Huntress, Black Dawn, Witchlight

by L. J. Smith

  “Anyway, it worked out,” Nissa said. “Apparently, the dragon blew the house down on top of you, but then he walked right over you trying to get to us.”

  “Yeah. I was kind of hoping he wouldn’t realize Galen was there,” Keller said. “Or wouldn’t realize he was important.”

  “Well, when he found we’d already gotten away in the limo, he and his buddies took after us in cars,” Winnie said. “But Nissa lost them. And then Iliana…insisted, and so we circled back. And there you were. Galen and Toby were digging you out. We helped them and brought you here.”

  “What about Grandma Harman?”

  “She came out of it without a scratch. She’s tougher than she looks,” Winnie said.

  “She talked to Iliana’s mom last night,” Nissa added. “She fixed everything up so we can stay here. You’re supposed to be a distant cousin, and the rest of us are your friends. We’re from Canada. We graduated last year, and we’re touring the U.S. by bus. We ran into Iliana last night, and that’s why she was late. It’s all covered, nice and neat.”

  “It’s all ludicrous,” Keller said. She looked at Iliana. “And it’s time to stop. Haven’t you seen enough yet? That’s twice you’ve been attacked by a monster. Do you really want to try your luck for a third time?”

  It was a mistake. Iliana’s face had been sweet and anxious, but now Keller could see the walls slam down. The violet eyes hazed over and sparked at the same time.

  “Nobody attacked me until you guys came!” Iliana flared. “In fact, nobody’s attacked me so far at all. I think it’s you people they’re after—or maybe Galen. I keep telling you that I’m not the one you’re looking for.”

  This was the time for diplomacy, but Keller was too exasperated to think. “You don’t really believe that. Unless you practice being stupid—”

  “Stop calling me stupid!” The last word was a piercing shriek. At the same time, Iliana threw something at Keller. She batted it out of the air automatically before it could hit.

  “I’m not stupid! And I’m not your Witch Child or whatever you call it! I’m just a normal kid, and I like my life. And if I can’t live my life, then I don’t want to—to do anything.” She whirled around and stalked out, her nightgown billowing.

  Keller stared at the missile she’d caught. It was a stuffed lamb with outrageously long eyelashes and a pink ribbon tied around its white neck.

  Nissa folded her arms. “Well, you sure handled that one, Boss.”

  “Give me a break.” Keller tossed the lamb onto the window seat. “And just how did she make you two turn around and come back for us, by the way?

  Winnie pursed her lips. “You heard it. Volume control. She kept screaming like—well, I don’t know what screams like that. You’d be surprised how effective it is.”

  “You’re agents of Circle Daybreak; you’re supposed to be immune to torture.” But Keller dropped the subject. “What are you still hanging around for?” she added, as she swung her feet out of bed and carefully tried her legs. “You’re supposed to stick with her, even when she’s in the house. Don’t stand here staring at me.”

  “You’re welcome for putting you back together again,” Winnie said, her eyes on the ceiling. In the doorway, she turned and added, “And, you know, it wasn’t Galen she kept screaming we had to go back and get last night. It was you, Keller.”

  Keller stared at the door as it shut, bewildered.

  “You can’t go to school,” Keller hissed. “Do you hear me? You cannot go to school.”

  They were all sitting around the kitchen table. Iliana’s mother, a lovely woman with a knot of platinum hair coiled on her neck, was making breakfast. She seemed slightly anxious about her four new houseguests, but in a pleasantly excited way. She certainly wasn’t suspicious. Grandma Harman had done a good job of brainwashing.

  “We’re going to have a wonderful Christmas,” she said now, and her angelic smile grew brighter. “We can go into Winston-Salem for a Christmas and Candle Tea. Have you ever had a Moravian sugar-cake? I just wish Great-Aunt Edgith had been able to stay.”

  Grandma Harman was gone. Keller didn’t know whether to be relieved or frustrated. Despite what she kept saying, as long as the old woman was around, Keller would worry about her. But with her gone, there was nobody to appeal to, nobody who could order Iliana into safekeeping.

  So now they were sitting and having this argument. It looked like such a normal breakfast scene, Keller thought dryly. Iliana’s father had already left for work. Her mother was bustling around cheerfully. Her little brother was in a high chair making a mess with Cheerios. Too bad that the four nicely dressed teenagers at the table were actually two shapeshifters, a witch, and a vampire.

  Galen was directly opposite Keller. There were shadows under his eyes—had anyone gotten any sleep last night?—and he seemed subdued but relaxed. Keller hadn’t had a chance to speak to him since the dragon’s attack.

  Not that she had anything to say.

  “Orange juice, Kelly?”

  “No, thank you, Mrs. Dominick.” That was what this family thought their last name was. They didn’t realize that witches trace their heritage through the female line and that both Iliana and her mother were therefore Harmans.

  “Oh, please, call me Aunt Anna,” the woman said. She had her daughter’s violet eyes and the smile of an angel. She was also pouring Keller juice.

  Now I see where Iliana gets her scintillating intelligence, Keller thought. “Oh—thanks, Aunt Anna. And, actually, it’s Keller, not Kelly.”

  “How unusual. But it’s nice, so modern.”

  “It’s my last name, but that’s what everybody calls me.”

  “Oh, really? What’s your first name?”

  Keller broke off a piece of toast, feeling uncomfortable. “Raksha.”

  “But that’s beautiful! Why don’t you use it?”

  Keller shrugged. “I just don’t.” She could see Galen looking at her. Shapeshifters usually were named for their animal forms, but neither Keller nor Raksha fit the pattern. “I was abandoned as a kid,” she said in a clipped voice, looking back at Galen. Iliana’s mother wouldn’t be able to make anything of this, but she might as well satisfy the princeling’s curiosity. “So I don’t know my real last name. But my first name means ‘demon.’”

  Iliana’s mother paused with the juice carton over Nissa’s glass. “Oh. How…nice. Well, then, I see.” She blinked a couple of times and walked off without pouring Nissa any juice.

  “So what does Galen mean?” Keller said, holding his gaze challengingly and handing her full glass to Nissa.

  He smiled—a little wryly—for the first time since sitting down. “‘Calm.’”

  Keller snorted. “It figures.”

  “I like Raksha better.”

  Keller didn’t answer. With “Aunt Anna” safely in the kitchen, she could speak again to Iliana. “You understood before, right? That you can’t go to school.”

  “I have to go to school.” For somebody who looked as if she were made of spun glass, Iliana ate a lot. She spoke around a mouthful of microwave pancake.

  “It’s out of the question. How can we go with you? What are we supposed to be, for Goddess’s sake?”

  “My long-lost cousin from Canada and her friends,” Iliana said indistinctly. “Or you can all be exchange students who’re here to study our American educational system.” Before Keller could say anything, she added, “Hey, how come you guys aren’t at school? Don’t you have schools?”

  “We’ve got the same ones you do,” Winnie said. “Except Nissa—she graduated last year. But Keller and I are seniors like you. We just take time off for this stuff.”

  “I bet your grades are as bad as mine,” Iliana said unemotionally. “Anyway, I have to go to school this week. There are all sorts of class parties and things. You can come. It’ll be fun.”

  Keller wanted to hit her with the pot of grits.

  She had a problem, though. Iliana’s little brother Alex
had escaped from his high chair and was climbing up her leg. She looked down at him uneasily. She wasn’t good with family-type things, and she especially wasn’t good with children.

  “Okay,” she said. “Go on back and sit down.” She peeled him off and tried to start him in the right direction.

  He turned around and put his arms up. “Kee-kee. Kee-kee.”

  “That’s his word for ‘kitty,’” Iliana’s mother said, coming in with a plate of sausages. She ruffled his white-blond hair. “You mean Kelly, Kelly,” she told him.

  “‘Keller, Keller,’” Winnie corrected helpfully.

  Alex climbed into Keller’s lap, grabbed her hair, and hoisted himself into a standing position. She found herself looking into huge violet baby eyes. Witch eyes.

  “Kee-kee,” he said flatly, and gave her a sloppy kiss on the cheek.

  Winnie grinned. “Having trouble?”

  The kid had two chubby arms around Keller’s neck now and was nudging her chin with his head like a kitten looking for pets. He had a good grip, too. This time, she couldn’t peel him off.

  “It’s just—distracting,” she said, giving up and petting him awkwardly. It was ridiculous. How could she argue with baby giggles in her ears?

  “You look kind of sweet together,” Iliana observed. “I’m getting dressed for school now. You guys can do whatever you want.”

  She floated off while Keller was trying to think of a reply.

  Nissa and Winnie hastily followed her. Galen got up to help Iliana’s mother with the dishes.

  Keller tugged at the baby, who clung like a sloth. Maybe there was shapeshifter blood in this family.

  “Kee-kee…pui!” That was what it sounded like.

  “Pwee?” Keller glanced nervously at his diaper.

  “He means ‘pretty,’” Iliana’s mother said, coming back in. “It’s funny. He doesn’t usually take to people like that. He likes animals better.”

  “Oh. Well, he has good taste,” Keller said. She finally succeeded in detaching him and gave him back to his mother. Then she started down the hallway after Iliana, muttering, “Too bad about his eyesight.”

  “I think his eyesight’s just fine,” Galen said, right behind her.

  Keller turned, realizing they were alone in the hall.

  His faint smile faded. “I really wanted to talk to you,” he said.

  CHAPTER 7

  Keller faced him squarely.

  “Yes, sir? Or should I say ‘my lord’?”

  He flinched but tried to hide it. “I should have told you in the beginning.”

  Keller wasn’t about to get into a discussion of it. “What do you want?”

  “Can we go in there?” He nodded toward what looked like a small library-office combination.

  Keller didn’t want to, but she couldn’t think of any acceptable reason to refuse. She followed him and crossed her arms when he closed the door.

  “You saved my life.” He wasn’t quite facing her; he was looking out the window at a cold silver sky. Against it, he had a profile like a young prince on an ancient coin.

  Keller shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not. The bricks didn’t kill me; maybe they wouldn’t have killed you.”

  “But you were trying to save my life. I did something that was probably stupid—again—and you had to cover for me.”

  “I did it because it’s my job, Galen. That’s what I do.”

  “You got hurt because of me. When I dug myself out of that rubble, I thought you were dead.” He said it flatly, without any particular intonation. But the hairs on Keller’s arms rose.

  “I’ve got to get back to Iliana.”

  “Keller.”

  There was something wrong with her. She was facing the door, heading out, but his voice stopped her in her tracks.

  “Keller. Please.”

  She was aware that he was coming up behind her.

  Her entire skin was up in gooseflesh. She was too aware of him, that was the problem. She could feel the air that he displaced. She could feel his heat.

  He just stood there.

  “Keller. Ever since I first saw you…” He stopped and tried again. “You were—gleaming. All that long black hair swirling around you and those silvery eyes. And then you changed. I don’t think I ever really understood what it meant to be a shapeshifter until I saw that. You were a girl and then you were a cat, but you were always both.” He let out his breath. “I’m putting this badly.”

  Keller needed to think of something to say—now. But she couldn’t, and she couldn’t seem to move.

  “When I saw that, for the first time, I wanted to shapeshift. Before that, I didn’t really care, and everyone was always telling me to be careful, because whatever shape I choose the first time is the one I’m stuck with. But that’s not what I’m trying to say. I’m trying…”

  He reached out. Keller felt the warmth of his hand between her shoulder blades, through her hair, through the fabric of her spare jumpsuit.

  Keller shivered.

  She couldn’t help it. She felt so strange. Dizzy and supernaturally clear at the same time. Weak.

  She didn’t know what was happening to her, only that it was powerful and terrible.

  His hand remained on her back, warmth from it soaking into her skin.

  “I realize how much you dislike me,” Galen said quietly. There was no self-pity in his voice, but he seemed to be getting the words out painfully. “And I’m not going to try to change that. But I just wanted you to know, I also realize what you’ve done for me. I needed to say thank you.” There was something swelling in Keller’s chest like a balloon. Bigger and bigger. She clamped her lips together, frightened as she had never been when fighting monsters.

  “And…I won’t forget it,” Galen was going on, still quiet. “Someday, I’ll find a way to repay you.”

  Keller felt desperate. What was he doing to her? She wasn’t in control of herself; she was trembling and terrified that the thing in her chest was going to escape.

  All she could imagine doing was turning around and hitting him, like a trapped animal lashing out at someone trying to rescue it.

  “It’s so strange,” he said, and Keller had the feeling that he had almost forgotten her and was talking to himself. “When I was growing up, I rejected the Power of my family. All my ancestors, they were supposed to turn into demons when they unleashed it. I thought that it was better not to fight—if that was possible. It seems unrealistic now.”

  Keller could feel more than warmth now. There were little electrical zings spreading out from his hand, running down the insides of her arms. Not real ones, of course. Not the Power he was talking about, like the Power used by the dragon or Winnie. But it felt awfully close. Her whole body was filled with buzzing.

  Some people shouldn’t have to fight, she thought giddily. But, no, that was insane. Everybody had to fight; that was what life was about. If you didn’t fight, you were weak. You were prey.

  He was still talking in that abstracted tone. “I know you think—”

  Keller’s panic hit flashpoint. She whirled around. “You don’t know anything about what I think. You don’t know anything about me. I don’t know whatever gave you the idea that you did.”

  He looked startled but not defensive. The silver light behind him lit the edges of his fine hair.

  “I’m sorry,” he said gently.

  “Stop being sorry!”

  “Are you saying I’m wrong? You don’t think I’m a spoiled and pampered prince who doesn’t know anything about real life and has to be baby-sat?”

  Keller was disconcerted. That was exactly what she thought—but if it were true, then why did she have this strange feeling of falling?

  “I think you’re like her,” she said, keeping her words short and brutal to keep them under control. She didn’t need to specify the her. “You’re like this whole ridiculous family. Happy mommy, happy baby, happy Christmas. They’re ready to love everybody who comes along. And they’re l
iving in a happy happy idealistic world that has nothing to do with reality.”

  The corner of his mouth turned up wryly, although his eyes were still serious. “I think that’s what I said.”

  “And it sounds harmless, doesn’t it? But it isn’t. It’s blind and destructive. What do you want to bet that Iliana’s mother really thinks my name is Kelly now? She can’t deal with it being ‘demon,’ so she just happily changes the world to fit.”

  “You could be right.” He wasn’t smiling at all now, and there was something in his eyes, something lost and hopeless that made Keller feel more panicked than ever.

  She spoke savagely to hold off the fear. “You want to know what real life is like? My mother left me in a cardboard box in a parking lot. It was fixed up with newspapers inside, like something you’d use for a puppy. That was because I couldn’t wear diapers, I was stuck in my halfway form—a baby with a tail and ears like a cat. Maybe that was why she couldn’t deal with me, but I’ll never know. The only thing I have of hers is a note that was in the box. I kept it.”

  Keller fumbled in the jumpsuit’s pocket. She had never meant to show this to anyone, certainly not somebody she’d known for less than twenty-four hours. But she had to convince Galen; she had to make him go away for good.

  Her wallet was slim—no photos, just money and ID. She pulled out a folded slip of paper, with creases worn smooth by time and writing that had faded from blue ink to pale purple. Its right edge was a ragged tear, but the words were on the left and clear enough.

  “It was her legacy to me,” Keller said. “She was trying to pass on the truth, what she’d learned about life.”

  Galen took the paper as if it were a hurt bird.

  Keller watched his eyes move over it. She knew the words by heart, of course, and right now she heard them ringing in her mind. There were only twelve of them—her mother had been a master of succinctness.

  People die…

  Beauty fades…