Just an Old Legend Ch. 10

There was a long black webbed case there beside the pack, a little over two feet long. That itself hadn't caused him to stare so much as the way that she pulled back the top of it and began to strap it onto her back after moving her braid out of the way.

He suddenly knew that there was a fair amount of silver there. He could sense it. It didn't take him long to see that there was a short sword in the case as she strapped it on so that the haft stuck up just above her shoulder before she put the backpack on overtop. By the time that Lia had her GPS turned on and was ready to climb the steps, he was just inside the closed doors of the barn.

He thought about it quickly. If she were here, Elena would scoff at him for being alarmed over nothing. But he'd been on his own here and hadn't survived all of this time by being as stupid as she seemed to think he was. Something was very wrong here to him.

Who carries a silver sword?

He'd never seen one, but there was just no untoward plausible reason to. The woman also exuded confidence by her motions. The way that she moved told him that she was no lost hiker looking to tramp over the island. He wasn't afraid, but he was very curious now that he'd decided what her purpose might be, though it made no sense to him.

It was inexplicable, but to him it looked as though he was about to be hunted.

It had happened before, and other than the inconvenience, it wasn't that much of an event unless somebody got stupid. But all of the other times, the hunters were after natural game and tended to get a little bit trigger-happy. For the most part, they were easy to elude. But this one looked to him as though she knew exactly what kind of game she was after with that sword.

He latched the door, and snatched up the old shotgun. There had never been any glass windows installed in the old barn - he'd never seen the need and hadn't had money for that anyway back then. There were just neat, framed openings with shutters. With quick, silent motions, he opened the shutters to the windows on the side where he could see the house. There was only one window on the other side, and he left this unlatched, but closed. He turned to watch her approach, standing well back in the shadows.

Lia walked up the worn path slowly as she looked around. She was really here to meet the writer if possible. If the subject of the book was really here, she needed to be sure that he was sane and had truly adjusted to life here. The book - if it was to be believed - had indicated this, but in her occupation, one just never knew and it paid to be as prepared as possible. The blades had been a last-minute order to a blademaker that she knew and trusted on this side of the ocean, and he'd had them couriered to the address that she'd given him the second that she was in her motel room. He was a small, one-man show, but he was one of the best, and always kept certain items in stock for her call. He charged her a bucketful of money every time, but she was always pleased and said so.

The smells that came to her nose were nothing much out of the ordinary, and the cold temperature and wind weren't helping. She was trying to get a sense of occupation. She reasoned that she ought to be able to pick up the scent of the woman who lived here. What she got was nothing definitive or recent. Her ears picked up rustling leaves now and then, but it was the time of year for the deciduous trees to shed, so that was another nothing to her, unless something disturbed them while the wind was down momentarily.

She came to a bend in the path and slowed even more. She could see that the house was just around it, so she stepped into the edge of the woods and walked quietly to where she could observe for a while.

The building looked to be built at least half on rock, the front half on pilings, so anyone walking inside ought to transmit at least a little sound. There was no apparent activity, and nothing coming from the chimney. She found that a little odd. On an island like this, and this far back from shore, it was unlikely to be heated with propane or oil. The piles of firewood there told her that it had to be heated with wood and she was looking at a woodstove chimney, so that made sense, but why not use it today when it was cold enough to warrant it?

She saw no activity, and heard nothing. The aluminum boat tied up at the dock had contained quite a lot of the brightly-colored leaves that the trees were now dumping in it, so that told her that it likely hadn't been used for a time. Why not? Putting that together with what she now saw and the lack of recent human smells, she wondered about it. The book had led her to believe that the woman in it lived on the island. The details in the book jingled too many bells to be the likely product of complete fantasy to her mind.

It pointed to two possibilities - if the book hadn't been a total fabrication.

Either the woman was not now living here because she'd left for the winter, or she wasn't living here because she wasn't alive.

Lia looked around for a way to approach the building under some cover, but saw that it wasn't possible, so she stepped out of the woods and back onto the path. She needed a better picture, and her nose was the tool for that. It couldn't be helped.

He saw her walk into sight far too cautiously to be a misdirected tourist, hiker, or sightseer. Every alarm bell in his brain began to clang when she got to the path and did something that he'd never seen even a hunter do here. She slowly began to crouch down and placed her hands on the path. With a look around, she turned back to the house and sank even farther down.

The hair on the back of his neck began to rise as he watched her bring her pretty nose to the ground and sniff.

He tried to remember the last time that he'd used the path. More than ten days came to his mind, and it had rained since. He smiled at that, but knew that she'd find something pretty soon. He knew that he would if it were him out there.

Lia still got nothing recent from the path and stood up quickly to walk up and climb the steps. She stood at the door and knocked a couple of times quietly. She called Helen's name cautiously once and he heard that, wondering.

Lia thought about picking the lock, but decided against it. Her nose on the door told her that no one had been here lately either. There was a barely discernible smell of two individuals here, but they were old scents.

He liked the fact that he had some advantages here on his home field, but the fact that at this latitude, the season and time of day placed her face in shadow bothered him a little. He wanted to at least get a clear look at her face. She walked down the steps without a sound, her back to him now. He noted that. Anyone else would have just walked down, but he'd seen her go carefully. His curiosity was piqued now.

He got something of an answer when she stepped under the deck at the corner of the building and peered carefully around the corner. She didn't know it, but he had a perfect view of her next actions as she now definitely picked up his scent from the ground there.

Lia froze as the receptors in her nose went wild. So the place wasn't deserted after all. She now knew that he was here somewhere, and that he wasn't human.

She stood up and thought it over. She'd come with a very faint hope, but was prepared for the worst. This one might not be the individual that she had in mind. He could be another that had been turned long ago since. Had he killed the writer? Had the fool learned too late that she'd been living with a bomb all of this time? She obviously couldn't be sure of that, but...

She looked around, and tried to put herself in his place. She felt certain of one thing if it were her who lived on this island alone.

She'd be looking at this spot right now and watching.

Her nose had informed her that her quarry was definitely male. It called a specific set of details to her mind. There were strengths which each gender possessed as advantages.

And, she smirked to herself, there were weaknesses to be exploited for the very same reasons.

Just like humans, werewolf males were stronger, given two equally-sized individuals of either gender. That was just the way of it. Females were usually, though not always craftier. Since she hadn't found any tracks yet, she didn't know how large he might be, but she'd been at this game for over half a century now. She killed at minimum, one renegade per year, but usually had better years. She'd killed well over a hundred now, and this year looked like it was going to be a banner year for her record. She pushed a sad possibility out of her mind. She knew the odds.

This might just turn out to be a regular business trip for her after all.

Lia was aware of an old ploy that female assassins had always used to their advantage. She'd used it herself on occasion. You could always get at least a split-second of hesitation out of almost any male opponent if you dangled some femininity before them.

For her, that split-second was plenty.

There was no one around here anyway, other than the two of them. She might as well enjoy not being encumbered with noisy clothing and hunt like it was life or death, since that was pretty much what it was starting to look like it could come down to here, though not for her. She set down her pack.

He may as well get a look at who he was facing, she thought, as she removed her sunglasses.

His eyes opened wide while he watched her shed her human clothing and stand there as a proud huntress on two legs as her black fur came in. A she-wolf with a long braid.

Well it was different, he mused.

He'd been bothered about that braid somehow, but now saw that his opponent was many things besides a beautiful human woman.

She was just like him.

He smiled to himself as he shook off the distraction. He knew exactly what she was doing and why. He almost chuckled out loud as he realized that it was working, too.

Well, he thought, if this was how the match was to be played, he'd better retain the same edge. He set down the gun and took off the clothing that would place him at a disadvantage now. When he picked the shotgun up again, he drew a deep breath and smiled.

The day was looking far better to him now that he had something to hunt as well.