Of course he’d bring it up. I couldn’t even quit with dignity.
“Which you said you were going to get undone and I could go whenever I wanted.”
“I haven’t figured out how yet.” He gave a half-smile that said he wouldn’t figure it out until he got what he needed.
“I’m not going to help you go after all these stones and then sit back and wait for you to decide what to do with them. I’ll rot away in my room first.” This was not going down this way. It was too important, and I wasn’t as helpless as he’d like to think. I either got what I needed out of those stones or he was getting cut off.
“You’ll sit back and do nothing? That doesn’t strike me as who you are.”
“If you knew who I was, you’d know I’m telling the truth.” There was no bluff here. I wasn’t helping him collect the only known weapon against my enemy and then not let me use it the way I saw fit. That was my line in the sand—or mud, in this case.
“Fifty-fifty is off the table, but you can have full access to use them to kill Bones.”
“Deal.” The word was out of my mouth before I thought about it. He’d tricked me. He wanted more stones, so of course he’d use them to kill Bones. I’d said yes as if he’d done me a favor. That was what you got for negotiating when you were still running high on adrenaline and emotions. I should’ve sat here silently like him.
“You were going to use them to kill him anyway. I should’ve gotten more out of this deal.”
“Too bad you already agreed.” He smiled. “We both still get what we want. Does it matter?”
“Maybe.” Mostly to my ego, though. I sucked at negotiations. How was I even alive right now?
I didn’t bother arguing or threatening to back out. It really didn’t matter, as what I wanted now, more than anything, was to kill Bones. It wasn’t only because he was trying to kill me. It was because he’d had a hand in my mother’s death, if not my father’s. The details of why she’d done it and how I’d ended up on the dead pile were still unclear, but it wasn’t something I could let go unanswered.
I wasn’t going to roll into a ball and cry. I’d accepted the loss of my parents a long time ago. Did I feel emptier? A little colder? Like another piece of me had been stolen? Yes. That was why Bones was going to die the worst death I could deliver.
8
The Chugger pulled to a stop as the sun dipped behind the trees. I climbed out of my side of the cabin and immediately felt the tingle of Burn’s magic approaching. Ryker turned toward the same direction and was heading toward Burn before he broke the trees.
“What’s wrong?” Ryker asked.
“We’ve got three dead.”
“Where and how?”
“In the South Bend, and we don’t know. They were found in their house. We can’t find any cause. Neighbor discovered them a couple hours ago. They hadn’t seen them all day and got nervous.”
Ryker was on the move, and I was right behind him.
“Did you contain the area?” Ryker asked Burn.
“I’ve got a couple people keeping everyone back just in case.”
“In case of what?” I asked, following. I didn’t wait for an invitation or ask permission. With all the threats looming large, if there was a suspicious death, I wanted to see what happened firsthand, and no one would tell me otherwise.
Burn glanced back at me. “It’s something contagious.”
I hadn’t been in the South Bend. I hadn’t known there was a South Bend. We quickly made our way through the heart of the Valley and up a small, well-worn path I’d disregarded in the past. It led to a cliff edge where a simple cable system was set up and ran across a deep gorge. The cables on this side were wound around a large pulley, with an equally large wheel attached, which would put the cables in motion once turned. Hanging from those cables was a bench. An ordinary, everyday, old wooden bench. These people were crazy.
A giant of a man, sitting on a stump and smoking some type of cigarette, stood as we got nearer. “You crossing?”
“Yes.”
At Ryker’s response, he flicked the smoking stub of his cigarette into a barrel filled with sand and lumbered toward the wheel. I watched as he took a firm grip on the spokes then eyed the distance across the divide.
Ryker took a seat, and so did Burn. I took another glance at the gorge we’d be crossing.
“Either get on or get out of the way,” Ryker said.
I hopped on in between them, closed my eyes, and curled my fingers around the edge of the seat in a death grip.
“Jimmy,” the man yelled. “Incoming.”
I kept my eyes shut the whole time. Each jerk of the bench as it creeped forward along the cables had my fingers squeezing the wood tighter. It wasn’t until the thing slowed to a stop and I felt Ryker and Burn stand that I popped my eyes open.
As soon as my feet hit the ground on the South Bend, the difference was immediate. If I lived in the heart of the Valley, this was the suburbs where the families lived. The buildings here were spread out, some with small fences around them and yards out front.
I knew right where we were heading as I saw a small cluster of people milling around outside of the house. No one got very close, and I didn’t think it was because there was a man and woman standing in front to keep them out.
Ryker nodded motion to the right, and the two guards both looked at me before moving to the other side of the street. They were Wyrd Blood. I knew it because they hadn’t only glanced at me, they’d scanned me for markings. That was what Wyrd Blood did. That was what I was doing to them—not that I could see anything on them either.
How many Wyrd Blood lived in the Valley that I didn’t know of? Were they all ordered to stay away from me? Well, hell, this was a little embarrassing. I kept my head high, pretending nothing was amiss, other than the dead bodies we were about to visit.
The crowd parted as we approached, and I eased in behind Ryker, like I had every right to be there. Burn fell in behind me, and I couldn’t help but think it was to keep a buffer between me and any more Wyrd Blood that might stray over accidentally.
All thoughts of that issue vanished as I walked inside and saw the woman, man, and baby, all lying still on the ground. Several lanterns had been set up around the room. It made it easy to see there wasn’t a drop of blood, a bruise, anything that might indicate how this had happened.
“Has anything been touched?” Ryker asked, walking around the room.
“I don’t think so. As soon as I was called, I put the guards out front.” Burn was looking over the scene, but it was clear this was his second or third go at it.
“When was the last time they were seen alive?” Ryker asked, kneeling near the man.
“Last night.”
I stared at the sweet face of the baby. I didn’t know kids well, but this one didn’t look old enough to walk yet.
“Don’t touch. Whatever happened, it might be contagious,” Ryker said.
I picked my way around the living space of their house, making sure my boots didn’t come within an inch of grazing them. Burn and Ryker were doing the same.
The family’s clothes were perfect, and even up close, there were no signs of a struggle or injury. It was as if they were fine and then simply fell dead. Their expressions were slack. I didn’t know if they’d been in pain or not.
I circled back around, drawn to the baby lying next to its mother. Hadn’t even had a chance to live yet. The mother’s face was angled toward him, her arms still wrapped around his chubby body.
I leaned in slightly closer. “There’s a drop of blood coming out of the woman’s ear.”
Burn and Ryker both crossed to where I was.
Ryker squatted down beside me, taking the nearest lantern and bringing it close. “She’s right.”
“Do you think it’s…” Burn took a step back, shaking his head. “I don’t even want to say it.”
I stopped looking at the bodies and devoted my attention to Burn. “Don’t want t
o say what?”
His lips were pressed together, the line of his shoulders tense. “It could be the Boom.”
“They were new, only been here a few days. They might’ve had something already.” Ryker straightened and turned to Burn. “Get the buriers out here, but make sure they know to take precautions. We need you to find who they’ve been around. Who they sat with at dinner. Anyone they’ve been near needs to be quarantined immediately…”
Ryker continued to talk over a plan with Burn as memories of children skipping in a circle, all holding hands and singing as they played, ran through my mind. How many times had I seen and heard them do this in the Ruins?
Down goes one and circle wide.
One of the children would drop to the ground. They’d laugh and skip around and continue singing.
Down goes two, better run and hide.
Another child dropped to the ground.
Down goes three, prepare for doom.
I could hear the laughter as another dropped to the ground.
Down goes more, we all go boom.
The remaining children fell to the grass, giggling. People nearby would tell them not to tempt fate, that the Boom might come for them.
“I thought that was gone?” I got to my feet and stepped back a few paces.
Ryker turned to me, looking just shy of grim. “Survival instinct isn’t exclusive to humans. The longer you’re alive, the more you realize that everything wants to live, including viruses.”
9
Burn had stayed behind to wrap up a couple more details, and I climbed onto the seat beside Ryker for the bumpy trip back over the gorge. We were several feet away from the edge when I realized I still couldn’t keep my eyes open.
“If it’s the Boom, how long will it take to know if it’s going to spread?” I hoped he wouldn’t notice my eyes were closed tight.
“It won’t take long. A day or so.”
“We could be dead tomorrow.” My life span might’ve gone from a few months to a few days. That seriously sucked.
“Wyrd Blood are immune to the Boom.” The chair rocked as he moved.
I gripped the side.
“We’ve got more Wyrd Blood coming with Knife tomorrow night. Until you get control of your magic, I’m going to need you to be careful avoiding them once they get here.”
It was a well-known phenomenon that two Wyrd Blood interacting could cause an accidental death. I hadn’t realized until recently that it was avoidable. I’d thought you toughed it out and the strongest Wyrd Blood lived. A few Wyrd Blood wasn’t our biggest issue right now.
It was alarming enough that I turned and opened my eyes. “How can they come? What about the Boom?”
He shifted, making the seat swing again, oblivious to the height we could drop from. “They won’t get here until late tomorrow. If more die before then, I’ll turn them around. If no one else dies between then and now, it’s safe.
“If they do come, I need you to avoid them so it’s not awkward.”
The chair slowed, and we both climbed off and headed down the small path toward the center of the Valley.
I ducked a branch. “Awkward how? You mean if they accidentally kill me and you have to find someone else good at breaking wards?”
“They won’t accidentally kill you. You’re too strong. You’ll kill them, and then that’ll be a pain in my ass.” He said it the way you’d talk about having to wait in line for something.
“Because you’ll have to kill me?” I asked. I didn’t know where that question had popped out from, but now that it was out, I was holding my breath, waiting for his answer.
He shot me a look over his shoulder, as if to say he didn’t have time for my stupid shit. “No. It’ll be a pain in the ass to go kill more of their people if they whine about it. Not a headache I’m looking for.”
I nearly tripped as I stared at his back. “You’d do that for me?”
“You’re one of my people.”
“But I’m not your people.”
He turned, raised a brow, and then huffed as if he’d heard something slightly amusing but not worth discussing. “Fine. You’re not.”
He said it like a man who didn’t believe words meant anything. In a world full of magic, words could bring down empires. Then again, people lied all the time and words often did nothing. Tough thing to debate when you didn’t know which side of the argument you fell on. I’d let that one go until I decided myself.
“Would you really kill them?”
“I just said that I would. Consider it a courtesy kill, if you prefer. Point is, that’s what will happen, and I’d like to avoid it.”
I was still in a bit of a daze when I made a right, heading toward the third tower, where Ruck would be working right now. I needed to tell him to lie low. Then I’d go to Marra and tell her, even if I had to scream it through her door. Then I’d digest the fact that Ryker was willing to not only kill his enemies for me, but allies, too. After I thought it over, maybe I’d be able to decide if that made him a monster or the best person I could’ve aligned with. Maybe both?
“Where you going?”
“I have to—”
“Whatever it is, do it later. We’ve got more to discuss.” His hand found my lower back and he steered me toward his place.
It was late. Ruck would be on the tower for a while, isolated, and Marra would be settled in for bed. I could scream through her door later.
He didn’t say anything else until we got to his place, and I found myself not wanting to run the way I often did at being stuck in a room with him. I settled on his couch as he remained standing.
“Even if your magic doesn’t kill them, other problems could arise from the side effects. Burn and Sneak don’t seem to be affected; that doesn’t mean others won’t be.”
“Other side effects?”
“Not every Wyrd Blood is going to be controlled.”
Oh damn, he felt it too? I’d wondered if he did, but it wasn’t something I’d been ready to admit to. Was he feeling it right now? I was.
I shot up off of the couch. “I need to use your bathroom.” I stumbled awkwardly out of the room and down his hall until I had the door shut behind me.
It was too much in one night. There was Bones, then the Boom, and now this Ryker revelation that my magic affected him the way it did me. And I couldn’t forget that he was willing to kill for me. How was I supposed to think clearly?
Did that mean he wanted me? I mean, I couldn’t deny I’d thought of it. I was a woman with feelings, after all. It wasn’t my fault, either. It was the magic. Maybe he’d wanted me to come back here because he wanted me and not just for the stones? He’d basically said as much, hadn’t he?
I could be dead in three months. Did I really want to die a virgin?
I splashed some water on my face, telling myself to calm down and act cool.
By the time I walked back into the living room, we already had company. Burn was on the couch and Sneak was leaning against the wall.
Ryker was perched on the edge of the table, arms crossed as he seemed to be catching them up on the meeting with Bones. “I want every reading person we trust to be scanning the scrolls and books. If they can’t read, they need to be out collecting more books for people who can. I want them to buy everything that might have any connection to the stones, or the Debt Collector, no matter how questionable or how high the price. The Debt Collector knows something that we don’t. We need to find out what it is.” Ryker turned around and grabbed a sheet of paper on the table. “Sneak, come here.”
Ryker stood and laid a map out on the surface, with Sneak beside him.
Ryker tapped on a spot. “Send some of our people here. Have them work their way around to the rest of the spots and trade with the locals for info. We don’t know how many stones are out there, but all of these spots are rumored to possibly have one. We don’t have the luxury of time, so send everyone you can.”
I sat on the couch, and Burn held his bottle u
p. “Care for a sip? You look like you could use it.”
I went to reach for it, and he held it back. “Hang on.” He lit a fire underneath the bottle as he swished the liquid around for a second. He handed it over. “It’s better warm.”
I sipped. The sourness made my taste buds rebel as the spiciness burned my throat.
“What is that?” I asked, handing it back.
“It’s my own special blend. Good, right?” He smiled and took another sip.
I nodded as I saw Ryker ducking out to talk to more people who’d just shown up outside. Had to be more Wyrd Blood, since they were keeping their distance.
“Did he tell all the other Wyrd Blood to steer clear of me?” I asked, taking the bottle back when he offered. I walked over to the open door, where I could see Ryker talking to a couple of women and a guy. I vaguely recalled seeing all of them before, but never up close.
One in particular I’d seen recently. She was a stunning redhead, and she’d been leaving Ryker’s place around three in the morning. I hadn’t been spying. I’d had trouble sleeping and happened to notice her when I’d visited Ruck on the tower.
“He’s being careful, is all,” Burn said, coming to stand beside me.
I took another swig from the bottle, liking the way the drink warmed the chill in my chest that had settled in after the events of the day.
The redhead laid a hand on Ryker’s arm and tossed her shiny hair over her shoulder. I took yet another swig. What the hell? Did he want me or her? If this were a race, looked like she was in the lead.
Sneak walked to the door. “I’m heading out.”
“Yeah, me too,” Burn said, making his way to the door as well. “Bad day. Can’t wait to go to sleep and hope tomorrow’s a better one.”
“Watch how much you drink. That stuff is strong,” Sneak said as they both gave me a wave goodbye.
I held up Burn’s bottle. “I’m good. See you guys tomorrow.”
I watched as Burn and Sneak said a few words to Ryker before heading home. By the time they left him, only the redhead was left by his side. I saw her glance toward me.
Full Blood (Wyrd Blood Book 2) Page 6