Wayward Souls

by Devon Monk

  “I know a bullet in the head of that dog will change your mind.”

  Again, not lying. He was just shooting the shit, out here on a nice day ready to bury a bullet in my dog’s brain, ready to fire off a tight enough cluster to kill my wife—and if not kill her, damage her in a way that could be permanent.

  And oh, wasn’t that a fear? That Lu wouldn’t even earn a clean death, but that she would be caught, maybe in a coma, or some other vegetative state, for eternity.

  My stomach rolled and soured as that old fear hit me and hit me hard. I opened my mouth to get enough breath into my lungs, so I wouldn’t throw up right there.

  There really were things worse than death. We’d both seen them.

  “It’s just a journal, Lu,” I said, turning away from the psycho so I could see her hear me. So I could see her understand me. “We’ll find something else for Headwaters. Let him have it. We can take care of him later.”

  Lu had that stubborn look to her. Like she was going to do the dangerous thing, the savage thing. She wasn’t a woman who stood idly by as people told her what to do. She’d lived a very long life cutting her own path through the wild.

  “Baby, you need to listen to me,” I pleaded. “You really need to listen to me. Let him have the damn journal. We’ll find something better. We’ll make it square with Headwaters.”

  I thought she was going to argue with me. Thought that bullheaded side of her was about to get her shot, was about to get Lorde shot too.

  If that happened, I was pretty sure Hatcher would just let the house go up in smoke out of spite. I wasn’t sure why he needed Lu to give him the journal. He could just tell her to step away from the junk pile and reach in there himself, but he hadn’t yet.

  He was cautious. Waiting to see what touching that book of strange magic would do to someone like Lu. Which meant he knew something about the book and what powers it held inside.

  Dangerous magics.

  Hatcher rubbed his thumb along the grip of the gun, bringing Lu’s attention back to it. Back to how he had it pointed at Lorde.

  Lorde growled, low and menacing. She wanted to attack. She wanted to protect.

  Hatcher started counting. “Five…four…”

  “This is not going to end well for you,” Lu said like she was judging a poorly designed parachute he was about to jump off a cliff with.

  “…three…”

  Lu rocked forward, her hand and arm pushing into the pile of junk, through the magic that radiated from the journal, her shoulder sliding between a couple crumbling bricks, then a little farther, until her cheek almost grazed the stone. She wasn’t looking downward, couldn’t really at this angle.

  She was looking at Hatcher.

  He had stopped counting, but I knew time was running out. If he really meant to blow up Dot’s house, what would keep him from doing it after he got what he wanted? Why wouldn’t he take the book, shoot our dog, blow up the house, and try to kill Lu?

  “Who are you working for, you piece of shit?” Anger pounded behind my bones like a fist trying to punch its way out of my chest.

  Stella flickered at my left. “She’s not inside. Not that I can see. I think he kidnapped her. I think he kidnapped her and stole her car to leave it here and make us think she was in there, in the house. She might be dead. Brogan! What if she followed the light? I can’t find her, Brogan. I can’t find her, can’t find her!”

  If the hunter heard her, he did not show it. His gaze was steady on Lu, his gun unwavering on Lorde.

  I was not physical, not any more. Not in the way that the world defines it. But if I were angry enough—and right now I was burning, an inferno, rage and rage and rage—I could tear the world apart.

  It would cost me, cost me for days and weeks. Could do permanent damage. That was a price I didn’t mind paying.

  Stella was screaming and screaming, not words, just pain and loss and madness. She was so loud, I almost didn’t hear Lu speak.

  “I’m going to enjoy this.” Lu quickly—almost too fast for eyes to follow—stood.

  And wasn’t she a sight? A warrior from myth, her hair catching in the little breath of wind, her eyes so amber they were almost yellow, shining. Shining brighter than any magic, brighter than the sun.

  She was fire and fury. Facing down a man who didn’t know how little of his life he had left.

  I couldn’t love her more.

  The book in her hand burned with magic that snapped and arced like ghostly serpents made of fire, electricity and sound: a deep, humming thrum. A maelstrom of magic surrounded the book, a collision of light, darkness, and smells: cinnamon, hot metal, snow scraped across an ancient land.

  It was powerful. It might even be deadly, all on its own.

  Maybe the man who sold it to Stella had been telling the truth. That the journal chose who possessed it. Maybe that’s why it had knocked me on my ass. It hadn’t chosen me. Didn’t want me.

  But looking at Lu, it was clear—very clear—that it had chosen her. She was vengeance. She was a queen carved of wildfire and moonlight, the universe in her fist.

  That book held more magic than I’d seen in a long, long time. It glowed brighter and brighter in her grip.

  Then she threw the book. Right at the hunter’s gun hand.

  Stella was screaming and screaming. Words now: “bastard,” and “kill you,” and “my sister,” over and over.

  A lot of things happened at once.

  Lorde barked, deep and vicious, and jagged away from Lu’s side, fast, faster, angling at Hatcher from almost behind him instead of head-on.

  The book slammed into Hatcher’s hand, knocking it down and wide, the gun somehow still in it. Then his hand was up, quick, as he tracked Lorde, trying to get a shot off.

  Stella launched at him, hands curved into claws, aiming for his eyes, screaming, screaming.

  He grunted and scrambled back, his free hand coming up to ward off the ghost whose madness and lust to make this man pay was enough to break through.

  I pulled at the energy inside of me. The anger, the fear, the sheer violent boiling need to break this world into chunks, grind it to dust in my hands, to shatter it until only Lu and I were left standing. Until it there was nothing holding Lu and I apart. Until we were all there was.

  “Lu?” Dot said, her voice high with worry and fear. “What is going on?”

  Stella stopped hard. Like a light switch popping, she flickered, fingers scrabbling at the hunter one moment, pop pop pop, then suddenly beside her sister.

  “Dot, oh, Dot,” she heaved, tears so close on the heels of terror and relief. “I thought… I thought…”

  Stella had moved fast, but so had Lu.

  Hatcher wasn’t looking at my wife, his eyes tracking the dog who was on him, jumping, jaws open, sharp teeth snapping, blood-curdling snarls of death and blood and pain filling the air.

  “No!” I yelled.

  Just as Dot screamed.

  Hatcher fired. Steady hand. Straight shot. True and terrible.

  Lorde barked, a harsh pain-filled yelp. She stumbled as her front leg refused to carry her. Blood bloomed, dark in her dark fur, her shoulder going wet with it, far too quickly.

  Lu didn’t make a sound. She was flash-lightning, a slice of fire-tipped steel, her body a blade, a weapon, an end. She devoured the distance between them and threw a punch with her entire body and the speed of her run packed behind it.

  He knocked back, flat on his back, but rolled quick, that damn gun still in his hand. When he came up in a crouch, far enough out of reach that Lu couldn’t instantly hit him, that gun was aimed at Dot.

  “I will shoot her.”

  Lu stilled, her muscles pulling painfully tight in her battle not to hit him again. She had knives on her, and one of them was in her hand, gleaming wickedly bright. There was magic in that knife, magic that did unholy damage to creatures and maybe even gods.

  In the right hands, that knife could do unholy damage to anyone.

&nb
sp; Lu was the right hands.

  Lorde still growled, a high whine behind each exhale. She limped to stand next to Lu, her ears back, her teeth bared. But she was not using her front leg, and the bleeding had not slowed.

  I stood in front of Lu, facing the asshole down, just angry enough to do something stupid. Something that would lay me out for months. Something that would take me away from Lu for all that time. Something that would get Lorde killed. She was bleeding hard.

  Time was running out. Lorde needed a vet. Now.

  “The book,” Hatcher said.

  “Fuck it,” I growled. “Give him the damn book, Lu.”

  Lu didn’t want to. It was evident in every line of her body. But Lorde was running out of time, and Dot, who had wisely held very still and gone gray and silent, didn’t deserve to die over a bit of old magic.

  Lu slowly bent, picked up the book that thrummed at her touch, something not lost on the hunter, if the widening of his eyes meant anything. With a flick of her wrist, she tossed it at his feet.

  “I’ll find you,” she said in a deadly calm voice. A promise. A threat.

  “I’m counting on it.” He bent, his eyes never leaving Lu, his gun never straying from perfect aim at Dot’s heart. He picked up the book with his gloved hand, then stood.

  “Who do you work for?” she asked.

  “You don’t know him.”

  “Afraid to give me a name?”

  “No,” he said as he began walking backward. “You have mine.”

  “You’ll want to say good-bye to anyone you care about,” she observed.

  “I think I’ll wait a bit. See how it goes.” Brave. And stupid.

  He said a word, old and foul. A spell filled with rotted magic not meant for this world filled the air.

  I gagged at the horror of it, my hand over my mouth, my arm shooting out to protect Lu and Lorde behind me, like we were on the highway and about to be hit by a truck veering out of its lane.

  Then he was gone. Disappeared. That one-word spell poisoning the leaves and grass so that they curled and singed.

  I didn’t know what it cost him to use that magic. I didn’t know whose favor had allowed him to inflict that onto the world.

  Whoever he was tied up with was powerful, dangerous, and foul. Maybe monster. Maybe god. Maybe something worse.

  “What just happened?” Dot demanded. “He had a gun. And then he was…he wasn’t there anymore. I’m calling the police. Should I call the police?”

  I spun, hands lifting to touch Lu, to search her for injuries. Lu stood still for a moment, really just a half second. And her eyes met mine. Determination, anger, and fear.

  Then Lorde whined and crumpled to the ground.

  Lu dropped next to her and gathered the big, black, furry creature into her arms. She stood, lifting the hundred-pound dog as if she weighed nothing. “Where’s the nearest vet?”

  “He disappeared.” Dot still stared at the empty space where Hatcher had been. “He disappeared!” It was finally sinking in, and she was having a hard time matching this new reality with the magic-less one she’d believed in just a few seconds ago.

  “Dot,” Lu’s voice cut hard and sharp, bringing the other woman’s full attention back to her. “The nearest vet. Now.”

  Dot’s gaze ticked down to Lorde, who was making a soft high whining sound with every exhale.

  “Carter,” Dot said, snapping into motion. “Dr. Carter’s just a few streets down. Get in my car. I’ll drive.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  “She’ll be fine,” Dr. Joyce Carter said as she finished making notes on the clipboard in her hand. “Lorde is a very lucky girl you got her here so quickly.”

  Lu sat on the floor, petting Lorde who was sleeping off the anesthesia. She’d had to have immediate surgery to remove the bullet from her shoulder.

  The doctor expected a full recovery, though Lorde’s leg was bandaged and splinted. She wouldn’t be able to put weight on it for a little while, but knowing she was going to be okay meant everything to Lu.

  Meant everything to me too.

  “Have you called in the incident to the sheriff?” Dr. Carter asked.

  Lu shook her head. “I’m sure he’s long gone.”

  “I know we’re a small town, Ms. Gauge, but we don’t allow people to shoot pets and get away with it. I’m sure if you could identify the man, the sheriff will do everything he can to make sure he’s found and brought up on charges.”

  “Really?” I said. I was sitting on the floor, too, my hand rubbing over Lorde’s soft head, her softest ears, mirroring Lu’s movements. “You think the law is going to go all out to take down one asshole who shot a dog? You have more faith in how the sheriff departments spend their resources than I do, lady.”

  “I’ll look into it,” Lu lied.

  There was no chance Lu was going to drag the authorities into this fight. If she wanted revenge, which I was pretty sure she did, she’d catch up with Hatcher and get it with her own hands.

  And there was more than him injuring Lorde at stake. There was the book and the magic it held. There was the fact that he was a hunter of things that go bump in the night and might come back to try to kill Lu or Lorde. There was the fact that he had followed Lu, maybe waiting for her to find something magical. Something like the book.

  And there was the fact that he was working for someone. Someone who wanted powerful, old magic.

  The smart move would be to let it go. Let him take that weird book to whoever he worked for and never think of it again. The smart move would be to go on with our lives, such as they were, looking for our own clues to our own puzzle. To find a way to be whole and alive again.

  But I knew Lu. She wouldn’t let this lie. Not when she had a chance at magic that might hold the answers we needed. Or make a hell of a bargaining chip to pry answers out of whoever might have them.

  “We’ll keep Lorde overnight. You can come get her in the morning,” Dr. Carter said.

  Lu’s hand stopped stroking Lorde’s fur. I could see her wanting to argue. Wanting to pick Lorde up and carry her out of there right this moment.

  When you’ve had things you loved taken away from you, it was hard to let go, even when it might be necessary and better for the thing, the person, you loved. You held on tight because you knew things could be whisked away, stolen, taken so quickly, so permanently, it hollowed you out and left you empty and numb.

  “I’ll look in on her,” I told Lu. “The truck isn’t even ready yet. She’ll be more comfortable here than at the B&B. Let Dr. Carter look after her. She’s gonna be fine. I’ll make sure she’s fine.”

  Frown lines thumbed a curve between Lu’s eyebrows, but she finally nodded.

  “I’ll be here when you open,” Lu said.

  Dr. Carter smiled, and it was warm and approving. She could see how much Lu loved Lorde. “We will take very, very good care of her. Do you want to see the kennel area?”

  Lu did want to see it, so she walked back with the doctor’s assistant, a slender young man named Leon. I stayed with Lorde and told her what a good and brave girl she was and made her promises of bones and soft blankets and grassy fields in which she could hunt fat, slow gophers.

  When Lu came back, some of the worry had melted away and her shoulders had lost some of their stiffness.

  “Good?” I asked her, giving Lorde one last long stroke. Lorde sighed in her sleep. Content. Happy.

  Lu nodded. “She’s going to be comfortable.” I knew she was talking to me, but Leon answered.

  “We’ll make sure of it. We keep someone here overnight to make sure she has everything she needs. It’s my turn. I’m going to pamper the heck out of this brave girl. Chasing off that jerk trying to steal Dot’s car.”

  His brown eyes were so sincere, his smile so wide, it was impossible to doubt him.

  “Thank you,” she said.

  Dot was waiting out in the lobby, sitting in a chair that let her look out the window and keep an eye on the
door to the other rooms at the same time.

  “How is she?” Dot stood and smoothed her shirt and pants. She was nervous, her hands trembling. I’d thought she would have left, would have been done with this nonsense, but she’d stuck like glue.

  “Good,” Lu said. “She’ll stay the night. I can pick her up in the morning.”

  “Oh, that’s…that’s good news. Very good. I can bring you.”

  “Not necessary. I’ll have the truck.”

  Dot shook her head. “Please. Let me. I can’t believe what that horrible man did. And…” Her voice faded as she was reminded of the other unbelievable things that horrible man had done.

  Like stealing a book radiating magic. Like disappearing into thin air. “…and that’s that,” she said. “I’ll bring you tomorrow, and we’ll make a nice cozy bed for Lorde in the corner of your room. I think I have a small mattress that will fit nicely.”

  Lu stared at her, and for once, I wasn’t sure what she was thinking.

  “That’s…kind of you,” Lu said, “but I won’t be staying that long.” Lu walked to the door. Dot was right on her heels following her through.

  “But Lorde. She needs time to recover.”

  “She’ll be fine. I’ll take care of her.”

  “Of course,” Dot said. “Of course you will. I just want you to know you’re welcome. Welcome to stay at no charge until she’s better.”

  Lu nodded, but she was scanning the street, scanning the buildings, the barbershop on the corner, the trees stirring in the warm wind.

  “I’m sure he’s left by now,” Dot said, guessing correctly who Lu was looking for. “I called the Sheriff’s office, and they think he’s long…”

  “What?” Lu asked.

  “The Sheriff,” Dot said. “I called their office. He had a gun. He shot your poor dog. Someone shouldn’t get away with that.”

  Lu lifted her hands to rub at her eyes but stopped before touching her skin. Her fingers were still sticky with dried blood. She’d tried to wipe it off, but hadn’t managed to get it all.

  Dot noticed she was staring at her fingers and immediately jumped into mother mode.