Darklands 02 - Something Wild This Way Comes

by Autumn Dawn

  Gunfire exploded in the hallway, distracting him just as Scy fired his rifle and Leo kicked him in the groin. Mathin threw the rope down and launched himself over the side, rappelling rapidly toward the bottom, Scy right behind him.

  Scy's shot had hit his half-brother just above the heart, thanks to Leo's simultaneous assault. At least it slowed his reactions enough for Mathin's feet to hit the ground and launch himself toward him. It did not save Leo from a wicked backhand with the hilt of the scab's blade, however. The blow caught her under the jaw and sent her flying back, only to be jerked to a halt by her chains. Unable to break her fall, maybe unconscious as well, she dropped like a rock. Her head hit the ground with a sickening crack.

  A snarl of outrage came from Scy at Mathin's back, but he only had attention for their enemy. And as he watched, the man changed.

  Only this change was nothing like that of a full Haunt. Instead he became a hideous mixture of beast and man, a were-thing with long, scraggly hair and patches of naked flesh. Abnormally long fangs gleamed yellow in his elongated jaws, and his eyes gleamed pus-yellow with red pupils.

  Revolted, and more than willing to put the monster out of his misery, Mathin engaged him.

  Blue lightning snapped and fizzled around them as swords sliced the air; deadly cuts that would slice their opponent in half when they connected. Around the edge of the puddle they danced, each more eager than the other to draw blood.

  Tonight a Haunt would die.

  * * * *

  "Can you help her?" Andrea tried to control her shivering as Scy tried to keep one eye on the swordsmen while his symbiont worked on Leo's head. Still unconscious, she didn't move.

  "I'm trying!" He handed a gun to her. "Point this at the them and fire if you get a clean shot. If anything happens to Mathin you won't have time for more than one. Got it?"

  "I--yes." Determined to control the contractions that squeezed her lower belly, she tried to keep her eyes on the fighters. It wasn't easy. Not only were they moving in a virtual blur, but the cramps that seized her lower belly scared her. They didn't feel like the false contractions that had squeezed her whole stomach as the pregnancy advanced. No, these were lower, more intense. They felt like they meant business. Please, God! Get us out of here.

  Something happened--Mathin's boot must have caught in one of the cracks in the broken paving stones. There was a snapping sound, and he went down. His enemy's blade went for his neck. Mathin parried.

  And suddenly Scy was there, a katana-like energy blade weaving like thunder on a stick, interfering with the monster's blade and luring it away while Mathin freed himself. Balanced on one foot, Mathin withdrew his own gun and stood ready to aid should Scy need it.

  He didn't. As relentless as death and hurricane-swift, he wove a dizzying lightshow around the were-beast that was every bit as skilled as Mathin's. Fireworks exploded from their dueling blades, then the were-beast staggered. Scy's blade leapt forward and impaled itself deep within the monster. Without a trace of remorse, Scy held it there until it had sizzled a black hole within the body cavity, burning away lungs and organs. The stink of burning hair and charred meat filled the air, and the were-beast's eyes dimmed, then finally went dark.

  He was dead.

  For a moment nobody moved. Then a group of Ronin, led by Jackson, came running through the doorway. Jackson skidded to a halt, the rest of the men panting behind him. "Anyone need help?"

  Retracting his blade, Scy gave him a curt nod. "Leo."

  As the Ronin swarmed around Leo, Mathin, now changed, hopped over to Andrea. She could see the lines of strain around his mouth and eyes. "How badly are you hurt?" she asked, concerned.

  "Broken ankle. It'll heal. You?"

  She gasped as another contraction hit her. "I think I'm having this baby." And wasn't that a fine way to end the day?

  Unable to lift her, Mathin suffered Jackson to carry her out of the room while two Ronin helped him to follow. More Ronin followed with the monster's decapitated body--always a wise precaution when dealing with a Haunt--and the unconscious Leo.

  * * * *

  "Breathe, Andrea."

  She reared up on her elbows and glared at Scy, who was stationed at her feet. "I am!"

  "You can do it, Andrea," Mathin said at her elbow.

  "Shut up!" In the worst agony in her life, she couldn't believe that Mathin was cheering her on as if this were a sporting event. Another painful contraction hit her and she screamed.

  "Don't push!"

  Push! I'll show you push, she thought, but didn't have breath to say it. She felt the painful pressure as Scy checked her cervix for dilation, and cried out at the additional torture.

  "Okay, you can do it. Push, Andrea!"

  More demands. Wanting nothing more than to get this baby out, she let her body do what it had been fighting to do for the last half hour. She pushed. And felt the burn as her baby was expelled.

  The baby was very quiet as it lay in Scy's arms. Then it opened its eyes, took one look at him and began to cry.

  Later, as Andrea lay on the bed in a blissfully un-pregnant state, she turned her head to smile at Mathin, who reclined on the bed, cradling their son. His ankle had been set, and he seemed glad of the excuse to lie beside her, doing nothing.

  He smiled back. "He looks just like me."

  "Heaven help us."

  His face serious, Mathin carefully eased the wrapped bundle between them on their borrowed bed and propped himself on one elbow to watch them both. "Would you object if I were to tell you this one will be the last child of our bodies?"

  After the nightmare she'd seen today, Andrea understood his feelings perfectly. "No. But I'm glad he's here." She took his hand. "I've missed you, Mathin."

  A kiss as soft as a dove's wing demonstrated his heartfelt agreement. "The days could never speed by fast enough, and my nights lasted forever."

  Ah, yes. That's what a woman wanted to hear. Content just to be near him and too exhausted for long conversation, she snuggled down and just enjoyed for a while.

  Just as she was about to drift off, Mathin said in a contemplative tone, "I thought we could name him Roxtan."

  Her eyes flew open. "You are not naming my baby Roxtan." The idea of it! "Why not just call him Conan the Barbarian, if you're going to do that."

  His eyes narrowed in annoyance. "What would you prefer?"

  "How about Alexander?"

  The disgusted face he made gave her his opinion on that.

  "Okay, how do you like Maximilian? Max for short."

  Mathin snorted. "That sounds like slang for a body part you haven't seen in far too long, wife. Definitely not."

  Peeved, she said, "Herbert then."

  "Her-bert." He turned it over on his tongue.

  "That was a joke, Mathin!"

  * * * *

  The day after Andrea had her baby in the Ronin settlement, Mathin received good news. He limped into Leo's spare room, in the process shaking Andrea from a light doze. "Look at this!"

  He thrust the missive he carried with him into her hands. Accustomed to reading Ronin materials for the last few months, she blinked at it.

  Without waiting for her to actually read it, he told her, "Jayems finally ignored my messages to stay away and brought reinforcements. Between him and Raziel, my cousin's forces were routed in a day." He frowned a bit. "I only regret I was not the one to deal with him."

  "You were busy." She scanned the note. "Did Keilor stay home, then?"

  Mathin's sudden stillness boded no good. Taking her hand, he placed a gentle kiss on her knuckles. "He stayed home with his wife, my love." His tone became sorrowful. "They lost the baby."

  The color drained from her face. "No," she whispered, and slumped to the bed. Tears welled in her eyes. Jasmine had been so happy!

  He didn't try to make it better with platitudes, just held her. "I know." He rubbed his face against her hair. "I know."

  She grieved, but even as she cried for her friend's loss, in her
heart Andrea had to wonder. Had the baby been lost because of some unavoidable defect, caused by the mixing of such alien blood? Might the child have been born a monster? Much as she loved her son, she was glad they'd decided that one was enough. This tempting fate business was not worth it.

  Perhaps Scy had reached a similar conclusion, for in the days that they spent in the Ronin settlement, waiting for Andrea to heal enough for the trip home, Scy never said a word to Leo. If he saw her on the streets, he turned and went the other way. The times he checked up on Andrea and the baby, Leo was out. Rumor had it he spent much time hunting.

  "I hate to see them like this," Leo said to Mathin after they went to bed one night. "Leo moves like she's in mourning, and Scy...." Her eyes pleaded with Mathin. "Could you talk to him?"

  And say what? Aloud, he sighed. "Andrea...."

  "Please?"

  "As you wish."

  Chapter 12

  "It's a good day for hunting."

  Scy looked up at Mathin, his face neither welcoming nor hostile. "It is." He continued along the path leading into the swamp.

  With a sigh for Scy's stubbornness, Mathin followed. Not only had he promised his wife he'd talk to Scy, but Scy's aloof attitude roused a sense of challenge.

  "Rather far from your wife, aren't you?"

  Mathin shrugged. "With all the men Jackson has stationed around Leo's house, I doubt an insect could sneak in to harass her. He's very thorough." When Scy said nothing, he added casually, "I thought he and Leo would come to blows over his attempt to set bodyguards over her. She seems to delight in losing them in the swamp as often as possible."

  Scy snorted.

  "Andrea wants to offer her the chance to visit. She thinks to introduce her to some of my friends."

  That brought Scy to a halt. "How wise is it to introduce a Sylph into a citadel swarming with male Haunt?"

  A slight smile tugging at his lips, Mathin said slyly, "Not so difficult, if a Haunt were to take her in hand first."

  Anger radiated from Scy. "I am not one of you!"

  Avoidance won them nothing. Arms crossed, Mathin stared him down. "I am the head of my family and your brother. You are if you wish to be."

  Scy looked away. "Our blood ties are weak and you know it."

  Mathin drew a deep breath. "I would have preferred another way to have made them, but I'll take what I've been given." His eyes narrowed. "Or do you despise your Haunt blood so much that you'd rather not acknowledge it?"

  His jaw tight, Scy took a couple of steps off the path and leaned against a tree. "It is how I came about that I despise." He gestured to the settlement, barely discernible through the trees. "As far as most of these know, I am no different than they are. I was raised here; I'm one of them. Yet...." He kicked at a tree root, ground the bark off with his foot. "I can't forget what I saw when we rescued Leo." Resolute, he met Mathin's eyes. "That could have been me." Unspoken hung the thought that it might become of a child of his.

  There was no easy answer to that. Mathin contemplated a leaf, still wet with the morning's dew. "We know so little of these crosses. One of Jasmine's sons can change--the other can not. Yet he wears a symbiont and seems to have senses much like you." He met Scy's eyes. "There is some question as to whether they will be able to reproduce at all."

  "I don't intend to experiment." Scy straightened up as if to move off.

  "So you rob her of the pleasure and comfort to be found in your arms without asking her?" Mathin asked softly. "Is that more honorable?"

  A shudder shook Scy like a volti shakes his prey.

  Pressing his advantage, Mathin continued, "Have you thought that the attraction between Sylph and Haunt is perhaps meant to be? And all other arguments aside, can you deny that Jasmine and Keilor, Andrea and myself are happy? Can you afford not to find out if such is possible for you, too?" Aware that any more words might work against him, Mathin changed the subject. He nodded at Scy's symbiont. "How is it that you are able to wear a symbiont at all? With their aversion to Haunt blood, it would seem improbable."

  Scy flicked a crawling bug from his arm. "You said yourself that one of Jasmine's children was born with it. So was I." He shrugged. "It would appear that I am more human than Haunt. Either that or my Haunt side is submerged enough that it doesn't signify." There was a moment of silence while he reflected on it. "If we were to marry it would likely be best to marry into the side we resembled best. Presuming we aren't such an unstable conglomerate as our dear, unlamented brother." A humorless smile touched his lips. "I think it's best he didn't pass on any genes, don't you?"

  "That we know of," Mathin added darkly, thinking of the woman the beast had bragged of raping.

  Equally grim, Scy shook his head. "I assure you that none of the women he stole survived--including the one we recovered. There were no others."

  "At least there's that." More silence. "I never did thank you for all you've done for me and my wife."

  "It was nothing."

  "It was something," Mathin returned forcefully. "And I won't forget it. If there is anything, at any time, that I can do for you, you have only to name it."

  Scy searched his face. "Be careful what you offer, brother." He smiled a little. "I might accept."

  "Do that." Mathin left, satisfied that Scy would turn his words over.

  Strange how he'd become caught up in the desire to see Scy happy. Already he'd caught himself thinking about inviting him to visit. He shook his head, exasperated at his own foolishness. Scy would not come. Nor did he need an older brother at his age. Picking up his pace, he returned to his wife.

  "So what did you talk about?" she asked the minute he walked in the door.

  Arrested by the sight of her nursing their son, he froze. Heat drummed in his veins, reminding him of how long he'd been celibate.

  "Are you listening to me?" Andrea caught the direction of his gaze and pulled up the blanket around the baby so he would look at her face. Ever since she'd started nursing he'd eyed her poor, swollen breasts with the hunger of a starving man. "Tell me what Scy said."

  With a regretful sigh he claimed a seat on the couch opposite her. "Very little."

  "Like what?"

  He gave an irritable shrug, his mind, or rather his groin, still occupied with thoughts of forbidden fruit. "I don't remember."

  Exasperated with him, she shook her head in disbelief. "You spoke for half an hour and can't remember a word?"

  Mathin raised a speculative brow. "Perhaps you could coax it from me." The grin he gave her was pure invitation.

  "I'm nursing," she said primly, even though a mischievous smile played at her mouth. "Besides, I just had a baby."

  Not one to give up easily, he tried, "Just a little kiss? Surely that's allowed. Besides," he peered at his son, hoping it was true, "he's asleep. Come and cuddle for a while." He slid down on the couch, tucked one hand behind his head and extended his free hand. "I promise to behave."

  Anticipation flared as she gave him a dubious look, but stood.

  Immediately their son began to cry.

  She gave Mathin a helpless glance and patted the baby on the back, jogging him a little. "It's okay, honey. Go back to sleep."

  He cried louder.

  Defeated, Mathin groaned and dropped his wrist over his eyes. Thwarted by an infant. What would Raziel say?

  As it happened, it was Matilda and not Raziel who had much to say. Much to everyone's surprise, she appeared later that day, riding behind the Ronin who'd been chosen as messenger between the settlement and the citadel.

  "Andrea!" she cried as she dismounted, running to hug her granddaughter. Before Andrea could say a thing, she pulled back and demanded, "Where's my great-grandbaby?"

  The moment she was presented with the infant, she began to cry. "I thought this day would never come." She sniffed. "Isn't he beautiful?"

  Leo, who was present at the time, rolled her eyes, but there was a faint wistfulness there as well. "And I thought my family was bad."

/>   In between cooing at her grandson and directing Mathin where to put her bags, Matilda somehow managed to scold Andrea for not writing more and for making her come out to see the baby when she might have just came home.

  Barely able to get a word in edgewise, Andrea protested, "We told you we'd be home the day after tomorrow. For pity's sake, he's not even a week old yet." Of course, her words fell on deaf ears. And baby hog that she was, Matilda rarely relinquished the child long enough for feedings. Andrea had the feeling that if she hadn't been nursing she'd have never seen her son.

  * * * *

  Matilda and Shelarah hit it off right away. Within hours they had their heads together, and if their frequent glances in Leo's direction were any indication, Leo's days as a bachelorette were numbered.

  "They make me nervous," Leo whispered to Andrea as they sat at Jackson's table, playing a strategy game. "Look at them over there, giggling. I don't believe that they're just trading recipes."

  Andrea had to agree. While Mathin and Jackson carried on a conversation in the living room, probably about something boring like trade agreements, Matilda showed Shelarah how to crochet. Their hushed conversation might have been about granny squares, but she doubted it. "Do you think it's too late to run for the hills?"

  When Leo continued to look disgusted, she decided to ask what had been bothering her for some time. "Leo? What happened between you and Scy after we got back?"

  There was silence for a moment as Leo toyed with a game piece. "Nothing." As if fearing Andrea would doubt her, she rushed to say, "We've barely seen each other since." She slouched a bit, and the barest hint of a sad frown made her look both older and younger. "Not that I care," she added, but there was no conviction in her listless tone.

  This called for action. Assuming the guise of helpful friend, Andrea nodded. "Good!" She moved her game piece with confidence. "Then he can't be jealous if you show up at the town dance tomorrow night wearing a dress that will make all the men drool."