Joel

Cutter's Bend, Maine

I woke from a dream of the dragon with a hiss on my lips, my eyes narrowed against the light streaming in through my curtains. The dragon… It'd changed shape since my encounter in the woods. Changed overnight into the hunter. A god that breathed fire and stalked me only to mark me and leave me.

Why?

It was a snarling question in my mind, but I half had answers and I wasn't sure what to do with them. Wasn't sure what to do with myself.

I'd gotten back to my apartment, dead tired and ornery as hell after leaving Maddie to work her magic with the tests, fallen asleep in my shower only to be woken when the water ran cold, and basically crawled into my bed with my hair still dripping water. And when I'd sunk down into dreams they were all of the dragon. All of the god in the woods.

Now waking to the first light of dawn I felt bone weary and unwilling to move. I'd run myself to my limits, and part of me begrudgingly admitted it didn't want to believe it had only happened yesterday.

Tuesday… it's only Tuesday.

Tuesday and I had to go to work. Jan and Kaine would have had their hands full the day before, and I didn't want to flake out on them a second day when I wasn't anything worse than tired. Or if I was I didn't know about it. Not entirely.

"Fuck."

I rolled from my back to my side and then pushed myself up.

Exactly what I was supposed to do from here was the main occupation of my mind, and all other considerations were taking a back seat. Whether or not I should go to work was the first part of this. I could be putting Jan and Kaine in danger if my suspicions and assumptions were correct. However…

Gritting my teeth, I limped my way to my shower. I was sore and stiff, hence the limp, but my ankle was feeling relatively well and there was something in me that said if I'd left the residue of the hunter's gel on it, it would be doing even better.

However…

The word hovered in my mind as I stood under the water for the second time in less than twelve hours. However, I hadn't been sure what the hunter's gel was, and so I'd washed it off. And as much as I suspected I could be putting people in danger just by being around them, I also felt deep down I likely wasn't.

I had begun dreaming of the dragon at the same time the Ritualist came into my reality. I did not think it coincidence any more than I thought the god's seeming to wait for me in the woods yesterday was coincidence. Probably I was safe if I stayed out of the woods. Stayed in Cutter's Bend.

Probably.

Because I suspected the dragon had been present almost as long as the Ritualist. He just hadn't made himself known until yesterday. And the fact he'd chosen to wait for me in the woods, away from people, spoke to the fact he wanted me and only me.

But I didn't know. Didn't know any of it for sure. Seanmháthair had taught me many things, but she had never taken me directly before a god.

"You left me too soon."

I ground the words out then tossed my head, scattering droplets of water as I scattered the thought. Seanmháthair had stayed with me as long as Cernunnos had allowed her and I could ask for no more, any more than I could expect much help now. I was primarily on my own. There were a few people I could rely on, but I did that grudgingly.

It was bad enough Maddie was involved. I would have to look out for her.

Snagging a towel I knew she would be thinking the same. That she had to look out for me. Funny how much we were alike at times.

By the time I had dragged on some clothes I realized I was going to work. Not much reason not to. I had to wait for Maddie to tell me if there was something else potentially wrong with me, and it was unlikely my being around Kaine and Jan would cause them problems.

At least at the moment.

Heading out my door the notion of the hunter's patience played through my mind. A good hunter needed patience or it would end up losing its prey more often than not. Most likely my hunter had waited for me for some time before approaching me. He probably would again.

Unless I made him wait too long.

A predator wouldn't wait on prey forever. It would either risk moving in, or it would retreat.

"But you're not going to retreat, are you?"

I highly doubted that. Instinct told me what I'd seen in the woods yesterday was all but incapable of retreat. The dragon knew no defeat. It was victorious or it died. And even its death was likely counted glorious if fought well.

Arrogant.

The word was a fleeting whisper across my mind. Arrogance could be a downfall. And it could be part of what drove the hunter. But he'd felt more self-assured than full of himself when I'd fought him.

Lost in this consideration, weighing the little I knew or thought I'd learned of the god through our encounter, I walked into the door of Jan's Hardware and Sporting Goods without paying attention to my surroundings.

A poor thing to do, all things considered.

Not following your instincts at all, Joel, I chided myself the instant I was in the door and confronted by a frowning Kaine.

"What the hell happened to you?"

"Nothing you need to worry," I retorted, and hunched down into myself and my hoodie. Not interested in talking. Only wanting to think.

Luckily, Jan hadn't made Kaine my unofficial "manager" for nothing. He'd been able to pick up on my foul mood and overall fatigue just by glancing at me, and he knew to give me space. Twenty minutes into my shift Kaine had me in the storeroom, sorting boxes, and that was fine with me. Let Kaine handle the customers and the socialization that came with it.

I wanted to be alone.

Not that I was fully left alone. There were always lulls in business, even on a good day, and people had been a little less inclined to go hiking with the Ritualist plaguing Cutter's Bend. Business was slower than it'd once been and Kaine was not above taking advantage of it.

Somewhere in the afternoon he came back into the storeroom to find me fingering some new arrows we'd gotten in and staring off into space.

"You cut yourself, Joel."

"What?" I snarled, not even meaning to growl but doing it anyway.

Kaine just sighed, probably too used to my "animalistic tendencies" to really give a fuck. "You cut yourself. On the arrows."

I looked down and realized I had. Without even feeling it I'd run my thumb over the arrowhead and sliced into the meat. "Shit."

Another sigh told me Kaine was disgusted but resigned. "Let me handle it. I know where the medical supplies are better than you do."

Also likely true. Kaine'd had to bandage me any number of times. He just wasn't as good at it as Maddie. Or perhaps he thought my dumb ass should get fucked up less often. It was hard to say.

Either way I was just standing there, quietly bleeding on the floor with my hips propped against a workbench and a faraway expression plastered on my face when Kaine got back a moment later.

"You know you could actually help with this by not just standing there and letting yourself bleed, right?"

"What?"

"God, how have you lived this long?"

Kaine was suddenly hunkered down in front of me, a dubious-thoughtful look shadowing his face. "You're not acting yourself, Joel. I haven't seen you this way since your grandmother passed. Something's up and I think there's more to it than what's been going on the last month and a half. Care to share?"

"No," I grunted.

"Right," Kaine grunted back. "You're a real pain in my ass, you know that? You could probably use some help but you're too stubborn to ask."

"I'm thinking, Kaine."

He'd already tightly strapped some gauze and a flexible bandage around my macabre, leaking appendage. At my words he looked up at me with far too much intelligence and just plain knowing. "So there is something else going on. You know you can't hide these things from me, Joel."

"Fuck off," I muttered. "You can't help."

Kaine couldn't do much to get me out of whatever I was in, whatever the god had marked me for. And I wouldn't want him to try.

Standing in Jan's dusty storeroom with my thumb stinging and Kaine balanced on his haunches in front of me I knew I didn't want him in harm's way. Didn't want him or Maddie or any of the few humans I called mine in the way of either the Ritualist or the hunter in the woods.

And that only led me right back to where I'd begun.

Considering how I was going to protect them all.

And make the Ritualist pay.