Her school, Shift, the wayward home of shifters we had saved from the brutal circus.
And I imagined the Huntress, solely for the fact that she also seemed to love Tory – even if from afar – and I desperately wanted Tory to understand love. Something beyond feral to attach herself to.
I laced the world up like an intricate cloth, and then gently placed it over Tory, as if tucking her into bed. She whimpered, snuggling into the earth, but to my eyes, her hands gripped that imaginary cloth like a toddler with her blankie.
I smiled, and then promptly collapsed from exhaustion. I squinted my eyes, enough to see, but pretending to be asleep as I saw Carl sit up abruptly at the sound of me falling off my rock. He scanned the surroundings, and then went back to sleep after a quick glance at Talon.
Talon walked away, as if merely making his rounds on patrol.
I let myself fall asleep. And dream about my magic making a difference in this cruel world.
Chapter 22
A boot nudged me, and I jumped to my feet, lashing out with my hands. I grabbed a fistful of my attacker and yanked them to my face.
I was holding Ashley by a grip of her dreadlocks, and had my teeth pressed into her throat before I realized what was happening. She whimpered submissively.
And… suggestively.
I paused for a second, squeezed down with my teeth, and then released, shoving her away.
The thing I didn’t let show was that releasing my teeth might have been the hardest decision I had ever made in my life. The rest of the crew chuckled good-naturedly, and then went back to whatever they had been doing. Tightening straps, boots, and checking on weapons.
Ashley sat on her haunches, well, crouching on her toes. All that fur made it confusing whether to use wolf parts or human parts to describe her motions.
And she was staring at me, panting. I touched a finger to my temple, granting her forgiveness.
She nodded, and then froze, looking very confused for a moment.
I bit back a smile as I saw a flash of the very human Ashley behind those eyes. A crystal-clear moment of her realizing something was wrong, and that this Wulfra wasn’t her. Not really. What settled over her face next was very satisfying, because a little of both remained. I pretended not to notice.
Tory, on the other hand, looked angry. Storming about the clearing, muttering under her breath. Talon snapped at her. She lifted her head, and I realized her eyes were red, that she had been crying.
Talon took one look, opened his mouth, and then froze as the breeze shifted all of a sudden. His ears perked back, against the wind, and he took a big ol’ sniff.
Then he was racing away from us, bounding from rock to rock on all fours now. Straight towards the golden forest I had seen before falling asleep.
I shouted at him, chasing him. I heard my group pounding after me, shouting eagerly, as if expecting a great big battle, and that the Devourer was leading us to victory, so excited that he couldn’t even warn us. He disappeared into the golden forest a dozen paces ahead of us.
I shoved branches from my face as I tore after him, making sure my pack was still attached to my shoulders. And what sounded like a million chimes erupted around us. The golden fruits on the branches I pushed fell to the ground, jingling with the apparent golden seeds inside, and as the fruit hit the golden detritus on the floor, it clanged like steel on steel.
This was amplified by the fact that I was still running, shoving away branches, and pounding across the forest floor of metal, which sounded as if I was racing across a pile of coins, clattering, clanking, and rolling across each other.
Also, my other companions had the same concussion of sound around them from their own motions. Talon disappeared from sight, not making a single fucking sound.
His velvet boots, I thought to myself, don’t leave a trail…
What could be here to leave a trail for?
I got my answer.
About fifty silver spiders suddenly descended upon us, the size of beagles, dangling from butt-ropes of silver webbing. The wooden disc around my throat suddenly throbbed in warning, as if urging me to use it. No fucking way was I falling for that.
“Kill everything!” I shouted.
Every single spider turned an ear to me, and I realized that their faces were all flat. Now, when I say flat face, I mean that they had a mouth of razor blades, but above that?
Nothing. No eyes. No nose. Just a smooth silver expanse on the front.
And big silver ear holes that were currently locked onto us.
They began swinging towards us, each gripping their butt ropes with two legs, cutting it, and swinging closer, somersaulting before spewing more silver butt cables up into the golden trees, and repeating the motion.
They swung through this golden jungle like our friendly neighborhood webslinger.
Of chrome death.
“Elder Carl, get Talon!” He obeyed, weaving past the hanging spiders with idle bats of his bone blades, killing some along the way. But he was fast, and the spiders must have decided they had enough here for a meal without chasing down the albino lizard.
“Wulfra! Scale!” I shouted, hoping to god that she remembered what I had given her.
Her hands moved to her pack, but she had a slight frown on her face, as if wondering why she was moving them. She slapped a silver scale against her chest, and armor washed over her like a wave of quicksilver, unfolding, rolling, and clicking into place over most of her body.
Like Iron Wolf.
It didn’t cover her completely, but it was better than nothing. I had designed it to work for anyone, rolling over their body in skin-tight armor. I had made it a very long time ago when Raego had given me a truckload of silver dragon scales. The one I had killed over the Eads Bridge when first encountering the damn reptiles. I hadn’t known at the time, but I had been using my Maker’s ability, something stronger than a wizard, and had been prone to tinkering since nightmares had plagued my mind.
I had locked it away in Plato’s Cave, in the third projector room that held secrets I almost wanted to keep from myself.
And that wasn’t the only one I had made. Tory reached into her pocket and did the same, slapping it over a thigh, right before the spiders reached us.
I didn’t bother. I reached out to Wylde, and gave him a gift.
Temporary control. A peace offering.
I heard a pleased chuckle, and then I watched as I began killing things.
All the things.
I grasped a moonbeam, ripped it into shards, and threw them with a shout and a stomp of my boot. Blades of lunar liquid splashed over the spiders, and they erupted in purple flames, howling with agony as they were burned alive.
I spun in a circle, holding my hands out, and whispered foreign Names.
The golden branches below me came to life in dozens of tiny stick figure men, and began ninja-flipping through the air, hammering and stabbing into the spiders as they swung. The crazy fuckers grabbed the golden leaves on the ground and began flinging them around like saw bladed playing cards. They screamed through the air, whining as they sliced through spider or butt rope, sending the unlucky spiders to the ground, where the golden stick men rolled over them like an army of zombies, eating them alive.
I glanced over to see Tory laughing as she punched the spiders like speed bags, her fists denting, shattering, or sending the arachnids flying into each other or into the tree trunks where they made a splat noise like bursting melons.
Wulfra, on the other hand, looked very uncomfortable, and hopped all over the place. She had a golden tree branch in either hand, and batted them away when able, but other than that, she looked kind of pathetic.
Then it hit me.
Silver. Werewolf.
She was afraid of the bastards.
I couldn’t help it. I began to laugh, and flung out a hand towards her. My stickmen raced her way, flipping, shouting, and yelling as they cartwheeled up into the air, using her knees and chest as jumpin
g off points to reach the piñata spiders to get their candy.
The forest soon quieted, and I heard dozens more of the silver spiders fleeing into the trees, where they were pursued by my golden stickmen. I grabbed Tory by the back of the hair, and had almost began shoving her mouth to mine in a triumphant celebratory—
No, I commanded Wylde, lashing out with the last scrap of control I had left to me.
I shoved Tory away, who looked both hungry for my touch, and bewildered at being hungry for my touch. I breathed deeply, wrestling control away from Wylde, and watched him snarl back at me in outrage.
I regained composure, and without turning, said, “Good job. Let’s find the filthy feline.”
Ashley laughed abruptly, and just as abruptly, the sound cut off. I glanced over a shoulder to see Tory staring down at the ground as if searching for something. But I was pretty sure what she was searching for was deep within her.
What I had almost done with her had felt wrong.
But also, right. She was remembering herself. Even if in just a tiny way.
But Wulfra beginning to laugh and then abruptly cutting off, made her look up, able to hide her confusion by pointing out the odd behavior of another. Projecting.
Because some part of Ashley had found humor. Not humor at an enemy dying, but at an idle set of words. Filthy feline. Like, well… a human. Or Manling. They hurriedly unclipped their scale, and the armor evaporated in a puff of light mist, leaving only the silver scale in their hands. I had coated the scales in a substance that would protect the skin from silver, knowing I would someday hand them out to werewolves. Still, Wulfra looked sick to her stomach as she tucked it away.
I could tell they were disoriented by the conflicting emotions. The fact that I had cemented my wakeup call to their own memories was wreaking havoc on them. I just hoped it wasn’t too much havoc, and that I wouldn’t break their sanity before we got the hell out of here with the kid.
I stomped through the golden underbrush, following the direction I had seen Carl run.
Chapter 23
We found them. Carl was staring openly at Talon, who was hanging upside down on a thick branch of a very normal-looking tree. Except that the bark was bright red. Other than that, at least it looked like wood, even if the leaves were black. His knees were tucked over the thick branch and he was batting at a dangling pod from one of the branches playfully, giggling.
“Wheeeeeee!” he yowled, purring excitedly.
Carl stared up at him, disgusted, horrified, and utterly bewildered. He heard us behind him and turned to me with fear in his eyes. “I…” he began, swallowing audibly as he saw the anger on my face. “He’s broken. Giggling. Playing. I think he’s trying to mate with it…” he said, wonderingly. “Should we leave him be?” I ignored that for a number of reasons, but mainly because I didn’t want to teach Carl where babies came from.
“Stay back!” I shouted at the girls.
I walked closer, frowning at the odd sight, watching as Talon swung back and forth, laughing at us. “You look gorgeous, Wulfra!” he hollered, meowing at the end. He flipped from the branch, reaching for one of the pods, missed, and latched onto another branch, cackling madly. He skittered across the branch sideways on all fours, back arched. “Beast Master! Will you scratch my back later?” Then he dropped from the branch, using his tail to swing upside down like a possum, batting at another pod.
The girls stared in horror, already confused by their own inner turmoil. But to see Talon act like… a playful child? A drunk?
I noticed dozens more of the pods up in the trees, but saw another, older one, on the ground, partially decomposing and dried up. I picked it up, and sniffed it cautiously.
I slowly lifted my eyes to stare at Talon, then back down at the pod.
And I began to laugh. I slapped my knees, genuine tears coming to my eyes as I watched the murdering nutjob play with a pod of…
Catnip.
Talon swung, did a somersault, and then landed lightly on his feet. “Oh, I needed that.”
He pimpwalked up to us, strutting like the only rooster in the chicken coop, and winked at the girls. They grinned back at him.
“Gunnar is going to laugh his ass o—” Ashley slapped a hand over her mouth, eyes wide.
Without missing a beat, I nodded. “The one-eyed bastard sure will, and so will porcu-shine.” I shrugged at them, keeping my tone and face casual. “But we have to get home, first,” I said. Then I turned my back on them and began walking in the direction I thought the castle would be.
Talon skipped up beside me, chuckling as he slightly redirected my course, and murmured, “Well played. Casual agreement, use of words, and idle dismissal. As if it was totally normal and acceptable to think of the stupid mutt.”
“I’m sure your actions back there were also rationally calculated, and not that you lost your tiny brain for a quick fix. The Ravens will love to hear this one.”
“You wouldn’t dare…” he said, sounding terrified.
“Oh, I definitely will. Unless you help me more. Start using more speech here and there. Enough to get them more comfortable with it. I know we all know how, but something about this place encourages us to go primitive, first. Also, remind them that this is practice so that we can win over the kid’s trust. He’s a Manling. And we need his trust if we want to take him. Take, not rescue. Be sure to use that word.”
Talon nodded slowly, and did a cartwheel for good-measure for the trio behind us. “Very clever. Appeal to both natures. The wild and the domesticated…” he purred. “You’re doing surprisingly well. For a Manling…”
I grunted, knocking him over as he tried another cartwheel. He fell on his ass and hissed at me, back arched and everything. I continued on, barely pretending to notice. “No thanks to you. We almost got killed back there.”
Talon sauntered back up to me, and I could see his tail was tucked between his legs for show. To prove his submission for the others. “What?”
“The spiders that descended on us.”
“That was very impressive,” Carl agreed, suddenly on my other side. “I’ve never seen you use magic like that before. Why not?”
My stomach gurgled as I slowly turned to face him. Carl’s face was expressionless, as always. I grunted.
He frowned at me. And then flicked his tongue at me, hitting my nose. Then he faded back to walk beside the girls.
I almost fell over, having no idea how to handle the tongue thing. Was that a sign of disrespect? Or was it like a high five of some kind?
“Fucking Carl,” I whispered under my breath.
Talon nodded. “He is very strange. I can’t quite figure out what to make of him. He seems… the same. But different.”
“I think this place just appeals to him. I don’t know if he’s fully feral like we all were in the beginning, or if he’s something like the girls. I didn’t have time to send magic at him.”
Talon looked like I had hit him in the groin. “Goddamned don’t!” he hissed. “Are you insane?”
I blinked at him, but made sure to continue walking. “What’s wrong with you? You saw me last night, helping the girls with memories.”
Talon was practically shaking. “You want to show him some of his memories? You want to fuck with an Elder’s mind? Are you batshit nuts?”
“Well, I was going to show him memories from around us. His new family,” I argued.
Talon ground his teeth. “Promise me you won’t try such a thing. No one messes around with an Elder’s head. Why do you think we banished them so long ago?”
I blinked. “They have some kind of mind power or something?”
“No. Anything that tries to get inside their heads without the proper protection simply ceases to exist,” he shivered.
I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. “That’s… very concerning.”
“Damn skippy,” Talon muttered nervously. “I thought you knew. Thought you just did the girls for that reason, and
purposely avoided tampering with Carl for the obvious reasons.”
I shook my head. “I had no idea about that.” Silence stretched as we neared the fringe of the red tree forest. It was still night, but the moons hung very low on the horizon ahead of us.
“Good fucking thing we had this chat, then,” Talon snarled, as if backing away from a cliff. “You should probably keep me informed of any ideas you have in the near future. I thought you knew… well, a lot more than you apparently do.” He shook his head in disbelief. “Honestly, I don’t know how the hell you made it this far. It’s baffling.”
Then he strode ahead of me, exiting the forest.
I followed, and stared down the hill before us.
The Palace was surrounded by a city of wooden huts and two-story buildings, like we had stumbled into the Medieval Era.
The Queens.
The kid.
Some stiletto heels.
It was time to tell them my plan, because I had been thinking lately on a Chinese guy named Sun Tzu. But I would need a little help from Wylde, first.
Chapter 24
I let go of my control, giving Wylde a chance to help. I needed to know we could work together. Speak with them. Danger ahead. Planning now. I felt him wrestle control from me, even though it was unnecessary since I had given it to him, and he threw my fist up in the air. I heard everyone halt behind me. My fist twisted, and everyone slowly backed into the forest again, out of sight from the palace not an hour away.
I turned to them, grimaced, and then cocked my head. “Bathe. Foresee the battle plan.” I felt fingers dig deep into my brain as if searching for something. It hurt. Then it suddenly hurt a whole lot more as something was yanked away and thrown at each of my Band in rapid succession. But my body didn’t move. It just gave them my plan. The plan that I had silently devised over time, remembering a book I had read a few times, The Art of War. Wylde grabbed my plan, read it, and passed it on like a flyer for an impromptu kegger in the school hall.
Bam, bam, bam. The three warriors stared back at me as they received their individual orders for the upcoming attack, and then nodded before setting up a small camp. Carl chuckled as he built a fire.
Wild Side: A Nate Temple Supernatural Thriller Book 7 (The Temple Chronicles) Page 14
