Bite Marks

by Jennifer Rardin

  Vayl handed me my bolo. “I believe you dropped this.”

  I hadn’t even realized how much I hated leaving it until my fingers tightened around the hilt.

  “You cleaned it and everything! Vayl, this is… wow! Thanks!”

  For once I could tell exactly what was going on behind those amber eyes. So strange to have found another man who’d do anything to see me smile. I vowed never to take this one for granted.

  We burst out of the illusionary door so quickly I’d have cracked my skull on the opposite wall if Vayl hadn’t pulled us to a sudden stop. Bergman, who’d been standing in the corner by the other door, moved forward. He held a bulging white sack whose writing I couldn’t read. But as soon as he threw the contents at the doorway I smelled the powdery grit of quick-drying concrete.

  The door shimmered, twisted, and turned a putrid shade of yellow as the crete interacted with it. “What did you just do?” I asked.

  “It’s a temporary blockade,” Bergman said.

  “But… how did you know what to do?”

  “I’d have been able to figure it out myself if I’d had the time. And RAFS. I mean, Astral,” he said defensively.

  “Okay. I just wondered how—”

  “I called the Agency’s warlock,” he finally admitted. “It was Vayl’s idea.” He frowned as he handed my boss his phone. “By the way, he doesn’t appreciate being called at seven a.m. when he didn’t get to bed until three. I thought he might frogify me through the receiver there for a minute.”

  Vayl shrugged. “As far as I know Sterling is not on assignment, which means his band probably had a gig last night. Do not worry.He is a decent sort, if somewhat moody.”

  “Oh.” Bergman nodded, like that made sense. “Well, Sterling told me to get something that the wall would really be made of and throw it at the fake door while I said—huh. I can’t remember the words now. Anyway, he says it’s only a temporary stopper, but it’ll hold them long enough for us to get away.”

  Which was when we heard a series of thumps on the other side of the wall. Followed by shouts and cursing. Followed by prayers to Ufran for forgiveness for the cursing.

  “Shouldn’t we go?” It was Tabitha, checking her watch and pacing at the top of the steps while Laal and Pajo showered big love on Jack, who withstood the hugs and tugs with his usual good humor.

  I started to nod; then I noticed the celebration was missing a partier. “Where’s Cassandra?” As if I didn’t know.

  My sverhamin came so close to me that I could feel his breath on my cheeks as he murmured, “I must confess I lied to you earlier. That second tunnel led to the basement of a church. She has taken refuge there until we return for her.”

  “WHAT?”

  Granny May grinned. Nice acting, Jazzy. Brude is totally convinced.

  Vayl kept his voice level, calm, and low enough that only Bergman, he, and I could hear. “She thought it best. And I agreed.”

  I shrugged. “Sounds like a plan.” When I felt Brude step back from the conversation I smiled and nodded, said, “Guess we’ll have some good stories to trade next time we get together.”

  “Indeed.” Vayl glanced at the door, still blocked despite the loud and continuous onslaught on its opposite side. “We should go.”

  “Fine.” I took the stairs two at a time, Astral keeping up nicely despite having passed a couple of grenades recently. I decided I just might get to like the little robot. Jack obviously felt the same. And he’d chosen this moment to bond.

  I couldn’t fault his timing. Tabitha had begun to herd the kids toward the Wheezer. The rest of us raced after, leaving him free to demonstrate his affection for the newest member of the family. I caught it all in a single over-the-shoulder glance.

  She might’ve had a chance if he’d barked. But he’d remembered their last encounter and decided to approach with wolflike stealth.

  Under no orders to do otherwise, Astral sat down in the crackling brown grass and proceeded to groom the gray dust off her exterior, becoming so immersed in the job that he took her completely by surprise. His jump brought him over the top of her, giving him position to lick her right between the ears before he gently cuffed her with a big front paw. Despite the fact that he was careful, his boot sent her spinning. His this-rocks! grin, an expression I’ve yet to see on another dog, dropped off his muzzle when Astral flipped sideways, snarled in a metallic, my-gears-have-stuck sort of way…

  And her head blew off.

  It hurtled straight toward Bergman. Vayl dove for him, barely shoving him clear before it rocketed into the side of the building, ricocheted into the fence, and bounced onto the lawn like a renegade croquet ball.

  “Holy sh—!” I stopped myself just in time to spare the kids, who’d turned to witness the carnage.

  “Cool!” said Laal. “It’s a robot!”

  “And it blew up!” yelled Pajo. He tugged on his mother’s skirt. “Do it again! Do it again!”

  Moment of stunned silence while we watched Astral’s legs jerk and Vayl made a coughing-up-chicken-bones noise that only I knew was his version of barely repressed mirth. I didn’t dare look at him for fear I’d start laughing, and then Bergman, standing beside Vayl, holding on to the crown of his hat with both hands, would never forgive me.

  I checked Jack to make sure his yelp had purely been one of surprise. He seemed to know he’d done something bad, because his tail remained between his legs even after I’d reassured him he was okay.

  I picked up the body, which stayed stiff as one of those lifelike planters with the hole drilled in the belly for a bunch of geraniums. I risked a glance at Bergman. I couldn’t tell if the deep furrow between his eyes meant he was holding back tears or he wanted to kick some kittybot-killing ass.

  Always long on wisdom, Vayl decided to move away from Bergman so he wouldn’t notice the shaking of my boss’s shoulders. He walked toward the Wheezer, and had almost made it to the car when he stopped and said, “The head is over here.”

  We joined him, only some of us to gawk. Astral’s head lay on the ground. While smoke still spiraled from the ears and clear fluid leaked from the neck, I didn’t see much in the way of dangling parts.

  Jack gave it a sniff and slumped into his I’ve-been-bad position, lying with his tail tucked under his butt, blinking soulfully up at us as if to apologize for our inconvenience.

  “Look at him,” I said. “He feels terrible.”

  “Aww.” Laal and Pajo knelt by Jack and began rubbing him down, telling him it was okay. Tabitha kept glancing from them to the car and rocking from one foot to the other like she really wanted to make a break for it now that the coast was clear, but she knew it would be rude to run while her rescuers were mourning.

  I said, “I’m sorry, Miles. Jack was just playing. He didn’t mean to hurt her.” I retrieved Astral’s head, silently thanking Raoul’s boss that her eyelids had shut.

  “I’m really sorry, Miles,” I repeated. Should I try to stick the head back on the body? Would some kind of internal magnet at least pull it back together for the burial? Such wishful thinking. “He was just trying to make friends.”

  When my dog started to get up I gave him my don’t-even-go-there glare and he sank back down, dropping his head to his paws. Laal and Pajo began the scratchfest all over again. I said, “I’ll cover the damages, of course.” Though, considering what it must’ve cost to put Astral together, by the time I’d even halved the payment we’d probably both have forgotten about my debt, along with each other’s names and where we’d left our teeth the night before.

  “I don’t understand,” said Bergman, shaking his head. “Jack must’ve triggered her self-destruct mechanism. But how? I mean, he didn’t even try to bite her.” He came to stand in front of me, took a pen out of the collection he always kept in his pocket, and started poking around the neck.

  “Uh, Bergman?” I said, catching the look on Tabitha’s face. “That’s kinda gross.”

  “It’s just a machine,”
he said impatiently.

  “But it looks like a cat. That you’re doing a primitive autopsy on.” I cleared my throat to get his attention, which I then turned toward the kids. Who were riveted.

  “Oh. Sorry.” He frowned at the remains. “This is a mess.”

  “You can fix it,” Vayl said.

  “Are you sure?” he asked.

  He nodded. “It is what you do, and you are superb at your job.”

  Bergman considered Astral’s innards with new interest as Tabitha rechecked her watch. “Shouldn’t we be going? That door can’t hold forever. And Ruvin will be so worried.”

  Both true. But watching her futz with her dress and hair, I sensed ulterior motives. Still, we jumped straight into the Wheezer, which now felt like one of those maximum-capacity clothes dryers.

  I started the car and said, “Whoever has their foot in the back of my head better not have stepped in anything disgusting recently.”

  The offender moved the shoe and I beat it back to the rental house before anything else exploded, fired on us, or (God forbid) needed a ride.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  The family reunion began just as you’d expect. Ruvin drove up in that glorious Jeep expecting to spend a few miserable hours driving us around while he pretended not to be freaked about his family. Tabitha and the boys ran out of the house. He’d just walked around to the front of the Patriot when he saw them. The surprise and relief sent him staggering back into the bull bar.

  Hugs. Tears. More hugs and kisses. Then Tabitha grabbed Ruvin by the hand and said to me, “Look after the boys for a few, will you?” and dragged him inside.

  Uh. What just happened?

  I stared at Laal and Pajo, who gazed right back at me. When I looked to Vayl for ideas, he shrugged. Bergman remained just as silent, his attention still focused on Astral’s repair job.

  I said, “I have a niece.”

  What, are you trying to impress them with your babysitting qualifications?

  “Where did Mummy and Daddy go?” asked Pajo, his lower lip beginning to tremble.

  I looked desperately at my teammates. “Does anyone have candy?”

  Vayl knelt down beside the boys, his demeanor so nonthreatening that a bystander wouldn’t have been surprised to hear he made his living breeding and selling bunnies. “You know parents,” he said. “They just need to have a talk and then they will be right back. I wonder, while we wait for them, should we go into the backyard and play a game? Hide-and-seek might be fun. I believe I saw several places boys your size could tuck into the last time I was there.”

  My jaw dropped. I’d been certain Vayl had forgotten how to play games somewhere near the turn of the nineteenth century. And he didn’t actually participate in the hiding or the seeking. But he did laugh out loud when Jack gave the game away by running straight to Laal and Pajo’s spots before Bergman and I could even get started. They didn’t seem to mind, because when he stuck his nose in their faces, they giggled too.

  This is your window into Vayl’s past. Look carefully. It may never open again, Granny May told me. This is what got lost when his boys died. And who knows? Maybe this is what he’s searching for just as much as the actual reincarnated souls of Hanzi and Badu. A chance to pull a little bit of himself from the jaws of the predator he’s become.

  Hard to fault that, especially when I remembered who I’d been before Matt had died. If I could retrieve the part of me that hoped, would I?

  I realized the inside of my arm had begun to hurt. When I focused on it, I found I’d been scratching at it long enough to raise welts. A couple of them were even bleeding lightly. This is my life now. Rashing out due to an untimely possession. And if I don’t do something about it soon—

  Give yourself to me, Brude whispered, his voice itself like a lesion, searing bits of my brain as it crackled past them. Fulfill the prophecy. Become my queen and together we will rule the Thin.

  The Thin? I asked. Or all of hell?

  Soon there will be no difference.

  Get out of my head, you parasite.

  Or you will do what? Run to Lucifer and tattle? Even a woman with your courage knows better than to put herself near the Great Taker. No, there are only two ways to loosen my grip on you, lass. And I would suggest you pick the first. Because the second sees you in hell.

  I wanted to respond with something clever. But all I could think of was, I’ll see you in hell, which was kinda what he wanted. So I stayed silent and wished Granny May could pull in a couple of reinforcements. Anything to push the ancient king away from the front of my mind.

  Her image appeared behind my eyes, just like I remembered her when we were dressed for church. She stood at the top of her steps, wearing a dark blue pantsuit and sensible brown slip-ons. Her bag matched the shoes. I knew it contained a few bucks for the offering as well as coloring supplies for us kids and a crossword book for her. She liked to say that she heard the Lord clearest when the reverend was droning and she couldn’t for the life of her figure out eighteen across.

  She said, I know of another one who can help. But you’re not going to like it.

  I’m past the point of picky. Bring her on.

  Gran moved aside, revealing Teen Me. From the amount of eyeshadow and blush she was toting, and considering she was hanging out with Gran, I put her age at right about fourteen.

  I started to chuckle. Even more so when I sensed Brude’s spurt of fear at the realization that he was about to be set upon by an angry freshman who was old enough to play dirty and young enough not to give a crap how much it hurt.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Less than ten minutes later Ruvin and Tabitha appeared on the patio looking… mussed.

  What the hell?

  The backyard, recently the site of such a lively game of tag that we were still out of breath, transformed itself again as the boys squealed and ran to their parents, who stood beside the sliding-glass doors.

  The rest of us joined them on the patio, each choosing a chair to fall into while the family enjoyed a second reunion. Vayl’s expression masked itself sometime during Ruvin, Laal, and Pajo’s bout of ecstatic hugs and kisses, watched somewhat indifferently by Tabitha. I wondered if she was jealous of their closeness.

  Vayl seemed to have questions too, because I detected a hint of steel in his undertone as he said, “Tabitha, I know you must be anxious to get your sons even farther from the warren. But we need to ask you a few questions before you go.”

  She reared back her head. She’s gonna tell him where to shove it, I thought. And not because of the delay it’ll cause either. Something about the jut of her chin and the set of her shoulders told me she thought any form of cooperation spelled weakness. And at her size, she didn’t think that was something she could afford.

  “My husband said you people were filmmakers.”

  Ruvin put his arm around her waist and rubbed. His touch, like his expression, was enthusiastic. “What I said was that they told me they’d come from Hollywood to scout movie locations. Now, I know studio executives aren’t normally capable of doing what they did. But these people are special, Tabitha.” He jerked his head toward Vayl. “They have Gerard Butler on their side! Remember him in The Transporter? He’s like a superhero!”

  Oh. My. God. I cleared my throat. “Um, Ruvin? I believe you’re thinking of Jason Stratham.”

  Tabitha had an even better point. She jabbed a finger at me and Vayl. “They had weapons.”

  “We’re American. Pretty much everybody goes armed there,” I lied, figuring my country’s reputation would back me up. It did. She took a moment to watch Laal leap on Jack, his little hands disappearing into the malamute’s thick fur as he patted him on the back. Pajo preferred bigger prey. He ran to Vayl, jumped onto his lap, and wiggled himself into the crook of my sverhamin’s arm so he could gaze happily at the rest of his family.

  Tabitha sighed. “What do you need to know?” she asked.

  When Vayl looked up from Pajo’s grinning face
, his eyes had lightened to gold with brown highlights. He blinked, the line between his eyes appearing briefly as he tried to refocus. He said, “We were just curious if the Ufranites told you why you were taken.” He glanced at Ruvin. “Stories are a weakness of ours. You never know what will make a good movie.”

  Tabitha shook her head, her thick hair barely shifting as she said, “They never said anything about that to me directly. But I heard our jailer talking to the woman who brought our food. She said this would show the shaman the true price of betrayal.”

  “What do you think she meant by that?” asked Bergman.

  “I have no idea. It almost sounded like kidnapping us was a punishment for the shaman. But we’re seinji. We don’t even know any Ufranites.”

  “Did you ever see the shaman?” asked Vayl.

  Another head shake. “I demanded to see him. But the guard said a word I didn’t understand, and then he said, ‘As long as your husband is cooperating, you’ll be fine.’”

  “What was the word you didn’t understand?” I asked her.

  “Ylmi.” She raised her chin, as if daring me to fight. About what though? I decided she must be a real bitch to receptionists and fast-food workers. Then I realized.

  Ylmi was the word in the dead guard’s amulet. Dammit, Cole, how long does it take to assemble a demon-bashing armory? We need your translating skills now!

  Miles adjusted his ball cap while he traded a significant look with Vayl. So they’d both remembered the word too.

  “What happened then?” I asked.

  The sides of her mouth turned down. “I asked him what would happen if I didn’t cooperate. He laughed and said it didn’t matter. That Ufranite young would be feasting on my husband while he screamed for death by tomorrow afternoon.”