by B N Miles
She glared. “I know. But this is taking forever.”
“I didn’t peg you for a complainer.”
“I’m not. We’re just wandering around in the sun and I’m pretty sure we’re lost.”
“We’re not lost. Town is that way.” He pointed in the general direction. “If we want to go back, we just walk until we find a road.”
As he stood there admiring the way sweat seemed to make her skin glisten, he felt her aura brush against his skin. He shivered at the sheer amount of anxiety it contained, like her aura was some kind of electrical static field. He hadn’t felt it since the attack on the transport, and he realized a moment later that she must have been keeping it contained for him.
He smiled at her. That was really, really considerate. It wasn’t difficult for a Meta to keep their aura pulled in, but most of them forgot about it after a while and the aura slipped out into the world around them. Cassie had just spent a couple days keeping her aura contained, all for his own comfort.
“Come on,” he said, kneeling down next to her. “We can do this. Let’s just push on for another hour, and if there’s nothing, we’ll turn back.”
“And bludgeon Richie to death?”
He nodded. “And bludgeon a frail old man to death.”
She scowled. “He didn’t look so frail. And we can give him a head start if you want.”
He laughed and helped her to her feet. She grinned and he felt her aura slide all over his body, caressing him like water. It felt good, like she was manipulating it somehow to touch him gently instead of bashing against his skull like Meta auras typically did.
Jared tilted his head and looked at her. She looked back up at him. “Sorry,” she said. “I just realized.”
“It’s… okay,” he said.
“Really? I know it bothered you before.”
“It did,” he said. “Most humans can’t even feel them, but it’s like an icepick in my brain sometimes when a Meta gets anxious or angry.”
“I’ll keep mine away, then.”
“No.” He reached out and took her hand. He surprised himself but didn’t stop. “Do what feels natural. I know you’ve been keeping yourself pent up for me, and I appreciate that, but I’ll get used to it. Just been a while since I felt one so strong and so up close.”
She smiled at that and didn’t pull her hand away. They lingered there for a moment before Jared released her and moved back. He couldn’t let himself go down this path, no matter how good it felt. She was his prisoner, a criminal, and a mystery.
“Come on,” he said. He felt her aura flex, but it didn’t retract. “Let’s get moving.”
They hiked on. After a few minutes, he got used to the feeling of her aura against him, and soon it became just another part of the world around him.
Jared didn’t talk much as they went along, but Cassie supplied them both with enough conversation. She talked about TV shows she’d been watching before she got caught. Jared was amazed at her capacity to watch so much television and to retain it all. He felt like he had years and years of trashy TV stored away in his brain somewhere, but he’d never be able to access it all.
“Okay and the episode where they’re breaking up?” She laughed. “Ross yells, ‘Fine by me!’ in that stupid Ross voice? I say that all the freaking time now.”
“I think I remember the one,” Jared said.
“It’s weird how much that show infected this culture,” she says. “I mean, now that I’ve seen it, I catch little snippets all over the place.”
He frowned at her. “You just watched Friends for the first time?”
“Oh, uh—”
He shook his head. “Where are you from, exactly?”
She grinned. “Somewhere far, far away.”
“Huh.” He tilted his head. He wanted to mention what Wyatt told him over the phone, but he decided to keep it to himself. “Have you seen How I Met Your Mother yet?”
She shook her head, her eyes going wide. “What’s that?”
“Oh, it’s a good one. You’ll like it. Kind of like Friends but with more interesting narrative structures.”
“You sound like an English major.”
He snorted. “I grew up in a Magi family. I was bred to be an intellectual.”
“Really?” she asked. “I thought they were, like, big power organizations that ruled the world.”
“That’s not so wrong,” he said. “But there are a lot of members of each family. The Need makes Magi very… well, prolific. Lots of pregnancies and lots of new blood. So not everyone needs to be on the business side of the family.” He stepped over a downed log and helped her up and around. “Lots of the family sits around all day, uses small magic, thinks about art, and fucks.”
She laughs. “Wow. That sounds… decadent.”
“Yep. That’s exactly what it is.”
“So you were like that?”
Jared looked away. Memories flooded back through him for a moment. He didn’t say anything as they hiked along.
After a little while, he spoke up. “I have this cousin,” he said, his voice soft. “He’s older than I am. I looked up to him a lot back in the day, when I was still a kid and hadn’t touched the priori yet. We train from a very young age to learn how to touch and manipulate magic, but they don’t let us actually touch it until we’re old enough to understand and control the Need.”
She nodded. “Makes sense.”
“Well, I remember when I was like… ten, maybe. This cousin, his name is Blake, I was sitting outside in our yard reading a book and he came up to me with this big, stupid smile on his face. He pulled up his sleeve and he showed me these… marks. All over his arm. And he laughed when I asked him what they meant. He said, ‘Cuz, these are the signs of a true Magi. You’ll be jealous of these one day. Look at how many! I’ve been touching the priori every day for a month, cuz, and I’ve got the Need under control.’”
Jared went silent for a while, remembering Blake. He hadn’t seen his cousin in years. Last he heard, Blake was somewhere in eastern Europe, trying to start a tech business, and still very much a junkie.
“Anyway, that was my first introduction to what it meant to be a Magi. I didn’t understand I was looking at track marks until much later, when it was too late to do anything for him. Not that it would’ve helped. Heroin addiction is a time honored tradition in my family.”
She stared up at him and didn’t say anything. He could feel the anxiety prickling through her aura, but there was something else, something… softer, gentler. It took him a moment to realize she wanted to comfort him.
“I’m so sorry,” she said. “I guess… heroin controls the Need?”
“Better than anything else,” he said. “But it’s a long, dark hole. Lots of my family are still trapped in it, and I doubt most of them will ever escape. People have this image of the Magi families as these big, strong, powerful clans, and that’s true. But they’re also rotten and weak from the inside.” He laughed a little and kicked a rock. “They’d think about killing me if they knew I was even talking about this.”
“Really?” She sounded surprised. “I didn’t know this was a secret.”
“It’s an open secret sort of thing.”
She stepped up next to him and grabbed his hand. He looked down at her, surprise pulling him from his melancholy. She smiled up and tilted her head. “Thanks for sharing that,” she said, her voice low. “I can tell it’s hard for you to talk about your family.”
“It’s not so bad,” he said, looking away.
“You don’t have to lie. I just mean, I’m happy you shared that, is all. And I promise I’ll share more about myself with you… soon.”
“You don’t have to,” he said. “You don’t owe me a thing.”
“Well, that’s not true.” She laughed. “I owe you a lot, my man.”
He arched an eyebrow. “Your man?”
She nodded. “My magician.” She cuddled her body against his arm and he could feel her breas
ts pressing against him. For a moment, his body reacted with pure animal lust, and he almost pushed her back up against a tree and kissed her. Gods, he wanted to taste this girl, but he knew he couldn’t.
After a moment she pulled away, but didn’t drop his hand. They held on to each other and didn’t speak for a little while.
But soon they crested a rise and Jared stopped. Cassie dropped his hand and squinted up at the sky.
“We should think about going back,” Jared said. “It’s been almost two hours and we haven’t found anything.”
She grinned at him. “Now you want to give up?”
“No,” he said. “I’m just being practical. We can come out again tomorrow after breaking Richie’s knees and demanding answers.”
She laughed. “Okay, well that’s tempting.”
“I just don’t want to get caught out here in the dark, is all.”
“I hear that. But don’t you have pretty much anything we’d need in that backpack.”
He shook his head. “Don’t have a tent.”
“Come on,” she said. “Just another half hour. If we don’t find anything, we’ll turn back.” She scanned the terrain ahead and pointed. “Look, isn’t that in the directions?”
Jared frowned and followed her gaze. Sure enough, there was a stack of stones on the ground maybe fifty feet ahead, and they didn’t look natural. He checked the directions and nodded. “You’re right. Shit, wow. He didn’t say it was this far out.”
“How close are we?”
“That was the second to last direction. It should be up ahead.”
“Come on.” Cassie struck out, hiking fast. “Better hurry.”
Jared sighed, put the directions away, and followed. He let her take the lead and enjoyed the view.
The path curved and led them toward another steep rise up the side of a hill. It was rocky and uneven, and they had to pick their way slowly up along it. Jared got a strange feeling as they went, almost like an aura was prickling at his skin, but that couldn’t be right. There were no other Metas around for miles at best, and even if they were close to the mine, he’d have to be right up next to a Meta to feel their aura.
He glanced at Cassie. She was moving forward, eyes narrowed, face serious. That gave him a surge of energy as they pressed forward up the incline. Slowly it flattened out.
And the terrain turned from scrubby, twisted bushes to a lush, dense forest.
They stopped dead.
“Uh,” Cassie said. “This doesn’t look right.”
“No, it doesn’t,” he agreed.
The top of the hill was covered in trees and bushes. He could hear birds chirping and butterflies fluttering from bush to bush. Ahead, through the thick growth, was the entrance to a mine set back in the face of another steep climb. More vines and bushes and leaves sprouted from the entrance like teeth in a massive jaw.
“I think we found it,” she said.
Jared nodded and knelt down, pulling her down next to him. It was quiet, except for the birds, but he knew the Dryads could come out at any time.
“Growth magic,” he whispered. “This has to be them. They can’t help it. Shit just grows all around them.”
“I never met a Dryad before,” Cassie admitted. “We have them back home, of course, but they stick to their forests.”
“They’re not common around here, either,” Jared said. “But they’re powerful and territorial.”
“Do you think they’re in there right now?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“Only one way to find out, huh?” She grinned at him.
“Cass, hold on,” he said.
But she was already standing and walking toward the entrance.
14
Jared cursed and caught up with her. “Cassie,” he hissed, but she stepped over a bush and shimmied past a pair of trees, leaning up next to the mine entrance and peering inside.
He leaned up behind her, flipping open the strap on his shoulder holster. He pulled his weapon and kept it aimed down, the grip loose in his hands.
“Can’t see much,” she whispered. “And I have good eyes in the dark.”
“Flashlights?”
“No. Wait.” She moved closer, stepping inside the entrance. She pushed aside some creeping vines and ivy before taking another step through.
Jared sighed, looked up at the sky, and followed.
The entrance sloped downward. Cassie kept moving into the dark like it was no big deal, but Jared quickly lost his sight. “Cass,” he whispered.
She came back to him. He felt her body close to his, felt her aura envelope him. “Here,” she said, taking his head. “I’ll lead.”
He clenched his jaw but didn’t fight. She moved forward, pulling him along by his hand.
The light from the entrance dimmed and Jared’s eyes adjusted. He considered using magic to augment his sight, but decided against it. The price would be too high, and he wasn’t ready to be crippled with intense sexual desire for Cassie in the middle of a dangerous moment like this.
They followed a path and turned a sharp corner. There was light ahead, dim but definitely glowing at the end of the tunnel. Cassie paused and sniffed the air.
“Feel anything?” she whispered.
He shook his head. “No auras.” He could just make out her face in the dark tunnel. She frowned, bit her lip, and turned back toward the light.
“Ready?” she asked.
“Quiet,” he said. “And low.
She nodded and dropped his hand. They moved together now that he could see better. She was graceful and made barely any noise, and Jared had to struggle to keep up without kicking over rocks and making a huge clatter. The light got stronger and stronger, and Jared realized there was a door blocking most of it.
They reached the door and Jared pressed himself to one side, Cass on the other. It was cracked open and he could just see inside.
There were lights on, dangling from the ceiling. It was a large room, and he caught glimpses of cots with blankets and pillows, a table, and what looked like a camping stove. He pushed the door open just a touch more.
A loud creaking echoed through the space.
Cassie shot him a look. He grinned and threw the door open. No need for stealth now. He came in low, gun up and ready.
But the room was empty.
Lights dangled from the roof and swayed as if they had been disturbed by his entrance. There was a TV in one corner playing a news channel on mute. The camp stove was off, but there were plates on the table, and several cots with messy covers and blankets.
“We just missed them,” Cassie said, coming in behind him.
He didn’t lower his weapon. He moved through the space and made sure there were no other exits or hiding spaces. When he was finished, he relaxed, but didn’t holster the gun.
“Search it,” he said. “Let’s see what we can find. Looks like they just cleared out.”
“Think they’ll be back?”
“Let’s hope so. Don’t take anything.”
They went through the room. There were some receipts from the gas station in town, a list of food, some empty cans, but nothing important. He noticed there were no clothes, no personal items, no weapons or tools. Just the detritus of living things, but none of the essentials.
When they finished their sweep, Jared lingered near the door. “Come on,” he said. “We should head back. We’ll go into town, grab some supplies, and come back out. I think we can set up camp nearby and ambush them whenever they return.”
“What if they don’t?” she asked.
“Then we’ll camp for a few days.”
“Oh, sounds fun.” She skipped to him and slipped her hand through his arm. “A little romantic camping get away.”
He frowned at her. “Not romantic.”
“Oh, come on,” she said, batting her eyelashes. “Don’t pretend like you’re not excited to sleep all snuggled close to me under the stars. Who knows, you might even get
lucky.”
He grinned and shook his head. “You’re nuts. I’m your jailor, you realize that, right?”
“Guess it’s Stockholm syndrome, then,” she said with a dramatic sigh. “They’ll have to deprogram me when this is all over.”
Jared laughed despite himself. “Come on, crazy. Let’s get out of here.”
They pushed open the door and moved back through the tunnel. Cassie took the lead again and she squeezed his hand. It was strange, how that small gesture sent a tremor along his skin.
As they got closer to the mine entrance, Cassie slowed down. Daylight streamed in through the entrance but something was off. Jared could feel it too. He pulled Cassie against the wall of the cave and waited there.
“If you wanted this,” she whispered, “you could’ve had it back on one of those cots.”
“Quiet,” he whispered back.
He kept still, straining his senses, listening for the difference.
There.
That was it.
The birds were silent. Not a single bird chirped. And as they kept themselves flattened against the wall, he heard a twig snap and break.
Cassie looked up at him, her eyes wide.
“Oh shit,” she said.
“Stay behind me.” He stepped in front of her, summoning his memgrams. Images flitted through his mind, images he hadn’t used in so long. He could almost taste the power, feel it buzzing at the tips of his fingers. He didn’t quite form them, didn’t reach and dip into that power, but he kept it there, the potential almost as sweet as the act. “We’ll go on my mark.”
“Jared—”
“Stay down and behind me.” He glanced back. “You hear me, Cassie? Stay behind me.”
She nodded, her face hard.
“Good.” He faced forward again. He held the gun in his hands, his heart beating fast. “On my mark.”
“One—”
“Two—”
“Hey, assholes!” The girl’s voice echoed into the mine from outside. “We know you’re in there, assholes. We’ve got you pinned and surrounded. Come out, hands on your heads, and we can talk.”
Jared recognized that voice.
The same Dryad from the library.
