Wild One

by Donna Augustine

  A second later, Zink walked into the room. “What’s going on? You call?”

  The whole thing felt ridiculous, but I had to try. I looked up, focusing all my energy on him. “Zink, we need a little help figuring something out. Can you please help me?”

  He walked across the room and sat down on the couch beside me. And not at the other end, but in the center, right next to me. “What do you need?”

  It was, hands down, the nicest he’d ever spoken to me, and we’d been stuck traveling together for more days than I could count.

  “You already helped. Thanks.”

  I hadn’t imagined it. I’d stopped asking for help when I was at the village and people stopped looking at me, but maybe it hadn’t been as clear-cut as I’d realized. When I asked, the people who’d tried to help had sometimes paid with their lives.

  “What did I do?” Zink asked, looking confused.

  I glanced at Callon, who was standing across the room. “I—”

  “You lured him in.”

  He understood exactly what had gone down. I couldn’t tell what he thought about it, though.

  “She lured me? What?” Zink’s head was swiveling back and forth, in jeopardy of unhinging from his body. “What are you talking about? I walked in the room and sat down. Nobody did anything.”

  Callon walked closer, leaning on the mantel. “Look where you’re sitting.”

  Zink looked down and realized he was mere inches from me, when he normally kept at least six feet in between us. And he grabbed my hand.

  “What the fuck?” He jumped up and took a bunch of steps away, restoring our normal buffer.

  “She’s a lure of some sort,” Callon said calmly. “It makes sense. If you can pull life from someone, why wouldn’t you be able to draw that same life close to you?”

  When he put it like that, it did make sense. It also made me want to vomit. I was a perfect killing machine. Or I could be if I knew what I was doing.

  Zink pointed at me. “She’s starting to scare me. I might have claws, but her beast is way scarier.”

  There was always a silver lining somewhere.

  “I think we call the Magician here. I can lure him over and you can kill him.”

  I’d try first, but they didn’t need to know that part of the plan quite yet. Baby steps.

  “No one knows for sure what he is. He was human once, but that doesn’t mean he is now. It might not be that easy to kill him.”

  “Is that how she got Koz to break her out?” Zink asked, rubbing his hands through his hair, still hung up on what had happened to him.

  Callon shook his head. “No. She might’ve had a pull on him, but he had to go back of his own accord. She would’ve lost the pull as soon as he was away from her.”

  “How do we know for sure?” Zink asked, staring at me.

  “Because that’s how that kind of magic works,” Callon said, sounding as impatient with Zink as I was. We had bigger issues, and he was afraid he’d gotten cooties. “It might not work on the Magician. He’s strong. He’ll most likely sense it before you draw him out. Even Hecate said it wouldn’t work on her.”

  I stood and walked toward Callon, and Zink stepped back. “It’s worth a try. We have nothing else.”

  “If you can pull it off.” Callon looked toward Zink. “Give us a minute.”

  “Not a problem.” He left in record time.

  Callon followed him, shut the doors to the room, and then immediately turned his intensity back on me. “How did you not know you were a lure? I can understand the other, but this would’ve shown.”

  I crossed my arms. “I just didn’t.”

  “Truce, remember? It’s only a question.”

  Callon continued to stare at me, trying to unlock all my secrets. I backed away.

  He took a step forward. “How bad was it before you shut down?”

  It had taken a while. There had been a time I’d been open to all. Way back when, until it had been chipped away at.

  Whispers of a memories trickled into my mind, but I stomped them back down. Some memories weren’t worth the room they took up. All they did was bring on the hurt and make it sting again. I’d had enough of the stings.

  He tilted his head, as if he were delving into my soul.

  “Callon, I thought we called a truce?” I asked, throwing the T-word right back at him.

  “I didn’t know that included bullshitting each other.”

  “Is it possible for you to let anything go?” I brushed past him, heading toward the doors.

  “I can. Doubt you’ll be able to.”

  30

  I went to bed alone and woke up alone. But I hadn’t slept alone. Callon had been in the bedroom. I could smell his scent and see the dent left in the pillow next to me. The biggest reason I knew, though, was because I’d slept through the night.

  A slip of paper sat on the table beside me, and I picked it up.

  Meeting in the great room after breakfast.

  I flipped it with my fingers, letting it sail back to the surface of the table. Tuesday would need to know. I got up and dressed, then made my way to Koz’s room. Tuesday was walking out his door before I got there.

  She stopped dead center in the hallway. “You know about the meeting?”

  “Yep. Was coming to tell you. We better eat up. Who knows what’s coming next.”

  “Oh yeah,” she said, then turned toward the direction of the smells.

  “I’ve got some stuff to catch you up on,” I said, following her.

  “After breakfast. I’m too hungry right now,” she said, not even slowing down now that food was close.

  We hit the stairs and I slowed to a stop a few steps down, hearing all the people below.

  She looked toward the sounds and then back to me. “Is it too much? You want me to grab something for you and we can eat upstairs?” she asked, hand on the rail, waiting for me.

  People were walking in and out of the great room, glancing up at us.

  It was going to happen eventually. I wasn’t going to be able to avoid everyone unless I sat in Callon’s room all day and night, so the question was: slow and steady or all at once? Was it that big of a difference?

  “No. I’m coming.” I walked down the rest of the stairs, catching up to her.

  We made our way into the great room. Bowls of food and a stack of plates were set up on the massive table.

  So many people were here, except for Issy, and that sat like a stone in my gut. I kept telling myself I hadn’t seen her die, but she was the sickest-looking healthy person I’d ever seen.

  I didn’t have much time to think of her lack of death vision, as we moved into the room and none of the diners kept their distance. As we weaved our way through the crowd of curious eyes, I knew exactly which ones were shifters. I didn’t pick up anything from them. Wished I could’ve said the same for the rest.

  In rapid order, five separate deaths hit me until I wanted to fall on my knees, sweat on my brow.

  Guts pouring out of bodies.

  Skulls caved in.

  Pools of blood.

  All of it happening on this mountain.

  Tuesday took one look at me and went into cover-up mode. She pointed out two empty seats, and we walked toward them. A minute later, she shoved a plate of food in front of me, trying to make me blend.

  I took the fork she’d stuck by my hand and toyed with the food, pretending more than eating. People waved and said hello, and I did my best to fake it, even with the ones who I knew wouldn’t be here much longer.

  By the time Callon walked in, most of the people had left and the guys had filed in. I was still sitting in front of a full plate of food but with no appetite left.

  Zink and Hess were on the other side of the table from me. Koz slid into a chair beside Tuesday while Callon pulled two doors shut.

  He turned, instantly getting everyone’s attention.

  The first words out of Callon’s mouth were: “Does everyone here know what
Teddy did to Zink last night?”

  It was the last thing I’d expected, and I was less ready for the consensus of nods. Even Tuesday was nodding.

  My face scrunched up as I watched her.

  “Zink told Koz and then Koz told me.” She shrugged.

  Callon walked to the head of the table but didn’t sit. “Everyone in this room knows what’s heading our way. The only idea on the table is using Teddy as a lure to entice the Magician into a spot we might be able to take him out. Either I’ll kill him or we get him close enough to take a shot at him. I’m not sold we’ll be able to get him close enough for either. Any thoughts?”

  “I don’t think we should stay here,” I blurted out before anyone else had a chance to speak. We needed to lure the Magician away from this place before every death I’d just seen happened, and maybe more. I couldn’t see the beasts. How many of them would die?

  Callon crossed his arms. “No. This place is our best defensive position. Leaving isn’t an option.”

  Okay. He had a point there, but I still had a major problem. “Then we should send everyone else away.”

  “We need as many people who can fight as possible. Any other ideas?” he asked, looking at everyone but me.

  My hands were fisted underneath the table but I didn’t go crazy. He didn’t know the full outcome. I’d get him alone. I didn’t want to blast out a list of names that one of the guys might go and repeat. Hearing you were going to die through the grapevine could make a person real sour. I had some experience with these things.

  “What about the people who can’t fight?” Tuesday asked.

  “They’re better off riding it out here. The basement is fortified,” Callon said. “There’s a tunnel that leads to the other side of the mountain, and we rigged the entrance on this side to implode if needed.”

  Koz moved his arm to the back of Tuesday’s chair. He leaned in and whispered something to her. Tuesday seemed to relax into her chair, putting her palm on his leg.

  “Do we have any other options?” Hess asked.

  “We hit him head on as soon as he shows up,” Callon said.

  Hess rolled his eyes, and the other guys looked down. Clearly, no one thought that would work.

  “I didn’t get out of the village to end up caged somewhere else. I want him dead, and I’ll figure out how to do it myself if I have to. I’ll use whatever I have on him.” I scanned the room, stalling when I hit Callon’s gaze.

  There were a handful of people I didn’t mind killing if the opportunity arose. The Magician was one of them. Callon wanted me to wield my magic? Get me near the man who’d bought me, had been stalking me, and I was going to give it my best shot.

  Callon walked over and leaned his hands on the table. “What if that doesn’t work?”

  “I thought the witch couldn’t help? You don’t have the death spell. How could you possibly make it work?” Koz asked, Zink and Hess all ears.

  Tuesday shook her head and covered her eyes with her hand. She’d already figured it out, and it was groan-worthy. “Oh no. This was the talk, wasn’t it?” she asked softly.

  “Because it might,” Callon answered for me, the two of us staring at only each other.

  He’d known. My gut had told me he did, and I’d told my gut to shut up. Never tell your gut to shut up. It’s clued in to a lot of shit you can’t even imagine.

  “Huh?” Koz looked at me.

  All eyes were on me, except for Tuesday, who was now reclining, staring at the ceiling and mumbling something about how I made it so hard sometimes.

  I turned to Koz, because sometimes he was the easiest person in the room to deal with. “You know the guy I stabbed in the fight right before we got here? I might’ve sucked the life out of him somehow before I technically killed him with my knife.”

  “Oh, is that all?” Hess asked, eyebrow up.

  “You knew?” Zink asked Callon.

  “Suspected. I know blood, and there wasn’t enough. Blood spurts from live bodies.” Callon looked back at me, straightening but no less daunting in his expression. “You didn’t necessarily kill him. He might’ve had a bad heart or a weak blood vessel in his brain.”

  All things I’d considered myself and found highly unlikely, and I was sure he did as well.

  I stood, my chair scraping. “That went at just the moment he grabbed me? Look, I don’t want this to be true, but let’s accept it and use whatever we have.”

  He tipped his dark head toward me. “It was a high-stress moment. That’s when a bad heart would go.”

  “You don’t think it was me?” Bull. I knew he did. No one else had a plan, but he wanted to shoot mine down and go with nothing? What was his problem?

  “I didn’t say that. I’m not sure.” He turned and walked away from me. “Which was why I don’t think it’s a valid reason to have you go and try and use it on the Magician, someone who might know it’s coming and plan accordingly. Not to mention, you have no control over it.” His voice rose and grew sharper with each word.

  “That’s all fine and dandy, but there’s no other plan,” I yelled.

  “Sending out Reaper Jr. over here might be our best bet,” Hess said, shrugging.

  The room was silent.

  Zink leaned back and kicked his feet up on the table. “Anyone else notice she’s getting scarier every day?”

  No one spoke. Tuesday shrugged. I took that as a yes.

  “Maybe a little,” Koz said, confirming my impression a few seconds later.

  Tuesday smacked him in the arm for me.

  “Thank you,” I said.

  “Of course,” she replied. “It’s one thing to think it, but it wasn’t nice to say.”

  Callon let out an annoyed sigh. “We need something else.”

  Except there wasn’t anything else, and I wasn’t the only one who thought so. No one said anything as he looked around the room.

  He shook his head, looking disgusted by everyone, and walked from the room.

  I was the only one who got up and followed him. “Callon, you need to send some people away. I saw some things this morning—”

  “I’m not a babysitter,” he snapped, turning.

  It was the man talking. I wished the beast could speak. I was starting to think I got along with it better.

  “What is your problem?” This wasn’t about my list. He hated my plan but had nothing better, and all he wanted to do was shoot down my ideas.

  Callon seemed to realize it himself. He took a deep breath before he said, “Give me a list of names. I won’t force them, but I’ll tell them what you said.”

  31

  The table in the large room was nearly empty as Tuesday and I sat and ate dinner. Only Shifty was sitting with us, at the other end, and that was close enough.

  “Are you and…” I didn’t want to say, Are you and Koz a real thing? with the company.

  “Uh huh.” She took another bite.

  “Is it…?” It was the most awkward conversation we’d ever had, but our audience was hanging on to every word.

  “Oh yeah.” She took a look around the enormous room that might’ve been able to fit everyone from our village at one time. “Where is everyone?”

  I chewed as I thought it over. I’d left Callon after the meeting and slept another few hours. I wasn’t sure if it was exhaustion or depression. By the time I woke up, the place had gone quiet. “Maybe we missed the normal dinner?”

  I glanced down to Shifty. He was eating.

  He looked right at me with a smile. I smiled briefly and hoped it wasn’t too late to seem engrossed in my food.

  “You that girl Bitters talked about?” he asked.

  That prophecy was turning out to be a plague on my life.

  “Not sure.” I shouldn’t have smiled. Nothing good came from pretending to be social. What were the odds he’d shut up now? Probably low.

  He leaned forward. “Everyone says so.”

  “Couldn’t say for sure.” Why did people always have
to talk so much? Constantly filling the air with stupid chitchat. Silence was a beautiful thing, if people only gave it a chance.

  Shifty opened his mouth, gearing up for his next question, when Tuesday beat him to it. “What about me? Does this Bitters guy say anything about another girl?”

  “Nah. Just her.” Shifty leaned back.

  Tuesday scooted her chair closer. “Are you sure? Do you have his stuff written down somewhere? What else is said? You can’t know for sure that there isn’t another girl and maybe another guy.”

  Shifty shoved some food in his mouth while shaking his head. I knew the food tactic well.

  “Hey, why do they call you Shifty?” Tuesday asked, and now I knew for sure she was screwing with him.

  “Because he has unethical card-playing habits,” Callon said from the door. He walked in and stopped beside me. “You almost done? It’s time to work.”

  Callon stared at me, eyes cool, without a hint of fire, but intent nonetheless. If I said no, was he going to stand there until I was done? There was a full bowl of whatever this meat and gravy was sitting in front of me, screaming for someone to take a second helping.

  I finished chewing my last bite, feeling like everyone in the room was listening to me swallow. Another glance at the bowl, then him. How was a person supposed to eat under these conditions?

  “What work?” My chair scraped the floor as I stood. I didn’t have a job here. Or I hadn’t. Maybe he’d decided our truce was the shortest lived ever and he was going to send me to scrub toilets because my plan had pissed him off?

  “Come with me.” He walked out of the room.

  I gave Tuesday a shrug before I followed him.

  The place was a maze of hallways, and I wondered how big it actually was. We took a couple lefts and then a right before he opened a door to a small room with a desk, a few chairs, and a couch. A bookcase lined a wall, filled with actual books.

  I didn’t have a chance to look at them before he was pointing at a chair. “Sit.”

  “You know, I really dislike it when you do that.”

  He walked toward a second door in the room and stopped. “Dislike what?”