On the Hunt by Gena Showalter

Author:Gena Showalter
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2010-11-30T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Two

When a dark, man-shaped shadow materialized on the jungle pathway up ahead, JT went for his guns.

The shadow spread its arms wide. “Chill, dude. It’s Rez.”

Scowling, JT rammed the double-barrel back into its scabbard. He was so strung out from three days of ’zotz hunting that he almost couldn’t tell friend from foe anymore. Hell, the jungle itself had even become an enemy, crowding too close and putting shadows where there shouldn’t be any, like the plants themselves were being energized by the coming equinox.

Just one more day. If he and the villagers could make it through tomorrow night, they would be okay for another few months. He hoped.

“Don’t sneak up on me like that. I’d hate to accidentally put a hole in you.” Hello, understatement. Rez was his closest ally among the locals, one of the few who really knew what was going on.

The village elder was in his late fifties, which was old for the region, but he wore his jade-loaded pistols easily as he stalked toward JT, his expression thunderous. “Where the hell have you been?”

Knowing the autopistols, jade-laced ammo, and pump-actions scabbarded crosswise over his back would’ve clued the other man that he’d been out hunting, JT tensed. “Why? What happened?”

“Your girlfriend found a bat temple two days ago. Which you would’ve known if you’d been watching her like you said you would.”

“She’s not—” JT began, then broke off as his blood iced. “She what?”

No. Impossible. She couldn’t have. In the months she’d been charting the surrounding forest, she had found only three clusters of carved pillars and a small scattering of tumbled stone foundations. There was no way—the gods weren’t cruel enough—that she had found a damned temple in the three days he’d been gone.

But Rez wasn’t big on jokes, and his dark eyes were deadly serious.

JT’s gut headed for his toes on a down elevator to hell. Natalie. “Why didn’t you fucking call me?”

“The satellite signals are all screwed up. Something to do with sunspots.”

Or the equinox. The barrier was getting more and more whacked as the end-time approached. And Natalie was in the thick of it, stirring things up with the take-no-prisoners, all-or-nothing enthusiasm that lit her like a beacon.

JT cursed himself. Rez was right—he should have been there. He was the one who had convinced the village council to let her team stay. But there was no point in looking back. They needed to deal with the problem in front of them, do some damage control. “Even if she found something, we should be okay for this cycle. I took out another pair of the tatter-winged bastards late this morning.”

Rez shook his head. “We lost a dozen goats an hour ago.”

“You—” Fuck. That meant there was another pair of demon bats out there.

Which didn’t compute—they’d never had two pairs come through together. Then again, they’d never had more than six per quarter, and his tally was already up to eight. He didn’t know if the increase was because of Natalie’s discovery, or because they were getting closer to the end date.

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