The Darkest Embrace Read online

  Max, soaked to the knees, had tight hold of her wrist, but her boot had become lodged in the space between the rock and one beside it. Her flesh scraped, her bones grinding, when he pulled her. Jessie let out a short scream. Max’s grip slipped from her and he went into the water with a splash.

  “I’m stuck!”

  She could hear the thing now, whatever it was, and there was more than the snap and crack of branches breaking. Now she could hear the whistling grunt of its breathing, too. The thump of something heavy in the dirt prompted her to look back again, but whatever chased them still hadn’t made it around the bend.

  Max knelt in the water, strong fingers working at her boot. He worked steadily, without looking up even as she urged him to hurry. With a sharp yank, Max pulled hard enough for Jessie to get her foot out. Then he had her by the wrist again, his other hand on the small of her back to help her along. And still, Jessie froze, unable to move.

  There was something in the water. Red-and-black checked shirt, denim jeans. And there, deeper in the water, a hint of what might have been long blond hair, tangled in the underwater plants, waving gently in the current.

  “Jessie, c’mon!”

  On the other side of the boulder, Max couldn’t see the horror in the water in front of her. Jessie could only point, shaking. He stopped only long enough to scoop a hand beneath her legs and carry her to the other side of the stream, where he staggered on the slippery bank.

  Jessie’s ankle exploded into fresh agony when she put her feet down to keep him from dropping her, but she bit back a scream. Grimly, she forced herself up the bank, Max at her side. Whatever was behind them must have killed Carrie, that was the only thought Jessie could form, and she wasn’t about to end up like that.

  She ran.

  In another few minutes they reached the cabin’s yard. She was flagging by then, but rallied at the sight of the porch and a door that locked. Max slammed it behind them, then leaned against it, panting, while Jessie stumbled to a kitchen chair and collapsed.

  For a minute or so, she had no breath for words. They were both covered in mud from the knees down, with more splashed on their arms and faces. The ankle she’d caught in the rocks ached, her sock torn in several places. Her ankle was already swelling. The stitch in her side made her sit back and press a hand to it. When she thought about what she’d seen in the water, she wanted to throw up.

  Max twitched aside the curtain on the door to look out. “Nothing’s out there.”

  “What was it?”

  “Not a deer,” he said. “A bear maybe.”

  What she’d seen was nothing like a bear. Or a deer. Jessie hobbled to the sink to get a drink of water, dipping her head to pull it straight from the tap. Mouth dripping but nowhere near calmed, she looked at him.

  “It wasn’t a bear, Max.”

  He looked out the window again before crossing to her. He took her in his arms. She felt safe there, Jessie realized, which was nice but a little naive. He kissed the top of her head.

  “It was Carrie,” she told him. “In the water. Wasn’t it? Something killed Carrie and dumped her there.”

  Max squeezed her and let her go. “It looked like her.”

  Jessie shuddered. “We need to call someone.”

  “No phone.”

  She’d forgotten. “Then we need to get out of here.”

  But when they got to the SUV, it was clear they wouldn’t be going anywhere. All four tires had been slashed, the big vehicle itself settled into the mud left behind by the night’s storm. It was such a cliché, such a scene from every horror movie she’d ever seen, that Jessie could only sag against the vehicle and hang her head.

  “We can’t be more than four miles from the store,” Max said. “You stay here. I’ll go—”

  “No! Are you kidding me? You’re not leaving me here, Max!”

  “You’ll be safe in the house, Jessie.”

  She barked laughter. “You think so? Have you ever watched a scary movie? Don’t you know the first thing that happens when people split up?”

  Incredibly and beautifully, he smiled at her. Then he kissed her, his hand cupping the back of her neck to hold her to him. “I know.”

  “We go together,” she said, already wincing at the pain she anticipated in her ankle. “All the way.”

  Chapter 4

  The storm that had passed long enough for them to enjoy their picnic—at least until they’d been attacked by whatever the hell had come after them from the woods—was back and with a vengeance. The midafternoon sky had gone to twilight, the thickness of the trees further masking any hint of sunlight. Back at the cabin, Max had bound Jessie’s swollen ankle in a tight grip of bandages, but she was still limping. It would have been faster for him to do this alone, but she’d made a good point. He didn’t want to risk anything happening to her if they split up.

  “How much farther?” She wasn’t even out of breath and hadn’t complained, but her face was white with pain he hated himself for being unable to shield her from.

  “Half a mile maybe?” Max paused to look upward at the canopy of leaves and branches overhead. He hefted the hand ax he’d grabbed from the woodpile out back. The weight of it pressed the still-sore wound in his hand, but it was bearable. Jessie carried a rusty rake doubling as a cane. Neither weapon was that great, but both were better than their bare hands in case that thing came after them again.

  “Shit.” Jessie wiped a grimy hand over her forehead, leaving a smear. She leaned on the rake, taking the weight off her foot, and grimaced.

  “Is it bad?” Max indicated her ankle.

  She smiled. “I’ll be okay. Let’s get to the convenience store before the storm hits, though. It looks like it’s going to be worse than last night.”

  It was already worse, something they learned when they rounded the bend in the road and found what was left of the bridge ass-end-up in the ravine. The rickety timbers had cracked in half, dumping most of the bridge and leaving only scraps to show it had been there at all. Max muttered a curse as they eased up to the edge and looked down at the wreckage. The stream that had been little more than a trickle the day before was now a gushing, frothing river. As he watched, it tore away a hunk of the ravine and sent a mudslide skidding down to disappear into the angry water.

  “Stay back,” he warned Jessie, but a sudden clap of thunder stole his words.

  She knew, though. Nodding, she hopped back. The rake dug into the soft earth, gouging holes. “Now what?”

  Lightning lit the sky like an LED lantern, followed moments later by another bang of thunder louder than the first. The light was so bright that Max threw up a hand to cover his eyes, wincing at the afterimages imprinted on the insides of his lids. But only as an automatic response and only for a moment, because what he’d seen illuminated in that few seconds, formerly hidden in the shadows, sent his heart rocketing into his throat.

  “It’s here.”

  Jessie yelped, turning, almost losing her balance on her bad ankle before she caught herself with the rake. “Where?”

  “I saw it in the tree line over there.” Max pointed. Lightning blinded them both again; thunder drowned them out.

  There it was, the thing that had come after them before. Easily seven-feet tall with broad shoulders and long, gangly arms and legs, the thing had a sloping head covered with long, matted hair. The rest of its body looked pale and mottled, with dirt or hair, he couldn’t tell. But its eyes...

  “Oh, God,” Jessie cried. “What the hell’s wrong with its face?”

  The eyes, red and burning, were twice as large as seemed normal for the rest of the face. It was humanoid, but definitely not human. Definitely not a bear. Another crack of lightning turned the thing to blazing white before darkness obscured it once more. So far, it only watched, making no move towar