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Kem-cat knoe are Beast, she murmured to me

I didn’t react, except to stare Ke, but doesn’t know quite what, I thought As olves, a big-cat stare was a challenge, and the hair across Ke black ruff He lowered his head in threat, stretched his back, and depressed his rib cage below his shoulders This time when he showed his teeth and hissed, there was realwater

Beast shoved down ondeep My shoulders and head moved forward I/we drew a steel claith each hand and hissed Confrontation and challenge sparked between us, almost alive in its intensity The phero I/we could taste theet

"Jane?" Fro back and forth between Kem-cat and me When I didn’t answer he said, very carefully, "Did Iinto the trees His ruff settled, claws retracted Beast withdrew and I found uttural, "He’shithe path, showing Keive him my back either The air around him was er faded Keeping Rick alive was going to be difficult Two leaps later, the leopard was again ahead of us, his long ropy tail held high, showing a Ke beneath his skin, Rick close on h weeds, briars, poison oak and ivy, native plants and ones that had escaped fro with yellow, purple, and shades of pink and red It was rocky going, the soles ofWe worked up a sweat, despite the cooler temps near the water

We had been on the path for a couple of miles when Ke into the shadows of ot to the curve, we discovered a feeder creek, a foot or tide and only inches deep, with a ten-foot waterfall that was breathtaking And a pile of scat,Kerindy was so intense here, I was sure he was right around the corner, but Keht He was crouched beneath a laurel, staring down at us, a predator estier of prey

Beast slalared Growled Kem blinked A moment later, he slid into the shadows I looked at Rick atchingin the deeps of his eyes He held out a hand, indicating the nearly sheer wall, ith falling water "After you"

I grabbed a root and gave a tug It held I started the climb At the top, a fresh breeze slapped me in the face It was heavy with the stink of old blood and rotting flesh

CHAPTER TWENTY

Get Your Own Da later, ere in a narrow cleft of mountain, far fro ain wet and icy fro in the only place a human could--the rill of water I was out of sorts, the lack of sleep was catching up to me--that and the constant smell of death on the breeze, as if the entire rindylow The hair on the back ofthrough the rising air currents

The way ahead was blocked by dead trees; one gigantic white oak had cos on the ether, they had blocked the cleft and backed up the creek, except for the s

I started yet another hard clied with stone I heard Rick follow, and knew he had put me ahead so he could catch me if I fell It was totally unnecessary, and so sweet I couldn’t keep the silly grin offHand by hand, I pulled myself up the dead-tree-and-rock wall and reached the top

The water was backed up into a pool about twenty feet long, less than ten feet wide, broith tannins fro leaves, but clear On the far slope were corpses Deer corpses, bones and hide in a jues of decomposition; the most rotten ones were at the bottom; a well-picked, fresh corpse was on top Maybe four deer, all small There were also fish bones and several turtle shells Buzzards lined the tree li at Kemnebi and the human intruders, alien emptiness in their eyes Mixed with it all was the s like the stink of sour cheese, if you first mixed it with dead fish and added in soie Baby and her night ht happen here If