Twiceborn

by Marina Finlayson

  “What the hell is your problem?”

  I blinked. “Need caffeine. Want some coffee?”

  He glared. Did all werewolves have a monobrow like that? “The only reason you’re still alive is that Luce reckons we need you. You’d be dead already if it was up to me. So forget coffee and chit chat.”

  Something inside bristled at his tone. Stupid dog. Always the threats and the one-track mind. “You’re not a morning person, are you? Do you want coffee or not?”

  He turned back to the TV with a growl. They were on to the weather now. Some blonde was all breathless and amazed at how many days in a row the temperature had hit the high thirties lately. Had she forgotten it was summer? Happened every year. The media had been at their usual fear-mongering for weeks, reporting the build-up of fuel with morbid glee. There was always some expert warning this year could be the worst bushfire season for years. They said it every year.

  I made coffee and chose a little box of cereal for myself—one with a lot less sugar than Garth’s. I watched him as I ate. He wore a black T-shirt with Darth Vader on the front and the words World’s Greatest Dad. His hair was military-short and greying at the temples. I was rubbish at picking people’s ages but he could have been in his early forties, though his body was in such good shape it was hard to tell. No flab hiding underneath Darth Vader. Had he been a werewolf all his life? I knew nothing about him. Why, for instance, was he so intent on avenging Leandra? I knew all about the pain of losing someone important to you, but even though I hated Jason, murdering him had never occurred to me.

  “So … Leandra.” I said. “She was just your boss? Or a friend?”

  He gave me a look of disgust and kept on shovelling Coco Pops.

  “What will you do now she’s gone?” I persisted. Were there werewolf accountants? Shop assistants? “Will you work for Valeria or Alicia, or do something else?”

  “Work for Valeria or Alicia?” He laughed, a short, bitter sound. “They wouldn’t have me even if I wanted to.”

  “Why not? Jason changed sides, didn’t he?”

  “Dragons can get away with things wolves can’t.” His bitter tone spoke of experience. “But Alicia’s a loser and Valeria’s a prize bitch—I wouldn’t be caught dead round either of them.”

  “And Leandra was better than them?”

  He smiled. “Leandra was the most vicious of the lot. She would have been the heir by now if Jason hadn’t sold her out, the bastard.”

  A noise at the door brought him instantly alert, but it was only Luce. In the daylight I could see dark shadows under her eyes that hadn’t been apparent last night. Her gaze swept the room as she closed the door behind her, as if searching for threats. They were both so jumpy.

  The room didn’t look any better in daylight—the stains and scuff marks on the furniture were even more obvious—but there were no bogeymen waiting to leap out at her. And I didn’t even want to think about what kind of bogeyman it would take to frighten a werewolf and a wyvern.

  “You two look cosy.”

  Garth rolled his eyes and got up, taking his bowl back to the bench. “How’d it go?”

  “No sign of them. The keep’s deserted.”

  “The house at Mosman, you mean?” I asked. “There’s no one there?”

  “Empty as broken eggshells.”

  I laid my spoon down. Suddenly I’d lost my appetite.

  Where was Ben?

  “What do you think they’re up to?” Garth asked Luce, but I answered for her.

  “I heard them talking about an attack on Alicia. They said Valeria was in the mountains getting ready. It sounded like it could be any day now.”

  Luce dropped into Garth’s chair and considered me thoughtfully. “What kind of attack?”

  “I don’t know. But they all went off somewhere last night. Only a couple of guys stayed to guard Ben and me.” And now they’d left too. To move Ben somewhere safer? Or something worse?

  Luce looked at Garth. “Sounds like Valeria’s finally making her move. Patience pays off after all.” Under the table she clenched her fists. Not so inscrutable today. For the first time I realised Luce too had lost someone she cared about. “First get Leandra out of the way, then attack Alicia while she’s off guard. Nicely done.”

  Very nicely, as long as you weren’t Leandra. A dizzying rush of hatred for Valeria swamped me. Adrenalin surged, urging me to get up, move, fight. I fought it down. I had to think.

  Would Alicia be prepared? More likely cowering in a hole somewhere, knowing her. Her strategy all along had been to hide out and hope the rest of us killed each other off, leaving her the field. She must be shaking in her designer shoes by now.

  I started pacing, my mind racing, trying to block out the sound of the TV. The weather girl had moved on to the inevitable bushfires. The TV showed footage of flames roaring through gum trees at Lithgow, on the other side of the mountains. Any minute now they’d wheel out the expert. I glared at the TV, images of fire filling my mind.

  What had that thrall of Valeria’s said to Micah? Don’t get your fur singed? Perhaps that had been more than just a cute way of saying “be careful”.

  “She’s going to burn them out,” I said.

  “What?” Garth looked confused.

  Luce was quicker. Her agile mind was part of the reason she made such a good head of security. That and sheer ruthlessness. “Are you certain? Did you hear them say so?”

  I shrugged. “It’s what I would do. Alicia’s been playing it safe too long. She thinks she’s impregnable in that fortress of hers, but she’s forgotten what dragons do.”

  “Make everyone else’s lives miserable?” Garth suggested.

  “Breathe fire.” I knew I was right. Couldn’t they see?

  Luce tapped her fingers on the table. “And that’s what you would do, is it, if you were a dragon? You seem pretty well informed for someone who claims she only found out dragons existed two days ago.”

  I stopped pacing, a chill stealing over me. Deliberately set a fire and try to kill people? No, of course I wouldn’t. What kind of lunatic does a thing like that?

  A werewolf?

  “Still, if you’re right—and I can’t see any other reason for Valeria to be lurking in the Blue Mountains—we need to stop her.”

  Garth nearly choked. “Are you nuts? Why should we get in the middle of a fight between those two? To save Alicia? I don’t give a rat’s arse what happens to her! Let them kill each other off.”

  “That’s the problem, though—they won’t. Alicia will die, and then Valeria becomes the heir. There’s no way I’m letting that happen, after she killed Leandra.” Luce slapped her hands on the table and held Garth’s gaze till he dropped his head in submission. “We’ll do whatever it takes to stop her. If it means working with Alicia, then so be it. We also need to get hold of that stone and find out what it does. If there’s a message there from Leandra, it might be something we can use against Valeria. That stone’s important.”

  I felt that too, with a bone-deep knowledge that had nothing to do with logic. I needed that stone, hungered for it almost. Once I had it I’d crush that worm Valeria.

  “What are we going to do with her, then, while we’re chasing around the Blue Mountains?”

  “We’ll take her with us.”

  He rolled his eyes. Impudent dog. “We can’t trust her.”

  “We can’t trust anyone.” Luce was brutal, as always. “The only reason I trust you is because you were with me when Leandra died. As far as I’m concerned, everyone else is suspect.”

  “What about the other herald? We going to spring him too?”

  Ben! I’d hardly given him a thought. A wave of guilt rose up inside me, drowning out the dark hunger that insisted on finding the stone above all else. Ben was more important than a stupid piece of rock.

  “Yes!” I said.

  “No,” said Luce.

  We glared at each other.

  “You’re hardly in a position to be making
demands,” she said.

  “Fine,” I said. “I need help rescuing my friend, and you don’t even know what your precious stone looks like without me.”

  Outside doors slammed and feet crunched on gravel as people packed up, getting ready to leave. Someone shushed a whinging child. Inside silence reigned as Luce and I engaged in a battle of wills.

  “Perhaps we can work together,” she said at last. “For the moment.”

  A wealth of menace hung in that last phrase. Heaven help me once we found the stone if she decided I was no longer necessary.

  One problem at a time. First we had to find Ben and somehow rescue him—the three of us against a dragon at the height of her powers, with all her resources and an army of followers.

  Still, it wasn’t exactly a fair fight. We had Luce on our side.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Leura House was a lovely old wooden mansion with large verandas all around, built in the 1880s. Set in beautifully manicured grounds, it lay across the rail lines from the village of Leura in the Blue Mountains. Very picturesque. Probably a favourite photo spot with the local brides.

  Garth drove past at a sedate pace, slow enough to check the place out but not so slow as to look suspicious. Though it was summer the eucalyptus-scented mountain air had a nip to it. Leura itself was a pretty little tourist trap full of antique shops and tea houses. Lachie and I had stopped there once for afternoon tea after hiking nearby. He’d been a bit young to appreciate the spectacular scenery, finding the hot chocolate at the Leura café—“they gave me two marshmallows, Mummy! A white one and a pink one!”—the most memorable part of the day.

  We’d had a quick look around the shops, but he’d been sick of walking, and we hadn’t ventured as far as Leura House. It was surrounded by other homes, some modern, some not so much. Some of the older cottages looked as though they’d been here since soon after Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth had made their epic journey across the mountains and discovered the wealthy grazing lands on the other side.

  Luce had spent the drive up hunting Valeria with nothing more magical than good old google-fu, typing a search for accommodation into her phone as Garth drove.

  “Try Lilianfels,” Garth said, peering at the list. It was a luxury resort at Katoomba, near the tourist mecca of the Three Sisters. Lachie and I had admired it that long-ago afternoon. Well, I had at least. Lachie had been more interested in scuffing patterns in the dirt with the toe of his shoe. “Dragons love their creature comforts.”

  She nodded and dialled the number. “Hello, could I speak to Nada Kusic? … Oh, she must be delayed. Could you put me through to Jason Hepburn, then? … Never mind, thanks for your help.” She hung up and looked at him. “Not at Lilianfels.”

  “They could be using false names,” I said.

  “Not Valeria’s style. She doesn’t care who knows she’s coming. She thinks she’s untouchable now.”

  She dialled another number and went through the same routine, with no more luck. On the third try her dark eyes sparked. “They’re putting me through!” She hung up, a smug look on her usually expressionless face. “Leura House. A ‘stately old home’, according to the website.”

  “Valeria’s probably got the whole place booked out.” said Garth.

  If she did, it wasn’t obvious from the road. There were no cars out front, but a driveway that curved around the building suggested parking out the back, so for all we knew the place could be packed.

  A man leaned on the railing of the upper veranda, a lazy trail of smoke rising from the cigarette dangling from his fingers.

  “Well, at least he’s not glowing,” I said.

  That didn’t mean he wasn’t on Valeria’s payroll, of course. There’d been humans at the Mosman house.

  Luce’s head whipped around as Garth pulled over further down the road. “Glowing? What do you mean?”

  “You know.” I gestured at them both. “The auras or whatever you want to call them. Different colours.”

  Garth looked mystified but Luce’s eyes narrowed. “You can see them? What colour is mine?”

  “Blue.”

  “And Garth’s?”

  Why was she asking? “Orange. Micah’s was too.”

  “How long have you been able to see these auras?”

  Oops. “Since … since I met Leandra.” Was she mad because I’d forgotten to tell her about it? Or suspicious that it could have slipped my mind? It was pretty screwy, but it wasn’t the most unusual thing that had happened to me in the last few days by a long shot. I rubbed uneasily at the white scar on my arm.

  “I’ve heard of them.” The ice in her voice could have frozen Niagara Falls. “Leandra told me when I asked her how she always knew.”

  “You mean you can’t see them?” But wasn’t that how the shifters could tell who else belonged to their little freak club?

  “No one can see them,” she said, “except for the dragons.”

  I met Garth’s eyes in the rear vision mirror. They were full of suspicion, and the monobrow was drawn into a furious scowl. I glared back. Had I asked to be dragged into their crazy world?

  He was first to look away.

  “What now?” he asked Luce. “Sneak in after dark?”

  Luce stared out the windscreen at nothing. The fingers of one hand tapped absently on the armrest as she thought.

  “They won’t recognise this car. No one got a good look at it last night. Let’s drive around the back and have a look.”

  He looked doubtful, but he put the car into gear. “You’re the boss.”

  We did a U-turn and headed back the way we’d come. The wrought-iron gates stood open and Garth turned in. My skin crawled, imagining eyes at all those windows watching us pass, but there was no one in sight. Even the smoker had disappeared.

  A familiar black van sat all alone in the empty car park. Through the large windows on the ground floor we could see a restaurant where a couple of staff moved from table to table. It was nearly six; they were probably getting ready to open for dinner.

  Garth pulled into a parking spot but left the motor running.

  “Looks pretty empty,” he said. “It’s tempting.”

  Luce nodded.

  “But it’s broad daylight,” I objected. They weren’t going to be any help rescuing Ben if they walked in and got caught.

  Garth gave me a disgusted look. “Here’s an idea: let’s dangle you as bait and see if anyone takes a shot.”

  “I’m serious. They know what you look like.”

  “Your concern is touching,” Luce said. “But if most of them are off somewhere else, the ones who are here aren’t going to be hanging around reception. They’re most likely guarding your friend. It could be our best chance to take him. If we wait for dark the others might be back.”

  Good point. All right, I was sold.

  I looked up as I shut the car door. The windows above were all empty, but I felt their presence like eyes. Was Ben in one of those rooms? I sure hoped so. Chasing all over the Blue Mountains with Luce and Garth looking for homicidal dragons would be a lot more comfortable with Ben along.

  Inside it smelled of furniture polish and something wonderfully garlicky wafting from the kitchens. The walls were panelled in dark wood, and a worn Persian runner led from the entry to a large mahogany reception desk. The foyer was empty except for an overweight Labrador stretched out on the cool tiles. It thumped its tail on the floor in welcome, then heaved itself to its feet and waddled over. I patted the smooth head and it wagged absentmindedly till it caught Garth’s scent. With a reproachful look at me it backed off, disappearing behind the desk as fast as its arthritic legs could carry it.

  Voices sounded in the restaurant but no one came out to greet us. It wasn’t a big hotel—probably only ten or twelve rooms. Most likely the receptionist also doubled as a waitress or chambermaid too.

  We peeked into a large lounge where a fire was laid in the massive fireplace. It probably got cold at night, even in summer, at
this elevation. No one there either.

  Luce pointed up the grand staircase and Garth nodded, leading the way on silent feet. For such a solid guy he could move quietly when it suited him. I ghosted upstairs in their wake, my heart thumping nervously.

  On the first floor we crept along listening at doors, our footsteps lost in the thick carpet. The lower half of the walls was panelled in the same dark wood as downstairs. Above the rail they were painted the colour of dried blood. All was still. No one home.

  Guess I wasn’t cut out for a life of intrigue. Knowing that any moment someone could open one of these doors, or come up the stairs behind us, set my nerves on edge.

  At the end of the hall a smaller staircase continued up to another hall that sloped up and around a corner. Must have been an attic once, or servants’ quarters—no point bothering with level floors for mere servants. The sound of a TV drifted faintly from around the corner.

  Still in the lead, Garth strode confidently around the bend and rapped on the lone door at the end of the corridor.

  “Room service!”

  I froze, uncertain what to do, but Luce moved up behind Garth. Guess they’d done this kind of thing before. Footsteps approached the door. As the handle began to turn Garth hurled himself against the door.

  The guy who’d been opening it fell back with a cry as the door slammed him in the face. Luce and I rushed in on Garth’s heels as a second man rose from his chair. Garth bore him to the floor, where they flailed and grunted. Luce snatched up a table lamp and watched for her chance. When the other guy rolled on top, hands clenched around Garth’s throat, she smashed it over his head. He went down like a sack of potatoes and lay still.

  Garth clambered to his feet and checked on the first guy. He was dazed and groaning, his nose gushing blood. Garth punched him in the head, putting him out cold, then kicked him on to his side. The casual brutality made me wince.

  Suddenly I registered the other person in the room. I flew over to the big four-poster bed where Ben lay, cuffed to the bedpost with cable ties, and ripped the gag away from his mouth.

  “Are you all right? Did they hurt you?”