See These Bones

by Chris Tullbane

  I cut between the two, ignoring A—’s barely audible squawk of surprise, and captured Vibe’s hand in mine. Just like that, the pinched expression left her face, and strength returned to her legs.

  “How did you do that?” A— asked over the music, looking me up and down in surprise. “I thought the first-year Healer was a ginger?”

  I ignored him, focused on Vibe. “What are you doing here, Kayleigh?”

  Even with my touch working as a buffer between her and the hundreds of teenage emotional roller coasters surrounding us, her voice was weak. If the bar music hadn’t rolled over to a new song just then, I might not have heard her at all.

  “I came looking for you.” I waited for Kayleigh to continue, but even that limited and unhelpful sentence seemed to have exhausted her.

  Oh well. It wasn’t like I’d been having much fun anyway, between Orca’s absence and Jeremiah’s interrogation.

  Not to mention Tessa and her sneak-attack cleavage. God help me.

  “Well, you found me,” I yelled back as the music returned to full volume. “Shall we get out of here?”

  She nodded and held tightly to my hand as I led her through the crowd to the door.

  A— never did find out what was going on.

  •—•—•

  Once we were outside, the combination of cold air, isolation, and a continued death-grip on my hand helped Vibe recover quickly. Even so, it took ten or so minutes of walking before she fully relaxed.

  “Maybe you should wait to try that whole bar scene until—”

  “My shielding’s better?” she interrupted, dropping her eyes. “Yeah. I thought I could handle it for long enough to come get you.”

  “Next time, just set off a flare or something,” I suggested. “Or find Orca and send her in. That would have totally worked.”

  “Gee, I wonder why?” She rolled her eyes.

  “So what did you need me for, anyway? Not that I mind leaving the party-a-minute of Paladin, Winter, and Poltergeist.”

  “Paladin was at a bar?”

  “Drinking water, but yeah. He probably read in his instruction manual that socialization is a vital component of team-building.”

  “He’s not that bad, Damian.”

  First Wormhole, now Vibe. If Silt started singing Paladin’s praises, I was going to scream.

  “Anyway,” she added, the smile falling from her face, “I came to warn you.”

  I would have asked her about what… but prior experience had taught me she would just interrupt me, mid-question. Instead, I just arched one eyebrow and waited.

  “Patty overheard Caleb and Freddy talking about their group project for History.”

  Patty was Kayleigh’s roommate, and one of our class’ two Hydromancers. Don’t think I’ve mentioned her yet. In a class of twenty-four, there are some kids you like, some you hate, and some you just never really run into. She belonged to that last group. Our two water-based Powers practically lived at the school’s indoor pool, and while the image of first-years—or, God willing, second-years—in bikinis had its appeal, the reality was that the Hydros just swam to the floor of the pool’s deep end and stayed there for hours, communing with their native element or some shit like that.

  Pretty sure all that water was wrinkling more than just their fingers and toes.

  “They’re doing it on you,” Vibe continued. “On Crows, I mean. They were saying it’s in case any of us encounter a Necromancer after we graduate, but—”

  “But really, they just want to embarrass me in front of a bigger audience,” I finished with a scowl.

  “I think so.” She sighed, using her free hand to tuck a blue strand of hair behind one ear. “Some of them really do hate you. I don’t know why.”

  I thought of my dad. “I do. But that doesn’t give them the right—”

  “No, it doesn’t. Anyway, I was going to tell you tomorrow, but someone said you’d gone to the party, so I came to warn you.” She paused, and looked up at me with a frown of her own. “Since when do you go to parties?”

  “Staring at my dorm room wall every night is going to drive me nuts even faster than my powers. When Jeremiah invited me, I figured…” My voice trailed off. My roommate was in that same History group with Caleb, Freddy, Tessa and Olympia. “That bearded motherfucker.”

  It wasn’t until I felt Kayleigh’s grip tighten on my wrist that I realized I’d spun around and was heading back toward the bar. “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “I’m going to go teach someone a lesson about fucking with me.”

  “You can’t fight him—”

  “Yeah, I can.” It was my turn to interrupt. “It would be different if Jeremiah walked around in stone form, but right now, he’s just flesh and blood.” And probably halfway to being drunk. I’d have time for at least one shot before he changed form.

  “No… I mean you’ll get kicked out of school!”

  That stopped me, for just a moment. “There’s no way they’d expel a Cape just for fighting.”

  “You’re not a regular Cape,” Kayleigh reminded me, “and it’s not just first-years that are freaked out by that fact. If you go swinging your dick around like a monkey with something to prove, you’re just going to make it easier for them to have you expelled.”

  “That’s such fucking bullsh—” My voice trailed off. “Swinging my dick around like a monkey?”

  Even with the dim light of the streetlamps and her naturally golden skin, Kayleigh’s blush was noticeable. “It’s a figure of speech. Why is it that boys always want to run off and make things worse?”

  “You’re the Empath,” I reminded her. “You tell me.”

  “Well, I can’t hear your emotions, but if you’re anything like the others, I guess it’s some combination of pride, insecurity, and raging testosterone.”

  I sighed and tucked my anger away. “Dating must suck for you.”

  “You have no idea. Anyway, I sort of figured you’d get pissed off. That’s why I waited to tell you until we were on the far side of campus.”

  I glanced around. We’d traveled along one of the campus’ many paths to its west-most extremity, the nearby woods a dark boundary just outside the last streetlamp’s illumination. Mom’s ghost was a pale figure on the periphery, but we were otherwise alone. “I thought I was getting you away from there.”

  “You were, at first,” she admitted, “but it’s been five minutes since we even saw anyone else.” She scowled at whatever she saw in my face. “I don’t always need saving, you know. I’m stronger than you all think.”

  With those words, she deliberately removed her hand from my wrist and stepped away, crossing her arms and staring up at me defiantly.

  Then, her eyes rolled back in her head, and she collapsed to the ground.

  I rushed over, but Kayleigh was already struggling back to her feet, almond-shaped eyes wide. She shied away from my extended hand with a hiss.

  “What’s—?”

  “Shh!” She took another careful step away from me on wobbly legs, turning toward the woods behind us. After a long moment, she shuddered. The look she sent back at me was troubled.

  “What is it?”

  “Fear. Out there.” Vibe’s voice was strangled. “And strong.”

  “How strong?”

  “Stronger than when Olympia looks at you. Thick enough to choke on.” She frowned and cocked her head. “And almost lost beneath that, there’s something else. Anger. Lust. Glee.”

  “You’re getting all of that from one person?”

  Kayleigh shook her head. “The fear is one person. A woman, I think. The rest is someone else. Maybe multiple someones. It’s hard to hear beneath her terror.” Her voice cracked slightly. “I think… I think she’s in trouble.”

  This wasn’t the sort of shit that was supposed to happen on the most securely guarded campus in the entire Free States. I scanned around us one more time. Still dark. Still empty. No Tempest. No Dominion. No faculty, for that matter
. Just an Empath with barely any control and a Crow with no real powers to control.

  And someone else, terrified for her life.

  I’d barely found Alexa’s clearing, even with directions. There was no chance I’d be able to find someone in the woods at night. But Vibe… “Can you track any of them by their emotions?”

  “The woman. At least, I think so. She’s drowning everything else out though.”

  “I won’t be able to shield you.” If I touched Kayleigh, she’d lose her ability to feel the other woman and we’d never find her. But that meant she’d have to weather all that fear on her own.

  “I’ll manage.” The jury was still out on the rest of us, but those two words, uttered with weary, resigned determination, told me that Vibe was going to be one hell of a Cape.

  Assuming either of us lived that long.

  “Then let’s go.”

  We headed into the darkness, Mom’s ghost trailing behind.

  CHAPTER 32

  A minute into the woods was enough to confirm that I’d have been hopelessly lost without Kayleigh. The combination of a full moon and the city’s ever-present glow kept things from being pitch black, but everything looked the same to me; nothing but trees, trees, and oh look, what’s that? More fucking trees.

  I knew Vibe had grown up in a city, like me, but she seemed comfortable in the dark woods. She led us ever deeper into the forest, pausing only occasionally to correct our path. The woods weren’t huge, but we spent five minutes weaving back and forth before I heard anything beyond our own noisy passage.

  Someone was rushing through the woods ahead of us.

  Kayleigh changed course one last time. We broke out into another small clearing, maybe half the size of our group’s meeting place, and without that space’s phenomenal view. Several small trees had fallen, creating this brief break in the blanket of forest. A moment later, a woman burst into the clearing from the opposite direction, hair flowing behind her, the moonlight highlighting tear streaks down her face.

  She saw us, let out a little shriek, and tried desperately to turn, but her feet slid out from under her, and she went down with a thump and a crack where she impacted another of the fallen trees.

  “Crap.” Kayleigh headed over to the fallen woman. “This is her.”

  With our help, the women was quickly upright again, but she was unsteady on her feet, the back of her head matted with blood from where she’d struck the tree trunk. Her clothes were torn and muddy, her eyes wide and terrified.

  With the three of us motionless, I could hear other sounds now; low growls and a high-pitched cackle. Whoever they were… whatever they were…they were coming closer.

  “Can you project fear as well as sense it, Kayleigh?”

  The Empath shook her head. “You’d need a Siren for that, like Prince.”

  Fuck. I looked from Vibe to the woman she was supporting. “Can you get her to safety then?”

  “I’m not going anywhere without you.”

  “We don’t have a choice,” I told her, conscious of the sounds of pursuit getting closer. “There’s no way she can move fast enough to get away from whoever’s hunting her.”

  “Then we’ll stop them together,” she insisted. “I’m a Cape-in-training, just like you.”

  “Kayleigh, there aren’t any dampeners here, and fights—real fights—are nothing but emotion.”

  “You think I’m a liability?”

  “I think we need someone to get her to safety and someone to stop what’s coming. Let’s play to our strengths.”

  She would have argued further—seemed prepared to do so, even—but we could both hear that the hunters were only moments away. With a scowl, Kayleigh helped the other woman hobble out of the clearing.

  •—•—•

  One thing Jessica Strich had always harped on was the value of picking our battlegrounds. I took advantage of the few seconds left to put the moon at my back and a fallen tree between me and whoever was coming.

  They loped out of the darkness like feral nightmares, the one on the left giggling now instead of cackling, the larger shape on his right almost entirely silent. As they came to a sudden halt in the clearing, the moonlight was enough to tell me I was well and truly fucked.

  The small one was close to my height and half again as wide, a sleeveless shirt exposing corded muscle and hairy arms. The other one was almost Titan-sized and similarly dressed. But that wasn’t the part that had my balls climbing into my stomach. Size matters—no matter how the vids tried to pretend otherwise—and numbers really matter, but both can be overcome with enough skill and motivation.

  I wasn’t too sure about my skill, even after three months under Nikolai’s harsh tutelage, but motivation I had in fucking spades.

  The real problem lay with the other details the moon had revealed. The smaller man had high, triangular ears protruding from the top of his skull and a smattering of fur across his exposed flesh. The giant had a grey-furred snout in an otherwise human face. Worst of all, each of their hands ended in long-taloned claws.

  Beast-shifters. Ones or Twos, given their limited transformations and the fact that I didn’t recognize them as first-years or second-years, but still more than deadly enough to take care of one largely powerless Crow.

  So I did what I always do when things go to shit; I went on the attack.

  “Gentlemen.” I spread my arms wide to make sure I had their attention, conscious that Kayleigh and the unnamed woman had less than a twenty second lead. “You’ve had your fun, but this hunt is over.”

  They had already started to spread out to circle me, but were hampered by the small clearing’s layout. The smaller one paused. “Who the fuck are you?”

  “One of the junior Capes,” sneered the other, his words poorly formed because of the snout. “Thinks he’s already a hero.”

  “Jury’s still out on whether I end up Cape or Black Hat,” I admitted. “Maybe that’s why I’m willing to cut you two a break. Turn around now, and I’ll let you walk out of here.”

  I was all the more glad I’d sent Vibe on her way. Having her present—or any woman, really—would’ve made the Shifters that much less likely to back down. More of the same stupid pride and insecurity she said all men suffered from, I guess.

  Even with the Empath gone, I didn’t expect the two Shifters to take me up on my offer, not when they were already drunk on the thrill of the chase. But it gave Kayleigh time to get away, and it gave me time to locate a loose branch—as long as my forearm and several inches thick—near where I was standing.

  I’d have preferred a flamethrower. Or laser eye beams like some Lightbringers had. I’d have even settled for something as basic as the steak knife I’d stolen from the cafeteria, way back when. But a stick was better than nothing.

  The larger Shifter paused, pretending to consider my proposal, but I’d seen the look he sent his companion. I was in motion even before the smaller Shifter leapt at me. Nikolai’s footwork got me out of the way—if barely—and Jessica’s training had me rotating my hips as I lashed out.

  The stick cracked in half, but the way the Shifter squealed and clutched his arm told me my makeshift weapon wasn’t the only thing that had broken. He took another step, stumbled over the fallen tree, and went down heavily.

  Anyone who says you shouldn’t kick an opponent when he’s down has never been in a fight. I threw the branch fragments aside, and launched my foot into the fallen Shifter’s side. This time, the crack I heard had everything to do with his ribs. He rolled back across the clearing with a groan, only to have the larger Shifter haul him to his feet with a single, massive paw.

  The real problem with Beast-shifters isn’t their heightened senses. It isn’t even their claws. It’s how fast they heal. Kodiak can lose a limb and grow it back before the day is out. Someone like Alan Jackson can recover from a broken bone in a matter of hours. These two were a long way from Kodiak, or even Alan, but they were still Beast-shifters; I watched as the lines of pai
n eased in the smaller one’s face.

  “That was your only warning shot, assholes.”

  The smaller one snarled, beyond human reason for just that moment, but the larger one remained unruffled. “You seem to have lost your stick, Crow.”

  “So you do know who I am.”

  “He’s a… what?” asked the smaller one, suddenly looking uncertain.

  “Someone that won’t be missed,” answered the giant. “Hell, the school would probably give us medals if they knew.”

  “Maybe so.” I shrugged, the timer in my head continuing to count. Two minutes gone now, maybe three. It wasn’t enough. “Assuming you had a chance in hell of taking me.”

  “You don’t think we do?” That was the smaller one, whose ribs seemed fine again, even though his arm was still hanging limply.

  “There are two of you and you seem to have some limited grasp of tactics.” I shrugged a second time. “On the other hand, you’re already halfway down the road to Fucked City, and neither of you is a Three. Hell, I’m not sure you’re even Twos.”

  “Jake’s a Two,” snarled the little one, “and I’m High-One. Add those together—”

  “And you don’t have shit,” I interrupted. “This isn’t math class. But fuck it, why don’t we find that out for ourselves. Maybe you two shitheads can manage what Paladin couldn’t.”

  The little one went even paler at that. “Jake…”

  “Shut up, Adam.”

  “Did he seriously take on Paladin…?”

  “I said shut up!”

  “Yeah, Adam,” I agreed. “Shut up. Jake wants to see where this goes.” I looked across the clearing at the two Shifters and twisted my lips into a smile. “By all means, make your play, so I can get on with killing you both.”

  “Threats don’t scare us,” growled Jake.

  “After that,” I continued, ignoring the larger Shifter’s interruption, “I’m going to raise one of you as a Walker and send you back home to eat every fucking person who ever knew you.” I glanced from the white-faced Adam to the suddenly uncertain Jake. “Which of you wants to come back? Should I just flip a coin?”