Bitten (Book 1 - Book 4) novel Chapter 49

Two figures appeared on the second ship. One figure appeared to be dragging the other.

“Come down, Nattie.”

It was Uri’s voice coming through her phone.

By the time she climbed down the stairs, she could see Moralis coming. They regrouped at the base of the steps.

“What are we doing with him?” she said.

The teenager looked scare.

“You’re going to bite him,” Uri said.

Moralis moved off and Uri followed.

“I don’t know where he’s been,” she said, figuring this was a ruse.

“When a Hollow female bites you,” Uri was saying to the teenager, “your dick gets hard and then it falls off.”

“She’s not a Hollow,” the teenager said, trying to show some bravado, but he wasn’t able to hide the fear in his eyes.

“Then you won’t mind if she bites you,” Uri said.

They went back to the car.

Uri sat in the back with the teen.

“Sit on the other side Nattie, so you can get a good angle,” he said.

“No, I don’t know anything,” the teen said with anguish in his voice when Natalia slid in next to him.

“Anna didn’t say you kids were going to be around,” he said.

“We… we were just checking,” he said.

“Checking what? What’s the old man having you do?”

Moralis now had the car moving. She knew they were heading back to the pipe. She wondered where the other three teens were.

“We just do what Anna tells us.”

“Through the old man. What’s he been telling you? Anna tells us too. She’s been checking up on the old man.”

“He… he wanted us to move some stuff.”

“What and where?” Uri said.

Natalia reached out and touched his neck. The teen jumped, almost hitting his head on the roof of the car.

“From the ship we were on to the other ship. The one beside it,” he said, now keeping an eye on Natalia.

She gave him a closed mouth smile.

“Just that one container?”

“There’s three of them.”

“We’ll check tonight. If you lied, she bites,” Uri said.

“I’m telling the truth. Honest.”

Moralis pulled up to the tent. She now realized it was the type of tent that sewer workers put up. It was blaze orange and so obvious that no one was going to give it a second look.

“We’re going to take you into the sewer,” Uri said. “Do you like rats?”

Moralis led the way. He went down first. Uri sent the teen down next. It was hard to tell if the teen was shivering from cold or fear. Uri had her go down before he followed. At the mention of rats, she was more attentive to the area around them, but she saw nothing.

No one talked while they made their way. Finally, they came to the smaller pipe. Uri led the way this time and soon they were all up in the warming tent, changing back into the white snowsuits.

“Here, put this on,” Uri said to the teen, handing him one of the gray mottled suits. “Your mother never taught you to dress warm?”

The teen seemed dumbstruck. She wondered if Uri had bit him. The teen put on the suit over his light coat almost automaton like.

Moralis left first.

Uri waited. He was about to leave when two people entered.

“Is this someone we need to watch?”

It was Sophie and a woman that Natalia had never met. Sophie was in a white snowsuit, but the woman was in a colorful one.

“Yeah,” Uri said. “Bring the snowsuit back if they bring him in out of the cold.”

“We’ll take him.”

“Sabra. Nice to meet you, Nattie,” Sabra said, introducing herself.

Natalia could only nod while Sophie took the teen’s arm and pulled him out. Sabra followed them out.

Uri took Natalia hand and pulled her out.

“Go look like you’re shoveling,” he said, stopping by some shovels that were sticking upright in the snow.

He grabbed one for her before he left.

There was a clear area by her. She moved the shovel along to clean up the edges, then dug out a path toward a warming tent.

“Hey, Nattie.”

She recognized Tracy’s voice. Sherri, Tracy, and three of her sisters were walking over to her.

“Hi. It’s this exciting?” she said, knowing she had to pretend she had been around since dawn.

“Hi, Nattie. I didn’t know you were here,” Sherri said.

“We’ve been here since the sun came up,” she said. “Running around like crazy. I am so hot in this suit.”

“We’re going to curl tomorrow,” Zean said, looking happy.

“I heard about the youth games,” Natalia said.

“Do you curl?” Sherri said.

“No. I never even heard of it until last night, and Uri said we were moving snow and making curling sheets. I thought he was out of his mind.”

The girls giggled.

Sherri looked over the area, looking too serious.

“Larsa at home with Grace?”

Sherri nodded.

A group of women came over to talk with Sherri. Natalia knew about half of them. They all acknowledged each other nods. Sherri’s daughters moved over to the clear area to see if they could slide.

“Darn boots,” Tracy said.

Natalia abandoned the shovel in the snow.

“Yeah, they grip too well.”

“Look,” Zean said. “They got the horse sleighs out.”

Two sleds pulled by small husky horses slid past, avoiding the cleared area.

“Those are so cool,” Natalia said.

She spied Sophie with the teen.

“Tracy?”

Tracy stepped over by her.

“Do you know that kid with Sophie?” she whispered to her.

Tracy looked.

“Yeah. That’s Ranger. He used to hang out with Anna. Haven’t seen him in a long while.”

“Do any of Anna’s friend come over any more?”

Tracy shook her head.

“No, and mother won’t let us have any of our friends over. I’m gonna go rogue if she keeps this up.”

Natalia took a few more steps away from Sherri and her group of friends. She smiled at Tracy and looked at Sherri who was turned away. Tracy picked up on it right away.

“Zean. Marian. Jaina,” Tracy said in a soft voice, picking up the pace.

As soon as they were about fifteen feet away, they all broke into a jog.

“So how is this curling game played anyway?” Natalia said.

“I’ll explain tomorrow. You need to see all the pieces first,” Tracy said. “Do they even have the houses down?”

“Quick. They’re doing it now,” Marian said.

They broke in to a run until they reached a good viewing area.

There were orange cones marking out the cleared area which looked to be a little over sixty feet wide.

“How long are the sheets?” Natalia said.

“Usually a hundred and fifty or so feet long,” Tracy said.

A small utility vehicle with a water tank was parked along side. A man was flooding the cleared area. It was smooth, shiny and slick looking.

“Once that freezes, which won’t be long out here, they’ll put the lines down and the houses. Those are circles that you aim for,” Tracy said.

“The button,” Zean said.

“That’s the middle of the house,” Tracy said.

Zean giggled.

“Look, they’re already laying down lines at the far end.”

“What are those made of?”

“Probably vinyl. Strips outline each lane. Those are the hog lines and the T lines. Then the house circles.”

“Okay, definitely terminology I don’t know,” Natalia said.

“It all defines the playing field.”

“Mother is heading this way, but she hasn’t seen us yet,” Jaina said.

They moved off, heading around to the other side of the cleared area.

“Once the playing field is marked, they’ll flood everything and put a couple of layers of ice over the markings. Then they scrape the ice smooth, then they pebble it.”

“Pebble?”

“They take a sprayer and spray water droplets over it. Then they do a light scrape to take off the tops. That’s what the stones ride on top of. You’ll see tomorrow,” Tracy said.

The horse sleighs sped past going the opposite direction.

Natalia saw a skating rink with a number of people skating. In another direction, she could see a hockey game going on.

“Wow. Everyone is out. I never did this when I was growing up,” she said. “I’m sure my mother would have had a heart attack being on the ice. Over a lake.”

The ice groaned.

“You sure it’s safe?”

Zean giggled and jumped up and down.

“Quite safe,” she said.

They continued to stroll along. The area seemed even more crowded and Natalia knew they were well hidden in the crowd. Snow that had been moved was now being sculpted by people into benches to sit on. Some were two tiers high. A couple of barrels had been brought out and there were fires going.

“I’d be afraid that would melt into the lake,” Natalia said.

“They have sand in the bottom half that they fill with water and freeze. It actually keeps the bottom cool. They don’t build big fires,” Tracy said. “There’s the hot chocolate cart. I have money if you want some.”

They headed that way.

“Morning, Nattie.”

Natalia looked over and was surprised.

“Father. Brianna. Hi, Ryan.”

Her father had never called her Nattie before. It caught her off guard.

Ryan was grinning big, looking excited.

“Snow,” he said.

“Lots of snow.” she said. “This is my father, James. Brianna and their son, Ryan.”

“Hi,” the girls said together.

“This is Tracy, Marian, Zaina, and Zean. Daughters of Sherri.”

“Hi, girls. Do you want a hot chocolate?” her father said.

Natalia was pleased that her father bought them all hot chocolates. This was a treat she should have bought for them, but she wasn’t carrying any money. She made a mental note that she should start carrying some cash, rather than just a cash card. The vendors appeared to only be taking cash.