“I raised the first Rimfire.
“The flames cleansed me of his failure. I was reborn. Master of the Ash Walkers. A shaman of the Deadlands.” Its eyes went red. “A god.”
Rayner bent over as though he’d been hit in the chest and he fell to his knees. “No.”
“Yes,” it roared with laughter as we four ran forward, aligning ourselves with Ray. Ben was there first, his hand on his shoulder, Burr on the other side. “Now, as for you, Sky.”
I froze and whirled around. I’d left her without meaning to. But Sky had come up behind us, her face set and the girls arrayed around her.
“Ivo was weak, but he was a human being,” she said, her voice shaking. “You bastard.”
“He was a waste of a father, of a life,” the Crooked Man said dismissively. “As I was saying, Sky, my dear. I always liked you, even though we technically share no blood. Come with me, sister.”
“You are not my brother,” Sky said. “Not anymore. You died eighteen years ago along with Ivo. Whatever is left are fragments swirling in a void. Rayner is my only brother, demon.”
“Demon?” Its red eyes flashed. “You put these fools on a pedestal when they are less than human. They are part beast! Part wild.” Its voice rose. “I’m more than human. I’m more!” it screamed.
“You’re not more than human,” Sky said sadly. “You’re destroyed. Your humanity is just a flicker in you, a dying ember you are trying to snuff out with every breath.”
It sneered. “I had a plan if you proved to be as disappointing as he was.” It jerked its head at Rayner.
Several things happened at once. Fire roared up between us and the Skinwalker, then Sky let out a shriek as she was suddenly seized around the waist by a long black tentacle, dragged towards the water behind us.
“Sky!” I shouted, racing after her. I cast out my sense into the water. There was some kind of creature in there, a serpent with cold purpose. Then it vanished.
At the same moment, the tentacle loosened and Sky gasped as she fell by the water’s edge, the creature suddenly writhing under the water and going still.
“What?” I wheezed, hope and confusion clashing in my chest. Rising from the water was the face of an old man, his cheeks decorated with opalescent scales both light and dark, with liquid eyes. It cracked a grin and raised a webbed hand. “Nibinabe chieftain,” I breathed, falling by the water’s edge with gratitude and bowing my head. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, Akba Atatdia pup. We sensed the beast and knew the demon was up to no good again. And you avenged our people.” He nodded beyond me. “As well as saved my grandchild.” A tiny head popped up next to him and I recognized the nibinabe from the other day.
“Oh, of course,” I said. “You’re welcome, too, I guess.”
I heard Wes and Hazel come up next to me.
“Old One,” Hazel murmured, bowing her head. “Thank you. Before you go, how is it that the people of this city have been able to see you? Are you still in danger? I am a shaman; I may be able to fix that and protect you from those uncomprehending eyes.”
The old nibinabe gazed up at the sky. “In this place, in these mountains and these waters, the legends linger. The boundaries between spirit world and this one are thin. In bringing that horror of the deep north here, through the Deadlands, the Skinwalker upset the balance.
“He stole our invisibility and gave it to that beast. But you have set it right. The wendigo is gone and we are all safe again. We will not forget that.
“In return for that service, I will tell you something I observed one night with this particular Skinwalker. It is more cunning than its kind usually is. While it has hunger, it strives more after power. I believe when it committed that atrocity, severing its soul, locking its humanity in the Deadlands to rot away, it was not a clean severance. The girl was right.” He gestured at Sky. “Fragments remain. It makes it more dangerous, yet more vulnerable.”
Wes let out a sigh. “Great. We’ll keep that in mind.”
Letting out a dry chuckle, the old nibinabe said “See that you do. I have faith in you, Coyotes. Remember though, having faith in yourselves is always more crucial.” With that, the nibinabe vanished into the dark water and the waves stilled.
“Mermaids?” Sky said weakly, gazing around at us. “Were those… they were. Oh, shit.”
“Anishinaabe water spirits, to be more precise,” Hazel said.
I asked Wes what I already knew. “Skinwalker?”
“Gone,” Wes said in a tone of disgust, then his eyes swept over me and he made a face. “Doc,” he called out dryly, “can you come over here?”
I ignored Wes. But now that the adrenaline of the fight was leaving my body in a swift rush, I was left empty and battered. My shoulder ached, my head was pounding, and the horizon tilted in my vision. I blinked and shook my head, trying to get a grip.
“Sky,” I heard myself say. “You alright? Need a hand?”
“Cree, never mind me,” Sky said, scrambling up, her face white. “You’re swaying.”
“What?” I asked.
“What is it, Stealth?” Ben asked from behind me, his voice changing volume like someone was twirling a speaker. “I’m pretty drained.”
I put a hand to my head, then my shoulder, which sent a sharp shock of pain through me.
“Quickfoot got himself shot again,” Wes said dryly. “Could’ve mentioned it sooner, Cree.”
“Wait, when did this happen?” Ben sounded alarmed. “How much blood has he lost?”
I didn’t find out the answer.
My vision went black as I fell into oblivion, Sky’s words following me as I spiraled down a deep, endless void. And I tried to reach for her, but my hands closed on empty air.
Chapter 20
I emerged from my room, cleanly dressed and feeling absurdly shy. In my own apartment, no less. But Cree was still unconscious – resting now, they’d told me – and my apartment was filled with people I’d just met. People I’d just shared one of the most eye-opening, terrifying, and wildest experiences of my life with.
“Sorry to crash like this,” Willow said, spotting me. She was sitting at the counter, her long legs stretched out in front of her. “Do you want to order pizza?”
“Um, yeah, there’s a number on the fridge,” I replied. Pizza seemed bizarre at this moment.
For a while, there had been a flurry of activity, people taking turns leaving my apartment to go get their clothes and get dressed at their hotel. Now almost everyone was back, except Rayner and Burr. The girls were hovering by the kitchenette and Ben was half asleep on the couch, looking exhausted. Wes was in the guest room with Cree.
As I went into the kitchenette, I added, “Honestly, I appreciate not being alone right now.”
“Are you okay?” Kalin asked, her hands playing with her hair. She’d taken it down and it fell around her head in a fluffy halo. “Tonight was a lot. I mean, I remember the night I saw its face for the first time.” Her eyes were distant. “It’s a shock to the system.”
“Especially if you almost get turned into a Pale Eye,” Willow said dryly and Kalin stuck her tongue out at her.
“We understand if you don’t want to talk about it, Sky, but we’ve been through it. At least me and Kalin.” Hazel nodded at Willow. “Willow grew up in this world.”
“It’s not that I want to talk,” I answered carefully. “I don’t know what I want. I’m exhausted, but I don’t think I can sleep.” I poured myself water, marveling at how calm I was. Shock? “Although I do think Rayner and I need to talk.”
“I can’t believe we know its name,” Kalin muttered, rubbing her cheeks. “Lake Mead feels like yesterday and forever ago all at the same time.”
“Did Burr know, you think, Lolo?” Hazel asked Willow softly.
Willow hesitated, her beautiful face looking oddly young and vulnerable for a moment. “I know he was worried. Burr and Rayner have been friends a very long time – they started wildland firefight
ing together, you know. And you know how Burr, well, he fusses, so…”
“Fusses? I resent that. I simply care deeply is all,” Burr had snuck silently into my apartment and smiled down at me. It was a reassuring kind of smile. “Don’t worry kid, Cree is used to being shot by now.”
“He’s also sleeping fine,” Wes added, and I jumped a mile, slopping water on myself.
“The sneaking thing is annoying,” I announced.
The two Hotshots grinned identically and something in that smile suggested a kinship that went far deeper than any ties of blood. I knew I’d seen that grin on Cree’s face before.
In that moment, I no longer felt like an outsider. “I don’t know if you know that Rayner’s and my parents are a bit eccentric, but…” I gazed around at them, “I have this strange feeling, a vibe, if you will – like I’ve met you all before.” I laughed. “Sorry. Probably overtired.”
Hazel leaned across the counter, her blue eyes like stars. “Would you like to hear a story while we wait for Rayner?”
It was almost dawn when Rayner came back. I didn’t even hear him come in, as I was sitting on the floor listening to stories about monsters and moon spirits, shifters and storms, and the partings and meetings of friends and lovers through different lifetimes.
How coincidental meetings were maybe not so coincidental after all.
“Sorry that took so long guys,” my brother said after Willow finished telling me about what had happened in Alaska a few months ago. “I’m sure you all have a million questions.”
Rayner looked drawn and gray, his face covered in scruff and eyes hollowed. It cut my heart to look up at my big brother and see him like this.
“Of course we do,” Wes said gruffly, and Kalin smacked his leg. “Ow, let me finish, Kay. But they can wait. Have some pizza. You don’t need to say anything or explain yourself.”
“They can?” Rayner gave us an uncertain look. “You’re not furious?”
“I was asleep, for the most part,” Ben said, yawning and wrapping his arms around Hazel.
“This is getting old,” Wes said irritably. “We’re hotshots, we don’t turn on each other. Besides, Ben and Cree are the only two who are actually annoying.” Ben tried to kick Wes, but couldn’t reach. “Ray, we get it.” They looked at each other and it was like there was silent communication occurring between them.
Rayner looked relieved, then said a moment later, “I had to make sure, you guys. For my mother and…” His gray-blue eyes landed on me. “For you, Sky. I never wanted you to find out this way.”
“Alright!” Willow clapped her hands and everyone jumped. “That’s our cue to leave.”
“I’m not leaving Cree and neither should Ben,” Wes said immediately.
“Me and the ladies will go back to the hotel,” Burr said. “You two stay here, just give these other two some room, huh?”
There were goodbyes, then Wes and Ben looked at me expectantly. “The bed in Cree’s room is big enough for two,” I said. “And there’s the couch. Rayner and I can go upstairs.”
“Upstairs?” Rayner echoed as he followed me out the door. I’d grabbed up a blanket and I wrapped it around me as we crossed the hall and went through a door that opened on a steep staircase. Climbing it, my legs felt like lead and I gasped as the cold air hit me. It was a freezing, brilliant morning. A slice of light was coming in from the east and it gave me a sense of relief.
Closure on a night I’d just as soon as forget, but knew I never would.
“Thank you, this is perfect.” My brother sounded oddly formal.
We made our way over to the chest-high railing – at least on me – and stopped there. I leaned against Rayner and struggled to find the right words.
“I understand,” I finally said. “And Ray, you don’t have to apologize or explain. If you want to stand here and be quiet, that’s fine by me. Okay?”
For a few minutes, we did stand in silence, then Rayner asked, “Did you listen to what I said about Cree?” I gave him a rueful smile and he smiled back, eyes crinkling at the sides.
“You must have known you were wasting your breath, right?” I asked.
“I had a feeling,” Rayner said with a deep exhale. “I always thought you two would be perfect together. I just never thought it would actually happen.”
“Why not?” I asked, momentarily an affronted younger sister.
He laughed, a sound that filled me with relief. There had been a moment in the confusion of getting away from Foster’s Point when I’d seen a broken, empty look to my big brother. I’d wondered if he’d ever laugh or smile again. If he could ever find peace.
And I’d hated Soren – the Skinwalker – with every fiber of my being.
“It was purely a logistics thing, little nomad, nothing else,” Rayner said, ruffling my hair.
“Ray, will you at least tell me this – where did you go?”
His face became serious. “Did they tell you about the picture Kalin took?” I nodded. “I saw that and immediately thought it looked like how I always imagined Soren would look as an adult. It stunned me.” Rayner looked down at his hands. “For whatever reason, my gifts as a Coyote Shifter are a little different than the others. I have an element, yes, fire, but I also have sight. A sense of things to come – an ability to read situations and people.”
“You always had that, though,” I remarked, looping my arm through his. “Mom used to think you were psychic, remember? She always wanted you to meditate on big questions for her clients.” I choked back a laugh. “Oh my God, what is she going to say to this? She’ll be so excited.”
Rayner smiled. “I know. I’m not psychic, though. That’s not what the sight is, not exactly.”
“Fine, attuned to the universe,” I said, rolling my eyes.
“I remember the first time I saw the Skinwalker – I was struck with a sense of absolute dread. It went deeper than having a foe. It was like looking in the mirror and seeing another face.”
I shivered at his description; it matched how I’d felt when Soren had turned around in the Broadmoor Garden.
Rayner paused, then continued. “Everything was off-kilter for a while after that – I kept dreaming about my dad’s house in the mountains. Then the picture… That’s when I started looking into it. I knew they never found Soren’s body, but as a kid that was meaningless.
“As an adult, it wasn’t meaningless, but it didn’t make sense. Some days, well weeks, really, I’d try to ignore it. Eventually, Burr found out – he’s good like that, very hard to keep a secret from him,” he laughed. “However, not long after, Burr went missing.”
I nodded. “Yeah, you guys have had some wild times.”
“To say the least,” Rayner said dryly. “I blamed myself. I thought perhaps the Skinwalker found out and took Burr to keep its secret safe. But then we found Burr. That same day, we had the Skinwalker cornered and wounded in the snow. All I could feel was this mix of desperation and relief. It was over, I thought. I didn’t have to tell them it might have been my brother.”
“I know what happened,” I said, as Rayner fell quiet again. “It said you knew its name.”
“Yeah.” Rayner swallowed. “I couldn’t ignore it anymore. Later, Aunt Sil told us a story about something that happened in California eighteen years ago. A forest fire.” His eyes were shadowed. “After she told us, I pulled her aside and asked here where.”
“The Stanislaus Forest,” I murmured, and he nodded. “Oh, Ray.”
“I begged her to keep it to herself – I had to make sure. But I was getting nowhere and I knew time was running out on all of us.” He paused. “Then Whitsy calls, says he has a friend with years of information. A friend who later got murdered by the wendigo.” Rayner shook his head. “Sometimes I wonder if I should have said something sooner.”
“Who knows if it would have changed anything, though,” I pointed out.
“With its true name, a Skinwalker is at its most vulnerable. Navajo legends say that on
ce you know the full name, you can say it and it will be either destroyed…” He paused. “Or turned back into a human.”
“You can save him?” I asked with my hands at my throat.
“Sky.” Rayner was looking at me. “Legends aren’t always necessarily true. Sometimes they are guideposts, stories, and instructions. Words of wisdom. History. Or just a story.”
“So what does it all mean?” I asked. My head was swimming with exhaustion and this was a lot to process.
“There’s a bigger problem,” he said, looking out across the city. “You asked where I was, right? Otis Huxley had a flash drive of information that the wendigo dropped in its haste to escape over the roof. I found it and followed up some leads.
“Huxley had found out his true identity, Soren Fairbank.” In Rayner’s voice, the name sounded like skin scraping over a rusted nail. “He told a few friends. All of them were murdered. Save one. I was trying to track her down, but Huxley only referred to her by a nickname.
“But more concerning were the other things the Skinwalker was doing. Instead of roaming the wild, preying on the innocent, he is seeking more and more power. Money, too. And land, and access to pipelines, waste treatment plants, everything…”
“Viper Fuel?” I asked, my heart squeezing in my chest.
“Among other things,” Rayner said, sounding grim. “Anything that feeds the Ash Walkers. With enough of that power, it could tear down the walls between our world and the Deadlands. Now we have an idea of where the gash is where the Ash Walkers slip through, and how to close it.
“But even still, it stays one step ahead of us. And while Soren is dangerous, there is a shadow possessing him that is a thousand times worse.
“Remember what it said last night? I have no name?” I looked at my brother and watched his jaw clench. “That was the shadow, the creature in the Deadlands that preyed on a lonely teenage boy and pulled him down to hell. Of course, Soren was pretty lost at that point anyways, but he sealed his fate with Kivulk when he committed that atrocity.”
HOTSHOT BROTHERS: Coyote Shifters Page 68