James Axler – Demons of Eden

He begin a shambling run, but he had no idea in which direction Sisoka or Blood-sniffer had gone. He bumped into Krysty. The titian-haired beauty had her Smith amp; Wesson revolver in hand and wore an anxious expression on her face.

“Are you all right?” she asked. “What the hell is going on?” She grasped his arm to examine the lacerations.

“The girl!” Ryan snarled, his daze dissolving in his anger. “Where is she?”

Krysty gestured to the northeast. Ryan got a shadowy glimpse of a horse and rider and a loping wolf racing past the boneyard and toward the bluffs beyond in the uncertain starlight.

“Who was she?” Krysty demanded, trying to get a better look at his fang-slashed forearm, but he wrenched it away.

“I don’t know. She spoke to that wolf and it attacked me. I think she told it to kill me.”

“Why?”

Ryan moved rapidly up the street of Amicus. “Mebbe Joe can make an educated guess.”

They found Joe at the corral, overseeing the selection and hobbling of their mounts. He stood tensely, his figure telegraphing impatience. Jak and Doc were watching the procedure from the split-rail fence.

Ryan strode up to him, his question direct and flat. “Who is Sisoka?”

Joe wheeled like a bee-stung panther, his eyes narrowed. “How do you know her?”

“She introduced herself to me right before she sicced her pet wolf on my ass. She comes from Ti-Ra’-Wa, too, doesn’t she?”

Joe, staring past Krysty and Ryan, spoke quietly between gritted teeth. “Sisoka here. And We’-mna. They followed me, spied on me.”

Doc and Jak moved closer to hear the exchange.

“Who the fuck is she?” Ryan rasped. His arm was throbbing and burning, blood streaming from the cuts to splatter on the ground.

Joe answered with a brooding reluctance. “She is the niece of Pizi, chief of the Akicita Sunkamitu Tanka.”

“I never heard of that tribe,” Ryan snapped.

“It is not a tribe, it is a warrior society. It means the Wolf Soldiers. They are enemies of my people.”

“And who are your people, exactly?”

“Kiciyuha Makoholoka.”

Ryan stared at him unblinkingly, waiting.

Joe said tightly, “Loosely translated, it means the Cavern Keepers. The Wolf Soldiers are striking at us here. They intend to prevent us from reaching Ti-Ra-‘Wa. We must go swiftly if you are to help me and win your gold.”

“Gold is seeming less alluring at this juncture,” Doc said, “especially if we must contend with a witch-woman and her animal familiar.”

Ryan was angry, mainly because he was a little frightened of the girl and the wolf.

And the dream.

As if sensing his emotions, Joe said softly, “You are Ochinee, the one-eyed warrior who brought much sorrow to the half men in the Black Hills. Surely you are not afraid? Surely you will not renege on your word?”

Ryan resisted the urge to barrel stroke the Lakota across the face with his blaster. Instead, he made a deliberately careful show of leathering it.

“All will become clear to you in time,” Joe murmured. “Until then, know thisyou will be fighting to heal the wounds of Grandmother Earth.”

Ryan’s body twitched, as if someone had tapped him hard on the shoulder. He quickly tried to compose himself, but he knew Krysty had noted his reaction.

Joe continued talking smoothly. “I may sound a bit melodramatic, but this is not the time or the place to explain further. Sisoka may have other spies here.”

Jak pointed to a nearby dog who sat licking its privates. “Him?”

Ignoring the sarcastic query, Joe said, “You have my word, Ochinee.”

“All right,” Ryan replied. “That’ll have to do at least for right now.”

Ryan, Krysty, Doc and Jak returned to the hostel and found Mildred and J.B. waiting for them in the common room. At the sight of blood on Ryan’s arm, Mildred bustled about treating the wounds with the only materials at hand. As she cleaned and disinfected the lacerations with a dash of White Mule, Ryan told them the story and what Sisoka had said.

“There’s something else,” Krysty said. “Something Joe said bothered you.”

Ryan sighed and nodded. He took a swig of the corn liquor, propping the jug on his forearm and tipping the neck toward his mouth. He shuddered. “Something Sisoka said bothered me more.”