Healer's Choice

by Jory Strong

  He turned his head, following the direction the boy pointed. She huddled deeper into her hiding place as two additional boys joined the first. One of them was the boy outside the Wainwright house. It made her sure he was the one she’d seen the night before.

  The boys held out their hands for payment. The man glanced at the sky and cursed as he dropped coins into their hands before rolling up the window.

  They fanned out as the car drove away. Rebekka remained hidden, not daring to make any movement at all, not daring even to close her eyes.

  The car disappeared from sight but the sound of it lingered. Each moment slowed to feel like a hundred of them. When the car reappeared it kept going, heading in the direction she’d come from. The boys gathered a short time later and did the same.

  She couldn’t be sure they were calling off their search so they could get to shelter before night fell, or if they were lying in wait, knowing she was defenseless against them, that even to save her life, she couldn’t inflict harm, not without it turning her gift into something evil.

  Rebekka shivered, sweat cold against her skin, the amulet warm, as if reminding her that with the appearance of the urchin, her gift was already changed, perhaps tainted.

  The distinctive rumble of a bus’s engine cut across the waiting silence, bringing the hope of escape—if she dared risk it.

  In her mind she traveled the distance to the nearest stop. Imagined herself climbing into the bus and going to a place few in the red zone went to willingly—the building housing the police and guard.

  Her pulse accelerated and her breathing grew shallow thinking about it. She wavered, considered returning to the Wainwright house and seeking shelter with the witches. Discarded the idea. Even if she could reach them, their protection would come at a price she didn’t want to pay.

  Before the fear could build, Rebekka broke from cover, running toward the bus stop.

  A cry went up from one of the boys.

  She didn’t look back. Didn’t slow as she pulled the dollar bills tucked away for emergencies from a pocket as she rounded a corner and saw the bus.

  It slowed to a stop, disgorged its passengers.

  She sped up, racing, knowing this was the last bus of the day and if it began moving, the driver wouldn’t stop for her.

  If not for an old woman who had to be helped down the stairs, Rebekka never would have made it in time. She clambered on before the driver could close the door and lock her out in his desire to finish work and get home before dark.

  She paid and took a seat on the empty bus. Looked out the window.

  All three of the boys were visible. One looked angry. He said something to the other two, then turned and ran.

  Terror gripped Rebekka. Only days past, she and Levi had taken this same bus on their way to the Mission and found enemies waiting for them. If they hadn’t gotten off at an earlier stop, they would have ended up in the maze or dead.

  In escaping that fate she’d found herself a prisoner of the Iberás—though they’d labeled her a guest. And now, because of those events, she sought refuge with them.

  Rebekka reached up and touched the amulet through her shirt. Was it wrong to put those at the Iberá estate at risk?

  I have no choice, she told herself as the bus picked up speed.

  She remained tensed, half expecting the silver car with the assailant from the night before to intercept the bus. If it happened the bus driver would hand her over without question, without reporting the incident if told not to by someone with authority or who offered money for his silence on behalf of a vice lord.

  Outside the window the bus skirted the area where the wealthy and powerful lived. Downtown came into view along with her last memory of it, when her attention had been caught by a flag fluttering on the antenna of a black sedan—a red lion rampant centered on an elaborate shield design and set against a gold background—the heraldic crest of the Iberás, though she didn’t know it at the time.

  Fear returned in a rush. What if Enzo Iberá wasn’t at the guard headquarters? Or if he was, what if he turned her away, refused to take her to his family’s estate? Where would she find shelter for the night?

  The stop closest to the building housing the guard drew near. Rebekka reached up and pulled the cable, signaling she wanted to get off.

  When her feet touched the sidewalk she hurried forward. The hope for safety grew with each step, swelling and nearly edging out the fear of being turned out at dusk.

  She entered the building, and after a brief phone call, the man on duty summoned another to take her to General Iberá’s office.

  Their footsteps echoed in a hallway lined with framed photographs of men in guardsmen uniforms. The pictures continued up the stairway and onto the next floor.

  Rebekka forced steel in her spine and courage into each step forward. Both deserted her when her escort stopped in an open doorway and she saw the black-robed Father Ursu waiting there alongside Enzo Iberá.

  Eight

  REBEKKA turned, thinking only to escape. Her escort blocked her, fingers imprisoning her upper arms, forcing her forward and then turning her to face the priest and the general.

  “There is no reason to fear,” Enzo said.

  Rebekka only barely smothered a hysterical laugh. In running from the man in the silver car, she’d fled right into the grasp of the person the witches claimed was responsible for her being hunted.

  Terror beat at her, threatening to turn her into true prey, to replace the ability to think with only the need to fight if she couldn’t flee.

  Her breathing was ragged, her heart a wild pounding in her chest and ears.

  The hands on her arms dropped away but the solid mass of the guardsman continued to block her escape.

  Her fingers curled around the witches’ token in her pocket. It was an unconscious gesture and yet the feel of it against her palm reminded her that she’d dared to use it, triggering a spell placed on it by the Wainwrights and summoning Aziel—a being from the ghostlands—in order to escape the Iberá estate.

  Enzo had witnessed it. He’d heard Aziel’s order to free her and his warning to cease searching for Tir or every man, woman, and child bearing the Iberá name would be killed. He’d heard Aziel tell the patriarch, “Your fate is now bound to the healer’s.”

  Rebekka stiffened her spine and fought to make her voice sound confident as her gaze met Enzo’s. “There is every reason to fear. The Church is still hunting me.”

  Standing next to Enzo, Father Ursu smoothed a hand over the material of his robes. “You are mistaken.”

  “I am not mistaken. Twice I’ve only barely managed to escape. Once last night. The other just a short while ago.”

  “What happened?” Enzo asked, his expression and sharp question making Rebekka believe he had no knowledge of her pursuers.

  Rebekka told him about seeing the street boys and how both times it was followed almost immediately by the appearance of the man with the birthmark staining his face. She didn’t mention Levi and the others, claimed instead that she’d managed to get away by finding a hiding place and waiting until it was safe to leave it.

  By the end of her recitation, Enzo was frowning deeply. He turned to the priest.

  Father Ursu opened his arms at waist height in a graceful sweeping motion. “I was drawn into this matter on behalf of the Iberás and by their request. The patriarch’s dictate that the Church no longer concern itself with it has been honored.”

  The priest’s gaze went to where the amulet lay hidden against Rebekka’s skin. “There is more of the witches’ evil on her than when I first encountered her. She is mistaken about the source of her troubles.”

  Doubt crept into Rebekka, allowed an opening by her desire to deny the matriarch’s claim that her father was a demon. She hadn’t told them about the memory and dream of the urchin, but the gift of the amulet hinted they knew of them.

  They were the ones to tell her the Church was involved and to offer an intercession
in exchange for a promised favor. But what if they were behind the attacks?

  She released the token, her palms damp, her heart beating erratically. She didn’t know who to trust. Not with her secrets. Not with her doubts and fears for her soul and her gift. But her purpose for coming here hadn’t changed, despite the priest’s presence. She couldn’t go back to the brothel and risk calling disease-borne plague to her. She didn’t dare go to either her homesteaded house or to the Wainwrights.

  She needed shelter for the night. And if the patriarch, The Iberá, was willing to provide it, transportation to where the Barrens bordered the forests so she could go to the Fellowship of the Sign and speak to her mother.

  “I need a safe place to stay tonight,” she told Enzo. “Will you take me to the Iberá estate?”

  More than once he’d argued with the patriarch in favor of turning her over to the Church. His voice was brusque as he said, “We need to leave now.”

  The drive to the Iberá estate was made in wary silence. Rebekka because there was nothing she would volunteer about her life to a general in the guard. Enzo because he remembered too well the rent in reality caused by her summoning and the shrouded figure who’d stepped through it, carrying a sigil-inscribed staff and bringing with him the promise of a retribution that meant the death of every man, woman, and child bearing the Iberá name.

  Enzo’s driver entered the estate through heavy gates bearing the heraldic crest of the Iberás, delivering them to the front entrance where the butler stood waiting to escort Rebekka to the room that had served as a luxurious prison only days ago.

  Janita, the young maid who’d been assigned to Rebekka before, stood just inside the entrance, nervously twisting her hands. She smiled tentatively, seemingly caught between trepidation and happiness at seeing Rebekka again. “I’ve drawn your bath,” she said. “The patriarch sent several dresses for you to choose from. You’re expected at dinner.”

  Rebekka returned Janita’s smile as she went to where the dresses were laid out on the bed. They were exquisitely crafted, made of the finest material and accompanied by matching jewelry.

  “This one,” she said, choosing a solid blue dress with a design allowing her to wear the amulet without revealing it.

  “You will look beautiful in it,” Janita said. “I will iron it then return.”

  There wasn’t a wrinkle to be seen but Rebekka didn’t protest. This was the pattern they’d worked out earlier.

  Nakedness in others didn’t bother Rebekka. Witnessing sexual acts had no power to shock or embarrasses her. But even if she hadn’t required privacy because of the tattoo, the thought of someone assisting her with her bath, helping her bathe and washing her hair, was too intimate, too personal.

  In the doorway Janita hesitated, half turning toward Rebekka long enough to say, “The patriarch has sworn me to secrecy about what I saw. I will never speak of it.”

  She left, closing the door firmly behind her. Rebekka took advantage of the hot water and scented soap.

  It was impossible to hold on to either tension or fear in the comfort of the tub. She was safe, at least for the moment.

  In the past she’d wondered what it would be like to live among those who didn’t worry about food or shelter or even the law. To be surrounded by beauty and opportunity instead of horror and hopelessness. Now she knew.

  You could choose to remain here, the voice of temptation whispered into her mind.

  And those very words were echoed by the Iberá patriarch hours later after a formal dinner around a table laden with abundance.

  She stood next to his motorized wheelchair on a walkway built on top of the estate’s interior walls. Beneath them a pride of captive lions grew restless in anticipation of being fed.

  The male lifted his head and roared. His challenge was answered by a male in a different enclosure.

  Worry for Levi crept into Rebekka. She wondered if he and Cyrin and Canino had reached Lion lands yet.

  “I spoke with Father Ursu after Enzo called to say he was bringing you to the estate,” The Iberá said. “Derrick assures me the Church is respecting my wishes you be left alone. Without evidence to the contrary, I must accept what he says as true.”

  A door at the base of the wall opened. A small herd of deer bounded through it, their coats the same shade of brown as Feliss’s furred back. When they saw the waiting predators they bolted.

  The lions spread out, the females ranging ahead of the male, well versed in cornering and capturing prey in an environment they knew every inch of.

  Rebekka turned away from the unfolding hunt. The patriarch said, “The deer are domestically raised, not wild caught.”

  The hum of the wheelchair preceded his repositioning it so he could address her directly. “What would it take to convince you to remain here, where your safety can be assured? I am prepared to offer anything within reason.”

  She saw him with the eyes of a healer. Beneath the expensive material of his trousers and shirt, the muscles in his legs and left arm were atrophied by what she thought was Lou Gehrig’s disease. His limbs twitched involuntarily but his pride kept him upright, daring even disease to try to defeat his indomitable will.

  Behind him was the estate. It would have been considered a mansion in the days before The Last War as well as in the present. There was beauty in every direction she looked. Well-tended lawns, elaborate gardens. Benches placed beneath perfectly balanced trees. Statues that would have seemed equally at home in an art museum.

  “I can see that you’re kept busy with work,” The Iberá said, “if it’s the thought of idleness that bothers you. My last offer stands. The quarters set aside for the veterinarian would be yours. Janita would also be assigned exclusively to you, or another, if you prefer a different servant. You would be free to build a clientele and travel to see them as you need to, escorted by my private guard, with all fees yours to keep. If there’s something more you require, name your price.”

  It had been easy to turn away from the patriarch’s offer the last time she was here. She’d had Levi to consider, and to a lesser extent Araña and Tir.

  Tir and Araña were gone. Either dead in freeing Abijah, or, more likely, they’d taken Araña’s boat and left Oakland.

  With the maze destroyed and the Weres healed she’d kept her promise to Levi to help him liberate his brother. If she stayed here, she could use the money she earned to help him buy out Feliss’s contract. She could do the same for the other Weres she considered her friends.

  Behind her the lions made a kill. Rebekka flinched in reaction, not at the natural relationship between prey and predator, but with the knowledge that if she remained in the red zone, eventually she would lose her life there.

  Allende’s protection didn’t extend beyond the brothels, and she knew too well how dangerous it was to be a female in the red zone, especially one bearing the tattoo of a prostitute. At sixteen she’d been dragged into an alley and nearly raped.

  Only a stranger’s intercession had saved her. He’d come out of nowhere, a sharp-faced Were outcast whose fingers ended in deadly talons and whose hair was plaited into a hundred braids adorned with black and red beads.

  He’d eviscerated the two men holding her pinned and opened. Pulled the man lying on top of her away and castrated him, letting him scream for long moments before ending it in a spray of blood and ripped-out throat.

  Shaking, nearly in shock despite having spent a lifetime witnessing the violence men were capable of doing to women—and to male prostitutes—Rebekka had allowed the stranger to help her to her feet and tug her clothing back into place.

  Without thinking she’d healed a small cut on his arm, and the words he’d spoken afterward had changed her life. “Visit Dorrit. She’s madam of one of Allende’s brothels. Your gift is a strong one. She’ll take you on as a healer.”

  Now even Allende’s protection wasn’t enough. Not unless the brothel became a self-imposed prison. Someone still hunted her.

  As
if sensing a weakening in Rebekka’s resolve, the patriarch repeated himself. “Name your price.”

  Her price? The things she wanted most weren’t his to buy.

  Offering a dowry wasn’t an uncommon practice. But a husband bought by money or a chance to gain an important position wouldn’t be the kind of man who would love her and remain faithful. And beyond that, the dream catcher-like amulet against her chest served as a reminder. A warning.

  She needed to know the truth about herself and her gift. About the father the matriarch claimed was a demon and the urchin whose breath tasted of disease and whose touch brought remembered nightmares of plague and death.

  “I can’t accept your offer,” Rebekka said, her voice little more than a whisper.

  The Iberá gave a barely perceptible shrug. “As long as I’m alive you may change your mind at any time. Will you accept a detail of guards to assure your safety?”

  Rebekka nearly smiled at that, imagining men in pressed, black uniforms bearing the Iberá crest and trailing behind her as she went from brothel to brothel. “No. But I would accept transportation through the Barrens.”

  She paused, then decided to trust him with a truth few people knew. “My mother belongs to the Fellowship of the Sign. I need to visit her as soon as possible.”

  “I will arrange for you to be taken there tomorrow morning.”

  Addai

  THE morning sun kissed Addai’s back through the window as he was greeted by the sound of soft moans and the subtle slide of flesh against flesh, by the sight of a delicate feminine spine and the play of muscle underneath deeply tanned skin as the woman rose so the man she straddled followed in a desperate lift of hips off the mattress lest his cock be cast from the hot, wet heaven it was buried in.

  Black wings spread across the bed, trembling in pleasure. Black hair spread across the pillow, a match to the woman’s.

  Another might have turned away. Another might have left and reappeared after moans gave way to the sharp cry of release.