Kill the Wild

by S T Branton

  Naida spat blood at me. It landed on my shoe, and I smiled down at her.

  “You think you’re so—” she began, but I didn’t let her finish. I rammed my knee into her jaw, and she went back down. As she struggled to her feet, I pulled out my switchblade.

  No need to gather intel this time.

  She saw the blade, and the fight left her. She leapt, her wings carrying her into the air. I pulled back my hand, ready to throw my knife and end this when her backup swooped toward me. I ducked, and when I looked back up, they were too far away.

  I waved sarcastically after them as they flew off. “See you next time,” I called. “Don’t forget to write!” I slammed the car door as I got back in, then looked at Ally.

  “How did they know we were coming this way?” she asked.

  I thought for a second, then shrugged. “They’re fucking fairies. Who knows how they do anything?”

  I turned to look at Ally, but she hadn’t moved. Instead, her hands were on the wheel, her head bowed. She was crying. “Hey, wait, what? What’s going on?”

  “This is never going to end, is it?” she asked through tears sliding down her cheeks.

  “What, the Fae? Don’t worry about it. I think I showed them that coming after us was a bad idea.”

  “They won’t stop.” She slammed her hands down on the steering wheel. I rarely saw her so upset, and my good mood vanished. “Don’t you get it? You were so rough with them when you were getting intel that now they’ll be looking for vengeance with you at every opportunity. There’s nowhere you can go, nowhere you can hide. They will find you, and they will kill you, Slick. You embarrassed their leader, and they want revenge.”

  “Look, Ally,” I began, trying to soothe her and defend myself at the same time. “The only way to deal with a Farsider is strength. When I was in The Deep, violence was all they knew, all they wanted, and all they did. They hate humans. No respect for us at all. Trust me. I am an expert on these things.”

  “They don’t hate you because you’re human. They hate you because you hurt them. And you hate them because they hurt you. Is that all the life that’s left to you? Violence upon violence upon violence?”

  “What do you expect me to do? Some problems require violence.”

  “It’s not what you do that bothers me, it’s who you’re becoming,” Ally accused. “You might be an expert on Farsiders, but I’m an expert on Sara Slick. I don’t know all that happened to you in The Deep. I don’t think I want to know. What I do know is terrible, awful things. Things I can’t imagine living through. And I know it made you tougher, and maybe meaner, and it made you colder so you could do things to survive. But inside you is more than violence. Inside the heinous Sara Slick, there is still a girl who loves tacos and had a crush on emo boys from MySpace and loved her pink toe socks. Inside you is more than a fighter. Inside Sara Slick the warrior is Sara Slick, my friend. And that Sara is more than a weapon.”

  I sighed. Her words attacked that part of myself that Solon taught me to shut off. Maybe she was right. Perhaps I could have tried playing nicer with the Fae. But in my experience, Farsiders weren’t stopped by a pretty smile. Until my family was safe, until Ally was safe, I’d be as heinous as I needed to be.

  I looked at Ally but chose to keep my thoughts to myself. Even if I disagreed with her, it was still important to let her get it out. I had a head start when it came to Near/Far relations. And Ally had a right to get mad sometimes. After all, we had a decade of Best Friend Fights to make up for.

  “When this is over, Ally, when all the fighting ends, I’ll figure out how to be more than a weapon. I swear it.”

  “Yeah.” Ally stuck her key in the ignition, wiped tears from her eyes, and started the car. “But with an attitude like yours, will that day ever come?”

  Chapter Eleven

  "Dam!" I shouted.

  "What?" Ally shouted back, her voice reaching a death-defying pitch. "What? What's wrong? That spiky rat ball thing didn't throw up the cupcake cookie, did it?"

  "No," I calmly replied.

  "Then what the hell are you shouting about?" She clutched the steering wheel harder and snapped her eyes back and forth from me to the road.

  "Dam." I pointed at the sign on the side of the road welcoming us to Hunt, West Virginia, and showing the direction of the town's water dam.

  Ally rolled her eyes at me and continued down the road. Soon, we went around a bend, and the massive structure appeared in front of us.

  "Dam!" I shouted again.

  "What? What now?"

  "Dam." I pointed at the huge structure. "Right there."

  "What is wrong with you?"

  "I'm being observant. Getting us familiar with our new surroundings." I swirled my hand around in the air in front of me to encompass the new town.

  "Well, quit it."

  The tiny town of Hunt nestled at the bottom of the dam, so it looked like it was almost sitting under it. A mining town from way back, it was the home of generations of people trickling down from the same families over the years. From the distance, the town was the definition of quaint as we drove toward it. Everything looked sleepy and quiet, old but not rundown.

  "Did this Jonas guy mention to you he might be the only person who lives in this town?"

  "There are more people who live here."

  "Are you sure? Look at this place."

  "I think it's adorable. So old-fashioned."

  "I do, too. There have to be some happy little trees around here somewhere. Maybe a pond that didn't exist before there was light to reflect off it. A couple of puffy bushes. But what I don’t see is people."

  "Bob Ross never painted people. That's your problem right there. Can you get in touch with the Netherworld and see if his spirit can add a few for us?"

  "It’s not the Netherworld. It’s The Far. We’ve been going over this for months now."

  "Still working out the details, Slick."

  "Damn," I muttered.

  "I thought we said you weren't going to do that anymore."

  "No, this time Splinter threw up his cupcake cookie."

  At least he didn't eat all of it.

  Hunt was even sleepier and more picturesque when we drove into it. Little shops and businesses looked like they'd been there since the town sprung up more than a century before to take advantage of mining the hills and mountains. There were no mega marts or bright, glaring trendy boutiques. No fast-food chains or clubs throbbing with music and flashing lights. No people.

  It was still that last one throwing me off. After the Fae ambush, I was a little on edge and suspicious of everything around me. This place was so quiet. Like, we might have legit been painted into a scene, still and quiet. Which meant I was waiting for any second now when the entire place would split open and unfold into a monster with the cute buildings as legs like the Transformer from Hell.

  Or The Far. There wasn't a lot of differentiation between the two at that juncture in my life.

  "So, where are we supposed to stay?" I leaned forward to peer through the windshield at the darkness in front of us. A few lights twinkled in the windows of some buildings, and two streetlights glowed on either side of the street, but there were still deep shadows.

  "Jonas made reservations for us at the hotel in town."

  "Which hotel?"

  "The hotel. Apparently, there’s only one in town. It doesn't even have a name. Just ‘Hotel.’"

  "How ghost town of them."

  It only took us a few minutes of driving to pull up in front of the large rectangular building with "Hotel" painted across the front.

  "I think we found it," Ally commented.

  We drove down a tight alley and around to the back of the building in search of a parking lot. Six dusty spots fulfilled that role. We climbed out slowly. When nothing disastrous happened within the first few seconds, I scooped Splinter up and stuffed him into my pocket. Each of us carried the big duffel bags we’d packed, and I brought an extra with a few weap
ons Archie sent along as we headed toward the door at the back of the building.

  It creaked open, and a gust of cold air rushed out at us. That's one thing that never failed about hotels. It didn't matter where you were, when you were staying, or which hotel it was. The inside always had the thermostat set to Arctic Expedition. Except for mine. My hotel was a free spirit. It did what the wind told it to in terms of the inside ambiance.

  We made it about five steps down the dark hallway before a shrill voice shouted at us. "That's the service entrance! Deliveries and outgoing mail only!"

  Ally and I paused and looked at each other. We couldn't decide if the woman was serious or if this was some Hunt welcoming joke neither of us understood. When we didn't hear any laughter or encouragement to keep it coming, we decided she was probably serious and turned around. We hauled our luggage back out the door, through the parking lot, and up the alley around to the front of the hotel.

  We walked through the front door, and the woman at the desk waved at us.

  "That was a switch," Ally muttered under her breath at me.

  "At least it's a human," I pointed out.

  "Valid."

  We walked up to the desk and the woman eyed us suspiciously. "Good evening."

  "Hello," I said. "Lovely hotel you have here."

  "Mmm-hmm," she responded. "Is there something I can do for you two? Do you need directions?"

  "Directions? No." I shook my head. "We are in Hunt, right?"

  "You are. That's the thing. We don't see too many outsiders around here."

  That was at once comforting and extremely terrifying.

  "We're here for a short time because we heard there might be something happening."

  I raised one eyebrow at her while gauging her reaction. She didn't seem to care much, and nothing in her expression said she had any idea what I was talking about. If she was a Farsider wearing a little old lady-style people suit, she was fantastic at not giving it away. Ally sidled up beside me and gave the woman a sugary smile. The terse expression on the older woman's face immediately softened. That was Ally. She was always the sweet talker of the two of us. No matter what, she could talk her way out of—or into—almost any situation she wanted. That was why I never bothered to ask her what happened when she got home the night she smashed the Obama poster and I got arrested.

  "Hi, there," she said. "We just arrived here in your beautiful little town. A friend of mine invited us to come and said he made a reservation here for us. Would you mind checking for me? It should be under Alejandra."

  There they are. The forty-seven 'r's that I missed hearing roll out of her mouth when she said her name.

  I checked back into the conversation from my misty-eyed reminiscing right around the time Ally cooed about the adorable barbershop she may or may not have pulled out of her ass because every tiny town has a barbershop. The woman, who I soon learned was named Edna, reached into the drawer in front of her and pulled out a room key.

  "You’re on the top floor. At the end, last room on your right. Oh, and I have this for you." She took out a note and handed it to Ally.

  "It's from Jonas. ‘Meet me at the bar.”" Ally flipped it over to look at the back, then flipped it over again and shook her head. "That's it."

  I stared at the note, then looked at Edna. "Which bar?"

  She gave me a withering look. "The bar."

  "Thank you." Ally grabbed my arm and spun me around to head up the stairs before I could stick my tongue out at the woman. She knew me so well.

  "The bar," I scoffed as we climbed the dark-carpeted steps to what Edna referred to as the top floor, but was the only floor other than the lobby. "She said that like I should instinctively know which bar she's talking about."

  "We're in a town with one hotel and a stop sign, Slick. I don't think the nightlife is hopping around here."

  "Well, at least she gave us a good room." I tried to be as optimistic as I could.

  "She sent us to the absolute farthest room she could manage," Ally pointed out.

  "Maybe it has a really good view."

  "Let's drop off our stuff and go meet Jonas."

  She unlocked the door, and we went into the room. It was everything I hoped for. The dark carpet and awkward florals only ever found in hotels made my heart soar. I loved hotels. I drew in a deep breath, smelled the cold, clean smell, and had to stop myself from tipping face-first onto the bed and staying there. It made me a little misty-eyed for my hotel room back home.

  We dropped our bags onto the beds and unpacked them. I found a drawstring bag with a note taped to it in the bottom of mine.

  "Looks like you got a present.”

  I opened it. "It's a note from Archie."

  "What's it say?"

  "Adds sparkle to any outfit. Directions for use: don't smash."

  "How poetic.”

  "I guess it has something to do with this." I opened the drawstring bag and pulled out what looked like a large metal bracelet.

  "He's giving you jewelry?"

  I noted a hint of jealousy in her voice but didn't say anything about it. "I don't think that's what's going on here." I fished around in the bag with my fingers and came up with another note. "Actual directions for use: create a full moon and rotate toward your heart. It will protect you."

  "Thank you for the clarity, Archie," Ally said.

  I put the bracelet on and looked down at it. Carvings along the center depicted various phases of the moon. I noticed two half-moons on either side of the bracelet and touched them. They shifted under the touch, and I pulled them together. The inner part of the metal buckled and shifted like a puzzle until the two came together into the shape of a full moon. From there, I twisted it toward me. Nothing happened.

  "Maybe it goes in the other direction."

  I reversed the moon, and it unfolded itself, thick steel-like material falling into place so large that if I crouched behind it, I could fit my entire body. It was transforming into a shield. A damn good one too, by the look and weight of it, although I was thoroughly confused about how it fit inside the bracelet.

  "Whoa." Ally stepped back from it. "He wasn't kidding."

  "No. This thing is pretty serious. It won't give me any energy or strength, but at least it will stop some attacks against me."

  "You’re so cheerful. How do you make it go back?"

  "I don't know." It took a few seconds before I managed to make the shield fold itself back down into the bracelet. "Like that. All right. Let's go find Jonas."

  Before we could leave, a rustle in my pocket was followed by a large thump on the floor. I looked down to see Splinter weaving his way toward the bed. With considerable effort, he climbed up onto the comforter and looked back at me.

  “Oh, all right,” I muttered, then grabbed the pillows and arranged them together. Splinter happily crawled up into the middle of them and laid back while patting his tiny hand on his stomach.

  “I take it he’s not coming.”

  “Seems like he doesn’t feel well. Maybe the cupcake got to him. He’ll be fine here, just turn on the TV.”

  “For the rat?”

  “For the rat.”

  Ally shrugged and hit the power button on the remote before tossing it down on the bed. The sounds of cartoons filled the room as Splinter burrowed himself a little deeper into the pillows and we walked out.

  Chapter Twelve

  We decided to walk to the bar rather than folding ourselves back into the car for any longer. After the drawn-out drive, I looked forward to stretching my legs and letting my spine decompress.

  As we wandered along the sidewalk, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. Ally and I turned toward it at the same time and saw a tall figure walking down the middle of the street. I couldn't help being somewhat startled by him. I nudged Ally with my elbow.

  "He's so tall," I whispered. "Like…" I gestured with my hands, pulling up with my fingertips from my palm and stretching them out to mimic his incredibly elongate
d figure.

  "And young," Ally replied.

  It hadn't occurred to me to look at his face since I was so busy being struck by the sheer amount of vertical space the man took up. When I looked closer, I saw how smooth and innocent his face looked. Not innocent in the way that came from not having seen the world or experienced any of it. I obviously didn't know anything about him, or what he had been through in the apparently very few years he'd been wandering around this earth. Instead, it was the type of innocence inherent in people as young as him. It was simply there, an accident of time.

  But I'd learned that innocence didn't always coincide with what was beyond the face. That innocence lured people in, and that could make them all the more dangerous. Some of the eyes that still haunted my dreams stared back at me from faces as soft and innocent as this one. I instinctively moved closer to Ally as we passed him.

  Considering it was the only one in town, the bar wasn't hard to find. It wasn't as eloquently named as the hotel they called Hotel. In fact, I didn't see a name on it at all. Instead, there was an open sign hanging over a door and the faint sound of music humming as we walked down the sidewalk toward it. I glanced back at the tall, young figure moving slowly down the street. There wasn't time to think about him any further. The music from the bar was louder as we got to the door and Ally opened it. We stepped inside and apparently found all the people in Hunt.

  Or at least a good portion of them.

  I was relieved to see this bar was almost nothing like the one I wandered into the first night I was out of The Deep. It was far smaller and had a far different vibe. Much like Linus's pumpkin patch, if there was such a thing as a bar being sincere, this was it. The bar itself was heavy wood and took up the majority of one half of the room. A row of black-cushioned stools snaked around it, close enough for the patrons sitting in them to chat if they wanted to, or wallow in their solitude if that was more their groove. The rest of the room featured a series of booths along the wall and a semi-circular stage tucked in one corner. An assortment of microphone stands told me there was going to be a band or some serious karaoke breaking out any minute.