The Damned by Nancy Holder, Debbie Viguié Page B

swore again. Not so much because he was tired, but because he didn’t want Eriko to have to exert herself. But he knew if he said that, she’d probably kick him.
    “Then let’s go,” Jamie said.
    Jamie knows , Eriko thought. She fought not to limp as they threaded their way through dense, overgrown forests. Time and again she caught her boot on thick roots, wrenching her bones.
    He couldn’t know exactly what was wrong with her—she’d done her best to hide it—but he still knew that something was bothering her. On the night of their graduation from the academy, after Father Juan had selected her, Eriko, to become the Hunter, the priest had given her a cup of sacred elixir distilled from herbs so rare and precious that he could only make one dose a year. That year he had chosen to give it to her.
    Eriko had loved her enhanced abilities, even though she wasn’t positive she deserved them. She was as strong as Antonio and as fleet-footed as Holgar on his wolf nights. But both their bodies could accommodate their physiological differences. Hers could not. It was literally being torn apart, and she didn’t know how much longer she could stand it.
    I should have told Father Juan , she thought, as Jamie glanced over his shoulder at her. She was bringing up the rear in case the vamps were shadowing them, preparing to launch a surprise attack. But she’d been afraid that if she had told their master, he would have made her stay behind in Salamanca. It was bad enough that Antonio and Father Juan had remained in Spain. From what she had heard about this Dantalion, they needed all their fighting power.
    Taamir had handed out stakes, holy water, and Uzis from a cache near the truck, and taught them how to scan their surroundings by sighting down the barrel. They all knew how to do that already, but Jenn told them to use the opportunity to brush up. Eriko hated firearms. They’d lost Lucky, one of Marc Dupree’s freedom fighters, to friendly fire in New Orleans.
    Catching her lower lip between her teeth, she moved through a particularly bad rush of pain in her upper thighs. Holgar glanced over at her, frowning slightly. He had a phenomenal sense of smell, and he could detect changes in body chemistry. He probably knew she was hurting, but he didn’t say a word. Holgar was discreet. During their training at the academy he’d concealed Antonio’s identity from them, as well as his own. Maybe she should talk to him. He would understand why she was hiding it. And he would honor her wish to keep it a secret.
    But oh , if only the pain would go away.
    In a haze of hurt she followed Jamie, glancing repeatedly over her shoulders, then up into the snow-sprinkled trees. Taamir whistled low like an owl. It was answered.
    Then an entire section of foliage was pushed out of their way, revealing a guy dressed in white camouflage, his left arm in a sling, arranging what looked to be field rations on some metal plates. Short, curly brown hair framed an angular face with a freckled nose and large brown eyes. His lips were full, and his cheeks and chin were bushy with brown beard. There was something about him that Eriko liked very much, but she couldn’t say what it was. Confidence, poise.
    “Hello,” Jenn greeted him.
    We come in peace for all mankind , Eriko finished, feeling a tiny bubble of humor escape the pressure cooker of her anxiety. Skye had told her all about Holgar’s spy code in Toulouse. Eriko, only sixteen, had been a little bit goofy like that before her world had ended.
    “I am Noah Geller, Hunter,” he said to Jenn. He looked older than the rest of them, maybe mid to late twenties. He bowed his head. “Thank you so much for coming.”
    “I’m our leader, but Eriko is our Hunter,” Jenn replied, and she leaned slightly toward him, as if she, too, was affected by his charisma.
    “Hello,” he said to Eriko. She bowed, but stiffly, because of the pain.
    Noah and Taamir passed out the rations. It was some sort of