by Jude Marquez
Emily shook her head fondly at them.
“Come in, tell me what’s been going on and then we can figure out what your next step is,” Emily said and gestured to a table in the opposite corner.
Gerri took the pan over and went back to the kitchen and began gathering plates and forks like she lived here.
As soon as we sat, Emily looked over to me.
I started from the beginning, the very beginning with Lou and Dante and finished with our arrival here, adding in bits of knowledge that I had from everyone else. Emily ate and listened and when I was done, I felt a little lightheaded.
“You’ve been working for a long time,” Emily said and propped her head up on her hand as she looked at me.
I nodded. I took a bite of the roast and smiled down at my plate. “My mom used to make this.”
Emily nodded and smiled.
I blinked when I realized that there were tears in my eyes. “I’m sorry-” I said and wiped at my face, horrified.
“Don’t be. Eat. Then you’ll rest while I go get your book,” Emily said.
“You have it?” I asked and looked up.
“I do. Or at least, I think I do. It’s a short trip from here so it will take a little while. In the meantime, you can shower, rest, do what you need to,” Emily said.
“Your brother?” I asked softly. It terrified me he might be dead as well. It seemed to be a running theme in our world.
But Emily just rolled her eyes fondly. “He got a job. He was bored. He’ll be home in an hour or so.”
I nodded.
Before I knew it, dinner was over and Emily was showing me the bathroom and handing me some pajamas and pointing out a bedroom. I didn’t realize how tired I was until I fell into that soft mattress and closed my eyes.
WHEN I SAW WHAT WAS on the counter, I was glad all the little ones were asleep.
Eli was standing there, surveying the guns, knives, and ammo laid out in front of him.
“Wow,” I muttered.
Being the son of the sheriff I had some experience with weapons but not a great deal. My mother didn’t enjoy having weapons in the house and I understood why now.
But I was a kid curious about my dad’s job, so he showed me a few things.
I imagined he would have raised his eyebrows at the arsenal displayed in front of me.
“This is a lot,” Eli said.
“You’ll pick what you want,” Deidre said and went to the other side of the counter.
“This one,” I said, putting my hand on a semi-automatic revolver identical to the ones I had used on our way here.
Deidre pushed ammo over to me. “Blessed silver. It will take care of most things.”
“I like this,” Eli said and put his hand on a staff.
“Australian Buloke. Nearly indestructible. Nice choice,” said the young man that served us earlier.
“I don’t really care for weapons,” I confessed.
“That’s interesting. What would you say your powers are for? What have you used them for so far?” Deidre asked.
I opened my mouth, wanted to deny what she was implicating but I couldn’t.
“That’s different. That’s defense,” I finally mumbled.
Deidre nodded. “And you aren’t hunting anyone down to use these weapons, right? If you see someone you know belongs to the Ascendancy, it’s not like you will chase them down, right?”
I thought of Jessica and then Bianca, if I had seen them on the streets of Vegas and what I would do.
I hesitated again.
“Tell me again how much you don’t like weapons, Lou,” Deidre said and shook her head. She walked down the end of the counter where there was a sheet covering a few other things.
“These are...” Deidre tapped her fingers against one item and she shook her head. “I don’t know. But doing this job as long as I have, there are a few things that I’ve learned and one of them is that sometimes things tell me who they belong to. These three expressed that.”
“The weapons talk?” Eli said and raised his eyebrows.
“Perhaps not to you, but they express a certain sentiment to me. And these three were much louder and clearer on that front,” Deidre said and flipped the sheet back with a flourish.
They were written in blood and stone and you will be their shield. And they will be your sword.
I heard Gerri’s words to me the first time we met loud and clear when she revealed what was under the sheet.
“Do you know why these called out to me?” Deidre asked.
“No,” Eli said.
“Yes,” I breathed and reached for the necklace on a fine metal chain. There was a wolf’s head pendant on the end and it was so big and looked so heavy I was worried that the chain would snap.
It didn’t. It held perfectly.
I turned to Eli and held the chain out. His frown deepened, but he bowed his head and let me loop the chain over his head. The wolf’s head rested squarely on his chest and he looked down at it. Like he was unsure of what he was doing, he raised his right hand, claws extended, and grasped the head.
There was a whisper of metal on metal and the wolf's head flattened and extended, up to his chin and then over his chest, around his back, securing at his neck.
An identical copy of the pendant was engraved over the breastplate.
“Neat,” the young man with Deidre said.
“Sure. But what if I need to shift?” Eli said and flexed.
I watched the metal move with him, resembling more of a tight cotton than a metal.
“Try it,” I said.
Eli looked at me.
“Shift. See what happens,” I encouraged.
“If I get stabbed, you better heal me,” Eli muttered.
“I got you,” I replied and nodded.
I stepped back as Eli began to shift. Just as I thought it would, the metal shifted with him, but when he was his full wolf, I saw that the breast plate covered his chest and belly, along with his entire back and neck.
My mouth dropped open.
I turned to Deidre and the young man, both of whom were wearing identical expressions of shock.
“Can I?” The guy asked and held out his phone.
Eli bowed his head and shifted to the side and the kid took several pictures while circling him.
Eli shifted back, and we all stared at each other for a minute. The kid excused himself and came back with Eli’s bag where he dug some clothes out.
“I’m never taking this off,” Eli said and lifted the wolf’s head and studied it.
“Now, this,” Deidre said and tapped the second object.
We all gathered around and stared down at it.
It was a slim book, hand-bound, with rough, uneven pages inside. Eli touched it and ran one finger down the curved sword that decorated the front cover.
He flipped it open and there were words written on the inside but nothing that we could read.
“Well. That’s helpful,” I muttered.
I reached out and turned a page. For a brief second, the world around me shimmered, and I wasn’t in the cheerful yellow building with Eli and the others.
Instead, I was deep inside a temple with only candles around me to light the vast darkness. Across from me was another being, a powerful one that I did not understand, one that terrified me and filled me with hope. I tried to step forward to see their face, but the shadows deepened and then Eli was pushing me away from the book.
“What the fuck was that?” Eli demanded and turned to Deidre.
“I have never seen that happen before,” she said and turned to me.
“What-?” I gasped and sucked in a deep breath.
“Your eyes, they were black like Celia’s and then they went all silver,” Eli said.
“You didn’t hear us,” Deidre said.
“Yeah, I saw something,” I said and put a hand to my head and tried to clear my thoughts.
“What was it?” Eli asked.
I quickly expl
ained what I saw.
Eli studied me and looked just as puzzled as I felt.
“I don’t think anyone else should touch that thing,” I said and sat down on a bench. I wondered if I would puke all over the floor.
“Good plan. But you still have to take it. It’s yours,” Deidre said. She rummaged under the counter and pulled out a gray bag. She slid the book inside and tied it closed.
“And this is strange,” Deidre said and nodded to a black case was on the counter. It was about three feet long and there was a simple latch to keep it closed. Of all the things on the counter, it looked the least threatening.
I watched Eli step forward and reach for it.
Faster than I thought was possible, I was on my feet. I stumbled into him and pushed him out of the way. “No, no, no. No one touches that. I’m serious, don’t even open it.”
Eli straightened me out. “What is it?”
“It’s not for us,” I said, still trying to sort out what I was feeling.
“Then we don’t have to take it,” Eli said, looking from me to Deidre.
“It’s not for us but we have to take it. I don’t know why or what it’s for or anything else, these things are so confusing. I don’t get it, I know it sounds weird, but believe me, we take it but we don’t open it,” I babbled.
“Are you okay?” Eli asked.
“No, but I will be. We need to go,” I said and turned to Deidre. “Not to be rude.”
“No, I feel it too. It’s time,” she said easily and offered me a smile. “It was good to meet you, Lou. Don’t forget our lunch date.”
The young man began to pack our things up, including the slim black case that Eli kept looking at uneasily. Deidre led us outside to a small car, sporty and with a large trunk. It was already packed to bursting with our money, weapons that we brought with us, and other supplies that Deidre thought we might need.
“Thank you,” I said and turned to Deidre.
She pulled me into a tight hug. “Thank you.”
She and Eli hugged as well and then he reached inside the car for one of our trusty beat-up backpacks. He pulled out a stack of cash and handed it over.
She took it but raised her eyebrows. “This is about five times what I would usually charge.”
“I figure if you have enough money for the kids and a little leftover you might do something nice for yourself. You deserve it,” Eli said.
She smirked and shook her head. “Get out of here, Ortega. You are getting soft on me.”
Eli leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Don’t forget about us.”
“Like I could. You will save the world. Make it safe for my kids,” she muttered.
Eli went around to the side of the car and got in.
I turned to Deidre one last time. “Tell the kids that the good monsters are out there.”
She brushed something off of her face and I pretended not to notice. “I do. All the time.”
I got in the car and turned around to watch her disappear.
THE NEXT MORNING WE kept ourselves busy with brainstorming some ideas on how to disrupt the Ascendancy’s plans of destroying Glenwood Lock. For once, Marcus and Dante were able to keep the arguments to a minimum and for that, I was grateful.
As night began to fall, I started gathering some things together.
Marcus and Dante watched me from the comfort of the lounge.
“What are you doing?” Marcus asked carefully as I checked the magazine on a rifle.
“I’m going to go talk to Azolata,” I said.
There was silence and even though I had my back to them, I knew that they were silently arguing who would broach the subject of me leaving.
“Stephen,” Dante began.
“I’m going. If I have to shoot the both of you, I will,” I said firmly and picked up another magazine and put it in my pocket.
Dante fell silent, and I turned around to look at the two of them. “You don’t have to come with me. In fact, I would prefer that you didn’t. I know that what I am doing is stupid and unnecessary, but he is our only source of information here. I won’t take any other risk than going out there to talk to him and then I’ll be back. I promise.”
Marcus glanced over at Dante and sighed. “You don’t have to go out there, though. We have all the information that we need and we have a plan, a plan that we can put into place tonight.”
I nodded and headed for the lounge. “I realize that.”
“So why are you going?” Dante asked.
“Because I have some unfinished business with Azolata. I have a lot more questions than answers, and maybe he has a few more ideas about breaking out. Who knows? Maybe I’ll bring him back this time,” I said.
“We need you,” Marcus pleaded.
I paused and turned. “No, you don’t. You’re brothers. You should know how to cover each other better than anyone else in this whole mess. Maybe now is the time you’ll learn to work together.”
I could have shot them both for how offended they look.
“Good luck,” I said and left them there.
I hoped that the forest would take pity on me and not eat me. I didn’t know my way through it and hesitated for a split second.
Then I had an idea.
“Hi,” I said to no one in particular. “My name is Stephen. I’m sure you’ve seen me stumbling around. I was wondering, hoping really, if you could help me find my way to the gas station where Azolata is? I want, need, to see him again and I just feel-”
I stopped and looked down at my hands. I was shaking. I curled them into fists.
“I don’t want the last time I talk to him be me yelling at him for something that wasn’t his fault,” I whispered.
There was no reply, and I felt like an idiot for expecting one.
Then far away, I saw a light twinkle faintly down a path.
“Thank you,” I said gratefully.
I remembered Eli’s words of caution about trusting the forest.
“Please don’t eat me,” I said.
I followed the light.
It twisted and turned but nothing ate me. The light went out at the edge of the forest, where the trees parted right behind the gas station.
It was fully dark now and as I looked around, I didn’t see anyone near the station. I reached under my shirt and grasped my mom’s wedding band and asked her to keep an eye out for me.
I half slid down the hill and paused at its base. There was no one, no alarm sounded, no guards heading for me. More importantly, I couldn’t hear any shots pierce the otherwise quiet night air.
I went for the same door and it opened easily under my hand.
I realized I should have brought Dante or Marcus with me to prove that someone else could enter this stupid building and any insinuation that I was-
I stopped that train of thought right in its tracks. I wouldn’t go there. I had to deal with the problems in front me while I could, instead of working myself into a panic over something that probably wasn’t true.
I held my rifle up as I rounded the maze of overturned shelves and forced myself to walk slowly and quietly.
Azolata was in almost the same spot as he was the first time I saw him. His head was tipped back and the line of his throat was exposed. His eyes were closed and for a moment, I thought he was asleep.
“Why are you back?” He asked without opening his eyes or moving his head.
His question almost made me pull the trigger.
“I don’t know. It was a stupid decision, really. I should have gone with Dumb and Dumber to make sure they didn’t kill themselves. How did their parents put up with them?” I asked and lowered my rifle.
“The Navarro parents had an unending amount of patience for their sons. They understood them and made sure that they worked with their strengths and not their weaknesses.”
“And their weakness is each other?”
“They are polar opposites, yes.”
“I sent them out there toge
ther.”
“I wonder if the explosions tonight will be purposeful, in that case.”
Azolata opened his eyes and looked at me. It struck me once more how dark his eyes were and how he seemed to know every single secret I had, without me even saying anything. A god of the night, I’m sure he knew the dirtiest things about humanity.
I don’t know how long I stood there and stared at him, drinking my fill of him before I looked away.
“You know,” he whispered.
I flinched.
“How?” He said.
I shrugged. “There were a few clues. I’m not stupid.”
“I never said you were.”
I looked back at him, this man that had shaped thousands and thousands of years of myself.
“Does it hurt?” I asked.
“Be more specific,” he said. He still didn’t move, only sat with his back against the cheap beer with his feet planted firmly on the ground and his arms propped up on his knees. At least he was looking at me now.
“Being what you are,” I said and gestured vaguely.
“Yes.”
I let out a breath. “I don’t want that for Billie.”
“You wanted protection for her. I gave her that.”
My brain was not comprehending what he was saying.
“If I’m a god, then why am I not like you?” I said.
“Because you don’t remember. You might know, but you don’t remember what it was like back then. You don’t see me,” he breathed.
“Yes I do,” I said and turned my eyes back to him defiantly.
“Not like you used to,” he said.
“Maybe that’s not who I am,” I snapped, angry all of a sudden.
He nodded. “You’ve been through so much, there is no way I could hope that you are the same man that you once were.”
“Then what does that mean?” I asked.
“Be more specific,” he repeated.
“If I’m not who I am, if Billie isn’t who she was, then what does that mean for us? Who are we?” I asked.
Azolata let his legs slide forward and then crossed his ankles. He frowned and fidgeted with his jacket. I saw that the sleeve of one was singed from yesterday.
The skin underneath was unblemished and I felt a wave of gratitude for that.