Wind Runner: The Complete Collection

by Edmund Hughes

  Was that just to throw me off balance? Or did he get information from me that was more valuable than I realized?

  He tried to text Second Wind, but his copy was apparently too busy to get back to him in a timely manner. Rose had given him a phone number to get in touch with her, but Malcolm wasn’t sure if it belonged solely to her, or was a line she shared with the other sprytes.

  Malcolm still wasn’t sure how much he could trust Shield Maiden. He hadn’t gotten a chance to confirm any of the information she’d given him. It was possible that she was still working with Multi, and she’d told him what she had in order to manipulate him.

  Possible, but unlikely. Still, I doubt I can trust anyone other than myself, and maybe Rose, for help.

  He included Second Wind within that category, even as different as they were becoming. The fact that he secretly had a copy of his own made the odds against Multi and his army of doppelgangers feel slightly more even. It gave him options and he hoped it made Multi wary. What else could his questions relating to Second Wind have meant?

  Unable to reach Second Wind and unwilling to try the number Rose had given him, Malcolm bought some food from a street vendor and spent the afternoon in a park. As the sun began to set he headed toward Terri’s Tavern. He was too paranoid from his encounter with Multi and too unsure about the intel Shield Maiden had given him to try anything on his own.

  The woman from the night before was sitting alone at the bar again. Malcolm paused at the entrance and debated whether he was interested in talking to her. His legs made the choice for him, and he took the stool next to her. She turned and smiled at him as he sat down. She was dressed as alluringly as she had the night before and Malcolm noticed specks of glitter on her tanned cheeks.

  “Good evening,” she said. “I guess you are a regular here, after all.”

  “And apparently so are you.” Malcolm accepted a beer from Scribe as she brought it over. He let out a sigh and took a long drink from it.

  “Did you come here again tonight to see me?” asked the woman.

  The question made Malcolm think of Rose. He’d been seeing her less and less frequently lately. Between her and Tapestry, he’d gone from having too many women to handle, to teetering on the edge of loneliness.

  “No,” he said, answering the woman’s question. “But I’m sure most guys would have, so, don’t take that the wrong way.”

  “See, that’s what I like about you,” said the woman. “You’re honest.”

  Malcolm didn’t really want to flirt with her. He was still mulling over his encounter with Multi. How close had he really been to dying, on that bus? And how had Multi known about Second Wind?

  “A penny for your thoughts,” said the woman.

  He started to wonder if sitting down next to her had been such a good idea, after all. Malcolm was trying to come up with a polite way to refuse her when she reached over and poked him in the shoulder. It was just juvenile enough of an action to loosen his lips.

  “Is it worth it to fight against where the world is headed?” he asked. “Does any of us really have any control over the future, or are we just… rocks in the middle of an avalanche.”

  “Wow,” said the woman. “Jumping right into the deep end, aren’t you? That’s an interesting question.”

  She sipped her own drink and thought for a couple of seconds.

  “I think that it matters less whether we’re in control or not, and more whether we think we are,” she said.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  The woman turned to face him more directly. She leaned an elbow on the bar and rested her chin on her hand.

  “You aren’t in control of anything,” said the woman. “You might think you are. That you make small choices… what to eat, when to sleep. Who to be friends with, and who to hate. The bigger stuff, control of the world, or even your own future, it’s hard to feel like you can keep your hands on the wheel. But really, it’s all the same. Pointless and predetermined.”

  “That’s… kind of dark,” said Malcolm.

  “You shouldn’t ask deep questions if you don’t want deep answers,” said the woman.

  Malcolm considered her perspective, or at least tried to. He went to take another sip of beer and realized that his mug was already almost empty.

  “What are you doing here tonight, then?” asked Malcolm. “Why bother going out? Drinking in a bar, talking to strangers. Like you said, it’s all pointless.”

  “That’s where the illusion of control comes in,” said the woman. “I come to a bar. Make a new friend. Possibly… do something that makes me feel alive, and powerful. It’s certainly better than cowering in the dark, and being scared.”

  Malcolm nodded, though he could tell she was speaking of something personal, something he wasn’t sure he understood. He was about to ask her more, when a muffled shout came from outside.

  “Let me go down, then! Let me see for myself!”

  “I told you,” replied the bouncer, in an equally loud voice. “The shadow spryte isn’t here. Now buzz off!”

  Malcolm sat up a little straighter on his stool. He tapped his fingers on the counter, debating with himself over whether it was worth looking into. The shouting outside began to intensify, and he eventually couldn’t keep himself still.

  “Leaving so soon?” asked the woman. “You still don’t know my name.”

  Malcolm just shrugged at her, his mind already on the commotion outside. He ran up the stairs to find Onyx, the bouncer of Terri’s Tavern, standing over a blond man who was down on one knee, clutching at his stomach.

  “You bastard!” snarled the blond man. “Tell me where she is.”

  “You can either get the fuck out of here, or get another beating,” said Onyx.

  Malcolm held up a hand in the bouncer’s direction.

  “Let me handle this,” he said.

  He walked over to the man, who was still catching his breath, and offered him a hand. The blond man scowled slightly as he took it.

  “Maybe you can help me, then,” said the man. “I’m looking for someone. A shadow spryte. Her name is Rosalina.”

  Malcolm kept his expression from giving anything away.

  He’s looking for Rose. I need to find out why.

  “Let’s walk and talk,” he said.

  CHAPTER 13

  The man introduced himself as Brenden Barnes. After a moment’s hesitation, Malcolm replied with his own name. His instincts told him that this man was new to Vanderbrook and that it didn’t matter what name he gave him. If felt nice to be himself, if only for a minute.

  Brenden was tall, with handsome facial features and the kind of crisp blond haircut not often seen outside of movies. He wore a button up shirt over khakis, and the clothes looked ruffled and slightly dirty from several continuous days of wear.

  It took a couple of minutes for Malcolm to warm up to him, and vice versa. Malcolm talked about Terri’s Tavern, its reputation, his experiences there, all the while thinking furiously about how to gauge the man’s motives without giving away his own.

  “So…” said Brenden. “If you’re a regular at this place… You must have seen her.”

  “A couple of times, maybe,” said Malcolm. “I don’t remember everyone that comes in.”

  It wasn’t necessarily a lie, at least not in regard to how often Rose attended the bar. Malcolm licked his lips and weighted his next question carefully.

  “Who is she to you, anyway?”

  Brenden’s face tightened at the question, and his eyes glared with deep, complicated emotion.

  “She’s my fiancée,” he said.

  Malcolm tried to control his reaction as his heart began thumping in his chest. At least some of his surprise must have shown on his face, because Brenden stopped walking.

  “You do know her!” snapped Brenden.

  “No,” Malcolm said, quickly. “It’s just… sprytes and demon usually don’t have relationships like that.”

  How
long have I been sleeping with Rose for? And this man, who claims to be her fiancé? Has he been searching for her this entire time?

  “She is my fiancé,” said Brenden, in a low, dangerous voice. “From before. And I know she’s here in Vanderbrook, or nearby. I’ve seen the monster profiles on the internet.”

  Malcolm had heard about those from Second Wind. Several websites were now dedicated to keeping track of the movements and whereabouts of powerful demons and sprytes. It was a way to warn people who held the real power in a particular region.

  “I don’t know what to tell you,” Malcolm said.

  “Tell me where she is!” Brenden surprised Malcolm by rushing toward him, grabbing him by the shoulders, and knocking him to the ground. Malcolm was also surprised by his own restraint. Rather than retaliating, or using his powers to defend himself, he merely put his hands up to guard against a possible blow.

  But Brenden didn’t punch him. He just clung to Malcolm, holding onto the scruff of his shirt.

  “Please…” said Brenden. “I… have to find her.”

  Malcolm stood up and disengaged from him without further struggle. He massaged his temples, wishing that he knew what to do or say. Would Rose want to see Brenden? Did she even know that she’d had a fiancé, back before she became a spryte?

  An odd mixture of doubt and jealousy wormed its way into Malcolm’s chest. Was it possible that Rose would meet with Brenden, remember him and her previous life, and return to it? Of course it was, he decided. And he had no right to keep her from that, if it was what she wanted.

  “You know her,” said Brenden. “I can tell. Please… I’m staying at the Clearwood Motel. Room 16. Just tell her… I’ll be there for the next few days. Tell her to come in the afternoon.”

  Malcolm didn’t respond. Brenden watched him for a moment, and then without saying a word turned back toward Terri’s Tavern and walked away.

  The walk back to Malcolm’s hideout felt like it took an eternity. He called the phone number he’d been given on the way. A feminine voice that he was fairly sure he recognized as the spryte Fantasy picked up, and Malcolm disguised his own as he asked for Rose.

  He told her to meet him at his hideout, but didn’t say more than that. He wanted to approach telling her about Brenden as carefully as he could. It was a big, emotional thing, and already Malcolm felt as though he was sticking his nose where it didn’t belong.

  Not just my nose. All this time… I’ve been sleeping with another man’s fiancée.

  Waiting for her to arrive was almost intolerable. Keeping an eye on the entrance, Malcolm paced back and forth just inside the warehouse above his hideout. After close to an hour, Rose’s silhouette finally appeared, beautiful and backlit by the moon.

  “Malcolm,” she said. “What’s going on? You sounded worried on the phone.”

  She walked over to him and took his hands into hers. Her hair was messy, as though she’d been in bed when he’d called. She wore a blue sweatshirt and black jeans, and slid the hood down as she leaned in to kiss him. Malcolm turned his face, letting her lips brush against his cheek.

  “I ran into someone tonight,” he said. “At Terri’s Tavern. A guy, blond hair, blue eyes. Tall, good looking...”

  If you’re into the sculpted Adonis type…

  He watched Rose’s expression for any sign of recognition. She gave him a slightly confused look and glanced toward the hatch leading down to his hideout.

  “…Okay,” she said. “Did something happen?”

  “His name was Brenden,” Malcolm offered.

  Rose shook her head.

  “Are you expecting me to-”

  “He said he was your fiancé.”

  At that, Rose’s bodily language stiffened, and her mouth fell open in surprise. She looked about how Malcolm had felt when Brenden had told him the same thing. Malcolm felt a little ashamed of how much relief that brought him. It would have been more painful to discover that Rose had known about her fiancé and been intentionally keeping the detail to herself.

  Or worse. If she’d still be in contact with him, or even still seeing him.

  “Oh my god…” Rose was shaking her head. “I… can’t believe it.”

  “Come on,” said Malcolm. “Let’s go inside.”

  He put an arm around her and led her to the ladder. The pain in his shoulder made him wince as he climbed down, but it was only negligibly noticeable with all of the other thoughts swarming his brain.

  The two of them sat on his mattress and were silent for a time. Malcolm rubbed his hand along her back, wishing that there was something more that he could say or do.

  “This is insane…” muttered Rose. “You’re sure that he was talking about me?”

  “Positive,” said Malcolm. “Unless there are other shadow sprytes named Rosalina in the area.”

  “Rosalina…” said Rose. “That only makes it weirder for me. Like I have a twin that’s done all of this stuff and just… passed it off to me, without explaining.”

  Malcolm couldn’t resist chuckling a little.

  “I can relate to that,” he said.

  Rose’s shoulders tensed up, and Malcolm suddenly doubted that he actually could relate to what she was going through. Second Wind had only been “born” a few weeks earlier. Rose’s previous life had spanned decades before she became a spryte, and she had essentially lost all memory of it.

  “I have to meet him,” said Rose. “Do you know where he is? Did he leave a phone number? Any contact info?”

  Malcolm frowned slightly, but nodded.

  “He did,” he said. He felt a tiny prick of jealousy at the expression he read on her face. It was curiosity mixed with longing, with a dash of anticipation and fear. “The Clearwood Motel. Room 16.”

  “I’ll find him tomorrow, then,” said Rose. “And… see what he wants.”

  A couple silent seconds passed by, each one agonizing to Malcolm for reasons he didn’t quite understand.

  She wasn’t this eager to find Leah, her sister, back when we first got information on where she was.

  Malcolm blinked. If Rose had a fiancé, why hadn’t Leah told her about it when the two had reunited? They’d had weeks together after he escaped Rain Dancer and Rose had stayed behind with the cult, the Awakened Children.

  “Leah didn’t tell you,” Malcolm said. “Isn’t that weird? You talked with her about who you’d been before you turned into a spryte, didn’t you?”

  Rose nodded slowly.

  “It seemed like she was keeping something from me,” said Rose. “I did ask if I had any boyfriends or husbands out there that I might have forgotten about, I’m sure of it. Leah just changed the subject each time, brought up some other interesting fact about me to distract me from the topic. I should have pressed her on it more, but at that time… I was desperate for any information about myself.”

  “That doesn’t bode well,” said Malcolm. “You know, he didn’t actually give me any proof of what he said. He just knew your name, and that you were a shadow spryte.”

  Rose folded her arms.

  “And you think it’s likely that some random stranger would show up in Vanderbrook claiming to be my fiancé, because…?

  “I’m not saying it’s likely, just that it’s possible,” said Malcolm. “You should be careful about meeting with him.”

  Rose set a hand on Malcolm’s knee. She turned her head to look at him and slowly licked her lips.

  “You’re worried,” she said.

  “Of course I am,” said Malcolm. “I care about you. I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

  “Do you want to come with me to meet with him?” asked Rose.

  Malcolm hesitated before answering. He had to fight back his first response.

  “…No,” he said. “I don’t think I should. I already feel bad enough about this. All this time… you’ve been engaged. And I’ve been sleeping with you. Things could get really weird, really fast if I was there with you for your reunion.”

/>   He winced at his own word choice.

  “It’s not going to be a reunion, Malcolm,” said Rose. “I’m not leaving you for him. I feel like I shouldn’t even need to explain that.”

  She leaned her head against his shoulder.

  “Rose…” Malcolm considered his words carefully. “You don’t know what you might remember, when you see him. If the two of you were happy together, if you had a life together… It might not be that simple.”

  Malcolm remembered something Rose had told him back in the first few days they’d met. She’d said that all she really wanted was to settle down and live a normal life.

  Maybe she did. Maybe that life has just been waiting for her to remember it, and come back to it.

  “You’re an idiot,” said Rose. “And I think I know my heart better than you do, even taking the possibility of long lost memories into consideration.”

  She kissed his neck softly, her lips hot against the sensitive skin. Malcolm hesitated, letting her take his cheek into her hand, but making no move to pull her into an embrace.

  “Kiss me,” she whispered.

  “Rose,” he said. “I feel… weird about it, right now.”

  “So do I,” she said. “But not so weird that I’m not aware of the fact that we’re both sitting on your bed.”

  She unzipped her sweatshirt and let it slip off her shoulders. She hadn’t bothered to wear anything other than a bra underneath, and she pulled Malcolm’s hand around to rest on top of a clasp, like an older woman walking a young virgin through his first time.

  “I make my own choices, Malcolm,” said Rose. “And each time we’ve been together, it hasn’t been because I’m confused, and lost my memory. It’s because I wanted to be with you.”

  “But…” Malcolm frowned. “I can’t forget about this. I know that you have a fiancé, now.”

  He let his hand fall away from her bra. Rose scowled at him and pushed him back on the bed, one of her hands coming close enough to his shoulder to send a small twinge of pain through him. She let her hands slide under his shirt and caressed his stomach before slowly making their way down to his crotch and kneading his burgeoning erection.