Bonds Broken & Silent

by Kris Austen Radcliffe

  Cecilia frowned. “My calling scents don’t work on people.” She shrugged. “I have some very minor morphing, as well. I can change the color of my eyes. That’s about it.”

  Yet here her mom sat in her maid uniform. “That’s about it? You help animals! Why the hell did you sacrifice your work? Why didn’t you stay a vet when we got here? You’re always on about being strong but you’re cleaning toilets and cowering.”

  Her mom’s angry, flat expression appeared. The one she used when Daisy did something wrong. “It’s not that simple.”

  This time, it was “that simple.” Daisy stepped to the side, then back, like she’d been infected with the doctor’s hyperactivity. “You never tell me anything I need to know to figure out how to be strong! How to help. You activate me and I’m going to become a vet for sure!” She waved her hands at the doctor. “Right? You need to do well by the world if you want it to do well by you.”

  Dr. Torres smiled. “I think you should listen to your daughter.”

  “Get out of my apartment!” Her mom threw the other pillow. “Why the hell are you so interested in my seventeen-year-old daughter, anyway? You some kind of pervert?”

  “Oh for God’s sake, Mom, he healed my knee and hip after I got hit by that car because a Burner chased me into the street and a Fate told me to run!”

  How the hell was Daisy supposed to convince her mom to stop being stupid? She acted like she’d hold her breath and pass out if she didn’t get her way.

  More screeches ripped from her mother, these ones louder and more harsh. “Why were you talking to a Fate?”

  From down the hall, Daisy heard the door of their drug-dealing neighbor’s apartment open. “Hey!” echoed into their trashed apartment. “Shut up down there!”

  The barking grew louder. And louder.

  “Come back here, you goddamned mutts!”

  And suddenly all Daisy smelled was dog.

  Chapter Eleven

  The doctor stepped to the side, out of the doorway to the bedroom, just as the first dog rounded the corner into their apartment’s short hallway. A loud, deep growl reverberated between the walls, mixing with the sound of the animal’s claws ripping at the apartment’s ratty and worn carpeting.

  Daisy didn’t know which dog it was. Lonestar was the bigger of the two, the male, but Daisy didn’t pay close attention. As far as she was concerned, the two animals were identical. And mean. And dangerous.

  Right now, the dog at the end of the hallway looked pretty damned big.

  He barked and bared his teeth, and launched himself like a missile straight at Daisy.

  Time froze. All Daisy saw was a snarling snout and white, deadly teeth. All she heard was the dog’s panting and his need to rip and tear. And all she smelled was her own fear.

  The doctor stepped between her and the attack dog. The man’s big arm came up. His big biceps contracted. His forearm caught the dog mid-lunge. Lonestar rolled in the air, pulled sideways by the doctor, and his paws shot out parallel to the floor.

  A surprised whimper cut off another growl. Four legs flailed. And the dog’s neck snapped.

  Just like that. Dr. Torres snapped the attacking dog’s neck.

  The body dropped to the floor, twitching.

  Daisy gasped. She’d been paralyzed by the sight of oncoming viciousness. She’d stopped breathing. That damned Burner hadn’t even scared her this much. But the teeth and the rage that had been flying for her head made her almost wet her pants.

  “Oh my God!” Cecilia shot off the bed. She dropped next to the dead dog and gingerly touched his head. “I could have—”

  Daisy’s mom moved to the dog, not to her. To the animal that just tried to kill her daughter.

  What the hell was happening? “Mom!” Why was her mom acting this way? “We need to—”

  Dawnstar rounded the corner. Unlike her male companion, she didn’t snarl. She didn’t bark or growl. She lowered her head, her teeth bare and her hackles up, and crouched like she wouldn’t miss. No big human male was going to stop her from her goal.

  The fear paralysis returned and all of Daisy’s body locked up. Every muscle. Every tendon. Every sound her voice wanted to make and even her ability to see, feel, and smell the world. All her brain understood was the new threat about to lunge at her throat.

  “Dawnstar!” Daisy’s mom yelled. “Heel!” She pointed at the floor. “Now!”

  The dog shook, her attack rage suddenly leaving her sleek body. The dog seemed to blink and say internally, What the hell, woman?

  Daisy gasped again as her breathing started up once more. What had her mom done?

  “Fix him, you damned murderer!” Daisy’s mom swatted at the doctor’s legs. “How could you have broken his neck like that?”

  “I know what dogs like that are capable of! He attacked your daughter.” Dr. Torres leaned over the dying dog.

  Daisy’s mom slapped Dr. Torres. She reached up and slapped the big man right across the face. Slapped him hard. “You come in here and kill an innocent animal? And you expect me to let you near my daughter?”

  Her mom was taking the dog’s side? “Mom! Lonestar would have ripped open my throat!”

  Cecilia Reynolds thrust her finger at her daughter’s nose. “This is why I don’t want you near Shifters! Because they all do shit like this!” Her finger swung toward the doctor. “Murderer!”

  “Tranquila, mujer.” Dr. Torres muttered something else in Spanish besides the ‘quiet, woman,’ but Daisy didn’t catch it.

  She did, though, catch the tone. And she knew he lost patience.

  But he placed his hands on the dog. “I’m not a vet. I don’t know if I can do this.”

  “Mom, we need to get out of here. Before the Fates show up.”

  Because they would. Maybe leaving behind whatever talisman they were looking for would be enough of a distraction. The Fates could root around in their trashed apartment like the pigs they were, all focused on finding the tasty morsel they so desperately wanted.

  Or so Daisy hoped. The doctor could sneak off in one direction while she and her mom snuck off in another.

  On the floor, Lonestar yipped.

  The doctor exhaled and sat back on his feet. “He’ll live.”

  Daisy pointed at the German shepherd. “Is he a zombie dog now?” Maybe he could be another distraction.

  Her mom stroked the dog’s head before snapping her fingers at the other animal. “Dawnstar, come!” She slapped her leg. “Sit.” She pointed at the threshold between the room and the hallway.

  Someone banged on the wall of the building corridor just outside their wide-open apartment door. “Where the fuck are you two stupid mutts?”

  Their drug-dealing neighbor was looking for his dogs. And he probably had a gun in his waistband because he was an idiot and a wannabe gangster and would hopefully shoot off his own penis one of these days. As long as he didn’t shoot Daisy or her mom first.

  Lonestar sat up. His tongue flopped out of his mouth and he quietly woofed.

  “It’s okay.” Her mom stroked his head. Dawnstar moved closer and Cecilia stroked the other dog’s ear. “You two can stay with us, if you want.”

  They woofed in unison.

  “Their owner’s got a gun, Mom. Not a good idea.” They had to get out of the apartment. Go somewhere quiet and secluded so they could talk this out and make a plan.

  “You goddamned, stupid, fuckin’—” Their gangster neighbor’s voice stopped suddenly. Both dogs turned toward the door just as fast, both backing against Cecilia’s legs.

  Her mom gripped the doctor’s arm, even though she’d been yelling at him moments ago. “Did you feel that?” she asked.

  Daisy didn’t feel anything, but from how both her mom and the doctor were standing, they felt something. And it scared both of them.

  Dr. Torres winced. “Yes. I felt the seer of a Fate.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Dr. Torres yanked Daisy’s mom behind him. “What kind of se
er feels like the sound of blood dripping onto metal armor?”

  Her mom shook her head. “The bad kind?”

  “Why didn’t I feel anything?” Daisy smelled calling scents, so why didn’t she feel whatever it was that her mom and the doctor felt?

  “You need to activate her.” The doctor backed them deeper into the bedroom. “She needs to be able to sense them coming.”

  “Not here.” Daisy’s mom looked over her shoulder and sighed like she’d just lost the game. Like she’d figured out that the dice were loaded and she never had a chance to begin with. “You know how long it takes for an activation to take hold and what happens during the process. Do you want to deal with her… overreacting… right now?”

  Now the doctor looked over his shoulder. His eyebrow arched. “True.”

  “What are you two talking about?” Daisy hissed. They acted like she wasn’t in the room. Or like she was a little kid. “Maybe I’ll go find Kobayashi! He’ll tell me what’s going on!”

  Daisy’s mom whipped around. She stood behind the huge Dr. Torres, a petite little woman with a lot of anger issues. “Stay away from him! He wants to use you the way he used me. A pair of tits to snag your father.” She cupped her own breasts.

  “My father is some guy you tried to trap with a baby because your boss told you to?” Daisy was a chain-baby? “Oh my God!” Did her mom even want her?

  “No!” Cecilia blinked like she wanted to cry. “Maybe. He had horses! And this ring Kobayashi wanted me to lift because they had some bet or bad business dealing or something stupid and testosterone-driven and Kobayashi knew sometimes I can’t stop myself. He knew I’d steal it! So he blackmailed me. And your father! And—”

  “You’re a klepto!” Daisy wanted to throw something at her mom. Anything. “My mother is a kleptomaniac?”

  “Be quiet!” Dr. Torres pointed at the door. “Damn it, not now.”

  The tight weave of the carpet in the corridor shinked like someone pressed a knife into it again and again and again.

  Or walked across it in stiletto heels.

  The door of their apartment groaned as someone pushed it against the wall. A huff rose from the living room. And the heels clinked across the linoleum of the kitchen area, before shinking again across the carpet of the hallway.

  Both dogs growled.

  A woman stopped at the end of the hall. She sniffed, watching the bedroom, and waved the long, bloody knife in her hand. She made a point of pulling a pristine square of white cloth from the pocket of her very tight, very expensive-looking leather skirt and wiping the blade with quick precision.

  The woman must have stabbed their drug-dealer neighbor, which was why he’d suddenly fallen quiet. And now she’d come for them.

  She was, hands down, the most beautiful blonde Daisy had ever seen in real life, except for the murderous gleam in her eye. Her hair glimmered in the light of the kitchen fixture, all smooth and bound into a perfectly styled ponytail. Her waist was tiny and her legs long, and she wore deadly-looking red stilettoes and navy blue fishnets. A matching navy blue leather jacket topped a baby-pink, probably silk blouse.

  A hint of cold wafted from her skin, as if she wore a perfume made of distilled ice. It smelled fresh and clean, clear, and filled the air with the exact opposite of the evil wafting from her soul.

  The square of fabric flashed in the light. The woman grinned like a demon. And the blade, now clean, flipped around and disappeared under her leather jacket.

  For a long moment, she stared at the dogs like she couldn’t decide if she should come closer or not. In front of Daisy, both her mom and the doctor winced.

  “Blasting your seer at us is impolite,” Cecilia said. “You’re, what, the present-seer?”

  The woman sniffed and made a mock-impressed face. Daisy hadn’t seen so much condescension in a person’s posture since her school’s queen bee decided to make an example out of Daisy and her mates.

  The leader had left the bathroom with a bloody nose. Daisy, with a three-day suspension.

  “What do you want, Fate?” The doctor’s back tensed. He looked like he’d lunge at the woman any second, the way the dog had lunged at Daisy.

  The woman tapped her foot. “What belongs to my kind.”

  “Who are you?” Dr. Torres stepped back also, behind the dogs.

  Both animals growled. The woman stared at them again.

  “I apologize. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Ethne.”

  The set of her lips looked more like a dare for the doctor to ask for more information so she could kill him. Right now, right here, in front of Daisy and her mom. This Fate would flick out her shiny knife and kill a healer the way she’d killed their drug-dealing neighbor.

  “Why are you here?” The doctor must have picked up the predatory vibe because he didn’t fall for it. He moved on to a different question.

  The Fate grinned again, but looked directly at Daisy’s mother. “Give me what I want.” She waved her hand in the door. “Then I’ll give you a head start.”

  Ethne glared at each of them in turn, obviously trying to get her badass point across. She didn’t seem to care about the doctor. Or to understand that he, too, might be important. She seemed to only be keyed into whatever the artifact was.

  The doctor’s back tightened further. His shoulders cinched together. “Whose talisman did you steal, Ms. Reynolds?” he asked.

  Her mom twitched again. “I don’t know,” she whispered. “It’s encased inside this old-looking chunk of glass, like a bug in amber. I didn’t know it was a talisman. I just thought it was… pretty.”

  The Fate shook her head. “Didn’t quite think things through, did you?”

  “Bloodsucking Fate bitch,” Cecilia muttered.

  Ethne laughed. “It’s here.” But her face crinkled up like she’d just gotten a migraine. “But I can’t see exactly where.”

  “Then you’re a shitty present-seer.” Daisy’s mom’s hands dug into the fur at the nape of both dogs’ necks.

  The Fate’s face changed from the ironic eyebrow lifting of bored arrogance to the pinched gleam of what Daisy suspected was murderous rage. “No one can see it clearly, you pathetic little Shifter.” She stepped to the side then back again, her stilettoes shinking in and out of the carpet. “Do you think the First Fate would leave his talisman so vulnerable?”

  Chapter Thirteen

  The woman breathed out “First Fate” as if she’d spoken the name of God, and all Daisy could think was Oh shit, she’s a zealot. A psychopathic, murdering zealot.

  But then her social studies teacher’s voice popped into her head again and she tried very hard to remember this situation probably wasn’t that simple.

  And the only way to get out of it was to understand her opponent, instead of just understanding stereotypes.

  The Fate blinked. Her face registered a brief flicker of surprise until her eyes blanked for a just-as-brief moment.

  Next to Daisy, the doctor squinted. So did her mom. So the weird blank-but-not-blank, super-brief stare, the one that looked as if the Fate was reading something on the inside of her corneas, must be an “I’m using my seer” tell.

  The Fate grinned. “We want it returned.”

  The doctor pushed her mother backward, closer to Daisy. “If Ms. Reynolds tells you where it is, will you let us leave?”

  Ethne chuckled. “Oh, lover boy, you know it’s not that easy. Your understanding of this moment foams around the mouth of your what-is as if your soul swallowed cyanide.” She flicked her hand dismissively.

  “So you’re going to kill us anyway.” Daisy’s mom sounded more resigned than surprised.

  The Fate rolled her eyes. “I’m not.” She pointed at Daisy. “I like your kid. She’s smart. But my sister probably will. Like a lot of past-seers, she’s got a thing for ‘respecting the traditions.’” She air-quoted her last words. “It’s traditional to make an example of Mutatae who dare touch a Fate’s talisman. And you, my dear, touched a do
ozy.”

  “It doesn’t look like a talisman.” Cecilia’s fingers danced over the dogs’ necks. “It looks like a piece of scrap metal. Kobayashi had it and I had no idea at all what it was. If I’d known, I swear I would have handed it over immediately. It’s Fate property.”

  Both animals stood perfectly still. Neither drew the Fate’s attention.

  Ethne slowly pulled out her knife. The using-my-seer stare happened again and her face changed into the same do-as-I-say mask Daisy’s mom used when she was mad. “Where is it?”

  The same expression Cecilia wore right now. She didn’t answer.

  “You tell me or I will slice open your kid, got it? Chin to belly, no matter how smart she is.” The knife waved at Daisy.

  The dogs lunged. Two sets of paws sprinted across the carpet. Two sets of bared teeth ripped toward the Fate.

  Ethne twisted. No surprise locked up her muscles. No sense of being caught off-guard showed in how her body rotated out of the paths of the oncoming dogs.

  The knife, in her hand, slashed downward.

  And a high pitched yip popped from Lonestar.

  This time, he bled. This time, the metallic stink of warm blood filled the apartment. Cecilia screamed. The dog didn’t yip again.

  This time, Daisy didn’t think the doctor could save him.

  The Fate watched the blood spurt from the dog, not looking at anyone in the room. Evidently not looking or thinking about Daisy. Or her mom. Or the big doctor to whom she’d inadvertently moved closer, so she could slice open Lonestar.

  One giant stride and Dr. Torres’s hand wrapped around the wrist of the Fate’s hand holding the knife.

  Shock played across her cheeks and rounded her mouth into a circle.

  Daisy smelled the faint edges of something terrible. Calling scents aimed away from her and her mom—and directly at the Fate.

  Calling scents that said ‘die.’

  The Fate gurgled like she couldn’t breathe. Purple and black spread out along the flesh the doctor held. It moved into her hand and up her arm, under the sleeve of her jacket. She blinked, her mouth open as if she, like Lonestar, wanted to yip but could not.