by Dina James
“I’m a pizza too,” Rebecca said, looking at the boxes.
“Right,” Billy said. “But where Syd is an extra-large supreme pizza with everything on it, you’re just a small cheese pizza. Well, that’s not really true.
Nobody’s sure yet exactly what size or kind of pizza you’re going to be, or...
or even if a pizza is what you’re going to be.” That didn’t sound good.
“What do you mean?” Rebecca asked, her heart pounding in an uncomfortable rhythm against her chest.
“You’re stil being made,” Bil y said. “And since Martha didn’t do nothin’
with your dough when you was growing up—she just let you sit there—you might not come out a pizza like you’re supposed to. Whatever you end up being, you gotta be baked first. But that doesn’t mean that parts of you ain’t okay to eat now. It’s just your dough that isn’t ready to eat.”
“And my birthday is baking day?” Rebecca asked. “The day we find out? And if I’m a good...whatever...or a bad one?” Billy nodded and snagged the last slices of pizza before he closed the lid of the box.
“Syd is like the baker,” Billy went on. “And with luck, maybe you’ll be a good pizza. The size you’re going to turn out and toppings you’ll have nobody’s sure about yet, but even if they’re wrong, a cheese pizza is still a good pizza if you bake it right, and don’t pull it out too soon or too late.
Burnt pizza ain’t good no matter how fast you choke it down.”
“And that’s the part everyone is worried about, right?” Rebecca asked.
“That it might be too late to make me a good pizza?”
“It’s more ‘how you’re going to turn out’ now. You know those guys you see tossing the pizza dough in the air and catching it?” Billy asked.
Rebecca nodded.
“Well, you been dropped a few times,” Billy said. He looked at Rebecca and smiled before he stuffed the pizza in his hand in his mouth and shrugged.
“Didn’t seem to make no difference, though. You’re still good.”
“Gee, thanks,” Rebecca muttered, feeling less assured and more confused than before.
“Hey, you asked,” Billy said. “Told you I wasn’t any good at this stuff.”
“So after my birthday...will things stop...messing with me?”
“Things are always hungry, Bit, and you’re about to open an all-night waffle joint.”
chApter nine
“Ready?” Syd asked as he returned to the kitchen.
“When you are,” Billy replied. “Ain’t gonna sit around here. Bit’ll be safe enough.”
“Ready. .for what?” Rebecca asked. “You’re not leaving me here alone!”
“And what do you propose I do, Acolyte?” Syd asked. “You tell the anubi to sit out the search for one of his clan—especially Ryan.”
“Don’t do that! I gotta go, Bit,” Billy said, giving Rebecca puppy-dog eyes. “I ain’t hurt half as bad as that kid, and he’s gonna die if he don’t get help soon. Those Hell-goons...they ain’t nothin’...once you find them. Really they ain’t. They’re good at hiding, though, so Syd needs me to sniff them out. Vamps ain’t got no sense of smell. Well, not like anubi do. I gotta go!
Don’t tell me I can’t, please!”
Rebecca just looked at Billy. Why was he begging her? What did Syd mean, one of Billy’s clan? Was Billy related to Ryan somehow? She made a mental note to ask about that later when she wasn’t about to be left alone in a house that had just been ransacked by demons.
“Because the word of a Healer is to be obeyed as ultimate law,” Syd replied to her unspoken question. “Tell him to stay, he’ll stay.”
“But...I’m...I’m not...” Rebecca began, swallowing hard. Wow. She had no idea she had that kind of power. That kind of authority.
That kind of responsibility for lives. Existences. Whatever. Suddenly she wished that the only responsibility she had to worry about was studying for her algebra test. She remembered thinking something like that about taking care of Nana. That seemed so silly now—a tiny little thing in comparison.
If she screwed this up, she couldn’t just erase the answer and try again, or retake the test. If she screwed up now, lives would be lost.
How did real doctors deal with that? How was she supposed to deal with that? She could barely deal with an exam she’d studied for!
Suddenly she wanted to talk to Robin, but what would she tell her?
Rebecca shook her head and put something of her thoughts into words, more for Billy than Syd, as she knew Syd had likely heard her thinking.
“So if he goes and he gets hurt even more, or worse, he gets killed because I didn’t tell him to stay here, that would be my fault, wouldn’t it?
And then his clan or family or someone would come after me for letting their...whatever...die?” Rebecca asked.
Syd shook his head. “You are a Healer. Your decisions will never be questioned. Resented, perhaps, and disagreed with, but never called into question. Remember what Martha said about Healers having certain clemencies? That is one.”
“Bit, please,” Billy said. No puppy eyes this time. Just deadly earnestness.
“I gotta find that kid. I’m...I’m the one that busted the little punk, and—”
“—and he’s like a brother to you, right?” Rebecca said. She smiled and heaved a sigh.
Billy grinned.
Rebecca shook her head and sighed.
“So what are we going to do?” Rebecca asked as she looked at Syd.
“‘We’?” both Syd and Billy echoed.
Rebecca rolled her eyes at both of them. “You don’t honestly think I’m going to sit around here alone while you two go off and do who-knows-what chasing after these demons, do you? I have to go, too. Ryan will need help right away, and...and...”
She looked at Billy. “I might not have senses like an anubi or eyes like a vampire, but I have something. I can’t explain it. Maybe I’ll be able to...I don’t know...feel him, or something. I’ve been feeding him, and I felt it today when Billy was hurt so maybe...maybe I can feel Ryan, too.”
“That’s an awful lot of ‘maybes’, Bit,” Billy said. He rubbed the back of his human neck with one of his large hands and looked at her from under his shaggy brown bangs.
Syd shook his head. “I’ll not risk a Healer, Acolyte or no.” Rebecca scowled and crossed her arms over her chest. “So, it’s all right if demons come in my house, mess stuff up, hurt my nana, take someone I’m looking out for and, according to both you guys, probably kidnap me too, but it’s not all right if I try and take back what it is they stole? How is that fair?”
“Everyone deserves their vengeance, Syd,” Billy said in a low voice.
“You don’t let them take it, it just sits inside and gets so big eventually it comes out in ways you never meant it to. Let her come. She should see, anyway.”
“I think she’s seen enough for one day, don’t you?” Syd asked. He met the anubi’s eyes.
This time, Billy didn’t flinch or look away. “That shit don’t work on me, fang-boy, so back the hell off. I’m in your clan, but that don’t make me your bitch.”
So Billy was in Syd’s clan. How does that work? she wondered. A werewolf in a vampire clan? Didn’t Syd say the vampires and werewolves were at perpetual war? Whatever they were to one another, they weren’t going to get anywhere arguing. Something else Syd said prodded her memory and she decided to put this supposed authority she had to the test.
“Guys, knock it off,” Rebecca said. She pinched the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger. She was getting a serious headache, and her stomach rumbled. She hadn’t touched the slice of pizza Billy had brought her. Her stomach might be empty, but she just couldn’t think about food right now. She looked at Syd. “So you’re going after Ryan? You know where he is?” Syd nodded. “I know which group took him, and where they generally make their lair. We can start there. That is, Billy and I can start there.
&n
bsp; You’re staying here.”
“Not with that portal thing I’m not!” Rebecca said, shaking her head as she pointed at the ceiling. “What makes you think they’re not just waiting until no one is here before they come back? What if they took Ryan so there’d be nothing in the house that has any kind of power so they could...I don’t know...read me or something when I got back? Pick me up on their power radar or whatever? I’m not any safer here alone than I am with you!” Syd began to pace the room.
“You can’t take her to the clan lair, Syd,” Billy said. “They’ll look there.
They’ll know from Ryan who his Master is. Matter of fact, you should—”
“I’ve already linked with the others and apprised them of the situa-tion,” Syd interrupted. “They know not to expect my return and to fall back to the haven.”
“What about—” Billy began.
Syd cut him off with a sharp look. “She’ll be all right.” Rebecca couldn’t be sure, but she didn’t think Syd was talking about her.
“So like Bit said,” Billy went on as though Syd hadn’t said anything.
“What are we going to do?”
“Can you jump the car?” Syd asked.
“With your help, yeah,” Billy replied, though he didn’t sound happy.
“Then let’s go,” Syd said.
“Go...where?” Rebecca asked, suddenly hesitant.
“Into the lair of a demon.”
Rebecca swallowed hard and made herself remember that she’d pitched a fit about being told she couldn’t go and followed him and Billy out the door.
w x
Rebecca slid into the mangled passenger seat of Billy’s Mustang. Syd got in the back as Billy got behind the wheel.
“You know—” said Billy.
“Not now, anubi,” Syd interrupted.
“Just sayin’,” Billy muttered. “Bit ain’t had nothin’ to eat. Some of us actually need to eat. Also easier to fight with food in me, and if I’m gonna die, I want to do it on a full stomach! Besides, the gate’s just past a burger joint next to the interstate. We could—”
Rebecca looked at Billy in open-mouthed horror. “You just ate four whole pizzas! Extra-large ones! How can you still be hungry?”
“Them? Barely a snack. ‘Sides, we’re about to go into a demon lair—”
“Fine,” Syd interrupted again. “Let’s just get going.” Billy again drove like a maniac, and Rebecca realized that doing that was probably normal for him. Once they got to the fast food place, he ordered a huge amount of food before asking Rebecca what she wanted, then shook his head at her when she stammered that just one cheeseburger would do for her.
“I’ll share my fries with you,” Billy said, giving her his lady-killer grin before he ordered drinks.
Rebecca glanced at Syd and made a deliberate effort to speak to him in her head.
He can’t possibly eat all that before we get there..., can he?
Syd smiled, but he hid it fast. Just watch. I suggest if you want any of those fries he said he’d share that you take them immediately, for they won’t last long.
Uh...thanks. This is weird. I mean, talking like this. Not just...ordering fast food with a werewolf.
Syd didn’t reply as Billy started filling up the space between the seats and Rebecca’s lap with bags. He shoved a drink carrier full of soda at her, then balanced another full of milkshakes on his own lap.
“There we go!” Billy said as he pulled out of the drive-thru. “A nice snack before I munch on some demons. They’re chewy and not at all filling, so we might have to stop back by here after we find the punk.”
“This is a snack?” Rebecca looked at the bags scattered all around her, filling up her lap, the floor at her feet, and the space between her and Billy.
“Mmmhmm,” Billy said as he turned one of the bags in his lap upside down. Burger wrappers went everywhere as he drove toward the interstate, and Rebecca just watched in fascination as each burger Billy ordered was devoured in a single bite.
He was indeed finished with fifteen burgers, ten orders of fries, three colas and four milkshakes in the less than five minutes it took them to reach their destination.
Rebecca hadn’t touched her own burger, or the fries in the box resting against her thigh, or the soda held between her knees.
“Eat, Bit,” Billy said as he parked the car beneath an on-ramp at the highway. “I’m gonna prep Rox for the jump.”
Rebecca didn’t ask what that meant as Billy got out of the car. Syd sat in the back seat, silent, though Rebecca could feel his anticipation, worry and urgency. She opened her burger wrapper and took a bite. She nearly spit it back out. It tasted awful and she couldn’t bring herself to swallow it.
She found a napkin and spit the bite into it before stuffing it into one of the empty bags.
“It would have done no good to tell him you can’t eat,” Syd said. “Take a drink instead.”
Rebecca reached for the soda between her legs and took a long sip.
Now that was rapturous. She took the lid off and drank directly from the cup, gulping the cold drink down.
“I don’t get it,” Rebecca said when she finished the soda. She wrapped up the rest of her cheeseburger and set it on the dashboard. “What’s the deal?”
“To put it in easy words, you need to replace your fluid loss,” Syd said.
“A side effect of having your blood taken. It will wear off in an hour or so.
Then you’ll be ravenous.”
That explained why she’d been so hungry at school that morning. No wonder the macaroni-and-cheese paste had sounded wonderful.
“Syd, move your butt,” she heard Billy call. “Almost done here.” Rebecca wondered what they were doing. Billy had said something about “prep,” and said he could...jump the car with Syd’s help. Rebecca knew what jumping a car meant, but she didn’t see...
She got out of the car to see what was going on.
Billy and Syd were staring at thin air under the overpass and talking in low voices, gesturing at the incline that led up to the ramp.
Rebecca sure didn’t see any jumper cables.
She looked back at the car.
The crumpled blue Mustang wasn’t blue anymore. Now it was black, and again it had spikes and chains covering it. She shook her head and walked toward the two Ethereals.
“Tricking out your ride is your idea of jumping a car?” Rebecca asked.
Billy laughed. “Taking her through the realms is rough—poor Rox’s gotta have protection.” He looked at Syd. “We ready?” Syd looked back at the car and then at thin air again. “I think so.”
“Ready to do what?” Rebecca asked.
“Jump the car through realms,” Syd replied. He pointed to the overpass.
“Just between the ground and the mortal construct there is a gate. We’re going to take the car through it to the demon lair. With any luck, we’ll land right on top of them.”
“Why didn’t we just...I don’t know...poof from the enclave, like you did with the kitchen and the water?”
“Because this is a much bigger jump over a much greater distance, and we’re doing it with an anubi and a mortal,” Syd explained.
Rebecca just looked even more confused. “But Billy and I...jumped...
earlier and didn’t have to stop and do anything special. We weren’t even close to here, either.”
Syd looked at Billy and raised an eyebrow.
“That weren’t a jump. Just a quick slip between the realms to shake the goons after us,” Billy defended. “Ain’t like what we’re doing here.”
“To put it simply, a big job needs big tools. This is a big tool,” Syd said.
“I still don’t see anything,” Rebecca said. “But I’ll take your word for it.”
“When your own power manifests in its entirety, you’ll be able to,” Syd said. “At least, you should be able to. For now—let’s go.”
“What if someone sees us?” Rebecca asked as they all go
t back in the car.Billy snorted. “Humans never see anything. Bunch of the blindest—
uh—I mean...well...” He put his hands on the wheel and took a deep breath.
“All right, Rox. Don’t let me down, girl.” He looked in the rearview mirror at Syd and gave him a nod.
Syd closed his eyes and tilted his head back. Rebecca saw his hands clench into fists, and looked back just in time to see Billy doing the same, except his head was bowed.
Rebecca felt what she could only call a “pop” and suddenly the overpass in front of them was gone, replaced with an empty field. The stars shown bright outside the window in the night sky, unhindered by the glow of the streetlights they’d just left.
It was very dark, and very, very quiet.
It didn’t look at all like a demon lair.
“Just what did you expect a demon lair to look like?” Syd asked, amused.
“I don’t know,” Rebecca replied. “Blood, guts and gore, I guess. Red guys with pitchforks poking people on sticks?”
“You watch far too much television,” Syd said. “However, you are correct. This isn’t the demon lair. This is just where the gate ends. The lair is farther on.”
“Good thing you all have a car or you’d have to walk it,” Rebecca muttered and looked back out the window again.
“You didn’t eat your sandwich, Bit,” Billy said, nodding toward the wrapped burger that had fallen off the dash to land in Billy’s lap.
“Uh...there’s...mustard on it,” Rebecca said, remembering what Syd had said about Billy not understanding she couldn’t eat right then. “I forgot to say no mustard.”
“I’ll remember that next time,” Billy said as he unwrapped the burger and polished it off in one bite. “Which way, Syd?”
“Fifteen miles south,” Syd replied. “Then four to the west. A warehouse overlooking the river.”
River? Warehouse? Where were they?
“Demons prefer the mortal realm,” Syd said. “And the leader of this little band of miscreants, favors an outpost in Scotland.”
“We’re in Scotland?!” Rebecca asked, incredulous.
“I told you it was a great distance,” Syd replied as Billy started the car.
