CHAPTER Seventeen
Lucy and the human hater took up the same positions as the previous two Brethren had, and maintained the same stoicism. I was faintly surprised that Lucy was as strict about her vigil as the others had been but guessed that Corrigan’s stranglehold on the Brethren was viciously strong. I, meanwhile, was going to preserve my strength and energy for when something – hopefully Iabartu – finally appeared. I was confident that I’d hear the change in tone as the portal prepared to eject someone long before they actually arrived. Keeping an upright, straight backed, military style stance was a waste of time.
I pulled out a couple of cans of Coke from my backpack and offered one to Alex. He sat down beside me and we pulled the ringtops. I hoped that the Brethren idiot on the other side could hear the satisfying hiss as the carbon dioxide was released although I did feel slightly guilty about Lucy. Then again, given what I’d already discovered about her tastebuds, she probably wasn’t too bothered. Alex sat down next to me and stretched his legs out in front of him.
“What gives, Alex? I thought you weren’t the fighting type?” I asked him, archly.
He took a swig of Coke and regarded me seriously. “Oddly I find myself suddenly invested in what happens in this quiet little corner of England. Not that I’ll be squaring up to any heebie jeebies any time soon, you understand,” he added hastily, “just that I find myself wanting to stick around. You never know when there might be a damsel in distress who needs me to run away in the opposite direction for her.”
I laughed and clinked my Coke can against his then became serious. “What Craw said – about it being my fault that John died. You really think that was true?”
He sighed heavily. “All I know is that the wichtlein definitely thought it was true. And, no, before you ask, I don’t anything about what a Draco Wyr is, other than it must be some kind of dragon.”
“So where do we go from here?”
“We do what we’re doing right now and wait to see what comes out that.” He nodded towards the portal and I was rather taken aback at the confidence in his voice. For someone who was a self-professed non-combatant, he actually displayed a lot of guts.
We sat in companionable silence for a few moments before it occurred to me that I really didn’t know very much about him at all. I could do small talk – at least it might make the time pass by a bit faster. I arched a look over at him. “So what would you be doing if you weren’t here?”
“Nothing much of anything. I spend a vast amount of time in London tracking down lost objects and trailing unfaithful spouses. You’d be surprised at what a fickle bunch the otherworld pop can be.”
“I don’t doubt it,” I said drily. “But you don’t always work for shifters?”
“God, no!” he said. “My services are for hire to the highest bidder. I have to work within the dictates of the Ministry but for the most part I can be employed by virtually anyone. Fae, vamps, trolls, even a unicorn once. I’ve worked for them all.”
“Have you ever worked for a human?” I asked softly. “I mean, an out and out human who’s not a mage or a wicca or anything?”
Alex was silent for a second. “No,” he answered heavily. “I’m afraid I’ve not.”
So there was no-one like me then. I changed the subject. “You look rather, um, young to be doing all this.”
“I might make the same comment about you, dude.”
I acknowledged his point. A plane rumbled softly overhead and we both leaned back and tracked its jetstream through the sky.
“It really is very lovely here,” he commented after it was long gone. “I can see why you are so keen to stay.”
“Yeah,” I sighed. “It is lovely. But that’s not why I stay. These guys are my family. Since my mum split, I’ve never had anyone else I could depend upon. But the pack, they’re always there for me. Even though…” my voice trailed off and I looked at the Brethren.
“You don’t get bored?” he asked, changing the subject.
“Of beautiful weather, pristine beaches, lots of friends? Yeah, I get bored. But no-one’s life is ever perfect, Alex. And these last few days have reminded me that living in interesting times isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be. I’d give anything to be bored right now, instead of trying to hunt down the vicious murderer who killed my alpha.”
“You think of him – John – like that? As your alpha?”
“Yeah, I do.” I finished off the Coke and scrunched up the can in one hand. “I might not be able to shift, but I feel like a shifter.”
He nodded with a serious expression on his face and lay back in the sand. I traced little figure of eights in the sand and watched the portal with half an eye. The sun was getting hot, but at least there was a cool breeze wafting in from the sea.
Mackenzie? Are you still at the beach?
I sat up a bit straighter. What’s up, Julia? Did you talk to Anton?
Yes. He’s not trying to expose you, dear.
What? I got up to my feet, drawing the Brethren’s attention. I ignored them completely and started pacing. Julia, he had my t-shirt. With my blood.
Hmmm, yes. Well that’s rather interesting, dear.
I scoffed aloud.
It appears that since your fight Anton now has developed somewhat of a …taste for your blood.
Say what?
Julia continued. He’s convinced that it’s good for him. And it seems that he will go to lengths to get more of it.
I was absolutely stupefied. Is that normal? He is turning into some kind of shifter vamp?
That’s not physically possible, dear. I don’t know why he’s decided that you’re suddenly so tasty but he’s certainly still being kept to the geas.
I didn’t know what to say. Could this be some kind of weird ruse that he’d cooked up? Jules, are you sure he’s not lying?
I compelled him. Even though he wishes you were gone from the pack, he was telling the truth.
He’s not sworn to you yet, none of the shifters are. Technically, they all still had the change of alpha get out clause to use as an escape if they wanted to leave.
Actually, he is. He swore on the Way whilst you were out for the count yesterday. Almost everyone did.
Oh. I was surprised. I’d been sure that he’d want to hold out and see if he could get a place with the Brethren. Then I realised what Julia had said. Hold on, ‘almost’ everyone?
Julia, who didn’t swear?
Tom and Betsy.
“F*ck!”
Everyone on the beach was looking at me now. I knew in my heart of hearts that neither of them would ever betray me, geas or no geas, unless compelled to by whoever their new alpha became. But I had a pretty good idea of who they wanted that new alpha to be. Tom had made no secret that he had the burning desire to join the Brethren’s ranks. And with Betsy apparently besotted by him, she’d probably follow him wherever he wanted to go.
How could they be so na?ve?
Mackenzie, dear, they have to make their own choices.
Well, what if Corrigan compels them to talk about me?
Unless he specifically asks if you’re human or not, or that they have to tell him every single detail they’ve ever know about you, which I imagine would take several days of telling, then they won’t have to reveal anything about you. And Corrigan has no reason to suspect that you’re human. Are you sure that your anger is less to do with your worry about what they might say and more to do with your friends leaving you?
No. I paused. Sodding know-it-all. Okay, maybe.
They will always be your friends, no matter what they do or where they go. And the Brethren might not want them. I don’t think either of them have made their intentions known yet.
But Corrigan had already told me that he did want Tom. And Betsy had acquitted herself well in her evaluation so I couldn’t see why they’d turn her down either. I sat back down on the sand.
I have to go, projected Julia. Anton seems to be getting rather worked up that Lynda won’t leave him alone. Stay safe, Mackenzie.
Yeah, I sent back, and Julia severed the link.
Alex was sitting up and looking at me rather alarmed. “What the hell is going with you?”
“That was Julia. It’s just…it’s nothing.” I didn’t want to get into it. Tom and Betsy’s potential defection was just too complicated to explain and I wasn’t sure that Alex would understand my feelings about it. And the information about Anton was just too disturbing.
“Mack? What do you mean, that was Julia?”
“Huh? Oh, she can project to me the way that she can to the rest of the pack.” I said absently, my mind on other things.
“And could John do this too?”
I didn’t answer.
“Mackenzie, this is important. Could you hear John’s Voice too?”
“Sure. And Corrigan’s as well.”
“That doesn’t make sense, Mackenzie.” He pulled me by the shoulders and looked into my eyes. “Only alphas can use the Voice and only then with their own shifters. Corrigan of course can use it with everyone, but then he’s mega powerful. But even he wouldn’t be able to use it on a human.”
I looked at him stupidly. “Alex, he can because I’m human and I can hear him. No alpha has ever had cause to use the Voice on a human so they’d never know if it works or not. And besides, John always said I could hear him because I spent so much of my formative years with the pack. It’s not a big deal.”
“Dude, it is so a big deal. Do you really think that alphas haven’t tried to compel humans before now? They’ve spent centuries trying to do that. Imagine the power they’d have if they could. They can’t, believe me.”
I became aware that my mouth was gaping open at him. I snapped it shut. “He can’t compel me though. And even you knew I was human straight away, Alex. ”
“Well, yeah, and you still seem human. But you can’t be. Even without the compulsion side of things, there is no alpha, no matter how strong, who could use the Voice on an out and out human.”
I wasn’t quite sure how to handle this new piece of information on top of everything else. I’d spent so long wishing desperately that I wasn’t human, but I’d come to accept that I couldn’t change who I was no matter how much I wanted to. And now that I was resigned to being human, I wasn’t sure I wanted to be anything else. I’d heard John’s Voice for so long that I hadn’t ever thought to really question why I could. I struggled to find a reason why. “Can you hear an alpha’s Voice?”
“No, only shifters can, I told you.” Alex’s voice was emphatic.
I felt more doubt creeping in. “And I’m definitely not a shifter.”
He sank back down. “No, you’re not. There’s nothing shifter-like about you. But I’m still telling you that it doesn’t make sense that you’re human either.”
Great. I was just a freak. Now I wasn’t a shifter or a human. Could my week possibly get any worse?
I noticed that Lucy was looking concerned but trying very hard to keep her gaze focused on the portal. At least the distance between us and the hum of the gate, meant that she wouldn’t have heard any of my conversation with Alex. I tried to look nonchalant and unconcerned by crossing my legs and leaning back. Unfortunately I was feeling anything but that. Alex stood up and walked towards the water’s edge. I had to admit that part of me wondered if he was trying to stay away from me now that I was clearly something very strange indeed. Perhaps I was contagious. The pit of my stomach felt warm with hurt and confusion. And then I wondered if the fire I felt in my blood when I got worked up, wasn’t just a side-effect of a red-head’s fiery temper. Maybe it was something else. Maybe I was a monster. Maybe that’s why it was my fault that John was dead.
I lost myself in my thoughts. At some point Alex came and sat back down next to me but I barely registered him. At least he left me in peace to sort through what I was thinking. After a while I roused myself slightly, however, and looked at him. I thought I’d ask him what he thought about my bloodfire, and whether it might be connected somehow to everything else. In fact, I’d even drawn a breath to speak when, all of a sudden, the ripples in the portal began to fluctuate wildly and the humming increased dramatically in volume. Something was coming through.
I immediately leapt to my feet and pulled out my left dagger, poised for action. Across the sand, I could see both Lucy and the racist prick tensing. Being shifters, they didn’t need to particularly carry weapons – their shift did more damage more quickly than virtually anything else even remotely legal would. Alex was backing away slowly from the portal itself. I gripped the dagger’s hilt tightly.
“Come on Iabartu, you bitch,” I whispered. “Let’s finish this.”
There was a terrible rumbling and a figure started to emerge slowly. Initially it was difficult to make out what it was. Unfortunately, however, it was also immediately very clear that whatever it was, it wasn’t Iabartu. She’d been about five feet tall in Alex’s scrying and this figure looked to be about twice that. It was definitely humanoid, however. I squinted, trying to make it out. One muscled leg that looked the size of a tree trunk came into sharp focus. Its foot was bare but very hairy with long sharp looking toenails. Ick. I shifted my stance deciding to aim for its Achilles’ heel. I wasn’t sure exactly what would happen if I attacked it in mid transport - it would usually be considered extraordinarily rude to do so – but circumstances dictated that this was not someone here to pay a friendly visit. I could end this in a second if I managed to hit the right spot though.
I snapped back my wrist and let the dagger fly, when, at the same moment, a furry shape barreled into the thing’s knee, knocking the entire vulnerable spot that I’d been aiming for out of the dagger’s trajectory. My weapon thudded uselessly into the sand. F*cking idiot shifter. Who had half a brain now? Before I could react further, the rest of the creature completely materialized, reaching down with one fell swoop and picking the offending werecougar up, before shaking it violently and flinging its body away. The human hater’s were shape lay broken and still.
Lucy had shifted as well, into her sleek honey badger. She at least had more sense than her buddy, however, and held back, eyes watchful and assessing. I called on my fire and let it seep throughout my veins from my heart to the tips of my fingers. It thudded and flickered in intensity. Bring it on. The thing was completely focused on Lucy and roared at her so loudly that I felt the vibrations on the sand under my feet. It remained stupidly unaware of me at its back, however. She bared her sharp teeth and prepared to attack, giving me a chance to perfect my aim, hopefully without any interruptions this time.
I threw, and knew straight away that I was close to the mark. My shot wasn’t quite swift and true enough however. The dagger embedded itself in the beast’s ankle, just missing the vital Achilles’ heel. Shit. It shuddered in pain though, head whipping around. Involuntarily I took a step back. It only had one huge eye, smack bang in the middle of its face. Christ, a Cyclops. I took in its long dark hair, tied back with a piece of rope and its skin that was swarthy and weathered. A loincloth covered its genitals but other than it was completely naked. I supposed I should be thankful for small mercies. A naked ten foot tall one eyed beast was not at the top of my ‘otherworld neighbours I’d like to meet’ list. Something dangled off the string at its waist but, at this distance, I couldn’t quite make out what it was. It didn’t look large enough to be a scary weapon at least. The Cyclops roared at me and, even from metres away, I felt globules of warm spit on my face combined with the hot rank air of its breath. No, I was not a fan.
It turned back to the front, seemingly dismissing me as unthreatening, so all I was presented with was its lean back. I prepared to attack again whilst Lucy made her own move, rushing the Cyclops, and snapping and biting at the same ankle I’d already injured, but it dodged her teeth and ran past her. And towards Trevathorn.