Skinned

by Blakely Chorpenning

  "I thought they were dead." He resituated his hat.

  "Immortal has many definitions."

  Leaning back in the chair, his hands rubbing the armrests at an anxious pace, Cody whispered, "What if... What if I am this king they're looking for?"

  For the first time since we had arrived, I entertained the idea seriously. If gorgons existed, the prophesized coming of the snake king could very well be true.

  "Why do they need a king?" he asked.

  "The serpentes are very solitary. Too much for their own good. They help no one. They expect nothing. Most live week to week or month to month. A king would unite them."

  "Teach them to rely on each other," Cody added. "I get it. I was a foster kid, living everywhere and nowhere. It wasn't until I turned twenty that I made a choice to keep a steady job, stay in the same place longer than a bee's back, finding meaning in the people around me."

  "And you did?"

  "I was better at doing the first two than the last. Turns out, people don't always want you to turn them into part of your narrative. They want to be a hero or a martyr or a star, forgetting that people need them to be neighbors and family and best friends. Those are the real heroes because they'll see your pain and save you before anybody else will."

  "Big words."

  "Big world," he countered.

  Glancing out the window, across the sparse parking lot, I searched the tree line for danger. Nothing. The night was finally quiet.

  "What if you are the king?"

  Cody shrugged. "Then I've got a lot of work to do." We sat in silence for a while before he asked, "Why do you think the gorgons spoke to you? And why is a lion hanging around?"

  It felt as if the entire world was sleeping as we sat in our tiny room, bundled in secrecy.

  "Jack..."

  "That's the name you kept repeating after you fell asleep earlier."

  My heart felt as though a swift kick jarred it loose knowing that a room full of people had heard me speak his name.

  "He haunts me."

  "Did you ever stop to think that maybe you're the one haunting him?"

  Pushing away from the table, I stopped myself from dropping to the bed. The last time I had done that, I fell asleep. I was scared of sleep now. That's when the nightmares took over. Instead, I paced slowly across the room.

  "I'm haunting a dead boy?"

  "Imagine it: He's experiencing a perfectly good afterlife -plenty of food to...chase, endless balls of yarn to bat around, girls asking to braid his mane- and you keep interrupting it because you can't let him go. Or won't."

  His words caged my sour heart.

  "Go to bed."

  "How long did you know him before he passed?"

  "I didn't."

  Chapter Ten

  What sleep I got was quiet. I remembered nothing of dreams or nightmares.

  After readying ourselves for the day, I knocked on the door between ours and Gage's room. He opened it all too swiftly, as if he were standing just on the other side waiting for his escape.

  "Top of the morning to you," I smiled.

  Frowning -something Gage rarely does- he leapt into my room, plastering his body against the wall, shaking his head. "She wants me to meditate with her."

  "And that's bad?"

  "The nymph never talks. She only wants to meditate and do yoga and 'eat clean'. You know who acts like this? Serial killers."

  "And people who like clean colons."

  "Serial killers who eat clean colons."

  Patting his shoulder, I said, "Exactly. You're safe."

  Darien yelled through the motel door, "Bus in five!"

  "Grab your serial killer. Let's go."

  As I walked across the parking lot, the straight red hair of Tomas' wife caught my attention when the door opened to their room. She must have driven through the night. I wasn't aware that she was joining our band of merry misfits. Honestly, I wasn't aware that she had joined the world again. Ever since the loss of Jack, the enigmatic woman was lost for words. Mute.

  Her presence hung as unforgiving as an albatross around my neck.

  Everyone piled into the new bus, fingers crossed that it stayed on four wheels today.

  Though Venus and Foust were sitting behind the driver, they kept looking back in our direction. I was unsure if they were staring at me or Cody, so I stared back until they stopped.

  "Winning a staring contest?" Darien asked.

  I shrugged.

  "You can't blame them for being nervous, sister."

  "You always assume that I'm judging someone. How very judgmental of you, brother."

  He smiled. "Maybe. Or maybe I'm usually right." He turned his attention elsewhere.

  Darien was right. Before the Dissenters, I hated every shifter who wasn't lepe. I left them to rot when they needed help, never giving them a second glance in my rearview. Part of me had known it was wrong, but the rest couldn't be bothered with inter-shifter bullshit. I thought myself above it. Above them.

  Looking at the many faces on the bus, I made myself memorize something unique about each one of them, whether it was a physical trait or something I had learned about their personalities. The feel of Arrie's warmth, like a well overdue sunbath in August. Cody's ease at which he took in the world around him. Foust's birthmarks, calling to mind a master painter's canvas. Chandler, Linay's charge, and her melancholic lips. They pursed together in a permanent frown, making her seem both childlike and old beyond her years.

  See, damn it, I wasn't an obnoxious ass bag. Maybe my brother was projecting his own biases onto me.

  Darien noticed me glaring in his direction. "I feel you judging me from across the bus," he laughed.

  Shaking my head, fighting back a snide comment, I focused on our mission for the rest of the ride, which made for a great time killer. We arrived at Elder Kit's farmstead before I realized we had left the highway.

  Nothing transpired on the way. The bus stayed in one piece and everyone kept their skin on. That didn't stop me from being pissed off. We had a dead shifter on our watch, and I could not fight the feeling that we were led into this blind.

  While the others enjoyed a buffet lunch and a tour into serpente life by a handful of locals that strung together more than two sentences at a time, Darien, Blaire, and I joined Elder Kit in her sitting room. It sparked the essence of a cigar lounge mingled with a gypsy caravan. The space was comprised of preserved snake carcasses in jars, glittery swatches of material hung and slung, and an altar. Of course, the altar was more of a footrest in front of a mantel draped with snake skins, candles, incense, and the overwhelming sense of earthen things slithering between worlds.

  Blaire smiled like his mother, genuine but guarded. "Thank you for having us today. I would like to extend my regret for yesterday's loss."

  "Well, I'm not," I blurted.

  Between gritted teeth, Blaire warned, "Fray only ever speaks for herself without regard to those around her."

  "Be quiet and listen, sister," Darien chimed in, though he was careful not to sound bullying or partial one way or another.

  "No," Elder Kit spoke gracefully, raising her hand. She maintained a presence that someone twice her size could never accomplish. "Let her speak her peace."

  So I did.

  "We could have easily guarded everyone had we known everything in advance. You cannot expect us to protect lives when we're not sure of the details." Going a step farther, I added, "When we are purposely kept in the dark."

  "Fray!" Blaire seethed.

  Her attention rested heavily on me.

  "It seems errors have been made," she finally declared.

  Trying not to sound as disgruntled as he clearly was, Blaire said, "I'm sure time would be better spent if Fray joined the others outside while we converse."

  "Leave us." Elder Kit waved my brother and ex out the door. Her peculiar, matted white hair, a gawky headpiece, bobbed them goodbye. "We have much to discuss."

  "But we-"

  Sh
e cut Blaire off. "Formalities are the backbone of serpente life. We will have plenty of time for those. For now, shoo." The 'sh' was elongated, drawing attention to her permanently forked tongue. "Alone at last," she commented once they were gone. "Tea?"

  Declining, I got right to the point. "Why are we here? What can we do that your own people can't?"

  "I respect your directness." Elder Kit moved to the altar, lighting a stick of incense and waving it through the air before setting it down on a dainty white saucer.

  "Is that for wellbeing or something?"

  "No, I burned a slice of toast right before you got here."

  Beside the lit stick sat a photograph of a gorgon. Not a drawing, but a real photograph.

  "How the hell?"

  "They are our heritage. Many think the gorgons are merely a myth. What do you think?" she asked, voice dripping with suspicion. "You have stood on our sacred land. Venus and Foust recorded the smell of ancient scales as they intersected you last night. Did the old ones appear to you?"

  "They sure as shit did."

  "Direct, indeed."

  "Why lie? If I actively hide information, what would keep you from doing the same? I'm here to do a job. If you give me all of the information I need to do it well, I will not fail you."

  "You sound so sure, like the gorgons themselves."

  Sitting in a hard wicker chair, I responded, "That might be the one thing we have in common, then."

  "Oh, I'm sure you have more than that."

  "Meaning?"

  Relaxing into the chair beside me, Elder Kit drew a deck of Tarot cards from her pocket.

  "I don't do hocus pocus."

  "You will do well to listen, leopard." Her voice was sharper than a knife as she shuffled the deck in her hands. "Tomorrow eve will bring a blessing upon the serpentes, when the gorgons choose our new king. For centuries, the patriarchy of man has fought to steal gorgon power, to harness it as we have harnessed the secrets of life and beginning anew."

  "Why not crown a queen, then?"

  She smiled knowingly. "Oh, there have been many. This particular moon calls for a king. A new beginning. A protégé. A king of man as well as gorgon blood, who will listen to all."

  Cody.

  "And there are some who don't want this to happen?"

  "Sadly."

  "Why?"

  "They are misdirected. They fear a displacement of power. A need to bind old ways drives them to violent ends."

  "How is it even possible to force other shifters to shed their skin?"

  "Oh, now, we all have our charms. Some more interesting than others."

  Ignoring the mischievous smile that followed, I asked, "How can I help?" Sitting forward in my chair, I added, "I need to help."

  The cards never stopped moving between her hands. The light flutter of their edges between her fingers became a lulling sound.

  Elder Kit said, "You have already begun the process. Last night, you gave the serpentes hope that the gorgons are stirring, preparing. Most have never seen them. I pray your incident has gained traction on the tongues of our detractors and given them reason for pause."

  "So you believe me?"

  "I am of the Graeae, a guardian of the gorgon. It is my purpose to believe."

  "You've never actually seen them?"

  Shifting in her robes, she ruminated. "In visions and dreams. This will change tomorrow night."

  Standing, I tried not to sound ungrateful, though I had still learned very little about the serpentes stalking the would-be kings. "Where are these detractors right now? If they give us trouble, we'll kill them before dinner. I am that hungry. I'm not kidding around."

  "No, leopard. That is not your lesson."

  "My lesson?" Inhaling deeply, I used every trick Nash had taught me to cool down, but none were working at the moment. "Look, lady, I'm not here for any lesson. I'm here to see a king get crowned, and if we have to kick a little ass along the way, blessed be!"

  Before I could walk out the door, Elder Kit grabbed my hand and shoved something into it. I opened my fist to find a Tarot card bent in half.

  "Beware," she offered calmly before shooing me out the door lightheartedly. "Go on now. You have threats to make and people who need you."

  I slid the card into my pants pocket.

  As I was turning around to thank her, though I was confused as to what for, Elder Kit pointed to a stucco building at the far end of her property. "Now! Someone needs you!"

  Chapter Eleven

  Taking off through the yard at full speed, shooting past the tables lined with food, I heard Gage groan, "Why can't we ever digest first?" before following my lead.

  I burst through the wooden door of the building, not bothering to try the doorknob first. Sputtering to a stop, I surveyed the large storage room. Extra tables and chairs lined the walls. Garden equipment was stacked heavily in one corner. The only thing out of sorts was the swinging door on the other end of the building, leading into the woods.

  "Shit!" I screamed, running to the exit. Without looking over my shoulder, I yelled to Gage, "Figure out if someone's missing!"

  "Chandler!" a ragged voice answered behind us.

  I turned, my eyes falling on Linay, who was gripping the doorframe as she tussled with the beginnings of panic.

  "How long?" I asked.

  Shrugging, she took a moment to realign her thoughts. "Five minutes, maybe. She was just supposed to get a second helping. I didn't think much of it."

  Linay looked helpless. This was her second fuck up on the trip. It didn't take an astronaut to understand the wrath she feared from her brother. How many times would he turn a cheek? How many times had he looked the fool in front of their pride because of her?

  "Gage, tell Blaire," I ordered. "Linay, you're with me."

  We ran out the back door, into the shadowy path of the forest. Upon further evaluation, it was probably the worst idea to choose Linay over Gage for this mission, but some part of me felt...sympathetic? How many times had I made Darien or Blaire look the fool in front of our lepe? How many times would they keep turning the other cheek if I let them?

  Caught up in her ball of emotions, Linay rambled, "She was beside me all afternoon. I only looked away for a minute. Goddamn it, I swear!"

  Running side by side, leaping over obstacles, I assured her, "I believe you."

  "You do?"

  "Yes! Now shut the fuck up and let's find her."

  In unison, we slowed down and spread out, sniffing the air and surrounding foliage. My nostrils flared to life. "Over here. Is this Chandler's scent?"

  Linay stormed to my location, wrapping her senses around the area in question. "No, but..." Slowly, she veered to the left, slinking to all fours. "This is her!"

  I dropped to all fours beside her. We called our cats from their curled slumber deep within. That otherworldly static filled the air around us. Flesh twisted and rolled until it was quickly replaced by the thickness of fur. My white coat was a stark contrast to her sun-kissed shades.

  Chandler's overbearing scent was a mixture of mulberry and pomegranate. Likely her choice of shampoo or body wash. Underneath, a hint of freshly poured gravel. That was her scent, the one created by the natural oils and hormones of her body.

  Linay and I chased that scent like a couple of sorority girls chasing tequila shots on Taco Tuesday. Having never run with her lion, it came as a shock that our steps easily found a rhythm. We swayed and jumped in sync. Was this a bad dream?

  Not wanting to lose sight of our goal, I shook my muzzle, focusing everything I had on Chandler. God, I wanted to find her in one piece. I hadn't even bothered to pay attention to what type of shifter she was. By her scent, a small mammal of some sort. Definitely not a predator.

  The forest grew thicker, the branches and briars oppressive. They suffocated our need to haul ass. Practically forced to a standstill, we shifted to our human forms. Opposable thumbs might prove more helpful.

  "I still smell her," Linay said, ta
king off on foot.

  Following her, we fell silent again, listening to as well as sniffing our surroundings.

  Branches snapped far to our right. We barreled towards the sound, crushing the underbrush with our bare feet, annihilating branches in our way.

  "No!" Linay screamed.

  I ran to her side. There was no clearing to offer us space from the horrific sight of Chandler's skinned, limp body contorted between two large trees. As I rounded one of the trees, I came face to face with the husk. It was propped against a patch of bushes, lightly swaying with the leaves as I bumped into it.

  It slid to the earth.

  "She only walked away for a second. One fucking second!"

  I grabbed Linay by her shoulders. "Listen to me. You didn't make whoever did this the killer that they are. They chose this. Now take her back to the farmstead. I'm going to look for the son-of-a-bitch who did it."

  Staring at Chandler, Linay nodded, completely deflated. She easily picked up the pink form, tossing it over one shoulder. It slid and oozed over her peach skin as I handed her the shell of Chandler to drag with her other hand. There was a definite odor that was not Chandler. It had been present on the first husk. If it belonged to the serpentes responsible, I would use it to hunt them down.

  When they were on their way back to Elder Kit's farmstead, I whispered, "Not a great fucking start to day two."

  After a short time, I was able to pick up the odd husk scent immediately. In the back of my mind, I fleetingly wished Linay was by my side to catch the culprit. It never felt good to get bested in front of the other shifter communities. She needed a win as much as I did.

  Right now, I'd have to take the win for both of us, because I was closing in fast. The smell of Chandler's insides permeated the quaint forest charm like a cheap air freshener.

  I may have gotten ahead of myself.

  As I was busy searching the space around me, I forgot the space above. A body dropped on top of me, causing us to tumble to the ground. Throwing a hard punch, my fist landed square in the stranger's nose. She growled, returning the punch equally as efficient. Blood streamed from my nose into the crevices around my lips.