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| Link | Quote | Stars | Tags | Author |
| 8133528 | I'm sorry," he said. "About what?" "Yesterday. I made that bone-headed comment about werewolves, and you decided not to tell me yet." "No, that's not--" "Liar. It was a dumb thing to say." "Um, no, I'm pretty sure that changing into an animal does qualify as a crazy idea." "Sure, but in a crazy cool way. I'm jealous. What do I get? Some kind of sonic boom shout? As superpowers go, very lame." | Kelley Armstrong | ||
| 66589fb | The dreams started a few months ago," he said. "Dreams of fields. Fields of grapes and olives, which is weird enough. I'm not even sure if I knew how olives grow, but in the dream, I knew that's what they were. I--" "Daniel?" Sam's voice. We could hear all three of them tramping through the bushes. Kenjii got up, growling. "You tell them, girl," Daniel muttered. "No rest for the weary." "No," I said. "No rest for the endangered." | Kelley Armstrong | ||
| 9faaa6c | Okay, it's freaking amazing that Nic is alive. I have no idea whether we should look for her or not, but I'm pretty sure we need to discuss a few other things. Like what the hell happened to Maya back there." "She's a shape-shifter," Daniel said. "Eventually she's going to be able to turn into a cougar. Sam and I? We're demon-hunters." Corey studied Daniel's face, then mine. "This is going to be a long talk, isn't it?" he said at last. "Yep.. | Kelley Armstrong | ||
| 428b5a4 | She's a shape-shifter," Daniel said. "Eventually she's going to be able to turn into a cougar. Sam and I? We're demon-hunters." Corey studied Daniel's face, then mine. "This is going to be a long talk, isn't it?" he said at last." | Kelley Armstrong | ||
| 9987ad0 | Corey kept saying, "Are you sure?" tentatively, as if he didn't want to insult our intelligence, but he couldn't help thinking there had to be a logical explanation. Hayley just stared at me. When I finally stopped talking, she said, "Are you crazy?" "Hey!" Sam said. "No, seriously. You think you're going to change into a cougar? Maybe in thirty years you'll start thinking college boys are kinda hot, but that's the only sort of cougar you c.. | Kelley Armstrong | ||
| c33947f | When I finally stopped talking, she said, "Are you crazy?" "Hey!" Sam said. "No, seriously. You think you're going to change into a cougar? Maybe in thirty years you'll start thinking college boys are kinda hot, but that's the only sort of cougar you can turn into, Maya. Anything else is nuts." | Kelley Armstrong | ||
| f4edfbb | Uh, Maya?" Corey said behind me. "Maybe...this isn't such a good idea." I turned. The others were ten feet back, barely inside the tree line. Nicole and Hayley had moved closer to Corey. Sam hung back, looking into the woods as if I was asking her to jump off a cliff. "The fog's gone in here," I said. "It was marine fog. It doesn't penetrate the forest." "Yeah," Corey said. "I'm thinking the fog's not such a problem. It's very...dark. We do.. | Kelley Armstrong | ||
| 7a4e91d | We told them everything--well, almost everything. I was saving the stuff I'd found out at the cabin. This was enough for now. Too much actually. Despite having seen our powers in action--my near-transformation and Daniel knocking out the pilot--Corey and Hayley couldn't seem to process it. Corey kept saying, "Are you sure?" tentatively, as if he didn't want to insult our intelligence, but he couldn't help thinking there had to be a logical .. | Kelley Armstrong | ||
| ff0b7c0 | Does medical research explain why Rafe thought he was a skin-walker, too, when he'd never even been to the clinic?" "I...I don't know." Hayley squared her shoulders. "No one ever saw Rafe do anything magical. He just he was one of these skin-walkers. That's from your religion or whatever, right?" "My religion?" I said. "The stuff you people believe in." "You people?" Corey said. "Holy hell, Hayley. Did you really just say that?" She went .. | Kelley Armstrong | ||
| 669b5a8 | I don't have the same symptoms as you guys," he finally said. "But I know you think I'm something, too. Something supernatural." "There were two other terms on that list," Daiel said. " and ." "Which are...?" "I have no idea." | Kelley Armstrong | ||
| 7c19367 | He was looking for something in Salmon Creek. Something he really needed to find, to help his sister. He didn't mean to hurt anyone." Not Hayley and the other girls he'd chased and cut loose. Not me, the one he'd finally caught, only to admit he'd pursued me for a reason. I understood that now. I wished I could have understood it then. I wished I could have said something in that last moment, before he let go. He'd told me it was okay. His.. | Kelley Armstrong | ||
| b2bbbd9 | I seemed to be establishing a pattern here. Muster my strength and charge forward. Collapse in a puddle of grief and guilt. Charge forward. Collapse again. I said as much to Daniel and the others chimed in, making mock bets on who would spend the most time in therapy after this, and whether we could get group discounts. | Kelley Armstrong | ||
| c3580b5 | You can do this, Sam," Daniel said. "You know you can." He kept reassuring her as I worked on the radio. Why wasn't anyone answering? The pilot had been talking to someone just before he collapsed. Or had he? Even if he had, I realized it was probably whoever he worked for. Whoever told him to drug the mayor and fly us off course. And who was that? Who do that? The same people who'd chased us through the blazing woods? "You're doing great.. | Kelley Armstrong | ||
| 8eb790d | When I could finally speak, I twisted to face Daniel and said, "It's my fault Rafe's dead." "No, it isn't," he said fiercely. "I'm the one who knocked out the pilot." | Kelley Armstrong | ||
| 364543e | The first people who come for us will likely be the kidnappers. It'd be safer to get to a phone and call our parents." Everyone looked around. The mainland was a dark blob on the eastern horizon. To the west was Vancouver Island. About a kilometer of water separated the two. "Umm..." Corey began. "Not to question your judgment, buddy, but that's a bit of a swim. The water's damned cold. I bashed my knee good in the crash, and I'm not the on.. | Kelley Armstrong | ||
| 350ecb3 | Maybe there's something out there. Giant eels or whatever." "Giant eels?" Corey let out a whoop of a laugh, too loud and too long. Desperate to cast off the fear and unease and find his old self again. "Hey, I'm not the moron who was worried about great white sharks," said Sam. "Um, that was Nic." "It doesn't matter what happened," Daniel said, "only that no one was hurt." He looked at me, then Nicole. "You're both okay, right? Well, I mean.. | Kelley Armstrong | ||
| c37ac97 | Maybe there's something out there. Giant eels or whatever." "Giant eels?" Corey let out a whoop of a laugh, too loud and too long. Desperate to cast off the fear and unease and find his old self again. "Hey, I'm not the moron who was worried about great white sharks," said Sam. "Um, that was Nic." | Kelley Armstrong | ||
| 6c0cd35 | The fog's gone in here," I said. "It was marine fog. It doesn't penetrate the forest." "Yeah," Corey said. "I'm thinking the fog's not such a problem. It's very...dark. We don't know what's in there." "Yeah, we do," Sam said. "Bears, cougars, wolves..." "None of which are nocturnal," I said. Actually, they were crepuscular, which meant they were most active at twilight--both dawn and dusk. In others words, right about now. But I wasn't tell.. | Kelley Armstrong | ||
| 05855b2 | I'm not seeing spooky," I said. "Dark, yes, but what's spooky about it?" "What's spooky?" Sam muttered. Hayley pointed. "You can't tell me that isn't creepy." I followed her finger to see branches draped in elegant, pale-green Spanish moss. "That? Seriously? It's moss, Hayley, not an alien lifeform. We just escaped a helicopter crash and a death brush with something in the water. was scary. This is the forest. This is where we're going .. | Kelley Armstrong | ||
| d8039b9 | Figures," Corey muttered. "Survive a forest fire, helicopter crash, and killer eels, only to slip on a rock." "That's what you get for trying to take charge," Hayley said. "No kidding." | Kelley Armstrong | ||
| 0095f36 | I stayed up there for about ten minutes, straining for any sign of light, even the flicker of headlights on a distant road. Then I climbed back down. "It's dark," I said, after I leaped to the ground. "Um, yeah," Sam said. "It's night. How the hell you expected to see anything--" She stopped as she realized what I was really saying. "Oh." | Kelley Armstrong | ||
| 8d14e94 | Plenty of dead vegetation had blown in and dried out, and Daniel managed to knock rocks together, get a spark, and light a tiny blaze. Considering I'd escaped a raging forest fire earlier that day, I was good with tiny. | Kelley Armstrong | ||
| 4ac3d68 | Mr. Tillson?" I said, shaking him harder. Daniel undid his belt. Sam did, too, getting up and walking forward, hunched, as she stepped over Rafe. "Okay, that's enough!" the pilot barked. "In your seats, belts on. Everyone!" "Or what?" Sam said. "You'll pull over and make us walk the rest of the way?" | Kelley Armstrong | ||
| 3e7d4fd | Maya can help," Nicole said when the pilot tried sending me back to my seat. "She knows first aid. She runs a hospital." "For ," Hayley said. Corey told her to shut up, but she had a point. My dad was the local park ranger, and I had a rehabilitation shed for nursing injured animals back to health. I did know first aid, though, and the basics of dealing with a heart attack victim. Step one: call a doctor. Kind of tough, under the circumsta.. | Kelley Armstrong | ||
| 6ac32e4 | Maya can help," Nicole said when the pilot tried sending me back to my seat. "She knows first aid. She runs a hospital." "For ," Hayley said. Corey told her to shut up, but she had a point. My dad was the local park ranger, and I had a rehabilitation shed for nursing injured animals back to health. I did know first aid, though, and the basics of dealing with a heart attack victim. Step one: call a doctor. Kind of tough, under the circumsta.. | Kelley Armstrong | ||
| 1bfdbb5 | We had to get him to a doctor and, until then, I could only presume it was heart failure and perform CPR if he stopped breathing. I unbuttoned the mayor's shirt. When Nicole inched forward, the pilot snapped at her, and Corey told him to go to hell, which really didn't help matters. | Kelley Armstrong | ||
| 06b532e | We need to get his jacket off," I said. As Daniel helped me get the mayor out of it, the pilot yelled, "Whoa! Hold on! Back in your seats. We'll be landing in a few minutes." Fortunately, as long as he was flying the helicopter, all the pilot could do was yell. And if there are teenagers who actually respond to adults shouting at them, I've never met one." | Kelley Armstrong | ||
| 4007b52 | Wake him up!" Hayley shouted. "Someone wake him up!" Daniel and I shook the pilot. The helicopter dropped a couple of feet and we stumbled. Corey ran over. "Help me get him out!" he shouted to Daniel as he grabbed the front of the pilot's jacket. "I can fly it." "Based on what?" Sam appeared at his side. "Video games?" Corey scowled. "You got a better idea?" | Kelley Armstrong | ||
| a67363a | SOS!" I said. "Helicopter out of Salmon Creek. Pilot unconscious. Repeat, helicopter pilot unconscious." I stopped transmitting and listened. Static. "SOS!" I said. "Emergency situation. Helicopter over Vancouver Island. Pilot unconscious. Repeat, pilot !" The helicopter dropped again. Corey bent to look at the control panel. "You need to--" "I'm working on it!" Sam snarled. "Here, let me--" I didn't see what Corey did, but the helicopter .. | Kelley Armstrong | ||
| 2e10f23 | I didn't think. I shoved Kenjii into the safe nook between the front seats and scrambled toward the door as the helicopter jolted again, righting itself. Daniel lunged for me and missed. Wind rushed in through the open door. I could barely breathe, barely see. Then I saw Rafe's hands gripping the bottom frame. Rafe's hands from the bottom of the door. I dropped and grabbed his wrists just as he lost his grip. As he fell, I shot forward. I.. | Kelley Armstrong | ||
| 91c7998 | Nicole was trying to rouse her dad. Hayley was doing the same with the pilot. I took the headset and got on the radio again. No one was responding. So either we tried to land or we kept flying until Sam lost control and we plunged into the strait. | Kelley Armstrong | ||
| acc65f0 | It doesn't seem real. The fire. The people in the forest. The helicopter crash. Mayor Tillson. Rafe." I looked up at him again. "It can't be real. I'm asleep. It's a nightmare. Tell me it is." He hugged me so tight my ribs protested. "I wish I could." His voice cracked and I hugged him back, as hard as I could. Someone cleared his throat behind us. It was Corey. He crouched and said, in a low voice, "I know this is a bad time, guys. I'm rea.. | Kelley Armstrong | ||
| 61862f0 | So in sedating him, they were getting rid of our chaperone," I said. "They wanted one of us." I thought of the list Daniel had found, with the word on it, and I thought of the man in the woods, who'd called me by name. So I seemed to be the one they wanted. But when I glanced up, Sam looked like a cartoon character with a "Who me?" bubble over her head." | Kelley Armstrong | ||
| 4b5feb9 | If we light a fire, someone out boating might see us." "That's a good idea," Sam said. "Or it would be. If we had matches to light a fire. Or if anyone was actually out boating." "Why don't we just find a place to hide?" Hayley said. "That way, when someone does come, we can see if it's a real rescue or not." "How the hell are you going to tell the difference?" Sam said. "Ask them?" | Kelley Armstrong | ||
| f7f8823 | The fog's gone in here," I said. "It was marine fog. It doesn't penetrate the forest." "Yeah," Corey said. "I'm thinking the fog's not such a problem. It's very...dark. We don't know what's in there." "Yeah, we do," Sam said. "Bears, cougars, wolves..." | Kelley Armstrong | ||
| d907c15 | I'm not seeing spooky," I said. "Dark, yes, but what's spooky about it?" "What's spooky?" Sam muttered. Hayley pointed. "You can't tell me that isn't creepy." I followed her finger to see branches draped in elegant, pale-green Spanish moss. "That? Seriously? It's moss, Hayley, not an alien lifeform." | Kelley Armstrong | ||
| 74bbfdb | Figures," Corey muttered. "Survive a forest fire, helicopter crash, and killer eels, only to slip on a rock." | Kelley Armstrong | ||
| b1293db | Getting to a higher spot to look around is a good idea," I said after we sat him down. "We'll find a tree while you rest--" "Whoa, wait." Corey started struggling to his feet. "I'm okay. I'll be slow, but I can move." "He doesn't want to be alone," Hayley said. "You know how he is. Leave him alone and he discovers he's not as much fun as he thinks he is." | Kelley Armstrong | ||
| f860fc4 | Getting to a higher spot to look around is a good idea," I said after we sat him down. "We'll find a tree while you rest--" "Whoa, wait." Corey started struggling to his feet. "I'm okay. I'll be slow, but I can move." "He doesn't want to be alone," Hayley said. "You know how he is. Leave him alone and he discovers he's not as much fun as he thinks he is." Corey shot her the finger. She was right, though--Corey really wasn't one for enjoying.. | Kelley Armstrong | ||
| d8f66f1 | I don't know what to think," he interrupted. "What happened in the forest, when I yelled at that guy...I thought I'd hit him without realizing it. I was mad enough, seeing him pointing that gun at you. But when it happened again on the helicopter, with the pilot, I knew I'd done something. I just didn't know what." After a few more steps, I opened my mouth, but again he got there first. "I think...I think Sam might be onto something. Everyt.. | Kelley Armstrong | ||
| 455488d | I don't believe the parts about demons and all that, but I can see maybe having some power to sense bad vibes in people. I mean, it's not like she's saying I'm a vampire or a werewolf. That would be crazy. This is just a little weird." Not, it wasn't like she'd said he was a werewolf. It wasn't like she'd said he could change into an animal. That would be crazy. I shut my mouth and carried on in silence." | Kelley Armstrong | ||
| 15ebbba | A distant splash told us someone had gone in the water. Retrieving the bodies? Removing identifying parts from the helicopter? It sounded far-fetched, but if you kidnapped kids in a helicopter that crashed, you didn't want local fishermen finding the wreckage. | Kelley Armstrong | ||
| de79bab | I shimmied up a tree and waited for her to pass my way. But once she got close enough for me to see her through the branches, she sat down to rest. When she didn't come closer, I started crawling along a branch, planning to cross to the next tree. She started to look up, then caught herself, waited a moment, gave a loud sigh and slumped back against the trunk, giving her an excuse to look up. I waited until she looked up, then bent to catc.. | Kelley Armstrong | ||
| 94bc54b | She picked up a stick and began idling poking around a patch of bare earth. Then she wrote "Don't be stupid." She erased it, doodled a bit, then wrote, "I'm fine." I hesitated, but she was right. It was a trap and my chances of foiling it were slim to none. If I got caught, could I trust Daniel not to come after me? No. Could I trust Corey and Sam to make it to safety alone? No." | Kelley Armstrong |