Inhuman Heritage

by Sonnet O'Dell

  The voice was being muffled by something but even through that I thought it sounded familiar. For the first time I wondered if DJ had really gone to get help. He and Farai still hadn’t come back. Was it DJ stood outside now? Had I sent Farai into a trap? DJ had barely been injured in the car wreck and I’d not actually seen him shift or leap in to help Farai. I’d been too busy saving LeBron and Sorin to notice how the fight there had gone. Farai had said he’d gone back to get help but what if it hadn’t been help for our side. What did they want with Sorin anyway? I took a deep breath steeling myself.

  “And who are you supposed to be? The big bad wolf?”

  He chuckled darkly.

  “I’ll gobble you all up for my supper little girl.”

  Hey, I thought, less of the little, as I reached down slicing my thumb again on the sickle so that it bled.

  “You can huff and you can puff but you’ll still be full of hot air.” I jammed my thumb into the center circle shoving more power into the ward. I heard his body as it was thrown back skidding in the dirt and mud. Great satisfaction filled me until body after body of wolves bounced against the ward. It hurt deeply, I felt like my flesh was bruising. I growled and thrust my still bleeding thumb against the circle, increasing the ward one last time and was rewarded by whimpers and howls of frustration. I worked hard to regain my breath as for a moment their attack seemed to halt.

  “Go get it,” I heard the human voice snarl and wondered what it was they meant to get. I looked around the barn for another way out or a way to at least look out. There was a small hatch in the roof. I began climbing the hay bales to reach it, my leg slipping through a couple of times. I pushed the lid, forcing the ward to extend and peered across the roof. I could only just see the wolves as they paced too close to the sides of the barn and I could not see the man. I did however see lights coming up the road and then turn onto the dirt track. Damn it, they had a car. Wards were designed to keep living things out, an inanimate thing like a car could breech its defense no problem and if the symbols on the door were destroyed so would the spell be. I hung perched in the gap and prayed for a miracle.

  Behind me came the clattering of claws on wood. Something had leapt onto the roof. I did that slow turn you get in horror movies when you realize the axe wielding maniac with mother issues is right behind you. An elongated, green beaky face looked at me, I followed it down to a naked green chest and jean cut off shorts. I looked back to the face.

  Jacque was a humanoid gargoyle. He was part of a pack? Group? Flock?-I’d have to ask what they called themselves-of gargoyles that had taken up residence in an abandoned church at the edge of town. It had once been home of the Soul Market-a underground black magic market run by a soul sucking demon until I’d put a stop to it. The gargoyles seemed quite at home there. I’d helped them out with medicine when the leader Leante’s mate-Belle I think her name was, had been horribly wounded. They’d let me go without a fight as payment believing they owed me no more than that.

  “Hey, Cassandra,” Jacque said with a smile. I found Jacque was quite jovial. He had little more than a tuft of black hair on his head that he ran his hand coolly over. Another sound of skittering claws made me look behind him to see a female gargoyle. She was the same leaf green as Jacque, her horns seemed more ornate, twisting and curling back against her hair which was long, black and styled like the princess from Aladdin. Jacque followed my line of sight and smiled at her and I correctly judged that she had to be his sister.

  “Marie, this is Cassandra.”

  “I’ve seen her before,” she said tersely crossing her arms under her chest. She was wearing Capri pants and a long sleeved boat necked T-shirt in a deep burgundy. Jacque scowled at his sister before turning back to me.

  “So, what’s going on with you and the terminally furry gathering?”

  “Long story, let me sum up. They attacked us because they want to capture us, they’ve bitten my friend and my ward isn’t going to hold them out for long. You’re strong enough to carry a person right? I mean you’ve carried me before.”

  “Sure,” he said looking back at his sister. “We’ll help.” Marie didn’t look happy at being volunteered to help but she followed her brother down into the hole. LeBron looked nervous when he saw them. I rushed to his side and patted his shoulder to reassure him.

  “Don’t panic, this is Jacque and his sister Marie. They’re friends.”

  “Okay,” said LeBron and there was a line of tension in his voice. He was nervous and I couldn’t blame him, they were intimidating figures, even the sister who was slimmer and less menacing looking than her brother.

  “LeBron can’t walk because his leg got bitten,” I said pointing to where I had awkwardly bandaged the wound. Marie unfolded her arms and let out a gusty breath.

  “I can carry him,” she said realizing that she was really going to have to help. She scooped LeBron up like he was nothing more than a rag doll, he gasped as she leapt up heading for the roof access.

  “Come here Sorin,” I said bending down so that he could latch his arms around my neck. Jacque looked confused. “I’ll carry him and you can carry me, I know you’re strong enough.” He nodded and as I walked over to him I heard the engine of the car gun. The doors exploded inwards with the impact, I was thrown double like I’d taken a blow to the gut and the ward collapsed in a visual flash of light, like a firework flaming out. Sorin was thrown from my arms and into Jacque as I fell to the ground panting. I could already hear the scramble of claws behind me as they desperately tore at the wood trying to get it out of the way. The car reversed and the door fell inwards with a loud clunk on the dirt floor. A fine cloud of dust hovered in the door frame and slowly, growling as they came, the wolves advanced. I looked back over my shoulder trying to pull myself up onto my hands and knees. I was seriously winded and before I could decide if I could stand Jacques green muscled leathery arms went one under my knees and the other around my back lifting me to him. I held on coughing in the dust as he leapt up for the open ceiling hatch. I heard the snap of powerful jaws at his heel as he pulled himself, me and Sorin, who was desperately clinging to his neck I realized, out with one hand. I wrapped one arm over his left shoulder and one under his right arm, circling his chest till I could help hold Sorin to us. Jacque ran along the roof, his wings spreading out behind him, catching the air and we were soaring above danger now far from its clutches.

  I coughed hard against his neck and finally managed to take air in properly, filling my lungs with its cool fresh purity. I looked up from his neck and could just about see the side of his face. I couldn’t judge, even up this close, if Jacque was handsome, his features were just far enough removed from human that my sense of attractiveness was thrown. His eye darted in its socket to look at me and under the tight green skin of his cheek I could see where his blood suddenly ran hotter.

  “Thank you Jacque, really, thank you. You saved my butt.”

  “Well, no big deal, I mean I like your butt,” he said his face flushing redder under the leafy skin, he realized he’d said something wrong but couldn’t find a way to backtrack so just continued, “I’d hate to see anything happen to it.” His hand twitched under my knees and I had the feeling that he wanted to smack himself in the forehead, a very teenage thing to do when you’d made a fool of yourself. I apparently made him flustered. Eek, cross species crushing was not something I needed to deal with right now.

  The wind brushed against the back of my head making me turn to look as Marie fell into line with her brother. LeBron looked nervous being so high up and I wondered if he got vertigo. His face was turning a shade of green that almost matched the siblings.

  “Where are we meant to take them? We were supposed to be hunting for food,” Marie whined. She was holding LeBron so that he wouldn’t fall but not as close as Jacque held me. I could tell she disliked having any kind of contact with a human.

  “We’ll take them home and figure out what to do when we get there,” Jacque barked s
wooping over the top of some trees. Home meant the abandoned church where no doubt the rest of their little family were waiting, some of whom really didn’t like me. Not because they actually had a problem with me personally but because I was what they called a sorceress and they’d had some bad experiences with them in the past, it kind of colored their whole world view. Blame the many for the works of the few, that kind of thing.

  “Leantes won’t like this,” Marie said in a chiding tone but Jacque ignored her in favor of steering an accurate course and not dropping me or Sorin. Sorin was shaking a little against my hands, I didn’t know if he was tired, scared, cold or all three. Once there was some distance between us and the wolves, when we were once again safely on the ground, I was going to make sure that the kid got some proper rest. I meant comfy blanket, warm glass of milk and cookies, the whole shebang.

  The church came into view on the horizon. It had no roof as the slate had been taken, probably back in the time of Henry VIII and the dissolution of the monasteries. It was crumbling slightly from the top, smashed brick lay scattered in the grass around the walls and an entire section was missing from the southeast corner. The second floor was largely intact with torn drapes of purple hanging from various points. There had been some pews last time I had been there but they were mostly gone now, dismantled I suspected for the huge fire that now graced the middle of the room. I’d had no idea that gargoyles like these liked to cook their food. The most common variety of gargoyles were carrion eaters, much smaller in size and uniformly gray in color. I’d seen a documentary about them on the Discovery Channel. They didn’t have nearly the amount of intelligence that Jacque, Marie, Leantes and even Gruesome showed. Gruesome was actually named Laverne but he was so big and hulking that I’d given him my own name. He was actually the first of them that I had met. I’d been looking around the cathedral for clues in an older case of missing children when I’d stumbled across the bones from cows they’d eaten. He’d not liked me touching their leftovers and had liked me even less when I’d used magic to throw him the distance of what amounted to the length of a tennis court using magic. We’d not gotten on much better since then.

  Jacque landed in the empty room and expertly released Sorin’s vice-like grip from around his neck handing him to me while he searched for something that LeBron could be laid upon. Marie landed and there was the sound of the flap of another set of wings as someone else touched down. Leantes set down across from us, close to the alter and he stomped across the floor.

  “What is going on here?” he demanded. Marie draped LeBron over a single intact pew that Jacque had dragged from out of the shadows.

  “They were in trouble,” Jacque said in an attempt to defend us. I lowered Sorin to the floor and walked forward so that Leantes got a good look at me.

  “Your people saved my life, Leantes.”

  Leantes looked me up and down, I thought he looked like he was trying to recall who I was but from the look on his face, I knew he knew exactly who I was.

  “You bring trouble to our door, sorceress?”

  “Not intentionally, they were just in the right place at the right time. My friend is injured and cannot walk. I will not ask more of you than to allow us to stay here until I can get someone out here to take us back to town.”

  “You have until the others return from hunting, I will not have you here when the sun rises,” he snarled, wrapped his wings around him like a cloak and stomped off into the shadows under the second floor. I searched my pockets for my mobile phone, tucked Sorin up next to LeBron, taking off my coat to drape around him. He yawned, closing his eyes as LeBron stroked his head soothingly.

  “He’s being really brave,” he said admiringly.

  “So are you. I’ll get us out of here.”

  I took the steps up to the second floor and settled sitting with my feet dangling through a gap in the railing. I pulled my phone from my pocket and dialed. It rang and rang and rang. It took five minutes before a sleepy voice answered.

  “This had better be good,” came a sleepy Irish accented voice. I didn’t know if Wraith was actually Irish or whether he had just faked the accent so long it was second nature.

  “Wraith, it’s Cassandra, I need a favor.”

  “Cassa babe. You’re not drunk again are you?”

  “No. I need help and you still drive that van right?” There was quiet on the end of the line for a minute. I wondered if he was debating whether or not to help me and how bad it would be for him if he turned me down.

  “Yeah I still have it. You need me to come pick you up someplace? Why don’t you call your boyfriend?”

  “Wraith, I don’t have a boyfriend right now. I won’t go into how awkward a position you put me in when you called him the other night.”

  “I didn’t know, Cassa. Give me ten minutes. Where are you?”

  “The old church outside of town, y’know the one.” I could almost feel him shudder through the phone.

  “I’ll be there.”

  “Don’t let me down, Wraith.” I hung up the phone and sat swinging my legs back and forth staring at the fire burning in the middle of the ground floor. Marie had curled up in front of it with what looked like a book. I scanned the floor for Jacque and found him slipping down to sit next to me. I jumped a little.

  “Someone is coming to get us, we’ll be out of your hair soon enough. The good thing about you flying us here is that at least they don’t have a scent trail to follow.”

  “That’s probably for the best. Did I hear you say you’re not with your boyfriend anymore?” he asked timidly. I tried to hide my smile.

  “Yeah we broke up. I went out with someone else for a little while but well, that’s not worked out either really. I’ve got issues.”

  “Oh yeah,” he said rubbing a hand along his arm, he appeared to be nervous.

  “Yup, you can probably tell Leantes not to worry about me. Sorceresses are human.”

  Jacque blinked at me, studied my serious face for a moment and then did something I’d not expected, he sniffed me. A deep, clear snort just above my head.

  “You do smell a little different,” he said and I cocked an eyebrow at him, his face flushed again and he looked at his hand. “I didn’t mean in a bad way. You smell kind of sweet, it’s very attractive.”

  “You go round sniffing every girl you come across in a barn being attacked by wolves?”

  “Whenever the chance comes along,” he said and he grinned at me. He had a lot of teeth. I heard the clattering of stones as Leantes paced out from underneath us, stared up at us and then paced back under the second floor where we couldn’t see him. He did it a couple more times before I leaned into Jacque conspiratorially.

  “What is his deal?”

  “He doesn’t want you here when dawn hits.”

  “Dawn’s not for,” I checked the clock on my phone, “three or four hours yet.”

  “We are helpless when the dawn hits.”

  I looked at him and practically threw myself at him, balancing my hands on his arms and looking into his face.

  “You’re shitting me,” I said and I was excited for the first time all night, “you actually turn to stone during the sunlight hours.”

  “Yes,” he said and placing his clawed hands delicately on my shoulders moved me back so that I was sitting on my heels on the upper floor.

  “What’s it like? I mean do you still feel stuff?”

  “Not really, it’s like being asleep for me, you know you do it but it feels like a brief moment of time. I don’t dream.”

  “You don’t dream?”

  “Nope.”

  “That’s kind of sad,” I said moving to sit back on my butt and wrap my arms around my knees. “I have some of the best dreams but considering the ones I’ve been having lately a trade might be tempting.”

  “Hey at least your sleepy time doesn’t make you terminally breakable.”

  “That just proves everything has its ups and downs.”

&nb
sp; The sound of an engine backfiring alerted us to an approaching vehicle. Wraith owned an old Volkswagen bus that his parents had bought in the sixties and he’d inherited it. It was painted in psychedelic colors, swirls of bright yellow, green and pink, with a big red peace sign on the sliding side door. I pulled myself up to my feet.

  “I’d make yourself scarce. We’ll be out of your hair in ten.” I started down the stairs. With her book Marie slunk away into the shadows and with a last smile at me Jacque did as well. I didn’t want Wraith to know about them, it was safer for gargoyles and Wraith was such a chicken he might have run off at the sight of them. I walked to the entrance and looked out. The bus chugged to a stop in the dirt circle just out of the front and Wraith leaned out of the driver’s window. His ratty blonde dreads fell over his shoulders and around an eyebrow piercing was a puckered redness showing that it was new.

  “You’re going to have to get out, I’m gonna need some help.” I pulled open the sliding side door and the light came on. The back of the van was a mass of throws, bean bags and pillows, it looked comfortable enough. The engine cut off and Wraith got out. He wore the same white vest and cargo shorts he always wore, I’m sure he had more than one set of each but his wardrobe would not scream diversity to anyone.

  “It’s more than just you?” Wraith asked looking around as if he expected someone to walk out behind me.

  “Yes,” I said turning to go back into the church. I wasn’t in the habit of handing Wraith any more information that he needed. He wouldn’t know what to do with it. He followed me into the church and slowed, stopping dead when he recognized LeBron from the raid. He grabbed my arm.

  “Cassa, he’s a pig.”

  I placed my hand around his wrist and squeezed. Wraith’s eyes got big and I think he got the hint that he’d said something tactless.

  “He’s my friend, Wraith, and he’s injured because he was getting my back.”

  “God, I’m sorry. You vouch for him, that’s enough for me.” I let him go and he rubbed at his wrist. “Jeez, what steroids have you been pumping, girl?”