“What’s that?” I asked, pointing to the peculiar gun Jacob now held. I knew as much about guns as I did about pookas.
“It fires a net.”
I fidgeted, struck by an almost overwhelming desire to tackle Jacob. I still didn’t believe the pooka was evil, not purely, and I hadn’t had a chance to get any answers.
I stepped forward. “Do you need—”
“Stay back. Give me room,” Jacob said, not looking away from the pit.
On the floor, the atrum and lux lucis sucked back into the dirt crater, taking with it the thick pressure. I stumbled, off balance with the lack of resistance, and savored a deep, easy breath. From the corner of my eye, I saw Gavin steady himself against a nearby beam, but Jacob didn’t appear to notice. He stalked the retreating energy, and I trailed behind him, ready to jump in. With as much power as the pooka wielded, it could cause untold damage in all our regions. Something had to be done to restrain it, but my heart constricted at the thought of killing it. Unless we absolutely had to, we didn’t kill hounds, because they could be rehabilitated, despite the total atrum of their souls. The pooka was at least half good. It deserved the same chance as a hound to be saved.
If it gave us a chance to save it.
Jacob reached the rim on the crater and stopped. I eased closer. Like a plug had been pulled, the last of the lux lucis and atrum circled the hollow ground and disappeared into the soil. The crater looked innocuous, just an enormous charcoal divot in the middle of a construction site. But all that energy hadn’t just disappeared; it still existed somewhere beneath the dirt’s surface.
I opened my mouth to ask Jacob what we should do, but I clamped my mouth shut when the loose dirt in the pit quivered, and pebbles shivered down the sides.
The pooka was rising.
* * *
At first, the movement was barely noticeable. A tremor went through the crater’s base; clumps of silt slid in a barely audible, gentle waterfall. Then it became a horror movie, where the vampire was clawing its way from its grave, rising hungry and ready to eat something.
Only the pooka was much, much worse.
Spikes stabbed through the ground first, pointed straight to the sky, and they kept coming, two white blades longer than I was tall. They curved in a gigantic arc, separated at their tips by a few feet, then swelling outward before wrapping back to either side of the creature’s face. Its massive head came next, a shaggy riot of contained atrum and lux lucis with a thick, snaking trunk.
Beyond the thick neck, the body ballooned larger and larger as it thrust into the air; then enormous feet broke free of the soil, flinging dirt in twin sprays. I shielded my face from the falling dirt, keeping my eyes locked on the point of origin. The base of the crater shook, but not as much as was warranted, as if the pooka wasn’t a fully formed creature buried beneath the surface, but one taking shape inches below the ground, displacing only the top layer of soil.
That’s it, Dice. Worry about the laws of physics.
With the rumble of a contained earthquake, colossal shoulders burst free, pulled upward by legs thicker than I could wrap my arms around. Even only partially emerged, the pooka was the largest creature I’d ever seen, its body a swirl of combined lux lucis and atrum. It dug into the crater with saucer feet, lowering its head as it strained to heave its lower half free from the dirt.
A fresh shower of loamy soil hit my head and shoulders from a wayward kick of its foot, and I backed up only far enough to keep dirt out of my eyes. The air filled with the rich odor of churned earth and a deeper, musky scent of fur and animal—the familiar-foreign smells an intoxicating mix. When I realized I’d stepped forward again, drawn by the pooka’s magnetism, I forced myself back and darted a glance around the garage.
Jacob circled the pooka until he faced it head-on. He raised the wide-mouthed gun, sighted down it, and fired. An enormous bright white net flared wide, then slapped the pooka in the face and fell across its shoulders, the long ends draping the ground where its body was still emerging.
Lux lucis sparked like electricity against the atrum swirls. The net may have resembled a jumbo-size hound net, but its size didn’t appear to enhance its strength. Enraged, the pooka bugled, throwing its head back and tangling its trunk in the holes of the net. With a massive surge and a thunderous, rattling pop, it cleared the surface of the earth; in another lunge, it scrambled free of the pit on all four feet.
My jaw dropped. At its crown, it had to be at least twice my height, probably taller. A kaleidoscope of atrum and lux lucis swirled in the thick, woolly hair covering the pooka’s body from the top of its head down its sloping back and all the way to its saucer-like feet. Yet unlike the vervet or prajurit, this wasn’t a foreign creature. Those weren’t blades protruding from its face but enormous tusks. The pooka was a woolly mammoth!
Seeing skeletons in a museum didn’t do mammoths justice. Add the girth of two elephants and fur, and the effect was dwarfing, awe inspiring, and terrifying. And beautiful.
The wildly sparking lux lucis net that had looked so enormous when the pooka was still half submerged didn’t stretch past its shoulders; even if Jacob could have reshot the net, it wouldn’t have covered the gigantic creature, not by half.
The pooka threw its trunk to the sky, rearing and releasing another earsplitting trumpet. When its front feet crashed to the ground, I braced my legs against the earth’s tremor. Beside me, the concrete beam quivered. The mammoth shook, sending hair and dust in every direction, and I buried my eyes in the crook of my elbow. When I lowered my arm, the net lay in a useless heap beside the pooka.
Going to one knee, Jacob spun the spear gun into his hands and aimed it at the mammoth’s chest.
I reached my hand out, ineffective. “No. I don’t think—”
The mammoth lowered its tusks and charged Jacob. The metal harpoon whistled down the shaft of the gun, the sound crystal clear between pounding footfalls. My ponytail whipped against my cheek as I tracked the spear’s flight, the sharp tip furrowing through thick hair along the mammoth’s side as if through air, before burrowing into the pooka’s enormous rump.
The mammoth barreled into Jacob. The enforcer lurched to the side, but one long tusk caught him in the leg. Like a cat with a mouse, the pooka plucked Jacob off the ground and tossed him over my head. He slammed against a concrete beam fifteen feet behind me and bounced to the ground beside his duffel bag.
I was running for Jacob before I remembered moving, but I craned to see the mammoth when it cried out and fell. The impact of its body hitting the ground threw me to my knees. I scrambled to my feet, torn between getting to Jacob and doing something—anything!—enforcerish to defend us from the mammoth.
A heavy click echoed through the structure. Jacob slumped against a beam, but he’d pulled a long rifle from the duffel bag to his lap, and he had it pointed straight at the mammoth’s forehead.
I had woken this morning beside the pit, soothed by a fluffy creature that could only have been this mammoth. The pooka had saved me from the equine-size imps. It had been calling me to it for the last three days, trying to reach out to me. It hadn’t done anything to harm me—or Jacob, until he’d tried to capture it, then shot it. The pooka wasn’t the problem.
Fury burned through my confusion, and on a burst of superhuman speed, I sprinted for Jacob and kicked the barrel of the rifle.
A shot blasted before the gun flew from Jacob’s hands to bounce across the hardened dirt. It must have made a loud clatter, but I couldn’t hear it. I spun to look at the pooka, expecting to see a gruesome wound and dying mammoth.
The mammoth trumpeted and thrashed where it had fallen earlier, but no blood marred its head or chest that I could see.
“Are you crazy?” Jacob yelled.
I stared, dumbstruck, at the blood soaking Jacob’s leg, turning slowly from bright lux lucis to charcoal gray. I’d never seen a wound in Primordium before, and it jarred me.
“Are you okay?” I shouted over the ringi
ng in my ears.
“You broke my fucking finger!” He started to push himself to his feet; then his mouth flattened and he dropped the few inches back to the ground. “Get me a fucking weapon. We need to take it out now, while it’s down.”
The pooka braced its front legs, half standing, before crying out in pain and collapsing back on its side. I winced and took a step toward it. From this angle, I couldn’t see the three-foot-long harpoon piercing its flank, but I knew its movement must be making the wound worse.
Gavin darted to crouch beside Jacob, his medical bag clutched under one arm. “Here. Press this over your leg.” Gavin held out a large gauze pad, and Jacob pressed the pad in place with his left hand. He cradled his right hand to his chest, and his pointer finger was already swelling. I hoped I hadn’t really broken it, but I didn’t feel any guilt. If anything, I felt guilty for not feeling bad. My thoughts weren’t making sense.
Gavin picked up the rifle and aimed it at the pooka.
“No!” I jumped in front of the barrel.
“Get out of the way, Madison.”
I stepped closer to the tip of the gun, my heart a frantic bird trying to take flight in my chest. Gavin glared at me. The pooka was wild and in pain, and even if it were in perfect health, it would still be the most dangerous creature in the room, yet I felt safe with it at my back.
“You can’t shoot it.”
“It just took down one enforcer. Do you want to be next?”
“Move, Madison,” Jacob growled.
“No.”
“Why not?” Gavin demanded. “Do you need more proof it’s dangerous? We need to take it out now.” He’d straightened from his crouch but lowered the gun so it pointed at the ground. I had a feeling he could raise the gun and pull off a shot before I could stop him, if he wanted to, but I tensed, ready to try if necessary.
“It’s not evil,” I said.
“Neither are citos, but we kill them,” Gavin said. “We wouldn’t tolerate a cito this large running around.”
“It’s not a cito.”
“It’s worse,” Jacob hissed, and leaned back. The gauze was already soaked through with blood. Gavin looked at him, and I saw the ME waver: The doctor in him wanted to tend to Jacob, but the enforcer in him wanted to eliminate the threat first. “You don’t know what you’re doing, Madison. Look at all the atrum. It’s evil.”
“Kill it,” Isabel said. She glowered at the pooka, fists clenched. “Kill it now.”
“You heard the warden,” Jacob said. “One shot between the eyes should do it.”
“No!” I grabbed for the gun in Gavin’s hands and he leapt back, bringing the weapon up. I shoved in front of him again and he cussed. Isabel started for Gavin, but Mr. Pitt blocked her with his body. Isabel snarled.
“Shoot it or hand me the gun,” she said.
Gavin ignored here. “Give me a good reason not to kill it,” he said, his glare boring into me.
“It’s not all evil,” I said. “Look at the lux lucis, Gavin. We don’t kill creatures that are partially good.”
“I’m not arguing with an inept girl.” Isabel drew herself up. “Gavin, you work in my region; you follow my orders. Kill the blasted monstrosity already.”
Gavin didn’t shift his gaze from mine or acknowledge Isabel’s commands. Still speaking to me, he said, “It attacked an enforcer.”
“Only after it was attacked,” I said.
“It put a fucking hole in my leg and tried to kill me. Put it down.”
“Over my dead body.”
My words rested in the silence until the wind picked at the edges of plastic and popped them against each other.
“Lower the gun, Gavin,” Mr. Pitt said. His voice carried the authority of a confident warden, not one whose job was perched on the chopping block.
Gavin lowered the gun, his eyes searching my face. I’d known the ME less than an hour, and I liked him; it didn’t hurt that he’d already saved my life. But I’d also calculated how fast I could draw and throw the knife at my belt to incapacitate him. I’d never contemplated physical assault against a person before. It wasn’t the way I thought, but I wouldn’t let him harm the pooka.
“She’s not thinking clearly,” Gavin said, addressing the wardens. “It could have imprinted on her.”
“Don’t be foolish. She’s too weak—”
Mr. Pitt scoffed at Isabel. “Are you blind? Of course it imprinted on her.”
15
Baby on Board
“Drop the gun, or this is going to get ugly,” Mr. Pitt said.
“You mean uglier.” Gavin frowned, but he handed the rifle to Mr. Pitt. Shaking his head, he crouched next to Jacob.
“What do you mean, ‘imprint’?” I asked.
Isabel clamped a hand on the rifle, trying to jerk it from Mr. Pitt’s grip. “I will not stand for this. It tried to kill my enforcer.”
“Your enforcer tried to trap an imprinted pooka.” Mr. Pitt yanked the rifle from her hand and emptied the cartridges on the ground.
“My enforcer’s the only one here doing his job.” Spit flew from Isabel’s mouth as she leaned close to scream at Mr. Pitt. “Madison doesn’t even know what a pooka is. She can’t handle her own region; there’s no way she can control this.” She flung a hand toward the downed mammoth.
I took a step back. My gaze ping-ponged between the tense wardens.
“She’s a fast learner,” Mr. Pitt said.
“Fast enough to poach a pooka in my region.” Isabel went from raging hot to scary frosty in two seconds.
“You’ve got to pick. Either she’s incompetent or she’s cunning. She can’t be both.”
“Of course she can. She’s got you for a warden.”
“I’m not incompetent or cunning,” I insisted. Admitting Isabel was right and I didn’t know what a pooka was would be counterproductive. Which meant now I couldn’t ask.
“Everything will be better once the pooka stabilizes,” Mr. Pitt said, ignoring me.
“I evoke a council,” Isabel said.
Gavin’s head shot up, startled. I glanced back and forth between the wardens, sure I’d missed something. “I witness,” Gavin said, turning back to Jacob.
“We’ll need a third, but we’ll do it in my region,” Mr. Pitt said. Isabel started to protest, but he talked over her. “My enforcer, my region.”
Isabel crossed her arms, expression seething. Her head jerked in a sharp nod. “I want the pooka removed now.”
Mr. Pitt’s smile came and went almost too fast to see. “Done. We’ll move it to my region immediately.”
“We can’t move it. It’s injured. It can’t walk.” Not to mention people were bound to notice a mammoth walking the streets of Roseville.
Everyone ignored me.
“Council will convene in the parking lot of my office in a half hour.” Mr. Pitt stalked over to one edge of the garage. Isabel squatted beside Jacob, turning her back on me and the pooka.
I remained standing, hands still raised to fend off the gun no longer pointed at the pooka. What just happened? More important, what did they mean the pooka had imprinted on me? For that matter, did anyone want to explain how the pooka had solidified out of lux lucis and atrum? Anyone? Anyone at all?
There was one person with all the answers. I waited a moment to make sure no one was going to tell me what to do; then I walked a few feet closer to the pooka.
“Shh, I know it hurts. I’m going to help you,” I said. “I just need to figure a few things out.”
Large eyes of spinning vortices of white and black tracked my movements. I looked away before the pooka hypnotized me.
Loosening the strap around Val, I pulled him out and dusted off his spine.
“How are you doing, Val?” I asked. I really wanted to jump straight to my questions, but I didn’t want to risk alienating Val. Plus, he’d been with me through the whole crazy evening. He was liable to feel fragile, especially in the presence of the pooka. I prayed he hadn’t fainte
d again.
I’m not bored.
Soft sarcasm. We were in business. “You’re okay?”
I could use a polish and a good cleaning, but who doesn’t like a little dirt in their binding every once in a while?
I took that as a yes. “Sorry about the vervet swallowing us.”
It was informative.
I waited for complaints, but Val let the words fade back to a blank page. I wanted to thank him for not making my crazy night harder, but I couldn’t think of a way to do so without offending him. “Do you need any lux lucis?” I wasn’t sure it worked that way, but I’d happily give the book some energy if it could use it.
I feel as good as the day I was pressed. You?
I glanced toward Jacob. Gavin had cut away the enforcer’s bloody pants and wrapped his leg. Isabel stood beside them, on the phone. I swung around to look at the pooka. It twisted to reach for its flank, the long trunk falling well short of the spear. The sight of Jacob’s wound made my legs feel funny. The pooka’s pain made my heart ache.
“Confused,” I finally said. “Can you tell me anything about pookas?”
Yes. They’re deleterious to enforcers and hazardous to handbooks. They should be avoided.
“Let’s say that’s not possible.”
If you’d brought me with you last night, I could have warned you away before it imprinted on you. But the ink’s dried on that deal.
I veered away from the potential argument. “Can you start with how it’s possible that it’s solid? It was pure Primordium energy just twenty minutes ago.”
Whoa. Okay. Let me flip back to the basics of the basics. You do realize I’m lux lucis, right?
“Sure.” The pages glowed white. The book had a brain. The higher levels of lux lucis magic were clearly at work in Val.
Illuminea are solid, too. They came from lux lucis.
“I thought that was figurative. Like little girls being made from sugar and spice and everything nice.”
Val’s first page remained blank, but the bottom edges of the paper curled up, fluttering. That’s funny.
“You’re laughing at me?”
A Fistful of Fire: An Urban Fantasy Novel (Madison Fox, Illuminant Enforcer Book 2) Page 22
