“I can’t get to Cacoy without him,” Ryker added. “It’ll take too long to cross by boat, not to mention they’ll see me as soon as I hit the shore.”
“Wait, why do you keep saying ‘I’? What if there’s a ward in place where you need to get the stone? You can’t go alone.” I needed those stones more than he did. I still didn’t know why he wanted them exactly, but I had a crushing problem only they could fix.
Ryker began shaking his head before I was finished. “That place is crawling with so many Wyrd Blood, you’ll be a liability. They might sense you as soon as you hit the beach.”
“What about you? Your magic’s all over the place these days.” I noticed neither Burn nor Sneak disagreed, but looked the other way, as if a bird flying by the door had become enrapturing.
Ryker kept shaking his head. “I might’ve had a slip-up or two, but I can control it. You can’t.”
“Then help me get control. There has to be a quicker way than what I’ve been doing, and you can’t go without me. I need this stone.”
Burn shrugged. “You could always—”
“No. I don’t want to do that,” Ryker said, shutting him down.
“No what? Are you saying there’s another way?” I stepped closer to Burn, trying to block his view of Ryker. “Burn, tell me what you’re talking about.”
Burn looked over my shoulder at Ryker. That was the problem with being the shortest person in the room. Even sitting, he could still see over me. I needed to start standing on chairs when I spoke.
Burn remained silent, so I turned my wrath on Ryker. “This is my decision, my risks, remember?” He should. He’d said something along those lines a minute ago.
“Fine. Tell her.” He shrugged. It wasn’t a yeah, you made a good point type of shrug. It was a fine, you asked for it variety.
It was the epitome of a fuck-you shrug. The middle finger would’ve been less infuriating. At least that would’ve shown some effort.
I narrowed my eyes and whistled a breath in through a jaw that didn’t want to unclench. I managed to squeak out, “Tell me,” to Burn, without turning from Ryker.
Burn cleared his throat. “You take something to free up your magic. Then you and another Wyrd Blood who’s stronger than you lock yourselves into a small space for an hour, a day, however long it takes. It forces the other person’s magic to sort of condense and get into shape. It might not do anything other than control your range, but that’s all you need right now. It’s a sped-up process of what you’ve been trying to do.
“No one suggested it for a reason. From what I know, it’s not comfortable. People used to do this as a punishment of sorts to Wyrd Bloods who had no control.”
“I’ll do it. It can’t be that bad, and I’m going to Cacoy.”
Sneak hopped down off the table. “He could slip and his magic could accidentally kill you. No one is mentioning that.”
For some reason, I found that hard to believe. Ryker’s magic wanted to mate with mine and create little Wyrd Blood prodigies. I was pretty sure I was safe. Of course, I wasn’t going to say that out loud. From the silence, Burn wasn’t going to either, although I was pretty sure he suspected. It was probably the reason he’d given me the book. Why wasn’t Ryker worried about it, though? Unless he knew too.
“No one is concerned about this?” Sneak asked, looking around the room.
If Burn looked at me, I wouldn’t know, as there were suddenly some very interesting birds flying outside the door. Must be a lot of them today. I didn’t hear Burn say anything, and I was pretty sure he was thinking the same as me.
“I won’t kill her,” Ryker said, shutting that conversation down.
There wasn’t the teeniest drop of doubt in his words. He knew, too. That jerk had known this whole time probably. Man, was he frustrating. At some point, he could’ve said, Hey, you know how I kind of light your pants on fire? It’s just the magic. Don’t sweat it. No. He let me think I had a thing for him when it was all smoke and mirrors.
“Let’s get started.” If I could control my range, maybe I could stop my magic from wanting to play with his magic. That would be a big start in regaining control of my life.
“Tomorrow,” Ryker said, as if he’d etched the words on stone.
“Why not now?”
“Because I can’t.”
He probably wanted more control, even if it were for one more day. Either way, I wasn’t going to get an answer out of him because he walked out of the room.
Sneak headed out behind him, and it was only Burn and I left.
“Funny how we both know Ryker isn’t going to kill me tomorrow,” I said.
“Yes, funny how that is,” he said, a smirk forming.
“Did you find anything else about what’s going on between Ryker and I? Does it get worse? Stabilize?”
He looked to the side as if he were thinking hard. “Who knows? The guy that wrote the book didn’t include anything about that. He could be completely wrong. Maybe you’re both having flare-ups?” He threw his hands up. “You never know.”
“Would you take a bet on it being flare-ups?” I raised my eyebrows. I’d smelled pig pens with less shit than what I was picking up from him. He hadn’t made sure to get that book into my hands because he didn’t believe it. He was sold hook, line, and sinker.
“Hell no. I’d never take that bet.” He laughed.
“Wouldn’t it have been easier to tell me?” I asked, not done with him yet.
“Not a possibility,” he said.
Ryker told him not to. Why the hell would he do that? I’d asked, but I knew I wasn’t getting that answer either.
I shook my head and headed out, but paused for one last question. “How bad is it going to be tomorrow?”
“You’ll get through it.”
I walked out, knowing he hadn’t answered that question either. What was it with these guys?
24
I could feel the magic pouring off the guy before he came close. I looked around, searching for the source. It was a big guy, markings visible on his neck, walking straight toward me. Didn’t he sense me? Hadn’t he been warned of this by Knife? Did Knife have any control of his people at all?
I didn’t need this today. It was getting so I’d be afraid to stretch my legs. I picked up my pace, hanging a right and trying to get out of his path. The guy hung a right as well, and I realized I was his path. He was doing it on purpose. Maybe the guy had a death wish.
He wasn’t alone, either. There was a small entourage of dulls following him, two guys and a woman, every one of them Knife’s people. I recognized a couple of them from the wave of newcomers, plus they wore their boots weird. All of Knife’s people did this weird thing, not lacing their boots up all the way so the tips slouched over.
Now what? I could run, but he’d follow. I knew it. He looked determined to get near me.
I let him get a few feet closer. There were markings on his neck in the form of coils that appeared to dip a little bit below his collar. I had a hunch he liked to claim that he was marked on his torso because of that tiny little drift.
I could scream for help, but I wasn’t sure if a dull could help, and I’d never been much on asking for help anyway. Another Wyrd Blood might end up dying if they tried to step in. Even if I yelled for Ryker, I feared this wouldn’t last long enough for someone to find him.
I quickly got sick of running, so I stopped and turned. He was about twenty feet away.
“Don’t come any closer.” If I could already feel his magic from here, it meant he was letting it loose, and there was a good chance ours wasn’t going to react well to each other. There was already an abrading quality as mine began interacting with his.
“I’m not afraid of you,” Coils said. Why did people always say that when they were? Was it to convince me or them?
You idiot. Of course I couldn’t say that. He was a walking ego, his head inflated three times the size it should be. If I warned him off, he might run toward me to
prove his superiority.
“I know, but why take the chance on one of us getting hurt?” I said. Fuck, that hurt. I wasn’t built for backing down from a challenge. Even hinting that he might be the one doing the hurting sucked. His friends laughed, and it was a like a one-two punch.
He swaggered another step but then stopped. “See? I told you she wasn’t all that,” he said, eyeing me up while his friends laughed some more.
“I think you should test it,” the lanky guy on his right said, a smirk forming.
“No one needs to die today.” I took a step back with my palms up, facing him. This backing down was chafing every nerve ending I had and some I’d just grown. But being stupid shouldn’t be a lethal offense. Although he was playing free and loose with my life, too. That was definitely a lethal offense in my book. Or it used to be. Maybe all this soft living was starting to turn me to mush.
Coils didn’t move.
Lanky took a few steps closer until he was brushing shoulders with Coils. I knew before he opened his mouth that the guy was bad news. Coils was dumb, but Lanky had mean eyes.
Lanky leaned toward Coil’s ear. “Just a little nudge, for fun. How much damage could it do?”
Even mean people didn’t usually want to kill their friends, but not this Lanky guy. I’d seen people murdered before. It wasn’t pleasant, but it was a fact of life. No one had ever tried to use me as the murder weapon, though. I had a greasy feeling in my gut that that was exactly what Lanky was doing. The question was why.
Coil smiled for show. The white shading his knuckles told a different story, but still he edged forward. The second I felt his magic get too close, I took another step back. Shit. I was going to have to run for it again. He was big, bulky, and slow. I was small and fast. I didn’t want to run, but I wasn’t in the mood to be a murder weapon on a Wyrd Blood too stupid to realize what was happening. When I killed, it was because I chose to.
There was a small possibility I could try explaining what I suspected his friend of, but what were the chances he’d believe me over his buddy? Either I swallowed my pride or the big dumb-dumb died.
I spun, knowing this was what it had come to. I took off, and he followed, but I could feel the distance growing fast.
It would’ve all been okay if I didn’t keep looking back to gauge the distance between us and tripped. But I did. It might’ve still been okay if he wasn’t pushing so hard behind me, but he was, and his big bulk had too much momentum to put on the brakes.
Our magic crashed into each other. I felt his incinerate. I didn’t need to turn around to know he was dead, but I did. I pushed up from the ground, small stones still stuck to my palms and dirt all over my legs. No magic pushed at mine; I turned and there he was, no pulse, no nothing.
“You killed him,” the girl shouted, sounding less horrified than she did satisfied. She pointed at me, repeatedly screaming, “She killed him! She’s a killer!”
This was ridiculous. I’d done everything to avoid the fight. I went as far as running away from Coils. The guy’s friend got him killed, and now I got grief?
The screeching chick was leading the way as I allowed her two friends to drag me along. They’d left their good friend Coils facedown in mud because they’d been so torn up. Yeah, right. They didn’t realize I could’ve zapped them off me in a second, or that there were other Wyrd Blood off in the distance that looked ready to help. I’d never seen them before, which meant they were probably Ryker’s people. The one girl had a mark on her wrist I wasn’t able to make out, as she’d pointed to the group giving me trouble.
I waved them off. I had problems, but this crew wasn’t my biggest.
They marched me up to where Knife was staying. The woman banged on his door repeatedly and no one answered. The only thing they’d accomplished was more eyes on us.
“We should go to Ryker’s,” Lanky said.
“Is that smart?” the girl asked, pushing a few stringy hairs away from her face. She’d worked up a sweat with that pounding.
Lanky smiled. “He doesn’t like her. I’ve heard they fight all the time.”
Her face lit up. “Everyone thinks you’re so special, but you’re going to get it now.” She stepped in the direction of Ryker’s. “Come on, boys.”
Special? I didn’t know whom she’d been listening to.
By the time we got close to Ryker’s, he was already stepping out of his place. A man with harshly drawn features walked out behind him. Ryker took a glance in the direction of me and my entourage before he said something to the guy who’d followed him out. The guy left, and Ryker headed toward us.
Great. He looked all sorts of pissed off. He’d probably heard about the dead guy.
Ryker stepped forward, meeting us, his eyes going to where my escorts were holding my arms.
Stringy instantly stepped forward. “She killed our friend. He was walking down the street, doing nothing to nobody, and she killed him.”
Maybe it wasn’t just Lanky who was setting me up for murder. Looked like Stringy had no problems standing there lying about how their friend ended up dead. This whole setup smelled worse than hollyhoney. I just didn’t have anything to back up my gut with. Using me to kill their friend made no sense.
Ryker looked at her for a second before returning to stare at where her cohorts’ fingers dug into my skin. The silence drew out until Lanky and his friend finally let go, picking up on the hint that this wasn’t going to work out the way they wanted. They weren’t the only ones sporting a huge case of shock.
Ryker flicked his wrist, motioning for Stringy to move out of the way. It took her a second, but she did.
“Come on. We have things to handle,” Ryker said, taking a step to the side and indicating I should walk in front of him. I did.
Well, that was uneventful. I wasn’t sure what things we needed to handle, but I’d expected a bit more of a show after they’d dragged me here. From the ugly scowl on Stringy’s face, she had too.
“What about our dead friend?” Stringy demanded. The woman didn’t know when to give up.
Ryker turned back to them. “Every Wyrd Blood was warned to stay away from her. If your friend didn’t, he was stupid. Stupid isn’t my problem.”
I didn’t know what they did after that, because Ryker steered me toward his place.
“Why did you let them drag you here? We both know you went willingly,” he said as we walked to his place.
“I don’t know. Long day? Too tired to bother fighting?” I could have added that I was trying to figure out their end game, but I wasn’t feeling too cooperative. Something was up, but that didn’t mean I was sharing my questions about the incident with Ryker. He wasn’t real good at telling me everything he knew.
“By the way, they left him dead in the street.” It wasn’t my fault he’d died, but that didn’t mean I was okay letting vultures pick at his body. Someone should at least get the burier.
“Someone will collect him,” Ryker said. He walked across the room, heading toward his bedroom. “Sit,” he yelled back.
I sat, not fighting this time. I wanted to sit. I was too tired not to.
I leaned my head over the couch arm and called, “Hey, who was that guy leaving here when we were walking up? I didn’t recognize him.”
“That was the guy from Cacoy. From what he says, he’s seen the bean work.”
The bean worked. Now I needed to get it, or the stone. Either way, Cacoy had two things that might save me.
Ryker walked back in with a bottle in hand. “Knife said Switch won’t be back for a few days. We meet him then.”
He tried to pull out a cork that was sunk too deep before using his teeth to uncork it. He handed it to me.
I remembered the last time I’d drunk in front of him, and it had led to a strip show with no encore. I took the bottle anyway and threw back a gulp.
“So why did you go with them willingly? Since when do you try and keep the peace?”
That was worse than the stuff B
urn drank. I handed Ryker his bottle back.
“I don’t know,” I said. “Figured I’d try and go the calm route for once.” For all the good it did Coils.
“Fuck peace. These people are getting on my nerves. They don’t like it here, they can leave.”
Ah, now it made sense. He was using me to get rid of some of them. This piece fit.
I stood, feeling a little worse for wear but wanting to go lick my wounds in private. I’d made my way to the door before he stopped me.
“Where are you going?” he asked. “We’re doing it now.”
“I thought you couldn’t?”
He walked to the door and closed it. “I don’t give a shit about who you kill, but if it’s going to bother you enough to let a bunch of assholes drag you around, better off getting it done.”
“What do I have to do?”
“You already did it,” he said, holding up the bottle.
25
I walked a few paces away from the couch and banged into the hardest, strongest ward I’d ever felt. The wards I’d struggled to get through in the past always had some give, whether it had been mossy and springy or more like a sheet of wood. They’d never been like the side of a cliff, all stone.
Add to it that the drink he’d given me wasn’t booze. I’d always thought I had no control of my magic. Turned out, I’d definitely had some, as evidenced by how miserable it was right now. Whatever control I’d had was long gone.
I slammed a hand on the ward. “Did it need to be this tight?”
I glanced at Ryker where he sat on the couch. Every muscle was tensed. Arms crossed in front of him, every cord of muscle was delineated.
“I didn’t set the parameters. I merely set it in motion.” His words were forced and the tension was pouring off him.
I believed him. He’d taken a sip of the same thing he’d given me, said a couple of words I’d never heard before, and wham, we’d been in an instant inferno of boiling magic ever since. If I couldn’t see the clock on the other side of the room, I would’ve said it had been hours. In reality, it hadn’t been fifteen minutes yet. I’d been in this bubble of hell with him for less than an hour and I was already on the brink of losing it.
Full Blood (Wyrd Blood Book 2) Page 15