Ryan-Wocky grinned at me. He opened his mouth to speak and I saw the ruined tongue mending itself at last. “Grace, my little dove, how nice to see … ummph!”
Tukka hit the possessed mothman like an avalanche, taking him down to the ground. The moth wings beat frantically, but were woefully insufficient to dislodge the fu dog. Ryan-Wocky pressed against the ground, pushing with demon strength. Nothing. Wocky was trapped as long as he held onto Ryan’s body. Why he wanted it, I didn’t know—except it couldn’t be good.
I squatted down to look closely at the demon, glad that his smell had thinned out. In my mind, this was no longer Ryan. It seemed easier to think of the two just as Wocky since that was who was in charge of the body.
Tukka growled. His thoughts were a shout: Demon take mark off Grace, or Tukka bite head off.
I showed Wocky an expression of serene and sympathetic sorrow. “He will, too. I’d listen to him if I were you.”
“He can only damage this body up to a point.” The fusion of Wocky’s words and Ryan’s voice gave me a slight disconnect from the reality of the scene. “If the manling is destroyed, I am expelled from his body, and am free to make you suffer through the mark you’ll still be wearing. Give it up. You cannot threaten me. If you wanted me dead, Grace, you had your chance with the ghost girl’s magic sword. Your bad luck you were foolishly merciful.”
Tukka sighed. Knew that was a mistake at the time.
I sighed in turn. “Wocky, I saved you. I put your sliced-apart heart back together and back in your body. Return the favor and take your demon name off me. Set me free, please.” I let my eyes continue to plead for me.
Wocky’s turn to sigh, more of a theatrical hiss really. “I can’t. It’s all the hold I have on you. You are all the warmth I have known in ages, Grace. I don’t want to be an empty shell again.”
You are such a liar.
He added, “And I’m keeping this body. It will let me cross the veil and be with you at last.”
Won’t that be a joy?
“If you can cross over, why do I have to keep your mark?”
He smiled at me. “Think of it as an engagement ring.”
“So I’ll be doubly-vulnerable to you, with you getting every advantage? I don’t think so, Wocky. Take off the mark or I’ll have Tukka trample Ryan into pulp. I’ll at least have the status quo then.”
Sadly, Wocky shook his head at me. “Haven’t you done enough to this poor boy?”
I snarled. “I mean it.”
Tukka pressed down harder, grinding Ryan into the ground. Ryan’s leaky aura kept his body from sinking immaterially into the earth. Wocky couldn’t escape. We could deal with him now, and had better do so while he was vulnerable to us.
I couldn’t breath. A heavy, crushing sensation dropped me to my knees. I gasped in pain and flattened on the ground like Wocky. It felt like a two-ton fu dog was stepping on my spine. And the demon mark on my arm was ablaze, as if actual fire were eating its way to the bone.
“Tukka,” I gasped, “Ease up. You’re killing me.”
He did, but still kept Wocky down. “Grace, what’s wrong?”
“My demon mark; through it, I can make her feel everything I do, and a lot more. Now let me go.”
I hardened my heart. “No. It’s just pain, not actual damage. I can take it.” I fought up to my hands and knees and glared at the demon. “Wocky, make me play hardball and you will regret it forever. There is one thing I can do that will make you as vulnerable to me, as I am to you. Are you sure you want to push me that far?”
He studied my face. “You’re bluffing.”
I smiled. “I’m kitsune. I cannot lie.”
His lips shaped a frown. “You’re only half kitsune. It might be possible for you to lie without temporarily sacrificing your powers. Have you ever put it to the test?”
“I’m not lying. The very fact you’re inside a host body works in my favor. Decide fast. If I lose patience, I’ll just go ahead and hope for the best. I’m usually a pessimist, but I hear—once-in-awhile—insane gambles pay off. Shall we find out how lucky you are?” I grinned, putting all my darkest thoughts into the expression.
I don’t know what Wocky saw in my eyes, but he fell quiet. I was about to just get on with it when he said, “All right, I’ll take off the mark if your beast will just ease up a little. But I’m keeping this body.”
I glowered at him, not liking that idea.
Tukka say it’s a deal.
I looked at him. “Are you sure?”
Tukka looked back at me. Trust me. Tukka smarter than average fu dog.
He had a plan. Not one he could talk about in front of Wocky.
I nodded. “Okay, you I trust.”
Tukka pulled back.
Wocky climbed to his feet, giving his moth wings an experimental flutter, testing their lift. He drifted up a few feet, then settled again. He turned to face both me and Tukka. The demon’s eyes went to Tukka’s. Wocky’s voice emerged with an edge of suspicion, “Unexpectedly decent of you, fu dog.”
Just keep promise, Tukka said.
Wocky eased up to me, moving carefully so no one would overreact. His fingers wrapped around the mark on my upper arm. He murmured, “This is going to hurt a little. Be brave, my love.”
I growled at the endearment.
Tukka growled louder.
Standing close, holding my arm, his free hand settled low on my back as if we were about to start a tango.
His black flame aura flared on his hand, the one on my demon mark. I felt a wash of pain. I shuddered, choking on a scream. Then the pain ghosted away. Wocky stepped back from me. I looked at my arm and saw only smooth skin. The brand was gone. Wocky had actually kept his word.
“There,” he said, “just like I promised.” He laughed, rising into the gray sky of the ghost world.
Tukka stomped up to me. Let’s get Grace back undercover. More bugs or demons could still be around.
I nodded and tugged on the veil. The electric tingle came and went. Gravity settled me firmly on my feet as additional color returned to the world.
Spotting me, Fenn ran over. “Didn’t I tell you to stay out of things?”
I shrugged. “You have to admit I have a vested interest.”
“Well, you want to tell me what’s been going on? What the hell have you been doing?”
Absently, I caressed my clean arm. “I’m not sure.”
Wocky’s departing laugh made me wonder if we’d played this the right way. I headed toward the destroyed kitchen door. Only time will tell.
FIFTEEN
“A shot of passion, dressed to thrill,
I need release enough to kill.”
—I’m so Raved
Elektra Blue
It was a couple hours later. We’d straightened up the kitchen, boarded up the broken backdoor, and I’d scrounged up a meal for me and Fenn. Tukka and the boys had declined my baked beans and Spam. I’d only been polite by offering. I knew they got their nourishment from romping through people’s dreams. The unfortunate dreamers often woke up tired despite a full night’s sleep. Fu dogs could eat other things. In fact, bad things had happened when I’d introduced Tukka to chocolate. If only I’d known…
I studied him for signs of the shakes. He didn’t seem to be suffering too much from having gone cold turkey. Maybe that was all behind us. Still, I’d have to be vigilant to keep milk chocolate temptations out of his sight so they could fade from his mind. That meant I couldn’t have them either. I couldn’t torture Tukka by letting him smell them on me, or on my breath. Oddly, my personal abstinence made me feel better.
Every crime needs its punishment.
We’d wound up in the big front room around the fireplace. Tukka had stared at a couch that could never have taken his weight. He shook his head sadly, curling up on the glossy wooden floor, his big head resting on several pillows. He’d had the front porch fu dog come in and take a position in the upstairs hallway. Another fu dog took the
vacated porch. The last of Tukka’s boys had gone out the front door and circled around the house to guard the back of the building.
I sat in an old, blue-green-plaid recliner, my feet on a matching ottoman, my moccasin boots off. A standing lamp to the right of my chair put me in a soft white pool of light. An old white shawl had been found in a coat closet. I’d appropriated it. I was feeling tired, but my mind was revving hard.
Fenn coaxed a fire from logs that had been stacked inside the fireplace on the grating. Orange flames leaped and danced. My imagination twisting them into fantastic shapes, finding imps, dragons, and demons. I frowned at these last. “Tukka, why did you want Wocky to get away with Ryan’s body?”
Poking the logs with a fireplace iron, Fenn sent a storm of fiery motes climbing an updraft. He kept silent, but turned his gaze to Tukka, also waiting for an answer.
Tukka made an inarticulate hummhff sound. His eyes twitched opened, then closed again.
“Once more, in English,” I said.
His eyes opened halfway. His head lifted enough for his jowls to wag a little, as his thoughts spun out. Demons possess the living to stay in the human world and not be forced back to ghost realm. Ryan is reanimated, but has no soul. Wocky claimed him, not seeing that his demon aura must destroy Ryan’s body in time, either in ghost realm or human world. When Ryan burns out, Wocky no longer able to bother Grace on this side of veil. We win. He loses.
Tukka’s explanation had been clearer than usual. I’d always known he affected that broken English thing just to be funny. Apparently, funny was losing out to tiredness tonight. Guess I’ll let him sleep.
Soon, Tukka was softly snoring.
Fenn put away his poker and came over to me. He slid down, his back to my chair, his right arm draped over the ottoman and my legs. It wasn’t an I’ve-got-you embrace, more like he simply wanted to touch me in a we’re-in-this-together kind of way. I enjoyed the innocence of his touch, so didn’t say anything.
The fu dog on the porch came in. Don’t ask me how he managed the knob with his monstrous paws.
One of Tukka’s big lavender eyes opened wide.
Fenn tensed, but otherwise didn’t move.
The fu dog at the door shot us a warning thought: Cars coming up drive from the camp gate.
Fenn stood, casting me a sidelong glance. “Grace, if there’s trouble, do that crossing over thing you do and take the fu dogs with you. I’ll be all right as long as I can focus on just getting myself away. Chances are, though, it’s just Cassie, Virgil and some of his black suits.”
I nodded. “Okay, but if it’s trouble, we’ll come and back you up from the ghost world.” I grinned. “They’ll never see what hit them.”
“All right,” Fenn said, “but don’t take unnecessary chances. I just might want to marry you one day.”
My jaw dropped.
Tukka’s other eye opened. He lifted his head and watched Fenn glide across the room, silent as a coyote. Fenn went out on the porch.
I glared at Tukka. “What, no wisecrack?”
His eyes closed and his head dropped to the pillows. ‘Course not. Tukka asleep. Wake me if dire evil attacks.
I stayed seated, my arms across my chest. I wished I had boobs to fluff up. Really, it goes against all common sense. Why do I have so many guys coming after me when I have so little to show? You’d think I was giving off freaky moth pheromones or something, except Fenn had shown interest before my run-in with Ryan and his clan. And I didn’t think Onyx, as a shadow-man, was susceptible to biochemical attraction. Evil minion Ryan’s interest had been easy to understand; I’d taken out his dominatrix and he’d transferred his dependency to me since I could at times be scary tough. It was ironic that he’d died by underestimating me.
I heard the sound of tires on gravel, and kept watch on the front door. It wasn’t long before Cassie and my other mom were pushing through the door together, seeing who could reach me first. Both came in, calling my name way too loudly.
I lifted an arm free of the shawl and waved. “Over here.”
Cassie came straight at me like a guided drone, ignoring Tukka’s great bulk on the floor.
My adopted mom stopped by him. Her eyes bulging, she jumped back a little as if something from a nightmare had shaken her awake and asked for a cookie. She landed, high heels clacking loudly, one hand settling over her pounding heart. When Tukka didn’t leap up and pounce on her—just opening one eye to glare reproachfully at her reaction—she edged sideways past him, then turned and came on toward me in a rush.
By then, Cassie had me leaning forward in my chair, crushing me in her embrace as she sat on the right arm of my chair, the standing lamp glaring across her gold hair.
“Can’t … breathe…!” I gasped.
Her arms loosened at once. I fell back in my chair as my human mom arrived. She all but shoved Cassie out of the way—apparently not realizing that the woman was armed and less than stable—and sank to her knees by my chair. She reached out and gathered up my hands, holding them tightly.
“Hey, watch it,” Cassie said.
My human mother ignored her, staring earnestly into my face. “Grace, are you all right?”
“Sure, Mom, don’t worry. I’m tougher than … real humans.” I wasn’t going to hide it anymore, or tip-toe around what I was.
I could see my words shocked her.
And Cassie too. Her face had a tight, shuttered expression. I looked at Cassie. “What?”
“It hurts when you call someone else mother.”
“But you left me with her to be raised as a child. What did you expect me to call her?”
Cassie sighed. “I know you’re right, in my head. But my heart isn’t so logical.”
My human mom turned to face Cassie, staying between her and me, reaching out to take my hand in a not too subtle bid at making me choose between them.
Time to set some ground rules. “Look,” I said, “I want both of you in my life. Now that I know I’m both kitsune and shadow-man, doesn’t mean I’m abandoning the human family I love. I can call you both Mom, but that could get confusing as well as awkward.” I looked at my human mother and let her take my hand. I squeezed her hand in reassurance, as if I were the parent. “I’m going to keep calling you Mom.” I switched my gaze to Cassie. “I’m going to call you Cassie ‘cause, honestly, you look too young to be a mom, and you feel more like a very hot older sister to me. You’ll have to be satisfied that I’m still calling you Mom in my heart. Now, can we all live with this?”
Mom kept a death grip on my hand. “Of, course, dear.”
Cassie straightened with an effort, pulling back her shoulders, forcing a smile. “I can live with that, Grace, but when we’re alone, if you want to call me Mom, too, I won’t complain.”
I pulled my hand free and shook the circulation back into it. “I’ll, uh, bear that in mind.”
“Grace,” Virgil yelled as he crossed the threshold. “I brought pizza!”
Tukka was up on all fours, his pillows forgotten. His head swung toward Virgil, slobber drooling from the corner of his jaws. Pizza! What kind?
Virgil had stepped inside and—hit by the telepathic question—he turned a full circle. “Who’s that inside my head?”
Tukka strolled over, forgetting that Virgil didn’t know him, and would not take well the advance of a magical beast the size of a rhino. Virgil balanced a stack of pizza boxes on one palm. This freed up his shooting hand to reach inside his jacket for his 9mm Berretta. The gun came into view.
Tukka froze.
I called out, “Virgil, don’t shoot my fu dog. He’s friendly, and family.”
“He’s freaking huge.” Virgil put his gun away.
Tukka want pizza, he said.
“Yeah, heard you the first time.” Virgil tossed him a box, hurrying past him.
Tukka caught the box in his slavering maw, and settled down with it on the hardwood floor. Fenn came in from outside, two of Virgil’s black suits right behind hi
m. Fenn pointed at Tukka. “Another fu dog. There are four of them altogether. Leave them alone, and they’ll leave you alone.”
The black suits walked past Tukka. One of them stooped long enough to pull back the box lid for Tukka. The fu dog nodded his thanks, and started chomping. Virgil’s men came on, calm and cool as if they ran into legendary creatures all the time. Well, maybe they did.
Coming in last, totally flooring me, were Fran and Madison, my best friends from the Slayer Academy. Maddy was tall, and athletic. Her eyes were fierce sapphire blue, contrasting nicely with the straw color of her hair. In contrast, Fran was raven-haired, willowy, and smaller. She saw Tukka and grinned, jumping up and down in place. “Oh, look, another one!”
Madison said, “Seen one, you seen them all. Where’s Grace?”
I called out, “Over here. What are you guys doing here?”
Madison came on, pushing past Fenn, circling Mom and Cassie to take a seat on the bricks beside the fireplace. She gave me a close scrutiny, head to toes. “We heard you’d been shot, blown up, taken to the hospital, attacked by an MRI, and kidnapped. Figured it was time to lend you a little more than moral support. We’re here with Van Helsing’s permission. He says for you to ‘try and not end the world as we know it.’”
Fran caught up to Madison, and also sat on the fireplace bricks. She said, “We’re getting extra credit for this.”
I smiled and teased them, “Glad my suffering can be of some use to you.”
Cassie flung herself down on the couch, while Mom sat on the ottoman by my feet. She leaned in, cast a glance over to Tukka, and stage-whispered a question to me, “You said that … uh, creature was family. He’s not your birth father is he?”
Cassie seemed to choke on her tongue, all but turning purple. “What! You think I’d sleep with … that?”
Tukka helped things along by huffing. C’mon, I have my standards.
I said, “Uh, no, Tukka’s more like a best friend and adopted Dad, all-in-one. He’s sort of made me an official pack member.”
Destiny's Child (Kitsune series Book 3) Page 11