Crossroads Burning

by Nash, Layla

  It definitely wasn’t my mother’s voice, but I obeyed it just the same, shoving upright as I swung a magical scythe around me and forced the beasts back. Something else took over and dulled the screaming pain in my arm and side and shoulder, even as the blood loss made me lightheaded.

  Another spell whispered between my lips, only half-known, and the pain retreated still further until I couldn’t even feel my arm. A wolf snarled and retreated, its teeth coated with my blood. Magic tangled inside me and whispered away, and the beast’s legs collapsed as its eyes glazed over in death.

  The others charged me at the same time, another set of teeth snapping at my calves, and I whirled as I tried to face them all at once. Lightning flashed again and the red glow of the approaching fire almost reignited my panic through the calming influence of the out-of-body magic.

  Breathe, daughter. Believe.

  A clap of thunder shook the whole world, vibrating the earth until I staggered and almost fell, and even the remaining beasts fell. I held my breath and raised my shaking hands to fend off another beast when the heavens opened up and rain poured down, ice cold and beating on my head like tiny hammers. The immediate drenching almost sent me back to my knees as the cold stole my breath away.

  The beasts surged back up, ready to kill, and there was more magic to send them back. Another fell, and another, and then it was just one, too clever to attack directly, who tried to circle and keep me moving until I exhausted myself. The numbness began to fade and pain stabbed through my shoulder, my right arm useless, and I blinked away tears and rain alike.

  There wasn’t anything left. There just wasn’t anything else to draw from. The lantern faded as I inhaled that magic too, and sent it on an arrow into the beast’s eye.

  Thunder shook the earth and I didn’t know if the beast fell because it died or because of the tremors, and I swayed but managed to keep my feet. My vision played tricks on me as I searched for a sign or movement from the beast, and instead it looked like a herd of horses raced toward me.

  Magic snapped away and reality crashed against me as I stared and the five horses and four mules thundered up and lightning rent the sky, competing with the high-beam flashlights the riders carried. Relief made my knees weak, and I collapsed in the soggy grass. At least I wouldn’t die alone.

  Chapter 15

  Eddie shouted and flung himself off his horse, racing to reach me, but Lincoln got there first. Instead of reaching for me, Lincoln got in front of the park ranger and shoved him back. “Stay away. She’s contaminated.”

  Contaminated?

  “She’s bleeding,” Eddie said, trying once more to knock Lincoln away. “I’ve got the first aid kit. There’s isn’t –”

  “We’ll handle it,” Hazel said. Her words were clipped, business-like. I stared at them, trying to process what was going on. They’d arrived too quickly. Far too quickly. They must have turned back from the reservation almost the same time I did.

  Lincoln continued to stare down the ranger, and finally said, “Set up the tents. That’s the most you can do right now.”

  “She is bleeding,” Eddie said, and it nearly broke my heart. I wanted to hug him for caring that much. The ranger wasn’t going down without a fight. “I don’t know what the fuck you think you’re doing, but Luckett is hurt and I’m not going to let her die out here in the rain.”

  “There are bigger things at stake right now,” Hazel said. She remained out of reach, watching me with a critical eye. “She’s contaminated. Until we know whether she’ll turn, we can’t risk anyone else being exposed.”

  “As for the rain…” Mason said, pausing next to where Hazel stood. His expression had hardened, no longer so jovial and carefree, and he held up a stone the size of his palm in my direction. “You can stop that any time, Anastasia.”

  My heart thudded and sank, burdening my stomach as I stared at them. Their words reached me from far away. Nelson went to one of the beasts I’d managed to kill, taking a few photos and doing something else with gadgets from his saddlebags. The horses shied away, and I wondered where my ornery mount had gotten to. Probably most of the way back to the barn, and ready for some oats. At least Liv and Lucia would know something had happened to me and I’d lost the horse, and Lincoln and his pals couldn’t just make me disappear without anyone asking questions.

  Eddie turned to his horse, and his hand just touched the rifle he carried when Lincoln said very calmly, “Don’t do it, Ranger.”

  My jaw went slack. I must have been hallucinating. There was no way that Lincoln pulled a pistol on the ranger. I had to have fallen into a nightmare, some other alternate universe. I managed to croak, “No.”

  Eddie, too, lost his congenial attitude. “Are you threatening me?”

  “This is no longer your jurisdiction,” Lincoln said. “Luckett has been bitten by a werewolf, and she is contaminated. The bite is contaminated. Those bodies over there—they’re what we were hunting, not the drone. That they managed to circle back around and evade us is not a good sign. We have a short amount of time to save her life, or she will turn and we will have to kill her. You can help us and set up the tents, or we can handcuff you and escort you back to jail for interfering with a federal investigation. It’s your choice.”

  A muscle ticked in the ranger’s jaw. “You son of a bitch. You’ve been lying to us. To all of us. After we helped you.”

  “A requirement of the job,” he said, all steel in his words. I sat heavily and fell to the side, no longer feeling my arms and legs. But Lincoln remained where he was, pistol out, and hardly blinked. “If I’d shown up saying there had been werewolf sightings and we needed to kill or capture them, you would’ve thought us crazy. So what’s it going to be, Eddie?”

  “Help her,” Eddie said, jerking his chin in my direction. “And I don’t give a fuck what you think might be wrong, but you’re not killing her. You’ll have to kill me first.”

  “That’s not a problem,” Hazel said.

  I swallowed, or tried to, around a knot in my throat. I had no idea what the hell they were talking about, but it didn’t sound like good news for Eddie or me. I exhaled and released the rest of the spell, hoping it was enough to put out the fire, but the rain continued as nature took over. I couldn’t see the stars.

  The wound in my shoulder burned, throbbing with every beat of my heart, and people and things moved around me until a canvas sheet moved between me and the dull cloudiness of the night sky. A tarp of some kind provided shelter, and then Hazel and Lincoln knelt next to me, just barely out of arm’s reach.

  Hazel tried to smile. “Good job. You killed four of them. How many were there?”

  “Six or seven,” I said, and I wanted to close my eyes. I didn’t want to pretend we were friends, not when she’d so casually talked about killing Eddie. I didn’t know who the hell they were, but I didn’t want anything to do with them. They could leave and I’d say good riddance.

  Lincoln and Hazel shared a look over me, and after a long pause, Hazel took a deep breath. “Even more impressive. How many bit you?”

  “Just one.” My mouth filled with cotton and I couldn’t speak, working my jaw to try and find words. I couldn’t be sure it had only been one, but I wasn’t about to volunteer it might have been more.

  Lincoln took a deep breath, and after I’d blinked a few times, suddenly there were cuffs around my wrists and ankles, and he was driving stakes into the ground to hold me spread-eagled in the grass. I started to shiver, and to struggle, but they didn’t seem to notice. Once my limbs were restrained, Hazel hauled out a substantial first aid kit, and I wondered where she’d been hiding it. In her saddlebags, perhaps, or one of the pack mules. It was a wonder we hadn’t seen it while unpacking one of the nights on the ride out.

  Lincoln shined a flashlight in my eyes. “Good trick with the rain. Did you mean for that to happen, or was it purely emotional?”

  I stared at him. “Who the fuck are you?”

  “Agent Lincoln O’C
onnell,” he said, and something like sadness made lines around his eyes. “We work for a federal agency that regulates the use of magic and the existence of magical creatures.”

  Just wonderful.

  Hazel dumped some kind of powder into my shoulder and side, and smoke began rising from the bloody mess. It burned more than the wound and I cried out and cursed, struggling against the stakes. Lincoln prepped a needle full of something, checking the CCs before he shoved it into my hip through my clothes. “This is an antidote for the virus that’s in the werewolf saliva. Unfortunately we need to cauterize the wounds as quickly as possible, so the contaminated blood is contained. It’ll be painful.”

  “It already is, you fucking asshole.” I groaned and tried to curl up on my side, away from the burning cuts and the powders that Hazel unpacked, but the restraints kept me bound. “Go fuck yourself. And let me go.”

  “The spell,” he repeated, undeterred by my cursing. The pistol tucked in his belt gleamed dully as Hazel set up lanterns around me, and I squeezed my eyes shut as Lincoln went on. “Did you intend for it to happen? Or did it just happen?”

  “Which spell?” I didn’t want to answer him; I didn’t want anything to do with any government office that knew about magic. Chances were it wouldn’t pan out well for the Lucketts, and we already had our fair share of bad luck.

  “The rain.”

  I gritted my teeth as the air moved next to me and someone put pressure on my shoulder, and bright flashes of pain erupted wherever someone touched me. I tried to kick Lincoln, my back arching as ribs creaked and another pin-prick needle shoved into my thigh. “Figure it out yourself, asshole.”

  I hated them all. And I felt like such a fool for telling stories around the campfire about magic and the Crossroads. They’re probably been laughing at me the whole time. Eddie spoke loudly from far away, and I forced my eyes open enough to see that Mason and Nelson were holding him back as the ranger tried to get to me, to help. I needed my sisters to heal me, not bullshit powders and shots and God only knew what else from the mystery bag. Breathing through the pain didn’t help.

  Lincoln chuckled very quietly, patting my calf before moving to my right side, across from where Hazel still tried to patch together my shoulder and side. “Did you work any other spells?”

  I closed my eyes again, not wanting to see his handsome face. “Like I said, figure it out yourself.”

  Hazel’s hands pressed against my side more and she muttered, “Get the rest of the gauze. The wounds are deeper than I thought. I’m surprised she didn’t lose more blood.”

  They paused, and the silence stretched, interrupted only by the rain. Then Lincoln said, “Mason, bring the seer stone over here.”

  I concentrated on breathing normally, trying to meditate through the pain. I needed to plan a way to escape. Not that I could run anywhere. The thought made me frown. They already knew where I lived. I couldn’t leave Rattler’s Run, so escaping would only make me tired, really.

  More movement, and when I cracked my left eye open, I found an expressionless Mason standing next to Lincoln, holding something out over me. A flare of blue and purple light erupted from his fist, and his eyebrows rose. He waved the thing over me again after Lincoln said something under his breath, and again a cascade of lights turned the area under the tarp as bright as noon.

  Hazel sat back on her heels, snapping off bloody gloves and reaching for another pair. “You’ve been a busy witch. You called the rain and then did at least three other spells. Fending off the werewolves?”

  Another wave of pain rolled through me, originating in the wound and radiating out until I dug my heels into the earth and cried out. Holy Mother, I’d never experienced anything like it. And even if Lincoln and his friends hadn’t been there to call the beasts werewolves, I would have known something wasn’t right. The wounds didn’t feel like the other bites I’d occasionally gotten, growing up around various animals, and even dog bites didn’t hurt that badly.

  Even meditation and breathing exercises didn’t help. The healing spell I’d shouted and then forgotten about waned and fizzled out as Mason moved the stone thing over me once more, and Hazel started cursing. “Fuck. She worked a healing spell. That’s why she wasn’t bleeding. Mason, take away the seer stone, we can’t–”

  “You should have told us about the spell,” Lincoln said, and when I looked up, I almost didn’t recognize his face. He looked worried, and his features did not wear the expression well.

  “You should have told me you were out here hunting werewolves.” I shivered as cold rolled through me and Hazel held her hands over my wounds, palms down, and murmured under her breath.

  Lincoln’s dark eyes searched mine, then he rested the tips of his fingers on my forehead. “I’ll remember that for next time.”

  “Won’t be a next time,” I wheezed, and then a snarl escaped as the parts of me under Hazel’s hands turned ice cold—worse than the pain from the wounds themselves. “Never speaking to any of you again.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” Mason said. He’d apparently left the stone elsewhere, because he stood behind Hazel and offered his support, resting a hand on her shoulder. “You’d like us, Luckett. Promise.”

  I groaned more, though it faded into a whine and then more cursing. Lincoln tapped my forehead to get my attention, staring down at me. “Look at me, Anastasia. Focus on my eyes.”

  I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to see him or even think about him, but my eyes went to his and then I couldn’t look away. It felt like drowning, and my heartbeat echoed in my ears in a slow thrum-thrum-thrum. Everything else receded except the thick lashes around his eyes, the slight twinkle in them, the dark iris and darker pupil. The flecks of gold gleamed. And his fingers, tapping a soft pattern on my forehead.

  Everything else drifted in a dreamlike haze.

  Mason said something else and Hazel grunted a response. Nelson argued quietly with Eddie in the background, and the scent of burning wood drifted. Cold raced through me, helped by my sodden clothes, and shivers wracked me. They started at my toes and worked up through my muscles until I shook uncontrollably, and Lincoln’s eyes narrowed slightly with something like concern.

  Hazel’s voice carried a great deal of strain, wobbling a bit as she fought to get each word out. “I think it’ll hold. Maybe. Get the last poultice and the charm out of the outer pocket.”

  Mason moved in the periphery of my vision, and after he did whatever he did, Hazel sighed. “There. Damn, girl. Must have been a hell of a spell.”

  “Is everything holding?” Lincoln didn’t let up with the tap-tap-tap on my forehead, and most of my thoughts went to trying to figure out if there was a message in the pattern. It felt random, but he didn’t seem like the kind of man who did anything without reason.

  “Yeah.” Mason squinted down at me, then attempted a smile. “Just don’t sneeze, Luckett.”

  Lincoln moved to stroking my forehead, still very close despite his friends moving around us, and from far away, I could hear Eddie demanding they release my arms and legs. But Lincoln shook his head. “If she moves around, it could jostle the spell loose and the wounds would continue bleeding. We have a hell of a lot of cleanup to do already. Besides, she might still turn into a werewolf.”

  I wanted to laugh, even though it wasn’t funny. Imagine, turning into a werewolf. If I thought the town hated me before, things would no doubt get a hell of a lot worse if they found out I could turn into a werewolf.

  Chapter 16

  Mason searched through the saddlebags and packs on the mules to find any possible communication devices, and seized Eddie’s cell phone and radio as well. I knew why they did it, but it still felt like a violation. And ominous as well—the ranger and I could disappear and no one would know what happened. My sisters would recognize the storm for what it was, and they’d no doubt come looking for me, but Lincoln and the others could probably come up with a convincing enough story to get the town to stop looking for us i
f we disappeared.

  It was a sobering realization as I lay there in the mud and soggy grass, staring at the blue tarp waving above me and hiding the stars as the rain pattered down. A few low rolls of thunder broke the silence, and I concentrated on counting my heartbeats.

  The pain didn’t abate, though it changed a bit—less of a burning and more of a sharp stabbing, testing the limits of whatever powders and charms Hazel had used. It rolled with the thunder, it seemed, and as lightning rent the sky, I couldn’t hold back another curse. My magic didn’t respond or help me in any way; I just had to endure. The reassuring voice that had aided me in the middle of the battle remained silent, offering no comfort.

  Eddie snapped, “Give her something for the pain, goddamn it. Can’t you see she’s suffering?”

  “We have to wait,” Hazel said. “Thirty minutes should do it.”

  “Fuck you,” I said, my back arching as the pain spread to my middle.

  Lincoln sat near my head, nodding at Hazel so she retreated a bit. Neither one offered to free my arms and legs. Lincoln took a deep breath and used a damp cloth to start wiping the blood and sweat and rain from my face.

  His voice was pitched low, so maybe the others wouldn’t hear precisely what he said. “I can explain all of this once we’ve got the werewolf venom isolated. I’m sorry we couldn’t tell you sooner, but... Normally we don’t disclose who we are and what we do when the team is on a mission, and we had to focus on finding the werewolves before they hurt someone. We would have been out here to take care of the problem and then left town without anyone the wiser, but that asshole in the bar called you a witch. And with all the strange things that have happened at the Crossroads, or at least the rumors of them, we had to pause and figure out whether there was actually magic out here.”

  I breathed through my nose so I could grind my teeth together in an effort to stop from moaning and groaning. I’d always thought eventually you could get used to anything, but pain wasn’t one of those things, apparently.