Guardian Hound (22 page)

Wyoming and Seattle, Present Day

Peter

Peter sat on the side of the road with Ariel, waiting for the tow truck to take her motorcycle away. The flat Wyoming landscape went on and on, high alpine desert covered in scraggly bushes and tough grass. The sky went on and on as well, clean blue with only a few clouds to play hide-and-seek with the sun. Wind pushed at them, first from one direction, then the other, carrying scents of spring leaves and newly ploughed fields.

Ariel moved slowly, raising her water bottle for a drink. Peter was certain her dark brown skin hid the bruises on her face. Given the wrecked condition of her bike, Peter was surprised she'd refused all medical attention from the ambulance that had finally come by, despite Peter's insistence that the raven clan would cover any medical bills.

“We can get you to a healer back at the hall,” Peter told her as she winced, putting the bottle back on the ground.

“I'll be fine,” Ariel said dismissively.

“I bet you can't even take a deep breath right now—your ribs are either broken or bruised.”

Ariel glared at Peter. “And if they are, there's nothing no one can do about it.”

“Could give you something for the pain,” Peter pointed out.

“We'll see,” Ariel said with a shrug. “So how did you learn about the shadows?”

Peter eagerly told Ariel about Lukas, how he'd been cursed, and how he was bringing together a group of people who would battle the shadows.

“Sally, my girl—my wife,” Peter said, a spike of happiness rushing through him. “According to Lukas, she's the heart of this knight who will appear when we all come together. Mei Ling—she's ferocious, and her scales do something with the armor. Virmal, he's developed some magic that works against the shadows.”

“The shadow try to confuse you, fool your eyes,” Ariel added. “But they can't fool me.”

“Huh,” Peter said. “You really need to come with us.” Lukas was going to be so excited that Peter had found another member of their team.

“What about you?” Ariel asked as she slowly, carefully, pushed herself up.

Peter looked over his shoulder. The bright yellow flashing lights of the tow truck approached.

“What do you mean?” Peter asked, standing. He knew better than to ask Ariel if she needed help, or to offer, but he did take a step closer, ready to give her a hand if it looked as if she was going to fall.

“So I bring sight, and your wife brings this great heart. What do you bring, birdman?”

Peter opened his mouth and shut it again. He knew Lukas needed him for something, that there must be some sort of special ability that only he had.

But he had no idea what it could be.

# # #

Dozens of ravens cawed greetings to them from the numerous balconies and ledges of Raven Hall. The white brick glittered in the high noon light, jutting out from the white cliff behind it, looking as if it had sprung from it. Peter looked up and smiled, his raven soul tempted to caw back—this was home now, a school he could reform, a place where he and Sally could do good work.

Ariel stood with her fists on her waist, staring intently at the building.

“Pretty cool, huh?” Peter asked.

Ariel looked askance at him. “Yeah. That's one way of putting it.”

Kyle came rushing out of the tall wooden doors before Peter could ask Ariel what she meant.

“Prefect Peter! I am
so
sorry. I just—” Kyle cut himself off when he saw Ariel. “Oh, geez. Look. Miss. I'm sorry. I don't know what happened. There was just—”

“It's okay,” Ariel said grudgingly.

Kyle tumbled on. “Are y'all hurt? I could—”

“Yes,” Peter interrupted. “Go get Prefect Kitridge. And make sure Dr.
Elrah's
in the infirmary.”

“But—” Kyle hesitated.

“Go,” Peter directed. Though he was only in his mid-twenties, Kyle made him feel like a wise old bird. “Sorry about that,” Peter said, turning to Ariel after Kyle had dashed off. “He's just,
uhm
, excitable, I guess.”

Ariel gave a brief chuckle that she cut off abruptly.

How badly hurt was she?

“
Naw
, I get it,” Ariel said, dismissing his apology with a wave of her hand.

“Please, let us help you,” Peter said insistently as they approached the building.

“Why do you care?” Ariel asked bluntly. “I mean, I
ain't
about to sue your ass or anything. Plus, you're a raven.”

“It's the right thing to do,” Peter insisted. Though not all the training he'd received at Ravens' Hall had been good, and despite Prefect Aaron's flawed ideas about discipline, he'd still been raised to be a gentleman and to do the right thing.

Prefect Kitridge met them at the door. She wore her usual white tank top to show off the muscles in her arms as well as the vibrant red-and-blue tattoos that went from her shoulders to mid-forearms. Her hair was still short and spiked, the tips bright green. She'd replaced the plain metal balls of her nose and lip piercings with dark green stones.

“What's up, boss?” Kitridge asked.

“Don't call me that,” Peter sighed. Kitridge was at least ten years older than he was, and had been one of his teachers. It made him uncomfortable to suddenly be in a position of authority above her.

“Anything you say, boss,” Kitridge said with a grin and a broad wink.

Not like she recognized his authority.

“Prefect Kitridge, this is Ariel,” Peter said. “She's been in an accident.”

“Bike?” Kitridge asked, taking in Ariel's leathers.

“Harley
Fatboy
,” Ariel replied.

“Sweet ride. Bit of a hog, though,” Kitridge said. “Let's go do what we can to patch you up. Give you something for the bruises.”

“You're raven clan,” Ariel said after she looked at Kitridge for a moment.

“Yep. One of the two female prefects here.”

“Doesn't it drive you crazy?” Ariel asked as she turned to follow Kitridge.

“You do what you can. Boys. I teach ‘
em
how to fight,” Kitridge explained.

Peter rolled his eyes. At least he'd made the right decision, asking for Kitridge to meet them. She was one of the few prefects he trusted.

“
Uhm
, Prefect Peter?” came Kyle's voice from behind him.

Peter made himself maintain his smile as he turned around. “Yes?”

“Is she
gonna
be okay? Miss Ariel?” Kyle asked, still nervous.

A laugh from the two women echoed down the hall. “I think so,” Peter said.

Kyle stood there, nervously biting his lips, staring over Peter's shoulder.

“Did you need something else?” Peter quietly prompted.

“Oh! Yes! Your wife, Miss Sally, would like to see you.”

“Good. I was just going to find her,” Peter said, brushing past Kyle and heading to the southern wing of Ravens' Hall, where the prefects were housed.

As a student, Peter had never been in this part of the building. Wood paneling—some of it very old, brought from the ancient halls in Wales; some of it cheap 1950s knockoffs—dominated the common areas. Was all that wood supposed to make their raven souls more comfortable? It felt like an exclusive club for rich white men. Peter planned on replacing the heavy, carved chairs and couches with something more modern, as well as replacing the dark green wallpaper with something brighter and softer.

Peter's raven soul, Cai, didn't care much for human spaces. But he didn't seem to mind these rooms, particularly after all the charms and cameras had been removed.

Why had the elders felt they needed to watch and control all of the raven clan who lived here to such a degree? Peter still hadn't gotten a good answer to that. Had it been an unconscious response to the shadows? But he hadn't found any lurking here, and Cai hadn't seen any, either.

Then again, Lukas has warned that their sight could be fooled. Peter mainly detected the shadows by scent, and only with Cai's help, when there were a lot of them. He didn't have as good a nose as the members of the hound clan, and so he'd never detected the one that had attached itself to Sally.

After Peter had vanquished Prefect Aaron, the elders had assumed Peter would take Aaron's quarters—the spoils of war. But Aaron's rooms had
creeped
Peter out, so he and Sally had moved another prefect there, taking a smaller suite on the far southern edge of the building.

No matter how cold the temperature was outside, the sunshine made their apartment warm. Floor-to-ceiling windows overlooked their own private garden. Brown brick made up the floor just in front of the windows and acted as passive solar: Once the sun warmed the bricks, they kept the rest of the rooms warm, too.

Much of the furniture had been scrounged from empty prefect apartments or the big storage locker the clan kept in town. It was a soothing mismatch of overstuffed 1980s couches done in dark purple velvet; ultra sleek, Danish-modern wooden tables; and two sturdy antique red-painted rocking chairs with brand new cushions that were surprisingly comfortable.

Sally sat in one next to the bright sunlight, her legs tucked in under her and an ancient book in her lap. Peter had overridden the objections of the prefects and pulled out all the old books, wanting to learn not just about the other clans and the actual history of his own, but also to see if there was some mention of the shadows.

“Hey, you,” Sally said with a bright smile. She wore a soft green hoodie over jeans.

“Hey,” Peter said, his heart full to bursting with so many emotions at seeing her: Love, devotion, fierce protection, and joy. His raven soul sent the image of a fully lined nest, set high on a tree branch, an image of home. Peter leaned over and collected a soft kiss. “What's up?”

“I think I found something,” Sally said, excited. “Here, look at this.”

The pages of the book were onion-skin thin and had gone brown with age. The text was handwritten in black ink, the letters harshly upright, looking stenciled in.

Sally pointed to an ancient recitation. According to tradition since the time of
Adwar
the betrayer, who sold out the clan to save his family, all recitations were given orally. Yet, some books had survived the various strictures and purges.

Do not suffer the half-breed—they bring the shadows.

Peter shivered. The recitation lesson about half-breeds had been brutal. The prefect had killed a bird in front of the class to prove his point. A half-breed wasn't fully human or raven—half here, half there, and never truly whole or aligned.

Cai stirred, uneasy.

“I would bet that there's more than one reason behind the prohibition of the half-breeds,” Peter said slowly. There was always more than a single cause for every recitation, more than one story. “But this is really interesting. When's it from?”

Sally gently took the book back and put it down on the table. “The book's about four hundred years old,” she said. “This section is all the things you can't do.” She paused and looked up at Peter. “Was this what you had to learn as a boy?”

Peter couldn't lie to her, as much as he knew he should. “Yes,” he croaked, surprised at how close Cai had drawn near.

“Then it's good we can change some of this for the other boys,” Sally said firmly. She reached out and took Peter's hands in hers. “Have you had lunch?”

“No, there was an accident.” Peter quickly filled her in. He'd have to go and check on Ariel soon.

“You should call Lukas,” Sally told him.

Peter nodded, then paused, squeezing their intertwined fingers. “Ariel…she asked me something. And, well, I feel really stupid asking you.”

“But you're going to anyway because there are no secrets between us,” Sally said, quietly encouraging him.

“Right.” Peter took a deep breath. “So you're the heart of the knight. And Mei Ling's the scale or armor or something like that. Virmal has some magic that works against the shadows, and I think Ariel's naturally immune—she said the shadows couldn't confuse her.”

“Yes,” Sally said, nodding.

“So what am I?” Peter asked, trying not to whine. He wasn't some twelve-year-old boy, lost and alone.

Sally disengaged their hands and took Peter's head, her warm palms against his cheeks, her fingers wrapping around the base of his skull. Then she pulled him forward for a soft kiss. “Thank you for trusting me to answer,” she said.

“When Lukas says I'm the heart, he really means more like grit. Determination. I'll make sure we all make it through.”

“You're the stubborn one,” Peter said, teasing.

“Damn straight,” Sally said. “But you, you're the real heart. You care about Lukas, and Ariel, and even Mei Ling, though she scares you. I'll bring us through, but you'll make us a team, as well as help us heal, afterward.”

Peter wanted to shake his head and deny Sally's words. Everyone else who made up the knight was more special than he was. They didn't really need him.

But Lukas had insisted, along with the strange viper in Tulum.

Maybe Peter did have a part to play, as important as the others.

# # #

Peter had never been to the hotel in Seattle where Mei Ling was staying. It was on the far side of Pike's Place Market. She had a fantastic view of the Sound. Gauze curtains filtered the bright sunlight, and the glass door leading onto the outdoor patio was open just a few inches, bringing in the fresh smells of baking bread from the market.

Mei Ling had rented an entire suite. The living room was as large as Peter's old apartment, the walls painted a cool green with a fireplace mantel painted white and a gas fire. She'd provided a tray of vegetables on one of the fine wooden tables, alone with another tray of meats and cheeses, all beautifully displayed.