by Jude Marquez
“Please. I won’t. I won’t do anything like this again. I swear, not ever,” he begged.
“I don’t believe you. Because you’re a monster. And if there is anything that I know, it’s about being a monster. Do you know what stops other monsters?” I asked.
“You,” he whimpered.
“Good. So here’s the deal. I will still break four bones in your body but I will leave that truck here, with the blinkers on. Someone will pass by eventually and see you and your friend here. They’ll get you to a hospital or something and when you get there, you tell the police every single dirty detail you’ve done.”
He nodded.
“Don’t lie to me, Chris. If I don’t hear about your confession on the news, I will come for you. And if you try to tell anyone about us, about my kind, I’ll come for you. You got it?” I shook him.
“Yes!” He screamed.
“Good. Where is your truck?”
He gave me directions to the other side of the building. Savannah and Nichols left.
“Were you going to let him choose which limbs you will snap?” Gerri asked from behind me.
“No. He had his chance,” I murmured.
I put him on his feet and stretched his arm out. I looked him in the eye. “This will hurt for a very long time.”
When we left them there, Chris was unconscious from the pain. His friend was screaming about demons and if they ever found what I left of the third man, they would wish they hadn’t.
As we drove over the hill, the sun began to peek through.
“How much farther?” Savannah asked from the backseat.
Nichols checked the GPS. He was sitting in the passenger seat, calm and comfortable. “Fourteen hours or so.”
“Good. I will try to take a nap,” Savannah said.
I heard Gerri rustling through the groceries we had transferred from our previous vehicle.
It was quiet, and the rain was finally dying off.
No one looked at the road behind us.
DEIDRE GESTURED TO the yellow building, now warm and inviting. A few children go first and then I hear Eli climb out of what is left of the van and he joins me.
We walk up a stone path that was not there a few minutes ago. It’s well worn and I have to wonder how many people have made their up these very stones.
Inside the yellow building we find tables and chairs and overstuffed couches. There are a few children asleep here and there and a fire in the corner. There is the low croon of music come from speakers that I can’t see.
It used to be a store, probably just a quick place to pop in and grab some milk and bread. Behind the counter there is a young man, and he is holding two plates in his hands. He nods at us and holds them up.
“For us?” I asked.
He grinned and nodded. Eli and I went to the counter and took the plates from him. We found Deidre sitting at an old table that was scarred with all kinds of dents that had been worn smooth by usage. A kid about ten years old brought us sodas and water before scampering away to where the group was gathering around an old TV that was being wheeled in by another teen.
They all huddled together as the movie began to play; it was something slow and soothing, no doubt to calm them and lull them to sleep after having unexpected visitors arrive.
All the children were well fed and clean. Their clothes were outrageously mismatched, but in a way that told of their young innocence. I saw one young girl wearing a purple tutu with black cowboy boots and a top hat.
The way they curled around each other in front of the glow of the TV and fireplace reminded me of how Dante and I used to watch movies. It hit me with a longing so fierce I was breathless and I put a hand to my chest. I hadn’t allowed myself to think about Dante beyond him being alive. The rest would have to wait.
“I love it here,” I whispered to Deidre who was sitting across from us and watching us with a small smile on her face.
“I try to make it home for them,” Deidre shrugged, looking bashful.
“You do an incredible job,” Eli said. His mouth was stuffed full and the young man from the front counter dropped off another sandwich for him.
“Who are they? Where do they come from?” I asked.
“This world makes a lot of orphans, Lou. I just try to make it a little softer for them. They need someone who will believe them when they talk about the monsters in the dark that turned their lives upside down,” Deidre murmured and glanced over to the group.
A few of their heads were already drooping, ready for a rest after all the excitement.
I nodded. “Stephen and Billie would have done well in a place like this.”
“The Durand siblings?” Deidre said, her interest piqued.
“That’s them,” Eli confirmed. He was slowing down on his second sandwich. I wasn’t even halfway through my first.
“They were here, for a while. After they-” Deidre paused. “After they got what they needed, they had to find a spot to collect themselves and grieve. They were pointed our way. Those two were a handful but good, deep down to their bones. How are they?”
“Stephen is in love with a four thousand year old god and Billie is best friends with Artie and they are hiding out in the fairy realm under the Queen’s protection,” Eli said.
Deidre looked thoughtful. “Sounds like them.”
She didn’t seem surprised by any of it, but Eli’s assessment of Stephen took me aback.
“I’m sorry, Stephen is what?” I said.
Eli rolled his eyes. “Don’t play dumb. You know as well as I do that he is weirdly, love-at-first-sight, in love with Azolata. Did you see the way Stephen looked at him? It makes me and you look straight.”
I opened my mouth and then shut it. I shook my head.
Deidre chuckled and leaned back in her chair. “So you two are in a spot of trouble.”
“Did the van give it away?” I asked.
“Is that what that was?” Deidre laughed.
“At one point,” Eli said.
“So you come here, to my home,” Deidre said, quoting The Godfather.
“We mean no offense. I didn’t even know we were coming here,” I said.
She waved off my words. “And Eli wouldn’t come here for just any old reason. Can you tell me what was following you?”
“Giant, seven foot tall cockroaches with talons for hands and razor sharp teeth,” I said and shivered.
Deidre nodded. “Desert roaches. That’s what I call them, anyway. Nasty. They can infest and eat a being of powerful magic in hours.”
I swallowed. “Infest?”
She patted my hand. “It’s best you not know, Sparky.”
I nodded.
“But in any case, this is all your fault,” Deidre said to me.
“I didn’t do anything!” I protested.
“You didn’t have to. We attract things like that with powerful magic and you’ve got it in spades. They would have come after you when you crossed into their nest. And now that they have your scent, they won’t leave you or Eli alone,” she explained. There was no accusatory tone in her voice, just a teacher explaining to a student.
“Can you help us?” Eli asked quietly.
“You got something to exchange?” Deidre asked.
“What do you want?” Eli asked.
Deidre looked from me to Eli. “Two things. Money-”
“Done,” Eli said.
“And Sparky’s help to reinforce the wards,” Deidre finished.
“Done,” I agreed.
She nodded. “Then I have some gathering to do. Do you think you can do the wards yourself or do you want supervision?”
I shook my head. “Let me finish here and you do your thing. One of the first things Artie taught me was wards.”
Deidre paused. “Artie taught you?”
I sighed.
“It’s a long story. I can help you put the kids to bed and explain it all,” Eli said.
Deidre eyed me with renewed interest but
followed Eli over to the group. He scooped up a toddler from one teenager and then a slightly older kid. He carried them easily and when he got to the door, he turned to push it open with his back and winked at me.
“Close your mouth, sir. That’s how you catch flies,” the young man that served us said.
“Huh?” I said stupidly.
He laughed.
I finished my sandwich quickly but got to see Eli carry out four more children. I didn’t know that was a weakness, Eli with children, but it was easy to see that it was.
I washed our plates in the back and waved off offers to help. When I finished, I went out the front door and noted that the TV was off; the fire was low, and the children were all gone, tucked away wherever they slept.
I stood outside and looked around. I breathed deeply. The air here was dryer but still clean, still good. Vegas hadn’t been great to breathe in.
I closed my eyes and hummed softly. I let my magic fall away from me to find the points of weakness in the wards, where it joined to build a dome over this place, and to protect the people that lived here.
It surprised me when I found the first weakness. So surprised in fact that I opened my eyes.
“Oh,” I whispered.
I followed that silent call of my magic to the spot where it was whispering to me and stopped at a large rock. The wards needed grounding, and this made as much sense as anything else.
Back home, we used the trees.
I put my hand on the rock, over the rune that was carved for protection and took a deep breath. I closed my eyes and smiled when I felt that old familiar magic reach out for me. It was weaker than I was used to but it was still strong. It would have held for decades still, but amping it up with my magic would not hurt at all.
“Do you know who was here last?” Deidre asked from behind me.
I turned but kept my hand on the rock. “My mom.”
Deidre blinked. “Lou Correa. Luz. I always thought you were a girl.”
I laughed. “I get that a lot.”
I pulled a silver knife from my pocket and slit my thumb open. I whispered the words that were as familiar as my name- to protect, to ward off evil creatures both human and otherwise, to hide, to nurture. The rune lit up a silver-white and then dimmed before fading away altogether.
“When was she here?” I asked.
Deidre hummed. “Fifteen years ago? Give or take?”
“They would have held,” I said and patted the rock before heading over to a Saguaro cactus. This would have been a precarious one to carve a rune into, but I wasn’t surprised that my mom could pull it off. She had a knack for plants.
“I know, but a little help never hurts,” Deidre said faintly as she walked by my side. “The kids asked if Eli would sit with them.”
I hummed. “Why?”
Deidre’s delicate brow crinkled. “It’s hard to explain. They don’t have a lot of experience with nonhumans like Eli. Some of them have met him, but for the others, this is for the first time. It’s one thing to tell them that there are good shifters out there, but it’s another to meet one that will stay with you through your nightmares.”
Maybe it was the magic my mother left behind that was talking through me or maybe it was the desert night.
“Do you have nightmares?” I asked.
Deidre looked away, out at the desert. “They drove me to live out here.”
We stopped at the cactus and I repeated the ritual. We watched the rune light up and then settle.
“You don’t have anyone to chase the nightmares for you?” I asked. It was my turn to look down. I kicked a rock out of our path and I led her to a scraggly tree, one that refused to die even all the way out here.
“It’s hard to meet someone when you are basically the single mother to eighty-three children and teenagers,” she said.
“Oh, but you wouldn’t trade them for the hottest guy out there, admit it,” I said and nudged her.
“No, but a friend would be nice,” she murmured.
“I’ll be your friend. When I stop the world from ending, I will send you a text. I’ll make Eli drive me through the nest of roaches so we can have lunch,” I said.
She laughed.
We were at the tree and the magic that I was using was extending, singing, calling, settling. The words and ritual came easier than ever now.
The last spot was a grave.
I looked down at it and then up at Deidre.
“He was the last one who could chase the nightmares away,” she muttered.
I nodded and put a hand on the stone. Many people had done the same and I could feel the love poured into this place, the tears that had been spilled, and the grief that still lived. I knelt and paid my respects to this young man who had lived too briefly.
One last time for the ritual and the wards were complete.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
“I could do something. About the nightmares?” I offered. I held out my hand.
She stared at my outstretched fingers for a long moment but finally shook her head. “They are awful, but it’s the only time I get to see him anymore.”
I tried to imagine myself in her shoes, thinking the only time I would ever see Eli again would be in my nightmares. I let my hand drop to my side. I wished I had the words to console her, but I didn’t. I barely knew this woman and it felt arrogant of me to tell her it would get better.
I wasn’t sure I believed that myself, anyway.
Deidre gave me a sad smile. “Come on. I’ve got a few things I think that might interest you.”
I followed her back to the yellow building.
I WASN’T SURE HOW WE stumbled back to the school. I felt weak and slightly sick at seeing Azolata like that. In all the time that I had known him, I hadn’t seen him show any kind of weakness and now that I had, I wanted more than anything to get him out of there.
I don’t know how I told Marcus. I wasn’t sure how to express the sheer helplessness I saw in him as he lay there. I didn’t want to even put it in words.
I fell into the lounge and Marcus closed the door behind me. The first thing that I realized was that we were both heaving in huge gasps of air, like we had run the whole way from the gas station back here.
My legs and chest were on fire and I fell over onto my hands and knees and stared down at the dirty carpet beneath my fingers. I felt like I could see every speck of dirt there, like my vision was supercharged somehow.
“There wasn’t anything at the preschool or the library. I guess you guys didn’t find him either by the looks of things. Were you followed? Why did you run?” Dante asked.
He was laid out on the couch, his head pillowed on the armrest, his legs stretched across the rest of the couch. He looked like he had just woken up from a nap.
I felt the irrational urge to punch him in his face.
“We found him,” Marcus snapped.
Dante sat up, his attention focused on us now. “Where is he? Why didn’t you bring him back?”
“Did you think they would just cuff him to a pole and walk away? He’s imprisoned and I can’t figure out with what because he isn’t making a lot of sense,” Marcus said and I felt his eyes on my back.
“Stephen?” Dante said and was off the couch and in front of me faster than my eyes could track. “What happened?”
I blinked at him and opened my mouth but nothing came out.
Dante pulled me to my feet and sat me down in a chair. He got a bottle of water from the vending machine and uncapped it before pressing it into my hands.
I stared at it.
“Do you want me to call Celia?” Dante asked gently.
I wanted my mom and dad with a suddenness that bent me over. I wanted to cry and scream and hit something, but I couldn’t even make a sound, I couldn’t explain to the two of them what it felt like, leaving him there.
I heard water running and a cool pressure on the back of my neck. A warm hand on my back and on my knee. There was someone
talking in a low voice and then it felt like something inside of me cracked.
“Hey, hey,” Celia said, and it felt like she was whispering in my ear. I could almost feel her soothing hand pushing my hair off of my forehead where it was stuck with sweat.
“Remember Azolata’s shop? The colors? All that ink, stacked in bottle after bottle? Can you see them?” Celia asked.
I looked down at the phone cradled in Marcus’s hand. I nodded. Marcus told her.
“And the floors. They are black, smooth, shiny. He always keeps everything so clean, doesn’t he?” Celia prompted.
“Yeah,” I croaked.
“He gave me my first tattoo when I was fourteen. Shifters can’t be tattooed like humans though. It’s more of a brand. It’s super heated and then the ink pressed in while it’s still fresh. Can you imagine that kind of heat?” Celia murmured.
I closed my eyes. “What was it?”
“The Ortega crest. All of us have it. Except for Artie. I’m not ready to cross that bridge yet,” Celia said.
I nodded and took a drink of water. “I don’t blame you.”
“Can you tell me about it?” Celia asked.
I hesitated. “We were going to raid the gas station on the sound side of town. The big one?”
“June’s, yeah.” Her voice was still low and encouraging.
“Marcus said he would stay outside and keep watch. I went in. They trashed the place. Looked like a fight had happened. Which was weird because we haven’t seen them trash any other place.”
“Right.”
“And I went around the corner of these shelves and he was just... Sitting there, like he was waiting for me,” I whispered.
“Stephen,” she murmured.
“And I told him we were there to get him. I told him to get up. He just sat there and looked at me and I kind of lost it on him, blamed the whole thing on him. If he had only fought back, maybe we wouldn’t be here. Maybe we would have a better chance if we had someone with real power who knew what they were doing. I was just so angry at him. I wanted him to drop the whole passive act and stand up and fight,” I said, my voice rising.
“What did he say?” She asked.
“I didn’t let him talk. I just kept yelling at him and getting closer to him. He tried to interrupt me but I wouldn’t let him talk. Then I got too close, and he stood up and pushed me,” I said and hesitated to finish the rest of it.