking between all of them.

“
Why are you training with
him?” Luke asked, catching me off guard.

“
Because I want to
learn.”

“
Ollie.” Sunny fiddled
with the hem of her button-up shirt. “I understand you need to
learn about your mother and Hex might be the easiest way, but we
thought you didn’t trust these people.”

“
I . . .” I had
brought them here because I didn’t trust Thad and the others, but
things were changing. Here, I saw my mother in the concrete floors
scuffed from hundreds of shoes, in the numerous bedrooms open to
anyone who needed a place to rest, in the way the stairs could be
lifted during an attack. For the first time in years, she was all
around me. I hadn’t expected that when I called Sunny.

Never in a million years did I think I
would start to understand the halflings—or Hex.

And possibly myself.

“
Shouldn’t we be heading
back to the university?” Luke asked.

I bristled at the annoyance in his
voice. “To the man who tried to kill me numerous times?”

“
We can deal with Dean,”
he snapped.

“
Has it occurred to you
that I might not want to ever go back to that place?”

“
Come on, Ollie,” Sunny
said. “Don’t you think these people might be clouding your opinion
of the university? There’s a lot to figure out there, but isn’t it
safer there than here?”

“
The Manananggal’s on the
loose.” The words were a weak excuse, and Luke pounced on
them.

“
That thing isn’t our
problem. Let them”—he waved his hand at the door, wincing as he
did—“deal with it.”

“
What if she flew to
Kodiak? Then is she our problem?”

“
It
,” he emphasized, “isn’t in Kodiak.”

“
Hex said—”

“
Hex murders hundreds of
hunters every year. He’s a killer.”

“
Did they deserve it?” A
cold, frosty silence punctuated my words.

“
What?” Luke said,
speaking so quietly I barely caught the word.

“
Hex only hunts by a code
my mother started. He wouldn’t kill hunters who hadn’t slaughtered
innocent ’swangs.”

I watched him wrangle with the words
he wanted to say. He barely managed to fight them down. He wanted
to scoff at the thought of an innocent aswang. The words to say
there was no such thing were right there, battling behind his
teeth. I was going against everything he, and Sunny and Hatter, had
ever believed in. They hadn’t come here to have their minds changed
about the aswangs.

Still, his prejudice punched me in the
gut. “Do you remember your father killing Tully’s family? Were you
there?”

“
Who’s Tully?”

“
Exactly. You don’t even
know. Do you at least know when you murder children, Luke? Does
that matter to you? Or do you just see a ’swang?”

He recoiled at my words and his
nostrils flared. Behind him, Sunny inched toward Hatter, and I knew
I’d gone too far. There were some things you didn’t mention when it
came to war.

“
Max really fucked you up,
didn’t he?” Luke said slowly, lethally. “Do you even know what
you’re saying?”

“
You don’t look so good
yourself. You were taking saliva.” I spat the word. “Really,
Luke?”

“
To
save
you,” he said, fists clenching.
“To
find
you.”

“
Too.
Late.
”

“
We’re going to the other
room,” Sunny said, interrupting us. She had Hatter on his feet.
“Hatter needs to rest.”

“
I’ll help.” Luke went to
his friend’s side and took Hatter’s weight off Sunny. “I think
we’re crowding Ollie here in her room.”

I stepped back as they passed. Only
Sunny shot me a look. I couldn’t quite read the expression on her
face. Something between tired and sad. Defeat, maybe.

I cringed at the thought. I was
screwing up. My bones sang with the failure, but I couldn’t get the
words out to call them back and ask them to stay in my room. Even
though it did feel crowded and I couldn’t sleep, the thought of
being alone terrified me because all I heard in my head was Max.
Max asking me if I loved him. Max asking what was wrong with me.
Max. Max. Max.

I let them go. Sunny softly closed the
door behind her.

I had enough time left for a shower,
but I suddenly felt like the dirt on me couldn’t be washed off.
Instead, I went to my bed and lay down on top of the sheets, my
legs dangling over the side, a hollowness in my stomach.

I woke up hours later, late enough
that the darkness outside my window coated the room in thick
shadows. I turned on the light next to the bed, my eyes blurry with
sleep.

“
Shit,” I mumbled,
scrubbing at my face. I had no clue what time it was, but I knew it
was late enough that everyone was out hunting. The ’swangs had all
changed. The Manananggal was probably out flying around. And I was
missing it.

I wondered if Hex thought I’d flaked
on him and backed out. Why did it matter what he thought? He’d
waited to save me. He’d threatened my friends.

But it mattered. It mattered the same
as how I was in my mother’s bed. It mattered how Tully had stood in
front of the halflings last night during the fight. It all
mattered, now more than ever.

“
Shit. Shit.
Shit
.”

I swung myself upright, my boots
hitting the floor with a thud. My stitches pulled tight, stiff with
blood, but I didn’t bother changing my shirt. I grabbed my mother’s
jacket and headed for the door.