“Where did you go?” I asked.
He shook his head. “I’m not sure. Somewhere nearby, I think.”
“So, that thing helps you teleport like a bigfoot?”
“I don’t know. They must’ve figured out how the bigfoots actually do it and then mimicked it somehow.” He looked at the device with something like admiration.
When we returned to our site, Caroline was sitting on the bench by the fire pit, gnawing on a chicken bone. At least, I think it was a chicken bone. She glanced at us as we approached and tossed the bone into the ashes.
“Where are they?” I asked.
“Who?” She sucked on her teeth.
Nathan approached her with an expression of pure rage. She had a cocky expression on her face that shifted to greed when he held up the artifact. She wiped her hands together and stood.
“Give it.” The wordiness she’d adopted when we’d captured her before gone. This was the Caroline I was used to—the vulgar, obviously off-her-gourd one.
“We want the band members and the bigfoots,” Nathan said.
She shook her head and laughed. “You can have the humans.”
“No deal.” He turned to walk away.
“You think you can escape us, Hero?”
Nathan turned back, drew his handgun, and put the barrel to her forehead. “You think I don’t know how to dispose of a body?”
“Go ahead. You’ll never find your friends. And how do you think the rest of the Council will respond when they discover what you’ve done?”
“The thing about disposing of a body, well, is nobody finds out what you’ve done,” Nathan said. “And you think I give two fucks about the Council?”
“Yes,” she said, “I do. Because without the Council you’re just a vigilante.”
“Here’s my question,” Nathan said. “How many on the Council, do you think, know what you’re doing?”
Her face stiffened for just a moment, but it was enough.
Nathan nodded. “So if I ask them about it, they’re all in support of you endangering the entire population of a self-aware species?”
“Go ahead,” she said. “But by the time you call a meeting, your friends will be dead.”
Emily gasped at that. She’d spent this interaction looking from one to the other of us, lost as to what was going on.
Nathan nodded. “That’s all I needed to hear.” He showed her the artifact, again. “Take me to them.”
“Us,” I said. “Take me and Nathan to them.”
“And me,” Emily added, puffing her chest out.
“You should stay here,” I said.
“No way. Besides, I’m pre-vet. You might need me.”
Caroline ignored our sidebar. “For the artifact,” she said.
“That’s the deal,” Nathan said.
She grinned, wiped her hands, and stood. “You drive.”
* * *
I thought Nathan’s driving might be a tactical advantage because it could put anyone off guard: the way he didn’t turn until the exact last moment and then swerved, sometimes across two lanes; the way he didn’t seem to see traffic lights until the very last moment and then sometimes still ignored them; and the way he would slowly angle in the direction of whoever he was talking to or whatever he was talking about as he drove. It certainly made it difficult for me to concentrate, but Caroline didn’t seem in the least bit fazed. She just sat in the back, staring out the window like a dog tonguing the breeze.
She let Nathan drive out of the park without any guidance. He turned left at a fork in the road and she didn’t speak so he kept going. We drove along for a couple miles, but Caroline didn’t say a word. Once, she cleared her throat, and the car ran off the road while Nathan looked to her to give some instruction, but it never came. Finally, after we drove a couple more miles, she spoke.
“Left.”
He swerved onto a gravel road and continued driving. I imagine we all let out an entreaty to our own personal saviors. I know I showed the Flying Spaghetti Monster some love. Eventually we came into a small town. I thought she might be taking us to a warehouse or even a storage building, but we drove straight through town and didn’t stop. After a mile or so passed with no more buildings, only a few houses, she spoke again.
“Right.”
That’s how it went for the next forty-five minutes. The gravel road eventually became dirt, and she had us take an overgrown track that looked like deer didn’t even use it. The track dead-ended in trees and brush. Nathan slowed to a stop.
“Here,” Caroline said.
We got out and walked through the underbrush to the outline of a clearly abandoned building.
“Is this a barn?” I asked.
“Used to be.” Caroline stared straight ahead.
“Are they inside?” Emily asked, but no one answered her.
We approached the building and Caroline held up her hand. She led us through the weeds and saplings around to the back. She slid open a creaky door to reveal an empty room. It reminded me a lot of the building I’d first been taken to by the Council in Baltimore.
“Step where I step,” she said.
“She means it,” I said to Emily. “Exactly where she steps.”
Emily nodded.
We followed Caroline into the empty barn. She slid the door closed behind us, then led us four feet to the left and then another two steps into the center of the room. She slid open a trapdoor I hadn’t seen before and led us down a rickety staircase.
“This place smells like the state fair,” I said as we climbed down.
* * *
I don’t know if Nathan was devising some clever plan during this, but I sure as hell wasn’t. I just hoped we didn’t all die.
We came out in a tunnel that led us to a large, square room full of bigfoots. I assume they were the ones from the cave, laid out on tables, hooked up to all kinds of hospital-looking equipment. Emily started to dart toward them but I stopped her.
Caroline pointed. “The Beatles wannabes are in the other room.”
“Let them go,” Nathan said.
“Let the bigfoots go too,” Emily added.
“And us. Let us go too,” I said.
Caroline spit and wiped her chin. “I wasn’t aware you were the boss of me.”
“Take me to the band,” Nathan said.
Caroline put her hand to her ear.
Nathan stared at her and then scoffed. “Please.”
Caroline revealed black teeth and gaps that had once been possibly some even darker shade of black in a smile. She waved us after her.
There was a jail cell in the next room like the one I’d been in. Quasi, C Note, and Bevan were all behind the bars. They stood when they saw us.
“Are you guys OK?” I reached through the bars and held Quasi’s hand.
“C Note!” Emily ran to grab him in a hug through the bars.
“Yeah, we’re fine,” Quasi said. “What the hell is going on?”
Before anyone could attempt to explain, Nathan disappeared and then reappeared inside the cage. He put his arms around Quasi and teleported. They returned for a moment in the room with the bigfoots and then disappeared again.
Caroline calmly dug a key out of her pocket and unlocked the cage.
Nathan reappeared, snatched C Note out of Emily’s arms, and disappeared.
Caroline grabbed Emily by the shoulders.
“No!” She tried to twist out of Caroline’s grasp, but Caroline shoved her back, away from the cage. Emily fell but quickly clambered to her feet.
“Are you OK?” I asked Emily.
She nodded. “That bitch is strong.”
Caroline didn’t seem to notice. She stepped into the cage, drew a locket—the same one I’d seen her use on Slips in Shit—out of another pocket, and held it to Bevan’s head. He flinched and tried to pull away.
“Hold it.” She held the thing against his head. “One more move and I’ll fry your brains.”
Nathan reapp
eared and went down on one knee, gasping for breath.
“Nice try, Nathan,” Caroline said. “And thanks for testing the artifact for me. Now hand it over, or I kill this one.”
Nathan paused and then held out the artifact.
“On the ground.”
Nathan set it down. There was blood leaking from his nose. He did a funny thing, then, I thought. He discretely wiped some of it off, closed it in his hand, and wiped it on the artifact. I glanced at Caroline but she didn’t seem like she’d noticed.
Caroline moved behind Bevan and pushed him toward the door. He resisted and didn’t budge.
“Move, or I’ll end you and your friends.”
He stepped out and over the artifact.
“Stop there.”
Bevan grudgingly stopped. He was between Nathan and Caroline. Caroline squatted down and picked up the artifact.
“On second thought, you can have the bigfoots. We don’t need them anymore.” She disappeared. I guess Nathan’s blood-wiping trick hadn’t worked.
We were all quiet for a moment until Nathan broke the silence. “Shit!”
* * *
Nathan had teleported Quasi and C Note outside, so after Caroline left, I ran and got them to help us. It took all of us about an hour to unhook the bigfoots and carry them outside. There were a dozen of them. A couple of them woke up pretty quickly and were able to help us with the others. A few could only limp outside with support. There were three we unhooked but couldn’t seem to rouse. Emily tried everything she could think of. Their pulses were weak, which she discovered by comparing theirs with a healthier bigfoot’s. Luckily for her, Nathan found rubber gloves for Emily in a cabinet that kept her from getting zapped with a head full of memories every time she touched a bigfoot.
“This is so fucked up. What should we do?” Quasi asked after we had them outside.
“The injured need help,” I said. “We need Grandma bigfoot.” The bigfoots were nursing their wounds and resting. I went over to one—a female.
“Hi. Can you possibly communicate with Grandma bigfoot?” I visualized the image of the elderly bigfoot.
Her eyes went wide, but otherwise, she didn’t respond. I tried a new tack. “What’s your name? Mine is Daisy.” I visualized the flower, though, to be honest, I might have gotten the wrong flower. She didn’t answer for a long moment, and then, almost tentatively, an image of a waterfall appeared in my mind.
“Waterfall?” I asked.
She shook her head. I closed my eyes and concentrated. It was a moving image. As the water fell, mist rose and wreathed the water. Flowers and trees ringed the pool. “Mist Rising from the Waterfall?”
She cocked her head to the side and then nodded, accepting the translation, more or less.
“Mist Rising from the Waterfall, I don’t know what’s been done to you here, but I assure you we weren’t responsible. We’re trying to help. Look into my mind, and you can see that that’s true.” I pointed to the three bigfoots lying on the ground. Some of the other bigfoots were pacing around, anxious and jittery. The nearest watched me with scared eyes. “Please,” I said. “Ask her to come.”
She eyed me flatly and didn’t respond. Emily came up. Mist Rising from the Waterfall looked at Emily’s gloves a long time.
“These individuals need help, and it’s beyond our abilities,” Emily said. “Look into my mind. See, I helped two of your friends before. And the old, sacred lady let me help her. See?”
While she was trying to convince Mist Rising from the Waterfall, I noticed a couple of the bigfoots were congregating near the building. They squatted down on their haunches in a circle. I heard something—that wasn’t quite right, because I didn’t hear it with my ears, but a song appeared in my head.
“It’s a dirge,” Nathan said. “For the fallen. This is a sacred place now.”
The other bigfoots—the ones who were awake—joined the singers. What they “sang” was a melodic series of images that was something like the visual equivalent of a chant. It took me a long moment to realize they were memories of dead bigfoots, flashing through our minds. I had a shock as I realized that they were letting us hear or see or whatever. It was an honor, I thought. We were part of the sacred place. I looked at Quasi who had his hands on his temples. He grinned at me and pointed at his head. I realized he was seeing it too, as were the rest of the bandmates.
I honestly have no idea how long the dirge went on. When the bigfoots finished, they stood. Some of the males picked up the unconscious bigfoots. Mist Rising from the Waterfall gave Emily and me a worried smile. She reached and touched our cheeks. It was like being slapped. We saw the bigfoots taking their unconscious fellows far away, into the mountains, and beyond. We saw them meeting up with Grandma bigfoot. The image shifted back to the building, and we saw it become overgrown, disappearing, fading into lost memories.
“You’re not coming back here,” I said.
She shook her head.
“You shouldn’t. It’s too dangerous,” Emily said. She was nodding but there were tears in her eyes. “I’m so sorry for what was done to you. If there was anything more I could’ve done, I’m sorry I didn’t do it.”
Mist Rising from the Waterfall touched us both again, and I heard something like a song, again, but this time, the images were of Emily and me and Nathan and the others. They were stories being shared among the bigfoots, I guess, of the decent humans they’d met.
She withdrew her hands, and I bowed because I didn’t know what else to do. Emily and I were both crying at that point.
Nathan touched Mist Rising from the Waterfall’s arm. His eyes flashed, and though I didn’t have any idea what he was telling her, I knew it wasn’t anything good for Caroline.
When he finished, he stepped back. I didn’t realize the other bigfoots had gone—I didn’t know if that had just happened or if they had left while we were distracted—but Mist Rising from the Waterfall was the only one left. She nodded at Emily and me and mimicked my bow to Nathan.
“Tell them Nathan Venator has made the vow.” Nathan’s eyes darkened with anger. She nodded and reached her long arm out to pat him on the shoulder as she turned away. It was the first move I’d seen from her that didn’t look exactly human. And then she was gone.
* * *
We took Quasi and C Note and Bevan back to their tour bus. We pulled up a little before it to say our goodbyes before the roadies could mob them. Nathan and Bevan remained by the jeep, eyeing each other. Emily and C Note went off to play tonsil hockey. I took Quasi’s hand and led him a little away from the car to talk. And by talk, I mean that we made out.
“So, uh, we should keep in touch,” I said, when we came up for air.
Quasi nodded. “Yeah, next time we’re in Baltimore, I’ll be sure to look you up.” He looked around. There was no one within earshot. “Or next time I need a vampire disposed of.”
“You promised you wouldn’t tell anybody,” I said.
He gave me a serious look. “I won’t. Besides, nobody would believe me if I did.”
I laughed. “You believed me.”
“What can I say? I’m a sucker for a pretty face.”
I smiled, and before he could run away to fame and world travel, I grabbed his face, brought it close, and kissed him as well as I could so he’d remember me. He stiffened for a moment from the vehemence of it but then relaxed. I won’t say the Earth moved, but I definitely felt a flutter in my chest.
When we disengaged, he kept his eyes closed for a split second, which was sexy as hell. After he opened them, he smiled. It was contagious. I reached in his pocket, got his cell phone, and put my number in.
“Call me, OK?” I wanted to cry, which was stupid, but that didn’t stop the feeling.
“Yeah.” From the way his eyes watered, he felt the same way. “If I run into anymore bigfoots, I’ll let you know.”
I laughed even though I didn’t want to.
We took our time returning to the jeep, but eventually we
did get there. I hated that jeep because it meant we were about to separate. C Note and Emily wandered back, hand in hand.
“I don’t mean to sound like a hard ass,” Nathan began, “but you saw what happened to those bigfoots. All so that some crazy scientists could develop a teleportation device. Maybe that sounds fine to you because they weren’t humans, but take into account that the same people had no qualms about locking you up too.
“That’s what’s at stake, here. Not just creatures like the bigfoots, but regular people. You can’t talk about this stuff. You can’t write songs about it. Not in a serious way. Even though it might seem cool to you, you would be doing immeasurable harm.”
Emily, Quasi, C Note, and Bevan were silent for a moment.
“We get it,” Quasi said. C Note nodded.
Bevan spoke for what I think was the first time since I’d met him. “When Oppenheimer saw the destruction that would be possible because of the nuclear bomb he’d created, he said, ‘I am become Shiva, destroyer of worlds.’ He’d worked, as a scientist, as a patriot, but he realized he hadn’t taken into account his own humanity.” He looked from Quasi to C Note. “We’ll hide the secret, and we’ll make sure our friends hide it.”
“Thank you,” Nathan said.
Quasi nodded toward the bus. “You guys should head out before we get mobbed.”
I nodded. The band members waved one last good-bye and walked off.
Nathan glanced at us. “Time to go?”
“You drive,” Emily said to Nathan. “I need a minute after everything.” We climbed in. Nathan backed the jeep away, and we settled into silence, interrupted by the occasional gasp of terror as Nathan did his very best to run over everything in sight.
I turned to Emily to avoid seeing what Nathan was doing. “So what do you think about our first festival together, roommate?”
She shook her head. “I think I might start listening to classical music.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Tall, Dark and Hairy (The Necro-Files Book 3) Page 12
