A Monster and a Gentleman (25 page)

Tokaki had checked the bodies on the ground, sorting the dead from the injured. “Three of the wounded may live. The others are dying.”

“We’ll help the three.”

Tokaki lowered his voice. “What are we going to do with them? We could take them to the captive caves or to my Clan, but how long could we keep them? Who would guard them?”

“It’s too dangerous,” Runako added. “We should kill them.”

“No. They should have a chance to see the world we are trying to create.”

Runako snorted. “You think they will change their ways, change their minds? They won’t.”

“Maybe not, but I will not allow you to kill them.” Maeve put steel into her words.
 

“Then what do you want to do?” Tokaki asked.

Maeve closed her eyes. She had a plan, a hope, and now what she needed was the power to execute it. With no guide, she could only rely on instinct, trust what felt right. It was how she’d discovered the spell that allowed them to become human—and it was how she would solve this problem.
 

“Bring me one of the injured ones.”

Runako carried her one of the injured men. He was missing his left arm and there was blood dripping from his shoulder. This was one of the men Tokaki thought had a chance of surviving?

Maeve knelt beside him and pressed her hand to his empty shoulder socket. The man screamed through gritted teeth. Maeve let ice form in her palm, forcing the cold into his wound. It burned, she could see it in the way his already pain-ravaged body thrashed, but as the ice-bandage grew, he calmed. Maeve pulled her hand away, leaving a cap of ice where his arm should be, long fingers of frost clinging to his clothes to hold it in place.
 

The man turned his head to look at her. His eyes were shiny with pain, but there was nothing behind him, as if he’d already died.

“Just kill me, you freak.”

Tokaki put one massive paw on the man’s chest, claws catching the fabric. “I hear what you’re thinking. Do not speak to her that way.”

The man turned his face from Tokaki, eyes squeezed shut.
 

“I will not kill you,” Maeve told him. “Even if you want to die.”

Maeve pricked the tip of one of her fingers with a nail. Waving Tokaki off, she ripped away the heavy vest the human wore, then tore his shirt to reveal his flesh. Maeve reached out and touched the Everafter, letting the threads flow through her. In them she could hear whispers. Whispers that told her how to do what she wanted.

She let the drop of blood fall to his chest as she started her chant. The words were a mix of the old language and one even older, words she did not understand, words whose meaning she felt deep in her soul. She felt her hair whip around her, heard Tokaki and Runako retreat a few steps.
 

Her blood froze when it hit his chest, froze and started to grow. Blood-laced icicles crept over his body, arrowing up his chest to his neck. He was screaming, but the screaming stopped when the ice circled his throat before inching up his face. His torso was now encased in ice, his arm slowly freezing. Snowflakes crept up his cheeks, finally encasing his still-open eyes.
 

Clumps of hair fell against her back as she drew away from the Everafter.
 

Maeve stared down at the human. He was frozen, the block of ice encasing him perfectly clear except for the ribbons of red centered over his chest. His eyes were open, the fingers of his one remaining hand curled into claws.
 

Runako and Tokaki crept closer to examine her handiwork. Tokaki stared at the man for a moment before letting out a chuff of surprise.

“His heart is beating!”

“Yes.” Maeve smoothed her hand over the top of the ice block. “He’s alive. He is not awake, but he is alive.

“Where is the next one?”

The other two injured men were already unconscious. When she put them into the ice, their faces were calm and peaceful.
 

When Maeve turned to the waiting men, two tried to run. Tokaki and Runako chased them down, dragging them back.

“No. I’d rather be dead. No!”

Maeve grabbed the one Tokaki was carrying in his massive jaws. He thrashed, hitting her in the hip, but Maeve wouldn’t be deterred. Tokaki slashed open his clothing, easily ripping away the vest so Maeve could touch his chest with a drop of her blood.

This one was frozen standing, his arms reaching for Maeve.

“Please, my mother has no one else. Please.” It was the first man who was begging now, the one with brown eyes.
 

“You will not be dead, and you will not suffer. You will not even know time is passing.”

“But my mother…”

Maeve wanted, for his sake, to have some mercy, but there was no mercy in her. “You chose to become a man who hunts and kills others for a living. Your people have hurt and killed me and mine, and now you’ve attacked us again.”

As she spoke, Maeve pricked her finger.

“You’ve forfeited your life with your mother.”

His head dropped and a sob escaped him.

“How did you find us?” Maeve asked. She’d been waiting, hoping one of the men would be willing to tell her what she needed without her having to touch him.

“Something online. All the commander said was they had an Internet hit. A small advance unit came for recon and saw them. The rest of us arrived a few hours ago.”

“And why did you come here to kill us?”

“Because you’re…because we believe you are a threat to us.”

“Not because you wanted to take my brothers and torture them?”

“What?” His head jerked up. “No, we were on a mission to neutralize a threat. Prisoners, especially of that size, would be too much of a risk.”

They’d always known, and Margo had confirmed, that many of the men working for the organization had no real idea of what their leaders wanted.

“Which one is your commander?”

“He’s…he’s over there.” The man pointed to the pile of bodies.

There were other questions she wanted to ask, but she doubted he had the answers.

“Take off your shirt.”

She didn’t think he’d obey, but the man did, removing first the vest, then his shirt, with small, jerky movements.
 

“I don’t want her to look for me.” The man took a breath and lifted his head. His face was stony, and Maeve was surprised how much his expression reminded her of her own Clans-men—the grim resolution to carry on no matter what happened. “It will be hard, if she doesn’t know what happened to me, doesn’t have a body to bury.”

That struck a chord with Runako. Runako’s sister had been kidnapped and tortured by Blackwolf. He and Margo had infiltrated the compound, rescuing Seling and also finding bits of Runako’s sister—pieces of her the humans had saved for their experiments.

It was only then that Runako had been able to mourn her.
 

“The dead have a right to be buried and mourned.” Runako held out his hand. “You have my word that your mother will think you dead.”

The man stared at Runako’s outstretched hand. He rose to his feet, ignoring a warning snarl from Tokaki. He clasped Runako’s massive hand in his. The males held each other’s gaze for a moment.

“My name’s Gomez. Sergeant Alex Gomez, formerly of the United States Marine Corps.”

“I’m Runako.”

The males released each other and Sgt. Gomez faced Maeve. He crossed his arms and nodded. “Go ahead, ma’am.”

An odd feeling stole over Maeve. Rather than touching her blood to him, she grabbed his shoulder with her other hand. His past and future rushed at her. She concentrated on his future. She hadn’t wanted to See the future of these men, because she hadn’t wanted it to influence the choices they made that night, but instinct told her that she needed to see this man.

There were many futures, branching often. He was a man of war and would continue to be one. But in his future it was very clear who he was fighting for.
 

Maeve grinned as her hair fell back against her skin. “Your life is only just getting interesting,” she told the sergeant a moment before she touched her blood to his chest, letting the ice envelop him.

As if his bravery had inspired them, the remaining men stood and stripped off their shirts.
 

Maeve had always liked humans. She looked more like them than she looked like many of her Clans-men, she enjoyed human inventions and food, and with Oren she thought she’d finally started to understand what they called love.

But she’d never admired them until that moment.
 

These human men showed a bravery that she’d assumed only her people could possess. She didn’t look into their futures—she didn’t have to.

She knew they’d meet again.

When she was done, Maeve stepped back. Altogether she had eight men encased in ice.
 

“Damn.” Runako tapped the ice with one talon. “I kinda like them.”

“What do we do with them? And with the dead ones?”

“There are more dead ones below—the snipers and a few men in black cars.”

“We should burn them,” Maeve said reluctantly.

“No.” Runako was adamant. “They deserve more than that.”

Maeve wondered if he’d have said the same if the sergeant hadn’t spoken up. It didn’t matter, because he was right.

“Load the dead ones into the cars.” Maeve said. “But first I must put these ones someplace for safe keeping.”

Runako draped two bodies over each arm, then jumped off the side of the building. His tattered wing made an odd noise as he glided to the ground.

“Shall I take them to my homeland?” Tokaki eyed the men frozen in ice. “I could hide them in one of the mountain caves or unused temples. But it would be dangerous for them if they woke—there would be no one there to see to them.”

“I’d hoped you would take them,” Runako said as he returned, gathering more bodies. “The captive caves are too risky—someone might harm them. There is still a lot of fear in the Clan.”

“Do not worry about them waking.” Maeve placed her hand on the ice were her blood was frozen in elaborate spirals. “I will know if they wake.”

“Very well.” Tokaki wrapped his tail around one of them and pressed his shoulder to another as Runako leapt off the building again.

“And Tokaki?”

“Yes.”

“No one is to know where they are.”

He held her gaze for a moment before nodding. With a little hiss of air, Tokaki and the two men he was touching disappeared.

“We have a visitor.” Runako landed with a thunk and Oren stumbled out of his grip.
 

Maeve’s heart clenched at the sight of him. “Oren.”

His gaze swept the carnage, eyes widening slightly when he saw the men in ice. She wondered if he’d run. He had the right to be frightened; he would be a fool not to be.

He did run, but not away from her.

“Maeve, are you okay?” He grabbed her, hugging her to his chest.
 

Shock held her still for a moment before she relaxed into him. Now that he was here she realized how tired she was, felt every small ache and pain.
 

“Oren.” The tears in her voice surprised them both.

Oren held her at arm’s length and inspected her. “You’re hurt.”

“I’m not.”

“Then why are you crying?”

“Tired…and sad.”

“What happened?”

“We were attacked,” Runako answered as he grabbed more bodies. “It was the men who killed my sister, who kidnapped Seling.”

“They found you from the blog post?”

“I think so.”

“Are there more?” Oren pulled her against his side, as if to protect her. It was sweet, if a bit foolish. If anything, Maeve would protect him. Though she wouldn’t tell him that.

Tokaki popped back into place.

“Holy fuck!” Oren jumped. “Can you all do that? Just disappear into thin air?”

“No.” Tokaki nodded once to Oren, grabbed two more men and disappeared again.

Oren rubbed his temples. “I have several questions and a few demands.”

“What are your demands?”

They were silent for a moment as Runako removed the last of the bodies. When they were alone, Oren led them away from the blood-splattered floor. They found a clear space drenched in moonlight. Oren took her by the arms and forced her to face him.

“My first demand is—don’t ever do that again. I’ve been frantic trying to get here, not knowing if I’d find you dead when I did.”

“I had to go.”

“Next time take me with you.”

“I cannot.”

“Fine, then next time, we’re driving.”

“It would take too long.”

“Well, those are your options. Take them or leave them.”

Maeve couldn’t help but smile at his ferocity. “And why do I have to do what you say?”