Out of This World (47 page)

So I take a swing at him.

He catches my fist and just holds it. I try to pull free, but it's like trying to move a building.

Crap. Whoever this guy is, he's as strong as Vincenzo was.

I see J-Dog out of the corner of my eye, pulling a Glock from his waistband. But the guy holding my fist sees it, too. He turns to J-Dog, not easing up on his grip.

“Don't even think of it,” he says.

But J-Dog doesn't waste time with words. He brings the Glock up fast. The Josh guy is faster and grabs the gun with his free hand, giving it a sharp twist. I hear J-Dog's trigger finger snap. The Glock goes flying away into the trees. J-Dog nurses his hand, but the crazy jumps into his eyes and I know he's about to go berserk and charge the guy holding me. I also know J-Dog's not going to survive a fight with this guy. It won't even be a fight. It'll be worse than when Vincenzo dealt with me because J-Dog doesn't have my strength or recuperative abilities. He's so outclassed here that when he goes down, he won't ever be getting up again.

“Jason, don't!” I yell.

But J-Dog's way past hearing anything.

The guy holding me turns and finally lets go, pushing me toward J-Dog.

“Stop him,” he says, “or I won't be responsible for what happens next.”

The difference between J-Dog and me is that I know when to retreat. You just step back and live to fight another day. But J-Dog's all-in with every damn thing he does, especially when it comes to a fight.

I grab him in a bear hug so that he can't move, then turn to glare at the guy wearing Josh's face.

“You'd better finish this now,” I tell him, “because if you don't, I'll keep coming after you until one of us is dead.”

The guy just looks at me. “Why?” he finally asks.

“You're wearing my friend's face, for starters.”

“That
is
Josh,” Cory says.

He's been standing beside us all this time, being a real big help by doing nothing. And now he comes up with this?

“Bullshit,” I say.

“It's true,” the Josh guy says.

I shake my head. “I saw Josh die. He didn't switch out to his mountain lion and come back in one piece. I saw the body. It wasn't like the last time. He was done.”

Then it dawns on me. Are we all dead, and this is some afterlife? I don't remember dying, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen.

“Did we all die?” I ask, horrified that a version of heaven or hell might just be more of the same crap that I left behind.

The Josh guy smiles and shakes his head. “No. We're alive. I had to play it like I died,” he says. “I needed to disappear, and what better way to do it than to make everybody think I'm dead?”

This is so messed up. I want it to be true and I don't at the same time. But I sure don't want to be stuck in some endless purgatory of this bullshit.

“Everybody?” I say.

He nods. “I was going to tell you and a couple of others, but I had some business to finish first.”

“How's that possible? I
saw
your body. You bled out.”

“It's complicated,” Josh says. “But right now I need you to either leave, or stay out of my way.”

“Because you're going to kill Nanuq? I want a piece of him, too.”

“No,” he says. “I'm just talking to him. I'm hoping to avoid anyone else having to die.”

J-Dog's stopped struggling in my arms so I let him go. I half expect him to take a run at Josh, but I guess he's finally beginning to realize that he's in way over his head. He does the smart thing and follows my lead.

But I'm not feeling smart.

“Don't be stupid,” I tell Josh. “Guys like that—you let them go—they just come back meaner and harder.”

“Not if he gives me his word, he won't.” And with that he turns his back on us and walks back to the fire.

I turn to Cory. “What kind of crap was that?”

“When are you going to get it through your head?” Cory says. “We don't break our word. It's like currency.”

“Yeah?” J-Dog says. “And how do you spend it?”

Cory doesn't bother to answer. He just heads after Josh. After a moment, J-Dog and I follow along behind.

I was keeping tabs on what was going on in the camp behind me while dealing with Chaingang and his brother, so I'm not surprised to see that most of the other cousins have grabbed the opportunity to take off. I
am
surprised that Nanuq is still standing there by the fire waiting for me. I half expected he would have beat a retreat while he could—to save face, if nothing else, so that he could come back at me another day, just like Chaingang said.

But there he is. Maybe he knows I'd find him wherever he went.

His features are schooled into a bland mask, though he can't quite hide the dark anger in his eyes. The only thing new is that he's taken the time to repair the damage I did to him because he's got both hands back.

“I'm not frightened of you, unborn,” he says when I reach him.

“I don't really care. But this ends here. It's your choice how it goes.”

He frowns. “You're very sure of yourself.”

When I don't bother responding, he nods at the trio behind me.

“Why did you stop them from killing me?” he asks. “They would have solved all your problems.”

“I don't have a problem,” I tell him. “
You
do. You've had time to think about it. I'm sure you heard what I was saying to my friends.”

He nods. “So you want me to stop protecting my homeland.”

“Don't play stupid because I know you're not. I already told you. I want you to continue doing that. I think it's important, too. Just no more killing or intimidating innocent people.”

“Or you'll kill me—like you did the condor brothers.”

“I returned them to the earth,” I tell him, “which I'll admit is pretty much the same thing. Don't make me do it to you.”

He studies me for a long moment.

“After everything that's happened,” he says, “you're prepared to simply forgive and forget?”

“That's never going to happen,” I tell him. “But follow the one simple rule I've given you, and I'm prepared to let you live and go on your way.”

He looks steadily at me for a long moment and I can't tell whether it's curiosity or respect in his eyes.

“It seems I've underestimated you,” he says.

“Just tell me. Do I have your word that you'll stop targeting and hurting Wildlings—those that you mistakenly call unborn— and give them a fair chance to prove themselves among the cousins?”

We stand there for a long time. He holds my gaze, but I'm not interested in playing a staring game.

“Last chance,” I tell him.

He gives me a slow nod. “You have my word,” he says.

Then he steps away into another world. I track him with the maps in my head, dropping my focus on him as he keeps moving farther and farther away. A mountain of tension that I didn't realize I was holding melts away.

I turn to face Cory, Chaingang and his brother. The latter two still look sort of pissed off with me, but Cory's got that same respect in his eyes that Tío Goyo had.

“You've become what you said you didn't want to be,” he says.

I shake my head. “No, I'm not anybody's puppet, or leader, or poster boy—now or ever. They'll have to find someone else because I'm going away.”

“Where to?”

“Diego Madera has accepted me as part of his clan. I'm going to stay with him for a while.”

Cory's brows go up in surprise. “Are you serious?”

“Pretty much.”

“And that's a big deal because?” Chaingang asks.

“Old Man Puma's been around forever,” Cory tells him.

“Longer than anybody I know. He's been here since before.”

“Before what?”

Cory waves his hand. “Before there was anything. They say he was one of the spirits that lived in the darkness and watched as Raven brought the world into being—like the crow girls, or my own ancestor, Coyote.”

He turns back to me and a slow smile spreads across his face. “Being with him is exactly what you need.”

“So you're just going to walk away and leave everything behind?” Chaingang says.

“Not everything.”

I see something flash in his eyes and I know he's thinking about Marina, just as I am. But all he says is, “I thought you wanted to be a normal kid—to put all this behind you.”

“And how's that going to happen if I go back?” I ask. “The Feds will be all over me, and even if they do leave me alone, I'll still have to deal with everybody at school looking at me like I'm some kind of freak.”

“Man,” J-Dog says. “If I could do what you do, I wouldn't even think about any lame-ass school or the Feds. I'd be living high on the hog—I mean, who's going to stop a guy like you from taking whatever he wants?”

Chaingang sighs. “Not now, bro.”

“What? I'm just saying.”

Chaingang turns back to me. “So what are you supposed to learn from hanging with this new dude you found? How do you know he hasn't got some angle?”

“I'm sure he does. But I've got one, too, so it doesn't matter. I need to understand what I am and figure out my place in the world. I figure someone like Madera—who's been alive since the world started and managed to make it work for him—can teach me something about what I need to know.”

“Oh, come on,” Chaingang says. “You don't buy this crap about immortal animal people do you? Or that some old bird made the world?”

J-Dog snickers, but I ignore him.

“Why not? How's that any more impossible than what's already happened to us?”

“Come on, bro. There are levels of believability. Just because one impossible thing is true, doesn't mean everything is.”

J-Dog nods in agreement. “Word.”

“Neither of you met Madera,” I say. “I'm telling you, he's the real deal.”

We fall silent then. J-Dog kicks at a stick in the fire, sending up a shower of sparks. Cory seems to have fallen into a meditative trance. And then there's Chaingang and me, neither of us looking at each other, but both all too aware of the betrayal that lies between us.

“Look,” I finally start. “About Marina—”

Chaingang cuts me off, raising a hand between us.

“Don't,” he says. “Don't even start.”

His eyes go darker than the night around us.

J-Dog looks up from the fire and Cory's suddenly back from wherever he went in his head, both of them focused on what might happen next. Like suddenly Chaingang and I are planning to have a go at each other, never mind what a one-sided fight that would be.

I feel like crap. He's always been straight with me—always “had my back,” as he likes to say. But what can I do? Yeah, I made the first move, but it was Marina's choice in the end. I guess that's what makes it hardest for him. It wasn't just me, it was her, too.

“Okay,” I say. “Can you guys make your own way back home?”

“Are you serious, man?” J-Dog says.

“I meant with Cory,” I say.

Cory shakes his head. “I'd rather you took them back. With everything that's been going on, I'm a little sick of being around people right now—no offence.”

People always say “no offence” when they mean the opposite.

“I get it,” I tell him.

“Not talking about you,” he says.

Then he steps away into some otherworld, leaving me alone with the Washington brothers. I glance at Chaingang, but his face is a mask and I can't read him.

“Fuckin' dude was dissing us again,” J-Dog says.

“Uh-huh,” Chaingang says. He looks exhausted. “Let's go, bro. I know how he feels. I'm sick of this place. I just want to go home.”

I nod. I reach out to put a hand on their shoulders. J-Dog shies back.

“Relax,” Chaingang tells him. “Josh is our friend. He won't hurt us.” There's a flash in his eyes that says, “Not any more than he already has.”

I reach out again. With a hand on either of their shoulders, I step us all back to So-Cal.