Out of This World (19 page)

“Let the young man go,” Auntie Min tells Donalita.

Donalita frowns, but she releases his arm and steps aside. Coltrane comes up, grabbing her ankle and swinging at her, so she punches him in the side of the head. He goes down and lies very still in the dirt.

“Sorry,” Donalita says. She's trying to look contrite, but the laughter in her eyes gives her away. I hold my breath until Chaingang sighs.

“Not your fault,” he tells her, then he's back glaring at Auntie Min. “Now, my brother.”

“Do you vouch for him?” Auntie Min asks.

“Vouch for him? What kind of bullshit is this? You come onto our turf, and walk all over us and him, and you expect him to say, ‘Yes, ma'am, thank you, ma'am'?”

“
Your
turf?” Donalita says. “You're going to tell Auntie Min that this land is
your
responsibility?”

“Okay, point taken. But you've got to see it from his point of view. Bunch of dogs attack us, then you show up disrespecting him. The guy's got a rep to maintain.”

“Do you vouch for him?” Auntie Min repeats.

“He's my brother. I've got his back, he's got mine. Of course I freaking vouch for him.”

“Donalita?” Auntie Min says.

I'm expecting what happens next, so I look at the Ocean Avers when she disappears. I'm not kidding myself—I wouldn't want to go one-on-one with any of them. But dude, even tough guys look dumb with their mouths hanging open like that.

She and Cory are back a moment later. Cory's still holding on to J-Dog, who's now covered in red dust, like he's been up in the hills somewhere, fighting. His body language says he's defeated, but his eyes are full of rage. Cory's jeans and hoodie don't have a speck of dust on them. Donalita's holding J-Dog's big gun. She snaps the barrel off and drops both pieces in the dirt.

“Oops,” she says, and winks at me.

J-Dog shakes off Cory's grip and walks over to Chaingang, wiping the dirt from his face with his trashed T-shirt.

“What the fuck did you get us into?” he growls at Chaingang. Chaingang nods. “My bad. You and the boys should walk away.”

“Yeah, like that's gonna happen any time soon.”

He turns so that he and Chaingang are facing the Wildlings. Auntie Min looks solemn; Donalita's still amused. Cory's eyes flash with an anger as dark as J-Dog's.

“So, are we going to keep up this pissing contest,” Cory says, “or are we going to work together?”

“What about the dead dogs?” Chaingang asks.

“Oh, you'll still be answering for that,” Cory answers.

Chaingang stands a little taller. “To you?”

“Enough,” Auntie Min says. “Both of you.” Her gaze lifts to take in the other bikers. “All of you. There is work to be done. Those of you who won't help must leave now.”

“Or what?” J-Dog says.

“You will be removed.”

“Yeah? By you and what army?”

Crows start drifting to the ground from the trees and their perches on the junked cars. As they reach the dirt, they turn into tall, lean, dark-haired men. In moments there are dozens standing around us and the trees are still full of birds.

J-Dog nods like he sees this all the time.

“You got all your homeboys,” he says, “so what do you need us for?”

“I never said I did,” Auntie Min tells him. “But Theo appears to want you with us, and I don't care enough one way or the other to argue with him about it.”

Donalita starts to giggle, but she stops as soon as Auntie Min gives her a stern look.

J-Dog's eyes narrow like he's trying to figure out if Auntie Min's dissing him. I'm trying to figure it out myself.

“So what's the gig?” he asks finally.

Auntie Min counts it off on her fingers. “The rally on Saturday. Keep the congressman from being killed and becoming a martyr.” She raises a second finger and waves her hand toward the nearest dog corpse. “And find out who's behind all of this,” she says, “and stop them.”

“And find Josh and Marina,” I say when she pauses.

J-Dog gives me a glare. “Who the fuck are you?”

I want to take a step back, but I force myself to hold my ground.

“That's Des,” Chaingang says before I can answer, “and he's my man, straight up. Nobody messes with him unless they come through me first.”

Wow, really?

I suppose Chaingang sees something in my face because he gives me a look that says, “Zip it.” I keep my mouth shut.

“Considering how … efficiently Josh dealt with Vincenzo,” Auntie Min says, “I don't think we have to worry about his safety. As for the otter—”

“We need to get Marina back—
now
,” Chaingang says. “And if Vincenzo's brothers are as strong as he was, we're going to need Josh's fire power.”

“I'm hoping we can resolve this without more butchery.”

Ouch. She's looking around at the carnage. The dead dogs. The dead guy. I feel like she expects Chaingang to apologize, but I don't see that happening. It's just not the way he rolls.

While nothing shows on Chaingang's face, I don't have to guess about what J-Dog's thinking.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” he says to Chaingang. “Why are you even listening to these fools? What kind of a Wildling are you, anyway? A pussy?”

“Shut up,” Donalita tells him.

“Listen, little girl—”

She waves a hand at him. “Yeah, yeah. We get it. Everybody's an alpha—especially you. Now shut your stupid mouth and let Auntie Min speak.”

J-Dog's voice goes quiet. “Oh, you're going to pay for that slow, bitch. And Auntie
Min
? What kind of a douche name is—”

“Seriously, Jason,” Chaingang tells him. “Either walk away, or shut up.”

“What the—” J-Dog starts, but Chaingang holds his hand up, glares at him and mimes zipping his lip. Then he turns his attention back to Auntie Min.

“The dogs didn't give us a choice. Come after me or mine and you go down, end of story.”

“Your grandmother—is she protected now?”

“We left Tall Boy to keep an eye on things. He's one of ours.”

“I will send extra guards,” Auntie Min says.

“Josh's mom, too,” I put in. If my phone call worked, Solana and Matteson might already be over there, but it can't hurt to send reinforcements, especially ones that can fight fire with fire. I don't know what to do about Marina.

Auntie Min nods. I don't see her say anything, but a half-dozen of the dark-haired crow men shift into birds and fly off, three heading in the direction of the Orchards, the others toward town.

“Now—” Auntie Min begins, but Chaingang cuts her off.

“I know you've got your own agenda,” he says, “but here's my priority number one: we find Marina and bring her back. And then we lay a little righteous head-busting on whoever was stupid enough to grab her.”

“We are all concerned about the young otter,” Auntie Min says, “but our first priority is to keep the congressman alive.”

“I don't care about no asshole congressman,” Chaingang tells her.

“You don't understand,” Auntie Min says. “If they kill him and make it look like the work of a Wildling, the authorities will not rest until they have every one of you locked away.”
Chaingang shakes his head. “Doesn't matter. I don't turn my back on my friends.”

“Or girlfriends,” Cory mutters.

Chaingang fixes Cory with that hard stare of his. “Say what?”

“You heard me.”

“It doesn't matter what Marina and I are,” Chaingang tells him, “I'm not about to let her hang out to dry without doing whatever it takes to get her back.”

“That's commendable,” Auntie Min begins, “however—”

“You're not
listening
,” Chaingang cuts her off.

“I'll go find her,” Cory says. “I'm the best of any of us at tracking somebody through the otherworld. And I'll do it better if I bring someone with me who knows her well.”

“That would be me,” Chaingang says.

Cory shakes his head and points at me. “No, that would

be Des.”

“That's bullshit.”

“Oh, and have
you
known her for the better part of your life?” Cory asks. “Because that's the kind of knowing I'm talking about.”

“Maybe I haven't. But you're going to need somebody who can fight and that's me—no offence, Des.”

Cory nods. “Which is why Donalita's coming, too.”

Auntie Min extends her hands toward Chaingang and interlaces her fingers. “We can achieve all of our goals by working together,” she says. “Some have unique skills that will provide a surer success. If Des goes, it doesn't mean he's better than you.”

“You think I give a rat's ass about that?”

No one says anything. I know what he's thinking. He wants to be the one to ride in and save Marina. I don't mind that it's
me who gets the role, but not for the same reason. Dude, I just want to do something useful around all the people with their superpowers. But I totally understand.

We stand there in the hot sun for a few long moments until Chaingang finally nods.

“Okay,” he says. “We'll do it your way. But”—he points at Cory, and then me—“don't you screw it up.”

The look on his face is so dark I almost want to throw up my arms and tell him, “No, dude. You do it.”

But I've got this. I think. Whatever the
this
is that Cory figures I can do.

I clear my throat. “We won't,” I tell him.

Then Donalita's on one side of me, Cory on the other. They each take one of my arms.

“Just take a step,” Donalita says.

I do, in unison with them, but we don't move a pace forward in the dusty junkyard. Instead the step takes us someplace else entirely.

Seriously, this is so cool.

We have a dinner of rice and beans washed down with tea that isn't laced with any drugs, recreational or otherwise. I don't ask, but I take a long, considering sniff before I drink any. Tío Goyo makes no comment. The night's clear and the stars feel very close. I lie back looking up at them, and absorb the pleasing mix of scents from around me. Pine and wood smoke, and a hundred messages that the wind carries up from the rocky landscape below the lip of the cliff.

“So, are you guys like priests,” I ask, “or did you ever have a girlfriend?”

“What kind of a question is that?”

I shrug. “You seem to know everything about
me
.”

He studies me for a moment, then slowly adds another piece of wood to the fire, poking the burning pile with a stick and staring into the coals.

“No girlfriend,” he says.

“Never? Really?” Sounds like the priesthood to me, but I don't say that.

He waits another moment before he answers. “When I was
your age, yes. But then I became involved with my brothers of the Halcón Pueblo and there was no longer time.”

“Hobbies?” I ask. “You know, other than spying, and killing evil spirits, and drugging people?”

“You're still angry.”

“I just wonder, when you go around interfering with people living ordinary lives, having normal bad dreams, if you ever consider how you're intruding on their right to privacy.”

“It's only because of what my brothers do that they are able to live ordinary lives.”

“Unless you kill them.”

He sighs and shakes his head. “You know it's not like that. I'm turning in. We'll try again tomorrow morning to see if we can wake the map in your head.”

“You shouldn't be surprised that I'd want to know what I'm getting into with you.”

He doesn't answer. Instead he sets his mug by the fire and lies down on the bed. I hear his breathing even out. I look back up into the night sky.

When I'm sure he's asleep, I shift to my mountain lion shape and pad off silently into the darkness. Though it's not dark to my eyes. There's enough light from the moon and stars that I could read a book. But the mountain lion is only interested in reading the night.

I run for a while, following the rim of the mesa until I come to a dry waterfall. In the monsoon season it's probably a roaring torrent. Right now there's not even a trickle of water. I follow the tumble of boulders down until I reach the lower ground. I move without making a sound, but wherever I go, the night falls still. The nocturnal animals think I'm hunting. I can smell them:
jackrabbits, javelinas, mice, rats. Once, a pair of mule deer. But although the mountain lion wants to hunt, that's not why I left the camp.

I leap high into the lower branches of one of the big ponderosa pines and stretch out along a limb. As the minutes go by, the night life returns to its business once more.

I need to get the map in my head working again.

If I got anything from what Tío Goyo's been talking about today, it's that everything is all about … oh, let's just call it magic. And everything to do with magic works because of our will.