by Bonds (epub)
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 whatever the talisman they were looking for behind 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.”
12
Dr. Torres yanked Daisy’s mom behind him. “What kind of seer 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 just lost the game. Like she 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, a long, bloody knife in one 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 a quick precision.
The woman must have stabbed their drug-dealer neighbor. Which was why he’d suddenly fell 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 cast by the kitchen fixture, all smooth and bound into a perfectly styled ponytail. Her waist tiny, her legs long, 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 the queen bee of her school’s popular clique decided one day 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 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 them each 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 be keyed only on whatever the artifact was.
The doctor’s back tightened up. 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?”
13
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 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. And 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 kill you anyway. 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 doozy.”
“It doesn’t look like a talisman.” Cecilia’s fingers danced over the dog’s necks. “It looks like a piece of scrap metal. Kobayashi had it and I had no idea at all what it was. If I had 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 exact 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, dodging. 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 who she’d inadvertently moved closer to, 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.
The blade dropped to the carpet and hit point first. A soft twang reverberated from it when it stuck, poking straight up, just in front of the dead dog’s body. The knife vibrated like a little metal cross-shaped headstone at the head of a good animal’s grave.
The purple appeared on the woman’s neck. The knife would be the Fate’s headstone, too, if the doctor didn’t stop.
“Don’t kill her!” Daisy yelled. “You’re a doctor!” How could she trust him if he acted just like the Fate? Like Kobayashi?
He stared like his attention had flipped a switch from flitting around to becoming an arrow piercing the world. His eyes hyperfocused on the Fate’s skin and his grip on her wrist.
He was a daddy. A good man. Maybe he didn’t always think things through but he couldn’t do this.
Daisy grabbed his arm, but she lunged back as fast as she touched. Even through the sleeve of his shirt, she felt what he did to the Fate. Felt the pressure of the inflammation he forced into her body. “Stop! Please.”
He shook, a wave of small movement running up his spine. He let go, stepping back fast. The Fate dropped on her backside, her ankles twisting as she fell off her heels. She slid across the carpet on the leather covering her ass, and slammed against the wall opposite Daisy and Cecilia. A harsh cough popped out of her throat, as if she was trying to hack up a nest of bugs. Her eyes rolled back into her head. She twitched.
And the Fate slumped down, either dead or unconscious, Daisy didn’t know. He unhealed the woman. He just did the opposite to the Fate of what he’d done to Daisy after the car broke her leg.
Daisy had never seen real violence up close before. Never seen so much blood. Never smelled the tang of death and the undertones of shit that came with it. Never smelled so much fear and determination wrapped up into a singular human stench she could only call I don’t want to die.
The doctor inhaled and held his breath. A soft “Thank you,” rode out on his exhale.
Daisy patted his arm, but didn’t say anything. The stench of fear in the air took all her attention.
It wafted off the living dog as well, but in an in-the-moment, raw, painful way. She’d just lost her mate.
Dawnstar paced next to Lonestar’s body, whimpering. Daisy’s mom whimpered too, and bent over the dead animal.
“He saved us.” She leaned over the dead dog. Tears welled up.
The doctor quickly checked the Fate’s pulse. He wouldn’t look Daisy in the eye. “She’ll survive.” He stepped over the pool of blood spreading from the dog. “Get up, Ms. Reynolds.”
He didn’t reach for her mom. He didn’t touch her at all. He slammed his hands into his pockets like he knew he carried deadly weapons that needed to be locked away.
“Get out!” Cecilia screamed.
“When her triad mates show up, they will kill everyone. So you need to stand up, Ms. Reynolds. Stand up, get the talisman, and get the hell out of here before they kill your daughter.” He pulled his hand out of his pocket long enough to point at Daisy.
Her mom’s eyes looked black when she glanced over her shoulder at Daisy. Black and blank and defeated. Her shoulders slumped. Daisy couldn’t help but feel, in her gut, that her mom just gave up.
“It’s in your kangaroo.” That’s all Cecilia said. Then she waved Daisy away.
“Get up, Ms. Reynolds. Before they show up.” Dr. Torres stepped into the living room and craned his neck like he was looking out their open front door. “Daisy, get the talisman.”
“Shouldn’t we leave it here?” They probably shouldn’t touch what all the Fates were looking for. Better to slink off hoping no one would give them a second thought.
The doctor’s lips thinned to a flat line. “They’re going to hunt you, now. No way around it. And you heard what she said. They can’t see the talisman. I’m hoping being in its proximity will make us vanish, too.”
Daisy’s mom looked up. “That works?”
The doctor shook his head. “I don’t know. But I’ve heard stories. There seems to be some sort of proximity issue with their seers. It happens with the dust of dead Burners. Why not with an artifact that interferes?”
Could hiding behind something Fates couldn’t read be enough to get the doctor out of the city? “The Fate said I’m supposed to cause a distraction.” Daisy circled to the side, then back. “Do you think this is what she meant?”
Dr. Torres scratched the back of his head as he, too, stepped side to side. He looked like he wanted to bounce on his toes. “Maybe.”
But that meant she’d have Fates who wanted to kill her chasing her forever, and the Fates were much worse than Kobayashi. Daisy stared at the unconscious woman on the floor. Much, much worse.
“They’ll catch whoever has the talisman sooner or later.” Cecilia looked at her feet, not at her daughter or the doctor. “It’s suicide.”
