by Bonds (epub)
Daisy blinked, taken aback. He didn’t look that old. In fact, he looked fairly young. The “old” on him came more from how he carried himself and his doctor title. “Just how old are you, mister doctor sir?”
He grinned again, but this time he looked devilish, like he carried around a little of that possession he talked about. “Let’s just say the Little Ice Age wasn’t a lot fun for anyone.”
Daisy frowned. History wasn’t one of her strengths. “Little Ice Age?”
The doctor laughed. “You have a lot of studying to do before you take those SATs.”
“There’s no history section.”
He glanced at her, his face serious. “If you’re going to become a good Shifter, a conscientious one, you’re going to need to learn the history of the world.”
“Why?” She figured learning to fight would be enough.
“You will likely meet… historically important people. Many of the long immortal come to this modern age carrying our past on our shoulders.” The doctor paused and his face took on the same sad look he had before, when he talked about his family. “Almost every Shifter and Fate you meet from now on will carry the weight of centuries.”
He paused again, his fingers tapping at the steering wheel. “Someday, you will likely meet a Progenitor.” His eyebrow lifted and he frowned. “I haven’t, for which I’m thankful, to be honest. They’re an… intense lot. The Fate Progenitor, the man belonging to that bit of talisman in your kangaroo, hasn’t been seen for a millennium.”
Again with the Latin words. “Progenitor?”
“It means first ancestor, or family head. The four breeds were all born from the original five.” The doctor breathed in, and kept his eyes on the road.
“And they were Roman?” Maybe she did need to learn her history.
“Yes. The stories say that our Progenitor, the woman who birthed our kind, together with the Fate Progenitor, tricked the First Burner into Vesuvius the evening before the explosion that destroyed Pompeii. The Progenitor Parcae sacrificed his talisman—a shard of which you are carrying—to save the world from the Progenitor Ambustae.” The doctor paused again. “It was probably the last time a Fate did anything selfless.”
He said four breeds and five Progenitors. She only knew of Shifters, Fates, and Burners. “Who are the other two?”
The doctor snorted and shook his head. “The Dracae.”
Dracae? “Like dragon?” There were dragons, too?
“Just the two. Both Progenitors.”
Two dragons. “Do they fly?” Daisy’s thoughts turned to all the movies and games she’d played, to the huge, scaly, flying Lizards of Death.
The doctor laughed. “I doubt even Progenitors could hide a flying dragon from the modern world, don’t you?”
“Oh.” Probably not. This world she’d been dropped into was turning out to be intense. But that made sense, really. The real, day-to-day world was an intense place all by itself, with school, and people, and finding enough money to live. No reason a world full of superheroes would suddenly become a simple place.
She wiggled in her seat as her brain made more questions. “How many Shifters are there?” How was it that the world didn’t know about Shifters and Fates and dragons?
“Enough that we protect each other from the control of Fates and normals. There aren’t many Fates. At least that’s what I have been told. Their numbers were devastated long ago and they’ve been careful to control their population.” Another shrug. “They tell their children their destiny. Mostly.”
He’d been doing a lot of shrugging as he drove, like he’d given up. Like her mother, just before she ran off. And a lot of jumping from one topic to another.
“You daughter’s going to be okay.” Daisy had to believe this good man’s daughter would be okay. And that he would be okay.
Damn it, she hoped that she would be okay. “I’ll be okay too, right? If I find my father, he will activate me, won’t he? Because I know all about Shifters and Fates now and I need to be able to protect myself?” Daisy didn’t want to spend the rest of her life as a target. “Even if he’s ‘too dangerous.’”
“Probably.” The doctor slapped the steering wheel. “But there are several Shifters I can think of who are ‘too dangerous.’ Men and women you must stay away from. You’ll be better off a normal than to become tangled with them.”
“Worse than Kobayashi?”
“Much, much worse.”
Daisy waited a moment, but the doctor said no more. Like her, he seemed too tired to think about it. She’d ask for names later.
He also had that flighty can’t-concentrate feel about him, again. Like he twitched but wasn’t visibly twitching. As if a thought about his daughter had jumped in front of the car and he was trying very hard not to swerve.
Daisy didn’t know what to say. What could she say? He was old—centuries old—and she doubted the words “have faith” as spoken by someone whose experience of the world was limited to spending her days bored in algebra classes was going to help.
But damn it, she didn’t have the weight of the world on her shoulders, the way he did. Only the present held her down. So maybe seeing the world through her fresh eyes might help him feel better.
Though right now, she didn’t feel fresh. “The kids in my school who have attention problems get a lot of support. Most of the teachers seem to care.” Having something officially wrong made the school pay attention. But if a student was like Daisy and had a mom who wanted them to be as unofficial as possible, you were pretty much on your own.
Like when that boy groped her breasts outside of school that one day. He came up behind her and grabbed her chest and her mom said don’t cause waves so Daisy ended up with the suspension, not him.
Which just illustrated how unfair her life became the moment they ran from home. But in the modern world, help was available. If you were labeled Needs Help.
And you had parents who fought for you.
The doctor didn’t say anything else for a long moment, only rubbed his face a couple more times, like his eyes hurt or something.
“Maybe you should drive,” he said. “It’ll give me a second to center myself before talking to my wife.” He looked her up and down. “You drive as well as you throw?”
Daisy smiled. “Of course I do.”
“Well, at least there’s hope for you.” They were on a major-ish suburban road, but in a part of town with squat office buildings and not fast food places or strip malls. Other than the hotel they just passed, most of the lots were empty.
The doctor swung the car into an open area behind an ugly glass-fronted building, between the dumpster and an alley around back.
An industrial stink wafted into the car through the AC. Something raw and chemical. Unnatural. It sort of reminded Daisy of the fake citrus smell of the orange-based cleaner her mom used to remove price tag gunk. She crinkled her nose.
In the backseat, Dawn barked and jumped.
“Let’s do this fast. This place smells weird.” Daisy reached for her door handle. “I don’t think the dog likes it, either.”
A low growl rolled from the animal.
The doctor’s door flew open.
16
The stench of acid-soaked rotten eggs filled the car. An average-sized man, one about Daisy’s height, moved toward the car so fast neither Daisy nor the doctor could respond. The door flew open and the man’s hand grabbed for the doctor’s neck.
The man’s fingers glowed like he’d dipped the tips into the liquid from a broken glow stick. Except the chemicals the man exuded weren’t kid-friendly and neon green. The man dripped hot acid.
“Burners!” Daisy yelled. Another Burner, a woman with matted hair, slammed her fist against the passenger side window. Daisy smacked her hand onto the door’s lock, praying it would keep out the ghoul.
; Next to her, the doctor bellowed and swung his legs into his wide-open door, leaning back and away from the grabbing Burner. His knee came up, his foot extending, and he kicked.
The ghoul flew across the lot.
“Where the hell did they come from?” The doctor reached for his door and slammed it shut.
A bang sounded on the car’s hood, like someone landed on it. Dawn barked.
The Burner woman pounded on Daisy’s door, screeching and yelling random words like “Hamburger!” and “Foot odor!”
Daisy stared, shocked silent. They were being attacked by absurd zombies.
Outside the doctor’s door, the man held up a cell phone. “Why’d you kick me? Douchebag!” He jumped up and did a two-step dance from side to side. “She wants to talk to you but you better not kick me again or I’ll bite.” He snapped his teeth and gave the doctor the finger.
Dawn barked and growled. Daisy sat perfectly still. What was happening here? “Did that Fate send Burners after us?”
“I…” The doctor blinked too, obviously as stunned as Daisy. “I think so.” Slowly, he rolled down his window just enough to allow the Burner to pass through a phone wrapped in a singed, torn-up blanket.
Daisy peered through the car’s windows, counting three, four, five Burners, all haggard-looking and ugly. All wearing singed clothes. All smelling foul.
She sniffed, wondering if she could pick out individual stinks on them, the way she did on normals. She did—the fake orange cleaner stink smelled different from the rotting eggs odor. But the undernotes of acid seemed steady, like they were a family or something.
The male Burner pushed the phone through the window. “She said you’d get us dinner.” He stepped back and danced around again, like a clown. “Dinner or we eat the two of you! We don’t care what no stinkin’ Fate says!”
The others danced and shouted, mimicking their leader.
The doctor frowned and rolled up the window as he unwrapped the phone and put it to his ear. “What the fuck is going on, you goddamned—”
This was the first time she’d heard him really swear. At least in English. The Fate managed to break what little calm he had left.
He pulled the phone away from his ear, swearing again, but in Spanish. “Burners? Why the hell did you send Burners to—” He pulled the phone away from his ear again.
“Give me the phone!” Daisy swiped for it. She’d had enough of the damned Fates pulling all the strings. “We need straight answers, you witch!”
The doctor yanked away from her and smacked his shoulder on the door. “She wants you to go out there with those Burners.”
“Excuse me?” Daisy gave the phone the finger.
The doctor chuckled. “She says you can fuck off, Fate.”
This time, Daisy moved fast enough and swiped the phone from his hand.
At this point, a double-cross seemed the most likely outcome of this situation. That at any second, Ethne and her triad mates would pull into the lot with them, whip out their gleaming death-blades, and the next day, San Diego would wake up to a blazing news story about a five-alarm gas leak explosion in a sleepy part of the suburbs.
An explosion that killed not only these Burners, but also Daisy and the doctor.
But, maybe, Daisy could use the phone-Fate’s arrogance to get some information. It was probably an irrational hope. One based on her too-young-to-know-better lack of experience, but she had to try. “Tell me, clearly and concisely, exactly what game you are playing. Now.”
“How many Burners showed?” The Fate sounded frantic.
“Why?” Daisy wasn’t falling for it.
“I sent the entire nest. Five. I saw in the what-will-be where you’d stop but nothing after that. Which can only mean the Burners did what they were told.”
Was this an attempt by the Fate to hide them from other Fates? “Are they here to cloak us? So that other triad can’t follow?”
The Fate paused too long. “Yes.” She lied.
Daisy swore under her breath. Quickly, she shook her head no, to indicate to the doctor what she believed.
His face hardened.
Dawn whined. Outside, the five Burners danced around the car like it was some sort of ancient altar of ghoul witchcraft.
“Daisy, get out of the car. Take the talisman and tell the doctor to drive away. Do it now.” She really did sound frantic.
“No.” If the doctor left, the Burners would eat her.
“Yes! You have to. Or else…” She trailed off. Daisy heard voices behind her.
The call disconnected.
Daisy stared at the phone in her hand. “She hung up on me.” Just like that. Hung up on the two people she sent Burners after.
The doctor started the car. He sat in the driver’s seat and rubbed his face, the car rumbling, but he didn’t put it into drive. He just gripped the steering wheel.
Part of Daisy wanted to sob. Part of her wanted to get out of the car and dance around like the ghoulish monsters outside, uncaring and random. And another part of her wanted to give the doctor a hug.
All this time, he’d kept his emotions under control. Kept his doctor-face on and his scientist-mind up front, even if he did have problems focusing. But right now, right here in this office building lot in this bizarre, disconnected moment, he looked defeated and, frankly, small.
This big man with his big arms and his big, fatherly way, looked like he was about to be crushed by an avalanche of the weird and the grotesque that seemed to be the what-was-is-will-be life of a Shifter.
How could Daisy have thought being a “superhero” would be cool? Did she think she’d spend the rest of her life as some immortal demigod who everyone deferred to just because? That her new powers would make life’s dangers easier to handle?
The Burners doing the two-step outside the car showed very clearly that a level-up in power also meant a level-up in villains.
“What are we going to do?” she asked. Not that she expected an answer. Not with the look currently wadding up and pulling down the doctor’s face.
He shook his head, not answering.
His shoulders slumped. He watched the steering wheel and not the Burners outside. He looked like his mind had just clicked completely over to overwhelmed, like at the diner when he all of a sudden decided to listen to the damned Fate. The doctor did not look like a person who’d put thought into the conclusion he just made. His mind just picked the solution that was, in this second, the most visible in the whirlwind churning in his head.
So Daisy needed to make a better choice. For them both. “We leave. Right now. We drive and go to someone we can ask for help. If the Fates want us both dead and the Shifters are too dangerous, can we go to one of the… dragons?” Maybe they didn’t care about Fate-Shifter politics. “Will they help?”
The doctor’s eyes narrowed. For a long moment, he stared at the Burners. Then his hand slapped the steering wheel. “Promise me, Daisy Reynolds, that if someday you meet my daughter, you be as wise and kind for her as you have been for me.”
He didn’t look at her, but she saw the slight, if sad, curve to his lips.
And once again, Daisy wished she could give the big man a hug. “I promise.”
“There’s a bar. A place in Branson, Missouri, the Dracae are said to favor.” The doctor took a deep breath and took the car out of park. “We’ll need to stop outside the city and fill the tank—”
The male Burner, the one who seemed to be in charge, slammed into the side of the car, rocking it upward. The entire vehicle bounced. Dawn lunged at the window.
And outside the Burners laughed.
One slammed her glowing hands down on the hood. The car’s paint smoked and acrid, black smoke filtered in through the AC.
Daisy coughed.
Next to the doctor, just outside the window, the male Burner h
eld up his hand. When he grinned, Daisy swore his teeth gave off their own light. Like they glowed the way his fingertips did.
The Burner bit his finger.
17
“Get out!” The doctor pushed Daisy toward her door. “Unlock it! Go!”
She flung open her door and fell out onto the pavement, the doctor crawling over the seats and falling out of the door and almost on top of her.
“Dawn!” she yelled.
The dog scrambled into the front and out the door, jumping over both the humans on the ground.
The driver’s side window of the car exploded. Safety glass rained down onto Daisy, the hunched-over doctor, and Dawn. The dog growled, her hackles up, and stood between them and the Burners, the two females close to them and a male on the roof of the car.
On the other side of the vehicle, the leader-male Burner giggled. “Boom!” he shouted and jumped up onto the hood of the car, then onto the roof. He danced around with the Burner already up there, giggling some more, and pointed his fingers at them like he was shooting off pistols.
Behind him, the fifth Burner skipped back and forth, a scruffy thing in floppy clothes. Daisy couldn’t tell if it was a boy or a girl.
Out in the open, Daisy picked out the distinct odors of each of the five individual Burners. One smelled more like the cleaner. Another, more like sulfur. Another, like a battery soaking in garbage. They all acted the same, all random and weird and terrifying, but they smelled different from each other, just like people.
One of the females cocked her head and reached for Dawn, her hand out like she wanted to pet. “Doggie!”
Dawn snapped at her hand, growling, and the Burner snatched it back. She held her fingers in front of her face like she’d just saved them from a meat grinder, her eyes huge. “Mean doggie.”
