The Witchkin Murders

by Diana Pharaoh Francis

  At that moment, Kayla saw her grandmother. Theresa Runyon stood inside a magical barrier surrounding the rock spell pattern. Kayla had never seen her without an aging glamour. Though her face was pale and her eyes sunken and bruised looking, she appeared near the same age as Landon. She stood with her shoulders square, her mouth flat and resolute as she fed power into a lavender shield protecting her and the giant from the two goliaths.

  Kayla swung her head back and forth. Where was Aunt Margaret?

  The pyramid caught her attention. She could smell sickness emanating from it, and a perfume she recognized. No, not a perfume. Sage, rosemary, lavender, cedar, sweetgrass. They overlayed the stench of illness, but didn’t eradicate it.

  Movement inside the doorway. Aunt Margaret. Like Grandmother, she’d dropped her glamour and now looked like her mother’s sister. She gazed out at where Kayla’s grandmother poured energy into the barrier.

  Suddenly the two goliaths marched toward the pyramid, ignoring Grandmother and the chanting man. A note of desperation colored his words, turning them ragged and short as he watched the mammoth men stomp across the packed dirt.

  The three creatures from the lab—she tried to remember what they were called. She couldn’t. Demon dogs. Hellspawn. Either worked. They trotted toward the pyramid ahead of their enormous masters, who should have moved ponderously, but instead walked with liquid grace.

  Whatever they wanted inside, Kayla couldn’t allow them to get there. Not just for her aunt. Fury over the slaughter they’d committed on so many innocents boiled her blood. Her talons clutched deep in the ground. This was her city; these were her people. These fuckers needed to learn they couldn’t waltz in and hurt whomever they wanted. There would be consequences. She bared her teeth, making a low growling sound in her throat. Deadly consequences.

  She slunk forward, her long elegant body undulating back and forth. She carried her tail out behind her. Every scale on her body lifted in preparation for battle. She’d neglected that when she first fought the three devil dogs. She wouldn’t underestimate them this time. They wouldn’t be able to bite through the scales easily, and not without cutting the fuck out of their mouths.

  Malice glittered icy cold in her heart. Time for justice.

  She roared, announcing her presence before lunging to stand between the intruders and the pyramid. One of the goliaths gave a harsh command. The three devil dogs leaped at her.

  Instinct took over. She whirled, lashing one of the beasts with her tail, sending it bowling. She snatched another in her teeth and shook it viciously, then threw it at one of the goliaths. The last jumped on her back, but screeched in fury and pain before dropping off. She remained in position, guarding the pyramid entrance.

  The animals regrouped, and their masters lost immediate interest, turning instead to launch an attack on Grandmother and the chanting man.

  The three hellhounds came at Kayla again. Before they could reach her, a bolt of energy came from nowhere. It slammed the second and third demon dogs. She knocked aside the first one. It hit the ground and launched at her again. She rose on her hind legs, grabbing it in her claws and slamming it to the ground. She held it there while it squirmed and moaned with pain.

  One of the others leaped at her again. It grabbed at her neck with its clawed hands, then screamed in pain and fell away. Kayla snarled triumph. They’d thought her easy prey. In the lab, she had been, her human mind holding her back, but not now. Now she was fury and justice and vengeance rolled into one.

  Now she’d make them pay.

  One of the goliaths turned at the sound of the demon dog’s cry. It stretched out a giant hand and magic unraveled from it. In that moment, she heard Ray’s yell, and then a blast of magic hit the goliath.

  It turned and fired back. The two streams of magic met, and the world exploded. Kayla clutched her claws into the ground as it shook and shuddered.

  She saw the blast wave strike Ray. She saw him flung up into the air. She saw him falling. Saw him disappear off the edge of The Mound.

  Her mind collapsed to a single point of unbearable pain. She roared, unable to contain it all. She zeroed in on the goliath who’d killed Ray. He couldn’t have survived the fall, much less the blast.

  Her world narrowed. Every cell, every nerve in her body burned with unimaginable pain. It exploded from her in a scream that tore her throat. She’d make the creature pay. Show this thing exactly what pain meant. This creature who’d invaded her home and killed the person who meant most to her in the whole world. It was all she had left.

  Sensation ran through her. She shuddered as something moved within, a feeling like a dozen different-sized gears sliding together and turning in a complicated pattern. Her human self swelled, flowing outward and melding with her transformed self. No longer was her mind and being divided. They’d joined together, sharing rage, burning loss, a need for vengeance, and the unrelenting compulsion to protect her territory and people.

  She stalked forward, head lowered, body tensed, her tail slowly winding back and forth.

  The goliath watched her come, its red eyes somehow vacant and shrewd at the same time. It spoke sharp-edged words she didn’t understand. A warning or maybe a curse. Invisible somethings hit hard on her chest and sides. Her breath whooshed out of her. She didn’t stop. The goliath lifted its hand again.

  She leaped, thrusting herself like a comet. She crashed into the massive creature. It felt like hitting a stone wall. Its hand slapped her head. Magic jolted through her, electrifying her insides. She staggered to the side, her body shaking as the power washed through her.

  She collected herself and leaped again, clawing at its stomach as she snapped her jaws tight on its arm. She dug runnels into its skin, and her teeth pierced its flesh and ground against rock-hard bone. It tasted of dry leaves and gravel.

  The goliath made a hollow sound and punched its other fist into her chest. This time the jolt of energy seemed to liquefy her flesh. She dropped to the ground, fire searing through every cell of her being.

  The snarls and growls of the demon dogs coming for her broke through her pain. She rolled to her feet, scrambling hastily back to the pyramid. Her body shook with continuing reaction. To her frustration, the goliath barely looked the worse for wear.

  As luck would have it, both of the hulking monsters decided to lavish their attention on her as the two remaining demon dogs closed in.

  What could she do? What the hell use was it being a god if she didn’t have any power to do anything?

  No. She rejected that. She must have some ability she could use against them. She’d quieted the damned whirlpool and that was a force of nature. If she could do that, there had to be more to her than brute strength and teeth and claws.

  Unfortunately, nothing came to mind. No last-minute saving grace. No sudden bolt from the blue.

  So be it.

  Kayla crouched, tensing herself, her tail winding slowly back and forth as she watched them come.

  A piercing scream ripped open the night. Kayla felt the agony of it in the air, in her veins. She leaped forward in answer, though she had no idea what she was answering.

  Then everything stopped.

  The lavender barrier protecting the blond giant had disappeared. He now stood in front of Kayla’s grandmother. Several inches of bloody sword stuck out through her back. With little ceremony, the giant pushed her grandmother’s body to the ground, unsheathing the sword from her body as he did.

  A cloud of gauzy magic clung to the weapon, roiling and twisting, and slowly sank inward to disappear along with the blood coating the blade. The sword gleamed brilliant white, a tooth of ivory.

  The giant of a man swung the blade back and forth as if testing it, then set his sights on the closest goliath. His not-particularly-handsome face twisted with hate. He let out a war cry and lunged.
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br />   To Kayla’s amazement, the goliath jerked away from the sword and lobbed a bolt of magic at the giant, who slashed the sword through it. The magic exploded into sparks. Kayla rocked backward as the shockwave hit her.

  Now the other goliath joined the fight. In the meantime, the devil dogs slunk closer to her, clearly undecided about what they should be doing. Blood coated the jowls of one, though the cuts it had taken from her razor scales seemed to have closed. The other limped, leaving blood prints on the ground.

  She snapped at them, and they groveled on the ground, whining.

  Deciding to press her advantage, Kayla charged. Both sprang away, retreating a good twenty feet. She charged again and they retreated again. She pulled back too, having come too close to the ménage-à-trois fight.

  Both goliaths flung bolts of magic at the giant who parried and danced aside, but continued to push toward them. Clearly the sword could hurt the goliaths, and all three of them knew it.

  She could have let them fight it out and then attacked the winner, but she knew for sure she couldn’t beat just one of the goliaths. The blond giant was still unknown. Better to help him defeat the mammoth monsters than risk them winning.

  Kayla sprang at the closest hulk, landing on his shoulders and digging her talons deep. She raked at him with her back claws as her weight and momentum knocked him to the ground. She clawed at its spine, raking the flesh from its back.

  It barely seemed to notice. It pushed up from the ground and Kayla jumped off it, grabbing its foot in her teeth and shaking it viciously as she threw her weight back. It fell again.

  A bolt of green magic came from off to the side, spreading over the creature and weaving into a net. It dug runners into the ground, rooting itself. Another bolt of electric lightning smashed into the second goliath. That distraction gave the blond giant an entry. He lunged and drove the sword into the creature’s chest. It slid in easily, as if the goliath was made of mist.

  The giant yanked the sword free and backed up, watching. Kayla did the same, hypnotized. The goliath’s body turned shiny black, and cracks zig-zagged wildly across every inch of it. A glow built inside where the sword had gone in. Fiery red liquid oozed out and ran down to the ground.

  Red power leaked out of the eyes, coalescing into a vaguely man-shaped cloud with what might have been wings.

  “You may win today,” it told the giant in a deep, raspy voice. “If my brother fails, we will come again for her. We will bring her back and send her soul to Tipolihuican forever. Then I will travel to Tamoanchan and destroy your mate and spawn. This I vow. I will never allow such vermin to rest safely beside the fountain of the misty skies.”

  Before Kayla could really register that she understood the words though they had not been spoken in any tongue she knew—the ghostly creature whipped downward, swiping all-too-solid claws at the blond man who swung the sword to deflect. Too late. Streaks of black rose on his face. His shirt shredded, and more putrid black streaked his chest and arm.

  His eyes rolled up into his head, and he collapsed.

  The second goliath seemed to take this as an invitation. It pushed against the magic net holding it to the ground. Red flared around its body, and the net melted away with the not-at-all-pleasant smell of cooked cabbage.

  Kayla raced forward, getting to the prone giant first and snatching the hilt of the sword in her mouth before racing to the other side of The Mound, avoiding the rock pattern and the crumpled body of her grandmother. The goliath lumbered after her, moving quicker than she expected.

  Now what should she do? Could she hold the weapon in her mouth well enough to attack?

  “Kayla!”

  Zach and Raven raced toward her, flinging magic bombs at her attacker as they sped across the ground.

  The creature turned and launched a sweeping attack of its own. Magic poured from its hands, coiling around the two and reeling them toward it. Both fought back, but it was clear they couldn’t overwhelm the goliath’s power. God’s power, Kayla reminded herself with no small bitterness. Why didn’t she have some useful tool of her own?

  Another battery of magic struck the goliath. This time from the cave. Her Aunt Margaret had come out and sent a swarm of spinning gold stars at the creature. They whirled and cut at it, but the thing hardly seemed to notice.

  Kayla had to get close enough to it to use the sword. In beast form, she couldn’t do that. Not with any degree of certainty, and she had a feeling she’d only get one chance. Anyway, to wield the sword she needed hands. That meant transforming, which meant she’d be as vulnerable as the slaughtered people sprawled around the edge of The Mound.

  The goliath kept attacking Zach and Raven. The air crackled, and the night lit on disco fire as their magics collided. The air shuddered and bulled into Kayla, knocking her around.

  Now was her chance.

  Kayla concentrated on transforming. She wasn’t wet. Hadn’t been for a while, but she’d also embraced her shifter form, wanting its power and speed. That had let her stay in that form. Now she felt a give inside her, a twist like a key in a rusty lock, and then her flesh melted and reformed into her own ordinary self.

  The sword dropped to the ground. Keeping one eye on the goliath, Kayla bent to pick it up. The moment she touched it, she wanted to vomit.

  Souls and death clung to the weapon. She looked at it. It was formed from bone, or rather, bones. A 3-D puzzle of many. Two and two clicked together and she realized that they must be the missing bones of the murder victims. She undoubtedly held in her hand the bone from the dryad and many others.

  Use us, a tart voice said inside her head, sharp among the feathery whispers of multiple voices chorusing with it. We are what we are, and we are dead because of these bastards. We cannot kill what possesses them, but we can make it impossible to stay.

  Kayla almost dropped the sword. “Grandmother? But how? He didn’t take any of your bones.”

  She almost rolled her eyes at herself. Because of course she knew so much about magic and the blond giant and the spell he’d cast.

  He wanted my blood not my bones. Now don’t waste time. They will kill Margaret and you, and my sacrifice will be meaningless. We can talk later.

  Damned right they’d talk. Kayla had a shitload of questions for her grandmother.

  Kayla firmed her grip on the sword. Long and slim, the blade didn’t look particularly sharp, except for the point. Symbols and words etched its length.

  This is necessary, Grandmother said, and something sharp cut deep across Kayla’s palm. Blood welled between her fingers and ran in streamers down the blade. It filled the etchings. As blood covered the last one, power exploded. It burned through Kayla like a Nebraska lightning bolt. Her entire body went incandescent.

  The power flashed outward, driving out along invisible filaments connecting her like a spider web to everything around her. She felt the uneasy stir of roots in the ground, the haze of pain mantling the ground surrounding The Mound, the army of dead piled deep and wide, the many heartbeats of the living pattering away in an ocean rhythm, and so much more. Her entire body lit with sensation, signals coming at her in a sonic hail storm.

  She dropped to her knees, head reeling, trying to make sense of the inundation, or at least keep from being overwhelmed. But more kept rolling in, and she didn’t know how to understand it or sort through it.

  Stop your whining. You’re a god. Be one and hurry up about it, her grandmother’s voice said in that no-nonsense vinegar tone Kayla remembered so well. You can’t fail.

  The hell she couldn’t. But Kayla wasn’t going to take up the challenge. The cost would be high. Too high. It was already too high. She squeezed her eyes shut, determined not to think of Ray.

  “I don’t know how to be a god. I don’t even know what it means.”

  We can feel your connection
to us, to this land. Grutte Pier and the Butterfly don’t know it, but the weapon will do far more in your hands than anybody else’s. Your land and people will give you strength.

  “Grutte Pier? The Butterfly?”

  Focus. Claim your power. We’re almost out of time.

  Grandmother and the other voices fell into expectant silence.

  At first Kayla had no idea what to do. She ran over the conversation with her grandmother again. Connections. All the connections to the sword and the city and that she was the center of the web.

  Taking a slow breath, she made herself relax and opened herself to the connections. At first she tried to sort through them, but couldn’t. There were too many, and they came bulleting at her too fast. Instead she let herself float in the swarm of sensations, letting them stitch and harpoon into her without paying attention to the individual strikes. She’d let her subconscious deal with sorting them out and try to stay sane in the meantime.

  She had no sense of time. It could have taken days or minutes or seconds. She had to hope that Raven, Aunt Margaret, and Zach would keep the goliath and demon beasts occupied.

  When she finally felt the deluge slowing, she brought herself back to alertness, holding herself carefully as she adjusted to her new awareness. It was like having a sixth or seventh sense, a dimension of feeling that anchored into her being and buzzed through her with a not-too-unpleasant electricity and let her touch and have an awareness far beyond herself.

  Good. We can start. The sword will want to drink him, but you mustn’t let it. We are not enough to overwhelm him. Do you understand?

  Not even a little bit. “Don’t let the sword drink him,” Kayla repeated as she pushed herself to her feet, leaning heavily on the sword.