Nine Lives of an Urban Panther

by Amanda Arista

  “Why a barn?” the voice echoed through the familiar space with an equally familiar tone.

  Heaven. Was this heaven? Was Iris was meeting me in heaven? Someone had surely gotten the paperwork wrong.

  I walked out of my cage, and the door moved silently on its hinges. In fact, everything was silent. No squeaky gate, no cooing birds in the hay loft, no rustle of a breeze through the rafters. It had been cleaned out of its usual broken-down farm equipment and the open space looked like a checkerboard of light.

  There was a woman standing in the middle of the open floor of the barn. Her dark hair floated in a breeze I couldn’t feel, but I could smell. She smelled like honeysuckle, strong sweet honeysuckle.

  “Why did you choose a barn?” she asked again.

  “For what? For heaven?” I’d never been a believer before, but this wasn’t the Neveranth. It felt different beneath my bare feet. And it was hardly Dallas. There was a completely different feel in the energy of the place, a deep, more thrumming sort of power.

  “For your safe place. For most people it’s their childhood homes or fluffy clouds.”

  The woman’s sea green eyes landed on mine and I couldn’t help but smile. “It’s a long story. Where am I?”

  The woman matched my smile. Her face was so familiar, but I couldn’t place it, like my memories were far away.

  “We are in between all that,” she said softly.

  I wanted to hug her and my arms seemed to ache for it, but I didn’t know why. “In between life and death?”

  “In between even that,” she repeated.

  “Well, we can’t be in my brain. It’s not this neat.”

  The woman laughed and it sounded like a wind chimes, twinkling and light. “You are too funny, Violet Jordan.”

  My name sounded oddly formal on her lips.

  Her shoulders dropped and so did her smile. “You’ll need to keep that humor.”

  I looked around the quiet barn. It was so peaceful here and I didn’t hurt and there was something about this woman that was just so very something I couldn’t remember.

  “And you’ll need to go back.”

  “Are you sure about that? I’m not doing a great job of it.”

  “No.” She chuckled. “But the job is getting done.”

  She moved toward me and I didn’t hear the rustle of her long skirt along the ground or the press of her foot against the hay.

  “You’ve done exactly what needed to be done, Violet. And I wish that you could rest here, but you can’t.”

  Her long pale fingers reached out past me and pointed to the cage that I had come from.

  A dark shadow loomed, trapped behind the bars. The man-sized beast was a tarry mess of teeth and fur and it burned to just look at the void of its existence.

  “What is that?”

  “The power that he collected. The tortured souls of those he killed.”

  My stomach churned. “This is what a demon looks like?”

  “Demon power, yes.”

  I had to look away and soothed my eyes on her curly hair and her smooth, milky skin. Her pale green eyes were at my level and her rosy lips were pressed together.

  When she touched my cheek, I knew this was more than just a dream. This was more than just a vision or a concussion. This was when I felt the in-between, felt the pull in both directions and felt what she really was.

  “You’re the Mother,” I breathed.

  She simply smiled. “I’ve been called worse.”

  “The all-seeing, all-knowing being who created the Wanderers knows who I am.”

  “And has one last thing she’s going to ask of you.”

  I took in a deep breath of air. Was it even air? It was whatever she wanted it to be.

  “There was a prophecy about you.”

  I nodded. “I would stop the demon from destroying the world. Done. Finito. Covered that chapter last December.”

  “There was another.”

  I knew it, like she’d brought it back to the forefront of my brain. It echoed in Cristina’s smooth voice. “The demon will be freed and we will know and love her.”

  The woman nodded.

  I put the pieces together quickly. “You want me to take that power and go back to Dallas.”

  “Yes.”

  I panicked. My heart jumped up in my chest and I couldn’t breathe. “I can’t harness that. A Legacy, sure. Dealt with that but not a demon. It will kill my panther like it killed Spencer’s.”

  “It’s just the power,” she repeated.

  “It’s not, it’s all the souls of the people Spencer . . .” The wave of my own words came flooding back to me. I bent over, my hands on my knees and took in a deep breath. It’s not the power; it’s how you use it. It’s not how you live on four legs but on two.

  “I know you are strong enough to do this, Vi.”

  “How?”

  “Because I made you this strong.”

  I stood up straight for that one. “If you’re responsible for all the crap I’ve been through, I think you and I need to have a conversation.”

  “I think I’ll pass. I saw the conversation with Yasmina last winter.”

  I took in another deep breath of honeysuckle. I could taste it on my tongue, the sweet thick scent that reminded me of something.

  “How does it work?”

  She looked down at her long fingers as they rubbed together. “I know what I need, but the choice is up to you because the task is up to you.”

  “Why can’t it just stay here?”

  “Because when you are gone, this place is gone and it will find another, weaker, to host it and continue on its way. Creating unbalance.”

  “And unbalance equals chaos.” Finally one of Jessa’s lessons had sunk in.

  I couldn’t have that. Too many innocents had already suffered because of my weakness. “So I have to take carry-on luggage when I go back?”

  “And because of the Key Holder, the window for your choice is getting smaller.”

  “Jessa?”

  “She’s coming for you.” The woman looked off into the sunlight. “And she is very powerful.”

  I smiled. “You should see her when she’s shopping.”

  The Mother smiled.

  “I’m open for suggestions on how do to this?”

  “You take it back with you, keep it prisoner. You already know how to harness a power that isn’t yours. Just protect it. It is our people, Violet.”

  “That’s a lot to ask.”

  “It’s you or an innocent. It will keep feeding until it doesn’t need a host. Until the Neveranth can’t hold it anymore.”

  I looked at the spiky mess as it hovered in the cage.

  “You have your pack to keep you strong. You’ve got Chaz and Jessa to keep you, Violet. You’ve got a good shot at doing something that no one else has done.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Reforming a demon.”

  I shook my head. “I still think you’ve got the wrong girl.”

  “You’ve always been the right girl, Violet.”

  I looked back at the beast and then at the woman. “This thing kills even more of our kind if I don’t do this.” I felt the chill of raindrops down my back. “Jessa.” The silly girl was coming for me.

  The woman’s light green eyes sparkled silver with anticipation.

  “Fine. But if you could make the next couple of months a little easier, me and MacTarball here would appreciate it.”

  The woman nodded.

  I looked at the raging power and walked toward it. I really wasn’t the smartest color in the box, cleaning up another mess that Spencer had left for me.

  As I reached out my hand to touch it, I saw the perfect sparkling ring on my finger. Chaz. The boys. Jessa. They’d helped me clean up the first mess and I knew that I could count on them to help me again. Because they were my family.

  I reached into the dark, slick mass and the hot sinews wrapped around my arms. The Legacy met it with
a hot fierceness as I looked over my shoulder at the woman standing there, wearing the same green dress with the white flowers that I had seen all those years ago.

  “I have faith in you, kitten.”

  Tears in my eyes, I turned toward the demon power and was swallowed into the blackness.

  “DAMN IT, VIOLET. If you don’t wake up I’ll torch your copy of Firefly signed by the whole cast.” Jessa’s shrill voice echoed through my throbbing head.

  “You do that, and I’ll haunt your ass forever.”

  Arms encircled my neck and I was pulled up to a sitting position.

  And the pain in my everything was back. My eyes flew open and I saw everyone. Chaz, Tucker, Tyler, Nash. It was like waking up from Oz. But right now I felt more like the witch smashed under a house.

  “Finally.” Jessa sighed as she released my neck.

  I looked up at Chaz. In one glance, he knew that something was off. He offered a hand that wasn’t occupied by a very large shot gun. I carefully took his hand and he pulled me to my feet roughly.

  Chaz held me against him for a moment and I closed my eyes. He was different. Hotter, his power was out, for a change, out and swirling around him. He read the questions in my eyes because he knew every thought already in there. “What is it?” he whispered into my ear.

  “Cristina was right,” I whispered.

  The moment I stepped away from him, I could feel the demon squirming around in there, like a hyperactive octopus undulating just below my breastbone.

  “What the hell was that?” Jessa asked.

  “Did someone have sushi for lunch?” Nash asked as he held his chest.

  “Not exactly.”

  I looked at my family and didn’t even think about lying to them. “Spencer’s Legacy was a demon. The Mother asked me to take it.”

  “You’re a demon?” Jessa gasped.

  “Just like Cristina said,” Tyler growled.

  “And the Mother spoke to you?” Tucker asked.

  “Apparently, I’ve got one more prophecy to live out. And I’m not a demon, just a host of demonic power.” There was a hum in the ground, like it was urging us forward. “I think we need to go.”

  “The phrase ‘high-tailing it’ never seemed so appropriate,” Jessa said.

  I looked around at the others. Tucker looked down at Spencer’s body. His usually tan skin had gone white in the failing light of day and there was a blue tinge to his lips.

  Tucker looked up at me and then down at the body. With one quick movement, he lifted the dead body and carried it easily in his arms.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  “I need to make sure that he’s really dead. For good dead.”

  “You need proof?”

  “Yes, and the others will follow with proof.”

  I wanted to protest but I needed peace. I felt it more than ever burning beneath my breastbone. I needed no one to doubt me. “I trust you, Tucker.”

  “I would hope so. Now do what Jessa says.”

  WHEN JESSA PULLED me through, the demon power did a clog dance in my chest, excited for the opportunities on this side of the Veil. I fell to my knees and bathed in the pitter-patter of Jessa’s energy around me as she struggled with closing the Veil.

  I looked down at the cement beneath my hands and it took me a moment to realize where we were. “Is this your office?”

  “Good thing I totally ignored your mandate to brick this place up.”

  I could feel the rest of my pack around me and realized how much of their strength I’d missed while disconnected from them. It felt like home again. I felt closer to me already.

  With every ounce of energy I had left, I built a hard shell around the power in my chest. It was nothing more than the candy coating for it, but I felt better.

  “Violet.” Chaz knelt down beside me. “What do you need?”

  “Time. Strength. A caramel macchiato.”

  Chaz waved his hand, and then there were warm hands on my shoulder. Nash, and then Peter, and when Tyler’s hand appeared before me, I took it and pulled myself to my feet.

  His hand tightened around mine and I met him with my gaze and my power. With all the focus on the demon ball, my Legacy got free reign to wave around as it wanted.

  Tyler pushed back. Testing me like he tested the younger members, making sure I was still me.

  I smiled. “I’m okay. Tyler. Just stay close.”

  There was a surge of roses in the room. I turned around to find the tear in the Veil still open. Carefully, not sure of my footing or anything else, I joined Jessa. “Problem?”

  “You know,” she said as she wove her fingers through the air. “I really didn’t think this through.”

  “When did our plans ever go right anyway?”

  I touched her shoulder and I don’t know if it was the demon or the bond, but I could see the rip in the Veil. Could feel it against my skin as I stood with my best friend, the Key Holder to my Guardian.

  “I’m not strong enough,” Jessa confessed in a whisper. “This isn’t going to work this time. It’s been ripped too many times.”

  “You shouldn’t have opened it.”

  “And leave you there to rot? Never.” It was possibly the first time I’d ever heard Jessa growl. She officially had been hanging out with me too long.

  Time to put the thinking caps on. “What can we do?”

  “Always seemed to like blood before.”

  I offered up my already bleeding hand and the Veil lapped at my palm, like a cat licking a wound. But then it wrapped around my arm and began to pull me back.

  The Legacy and the demon fought and I felt like I’d been splattered out like a paintball on a concrete wall, all my colors going in a million directions. The Legacy pulled away from it while the demon power fought to dive back in.

  “Chaz,” I gasped.

  His arms were around me in an instant, and in an instant, I was calm, steady again. Apparently, he had the same effect on demons that he had on angry panthers.

  It was then I noticed the demon power was a different kind of angry, like rage that wanted to be satiated. It was hungry. But not for power. Not like the Mother had said.

  I knew I was daring fate by even thinking the Mother could be wrong about something but echoes of desire crept across my skin. Memories with children, wives, awards for good deeds, and moments of pride.

  Slowly, I pulled away from Chaz and approached the Veil again. The closer I got to the in-between, the more I heard them. Just like my ties to my pack, I could feel their desires, their vanities all swimming around. They didn’t want power; they wanted freedom.

  “Violet.”

  The voice didn’t come from Jessa, though her hand slipped into mine and her little fingers cut off blood circulation to the tips.

  The voice didn’t come from Chaz, though I felt his heat down my neck.

  The voice came from the other side of the Veil and as I looked through it, I saw my mother standing on the other side. Her long dark hair twisted in the unknown wind and her green eyes smiled back at me.

  “Is that . . .” Chaz whispered in my ear.

  I nodded. Apparently Chaz was powerful enough to see her too. “Part of her, I think.”

  The tear in the Veil only widened as we stood before it. The demonic power lunged out for it and I didn’t known why until I felt a tendril of it wander out and weave its way into the Veil.

  “Vi?” Jessa’s hand in mine, tighter as she watched.

  A horrible plan formed in my head as I moved closer to the Veil, feeling the power lash out at me. The demon power didn’t like being contained, didn’t like being chained. I was going to give it a choice and I knew what the answer would be, could feel it in the pull beneath my breastbone as I saw the plan in my head. “Key Holder and Guardian, right?”

  Jessa’s lavender eyes flashed to me. “I don’t like your tone.”

  “I’ve got this power and you’ve got the skill.”

  Jessa was right
there with me. “You want to filter that demon through me and into the Veil?”

  “No, I want to give you the stolen lives of our people to help protect those who can still fight.”

  Large tears filled Jessa’s eyes. “Damn, you’ve got a way with words.”

  “It’s a gift. Think you’re up for it?”

  “Got any idea how to do this?”

  “Go big or go home.”

  Cristina had told me all those months ago that spell work was taking the power and forming it to your will. This was easier than that. The power already had a will. Those stolen lives wanted to be free. I was just about to give them the choice of being anywhere they wanted to be. I just needed to get them there.

  I relaxed and let the demon power fill me. It was like undoing a ball of string. The mental image, as comical as it was, helped me figure out what I was doing.

  One by one, strand by strand, I released the power down my arm and into Jessa, who gave it form. I closed my eyes as the feelings of fingers and hair and fur ran in cool rivulets down my arm and across Jessa’s skin.

  I could feel the cool magic as she wove, taking the power of a fellow Wanderer and weaving it back into the Veil to protect us. Slowly, she closed the tear before us, separating me from the in-between.

  But the power was still there, still within me. We hadn’t used it all. The ball was only half unfurled and I still couldn’t feel my panther underneath all that.

  “Keep going,” I urged.

  “What?”

  “Keep going. As far as you can. Make the weaving permanent. Spread out as far as you need to.”

  Jessa kept going. As I kept unraveling, she kept spreading the magic out. I felt Dallas, but also wisps of the Oklahoma plains and the salty air of the Corpus Christi Bay.

  My head began to spin from the concentration and probably one of the concussions I’d gotten that day. I released the last of the power to Jessa and I stepped back and into Chaz’s arms.

  “Is it gone?” he whispered into my ear.

  “Yes, they are.”

  I rested. My body still hurt from the fight with Spencer and the fights before that. I felt sick, like I’d churned out all my food for the past week. I let him be my strength and the panther within my chest purred against him.