Metally Fatigued (The Hunter Vampire Chronicles Book 1) by Juliet Boyd

Author:Juliet Boyd [Boyd, Juliet]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2017-04-10T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

Hour after hour they spent walking the fields again the following night. If the metal-eating creature had any sense, it would’ve been long gone. If they’d had any sense, they would’ve let it and not put themselves through mind-numbing drudge. To Rag’s dismay, they did eventually find the trail. It wasn’t through sound, there were way too many tiny creatures beneath the ground to be sure of anything at all. It was the faint metallic scent, where it had secreted who-knew-what along the way. Once they’d found that, it wasn’t difficult to follow. It took them all around in weaves and circles, as if it were trying to put them off. It nearly did. They had to split up and mark where track-backs had been performed so they didn’t get confused, but the route did straighten out again, with a definite path, in a definite direction. All the way back to the barn.

“You have to be kidding me,” he said. “All that and it was right under our noses the whole time?” He wasn’t going for a pun.

“It’s persistent, I’ll give it that,” Ellie said.

“Probably the only easy form of food nearby,” Bones added.

Rag stamped his foot. “I knew it was in that tractor.”

Flynn jostled past. “We should just incinerate the thing. That’ll get rid of it.”

Ellie grabbed Flynn’s shoulder. “You’ll do no such thing.”

For once, Rag agreed. “If we do that, we won’t have any evidence for the Overlord. We can’t incinerate it. Kill it, yes, but not that.”

“We are not killing it, either,” Ellie said.

It was worth a try.

Before they were even inside, Flynn had reactivated the bubbles around the equipment. He reckoned she must have some kind of spell memory, a bit like muscle memory. She didn’t speak, just went and sat down like she had before, her hands clamped around her head.

“We need a bottom to the barriers,” he said, “We don’t want it playing that same trick again.”

“I know,” she replied through gritted teeth.

That was that sorted, then.

“Now what?” he asked.

No one replied. That was useful. Wait until it ran out of food, he supposed. It could be a long wait. Long everything, these days.

###

Ellie pointed. “There.”

She wasn’t sure what it was she’d seen, but something had moved, and if it had moved, it had to be alive. There was no breeze inside the bubbles. Not even a stalk of hay would have reason to move if not propelled by something.

The three of them stared at the spot, waiting for the next indication of life.

“I don’t suppose there could be more than one,” Rag said, seemingly absently.

She ignored him. She didn’t even want to think about that possibility.

“They’re probably breeding like rabbits,” Flynn mumbled from where she sat. “That’d be just our luck. Millions of tiny little metal-eating monsters.”

The thought made Ellie shudder. It was a possibility. The Internet had not borne the fruit of copious information that she’d hoped for.

“Maybe they’ll start eating themselves,” Bones said, a grin across his face. None of them were in the mood for jokes.

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