Malevolent (The Puzzle Box Series Book 1)

by K. M. Carroll

  Chapter 9

  Libby

  I was chewing on a slice of dull toast when Suki arrived at the front door, barking and whining to come in.

  Mom let her in. "Looks like your father left the back gate open again."

  Suki galloped into the kitchen with a clatter of toenails and put her head in my lap. I stroked her. "Hi, girl. You can have my crust in a minute." My fingers touched something cold. Had she gotten a wire caught around her neck?

  I pulled it off. No, it was a silver chain with a seashell hanging from it. I fingered the shell's polished smooth surface. Who would send me a necklace via my dog? Definitely not Robert.

  I touched paper. A tiny slip was wedged inside the shell's S-shaped mouth. I pulled it out and unrolled it. The handwriting was graceful cursive, but slanted, as if dashed off in a hurry.

  Libby,

  Robert has taken the puzzle box and will destroy it. He is headed north. I lack the strength to stop him. The cowrie has lots of life motes. Use it on him.

  Mal

  I had been sitting in the comfortable warm kitchen, talking to Mom, and feeling my normal amount of sick. But Mal's note dragged me out of my mental happy place into the wild, cold, dangerous world outside.

  Robert would kill Mal unless I stopped him. Mal had sent a weapon, but he hadn't mentioned how to use it. My heart began to hammer.

  Mom walked in, carrying a cup of coffee and a handful of mail, and saw the necklace. "Oh, that's pretty. Where'd it come from?"

  How much could I say? "Suki was wearing it."

  Mom smiled. "Suki, huh? Any idea who sent it?"

  I rubbed my fingers over the shell's smooth back. Could she see me freaking out? "Well, it sure wasn't Robert. Mind if I go outside for a bit?"

  Mom caught my tone, and stared at me. "What's wrong?"

  "Um, nothing, I just need to look around for a minute." But I grabbed my lockblade off the counter and stuck it in my pocket.

  "Libby, what's going on?"

  I slid off the stool, hurried to the coat rack, and put on my fleece-lined coat. "Oh, it's stupid Robert being stupid. I really need a concealed carry permit, Mom."

  She followed me to the door, worry wrinkling her forehead. "I don't know, Libby--maybe we should call the cops. What's Robert doing?"

  Destroying a puzzle box with a soul in it. "He stole this thing of Mal's and he's going to vandalize it."

  "Oh." Mom's tone went flat. "Why can't Mal handle it?"

  "He's sick in bed. I'll be right back, Mom. Robert's just being a jerk. But if I'm not back in fifteen minutes, feel free to bring Dad's Remington."

  "Well," Mom looked me up and down. "Take Suki."

  I hurried out to the golf cart with Suki beside me, and hung the shell around my neck. It made a cool, heavy lump against my breastbone.

  The majority of Blossom Ranch lay to the south and west of the house. North, the almond orchards covered two acres and backed up against the Mendez's farm. Their fields were planted in alfalfa and silage.

  Nobody would see my confrontation with Robert. I carried a weapon to use on him, but he'd already mangled Mal--and Mal was an unkillable lich! What if Robert knifed me the way he had Mal? I definitely wouldn't survive.

  As I drove through the north orchard with Suki beside me, I shivered--I was soaked in tension sweat, and it chilled me. If only I had time to pick up Mal--but the bee station was the other way, and it would take too long.

  How in the world was I supposed to do this? Walk up to Robert and ask for the box? All he had to do was bite me and I'd be incapacitated. Fear built inside me like pressure inside a balloon. I was trying to conquer a vampire with a seashell and my dog.

  I must be insane.

  I reached the dirt road that divided our property from the Mendez's, and there was Robert. He crouched on the dirt road with the puzzle box and a cigarette lighter.

  My insides froze. The only reason he hadn't managed to light it was because the twigs he was using as kindling were wet from the storm.

  I forgot my flimsy plan and drove straight at him. He looked up and grinned. Just before I hit him, he stepped out of the way.

  I stopped and got out, clutching the shell, and aware of my lockblade's weight in my pocket. Suki leaped down and stood beside me, head lowered.

  "Hey, Libby," he said with that condescending friendliness that so annoyed me. "What were you going to do? Bump me to death?"

  I held out a hand. "I'd like that box, please."

  He looked at where he'd tucked it under his arm. "This thing?"

  "Yeah. You gave it to me as a gift, remember?" The words spilled out, and they astonished me. Of course he had. I'd forgotten about it until this second.

  Robert's eyebrows drew together in a frown under his styled blond hair--it made him look hard and cunning. And to think I'd thought he was cute once. "Oh yeah. Well, I found it in the trash, so I didn't think you wanted it anymore." He hefted the lighter. "I was going to memorialize our relationship. Reflect on how it went up in the proverbial flames."

  The lies awoke my temper, and burned away my fear. Heat flared through my body. "Uh, no, you know exactly where it came from. Give it to me."

  His lips weren't half as attractive when he twisted them in a smirk. "What if I say no?" He stepped toward me in a threatening, square-shouldered posture. That pressure returned--like an approaching thunderstorm. The air weighed on me, and I struggled to breathe.

  I edged backward. Suki growled a warning, but Robert ignored her. His bright blue eyes blazed into mine. "What if I told you I wanted an early lunch?"

  "I'd tell you to go to hell." Even through my anger, I shocked myself with such language. I squeezed the smooth, hard cowrie shell. If it was emitting motes, I had no way of knowing, but holding it eased some of the pressure that radiated from Robert. My other hand dove into my pocket for my knife.

  Robert glanced at my hand and wrinkled his nose in a nasty grin. "He gave you jewelry, huh? Let's see it."

  I clutched it closer. "None of your business."

  He grabbed my hand. "Come on, let me see."

  Two things happened at once. First, I jerked away from him, and my hand turned the cowrie over, so its open mouth faced Robert.

  Second, Suki attacked his leg.

  Robert flinched backward as if I had punched him. Then he danced in a half circle, trying to escape Suki. He yelled something unintelligible. Suki moved almost as fast as he did--she was everywhere, kicking up dust, a black and white streak with teeth. The puzzle box and lighter clattered on the road.

  I sidestepped toward the puzzle box.

  Suki ran back to me, where she stood against my knees, watching our enemy. I stroked her back in silent praise.

  Robert rubbed his legs, panting. "What the hell was that?"

  "Suki," I snapped.

  "Not her! That thing in your hand!"

  I edged toward the puzzle box, holding the shell ready to aim at him. "It's just a seashell."

  He gritted his teeth with a noise like marbles grinding.

  I stooped to grab the puzzle box, but Robert darted in with vampire speed and seized it from under my hand. Then he shoved me to the ground. I landed right on the folded knife in my pocket, and I yelped.

  Suki ran at him again. Robert kicked her in the ribs so hard that she went flying, hit the ground and rolled. I sucked in a deep, agonized breath.

  Push me around, knock me down, fine, whatever. But never, ever kick my dog.

  I aimed the shell's mouth at him, focused all my rage into it, and screamed.

  He'd been reaching for me with his teeth bared. But the shell must have blasted him like a flamethrower, because he suddenly shrieked and spun away to protect his face.

  I scrambled to my feet and ran at him, shell upraised, drawing my knife with my other hand. My mind was a red haze of incoherent madness--I wanted to cut him and beat him with the shell at the same time.

  But Robert cursed and ran off at seventy miles an hour, a plume of du
st rising in his wake. Smart man.

  "Libby!"

  I turned, shell and knife upraised. But it was only Mal, ghastly white, with deep shadows of pain beneath his eyes. Maybe he was the reason Robert had fled.

  I hurried to my dog, who was struggling to her feet. "He kicked her!"

  Mal's eyes flashed yellow, like a hawk's, and his lips tightened into a faint snarl.

  Suki whined and favored her front left leg. I knew better than to touch it, but the look in her eyes hit me hardest. The mute, imploring, "It hurts! Make it stop!"

  My rage shrank to a smolder, and tears lurked in the ashes beneath. "I'll kill him if I have to stake him myself," I whispered.

  Mal stooped over us, and sucked in his breath through his teeth. "The fiend. You get in the cart and I'll hand her to you."

  It took both of us to haul Suki into the passenger's seat. My adrenaline gave out and left me weak and shaky--I couldn't have lifted her alone.

  Mal sat on the tiny bench on the back of the cart, and held on to the cart's frame with one hand. "Keep the shell aimed at her leg. It may help."

  I held it toward Suki's leg all the way home. But she was still whining when we pulled into the garage. Mal helped me ease her onto the floor.

  "I'm gonna get Mom," I told him.

  He nodded. "I shall leave. She may assume that I harmed Suki."

  I nodded, and he left the garage with a stiff, careful stride. For some reason he left the puzzle box on the seat, possibly as evidence to show my mother. I'd return it as soon as I could.

  I opened the house door and hollered for Mom. She arrived a minute later, eyes wide. "Libby, what's wrong?"

  "Robert kicked Suki really hard. I think he broke her leg." I sounded so matter of fact. No trace of the screaming I wanted to do.

  "Robert did?" Mom knelt and gently caressed Suki's side.

  Suki whined sharply.

  "Goodness, I think you're right. I'll take her to the emergency vet. What happened out there?"

  I held up the puzzle box. "Robert was going to burn this in effigy of our relationship."

  Mom snarled. Seeing that expression on her face was almost worth the whole confrontation.

  Fifteen minutes later, she dashed off with Suki in the car. I crashed on the living room couch with the puzzle box on my chest.

  The after-effects of the adrenaline left me barely able to sit up. The room spun, and my body seemed to sink into the couch cushions. The puzzle box weighed on my chest like lead, but I clutched it anyway.

  Snatches of the fight flashed through my mind. I must have dozed a little, because I kept seeing glimpses of Robert's face, and I jumped every time. How had I pulled that off? I'd defeated a vampire. Well, sort of. He could have killed me if he'd wanted to--so why hadn't he? Was he making a statement?

  If so, my mind was too muddled to figure it out. I wasn't cut out for facing monsters. Especially not while I was sick. But I couldn't get well without Mal's help, and I held his life here in my hands.

  I wanted to cry out of sheer exhaustion.

  After a while, someone knocked at the front door. I hauled myself to a sitting position, but that was as far as I could move.

  Mal looked in the front window and waved with two fingers.

  "Come in." I could barely raise my voice above a whisper.

  He opened the front door and looked in. "Is it permitted?"

  I nodded. "Mom should be back soon. She took Suki to the vet."

  He crossed the living room and sat on the couch beside me, and peered into my eyes. "Did he harm you?"

  "No, he only knocked me down." I handed him the puzzle box.

  Mal set it in his lap and kept studying me. His eyes cooled into blue green, like the ocean. "Your motes are the same. He didn't feed upon you. Did you utilize the shell?"

  I leaned back on the couch and wearily told him everything. He listened with his head bowed, tracing the puzzle box's silver inlay with one finger. Here in the ordinary surroundings of my house, he looked even more strange--too thin and pointed. As if he never quite got enough to eat. But his ash-white skin had developed a flush across his cheekbones.

  Mal was upset.

  By the time I finished, there was so much color in his face, he looked human. He breathed quickly, and his nostrils flared like a horse that scented a predator. He gazed out the front window for a while without speaking. I waited. My mouth was tired from talking.

  Finally he turned to me and laid a hand on my arm. It was warm, and protective. "I should not have sent you after him. You could have been killed." He swallowed, and closed his eyes for a long moment.

  "Well," I said, "now we know that neither of us can take him alone."

  He drew a quick breath, and brushed my acres of hair away from my face. "Keep the shell. One of the ways life motes are manipulated is through strong emotion. The shell seemed to respond to you by increasing its power. I shall have to show it to you through the mote viewer."

  I nodded. But a lump rose in my throat. "Mal, I can't."

  "Can't what?"

  "Keep the shell. Fight. I just--I don't have the energy. And now Suki--"

  I couldn't help it. I sobbed, tears running down my face. "I'm so tired of being sick! I wish I'd die and get it over with!"

  The tears turned the world into a watery kaleidoscope, but I felt Mal put an arm around me. I leaned against him and cried into his shoulder.

  I was too weak to even cry very long. A few sobs later I was finished, resting on his shoulder and panting. He smelled like sweat, dirt and camper--no booze or cigarettes, like most of the other farm laborers.

  "I'm sorry," I whispered.

  "For what?" His voice hummed inside him.

  "For this. For getting your shirt wet."

  I met his eyes. They'd become hazel--all the colors--and human. His defenses were down, and my tears had made him vulnerable. I sat up a little in dismay. "Mal--stop being human. You'll get hurt."

  He bowed his head and touched one of the engraved flowers on the puzzle box's lid. "Blame this. When it is nearby, I am nearly whole. This, now, is the man I should be."

  "Maybe it's safer to be a lich."

  He closed his eyes, sighed and shook his head. "Perhaps it is. And perhaps it is safer to care about no one and nothing, and to lock your heart in a puzzle box where it can never be broken. But while there, it grows small and hard. Safe? Yes. But there lies the end of any human decency."

  I folded my hands in my lap and gazed at them to hide my shame. "Oh. I guess--I'm so dumb. I'm sorry."

  "Never apologize for honesty." His arm tightened around me. "Libby, I don't care what the weather is tomorrow, we're attempting the healing rite. Noon at the canal."

  I straightened and the room seemed brighter. "Seriously?"

  He touched the shell and turned its mouth inward. "Keep this directed at your heart. It will form a feedback loop and keep you from losing the life motes you still possess."

  His tender tone belied the direct words. I smiled. "You're not Malevolent anymore."

  His eyes crinkled. "Of course, I am. But you have been handling my soul." He patted the puzzle box. "To you, I'm only Malachi."

  Mal

  I remained with Libby until her mother returned home. It was not wise to leave her alone, unprotected, with my brother running wild.

  After a while, the garage door rumbled open, and Libby's mother returned. She was wreathed in a glimmer of magic. It was the sort that acted as a natural alarm field, and made her unusually perceptive. She sensed my presence the instant she set foot in the house, for she charged into the living room, car keys in hand like a weapon. "Libby, who is this?"

  "This is Malachi." Libby's weariness kept her voice soft. "I gave him back his box, and he decided to stay until you got home."

  Her mother met my eyes. Distrust. Protectiveness.

  I rose to my feet, crossed the room and shook her hand. "I apologize profusely for my brother's actions. He was never the straightest of arrows.
Is Suki all right?"

  "A broken leg and bruised ribs. They're keeping her overnight." Mrs. Stockton's face remained stony. "Does cruelty run in the family?"

  "No, ma'am. I respect all life. I could not keep bees if I did not."

  Her magic field probed at me a little, as if testing if I was trustworthy. I relaxed and let it touch me. Resistance made this kind of magic react negatively.

  Her eyes were hard topaz. "I heard you've been to prison."

  Cold settled through my being, like clouds of chill rolling from an open freezer. Exactly the topic I least wished to discuss, and of course,the one of most tender interest to a parent. "Yes ma'am."

  I sensed Libby's eyes on my back.

  Mrs. Stockton continued to scrutinize me. "What did you do?"

  I swallowed. How could I possibly explain the barrier-prison where the Marchers had confined me for a year? "I stole three books."

  "Books?" Mrs. Stockton raised an eyebrow.

  "Valuable books." I had also spied on the Marcher's secret ceremonies, trying to learn all I could about motes. I was lucky they had only imprisoned me.

  Mrs. Stockton accepted that, although she did not appear satisfied. "If I find you've taken advantage of my daughter, you'll visit the morgue, not prison."

  The hate tried to uncoil inside me at this threat, but in the proximity of the puzzle box, it rolled over into sadness. She distrusted me purely because of the bad choices I had made upon my initial encounter with Robert. But if our places were reversed, I would distrust me, too.

  "I hold to old fashioned values, ma'am. I will defend Libby's honor, not violate it." I wanted to add that I followed Christ, but I did not want to explain my position as a spiritual outcast.

  I glanced over my shoulder. Libby gazed at me with an expression that weakened my knees. If only I could settle beside her and take her in my arms for a while--but no. We were both weak, and I had not had enough honey to mitigate the draw of the death void inside me.

  I cleared my throat. "Now that you are home, I shall depart." I scooped my puzzle box off the sofa and headed for the door. As I opened it, I glanced over my shoulder.

  Libby gazed after me, sitting huddled and small on the sofa, her chocolate hair in a wild tumble around her shoulders. Shadows lurked in the hollows of her face.