Unhuman Acts
Page 10
The thought had occurred to me. No way was I comfortable walking into battle with him.
We go in just after sundown, Cora continued. Gavin must be close to the MC’s compound. My guess is a basement under The Library, or maybe the downtown Billiard Club.
Nathan said Mordecai is going to teach me to take a truck through the nothingness.
He was here a short time. Said he’d be back.
The salad was loaded down with chopped veggies and various greens, and I closed my eyes in bliss. It was exactly what I’d needed. And then the egg topped everything off.
“Is it just me, or are you really enjoying the salad?”
I opened my eyes in alarm, because I realized I’d been moaning in enjoyment. Several people in the room were staring at me. No, nearly everyone in the room was staring.
I grinned in embarrassment and looked around. “Sorry. It’s a really good salad.” I looked back to Cora. “I’ve heard you moan when a steak is exceptionally good. Don’t give me that look.”
“Salads and steaks are not equal.”
It seems they are to me. Maybe I went too long without food. I dunno.
Cora’s eyes watched someone coming at us from behind me, and I put feelers out. Ryan. Something else I couldn’t do before. He sat beside me with a burger and a smaller version of my salad. “Something tells me I won’t go orgasmic over the food, but I must try the salad now, just to see.”
I rolled my eyes at him. “Hello to you, too. Are you joining us this evening?”
“No. I’ll be watching from the control room. Nathan doesn’t want the bad guys to know I’m working for Drake just yet.”
I studied Ryan’s face. There was something he wasn’t telling us. “You think we’re going to lose?”
“I’m not certain you’ll run them off. Your side has heavy hitters, but their side has those plus cannon fodder.”
His last two words hit me hard. We’d have to get through possibly untrained fighters who were meant to die before we’d be able to hurt the bad guys who needed killing.
And if we wanted to compete on their playing field, we’d have to walk into battle with people we knew weren’t fully prepared, too. My salad was suddenly heavy in my stomach.
“I don’t know if I can do this.”
Ryan sighed and looked to Cora, who told me, “A hundred foot soldiers we take in as expendable, who’ll give us a shot at winning, versus taking the high road and not doing so, and then losing, and billions of people suffer as a result.”
I looked at my food. “We don’t have any expendable people tonight, right?”
“Not to my knowledge.”
I nodded, still looking at my food. “Maybe I shouldn’t be in the strategy sessions once they become necessary. Ya’ll can just tell me where to go and what to do.”
“I’m disappointed in you,” Ryan said. “Hard decisions have to be made in war.”
“I never wanted to be a general. If I have to make those decisions to defend my homes, so be it, but others are in charge of this war.”
“Your title wasn’t given to a pacifist. You killed to gain it. Yes?”
Once again, Ryan knew things he shouldn’t, but I didn’t question it. “It was kill or be killed.”
“Such is the case with most wars... kill, be killed, or be enslaved.”
I felt Mordecai step into the building. Not far away, likely somewhere without people. A few seconds later, he came striding into the room. I might not be comfortable with all my new powers, but I fully appreciated this one. I wasn’t sure how I was feeling others’ animals and power, but I wasn’t complaining.
“Finish your salad, Kitten.” He looked to Ryan, nodded, and then sat by Cora. “Neither of you have had enough sleep.”
I shrugged. “I’ve had enough. Maybe not plenty, but I’m okay.”
He clearly didn’t think so, but he merely stole one of my croutons and crunched it.
I glared at him. “Steal something else and I’ll fork you.”
“Eat, Kitten. We have work to do.”
“Nathan told me. You’re sure I can do it?”
“One way to find out.”
Fifteen minutes later, I was sitting in the driver’s seat of a huge box truck, with Mordecai in the passenger seat. The engine was off. There were no keys in the ignition. I was freezing. October’s supposed to be chilly, not this damned cold. My phone said it was forty-eight degrees, but it felt colder.
Mordecai was fully in teacher mode. “You’re holding the steering wheel, which is connected to the axle, which is connected to the frame. The entire truck is built on the frame.”
I nodded. Since it was an older truck, it was easy to picture.
“Take us into the void and bring us back on the other side of the creek.”
“That’ll mean I’ll have to do it again to get it back.” There wasn’t a bridge over the creek.
“Yes.”
“But no pressure, right?”
He chuckled, I rolled my eyes, but then focused on what I needed to do.
I stepped into the nothingness... and fell flat on my ass because the truck didn’t come with me.
I sighed and went back. I didn’t try to land in the truck. I came back beside it, opened the door, and climbed back in.
“That obviously didn’t work. What did I do wrong?”
“Don’t think of yourself as inside the truck. Drag the steering wheel with you, like you do when you take someone through. You can grab someone’s arm and take them. Think of it that way — just make sure you’re imagining the steering wheel’s connection with the axle and frame.”
“Or what, I’ll take the steering wheel and the truck stays?”
He lifted an eyebrow, and I looked out the front windshield again.
Five seconds of focusing, and I decided I was trying too hard. I leaned forward, wrapped my arms around the steering wheel, and stepped.
And then was shocked when the entire truck came with me. Before I lost the feeling, I stepped right back in, focusing on the field across the creek.
“Fuck me.”
“Don’t have time, but I’ll gladly take a raincheck.”
I leaned back. “Where will I take us for the battle?”
“The dumpster between the RTMC’s bar and bike shop.” He flashed us both there without the truck, waited for me to look around, and took us back. “Go there with Cora or Nathan, no more than two people. Figure out exactly where you need to place the truck, and then flash back and do it. Teaching you is technically doing more than I should to affect the outcome. I don’t dare actually accompany you to battle.”
“I need to put the truck back where I found it, right?”
“You do.”
I leaned forward, hugged the steering wheel, and did it again. It took a helluva lot more power than just taking two people, but it wasn’t terribly hard.
I blew out a breath. “I couldn’t have done that before.”
“No.”
“Bubbles called me Mother Nature. I was afraid to ask if he’d heard someone else say it, or if he sensed it.”
“Don’t fight it, Kitten. Be who you are.”
“Sounds like advice I’d give Lauren.”
“It’s good advice.”
“Ryan isn’t sure we can win this tonight.”
“Listen to his counsel.”
“You aren’t sure either?”
“Watch your back. If things go to shit, follow through on the escape plan.”
“Thanks for teaching me.”
“You’re welcome. I need to leave. Don’t get yourself killed.”
He disappeared, and I wondered why he hadn’t kissed me, but then Apollonius showed up in the yard, and I figured it out.
I slid out of the truck and walked to him.
“I think it’s safe to say you’re no longer human.” He stood with his arms crossed, looking down at me.
I shrugged. “I have no idea what I am, but I’m not comfortable with the labels
people are throwing around.”
He shook his head, uncrossed his arms, put his hands on his hips a few seconds, and finally relaxed his arms at his side. “The Goblin Queen is a title, it isn’t what you are. One expects a Goblin King or Queen to be a goblin. You aren’t. You also aren’t a goddess, though you smell of divinity. You aren’t a nature spirit, though you have the energy of one. You aren’t Mother Nature, though I understand why so many people are using the term.” He shrugged. “Congratulations. I don’t know what you are either.”
I started to say maybe I was a human with the powers of my new office, but in my heart, I knew I’d transformed into something different. I’d felt human before. Now, I didn’t. “What does that mean?”
“Nothing, for now. You aren’t a predator, and with the energy of the nature spirits, it isn’t likely you’ll become violent and start killing, or do something to give away the secret. For now, we’ll classify you as Harlequin, though that’s just another word for Erlkönigin or Goblin Queen, it’ll have to do. Your connection to your cedar and to Cedrotrix sets you apart from prior...” He shrugged. “We’ll just say you’ve made the title yours, for now. We found a marker in your DNA that shows an infinitesimal bit of the correct bloodline. Not even one percent, but it was apparently enough to get you through the barriers.”
“Barriers?”
“Yes. You wouldn’t have made it past the...” He shrugged again. “I can’t remember if it’s the second or third challenge. The wall that looks solid? Only someone of the right bloodline can knock and obtain passage. Others are trapped. No way out. Certain death.” He smiled. “It’s all legal and done. You’re the Harlequin now, for better or worse.”
“Do you have any advice for me?”
He smiled. “I do like you. I have all kinds of advice, but I’m not sure now is the time or place. Find your lion and wolf. Randall needs to give a rousing battle speech before you teleport today’s warriors into battle.”
“It isn’t really teleporting them.”
“Isn’t it?”
He disappeared, and I wondered if he was doing what I did. It wouldn’t look any different.
I blew out a breath and went to find Nathan and Cora.
Chapter 13
The truck had way too many people in the back, with them all crammed in like sardines, but they were only going to be there a few minutes. Cora and I had already gone to look, to figure out where to take the truck so no one would see it appear out of thin air.
I hugged the steering wheel, stepped us into the nothingness and then right into the spot we’d chosen. It took a great deal more energy than taking the empty truck, but a few breaths let me replenish. I could get used to this. Cora stomped her foot three times, and I felt the rear door open, and then people jumping out the back and onto the ground. No one said a word. We’d all storm around the building and hopefully take our enemy by surprise. Ten-minute-old satellite shots showed us where they were, and everyone had a job. The MC came streaming out of the bike shop, and we joined them as they raced by us.
The bad guys had claimed the road for over a week, shutting it down so no one could come in or go out. Our people formed a line in the restaurant parking lot and fanned out from there, and hit them with a rain of silver laced bullets.
Meanwhile, Cora and I levitated to the top of the restaurant and picked people off, blowing their heads up one by one. Someone figured out where we were, and I flashed us to the top of the bike shop — farther away, but well within our limits. This was a flat roof, and we dropped to our bellies close enough to the edge so we could see the action, and went back to work.
However, two hectic, frantic, hellish minutes in, it was clear we were outgunned. I tried to work faster, but they had at least four or five times more people than us.
And then Cora went into a fetal position and pain slammed into my entire being. At first I thought she’d been hit. I curled up in a ball and gasped for air. Fire in my chest, and such sorrow, tears filled my eyes. In agony, I followed the energy and discovered Randall had been struck in the heart with silver. He was dying. Without thinking, I flashed to him, reached inside him, and pulled his wolf from him. The wolf sprang out, pissed at the world, and I was the closest thing to attack. Nathan’s strong arms whisked me away at the last moment, and then a bullet hit me for real, and it fucking hurt. However, a quick inventory told me the thigh shot wasn’t fatal, and I was certain I could continue to function. I noted lots of bullet holes in Nathan. How was he surviving with so much silver in him?
“We need to leave,” I told him. He’d taken us behind a van, so we had a little protection. “We’re outgunned and outmanned.”
“They put all the pack wolves out of commission with the shot to Randall’s heart. They’re back, but not fighting. We’re losing too many. Cora needs to step up until Randall can take the reins again.”
I telepathed to Cora. Are you okay? Can you help the other wolves?
Working on it. Randall’s pissed.
He’ll have to be pissed. He was dying.
You’ve been hit?
Yeah. Thigh. I’m okay for now, but we should engage our escape plans. We can’t win this.
I met Nathan’s gaze. “I think I’m good for ten or twelve minutes before the pain becomes too much.” I kept the conduit open, so Cora could hear our conversation. “Cora’s doing what she can with the wolves.” I shook my head. “Duke went to wolf when I pulled Randall’s from him, and it feels as if the two are...” I rubbed my upper arms. Goose bumps had formed. “I guess it’s the twin thing Duke told us about. They’re on a rampage, but it isn’t going to be enough.”
“No, it isn’t. We’ve initiated retreat. Something wasn’t right from the moment we arrived.”
We started with around seventy people, and we left with perhaps forty. We’d thought they had around eighty skilled warriors and that many unskilled fighters, so our contingent and the MC along with the vampires should’ve been able to easily take them. However, I saw no men on their side without skill. They hadn’t brought cannon fodder, as our advisors had told us. Also, the vampires hadn’t shown up.
We were battling Celrau, demons, half-demons, and a smorgasbord of predatory shapeshifters — and they were well armed. Cora, Patrick, and a few other Drake Security badasses stood on top of the box truck with automatic weapons, holding the bad guys off while our people escaped into the truck. Nathan lifted me into the driver’s side and then stood on the running board to protect me from bullets I knew were hitting him in the back. I couldn’t see what was happening at the rear of the vehicle, but I hugged the steering wheel and forced myself to wait until we had everyone in the truck. When Nathan told me, “Now!” I stepped us all out of Chattanooga and then back in at Trezevant.
As soon as I was certain the truck and all inhabitants had made it, I telepathed Cora. I’m going to see if Cedrotrix can help me heal. Take care of our people.
A second before I stepped out, Nathan threw his arms around me, and thus came with me.
We landed in the courtyard, and I heard people around us crying that the queen was hurt. Now that I didn’t have to be alert and functioning, my body was rapidly shutting down.
My guard tried to get Nathan away from me, and I managed to open my eyes long enough to tell them he was a friend and he wasn’t leaving.
When Zeta arrived, Nathan tried to keep her from me, and I found enough strength to tell him, “These are my people, Nathan. Let them help me!”
I awakened in bed, with the Amakhosi beside me, and Zeta sitting in a chair, rocking.
I breathed in, blew it out, and took inventory. I seemed fine, but I hadn’t moved yet.
“Was it silver?”
“It had a high amount of silver in it,” Zeta told me. “You are not susceptible. We got the bullet out and assisted your body’s natural healing ability.”
“How long did I sleep?”
“Fourteen hours. The lion refused to leave your side. How do you feel?”
“You were unconscious. I needed to be sure you were okay.”
I bent my legs, flexed my thighs, and wiggled my toes. “Nothing hurts.”
“You’ll be able to speed up your own healing without help eventually,” Zeta said. “The lion had silver bullets in him. He changed to lion and back to rid himself of them. We’ve fed him several times.”
I rolled back to my side and smiled at Zeta. “Good call. When in doubt, always feed him. Did Mordecai show up?”
“Briefly, multiple times. A quick check on you, and he left. Your guard isn’t at all happy about him popping in and out.”
“Your queen needs food.” Nathan sounded grumpy even after eating.
I rolled back to look at him again. “Do you need to change a few more times? Is the silver still bothering you?”
“No. I need them to see me as yours, and you as mine.”
His words may as well have been a dagger through my heart, but I refused to let my eyes get all watery while he was around. He didn’t get to see my tears anymore.
“You broke up with me, Nathan. You aren’t mine anymore, and I’m not yours. That was your choice, and being pissy about it now just makes you look stupid.”
He shook his head and looked back to Zeta. “She needs food, and we need to get back home.”
“I can flash you back,” I told him. “Your people probably need you. I can’t go back just yet.”
“How long do you need before you can return and stay?”
“As you keep saying, I need to eat. I need to walk the grounds. I also need to talk to the stewards, because arriving and leaving without doing so shows them disrespect.” I sighed. “I don’t know, and I haven’t figured out how time works between the realms yet, either. Fourteen hours here is probably more than a day at home.”