by Peter Glenn
Taio glanced in my direction as he said those last words and they struck me right in the chest. I felt my heart flutter just a little. Was that some sort of weird, twisted attempt at a compliment? Had Taio really said something nice to me? All of a sudden, I began to doubt everything, if only for a moment.
My brother could have that kind of effect on me.
“Nah,” I said at last, shaking my head. “I don’t believe it. If three hundred years of knowing you has taught me anything, it’s that you’re not capable of that kind of change.”
“Your words wound me, Li,” Taio said slowly. He sniffled just a little. “But it is of little consequence. Once this is over, you may leave me be, if you wish, and never speak to me again.”
“Humph. I just might at that.” I gave him the stink eye, but he seemed unphased by it.
“Suit yourself, Damian. You’ve always been the impulsive one.”
Anger rushed through me again. “See? That’s what I mean. Always with the little niggling comments and the back-handed insults! You just plain don’t like me!”
“Is that what you truly believe?” Taio asked. “Tell me, then, why did I have mother come out to you last year extending an olive branch if I think so little of you?”
“You what?”
That gave me pause. I remembered the whole incident quite clearly. It had been my birthday party at Mei’s, and my mother had interrupted the whole thing, saying Taio had wanted to reconcile. I’d written it off as a mother’s meddling at the time. Was it possible that Taio had really been behind it this whole time?
“I told you, brother. I have changed. I’m not the hard man I once was anymore,” Taio said, breaking my train of thought.
“Humph.” I scowled. “I’ll believe that when I see it.”
Even if he had tried to reconcile late last year, it had likely only been so he could lord himself over me in some way again. To tell me how I was failing the family and needed to be better.
The past twenty-four hours notwithstanding, it had become pretty clear that Taio still didn’t approve of my profession or my methods. Whether or not he approved of anything of mine at all was even in question.
Taio laid his hands bare. “It’s the truth. Of all the things I have done to you, lying has never been one of them.”
I ignored the hidden implication that I would lie to him. For one, he wasn’t wrong, and for two, in the here and now, it didn’t really matter anyway.
“Fine,” I spat, crossing my arms. “But I still don’t believe the whole doting father bit, or the whole regretful brother bit. And frankly, I’m not sure which one is worse.”
Taio side-eyed me but said nothing for several minutes. Finally, he broke the silence. “You are welcome to believe what you wish, dear brother. But it’s true. All of it. This isn’t just something that my wife put me up to.”
How did he even know I was thinking that? Ugh, I hated my older brother. Always so perfect. Always one step better than I was.
“Look,” I said finally. “It’s a long flight to Australia, and then there’s more travel besides before we reach our destination. Let’s just agree to keep our mouths shut until then, shall we?”
Taio gave me a long, hard look, then nodded. “As you wish, dear brother.”
“Great.” I nodded as well.
A moment later, the stewardess came by with a tray full of drinks. I waved at her and she dropped a couple of drinks down on our respective tables. I wasn’t sure what was in them, but I took a deep swig of mine anyway. The harsh yet welcoming flavor of alcohol flew over my taste buds, instantly calming my nerves. Vodka tonic, I thought. Not the top shelf stuff by any stretch, but it would do in a pinch. I doubted the stewardess could make a proper Manhattan anyway. And even if she could, I knew it wouldn’t hold a candle to Mei’s.
I looked over at my brother and raised my glass in the air. “Let’s drink to blissful silence, then, shall we?”
Once more, Taio nodded. “To silence.”
Our glasses clinked together, and I downed the rest of mine in one gulp. My brother set his down untouched. Did he ever drink, or was he too perfect for that, too? He’d ordered a martini the other night, but I couldn’t remember if he’d actually had any of it.
It didn’t matter. I’d had enough stress today trying to figure him out. My eyes searched around for the stewardess as my lips begged for more. It had been a long couple of days, and today was shaping up to be even longer.
If I was going to survive this flight, I was going to need all the alcohol I could get.
9
Part of my immortality curse involved faster than normal healing and an overall improved constitution. Not a lot faster than normal, it was more like allowing wounds that healed in weeks to heal in days instead, not minutes or anything, but it was typically a nice benefit.
Unless you wanted to get drunk. Then it was hell.
The improved constitution meant it took a lot of alcohol to get blind, stinking drunk. Much more than the average human. It was still possible, but boy did it take a large quantity of the stuff.
And on the flight to Perth, believe me I’d tried.
So it was that I half stumbled off the jetway, through the building, and into the massive parking lot of the airport on slightly unsteady legs. It was my brother’s fault, or at least that’s what I told myself. The damn fool had actually made good on his word and stayed silent the whole. Damn. Trip.
Not a word. Not even the tiniest hint of a peep had escaped his lips. And while talking to him wasn’t exactly all that amazing, not talking to him had somehow been worse. I kept watching him smiling at me—smiling, of all things—with this weird gleam in his eyes like he wanted me to say something but kept waiting for me to be the one to talk. So of course, I didn’t.
In a word, it was unbearable.
“So where next to?” I asked Taio and LaLuna as we walked along one of the long sidewalks. I’d messed up the order of the words just a little bit and hoped they wouldn’t notice.
“You okay, Damian?” LaLuna asked. “You look a little… flushed.”
I waved a hand dismissively. “I’m fine! Why do you ask?”
She bit her lip slightly. “No reason, I guess.”
“Well, good. Let’s keep it that way.” I put my hands on my hips in an overly flamboyant stern gesture. “I’m jusht fine.”
“Okay, Damian. Sorry I asked.” LaLuna backed up a bit and we soon kept walking.
Taio pointed ahead of us at a small building that had a yellow sign on top of it. “We need to procure transportation to the Julimar forest. We’re going to get a car.”
I nodded more fiercely than I probably should have. “Made sense.”
My brother shot me a partially disgusted look and sniffed at me. He placed one finger gingerly on my chest to halt my forward movement. “You can… remain outside and sober up a bit.”
No, you can sober up a bit, you little bitch. That’s what I wanted to say. But of course, it would have been stupid to say it, given that he hadn’t had a single drink the whole way down, and I was the one that was sloshed.
But it still would have felt good.
The three of us ambled over toward the small building while I wilted slightly under the intense sunlight. I’d heard that the southern hemisphere was warm during February, but I’m not sure I’d ever really believed it before now.
Yet here it was, eighty-some degrees, when it had been only twenty or so just the day before in Seattle.
Suffice it to say, I wasn’t doing so great.
Taio headed into the building, and I leaned against the side of it instead, breathing heavily.
“Are you sure I can’t get you some water or something?” LaLuna asked. Her eyes moved between me and the door that Taio had recently gone through.
“You can go with him if you want,” I spat. “I saw you peeking at him.”
“What?” LaLuna reared back her head and anger flashed in her eyes. “You don’t mean? He’s you
r brother, Damian!”
“Sorry!” I put up my hand in a defensive pose. “Sorry. It’s just… we don’t get along very well, him and I. I’m used to him stealing everything I like. Cars. Money. Our mother’s affection.”
LaLuna leaned in closer to me and put her hand on my cheek, caressing it gently. “Surely it can’t be all that bad, can it?”
I nodded. “You have no idea, LaLuna. He’s just like me, only better in every conceivable way.”
“Come now,” LaLuna said. “He doesn’t have me, does he?” She leaned in slightly closer and planted a kiss right on my lips.
My head swam even more than before, and desire shot through me as I pushed my lips against hers even harder. My brother was hell. But this? This was heaven.
We held the kiss for another moment, and then LaLuna pulled away.
“Better?” she asked.
I nodded again. “Better.”
She gave me a broad grin. “Good.”
“Oh, LaLuna, you sure do know how to fix things,” I mused. “I sure do lo… I mean like… you a lot.”
I craned my head forward to give her another kiss, but she backed away this time, putting her finger on my lips instead.
“Well, if it ever becomes more than like, let me know, and we can continue this conversation,” she said with a flat look.
“But…”
LaLuna shook her head. “But nothing. I deserve better, Damian.”
I hung my head low. “I know, it’s just…”
In that moment, something odd caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. Some flash of movement or steel that shouldn’t have been there. I spun my head to catch it and the world swam in front of my eyes, blurring everything.
When my eyes regained focus, it was gone.
“Just what, Damian?” LaLuna pressed.
“Not right now,” I said. Then instantly regretted it. I turned to face LaLuna again. “Shoot. I mean… I’m sorry, LaLuna. Can we just start over again? Preferably with the kissing part?” I showed her my best dopey grin.
LaLuna shook her head. “Oh, Damian, what am I going to do with you?”
“Kiss me again?” I gave her a suggestive wink.
She sighed, and for a moment, I thought she was going to do it, then she backed up another half step instead.
“Damn.” I shrugged. “It was worth a shot.”
That slight flash of movement came again, a little closer this time. It was definitely reminiscent of someone holding a weapon. But who would be armed out by the rental car depo? I mean, aside from me, of course. But then, it’s not like I could ditch my sword even if I wanted to.
“Shh,” I said, pressing my own finger to LaLuna’s lips. “I think someone’s here.”
LaLuna’s eyes darted about. She looked confused, but she nodded and remained silent.
Unlike me, who had a sword that would never leave my side, LaLuna hadn’t come off the plane fully armed. Her gemstones that let her wield magic were still tucked into a suitcase. So between the two of us, she was the more vulnerable one this time around.
And on top of that, I was still feeling unsettled about the attack on Sevin’s car back in Ravensdale. For all I knew, she was the intended target, not me.
I motioned toward the door with my finger and LaLuna headed silently in that direction. She disappeared inside the structure a moment later, and I scouted about for a hiding place that would still give me a full view of the entryway.
Not far off to the right, I spotted a medium-sized yellow car. A Subaru, perhaps. It would have to do. I ducked behind the car, groaning just a little as I moved and wishing I hadn’t had quite as much booze.
Adrenaline was starting to kick in, which shook off some of the haze, but I knew I wouldn’t be as effective as I normally was in this state.
It didn’t take long for the stranger to materialize. He was slightly hunched over, so I couldn’t get a good grasp of his size, but he was definitely menacing in appearance. He appeared to be largely human, or at least something close to it, aside from an over-abundance of thick, brown hair sticking out of his shirt in several spots, a slightly clawed look to his hands, and sharp, pointed dog-shaped ears sticking out of the top of his head.
A gleaming sword was strapped to his side, its metal shining in the broad daylight. That must have been what I’d seen earlier.
I stayed put, waiting to see what Dog Ears’s next move was. For all I knew, the thing was a customer of the rental car place, too. Hey, it was possible.
Dog Ears crept up to the door like he was some kind of thief or something, though, which shattered that line of thinking pretty quickly. As he crept along, I saw one of his hands glide toward the hilt of his sword. It was then that I noticed his hands looked a little more like dog paws than normal hands, but still with an opposable thumb.
The strange hound-human hybrid’s other paw hand reached up to open the door.
Somehow, I just knew he was after us. I wasn’t sure how I knew, but it was the only thing that made sense. There were only a couple other customers in the building, and his timing was completely suspect.
“Are you ready, girl?” I whispered to Grax’thor.
The runes swirled on her surface, forming a sequence of words. Get bent, beetle face.
“Beetle face?” I whined.
Grax’thor had never been nice to me, but insulting my appearance was a new one for her. The spirit of an evil Celtic Queen was trapped within her, which was part of why she was bonded to me to begin with. That was a long story, but let’s just say she’d never been fond of me before or after that had happened.
There was nothing much I could do about it. She still acted like a regular sword in battle—sometimes even better than a normal sword—so she’d just have to deal with it.
Dog Ears’s hand was placed precariously on the door handle at this point.
I stood tall, making my presence known, and unsheathed my blade in one swift motion. “Stop right there!” I demanded.
Dog Ears froze for a half second, and in that half-second, I wondered if I was right about him or not.
Then he pounced on me and washed all my doubts away. Dog Ears’s blade moved so fast it was hard to keep track of its arc, but I brought Grax’thor up to defend myself in plenty of time, and the blades bounced harmlessly off each other.
Dog Ears made his way around the Subaru then, in order to get closer to me. Yep, I was definitely right about the guy. He wouldn’t have attacked me if he’d been innocent.
His blade moved in a wide, high arc like he was trying to take off my head. I backed away slightly to keep his blade at bay and brought my own weapon up to block his. They clanged together again and again as we clashed, moving slowly around the car in the process.
Blood and a fresh wave of adrenaline coursed through me, helping shake off more of the alcohol induced haze.
I was feeling a little more steady on my feet, so I advanced on him, thrusting low and aiming for his outstretched leg. Dog Ears brought his own blade down in time to block, it and we continued the dance for several moments, each of us testing the other out with a series of strikes and coming up empty.
Just then, I saw my opening and took it. He’d over-extended on the last thrust. I slammed into him with the side of my blade, forcing him off balance.
Dog Ears stumbled, falling backward onto the ground, though he managed to keep hold of his weapon in the tumble.
I took another step forward and raised my blade to strike, but damn if the dude wasn’t faster than he should be. With a mighty leap, Dog Ears was back on his feet like nothing had happened, facing me down.
He came at me with another high swipe, which I only barely managed to avoid. The tip of his sword sliced through my right cheek, leaving behind a shallow gash.
Pain seared through my face, and I felt a small trickle of blood flow down my cheek, but it was only a scratch. The battle was far from over.
I renewed my advance, determined to get the better of hi
m. I swung high, changing my trajectory halfway through the swing to aim more for his torso. The move caught Dog Ears slightly off guard, and this time, I felt the satisfying resistance of skin ripping apart as I tore open a wound in his abdomen. It wasn’t deep, but at least I’d returned the favor.
Dog Ears yelped and flew backward, raising his sword to ward off further blows. I kept the momentum going and pushed forward, swinging again and again and backing him into a corner. There was another car just a few steps behind him. If I could get him against it, I’d have him for sure.
I came at him with another heavy swing, and at last, Dog Ears was right where I wanted him. I readied my blade and lunged forward, determined to pin him to the car behind him with a powerful thrust.
Before I could blink, Dog Ears leapt into the air with unnatural speed, landing on the roof of the car well out of reach. The roof groaned as his paw-like feet slammed into the metal, leaving behind a massive dent that would be hell to repair.
I tried to halt my own attack, but I was too invested in it, and Grax’thor slid halfway into the door of the car before I could pull out of the thrust.
The car’s alarm blared to life, alerting anyone who might be out there to our duel. Heh. As if they wouldn’t have already known anyway.
Still, the sudden sound seemed to have an outsized effect on Dog Ears, and he howled, covering his ears as he crouched low against the roof of the car.
Which would have been the perfect opportunity for me to seize victory, if my own weapon weren’t caught in a thick metal door. I pulled on the hilt, but she barely budged.
“Come on!” I shouted at Grax’thor as I gave her another heave. This time, she moved a little more.
Above me, Dog Ears seemed to get his bearings and stopped quivering. He grabbed his own blade and swung it down at my exposed skull.
