by P. S. Power
“I... Don't normally have issues like this. Um...” For a moment Jake considered just not saying anything, but that felt like cheating or something. Cam had watched the event and saw his reaction. She deserved to understand why.
Didn't she?
“They were... My parents. This is, was, the family shop. My old house is back that way, down the hall.” He gestured to the left. “Pipes and fittings over there. Here...”
He found what they needed pretty easily. Then he selected several more and bagged up about twenty pounds of spikes, and large nails no one had touched for some reason. They'd work with the smaller logs, he figured. Cam just watched him, not moving for a while.
At first he thought it was about him being a spaz, or admitting to weakness or something stupid like that, but then he noticed that her eyes were shut.
Getting ready to teleport? It seemed right. After about five minutes he just went and stood by her, not knowing what to do. Jake didn't speak, but did take her right hand in his left, holding the fittings and everything awkwardly in the crook of the other arm when she put it out.
“Close your eyes.” She said.
He did. After a second he could smell dirt. Then he felt the wind on his face. That wasn't enough to get him to open his eyes, until he heard a gasp.
“Jake?” The voice wasn't familiar, not really. It got him to open his eyes.
Becky Fines stood with a half dozen women, gaping at them. Cam had brought them back right in front of the back porch. Handy. The girl opened her own eyes and looked around.
“Not the best spot to come in at, if we wanted to hide, but it worked. Let's make sure that pipe thing is going to do the trick. If I need to go back I'm taking you with me.”
Jake nodded, really hoping that wouldn't be needed. Becky stared and so did the others.
“Jake... where did you, I mean how, you just popped in, I saw it, didn't I?” She looked like someone had hit her in the stomach, but Jake just shrugged.
“It's Cam's power. Teleportation. I don't know the specifics yet, but it works. No big thing. It's like how Sammi can see in the dark, or Vickie can just walk off a bullet wound to the middle.” No one moved, staring at the bright red haired girl then. Like she was a freak. Instead of a very convenient person to have on their side.
“Or, you know, your ability to not be noticed, Becky. Almost everyone here is special. Don't let it turn into something scary. Roll with it. It wouldn't surprise me if most of you show something odd like that soon. If so, please get with Sammi at the House and let her know.”
He didn't really know if Becky had that power. Her sister had, so it might happen. She glared at him, but then, she did that a lot. It was her go-to expression, in general and not just with him, so he didn't take it personally.
“How did you know about that? I haven't told anyone.” She blurted it out harshly enough that attention turned to her.
“Ah, well, Tammy had the same thing.” Jake really didn't want to say more about that, and thankfully, other than a muttered “oh” Becky didn't insist on knowing more.
On the good side, the new fittings worked. Perfectly and easily. They even had the hole nearly ready. It turned out that nearly a hundred people digging as fast as they could, and moving in wheel barrows of gravel and other things could actually get work done pretty quickly. It made him feel lazy for having gone into town though.
And dirty. He wanted a bath, but settled for scrubbing up. It was too late in the day to go home and he was tired, not having slept the night before. It was nearing dinner though. Jake took Cam by the arm gently as she came out of the women's wash area and waved to her friends, the clutch of girls that were all rape victims. Or at least had been grabbed up for sex. Maybe it wasn't rape? If the police had just offered food and safety in return for sex, well, it wasn't ethical, but was it forced?
He didn't know.
It also didn't matter now.
The girls all walked over, looking like he was going to hurt them, trying not to make any eye contact. It said a lot about where they'd been. Nothing new though.
“All right. You four are the new crew of kitchen help.” No one said anything but they didn't look pleased. Not even Cam.
“Don't make those faces, it's important work. You can also trade out later if you really hate it, but give it a chance first. It will be fun. Compared to just sitting around at least. Really, I should charge you all for the privilege, but... well, we don't use money anymore. Oops. Come on.” He made himself sound happy and they all followed, which was better than he'd thought would happen.
Jake had expected an instant mutiny.
Instead he nearly got a murder.
To start with it was going pretty well, he thought. Lois was thrilled to have the help, and actually clapped a little, with a huge smile when she heard this was part of the new team. It was happy enough that the other girls returned the look, except Cam, who was busy watching Sammi carefully. It took about three minutes, but Sammi worked her way around the room, to where the meat for dinner sat thawing, several large chunks of meat, about a hundred pounds worth, which reminded Jake that they really needed to get a lot more soon. At the table the girl casually picked up a large carving knife, then spun around like a ninja on crack, swinging the blade at Cam with clear intent to kill.
Cam jumped back, hitting the hot wood stove with a screech, but kept going, falling to the floor with a thump as the much smaller girl moved on her, silver blade flashing.
Jake found himself staring at Sammi down the barrel of his nine, the little blonde head perfectly sighted in.
“No.” He said, copying the tone she always used to get him to stop killing people. If they were the wrong ones. “Calm, Sammi.”
The girl froze in place, having already cut Cam once. She turned to look at Jake, her eyes enraged. Until she saw the weapon. Then she shuddered a bit.
“You don't understand, you can't she's-” Her words stopped, as if she couldn't possibly explain things to him.
Hello, world of crazy all around... He didn't mention it. Instead he fixed her with a hard glare.
“She's a teleporting thief, and your people hate her kind with a passion? View them as a danger, which is probably deserved, something like that?”
That got both women to turn on him, eyes wide.
“OK, so you do understand.” Sammi spun again, ready to move on the still downed girl.
“Nope. I love you Sammi, but I will put a bullet in your leg. You can heal from it, but I won't let you kill anyone just for being. Cam is on our side. So, what say you put the knife down for now? We need to get her some bandages and possibly lock you in a closet for a day or two.”
The girl faced him then, but set the knife down on the counter.
“I'm sorry Jake. I acted in haste.”
“And got one of our good knives covered with human blood. Icky.”
He noticed that Cam wasn't included in this. Of course not. She was teleporting Hitler, or something. For all he knew that was even the truth. Who knew what anyone else here was? That reminded him that he hadn't seen Darla after the meeting.
When he mentioned that to the room, Sammi laughed darkly.
“Vampire. She's been feeding on almost everyone at the police compound for months. They don't even realize it. I told her that if she tried that here, with our people, you'd spank her. She seemed oddly enthused by the idea. Still, she has to eat, so I suggested she stick to her current stock and ask before moving to anyone else.”
The matter of fact words seemed utterly at odds with cutting a girl for being able to teleport. There had to be more to that story, didn't there? He gestured for Sammi to go into the living room and asked the others to help Lois. Dave was just through the door and looked very unhappy to see what was going on.
Then he had a crush on Sammi, didn't he?
“Good, Dave, Sammi just tried to kill someone in the kitchen. Not a joke. As far as I can tell this is a real problem and not even the other person's
fault. Watch her will you? We need Nate and some people to cover the kitchen now that this puts us two down. If Sammi tries to do anything shoot her in the thigh. She should heal from that.” He put his nine away then.
Dave snorted, “Sammi doesn't do things like that.”
“Well...” The girl said, sounding a bit strange, getting a look from Jake. It was the start of her singsong mind control thing.
“None of that. We will deal with this peacefully or I will totally pick you up and spank you. Or, I don't know, put you in the corner.”
She giggled at him. An honest to goodness girl giggle. As if she hadn't just tried to kill Cam in the other room.
This was all so messed up.
So very fucked.
Chapter Eight
Nate listened to the description of the attack with wide eyes and a slow head shake. After a minute he locked eyes with Sammi and grunted.
“No.” Glancing at Cam he winced and then tried to lock eyes with Jake for some reason.
What he got from that, Jake just couldn't tell. It wasn't like he had anything to do with it at all. Not anymore than anyone else in the room. He didn't think so at least. Nate turned back to the girls.
“Sammi, Cam is offering no threat to us and doesn't intend to steal Jake away at all. Yes, she knows the legend, and yes, she's eyed several things here as being valuable, but she doesn't want to leave. Not even now.”
The smaller girl just crossed her arms, and shook her own head.
“A bit convenient, her showing up mixed in with that lot, isn't it? She could have gone anywhere in the world, but she chooses to come here? Why? Her people have a history of kidnapping Very Good Men, and what they do with them no one knows. They won't speak of it, even under torture, but we know for a fact none of them are ever heard from again.”
Cam held a hand over the cloth bandage on her left arm and rolled her eyes.
“All I can tell you is that our legends are the same as almost everyone's. If you find a Dehist you get them to safety, no matter what it requires of you. Can my people help it if we're just better at doing that than anyone else? I'd do it now, but, seriously, I don't have a safer place for him than this.” There was a shrug and a pained wince. “If I met him somewhere else, right now I'd have to bring him here anyway. In case you haven't noticed, the world's kind of fucked.”
Nate stared at her and then smiled.
“It's what she's thinking Sam. I know that it isn't a true test of honesty, but I'm certainly not getting anything else.”
“Wait.” Cam held up her unhurt hand. “You can read minds? So cool. Quick, what number am I thinking of?”
“Three hundred and forty-seven million, fifty two. Now you switched to seven. Now fourteen hundred and one.” Nate yawned and covered his mouth at the teleporter.
“Oohhh. He's good. If it weren't for the whole end of the world thing I'd suggest we put together an act and go to Vegas.”
Jake yawned too, his eyes trying to close on their own. Which only made sense. If it wasn't too much to bear, missing a meal, he'd have gone straight to bed. Instead he waited for Nate to say something, to pass judgment. The guy didn't move at all though, just watching the other two and Dave as he stood off to the side, glaring at Cam. Which, from a certain perspective, Jake could get. The girl had been in a fight with his friend. Dave didn't care about silly things like right and wrong. It was his team, and the dead people.
Sammi was his team.
Jake was a little surprised he wasn't getting glared at too.
Finally Nate shook his head, “all right, well, we can't just cut you in retaliation. Or push you into a stove. We also can't let this go unpunished. If it was almost anyone else, we'd have shot you by now. Don't lie and claim you weren't planning to kill her either.” He rubbed his head, messing his hair up a little more. “God, Sam, I don't know what to do with you at all. I do know you can't stay here. Not for now.”
Dave hit Nate in the head. Hard enough to take the man all the way out of his chair with a clatter. The boy was about to pounce on the older man when Jake laughed a little, getting the boy to pause.
“Look around cocksmokers.” Jake said, which got the kid to look. Nate too.
There was nothing to see, it was just a quote, something Dave had said to some very bad people once. Both of them angled to look at him.
“Dave, stop being a twit. He just meant that Sammi has to come stay at my place until she cools off enough not to kill Cam for no reason. Don't make a huge deal of it. He wasn't saying she had to be cast out to die. We didn't even throw Holsom out, remember? If we were going to do that, we'd just shoot people. No one here wants Sammi dead.”
“Well...” Cameron said, making a face at the smaller woman. Then she chuckled.
“Not wild about the new scars and it does hurt you know. Not everyone heals from this kind of thing in a day, but I get the idea, she was just trying to protect the Dehist. Next time use your words though, will you?”
“Fine.” Sammi really didn't sound contrite, but she didn't go for Cam's throat either, so it was something.
Jake hoped so at least. He was way more on Sammi's side than not, but her actions weren't needed, and that was a problem right now. Killing a potential asset was a poor plan. The woman knew that, too.
She was willing to let a little vampire feed on people for goodness sake. Certainly she could put up with someone that just happened to be of a different race or whatever. Even if they did like to steal Very Good Men. For one thing, Jake wasn't even sure he really was one of those, no matter what anyone said. It seemed to make them feel better, so it was fine, and it was a lot better than being called a monster, but seriously...
He was like Jesus or Buddha?
Yep, that made total sense.
Like that scene in the bible where Jesus went and killed all those money changers in the temple with his glock. Or that thing were Buddha helped those attacking soldiers find enlightenment, by taking all their heads. Yup. Exactly the same. Really he should have seen it for himself.
Jake yawned again, “tomorrow though. Tonight Sammi is staying with me and I swear if you try to kill anyone I will be highly disappointed.”
“Agreed. I won't try to kill the-” Sammi made a sound that sounded like gargling glass and then trying to spit it out. It wasn't the same name that Cam had mentioned earlier either.
Jake didn't say anything, but Nate did, even as Cam looked ready to fight finally. That she hadn't before was telling to him though. Her natural response seemed to be running away, which had the feeling of being a good plan. If you could teleport, few things would be able to catch you, right?
The older man crossed his arms at Sammi and almost growled.
“Shut up. Trying to bait her into attacking so you can kill her, will not be allowed here and you should know that by now. Apologize or I'll really kick you out and Dave will have to kill me. You don't want that, now do you?”
A hundred and forty-whatever or not, the woman looked her apparent age then. Like a very sullen little kid.
“Sorry.” She husked.
Cam didn't say anything, which was wise. Their Bawdri was acting like a psycho. Worse she didn't even seem to get that she might be the one in the wrong at the moment. Jake took her hand and stood, then pulled Sammi up with him.
Seriously.
“OK, Sammi comes with me when I leave in the morning, right now we go and work on the septic system until dinner, then...” Crud. There was no way he could stay alert enough to keep her from going off to kill someone.
He smiled a little and tilted his head.
“Then we set a guard.”
“That won't be necessary Jake. I give my word.” The Bawdri spoke solemnly, but it was Cam's reaction that won him over. She relaxed, as if that had actual meaning.
“All right... I accept your word, but 'not necessary' has to mean no harm, unless attacked or to save someone else in real danger. No potential trickery or any of that.” He didn't know the
Bawdri cultural rules on pledges, if they were loophole lawyers or what.
The red head took a deep breath, “she won't lie if her word's on the line. No tricks or anything, Dehist.”
Jake nodded as he walked out, hoping it would really be enough and not wanting anyone to get any ideas about how to kill someone anyway. Something occurred to him at the door.
“Dave, that means you can't just kill Cam too. We need this to calm the heck down now, not blow up into something way worse. This kind of thing is why I moved, you know.”
OK, true, it was mainly that he didn't want to be around a bunch of women that had no use for him, but this was a good enough reason. Like third down on the list. Also, it was easier to sleep at his house.
Jake pushed the girl mercilessly until dinner. Then she had to sit next to him at the meal, on the floor. Vickie came and sat alongside of him on the right, her shoulder against his and listened to the plan. She'd heard about the attack, everyone had.
“I understand. Well, I'm going to come with you. I can't leave you alone with my boyfriend, can I?” She said this to Sammi, across him, which was funny. The girl shook her head numbly though, not looking back.
That night they all shared a bed, with Sammi in the middle. She cuddled up to him warmly at some point in the night, which was awkward. When he realized who it was he backed away and went back to sleep. Not that it was wrong or anything, it just... felt that way. Jake didn't want to hurt her feelings, he just couldn't...
It would be... wrong.
Even if it all was just him being a racist or ageist or whatever.
The next day, after breakfast, Jill and the others met them in the kitchen, dressed to travel already. He hadn't thought about it, but they were going home too, weren't they? It made sense. It would also get them out of this place, which had become a lot less fun when everyone got there. In another few hours things were going to get tense there, if no one did anything to keep people occupied. He suggested they set up a radio antennae, since they had equipment for it now. They could run the wire to one of the underground rooms through the ventilation pipe, so it wouldn't be too loud.
