by H B Lyne
'My mother died when I was a baby, my father raised me and my brother.' Echoes glanced up at her, her eyes shrewd. 'You met him, I believe.'
'Father Ash?'
Echoes nodded, then went back to her search. 'He asked after you,' Stalker said softly. Echoes didn't respond. 'When did you last see him?'
'Before he was exiled. I was thirteen.'
'Oh.' Stalker thought she should probably drop the subject. But Last-Breath-Echoes was opening up, she was thirsty for more. 'Did your brother take you in, then?'
'No.' Echoes sighed and looked up. 'Father Ash killed him.'
'Oh, I'm sorry.' Stalker blushed, suddenly filled with remorse for probing.
'It's okay, my brother had gone astray. Father did the right thing. I changed right after all that, my pack looked after me from then on.' Her voice was as steady as a rock, passive and detached. Stalker supposed that she had had a decade to live with these events in her life, this was how she coped.
'I see.' Yes, perhaps it was best that Eyes' family had left. She moved away from the desk and looked over the shelves of scrolls. Each section had a label with what looked like names on. She squinted in the flickering torchlight and read a few. She stopped still as her eyes settled on a label reading The Watch, next to it was The Hand of God. Pack names. She glanced at Echoes, who was busily scanning through the birth records. She looked back at the shelves and quickly scanned the labels. Some were badly faded, others popped out as shiny and new, relatively speaking, such as Wrecking Crew. There, she found the two she was looking for side by side, Blue Moon and Lightning Lords. The latter was virtually empty, one scroll sitting alone. Stalker longed to take it down, but she had a nagging sensation that such action would be unforgivable. It was about her own pack though. Surely she had a right to see what it said? The Blue Moon's slot was packed tight with scrolls and her eyes lingered on them longingly.
'Found something!' Echoes called out. Stalker swept swiftly to her side, though she was torn between the two sources of information. 'I found your mother, here.' She pointed and Stalker bent low to read the record. Symphony, her mother, had changed around the same age as Stalker and had been a member of the Wrecking Crew. Stalker blinked several times as she read along the line. Numbness filled her senses. They were just words on an old page, she had no connection to the woman they referred to.
'And my dad?'
'I'll keep looking,' Echoes said softly. Stalker nodded and stared at the pages as Echoes scanned them carefully. 'Here,' she said after a few minutes.
Stalker leant over the ledger to read the entry for Heart's Blood. He had been quite young when she was born, early twenties. He'd changed in puberty, like Echoes. Stalker's eyes lingered on his pack name. Her thoughts stalled, hung up on that one detail, two words, intimately familiar to her. Blue Moon.
'Small world,' she whispered. She felt Last-Breath-Echoes' eyes on her.
'In other circumstances that wouldn't be a surprise, my father was Hand of God, too. But I was raised around my kin, never moved. How did you end up living and changing in St. Mark's?'
'It was where I could afford a place when I moved to Caerton,' she replied. She felt numb, and slow. Was she guided here? Did some subconscious signal reach her and direct her to house hunt in the area her father had lived? Then the thought struck her like a lorry, that Fortune and the others would have known her father. Flames had noted her change in the records, he would have seen her parents' names, he would have known her father and realised who she was. They knew, they all knew, and never told her.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Stalker left the Scroll Archive with a twisting sensation turning her insides in knots. Last-Breath-Echoes locked the door behind them.
'Will you be all right?' she asked, a slight crease to her brow. Stalker nodded in reply. 'I'll be going then,' Echoes said softly and gave Stalker an awkward smile in parting. Stalker felt the cool breeze on her skin, after the stifling warmth of the underground archive. She stared out over the river, her mind running over the revelations of the day. She had had enough, finding out what had become of her parents would have to wait.
She set off at a run for Grove Street, covering the territory swiftly. Running often helped her to get her thoughts in order, but as she burst in through the door she still had no idea what to start with.
'The Storm Riders are gone!' she blurted out as she swept into the kitchen. Wind Talker and Weaver were the only ones there, and they both looked at her in alarm.
'Gone?' Wind Talker said, his eyes wide. 'What do you mean gone?'
'They're dead. Attacked. Ragged Edge told me this morning.'
'Who attacked them?' Weaver asked, getting to her feet.
'He didn't know, but at a guess, the thing from the sea that they've been trying to warn us all about.'
'Oh my god.' Weaver sat back down again, her eyes filling with tears.
Wind Talker strode from the room and grabbed his coat from a peg in the hall. The front door slammed. Stalker stared down the hall after him. He had known the Storm Riders a little, he shared some of their affinities and had been to them for information before. Maybe he had to see for himself before he could believe that they were gone.
'Should we go after him?' she asked, a slight crack in her voice.
'I think he probably needs to work it out for himself. We should tell the others.' Weaver started tapping out a message on her phone and Stalker paced the kitchen anxiously. 'What is it?' Weaver asked, not looking up from her phone. 'The other thing?'
'The other thing?' Stalker stopped pacing and stared at Weaver.
'Oh, your parents?' Weaver looked up, her eyes wide and curious. Stalker sighed. Telepathy made it hard to keep anything private.
'I found out who they are. Last-Breath-Echoes let me into the Scroll Archive.'
'What was it like?' Weaver asked eagerly, suddenly distracted.
'Like your idea of paradise. Maybe you should consider becoming a Scroll Keeper.'
'I am, actually.'
'Oh, well, good.' Stalker smiled. 'My mum was in the Wrecking Crew and my dad was a member of the Blue Moon.' The truth just tumbled out of her mouth against her will and she stood in shocked silence as Weaver glared at her for a moment that seemed to stretch into eternity.
'That's a surprise.' Weaver finally broke the silence with stating the obvious. Stalker let out a slightly hysterical laugh and slumped into a chair at the table.
'You could say that. What I wouldn't give for a vision from Artemis about now, showing me what on earth I am supposed to do with this knowledge.'
'I'll let you know if she sends me one.' Weaver tried for a sympathetic smile, and placed a hand on Stalker's.
'Thanks,' Stalker replied, looking at their hands. 'I have to go, I have work.'
'You won't be able to keep juggling it all, you know.' Weaver withdrew her hand and Stalker stopped still for a moment, trying to read her pack sister.
'What do you mean?'
'Your human life and this one. It's not right, it's not how we're meant to live. You're cracking under the strain, like Eyes did.'
'I'm managing just fine,' Stalker snapped. She shoved her chair back and stalked to the door.
No you're not.
She wasn't sure whose voice it was in her head, hers or Weaver's. It caused her the briefest pause at the front door, before she shrugged it off and left the house.
She ran to work, her vial of cool waters bouncing on her chest. She drew on its energy but stepped into her judo class with frustration still gnawing at her. Her younger students were pre-teen and straight from school. They were always difficult to rein in at the start of a class, and Stalker fought her impulse to shout at them and struggled to keep her cool. It got easier as the class went on, but as the kids filed out she ran for some privacy in the staff locker room.
She snacked on the fruit that she kept in her locker but longed for a giant steak. It seemed like she hardly ever had time for a proper meal. Her head spun
with everything that she was juggling, Weaver's words echoing constantly. She absent-mindedly pocketed her apple seeds and went back to her next class.
Her students bustled in, chatting loudly.
'Quiet!' Stalker snapped at them. 'Drills, now.'
Her teenage students glanced at her warily, but she had too much spinning in her mind to care. She could have a normal life, she had to. Her mind was still attached to her job. She had to have an income and a cover. She needed a place in human society, a foot in that world. Shadow's Step had cautioned her about needing to cling to her humanity, otherwise she risked losing herself to the Agrius and the darkness in which she was born. Had he known about her parents when he said that?
Weaver had it all wrong, she couldn't just give in to the beast inside. She couldn't forsake her humanity, or what would she be left with?
Her attention came back to the room, everyone was staring at her. She had one student in an arm lock. Caught by surprise, she let the girl go and looked around in alarm. The faces around her swam in and out of focus. They looked at her with mild surprise. The girl she had been grappling stepped away and frowned.
'Is everything all right?' she asked.
'Yes. I think so. Where was I?'
'You were going to show us a new technique to break out of an arm lock,' the girl replied, concern evident in her voice.
Stalker sighed with relief, she had been teaching on auto pilot, not attacking her students.
'Of course I was.' She ushered the girl back into her grip and continued with the lesson, focused this time, Weaver's words shoved firmly into the back of her mind.
As the last student left, muttering quietly to his friend about Stalker's odd behaviour, Stalker went to the window and looked out over the dark city. Work had been more stressful ever since Fury had turned up and nearly broken her arm in front of her class. The fear demons were rife in St. Mark's, apparently. They had done nothing to act on Fury's warning. She could be back any day to do worse than intimidate her in front of the innocent humans in the dojo. Fury, from the Wrecking Crew. Her mother's old pack. Did the current crop of shifters in that pack know her? Did they know what happened to her?
Stalker pressed her forehead against the cool glass and stared at the carpet of lights that stretched away from the building. The human world hurried past, full of its own dangers and troubles, but blissfully unaware of the monsters in its midst. Monsters like The-Knight-of-Shadowed-Fear, the leader of the fear demons that were causing problems for the Wrecking Crew.
Buzz.
Monsters like the Witches and the Spiral Hand.
Buzz.
Monsters like Stalker.
Buzz.
Stalker looked around the room, confused for a moment. It was her phone ringing on silent. She dashed to her bag at the back of the room and fished in it for the phone. Eyes' name lit up the screen, and she answered in a fluster.
'Hi.'
'Are you all right?' the Alpha asked, his voice heavy with concern.
'I'm okay, thanks. Just finishing work.'
'Weaver told me about the Storm Riders.'
'Is Wind Talker back yet? Where did he go?'
'He's back, he went to confirm it. The territory's empty, their allies have dispersed. He said something about the Dreadnought having been sunk, but I don't know what he meant and he won't elaborate.'
'Right.' Something hard settled in the pit of Stalker's stomach. That was it then, short of actual bodies, that was as good a proof as any. Not that she had doubted Ragged Edge.
'I know you had a friend among them. Are you all right?' Eyes asked.
'Sort of, I will be.' A sad silence lingered. 'I have some personal business to take care of. Is that okay?'
'Of course. Take some time. We have plans to make, but no urgent business.'
'Okay, thanks. I'll see you over the weekend.' Eyes ended the call and Stalker slowly lowered her phone. Fire Talon was really gone. She never really knew the others, but he had been her friend. A single tear slid down her cheek. She needed to feel supportive arms around her, she needed strength before tackling the problems that lay ahead.
Stalker grabbed her bag and cast her eyes over the studio. She stooped to pick up a discarded sweet wrapper and shoved it into her pocket as she left the dojo.
'See you tomorrow!' Ron called to her retreating back as she jogged down the stairs.
'Bye!' she called back absently. As she emerged onto the dark street she caught sight of a bus heading for the city centre trundling down the road. She sprinted for the nearby stop and thrust her hand out to signal the driver. The bus was full of people on their way into town for the evening and she took a cramped seat next to an old man who smelled of fish. She was glad to jump off the bus in China Town and walk the rest of the way to Rhys's dojo, away from loud voices and jostling people overwhelming her senses.
Weaver thought that Stalker's not-so-secret boyfriend was an innocent human, whose life she was putting at risk. How long could she keep the secret of what he was? It was bound to slip into her thoughts and be picked up by one of them at some point. If not from her mind, then from Claws', who also knew the truth.
She arrived at the Central School of Martial Arts just as the upstairs lights flickered off. She went inside and lingered in the empty reception, anxious to see him and feel his warm arms around her. She heard the slight sound of movement upstairs and then felt his presence on the stairs, he moved almost silently out of the shadows and into the light of the lobby. A surprised smile lit his face as he approached and she rushed into his arms.
'This is a nice surprise,' he said, as he pulled her into a tight embrace. 'Everything all right?'
'No,' she muttered against his firm chest. 'Can we go to your place?'
'Of course,' he replied, gently pulling her away from him. He looked down at her with concern, then kissed her forehead softly. He released her and moved swiftly around the desk, as lithe as a leopard. Stalker waited impatiently while he moved about in the office, out of sight. Lights went out in the back and Rhys returned, locking the office door behind him.
He led her to the big glass doors and ushered her out into the night. Once the lights were out, doors locked and shutters drawn, Rhys took her hand and led her swiftly to his house. They didn't say a word, it was as if he could understand what she was thinking. She hated that she always seemed to go to him at times like this. Just once, she would like to see him under happy circumstances.
Once safely in the privacy of his house, Stalker felt her shoulders relax and a sigh escape her lips.
'Your companion,' she said softly, pointing vaguely over his shoulder. Rhys's eyes reflexively twitched in the direction she was pointing. 'It must know everything about your life. It knows a lot of secrets, including some of mine.'
'I suppose so. It's not like we converse. I didn't deliberately summon it. I got the tattoos, understanding enough about the symbolism of shifter magic to know that they might protect me. Over time I became aware of the shroud.' He perched on the back of the sofa and looked at her earnestly. 'Why?'
'Well, it's a worry, you know. What if someone gets to it and gets the information?' She thought of Scourging Agony, so easily bought out of the Witches' service. 'Just because you attracted it with your secrets doesn't mean it will be happy to live off you forever. What if a bigger secret comes along?'
'I don't know, I've never given it too much thought.' He glanced at her, worry etched onto his face. 'I've never had someone else's secrets to protect as well as my own. I take it your pack doesn't know about me?'
'Not really,' she replied. 'I haven't betrayed your secret. Most of them think you're human, none of them know your name. One of them knows you're not what you appear, but that's all. Though he is a private investigator, so who knows.' She tried to smile and he returned it with a reluctant smile of his own.
'Okay, so am I your big secret? Because my demon friend already knows that one.' He smiled more warmly and Stalker let out a nervou
s laugh. Had the demon seen how she entered Rhys's room through the skylight? 'Oh, right.' His smile vanished and he looked at her cautiously. She had given herself away. She swallowed a hard lump in her throat and twisted her fingers together.
'I'm not what I appear either.'
'Oh?' Rhys shifted his weight and watched her carefully. Stalker took a deep breath. She had shared her secret with Ragged Edge already, it was starting to come out now, and there may be no stopping it. The words wouldn't come, even if they would, there was no substitute for showing Rhys the truth. She dropped her bag and shook out her arms, shifting them seamlessly into small wings that fluttered briefly while her body caught up. She shrank into the smooth, white form of a dove and took flight around the room. She landed in front of Rhys and forced her body into the form of a sleek panther, her black coat glistening in the lamplight.
Rhys lurched backwards away from her and she circled behind him and jumped onto the sofa. She rubbed her head against him and purred, before jumping back down and shifting again into a long, thick python. She slithered across the floor and lifted her head up to the same level as his. He stared at her, open mouthed. Stalker returned to her human form and stood waiting for his reaction. The silence was heavy as they looked at each other.
'You should shut your skylight properly at night,' Stalker said at last. 'Or any old moth could get in.'
'You...? That's how you got in that night?' Rhys spluttered. He wiped a hand across his forehead and let out a shaking breath.
'Yeah.'
'That's quite some gift you have. How do you do it? Can you turn into anything?' His face lit up eagerly and he rushed over to her. He grabbed her shoulders and looked into her eyes, his own alive with excitement.
'I don't know, I just can, ever since my first change. And yes, pretty much. I haven't gone smaller than a moth though. I think fleas and microscopic organisms might be beyond my capabilities.'
'What about bigger?' Rhys seemed to be daring her. She laughed.
'I've shifted into a lion before. You know, it's never really occurred to me to try and go much bigger than that. I suppose I could try for a giraffe some time, or an elephant. We should go out to sea and try for a whale. I prefer the stealthy creatures though.' Her smile slipped from her face as she thought about the sea, and Fire Talon.
