Authors: Dean Murray
She wasn't
trying to assert dominance, she was embarrassed. She was
demonstrating vulnerability. With another guy it might not have
mattered, but with a girl, with Celeste at least, my beast was
willing to cut her some slack.
I captured her
eyes for several long seconds before nodding and turning around. The
lamia had already turned their backs to her. "So what changed,
Celeste? I know how things work in most other packs. You guys don't
wear ha'bits, this isn't the first time you've been naked around
someone."
She'd only
waited the barest fraction of a second after I'd turned around to
resume pulling her clothes off, but the rustle of fabric sliding
across skin stopped as she considered my question.
"I'm not
sure. You guys don't do casual nudity and I know you get mocked for
it a lot, but it's not a bad idea. If I was running the New Orleans
pack and hadn't had to worry about blowback from the Coun'hij, then I
probably would have implemented a similar policy, but I guess that's
just a smokescreen."
For several
seconds she didn't say anything else and I'd almost given up on
getting anything else out of her. When she started speaking again her
voice was different, more vulnerable, less guarded.
"I guess
it matters to me because it matters to you. You
guys don't do casual nudity, so showing skin around you feels like it
should be a big deal. Sorry, it's not a great explanation, but it's
all I have to give you right now."
I
tried to come up with something to say that wouldn't sound stupid,
but I took too long. She resumed undressing and the sound of her
clothes dropping down to the bottom of the boat was too distracting
to allow me to continue thinking about anything else.
A second later
I heard her bend down and pick up the discarded articles of clothing.
The sound of Velcro pulling apart as she tore the tiny black bag
she'd had mounted to the bottom of the captain's chair free of its
mounting was followed by the swish of her hair as she walked towards
me. Only it was all wrong. It wasn't the sound of hybrid talons on
the aluminum of the boat, it was bare soles.
"Don't
turn around yet."
I knew it was
my imagination, but I could almost feel her behind me, scant inches
away from my body as she unzipped the duffle bag hanging across my
back and stuffed her things into it.
"Sorry, I
didn't really come prepared and I don't want to risk catching the
material on my claws ruining my clothes."
I had to clear
my throat to get it to work. "There's always Kristin's clothes
if nothing else."
Celeste
chuckled once before shifting in a cool rush of power. When she spoke
again her voice had dropped by more than an octave but it still
somehow managed to sound feminine. "Borrowing another girl's
clothes without asking is the kind of thing some girls never forgive.
I'd like to hope that Ash picked better than that, but I'd really
like to avoid pissing her off before we've even been introduced. It
seems like the most…prudent route if I'm going to have any
chance of Ash talking to me after all this is said and done."
"That's
the first time that you've called him Ash."
"Yeah, I
guess you're right. I need to get used to the fact that he's a
different person than the one I remember."
"Not
completely different. He hasn't forgotten where he came from. It
still drives him, still pushes him to be tough enough to make sure
that he doesn't have to be in someone else's power ever again."
There was
sadness in her voice now. "If that's true then you're right, he
hasn't changed entirely, he's still got that in common with the
little brother who used to push me to take a harder stance against
Onyx. That's where he and I are different. I gave up those dreams
decades ago."
Celeste nodded
to Set, who had turned around—along with the rest of his
people—as soon as she'd shifted forms. "Let's get moving.
We need to make up for lost time."
Set motioned
for two of his people to pick up the body of the lamia I'd killed and
then we all shook out into a loose line that had all three consorts
at the front and Celeste, Ash, Kristin and me in the middle.
The trip went
by more quickly than I'd feared. Neither the bags nor carrying Ash
and Kristin slowed any of us down appreciably and Set led with a pace
that was just enough less than a run to avoid jostling Ash and
Kristin.
Our course took
us over a variety of islands and across more than a dozen channels,
none of which was deeper than mid-thigh for a hybrid, which I was
grateful for. Not only did I have several thousand dollars' worth of
electronics in my bag, I also couldn't get past the image of a
two-ton shark lunging out of the water to attack us.
We didn't see
any sharks, but we did see three or four more giant alligators. The
alligators eyed us as we went past, and I got the feeling that if it
had been just Celeste and me they might have come after us, but each
of the alligators kept their distance.
Apparently the
denizens of the bayou knew who occupied the top spot in the food
chain. I couldn't blame them. I wouldn't have wanted to tangle with
eleven lamias, not at the same time and not under circumstances where
they had no compunction about using their venom. They were plenty
deadly enough even without it.
Gradually—so
gradually that I almost didn't notice—the islands got taller
and dryer while the water-filled channels disappeared. After just
over an hour of walking we came to a twenty-foot-tall rock cliff
broken by a single narrow crack that was just barely wide enough for
a lamia or hybrid to walk through without turning sideways.
We
walked along the cave for several dozen yards in near darkness before
it widened out into a circular valley with red, rock walls much, much
taller than the twenty feet we'd just seen on the other side when
we'd started into the cave. I turned back to Celeste, who was only
half a step behind me.
"Those
cliffs have to be four hundred feet tall. Are there any rock
formations that tall in this area?"
"In
this area, yes, but not in Louisiana within an hour's walk of the
bayou. We aren't in Louisiana anymore, at least not the version you
and I are familiar with."
"How
is that even possible?"
"Honestly?
I have no idea. My ancestors thought that the lamias were able to
manipulate time and space the same way that you or I would use sand
to build a sand castle. They are unique in ways that nothing else on
our planet is unique."
"Are
you trying to say that they aren't from our planet? Do you know how
crazy that sounds?"
"Yeah,
but I think it's the least scary answer."
I
dropped my voice even lower so as not to offend our hosts. "What's
scarier than giant snake people from another planet?"
"Giant
snake people from this planet but from another dimension. If that
doesn't do it for you then you could try giant snake people from the
future, or maybe the past. No matter how you slice things I'm pretty
sure they didn't evolve from the same gene pool as the rest of us."
"That's
quite the sentiment coming from someone who changes into a giant,
furry monster whenever the fancy takes her."
"Yeah,
I know. It doesn't make it any less true though."
I
shook my head at her. "This is like stepping into an episode of
The Twilight Zone
."
The
valley we were standing in was like a little piece of paradise. It
wasn't that big—it looked like I could run across the entire
valley in less than five minutes—but the sheer amount of
vegetation blocked off most of the sightlines and made it feel like
it was two or three times as big as it actually was. We'd been
walking through the valley, following one of the narrow, winding
pathways, for ten minutes before I realized that it wasn't just the
plant life that smelled different than anything else I'd ever
encountered—the soil smelled odd too. There was an odd, faint
blue cast to the dirt. It was the kind of thing that you didn't even
notice unless you were looking closely at the ground, but it was
definitely there.
I
shook my head and added that fact to the list of things that I
couldn't explain along with the strange, stalky plants with
triangular leaves and the way that the sun looked too red. The dirt
could have some kind of cobalt compound in it and the color of the
sun could be due to high levels of smoke in the air, but I had a
sneaking suspicion that Celeste was right. We weren't in Louisiana
any more.
A
couple of minutes after that we came to another opening in the sheer
rock wall. Set turned to us as the other two consorts stepped into
the darkness.
"You
will wait here while we seek the queen's will."
Celeste
looked unhappy, but I just nodded. Maybe it was a benefit in some
ways that I had no idea what we were getting into. Unlike her, I had
no idea what to expect next. The one thing that I knew was that we
didn't have any control over our fates.
I
was starting to suspect that Celeste hadn't realized yet just how
fully we were at the mercy of Set and the rest of the lamias. My
suspicion was confirmed when Set returned twenty minutes later.
"The
queen will see you when she's ready. For now I suggest that you take
refreshment in the chambers that have been prepared for you."
Unlike
me, Celeste hadn't chosen to sit down while we waited for Set to
return. She turned towards him with all of the fury a
six-and-a-half-foot-tall hybrid could generate.
"No,
we need to talk to her now. We don't have time to wait."
I
was pretty sure that Celeste hadn't been planning on actually
assaulting Set, but the response was instantaneous. Four of the
smaller lamias moved in front of Set to shield him while two others
stepped to within striking distance of Kristin and me.
Celeste
was too focused on Set to notice, but the lamia holding Ash had moved
too. He'd stepped several yards away from us and repositioned one of
his hands so that his claws were poised above Ash's heart.
I
left Kristin on the ground where I'd set her when we'd arrived and
grabbed Celeste by her shoulder before she could take another step
towards Set.
"Stop!
Look at Ash. Are you really so stupid as to think you can force any
of them to do something they don't want to do? We are completely at
their mercy."
She
turned on me with hot gray eyes that looked like they would welcome
an excuse to rip my heart out of my chest and feed it to me.
"Get
your hand off of me."
"Gladly,
as soon as you're in control of yourself."
Whatever
she was about to say was cut off by Set. "Your consort is only
partly right. We would not kill a visiting queen regardless of the
provocation, but if you indeed prove yourself to be without honor
then we will kill the men and the little queen so as to free them
from the shame of your service. You would be physically removed from
our enclave and deposited back in your…place. You would die in
the swamp or survive to return to your people, but either way you
would not be welcome back here."
Celeste
tore herself free of my grip, leaving blood and skin on my claws, and
then stalked off back up the path. My beast was raging. I had to
close my eyes for a count of five to bring him back under control
enough not to chase her down and have things out with her then and
there.
Once
I'd calmed myself down enough that I wasn't radiating a hissing
corona of metaphysical energy, I turned back to Set.
"I'm
sorry for any offense caused by my…queen."
"The
offense is not yours to require apology. The ways of the queens
are…unpredictable and oftentimes difficult. These two will
show you the way to the quarters that have been prepared for you. I
ask your leave to retire. Dealing with queens is exhausting and
arrangements still need to be made for the defeated worker."
With
everything else that had just happened, I'd completely forgotten
about the smaller lamia, the one I'd killed, who had been carried
into the valley with us. My eyes drifted over to the corpse of their
own accord and I couldn't seem to make myself look away.
I'd
killed before. Werewolves, vampires, even a couple of the members of
the other Sanctuary pack when they'd tried to go after Jess' dad and
James' mom, but this was the first time I'd killed someone who hadn't
been bad, someone who hadn't been out to hurt my friends and family.
This was the first time that I'd killed someone and then stuck around
to talk to
his
friends and family.
Saying
it was a weird feeling didn't even begin to do it justice. My beast
didn't look at things quite the same way. For him things were a lot
more black and white. If we hadn't killed the lamia then we would
have been killed. Case closed, end of story. Now that I'd come down
from the thrill of surviving the fight and my beast was focused on
Celeste, I wasn't so sure.
It
was true that we'd been fighting for our lives, but we never would
have been compelled to fight if we hadn't sought the lamias out in
the first place. We'd come to them knowing that the price of securing
an audience with their queen was to kill at least one of her people.
It
was one thing to agree to that plan when it was a matter of life and
death. Back then, I'd looked at it as being a question of killing one
of the lamia in order to save Kristin's life, but that wasn't the
truth.
We
should have pursued the possibility of tracking the Coun'hij down
with the hackers before throwing in the towel and coming here. I'd
been confident that my plan would work, but I'd let first Ash, and
then his sister, convince me to come here and murder another sentient
being.
It
was a lot easier to justify that in the abstract than it was once I
was staring at a corpse.