by Devon Monk
‘‘Head east.’’
‘‘How far?’’
‘‘Burns.’’
‘‘Your friend lives three hundred miles away?’’
‘‘You said you wanted to take me outside my father’s range of influence. I don’t think he has much pull in cow country.’’
Zayvion grunted. ‘‘Good thing I have a full tank.’’
I leaned my head against the window. ‘‘When the skyscrapers turn into barns, and the barns turn into mountains, and the mountains turn into rangeland, wake me up.’’ I didn’t intend to really fall asleep.
But I did anyway. It just wasn’t my day.
Chapter Eight
I’d like to say my dreams were troubled. Filled with grief and anxiety-driven images. But I did not dream, did not even feel like I had really gone to sleep until a bump in the road knocked my head a little too hard against the window and I snorted awake.
Oh, so ladylike of me.
Zayvion was a quiet driver. No music, no tapping his fingers, no chewing gum, or yakking on the cell phone. He chuckled when I woke.
I turned my head, my neck stiff from leaning in one position too long. The marks from the tips of my right fingers to my temple were cool and tender, both hands still stiff and swollen, especially the left one with its black bands and cat scratches. Otherwise I seemed very much whole.
‘‘The last skyscraper was at least four hours ago,’’ Zayvion said. ‘‘Lots of barns, miles of fences, cows off the road, cows on the road, horses, rusted cars, and a few hundred bars.’’
‘‘Why didn’t you wake me up?’’
‘‘I didn’t know you wanted to stop for a drink.’’
‘‘Ha-ha. Were you just going to drive until we ran out of road?’’
‘‘No.’’ He glanced my way, looked back at the road. ‘‘I thought I’d wake you up once we got to Burns. We’re almost there.’’
It wasn’t raining on this side of the Cascade Range, but daylight was sliding into the golden tones of late afternoon. The rangelands spread out around us in wide expanses of dusty green and sun-baked browns, sagebrush and juniper dotting the land all the way out to the roll of mountains on the horizon. It wasn’t the wet and green that most people pictured when they thought about Oregon. What few houses we passed were surrounded by battered lawns that eventually stretched out into tracts of land gone brown beneath the advance of autumn.
And yes, we were getting close. Within a couple of miles to the turnoff that would take us up the dirt and gravel road to Nola’s farm, which was good. Even though I’d been soaking in it for hours, I still hadn’t gotten used to the stink of the garbage. I noticed Zay had cracked his window for a little fresh air. Right now, I wanted a shower more than almost anything in the world.
‘‘It’s the first road after we cross the Silvies River.’’
Zayvion frowned. ‘‘Silvies marks the edge of the grid in Burns, doesn’t it?’’
‘‘You know a lot about magic for a guy who stalks people for a living.’’
‘‘Call it a hobby,’’ he said.
‘‘Stalking or magic?’’
‘‘Both. What does your friend do out here?’’
‘‘Farm,’’ I said laconically. ‘‘Not everyone wants to live their lives plugged into magic. Some people like to do things the old-fashioned way—electricity, gas, phone, but no magic.’’
Zay grunted, but didn’t look at all convinced. He slowed the car as he approached the willow-lined river.
I’d forgotten how pretty the countryside was. Even though it wouldn’t be all that hard to make magic accessible, the people of Burns had voted against it. It felt quieter here, in more ways than one, and made it seem like we were worlds away from the noise, the crowd, and the worries of civilization.
‘‘See that bridge?’’ I asked.
Zay nodded at the one-lane with wooden guardrails that spanned the river.
‘‘That’s the edge.’’
‘‘Of what?’’
‘‘Of your world, Zayvion Jones.’’
‘‘My world?’’
‘‘The magic and stalking world.’’
We were almost at the bridge and I knew it was coming, the line, the break, the edge where magic flowed up against, and then fell silently over, pouring into the Silvies and never touching the other side.
I was ready for it. Ready for the stomach-flipping lurch as magic released me from its hold and pushed us through to the other side, water and magic rushing beneath us. Zay drove onto the bridge.
I laughed, releasing the pent-up pressure in my chest. I was light-headed and it had nothing to do with holding my breath. Breaking out of the reach of magic felt like pressing around a corner on a really smooth roller coaster. I wanted to throw my hands in the air and yell.
‘‘Oh,’’ Zay said. ‘‘Shit.’’
So maybe he didn’t like it as much as I did. Maybe he wasn’t ready for the prickly sensation over his skin that felt like every hair was standing up straight. Maybe he didn’t like the weight and pressure of magic drifting away from his head and chest.
Some people didn’t like roller coasters either.
‘‘You okay?’’ I asked.
Zay’s hands clenched the steering wheel so tightly that I could see the yellow of his knuckles. ‘‘I didn’t know.’’
‘‘That magic wasn’t easily accessible everywhere?’’
‘‘Why anyone would want to live without it.’’
We were on the other side of the bridge now, and Zayvion still took it slow, even though the road on this side was in as good, maybe even better, condition than the road on the other side of the bridge.
‘‘Some people choose to live without electricity or indoor plumbing. Some people choose to live without eating meat. Some people choose not to handle magic twenty-four seven, not to gather it, channel it, trap it, harvest it, eat it, breathe it, use it, and hurt for it.’’
Zayvion nodded. ‘‘I didn’t say it was a bad thing. I just said I didn’t understand before.’’
‘‘Before the bridge? You have been over bridges, haven’t you?’’
He gave me a dirty look. Portland was full of bridges—you couldn’t go anywhere without crossing water in that city. ‘‘I haven’t been off the grid for a long time.’’
‘‘Really? I thought you only came to the city recently.’’
‘‘I never said that.’’
‘‘So you’ve lived in the city for years?’’
‘‘I never said that either.’’
‘‘Zayvion.’’ I was getting annoyed now. ‘‘I know you worked for my father, but I don’t know anything else about you. Would it hurt to open up and tell me a little about yourself?’’
He didn’t say anything for a while, and that worried me.
Finally, ‘‘There’s not much to say. I’m an only child, my parents live on the coast. I’ve done freelance work.’’ It sounded like a well-practiced book-report recitation. As revealing as a grocery list.
He stopped talking, so I got him started again. ‘‘What kind of work?’’
He shrugged. ‘‘Whatever I could get.’’
‘‘Spying?’’
‘‘If it pays, I can do that.’’
‘‘You’re not answering me.’’
‘‘Well, I followed you around for your father. I’ve had a couple other jobs along those lines.’’
‘‘You’re a PI?’’
He smiled. ‘‘No. You have to go through training for that, report to the regulatory agencies, keep good records.’’
‘‘Let me guess, you hate paperwork?’’
‘‘See? You know more about me than you thought you did.’’
‘‘I know how you kiss,’’ I said.
‘‘One kiss does not a man make.’’
‘‘What’s that supposed to mean?’’
‘‘It means maybe I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve you haven’t seen yet.’’
‘‘Well,
well. Look at you all confident and strutting. I think getting away from magic has done something to your attitude, Mr. Jones.’’
‘‘Oh?’’
‘‘I think it’s made you human.’’
‘‘Not even close.’’ He took a curve in the road a little too fast and slowed down again. ‘‘How about you, Allie? Tell me about yourself.’’
‘‘You worked for my father. You know everything about me.’’
Zay glanced over at me, his brown eyes intense. ‘‘Everything?’’
I shrugged. ‘‘He gave you my personnel file, right? Don’t look at me like that—I’ve seen it. My entire life in black-and-white—my strengths, my weaknesses. I was just another asset to him, Zay. Not a person. Not a daughter. Not a woman.’’
Zay thought about that while the scenery slid by. ‘‘So tell me something about the woman.’’
This conversation was heading dangerously into intimate territory and that scared me. My heart beat harder. ‘‘What do you want to know?’’
‘‘Why do you Hound so many jobs for free?’’
Oh. I didn’t realize he’d ask about that. I’d done a lot of free jobs. Mostly for people who didn’t have the money, and mostly when it was pretty clear they were being taken advantage of. Every time I sat down to pay my bills I’d ask myself why I did it. It wasn’t like I was rolling in the dough and could afford to be charitable. Hells, I wasn’t even making my rent month to month. But I didn’t do it to get back at my father, though I’m sure he would have disapproved. I guess I did it because I honestly believed it was right to help people when I could.
‘‘Money isn’t everything,’’ I said. ‘‘Magic isn’t either. Sometimes people get confused about that. Sometimes even I get confused about that.’’
‘‘You, confused? When?’’
‘‘College,’’ I said with forced cheerfulness. ‘‘Magic and drugs do not mix. Or rather, they mix too well.’’ I’d lost almost a full term to that particular hell. I’d managed to pull myself out of it with the help of a few people I hadn’t seen since. I found out the hard way I have an addictive personality. That’s bad news for a Hound, and probably why I was always drinking coffee. ‘‘Thanks for bringing up that particular subject.’’
‘‘Didn’t like college?’’
‘‘Liked college. Didn’t enjoy being manipulated into being there.’’
Zay nodded. ‘‘I like that about you.’’
‘‘That I dropped out of college? Did drugs?’’
‘‘That you weren’t afraid to do what you thought was right, even if it meant failure in your father’s eyes. You picked up your life and moved on. More than once.’’
I felt a blush warm my neck and face.
He, of course, chose that moment to look over at me. ‘‘I like that about you too. For such a tough girl, you blush easy.’’
I scowled, but it didn’t help. I just blushed harder. Time to change the subject. ‘‘Lots of people get over failure,’’ I said.
‘‘Lots of people don’t have such a . . .’’ He paused, thought something over. ‘‘A lot of people don’t have a man like your father telling them what they should be. A lot of people can’t stand up to that kind of pressure, Allie, can’t stand up to that kind of will. You could. You did.’’
‘‘For all the good it did me, right?’’ That sounded sullen, so I tried to steer away from the subject. ‘‘Do I get an award for good behavior?’’
He shook his head and did not look at me. ‘‘No,’’ he said regretfully. ‘‘You just get this.’’
‘‘Garbage and an almost-dead guy?’’
The corner of his mouth twitched up.
‘‘Garbage, an almost-dead guy, the cat, and me. Not all bad.’’ He looked over, brown eyes filled with warmth, with sympathy. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t hold his gaze without the blush starting to creep up again. I looked out the window.
‘‘Can we go back to talking about drugs?’’
‘‘If you want.’’
On second thought, I didn’t want that either. My dark past should stay in the past. I changed the subject. ‘‘Nola’s is right up here somewhere. A big white house with a huge driveway. On the right.
‘‘There.’’ I pointed out the window. Her driveway was a gravel and dirt affair, wide enough that three cars could drag race down it, and close enough to her front porch that getting groceries out of the car was a breeze.
Zay turned down the driveway and we crawled along it until we came up next to her porch, the headlights shining against the closed door of her garage.
Jupe, a mud-colored brute of a dog that was part Lab, part Great Dane, and all parts of him huge, tore through the side yard from behind the house, barking his big square head off and wagging his tail like mad.
‘‘Jupe!’’ I called to him. I didn’t do pets, but Jupe was big enough to be a family member. Maybe two. Still, I did not roll down the window, and I wouldn’t until Nola came out. I wasn’t stupid.
‘‘Don’t you remember me, boy?’’ I asked.
‘‘Don’t open the door,’’ Zay warned.
‘‘Not planning on it. Nola should be out soon.’’ At the mention of Nola’s name, Jupe’s ears perked up. ‘‘That’s right, boy. Go get Nola.’’
‘‘You speak dog? Wonderful talent. Now that might get you an award.’’
‘‘Shut up, Jones.’’ I did like it better when we were joking instead of talking about serious things.
Jupe just kept barking and running from Zay’s window to bark at him and over to my window to bark at me.
Finally, the front door opened and Nola stepped out onto the porch. She was country through and through, from her steel-toe boots to her overalls with daisies stitched down the shoulder straps. She’d let her honey-colored hair grow long enough to pull it back in one braid down her back, but otherwise I caught my breath at how much she looked the same as when I knew her in high school.
Nola whistled and Jupe looked back at her. He wagged his tail and barked. She whistled again, lower this time, and the big lunker of a dog bounded over to her and stood at her side.
I rolled the window down a crack. ‘‘Nola! It’s me, Allie,’’ I yelled.
Nola put both hands on her hips and leaned forward at the waist, peering through the dust-covered car windows.
I stuck my hand out the window and waved.
‘‘Are you okay, Allie?’’ I knew what she was asking. Did she need to get a gun, call the cops, or tell Jupe to tear the car apart?
‘‘I’m good. I have someone with me. His name’s Zayvion. And another guy asleep in the backseat.’’