Seed of Evil

An Enemy in the Bushes

“Something wrong?”

Zach raked his gaze over a patch of brambles. He had the sense that something was amiss, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.

“We not take long,” Chases Rabbits chafed. “Raven On The Ground need us.”

“We won’t be any help to her if we’re dead.” Zach looked at the brambles again. Few would choose it as a spot to hide, what with all the thorns. The center of the patch was especially dense, which would also discourage anyone from crawling in. Almost too dense, he thought, at the same moment that Blaze growled.

Details came into focus with sharp clarity—a squat form that seemed to be part of the brambles, but wasn’t; branches that were going every which way, when most grew straight up or at right angles to the main stems; and the dark eyes that were fixed on him with fierce intensity.

Zach snapped his Hawken up. In the brambles a gun boomed. He felt a searing shock to his shoulder, and then his right arm and fingers went numb. He lost his hold on the rifle.…