Night Broken
Page 40
Yes, he said, and, for a moment, the sadness in his voice echoed mine. Yes, she is. Do you think that I would not recognize the face of my beloved? I looked across the room, and there she wasshe knew it, too. I come to you this night, made strong from hot new blood, but I need her to feel complete. Without her by my side, I am always hungry.
More bodies somewhere, Tony, I thought.
We are ready to renew the hunt, and she cannot be hidden from me, continued Flores in this creepy, reasonable voice I remembered from before. But she might be hurt if we are forced to continue to hunt her, that is the nature of a hunt. I dont want to hurt her. If you tell me where she is, I wont hurt her.
He was sincere. He didnt want to hurt her. I thought of Kyles story and wondered if perhaps he had not meant to hurt the goddess hed kidnapped and raped. Intention and results are often different.
No, I said.
As soon as I refused, Floress eyes flared red, and his face, though still human-featured, lost any resemblance to a real human expression. Take her, he said.
Something dark and hot moved in the darkness, and I raised the gun and fired at the tibicena charging from my right as rapidly as I could, though even with my night vision, all I could see were its red eyes, as if it somehow drew the darkness around itself like a cloak.
This was not the dog that Id killed in my garage; this was the bigger, faster version Id seen the possibility of when Coyote had taken me to visit Guayotas house. As Coyote had promised, the bulletsand I knew from the bright spots that appeared and vanished on the tibicenas body that I was hitting itdidnt even slow it down. When I felt its too-hot breath, I dropped the gun and dove for my pitchfork.
And then we danced.
I could not trust my sight to tell me where it was, but the coyote knew, and I let her guide my steps. The pitchfork was a better weapon against the tibicena than the mop, crowbar, or wrench had been against Guayota. The long wooden handle didnt heat up, and the metal ends didnt burn as long as I didnt leave them on the tibicena too long, because it had quickly become apparent that the tibicena, like Guayota, was a creature of fire, of the volcano where it had been birthed. As a test, I hit the beast hard, sinking the tines in a few inches, then jerking them out.
The wounds glowed red, and something bubbled out for a moment, but it took two secondsI countedfor the holes to close. I didnt dare hit it any harder, or Id lose my weapon. The wounds also disturbed whatever it was that kept me from seeing the tibicena, and I caught a glimpse of it, huge and hairy.
Guayota was turning in a slow circle, ignoring my fight with his tibicena as he searched for somethingChristy.
I danced faster.
For a few minutes, we were at a stalemate, the tibicena and I. I couldnt hurt it, but I was moving too fast for it to hit me. As long as I could keep the speed up, and my coyote could sense its attacks, I was okay. A few minutes is a long time in a fightand all I had to do was hold out long enough for Darryl to come.
But there were two tibicenas. I caught a glimpse of the second one when it slapped me on the head with its paw.
I stood on cracked blacktop in a school yard. There was a swing set in front of me, and Coyote sat on the only swing, moving it back and forth a few inches by wiggling his bare toes on the ground. It was one of those swings you see in parks and schools, with thick chains attached to a big, flat strip of rubber. The pink scrunchie was gone, his braid bound by a strip of white leather.
Im dreaming, I said flatly.
Youre dying, corrected Coyote, lifting his head from where hed been watching his feet, to meet my eyes. Your neck is broken. Do you feel any different? I always wondered what other people feel when they are dying. For me it is usually like this He let go of the chains and clapped his hands once. And Im back to normal except not quite where I was a moment ago.
How do I kill Guayota?
He shook his head and backed up slowly, letting the swing ride up his back. You cant. It isnt possible. Besides, you are dying. It didnt sound like my death bothered him very much. He tilted his head, and said, Do you know that burn on your cheek looks like war paint?
Gary thinks youre just playing with us, I told him.
Coyote nodded soberly as he hopped gracefully on the swing and let it carry him forward, then back. Gary has reason to, but he doesnt think like you do. He thinksCoyote hates me and has me thrown in jail. He leaned into the swing and used his legs and back to build momentum. You thinkwhat good comes from Gary Laughingdog in jail with the gift of prophecy he hates so much? Could it be that perhaps, just perhaps, both of Coyotes children have a chance of surviving if they are working together? He gave me a sly look. Not that it wasnt funny to see his face when he realized wed stolen a police car, and he was parked in front of the police station.
I thought about what hed said. Why did you show me the tibicenas?
Didnt you want to save your friend Joel?
You answer a lot of questions with questions.
Do I? His smile turned smug, and he leaped out of the swing, landing on his feet but letting his body fall forward until his hands rested lightly on the ground. He lowered his eyelids and suddenly there was nothing lighthearted, nothing funny about him, just a primordial fierceness that burned down my spine.
I guess you arent dead yet, are you? he whispered, and the words wrapped around me as my vision went dark. Good thing coyotes are hard to kill.
I opened my eyes and realized I was crumpled on the cool damp grass, and there was a tibicena crouched over me, licking the long wound in my arm. I couldnt move. My body knew that moving would hurt, and it just wouldnt respond to my urgent demands that it do so.
I could hear fighting, but it was Aurieles battle cry that let me take my eyes off the tibicena guarding me.
Id never seen Darryl and Auriele fight together, and they were beautiful. For the first time in my life, I wished I were a singer like the Marrok and both of his sons were because only music would do them justice.
Auriele was still in human form and she held my pitchfork as a weapon. Her clothes were burned, and, I imagined, hidden by the night, there were also burns on her skin. She was muscle and grace and speed as she stabbed and pivoted, jumped and dodged around her husband.
Darryls brindle coat made him nearly as hard to track as the tibicenas magic made them. Most wolves fight with instinct. Some, as I had tonight, fight with instinct and training. But a rare few hold on to enough humanity to use strategy. And that strategy was what made him and Auriele so impressive. He charged andleaped, she struck and rolled, and somehow neither of them was where theyd been when the tibicena who wasnt guarding me lunged and tangled herself up with Guayota.
If it had only been the tibicena they fought, I would have had no fear.
Guayota, even in his fiery-dog form, was not as large as his tibicena, but there was no question who was the nastier predator. While the tibicena, Darryl, and Auriele fought with everything in them, Guayota played. Darryl bled from a dozen small wounds and, as I watched, Guayota struck him again, and a shallow cut stretched from Darryls shoulder to his hip. It was a wound from Guayotas claw only, without the heat he could generate, though the wet grass smoked, and he left blackened patches wherever he stood for longer than a breath.
Are you going to let them die while you watch? Impossible to tell if the voice was Coyotes or my own.
My muscles would just not move. I struggled like a bodybuilder trying to lift weights that were a hundred pounds too heavy, and the effort built up to a growl in my chest and out my throat.
The tibicena quit licking my arm and growled back.
I stopped struggling as I met its eyes briefly and saw Joel in them. The tibicena shook his head, and the long, rocklike hairs that ruffed his neck rattled together. The connection broken between us, he went back to my arm. He had worked a piece of skin loose and was tearing it away, swallowing it.
I had a terrible, wonderful idea.
Joel, I said, and the tongue that had been traveling back to my arm paused, and his eyes met mine, again, eyes that were a dark, sullen red that was more like garnets than rubies.
Didnt you want to save your friend Joel? Coyote had asked me when I asked him why hed shown me what the tibicenas were. And Id seen that the spells that tied Joel to Guayotas immortal child were a lot like pack bonds.
I didnt have the walking stick, but I could see the struggle that Joel still fought. Stefan had said something about bonds when hed been apologizing for not breaking the one between us. Hed implied that a bond taken willingly was stronger than one that was forced.
Answer the questions I ask you, and I can help, I said, my tongue thick in my mouth. I had practice drawing on my mates power, and now I drew it around me, finding that I could borrow a little strength. That was useful, but the important part of Adams power that I preempted was his authority. You dont have to say your response out loud. Joel Arocha, I see you.
Garnet eyes glittered with borrowed light.
Will you join with us, the Columbia Basin Pack, to hunt, to fight, to live and run under the full moon? There were ritual words, but Id been taught that the ritual was secondary to intent in all werewolf magic. I thought of Joeltough, thoughtful, and big-heartedand welcomed him into my family.
I paused but held his eyes. I claim you, I told him, feeling the familiar gathering of pack magic until it burned in my throat, until the next words were determined more by the magic than by me. We claim you, Joel Arocha, son of Texas, son of the Canary Islands, guardian of four-footed cousins. By my flesh and blood that is the flesh and blood that belongs to the Alpha of the Columbia Basin Pack is our bond sealed. From this day forward, you are mine to me and mine.
Pack ties, mating ties did not break the bond between Stefan and me because they were two different magics: vampire and werewolf. But the spells Id seen wrapping around Joel were similar to pack bonds.
The first sign that what Id done had worked was the now-familiar burn in my chest as the pack absorbed another member. Joel staggered, and for a moment his weight pressed down on me unbearably. I think I blacked out because my vision did that weird jump thing, where one moment I was staring at one thing, then the next I was looking at something different, though I couldnt remember moving my gaze.
The tibicena who was Joel was no longer standing over me, but fighting with the other tibicena. I couldnt see Darryl, but Auriele was lying with a knee bent in the wrong direction, and she wasnt moving.
What did you do? Guayotas voice was oddly slurred, but I could hear the anger in it. I couldnt turn my head, but Guayota moved into my field of view.
The huge fiery-dog form that Guayota wore was oddly lopsided. His left side looked exactly as I remembered. Glowing red eye, crackled skin that showed the moving currents of molten substance that flowed just beneath. The other side was dark, the light beneath wholly extinguished, and as he staggered, half dragging himself from the battleground to where I lay, the outer surface of the dead side began to lighten to gray and crumble when he moved.
How did you steal said Guayotaand then Adam was there, a great blue-silver wolf. Adam and Warren and Honey, who landed on Guayota at the same time, their fury as bright and shining as Guayota had ever been.
Screw me and stake me out. Garys voice was in my ear. I think shes dead. How could she be burned this badly and not be dead? He was talking about me, I realized, but I didnt remember getting burned. Coyote had told me my neck was broken. Gary was still talking. Ive sent back steaks that were this overdone. Mercy?
There were other noises in the background: growls and howls and cries of pain.
Not dead yet, I told Gary. I had to say it again before he understood me.
He huffed half a laugh. Finally found a sibling I could stand to talk to for more than ten minutes, and He didnt finish that sentence. I gotta tell you, you look bad, Mercy.
I licked my lips. They cracked, but I talked anyway. Got here sooner than expected. You did, I mean. Did you get a call? Is Adam here? Id be safe if Adam was really here. But that wasnt true, was it? Coyote had told me I was dying.
No, but someones phone was going off every two minutes until one of the werewolves killed it. Please save me from being trapped in a car with that many angry werewolves ever again. They were all mostly changed to wolf, barely, when I had another Seeing, one of the big ones. Saw you and a couple of werewolves fighting Guayota on Honeys front lawn and realized why I had to go with the wolves. Took me a while to get them to understand. And once they did, I had to drive because they were all too much werewolf alreadyand let me tell you, oncoming headlights when you have a migraine are no kind of fun.
A cry, the same kind of bone-chilling cry that Gary and I had heard once before, cut through the sounds of battle and Garys soothing voice like a knife.
Gary turned to look, and that let me see one of the tibicenas bite deep into the other and shake it until it turned into a much smaller thing. I recognized the mutated woman that the walking stick had once shown me. Joel, the tibicena who was Joel, dropped her to the ground. She writhed once, then was still.
More bodies somewhere, Tony, I thought.
We are ready to renew the hunt, and she cannot be hidden from me, continued Flores in this creepy, reasonable voice I remembered from before. But she might be hurt if we are forced to continue to hunt her, that is the nature of a hunt. I dont want to hurt her. If you tell me where she is, I wont hurt her.
He was sincere. He didnt want to hurt her. I thought of Kyles story and wondered if perhaps he had not meant to hurt the goddess hed kidnapped and raped. Intention and results are often different.
No, I said.
As soon as I refused, Floress eyes flared red, and his face, though still human-featured, lost any resemblance to a real human expression. Take her, he said.
Something dark and hot moved in the darkness, and I raised the gun and fired at the tibicena charging from my right as rapidly as I could, though even with my night vision, all I could see were its red eyes, as if it somehow drew the darkness around itself like a cloak.
This was not the dog that Id killed in my garage; this was the bigger, faster version Id seen the possibility of when Coyote had taken me to visit Guayotas house. As Coyote had promised, the bulletsand I knew from the bright spots that appeared and vanished on the tibicenas body that I was hitting itdidnt even slow it down. When I felt its too-hot breath, I dropped the gun and dove for my pitchfork.
And then we danced.
I could not trust my sight to tell me where it was, but the coyote knew, and I let her guide my steps. The pitchfork was a better weapon against the tibicena than the mop, crowbar, or wrench had been against Guayota. The long wooden handle didnt heat up, and the metal ends didnt burn as long as I didnt leave them on the tibicena too long, because it had quickly become apparent that the tibicena, like Guayota, was a creature of fire, of the volcano where it had been birthed. As a test, I hit the beast hard, sinking the tines in a few inches, then jerking them out.
The wounds glowed red, and something bubbled out for a moment, but it took two secondsI countedfor the holes to close. I didnt dare hit it any harder, or Id lose my weapon. The wounds also disturbed whatever it was that kept me from seeing the tibicena, and I caught a glimpse of it, huge and hairy.
Guayota was turning in a slow circle, ignoring my fight with his tibicena as he searched for somethingChristy.
I danced faster.
For a few minutes, we were at a stalemate, the tibicena and I. I couldnt hurt it, but I was moving too fast for it to hit me. As long as I could keep the speed up, and my coyote could sense its attacks, I was okay. A few minutes is a long time in a fightand all I had to do was hold out long enough for Darryl to come.
But there were two tibicenas. I caught a glimpse of the second one when it slapped me on the head with its paw.
I stood on cracked blacktop in a school yard. There was a swing set in front of me, and Coyote sat on the only swing, moving it back and forth a few inches by wiggling his bare toes on the ground. It was one of those swings you see in parks and schools, with thick chains attached to a big, flat strip of rubber. The pink scrunchie was gone, his braid bound by a strip of white leather.
Im dreaming, I said flatly.
Youre dying, corrected Coyote, lifting his head from where hed been watching his feet, to meet my eyes. Your neck is broken. Do you feel any different? I always wondered what other people feel when they are dying. For me it is usually like this He let go of the chains and clapped his hands once. And Im back to normal except not quite where I was a moment ago.
How do I kill Guayota?
He shook his head and backed up slowly, letting the swing ride up his back. You cant. It isnt possible. Besides, you are dying. It didnt sound like my death bothered him very much. He tilted his head, and said, Do you know that burn on your cheek looks like war paint?
Gary thinks youre just playing with us, I told him.
Coyote nodded soberly as he hopped gracefully on the swing and let it carry him forward, then back. Gary has reason to, but he doesnt think like you do. He thinksCoyote hates me and has me thrown in jail. He leaned into the swing and used his legs and back to build momentum. You thinkwhat good comes from Gary Laughingdog in jail with the gift of prophecy he hates so much? Could it be that perhaps, just perhaps, both of Coyotes children have a chance of surviving if they are working together? He gave me a sly look. Not that it wasnt funny to see his face when he realized wed stolen a police car, and he was parked in front of the police station.
I thought about what hed said. Why did you show me the tibicenas?
Didnt you want to save your friend Joel?
You answer a lot of questions with questions.
Do I? His smile turned smug, and he leaped out of the swing, landing on his feet but letting his body fall forward until his hands rested lightly on the ground. He lowered his eyelids and suddenly there was nothing lighthearted, nothing funny about him, just a primordial fierceness that burned down my spine.
I guess you arent dead yet, are you? he whispered, and the words wrapped around me as my vision went dark. Good thing coyotes are hard to kill.
I opened my eyes and realized I was crumpled on the cool damp grass, and there was a tibicena crouched over me, licking the long wound in my arm. I couldnt move. My body knew that moving would hurt, and it just wouldnt respond to my urgent demands that it do so.
I could hear fighting, but it was Aurieles battle cry that let me take my eyes off the tibicena guarding me.
Id never seen Darryl and Auriele fight together, and they were beautiful. For the first time in my life, I wished I were a singer like the Marrok and both of his sons were because only music would do them justice.
Auriele was still in human form and she held my pitchfork as a weapon. Her clothes were burned, and, I imagined, hidden by the night, there were also burns on her skin. She was muscle and grace and speed as she stabbed and pivoted, jumped and dodged around her husband.
Darryls brindle coat made him nearly as hard to track as the tibicenas magic made them. Most wolves fight with instinct. Some, as I had tonight, fight with instinct and training. But a rare few hold on to enough humanity to use strategy. And that strategy was what made him and Auriele so impressive. He charged andleaped, she struck and rolled, and somehow neither of them was where theyd been when the tibicena who wasnt guarding me lunged and tangled herself up with Guayota.
If it had only been the tibicena they fought, I would have had no fear.
Guayota, even in his fiery-dog form, was not as large as his tibicena, but there was no question who was the nastier predator. While the tibicena, Darryl, and Auriele fought with everything in them, Guayota played. Darryl bled from a dozen small wounds and, as I watched, Guayota struck him again, and a shallow cut stretched from Darryls shoulder to his hip. It was a wound from Guayotas claw only, without the heat he could generate, though the wet grass smoked, and he left blackened patches wherever he stood for longer than a breath.
Are you going to let them die while you watch? Impossible to tell if the voice was Coyotes or my own.
My muscles would just not move. I struggled like a bodybuilder trying to lift weights that were a hundred pounds too heavy, and the effort built up to a growl in my chest and out my throat.
The tibicena quit licking my arm and growled back.
I stopped struggling as I met its eyes briefly and saw Joel in them. The tibicena shook his head, and the long, rocklike hairs that ruffed his neck rattled together. The connection broken between us, he went back to my arm. He had worked a piece of skin loose and was tearing it away, swallowing it.
I had a terrible, wonderful idea.
Joel, I said, and the tongue that had been traveling back to my arm paused, and his eyes met mine, again, eyes that were a dark, sullen red that was more like garnets than rubies.
Didnt you want to save your friend Joel? Coyote had asked me when I asked him why hed shown me what the tibicenas were. And Id seen that the spells that tied Joel to Guayotas immortal child were a lot like pack bonds.
I didnt have the walking stick, but I could see the struggle that Joel still fought. Stefan had said something about bonds when hed been apologizing for not breaking the one between us. Hed implied that a bond taken willingly was stronger than one that was forced.
Answer the questions I ask you, and I can help, I said, my tongue thick in my mouth. I had practice drawing on my mates power, and now I drew it around me, finding that I could borrow a little strength. That was useful, but the important part of Adams power that I preempted was his authority. You dont have to say your response out loud. Joel Arocha, I see you.
Garnet eyes glittered with borrowed light.
Will you join with us, the Columbia Basin Pack, to hunt, to fight, to live and run under the full moon? There were ritual words, but Id been taught that the ritual was secondary to intent in all werewolf magic. I thought of Joeltough, thoughtful, and big-heartedand welcomed him into my family.
I paused but held his eyes. I claim you, I told him, feeling the familiar gathering of pack magic until it burned in my throat, until the next words were determined more by the magic than by me. We claim you, Joel Arocha, son of Texas, son of the Canary Islands, guardian of four-footed cousins. By my flesh and blood that is the flesh and blood that belongs to the Alpha of the Columbia Basin Pack is our bond sealed. From this day forward, you are mine to me and mine.
Pack ties, mating ties did not break the bond between Stefan and me because they were two different magics: vampire and werewolf. But the spells Id seen wrapping around Joel were similar to pack bonds.
The first sign that what Id done had worked was the now-familiar burn in my chest as the pack absorbed another member. Joel staggered, and for a moment his weight pressed down on me unbearably. I think I blacked out because my vision did that weird jump thing, where one moment I was staring at one thing, then the next I was looking at something different, though I couldnt remember moving my gaze.
The tibicena who was Joel was no longer standing over me, but fighting with the other tibicena. I couldnt see Darryl, but Auriele was lying with a knee bent in the wrong direction, and she wasnt moving.
What did you do? Guayotas voice was oddly slurred, but I could hear the anger in it. I couldnt turn my head, but Guayota moved into my field of view.
The huge fiery-dog form that Guayota wore was oddly lopsided. His left side looked exactly as I remembered. Glowing red eye, crackled skin that showed the moving currents of molten substance that flowed just beneath. The other side was dark, the light beneath wholly extinguished, and as he staggered, half dragging himself from the battleground to where I lay, the outer surface of the dead side began to lighten to gray and crumble when he moved.
How did you steal said Guayotaand then Adam was there, a great blue-silver wolf. Adam and Warren and Honey, who landed on Guayota at the same time, their fury as bright and shining as Guayota had ever been.
Screw me and stake me out. Garys voice was in my ear. I think shes dead. How could she be burned this badly and not be dead? He was talking about me, I realized, but I didnt remember getting burned. Coyote had told me my neck was broken. Gary was still talking. Ive sent back steaks that were this overdone. Mercy?
There were other noises in the background: growls and howls and cries of pain.
Not dead yet, I told Gary. I had to say it again before he understood me.
He huffed half a laugh. Finally found a sibling I could stand to talk to for more than ten minutes, and He didnt finish that sentence. I gotta tell you, you look bad, Mercy.
I licked my lips. They cracked, but I talked anyway. Got here sooner than expected. You did, I mean. Did you get a call? Is Adam here? Id be safe if Adam was really here. But that wasnt true, was it? Coyote had told me I was dying.
No, but someones phone was going off every two minutes until one of the werewolves killed it. Please save me from being trapped in a car with that many angry werewolves ever again. They were all mostly changed to wolf, barely, when I had another Seeing, one of the big ones. Saw you and a couple of werewolves fighting Guayota on Honeys front lawn and realized why I had to go with the wolves. Took me a while to get them to understand. And once they did, I had to drive because they were all too much werewolf alreadyand let me tell you, oncoming headlights when you have a migraine are no kind of fun.
A cry, the same kind of bone-chilling cry that Gary and I had heard once before, cut through the sounds of battle and Garys soothing voice like a knife.
Gary turned to look, and that let me see one of the tibicenas bite deep into the other and shake it until it turned into a much smaller thing. I recognized the mutated woman that the walking stick had once shown me. Joel, the tibicena who was Joel, dropped her to the ground. She writhed once, then was still.
