House of Slide Hybrid

by Juliann Whicker

  I shook my head as I climbed the stairs, exhausted when I got to the top. I stood there, leaning against the wall to catch my breath and stop my heart from pounding.

  Satan found me collapsed on the window seat with my knives in my lap, my beautiful curved dagger with a hilt encrusted with jewels as well as my knife from my father, the silver colored metal glistening in the afternoon light.

  “I can’t go hunting,” I said staring at my knives.

  “Saturday, when you’re not trying to go to school. It’s stupid, really. You should be at Slide. Slide would make sure you felt well enough to go out and kill something any time.”

  I looked up at him. “Slide doesn’t have woods to go hunting in.”

  Satan grinned. “In the city, you don’t need woods, not when you’ve got enough people to attract a good amount of demons.”

  I blinked, opened my mouth to ask if they really killed people for fun and then closed it and looked out the window. Satan enjoyed a certain level of shock value that I didn’t have energy for, not that day or any other day that week.

  I opened my eyes one afternoon and realized that I was sitting in an empty classroom, empty except for Ms. Briggs where she fastidiously cleaned the chalk board. When she turned around her face was devoid of her usual frown as she looked at me.

  “Maybe you should stay home for the next few days,” she said. That made me sit up straight, gave me the energy to get to my feet and grab my bag.

  “I’m fine,” I muttered before I left the room, but her sniff was disdainful. I should have been fine, third time was easier than the second, that made sense. Nothing else made sense. I wandered the halls, ending up in the study hall instead of my classes where I sat at a table that seemed too big for one person before I realized with a slight sickening sensation that it was the table where I used to sit with Lewis. I was skipping classes so I could sit somewhere that bore his imprint. I shook my head as I left the room, the building, wandering aimlessly down streets that I knew but seemed different, distant.

  I stood in the driveway staring at the empty gravel drive, felt the abandonment of Old Peter’s little town farm. I sat down there, on the sidewalk, unable to make myself go home, do homework, get another three inches of runes on my spine. I couldn’t remember what the point of it was, and I didn’t see how the emptiness would ever give way to something more, something better, something that wasn’t as aching and pointless as wasting away without a soul.

  The screen door swung open, creaking ominously.

  I held my breath. Had Old Peter become a Lost Soul? No, only Hollows did that.

  I struggled to my feet, needing to talk to someone who would understand.

  “Dariana Sanders. Don’t you look charming,” the familiar voice of my Trainer came drawling from the door.

  “Carve?” I scrambled to my feet. “What are you doing here? This is not your house.”

  He laughed and opened the screen all the way so that I could see his swarthy, sagging face while he sneered at me. “Don’t you think it suits me? Tell me, Daughter of Slide, how are your runes progressing?”

  I swallowed and fingered the lacy pattern on the back of my neck. “They’re great.”

  “You’re avoiding Axel. He’s good for your well-being. Also, he’s getting more destructive without you.”

  I clenched my fists and swallowed hard. “I have to do what I think is best.”

  “You think that you’re protecting him?”

  “He’s come much closer to death with me, than any other time.”

  “And hunting? Are you capable of taking death?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Liar,” he said with a soft chuckle. “Dariana, you must keep the Code. Haven’t they warned you about the dangers of possession if you allow truth to be replaced by self-deception? You must follow the Code or you might end up a demon man. You should hunt if you can. If you Hunted, you could absorb strength from the death of another, and never have to take the strength of the creature you love.”

  I gritted my teeth. “It’s on the list. Is that all?”

  He raised his eyebrows. “All of what?”

  “The training session. Is this it for today?”

  “I could give you some relief, some reprieve from your pain, but I doubt you’d appreciate it. No, right now any more Training would clearly break you.”

  “I’m fine,” I stated and turned away.

  I walked quickly while he laughed, his voice mocking me as I went. Satan had said that Carve was with Lewis. Maybe the fighting had ended. Maybe they’d gotten everyone who had attacked Sanders and knew something. I should have asked Carve. I should have been polite and grateful instead of weak and wounded, snapping at everyone I met. I should have let him take away my pain, especially the part inside my chest where I ached for Lewis.

  Ash only lived a few blocks away. I headed towards him. His mother opened the door as soon as I knocked, like she’d been waiting for me. Her eyes were worried in spite of her melodious greeting and the calm that infused their house.

  Ash, when I went into his room lay on his bed staring at the ceiling, lying on a happy looking bedspread that was even brighter from the pool of sunshine that wrapped around Ash, giving his hair a tint of bronze.

  “Dari,” he said without looking at me.

  I collapsed beside him, not worrying about what it would look like, me on his bed without worrying if my legs crossed his or not. “Ash, tattoos are too hard. I want to be strong, to do it on my own without sucking the life out of Lewis again the way that Devlin did to me, but I don’t know if I can. I haven’t seen him for weeks. I can’t remember why I’m trying.”

  “Empathy. You can’t stand hurting someone the way you’ve been harmed,” he responded in a dull voice.

  I laughed, more of a snort really. “Oh, right. It must be the Wild in me, being stubborn and paranoid and unable to be with the person I love because of irrational fear that comes true the more I fear it. I hate empathy. I hate knowing that I am capable, that I sucked out his soul the way Devlin did and Lewis keeps coming back for more. Only, he’s not coming back right now.” I shook my head tightly. “It’s good. I guess. He only almost dies around me, right? I’m sure he’ll be fine out fighting wars with Hunters and Demons and monsters and whatever.”

  I sniffed and blinked back tears waiting for Ash to respond.

  He didn’t say anything for a long time. When I turned my head to look at him I saw the translucence of his skin, his gaze that hadn’t shifted from the spot on the ceiling, the fact that he wasn’t looking at it, wasn’t hearing me, wasn’t there struck me as a chill went down my spine.

  “Ash?” I poked his shoulder with a finger. He didn’t even twitch. I had a sudden panic that he was dead with glazed open eyes that would never see anything again. “Ash!” I shoved against him and he finally blinked slowly, but he didn’t focus on me, didn’t see anything.

  I rolled off the bed hauling him with me, out, somewhere so he couldn’t stare at the ceiling. He moved with a jerkiness that showed how disconnected he was to his body. He was a zombie, soul-flying out of this crap world for somewhere better.

  His mother was leaning against the wall in the hallway, her large eyes full of pain and despair that I hadn’t noticed before. How could she stand there while her son faded away? Why didn’t she do something, anything?

  “How long has he been like this?” I demanded then felt bad because it wasn’t her fault that Ash decided to fade away. She was Cool; she probably respected his right to live or die. Luckily I was a Hybrid and by my Wild blood should really start meddling with other people’s lives whether they wanted me to or not.

  “Is it okay if I take him for a drive in his car? I think he could use some fresh air.” I offered her a cheerful smile, like I could make everything better if I stretched my mouth wide enough.

  She only nodded then pointed to a hook on the wall with a key hanging on it. I grabb
ed the key, still dragging Ash who felt so light and empty that I was sure I could carry him like a baby if I had to.

  “Where are we going?” he asked as I pushed him into the passenger seat of his car then went around to drive.

  “We’re going to liberate them.” It was the first thing that came to my mind when I tried to think about what could possibly interest him enough to keep him there. He didn’t nod, didn’t say anything else, like he’d forgotten the question as soon as he’d asked it. At least he’d asked.

  I only killed the car three times before we got to the corner. Ash was kind enough not to say anything, or maybe he didn’t care. I started talking, don’t really know what I talked about, safe things, like how I wondered why I was so lame at stuff with my soul when Lewis had been so amazing, like he could fight Satan without his super fury powers, and I couldn’t drive a car.

  “Skills,” he said when I took a breath.

  I stared at him, and almost ran off the road. Man, Lewis made it look so easy to drive and look at me at the same time.

  “What?” I asked after I’d swerved and managed to keep us from dying. Ash frowned slightly and held onto the door handle, but he didn’t look worried.

  “He developed skills like Osmond. And he leaned. Really good considering…” His voice faded away.

  “Typical. I’d like for us to be even on some level. In fact, I’d like to be better than him at something.” I also wanted Ash to say something else. Having him respond when he’d looked so dead back at his house made me think that maybe this might actually work.

  “Sleeping,” was his mumbled reply.

  I almost stared at him again, but caught myself before I ran off the road. “It’s true; I am a pretty good sleeper. It seems like any time anything interesting happens to me, I sleep half a week away. Do you know, I’ve been unconscious at least four times in the last year? Maybe it’s a specialized kind of narcolepsy.”

  Ash didn’t respond to that, or the next six subjects I rambled about. The yard was forty-five minutes away, and driving took a lot of my attention. I almost didn’t have anything left over to worry about the way Ash slouched lower and lower in his seat.

  It was a relief to see the chain-link fences with the ‘beware of electrocution’ signs. I drove past the main gate and circled the yard. It smelled vile in spite of the chilly weather, and I tried not to imagine it in July. It did not work. Ash frowned slightly, so maybe the smell was getting to him too. That was a good sign.

  “Now what?” I asked when I parked next to a fence. I could see another fence across the field and another one beyond that with the dipping black heads of the cows crammed together behind it.

  “What?” Ash asked, looking like he’d just woken up from a long nap that he was going to fall back into any moment.

  “We’re here to liberate the cows. I could try and figure this out on my own, but I’m not really a planner. What if we drive the car through the main gates, and then herd as many cows through before we get caught?”

  Ash looked out the window, seeing where we were for the first time. He sat there, his head turned away from me for a really long time and I thought that he was gone again, lost in his own world until he turned and looked at me, and I saw something in his eyes that kind of freaked me out. It was scary that he’d go from near comatose to crazy person that fast. He smiled at me then, a smile that was so unbalanced that it reminded me of Satan.

  “No,” he said slowly, with that still creepy smile. “We don’t need the car.” He opened his door and got out not noticing that he wasn’t wearing a coat. Crap. I should have taken care of that kind of thing, but that was what Snowy was for. I followed him out of the car, shoving my hands in my pockets while my breath swirled around me.

  So basically the plan was for me to watch Ash stand in the cold for a really long time. I leaned against him for shared warmth, but he didn’t feel very cold anymore. Cool, but not shivering out of his skin the way he should have been on a day as frosty as that while he stood so still.

  “Ash?” I asked after we’d been standing there until my toes froze.

  “Pretty soon,” he said sounding distracted, but not only distracted. His voice was back, the rich, low timbre that had me leaning closer to him, feeling soothed by his words whatever they were. Whatever was going on, my plan was working after all. I felt delighted and cold. Maybe he was giving the cows peace of mind, a sense of tranquility as they faced their abysmal life and impending death. He could be a cow preacher and read them their rites before they died. I’d given him purpose, and now he wouldn’t fade away to nothing. I felt really quite proud of myself. Then I noticed the rumbling sound—the rumbling sound that was not my stomach even though I was hungry after not eating for who knew how many days. Dust. There was dust in the air in February.

  I heard the sound of creaking, and Ash grabbed me and shoved me in the car, diving after me. We were a tangle of arms and legs before I managed to prop myself up and look out the window right before a bovine head smashed into it. I jumped backwards as the cow bounced off the glass and a large crack spider-webbed out to the frame. The car rocked as the suddenly mobile slaughterhouse cows surged into the road.

  Ash grinned at me, the maddest smile I’d ever seen, and I think I managed a “We’re going to die,” before Ash got a funny look on his face, a look that while still alive wasn’t exactly happy.

  “Something’s wrong,” he said shaking his head slowly like he was trying to clear it. “Where’s your uncle,” he said suddenly staring at me. “Who is protecting you?”

  I opened my mouth then closed, it, my need to answer him put off when another cow rammed the side of the car.

  “We’ve got to get out of here,” he said untangling himself from me to slide into the driver’s side and crank the engine. His hands were shaking while he muttered under his breath gone from passive, to crazy, to out of his mind scared in a matter of minutes. Something terrified him, absolutely terrified him.

  “This is not good,” he said quietly. Well, maybe it wasn’t too quiet, because I couldn’t hear much over the bellowing and thumping and tromping of the creatures. Ash stopped turning the key while he tried to take deep even breaths. When he turned and looked past me, behind me, I followed his gaze and saw cows flying.

  I blinked and saw yet another cow fly through the air and vanish into the raging herd.

  Finally the car roared to life and Ash pushed the gas down. He was a much better driver than I was, not that that was a challenge, but I couldn’t see how even Lewis could go anywhere while we were in the middle of a stampede. I’d forgotten who started the stampede. The cows shifted, changing directions while Ash began to sweat, pulling into the herd where they went ahead of us, parting like a brown sea as per Ash’s leaning. I felt a rush of profound respect for Ash who had never shown how awesome leaning could be.

  I looked behind us and saw more cows flying through the air, closer this time. Ash went faster, the cows parted before us, then closed behind, but not fast enough for me to not see the enormous man throwing cows at us. He made the cows look like goats, made my uncle Satan look like a child. I felt a familiar chill and heard whispering that I knew from experience I wasn’t really hearing. It was like the time I’d been chased by demons when they’d brushed the edge of my consciousness trying to drive me insane. It helped that Ash was there, calm and collected like my father even if we were being chased by monsters, but I could see that he was as scared as I was, with shaky hands and pale skin. Hopefully he wasn’t on the verge of throwing up, like me.

  Ash drove really well, like he could see where the cows would land or something. Maybe he could, I had no idea about the limits of a full blooded Cool, had no idea of the limits of myself. I’d never before truly appreciated how big cows were, particularly when they’re flying through the air towards the beat up old hatchback you’re riding in.

  “Drive faster,” I yelled then choked on the dust, the haze that was spreading through the car picked up
by the descending rays of the sun. Demons hated light. They should not be running around chucking cows during the day.

  “WhooHoo!” he yelled and actually grinned at me as he shoved the pedal down.

  Apparently terror could only do so much for a person’s sanity. Insanity? I felt a surge of hope because we were outpacing the demon man in Ash’s car and we were almost through the cows.

  Until one hit us.

  The car swerved. Ash turned the wheel back and forth then we felt the impact as another cow struck the car. It was knocked off its wheels until we were upside down sliding across the road, hit something else then flipped back over.

  I was on the floor, not sure how I had gotten there. When I lifted my head, I could see through the back window the demon man as he came slowly towards us. At this range I could make out the details of his smile, the corners of his mouth turning up, a mouth that was a gaping hole that would swallow me. His eyes were black tinged with red. I could see dark purple veins under the skin of his face like oil flowed through his veins or something worse. It went from smiling to snarling as it lunged at me, making me jump back and hit my head. As he stared at me with those empty, soulless eyes, I knew that I was going to die in the most painful way imaginable.

  Then he exploded.

  Chapter 15

  The back window was coated in black that I couldn’t see through then it burst into flame, the smell permeating the car, filling my lungs with acrid smoke that tasted like rotting. Through the flickering tongues of flame I made out a figure that walked towards us, small compared to the demon man with auburn hair and eyes that burned unbelievably bright, the strongest, most capable person I knew. I watched as Lewis stumbled to his knees then fell to the pavement.

  I kicked and pounded on my door until it opened with a screech that would put Satan’s car to shame then started running. I had to jump over the flame that still chased across the road, eating up the demon splatter and leaving the scent of decay and ashes.