The Curse of Billy the Kid: Untold Legends Volume One

by Tamsin L. Silver

  Brewer and I fetched George a horse from Tunstall’s herd and headed back to Newcomb’s with that mare in tow. Not wanting to be away from his farm any longer than he already had, George thanked us and headed off alone. But not before warning us of how they were looking for large groups traveling on horseback and to be careful.

  Hearing this, Dick and I decided to cut our numbers, sending Middleton, Henry, Charlie, and Big Jim back to San Patricio to warn the rest. Dick and I though, we decided we should go check on another member of our team, and off we went to check on Doc Scurlock. We were hoping he’d be able to come back out and join us, but we’d have to wait and see.

  18

  Hope Your Well Isn’t Dry

  Dick and I arrived at Doc’s ranch late in the day and we were downright pleased to see he wasn’t in as bad of shape as George. His dogs, on the other hand, were sure riled up at our arrival, though. Or rather, at Dick’s arrival.

  “Quiet down, ya mangy mutts!” Doc shouted. “What’s wrong with them?”

  Dick cringed.

  “Ya stupid mongrels, it’s just Billy and Dick, you know them!”

  Dick crouched down and stared at them a second before dropping his head to look at the ground. Surprisingly enough, they calmed down.

  “No idea why that worked, but you always did have a way with animals, Dick,” Doc said. “Come with me. I got a few more chores left.”

  Dick stood, and though they were quiet, the dogs kept their distance as we all headed into the stable. I wanted to say something encouraging to Brewer, but I didn’t know what to say to make him feel better, or more human, so I patted his shoulder when Doc was turned about. Dick nodded at me, and I had to hope my sentiments were understood.

  “I’m glad you two are here,” Doc said, grabbing a bale of hay and tossing it into a stall. “I’ve set all affairs here in order ‘cause we’ve got work to do. Tomorrow we should start headin’ to San Pat. Stop a few times along the way. See if we can’t pick ourselves up some more Regulators from men I know and trust.”

  “If you trust ‘em, so do we,” Dick said.

  “Good to know.” Doc looked at the sky and added, “Sun’s settin’; we should get in.”

  I pulled out my moon cheat sheet from my vest pocket. “Moon rise isn’t until about half past one in the mornin’, so let’s tend to all your horses here before we head in. Moon don’t set until eleven tomorrow mornin’, so we’d be smart to get a late start.” This way Brewer would also be in the right state of mind and not a walking stick of dynamite.

  Doc wiped his hand on his trousers. “Sounds good. Best we not leave the farm until those soulless bastards can’t shift. Good thinking.”

  Dick flinched, but Doc missed it.

  “I’ll tend to my last horse here and then we can head on in for some dinner,” Doc continued. George stopped by on his way home and told us you all was comin’. Antonia’s parents are here spendin’ time with their grandbaby, so she offered to make us up a nice dinner. She also prepared some sleepin’ quarters for you both. Come on, if we don’t have time to be cleaned up right and proper for supper, she’ll have my ass.”

  I laughed. “God bless your wife!”

  “I say that every day,” Doc said with a grin, exposing the two missing front teeth he lost in a shoot-out in Mexico over a game of cards. “Please feel free to tend to your horses and get them settled for the night while I see to my pregnant mare here at the end of the row. That way we should be on time for supper.”

  Once everything was squared away in the stable, we headed in to clean up and enjoy a nice hot meal with the Herreras; Doc’s wife, who was pregnant again; and their seven-month-old daughter, María Elena. We stayed up for a drink or two with Doc’s father-in-law, Fernando, before heading to bed, seeing as we weren’t getting up as early as usual tomorrow. Dick, however, excused himself after the first drink, heading to bed around the time the moon rose.

  “He all right?” Doc asked as he handed me a new beer.

  “Just on edge a bit. Been feelin’ under the weather on and off ever since gettin’ the smallpox back in December.”

  Doc sat in his rocking chair and drank. “If you say so. He just seems...different.”

  My heart began to beat harder, and I took a slow breath in and out to settle my nerves. “He’s fine. Just gettin’ used to this lifestyle. You know Dick, he’s a lone wolf...used to it just being him and his animals on the farm and comin’ into town when he was in the mood to see folks. Now we’re up his ass day and night. Can’t fault the man for wantin’ some time to himself.”

  I tilted the bottle up to hide my face from the firelight, so if any of my lies were visible, he’d not see them. Not that I was full out lying to Doc, but that wasn’t the difference Doc was noticing, and I had to hope my half-truths pacified him well enough.

  They seemed to, and as his father-in-law returned from taking a leak, Doc asked me to tell one of his favorite stories from my past. Happy to change the subject, I obliged, and we all headed to bed a little drunk, sore from laughing, and thoughts of Dick’s odd behavior forgotten...or so I hoped.

  Nine in the morning came earlier than I’d have thought, what with staying up late, but by ten we were outside starting to prep the horses for the trip when Doc’s dogs began going haywire. Without hesitation, Dick and I pulled our guns loaded with silver and stepped over to the door of the stable.

  “They seem to dislike somethin’ more than you two yesterday,” Doc teased, having no idea what he was saying.

  Dick and I shared a worried glance.

  “Stay here, Doc,” I said. “Dick?”

  He holstered his gun. “I’ll go high.”

  I nodded, and he ran for the back exit of the stable. Once I noticed he’d gone out, I listened and heard him when he landed on the roof. Taking that as my cue, I stepped out and sniffed the air. I caught the approaching wolf’s scent in seconds. He wasn’t even trying to hide it, which I thought odd. I smelled a second werewolf as well. Brewer had somehow removed his clothes quick enough to shift. He now sat hunched on the roof, ready to strike if needed.

  I looked up and caught his eye. He motioned with his nose out to the right and I nodded. We both smelled him coming from upwind, like an amateur. In moments, he was visible, running full tilt in our direction. However, he wore something I’d never seen: a white bandana. I held up a hand to signal Brewer to stay put and heard him growl. He’d stay put for now, but I knew he was itching for a fight after a night of restless sleep. And Doc as witness or no, I was pretty sure Dick would jump into the fray no matter what.

  Reaching the ten-foot mark, the werewolf stopped and bowed at me. In doing so, I noticed that at the back of the bandana was a small tube. Carefully, I approached the animal and, while keeping my gun trained on him, reached for it. It clicked open as if by the magic of my touch and exposed a scroll.

  I pulled it out and closed the wooden tube. The wolf backed away, head down, and waited.

  Unrolling the scroll, I read and cursed quietly before saying, “Tell her I’ll be there.”

  The wolf stood, bowed his head in understanding, turned, and ran off.

  Looking up to the roof, I saw the quizzical look on Dick’s face. He was not going to be happy.

  Ya sure about this?” Doc asked as we reached the turn off for Lincoln on the twenty-eighth.

  “No,” I lied. “But Brewer will be with me, so I’ve got backup.” Another lie. I wasn’t letting him anywhere near her.

  “There is no backup equal to her,” Doc whispered.

  “That’s what I told him, too, but he doesn’t seem to think she’s called him to kill him,” Dick said. “Funny thing is, I agree with that...but plans can change when someone makes you upset.”

  “You say that like I’m gonna go in there and purposefully make her mad,” I told him.

  Dick raised an eyebrow. “What you plan to do and what you do are not always one and the same thing, Billy Bonney.”

  I rolled my eyes
. “Scáthach has no interest in killin’ me just yet, or she’d have done it by now. We’ll see you tonight, Doc. Now get movin’! If one of us don’t show up in San Pat soon, MacNab is gonna send the cavalry to look for us.”

  Doc sighed. “All right, but you better be right about this.”

  “If I’m not, you can dance on my grave. Now go!”

  Doc spun his pony about and headed toward San Pat while Dick and I headed into the lion’s den. Not only were we wanted outlaws, but Scáthach was in town. That would make The House either feel more powerful or laid back. It was either the worst or the best time to come into town...and honestly, I had no idea which it was.

  Tapping Colonel’s sides, I said, “Well, here goes nothin’.”

  Dick cursed under his breath and followed me into town where we ran straight into Deputy George Peppin and a few of his fellas.

  “Well, if it isn’t William H. Bonney and Richard M. Brewer...” Peppin said.

  “We really don’t have time for this,” I said. “I was expected somewhere ten minutes ago.”

  A deputy I didn’t recognize stepped forward. “And we got warrants for your arrest!”

  “Didn’t I just say we didn’t have time for them right now?” I asked Dick.

  With a grin, the big man pulled his gun with lead in it. “I don’t think they heard you.”

  “I don’t either.” I pulled my lead-filled gun as well, and we both began to fire at Peppin and his deputies’ feet.

  The useless whelp that he was, Peppin ran for cover, and so did the rest of his men. Not waiting for them to make decisions, Dick and I rode through town like a bat outta hell and onward to a bar in Capitan where I was told to meet Scáthach.

  I pulled Colonel up to a halt near the turn off to the Salazar property and looked down at Mattie’s front right hoof as Brewer came to a stop. “Go see Eugene and tend to Mattie’s shoe. She threw one back there.”

  “I thought you said I was your backup.”

  “To be honest, I don’t want her near you. I don’t want her knowin’ your soul is free or why. Not yet. Please go take care of Mattie, and I’ll come back for you.”

  “And if you don’t?”

  “Then you can dance with Doc on my grave,” I said, and without waiting for his reply, I shouted as I hit Colonel’s sides with my heels, and we were off to see the devil.

  March, 1949

  When Sheriff Ortiz informed the waitress at the Capitan diner that this was a working lunch, she sat us in a back corner away from everyone. We sat at a booth, and she gave us the specials before heading off.

  “I recommend the burgers...you can’t go wrong with ‘em,” he told me.

  “I’ll take your word for it.”

  She returned with a Coke for each of us. Ortiz ordered two of the classic cheeseburgers, and she left us alone.

  “It’s best you know what you’re walkin’ into in Las Cruces.”

  “So you said before,” I commented.

  “Word on the street is that Apodaca has the politicians of Santa Fe in his pocket, and they have him wrapped around their little fingers. The leash is long, but it’s there. If they yank, he follows, ya hear me?”

  “Loud and clear,” I said, thinking about how the Santa Fe Ring and the Lincoln County sheriff were just like that during the Lincoln County War. “I’ve dealt with crooked law before.”

  He nodded. “And how did you do?”

  “We lost.”

  “Exactly. The Santa Fe Ring still exists, Agent Kidwell, and the minute you pop on their radar, they’ll be watchin’ you...especially since you’re the law. They’re gonna want to know if you’re on the right side, the wrong side, or if you’re willin’ to walk the line between ‘em.”

  He drank his soda and just looked at me, waiting for an answer. If I was honest, I was willing to walk the line a bit...but I couldn’t say that.

  “I’m on the right side of the law, Sheriff Ortiz.”

  “Please, call me Sally.”

  That felt weird, but I nodded anyway. “Sure thing, likewise. I mean, do call me William...or Billy...I answer to either.”

  “Billy fits your face better.” He paused as food was delivered, and I watched as the waitress delivered to us the best lookin’ burger and fries I’d seen in ages.

  “This looks amazin’,” I said, my stomach growling.

  “Dig in. While we eat, I’ll fill you in on a bit of the gamblin’ history out there. When we finish eatin’, I’ll take ya out to speak to my friend in Capitan, he’s from Lincoln. You’ll wanna see him before you head out there, too.”

  I took a bite of the food and hummed in pleasure. Swallowing, I dragged a fry through my ketchup. “And why does this man know so much about what’s going on in Las Cruces?”

  Sally chewed his food with a grin. Finally, he said, “You wouldn’t believe me if I told ya.”

  “Try me.”

  “He is one of the last survivors of the Lincoln County War, and he knows a lot about the Santa Fe Ring.”

  I almost choked on my fry but washed it down and passed it off as shock instead of fear. If this person really was around back then and they recognized me, things were going to get sticky awfully fast...and in Capitan no less. Why was I not surprised?

  March, 1878

  Riding into Capitan, I found the saloon Scáthach told me to meet her at and discovered not one horse tied up outside.

  Dismounting Colonel, I said, “That can’t be a good sign.”

  Colonel turned his head toward me.

  “No witnesses,” I explained.

  He whinnied and pawed the ground twice.

  “I’ll be careful. But if she comes out the front before me, you get outta here fast. Go find Dick and bring him back here, you understand?”

  He pounded the ground once.

  “Good.”

  With a deep breath, I crossed myself like the Catholic I’d been and walked into the dark saloon. The only people there was an older gent behind the bar, likely the owner, and a woman with dark hair piled high, sitting on a stool at the bar. She wore a dress of dark blue, complete with bustle, and appeared to be sipping whiskey.

  Sure, I’d seen her before this. But it’d been dark, she’d worn her hair down, and I’d been more focused on Colonel than her. But now I had a moment, and I stared in disbelief at how exactly she looked like Mary Richards, my teacher from Silver City. But was she really Mary or not? That was the question.

  “You’re late,” she said.

  “Ran into a few of your idiots who held us up,” I said, hands on my guns as I walked over to and around her, my eyes telling me one thing and my head telling me another. “You’re not the real Mary.”

  “Not in spirit, no. She was herself though, when you first met her, if that helps. But right now, she’s...on vacation.” The creature laughed, sounding just like the woman I’d cared for, and I gripped my guns tighter as goosebumps traveled up my arms. “Go ahead, shoot me, and you can watch the real Mary die.” When I didn’t fire, she added, “I thought not. Shall we have a drink?”

  “I’m good.”

  “Ah yes, I’ve heard you’re no fun anymore.” She downed the rest of her drink and waved over the bartender. “I’ll have another whiskey, straight up, and my friend here will have a water.”

  The man raised an eyebrow but got to pouring the two items.

  Scáthach pulled out a cigarette. Lighting it, she waved the match out, her hazel eyes watching me. “Oh, do take your hands off those. You’re not goin’ to shoot me, and I’m probably not goin’ to kill you. Just sit and relax.”

  “I can sit, but I won’t be relaxed,” I muttered as I considered the situation, deciding to do as she said. For as much as I hated to admit it, I wasn’t going to shoot her. Hell, I was pretty sure I couldn’t even get myself to give her a paper cut. Thus, I took a seat at the bar and waited.

  Once we had our drinks, she took a sip and looked at me the way she had when I was a child in her classroom. “You�
��re dyin’ to ask, so ask.”

  “Why me?”

  “Because you needed direction. You were a mess.”

  “Of course I was! My mother had died, my stepfather was useless, and my brother was removed to another family. I had nothin’ and no one...and I trusted her!”

  “I saw the bond you two had, and for that, I gave you a gift. A rare one at that. I only create an immortal once a century.”

  “A gift? You call it a gift? It’s a curse, and you know it.”

  She smiled, and it both warmed my heart to see again yet chilled my soul, if I still had one.

  “Fine, curse, whatever. Either way, it’s a form of checks and balances. My monsters are very powerful, and I own their soul unless you release them.”

  “You mean, kill them?”

  “Is it really killing if their soul isn’t there?” she asked with a lazy shrug.

  “Then why make someone like me at all?”

  “If I didn’t create a few avengin’ warriors, my monsters would take over the world, and that cannot happen either. It’s up to men like you to challenge me, to save me from utter boredom.”

  “Wait, we’re here to entertain you? This is all a big game to you? What are your monsters then, expendable?”

  She laughed, and this time it sounded nothing like the Mary I’d known. “Yes, it is, and yes, they are. See, you learn quickly! I always knew you were the smart one.”

  I thought of Brewer, not far from where we sat, and all he’d gone through over the past month and without using those smarts she’d just praised, knocked the drink out of her hand. It hit the floor with a crash, glass traveling about the floor. The bartender didn’t move, nor did she, until the tinkling of the last bit stopped moving.

  Once it had, faster than lightning, her hand was on the back of my neck, the pressure created as she squeezed was like nothing I’d ever known. She lifted me off the stool and up onto the tips of my toes. “I sincerely hope your well isn’t dry,” she said, and broke my neck, dropping me to the ground.