Matt Archer: Legend (22 page)

“As if I’d ever say no to you.”

She pulled me close. “I’ve missed you so much.”

“I never let you go, you know that, right? Not even when
Sami…not even then,” I said between kisses. “It’s been you forever.” I rested
my cheek against hers and breathed in the scent of her hair. The vanilla
shampoo smelled like a homecoming. “Always you.”

Ella closed her eyes and spooned against me. “My parents
think I’m spending the night at Penn’s.”

My heart shot into my throat. This wasn’t how I’d imagined
my night ending. A loaded silence filled the living room, but I couldn’t think
of a thing to say. I stared at Ella’s face, wondering if she really meant what
I thought she meant.

Her eyelids fluttered open. “Can I stay over?”

She did.

Not able to answer in any other way, I dug my fingers into
her hair, tilted her head back and kissed her until we were both breathless.
She wrapped her arms around my shoulders, clutching at me like she couldn’t let
go and I didn’t want her to. All the puzzle pieces were in place now. After
months of being broken, I finally felt whole again.

For a while, kissing was enough. Just the feel of her mouth.
Just the crackle of the fire and the sound of her breathing.

It wasn’t long before I needed more, though. I’d missed her
too much to waste time and I ached all over, thinking I’d shatter into a
billion pieces. Ella must have felt the same way because she pulled my t-shirt
over my head and tossed it across the room. She ran her hands across my back,
my arms, my chest, tracing my scars, both new and old.

Heart pounding, I peeled off her sweater, then tugged the
blanket over us, covering our heads, hiding the world. Pressed against her,
kissing her slow, I was surprised at how warm Ella’s skin felt against mine;
usually I was the warm one. A little growl rolled up in my chest and I pulled
her closer. My mouth wandered from her lips, down her neck, to her collarbone.
Ella shivered and I thought about the first night we kissed, how my banged up
collarbone had sparked everything between us. I kissed a trail down one of her
arms, smiling when she got goose bumps after my lips brushed the inside of her
elbow. She sighed softly and reached for the drawstring to my pants.

God—she really did want me back.

No clue how I maintained any rational thought, but I
struggled free of the blanket and sat up. Ella’s hair was wrecked and she
watched me with glassy eyes, almost like she was drunk. Soft, ivory skin glowed
in the light of the fireplace and something like a magnet started to pull me
back her direction.

With effort, I wrenched free, whispering, “Wait, wait—I’ll
be right back.”

I ran up the stairs to my bedroom, tripping twice on
unsteady feet. Neither Brent’s advice, nor his Christmas present, seemed pointless
now, and the condoms were still in my nightstand right where he’d dropped them
with a wink and a nod. I turned to leave, but stopped short to glance at my
closet, waiting for the inevitable call, for Tink’s insistence that I behave
myself and remain true to her alone. Tink stayed silent, though, quietly absent
from the back of my mind. Had she meant what she said in Africa? That she knew
there would be times I needed to be alone?

Hardly daring to believe my luck, I ran from my room before
Tink could change her mind. I bolted down the stairs, slipping on the last step,
and my feet hit the tile with a graceless thud. Ignoring my bruised toes, I
bounded into the living room. Ella’s mouth turned up in a teasing smile,
probably at my hurry. She’d wrapped the blanket around her shoulders and waited
curled up by the fire.

Dropping to my knees next to her, I said, “Look, we did just
make up…I don’t want to rush…I mean, we can wait if you…”

I sounded both eager and strangled. Considering all the
blood had left my brain, it was a wonder I could talk at all. If she’d changed
her mind while I was upstairs, I’d have to roll around in the snow for an hour
to keep from spontaneously combusting.

Ella traced my jaw with her fingertips. Never as beautiful.
“I’ve had two years to think it over. You’re all I’ve ever wanted. Now quit
stalling and come get your birthday present.”

All I needed to hear.

Ella had gone by the time Mom came home late Friday
afternoon, but I could still smell a faint hint of vanilla on my extra pillow
when I went to bed that night. It was hard to sleep with that kind of
stimulation, and I kept grinning like a fool in the dark.

The knife-spirit heaved a sigh.
I’m glad you are happy
but if you lose your focus during a fight, mooning over this girl, I’m taking
you over until I’m satisfied you’ll behave. If you don’t believe me, try it and
see. You’ll live like a monk until this war is over.

I didn’t doubt that, but I was in too good a mood to bristle
at Tink’s threats. Instead, I said, “Thank you.”

There was this shocked pause. She must not have expected
gratitude.
I’m not entirely heartless, you know.

“Uh huh…just a stalker.”

Please,
she said, sounding very annoyed,
I do
these things for your own good. But you also deserve to enjoy your humanity
while we have a brief time of peace.

That was the closest thing to an apology I’d ever heard from
her. “I’ll make you proud.”

You already have. Now go to sleep.

My eyelids started to droop immediately. “Yes, ma’am.”

* * *

March came fast, which was usually what happened when I was
happy: things are going better at home? Time to ship out, Mr. Archer! So when
Colonel Black called to say that our Australia op had been moved up because the
Australian military had received reports that some hikers had been killed by
“aliens” in the Outback, I wasn’t surprised.

“I can be ready to go in a few days,” I said. “Is Will
coming with me?”

“Yes,” the colonel said. “I think we’ve finally convinced
his father. His mother still hasn’t agreed, but with his father’s consent,
Cruessan can go. And good thing; there’s too much ground to cover in the
Outback with just one wielder. Having both of you there, we can send you
different directions, kind of like we did with you and Brandt in Africa.”

It hadn’t dawned on me that Will and I might get split up.
Hopefully we’d stay in a central camp, at least. “Understood.”

“Matt…there’s one more thing.”

My shoulders tensed up. Colonel Black rarely called me Matt;
something bad must’ve happened. “Yes, sir?”

“We received a call yesterday.” The colonel paused. “Zenka’s
been killed.”

The air in my lungs turned into something gelatinous and I
struggled to breathe. “Dead? Zenka’s
dead
?”

“I’m afraid so.”

“How?”

“Ramirez hadn’t seen a thing for weeks after you and
Cruessan left, so we called it good and brought his team home to plan their
next mission—there’s been some trouble in Europe. They’d been back for two days
when we received the call. Zenka didn’t show up for breakfast and when a few
people went to check on her, they found that her hut had been ransacked. The door
was torn off its hinges and the scrapbook had been ripped apart, but Zenka
wasn’t there,” the Colonel said. “They found her body later that day. A man
from the village was sitting next to her. He’d killed her…with his bare hands.”

I’d been sitting on the edge of my bed; now I lay back with
my arm over my eyes trying to fight down the horror pounding in my head. It
hadn’t mattered. Losing Brandt and Tyson, fighting off that giant slime monster,
doing everything we could to keep her safe—it hadn’t mattered.

“Do we know why?”

“No. The man was in some kind of trance and kept muttering
something about ‘ghosts on the wind.’ When the man came back to full
consciousness and saw what he’d done…” the colonel sighed. “He’d lived in the
village his whole life; Zenka was a holy woman to him and he killed her, not
even knowing what he was doing. The villagers had to turn him over to the
authorities, but no one thought the man killed Zenka on purpose or out of any
personal malice.”

“So…was he possessed or something?”

“Possibly, or maybe he suffers from some sort of mental
illness. I’m more inclined to believe it was possession, however.” A pause. “I
can’t believe I just said that. At any rate, Ramirez will be going back to
Africa to see if anyone—or any
thing
—strange is in the area before
heading to Romania.”

“Have you talked to Aunt Julie about this yet?”

“I met with her earlier today. She’s still running down some
leads on Australia for me, but will be spending time on this. Hopefully she’ll
have more information by the time you and Cruessan deploy.”

We talked through some logistics, then I hung up and stared
at the ceiling for a long time. Both the African shamans were dead. The
Australian shaman—assuming the missing physicist was the person the monsters
wanted—had disappeared and was presumed dead. The Chinese shaman hadn’t been
identified and might very well be dead. Then we’d have the next eclipse in the
fall, and Jorge would be in its direct path. And who knew what would happen in
Montana. Maybe if Will and I were out of the state—and had taken our knives
with us—people here would be safe, but I doubted we’d get off that easily.

All of a sudden, it felt like the other side was gaining a
lot of ground on us.

“What does this mean, Tink?” I asked. Zenka had been
strange, and I wasn’t sure she was entirely good, but she’d told me things I
needed to know…and had died for it.

That we are not as in control of the situation as we need
to be. You and I will have to work together even more closely going forward. Which
won’t be easy.
Tink sighed, and it sounded like a lonely wind in the trees.
You still don’t trust me, not completely.

“You haven’t given me enough reason to,” I said.

I let you have the girl and I didn’t even complain about
it.
Her tone suggested she’d done me a favor…and that she had planned to
play that card to manipulate me all along.

“
Let
me?” I said, unsettled and more than a little
angry. I should’ve known there was a catch. “Get something straight, Tink. I
waited to hear from you as a courtesy that night, but I was going to be with
Ella even without your blessing, no matter how badly you punished me later.
Like you said, I’m human and I deserve a little happiness. Pulling crap like
this is what keeps us from being on the same page. Like killing Brandt so Will
could have his knife.”

We didn’t kill him; those demons did.

“Oh?” I said, getting angrier by the second. “Then why
didn’t you give Brandt extra abilities like me? His knife-spirit was
super-charged and ready to go the second Will laid hands on the bronze handle.
The two of you could’ve boosted Brandt somehow instead, but you didn’t. Are you
really willing to sacrifice someone to change hands?”

Besides, they had changed hands before without letting
someone die. Why didn’t they do it this time? They’d done it with Mike and I,
when we were in the woods that night—

That stopped me cold as a new, scarier thought formed.
“Wait…what about Uncle Mike?”

What about him?

Her tone was terse, and I could tell I was homing in on
truth she didn’t want me to know. I cleared my mind, pushing her out of the way
to think about the night Tink and I had been brought together. Mike had been
her first wielder, but she said she’d been looking for
me
all along. If
that were true… “Uncle Mike was digging around in his bag for his knife and
came up with a plain old hunting knife instead. That backpack wasn’t very big,
and your knife is nine inches long. That’d be hard to miss, even in the dark…”

I let out a soft gasp…had they planned that, too? A river of
ice plowed through my gut and I growled, “You
hid
it from him! You hid
the knife so he wouldn’t find it to make sure I found it instead. Mike could’ve
died that night, but we got lucky and I killed the monster before it had a
chance to finish him off. You would’ve let him die!”

Silence.

“Well?”

We can’t control the monsters, Matthew.
We can
only control the human variable.

Control the human variable? What did she think I was, some
kind of algebra problem? “So is that a yes? Were you willing to let my uncle
die to ensure I’d become your wielder?”

It’s not that simple. Certain things have to happen. We
do what we must to ensure that our proxies are in place. Sometimes…sometimes it
leads to unfortunate consequences.

“Tell that to Brandt’s family!” I snapped. “Did you even
think about how he’ll be missed by people who cared about him?”

The blood of innocents is on our hands either way. The
best we—and you as a wielder—can do is minimize the loss. I’ve told you this
before. Loss is inevitable, and the sooner you realize bigger forces are at
work, bigger than you can possibly comprehend, the sooner you’ll understand.
You need time to wrestle with this alone.

She retreated in a huff and I got up to pace my room. Not
for the first time, I wondered what I’d been saddled with when Tink and I came
together. The spirits killed Brandt and they would’ve sacrificed Mike. Maybe
the spirits were Good, but were they
good?
Would they allow other
wielders to die? And if so, what else would they be willing to do to win this
fight?

Without an outlet for how completely furious I was, I
marched over to my closet door and punched it.

I spent the rest of the night nursing bloody knuckles and wondering
just where this fight would take me...wondering if, in the end, I’d save the
world only to lose everything that mattered to me.