Poison Tree (11 page)

“Sarik, I think you should come inside and sit down,” Lynzi said. “You’re in shock.”

“We can clean this up,” one of the hunters offered.

Lynzi nodded to them and ushered all the rest inside to the conference room in the administration building.

Jeht and Quean wouldn’t leave Sarik’s side, insisting on sitting on the floor next to her chair.

Jeht seemed to have decided that he was her protector. He accepted her as a figure with authority over him only because she was Mistari, an adult queen, and he had seen others at SingleEarth defer to her due to her position as a mediator. He seemed to have decided that, if he could not return to the Mistari homeland, he would create his world here instead, and sit by her side as her enforcer. Quean simply watched, wide-eyed, taking his lead from Sarik and Jeht but never even asking what had happened. Blood was nothing new to him.

Sarik wished they could visit one of the tribes that ran more peacefully so that the boys could see that it
was
possible to live without violence. It was unlikely that any such tribe would be willing to welcome him into their midst—Jeht especially was too much of a threat, a miniature prince who had been raised as a warrior—but seeing how such tribes existed might make him realize that there was value in something other than brute strength.

“Sarik?” People had been talking to her while her mind was so far away.

“Sorry,” she said, trying to focus. “I’m being stupid. I wasn’t even the one who was attacked. I shouldn’t be this disturbed.”

It was the taste of blood in her mouth that had done it. That, and Jeht’s smile after he’d made the kill. She remembered what that childlike pride felt like.

“That’s your father talking, not you,” Jason whispered to her. He sat beside her and took one of her hands in both of his. “You shouted to warn Alysia, right?”

“I attacked the vampire,” she admitted. “I saw the earring. Recognized it. I knew shouting would warn both of them. I didn’t know who would win, so I didn’t give him a chance to hurt her. Or to run.”

“Thank God you didn’t,” Jason answered. “Liam wouldn’t have dared return to Maya without having accomplished his mission. If you had shouted, he would have fought. You did the right thing.”

“Was I still doing the right thing when I told Alysia
to stop?” she snapped. “When she was about to kill him, I froze. Jeht is the one who threw himself into the fight without hesitation.”

“If my impression is correct, Alysia is a trained fighter,” Lynzi said, joining the conversation. “So is Jeht, as much as we hate in our culture to admit such a thing about a child. You’re not, Sarik. Never be ashamed that your instinct doesn’t tell you to go for the kill.”

I used to be a fighter
, Sarik thought.
Now I’m just a victim who needs to be protected
.

No, not a victim
, she corrected herself.
A survivor. Pull it together, Sarik
.

She took a deep breath and looked up. She could tell that Jeht, sitting near her feet, had sensed her drawing up her strength. He sat a little straighter.

“I know you’re still shaken,” Lynzi said from across the room, “but if you’re ready, we need to know exactly what happened. We cannot afford to assume that Alysia was the only target or that these attacks will stop just because she left. I have been doing research into the Bruja guilds since the first attack, and, well, let’s just say I hope we can avoid a direct conflict.”

The words echoed something Alysia had said:
I’m not pitting SingleEarth against the Bruja guilds, not over me. SingleEarth isn’t weak, but–

Sarik had interrupted Alysia there, but she knew what the rest would have been:
Neither is Bruja
. And Bruja had more trained, ruthless mercenaries.

In as much detail as she could manage, Sarik recounted everything she had seen, from the moment she noticed the vampire behind Alysia in the parking lot to when everyone else started to arrive.

Jason supplemented the story with what he knew about Maya. “She specializes in captures—kidnapping, extortion, that sort of thing,” he said. “If that’s the goal, it would explain why the first attack wasn’t meant to be fatal. The Onyx attacker could have followed Alysia when she left her room, then lost track of her in the snow and thought she was with our group. They realized they hadn’t hit their target and split, and their employer hired Maya next.”

“You said before that Christian has some pretty close ties to the leader of Onyx. If the original shooter was from that guild, he also might have balked once Christian got involved,” Lynzi suggested, “so the client probably called in a new mercenary from outside the guilds. This might actually work for us. The Bruja guilds are too powerful for us to go against directly, but if this Maya is an independent mercenary,
she
can probably be bought. Jason, what do you think?”

He nodded. “With SingleEarth’s resources, absolutely.”

“Then we can—”

They were interrupted by a knock at the door.

“Come in,” Lynzi called. For most people, it would have been reckless to call out without even looking through the peephole, but Lynzi’s magic would have alerted her if someone approached who was powerful enough to be a threat.

Mary opened the door and peeked her head inside.

“I’m sorry to interrupt,” she said, “but I have a young woman in the lobby looking for Alysia. She seems very upset but won’t tell me what’s going on. Is anyone available to speak to her?”

“Please bring her in,” Lynzi said. After the secretary walked away, Lynzi added, “I hope you all have your seat belts buckled. This Haven hasn’t even had a chance to adjust to losing Joseph. Losing Alysia after she has barely had a chance to walk in the door is going to put a strain on our residents.”

Their guest, who arrived a minute later, was wearing worn blue jeans and a sand-colored peasant blouse. Her hair, which was a rich burgundy color, was pulled back, which put more emphasis on her dark, cinnamon-colored eyes. Sarik found herself staring at the woman, wondering,
What now?

“Come in,” Lynzi said. “What can we do for you?”

“The secretary told me Alysia is gone,” the woman said, her eyes wide.

“I’m sorry to say she left SingleEarth just recently,” Lynzi answered. “Were you working with her?”

The woman drew a breath and nodded. “My little sister,” the woman said. “She’s been … ill, I guess? Or something? You see, our father left when she was very young. We didn’t know he was … I’m standing here and I’m sorry but it still sounds crazy. I mean,
shapeshifters? Seriously?
”

“Sarik, why don’t you speak to our guest?” Lynzi suggested.

“Who the hell are you, the babysitter?” the newcomer demanded, looking at Sarik and the two boys.

Jeht started to stand when the woman turned on Sarik
with obvious anger, but Sarik put a hand on his shoulder to calm him and tried to explain. “I can—”

“What are you?” their guest asked bluntly.

“I’m a shapeshifter,” Sarik answered. “Like your sister.”

“You’re a snake?”

“No,” Sarik answered. “I’m a tiger, actually. But—”

“Then what good are you?” the woman asked waspishly, before dropping her gaze and looking chastised. “I’m sorry. This is all just too much for me.” She turned to go, saying, “I’ll come back when I can talk to another human being.”

She stormed out, not leaving any contact information.

Sarik and the other mediators exchanged glances, and after a few moments, Lynzi said, “That was odd.” The Triste frowned, shaking her head before saying, “Well, it
wasn’t
odd for this place, but it seemed off somehow.”

Sarik didn’t attempt to make a judgment on the woman’s behavior. She doubted her own could be trusted just then.

“Family members of serpiente who have been raised human tend to go through a particularly difficult process,” Lynzi reminded them all. “Seeking help was probably difficult for her—only possible at all because she could convince herself that she could trust another human.”

Serpiente were not just shapeshifters; even in human form, their bodies functioned differently from humans’. Among other things, their slow metabolisms made them nearly cold-blooded. When raised human, they tended to start changing during adolescence, a painful process that often triggered many series of tests and hospitalizations before they came to SingleEarth’s attention. Family members often had to transition from
mourning for a loved one they thought was dying to coping with the knowledge that there was an entire world they had previously thought of as the provenance of myth and campfire stories.

“Should someone go after her?” Sarik asked.

“Chasing her through SingleEarth is not going to make her feel safer,” Lynzi replied. “She will either come back on her own or find a human mediator she trusts at another Haven. On the other hand, I think this is a good cue for us to adjourn. Sarik, the cubs could use your attention right now. Jason, stay a moment?”

Sarik nodded, recognizing a dismissal when she heard one, but she looked to Jason instead of leaving immediately. He gave a half smile and said, “I had to face her someday. It’s a lot easier to face a mercenary with the weight of the wealthiest organization in the world at your back.”

Sarik heard the false bravado in his words, but sometimes that was the only way to face one’s fears.
Fake it till you make it
, she thought.

Meanwhile, as Lynzi and Jason discussed how to handle Maya, Sarik had to find a way to explain to the child who had probably saved her life as well as Alysia’s that it wasn’t nice to kill people.

“Are these people warriors?” Jeht asked after they left the room.

Maybe that was the answer.

“Yes,” she said, “but not in the way you think. There are ways to be a leader, and to protect your people, that don’t rely on violence and brute strength.”

She had been thinking that if the cubs could not return to the Mistari, she needed to convince them that they didn’t need to be warriors. That wasn’t the right approach. It was too late to convince them that they didn’t always need to be ready for battle, but perhaps it wasn’t too late to make them see that not every battle involved claws or a blade.

Maybe, along the way, she could finally convince herself of the same thing.

A
LYSIA SAW
C
HRISTIAN
go down but couldn’t spare any attention to see how badly he was hurt. Tristes were tough to kill—most people weren’t crazy enough to try. At that moment, she had to put all her focus on the two vampires who were flanking her.

And then there was one
, she thought as Christian reached out and dragged one of them away from her. Judging from the bloodsucker’s shriek, Christian used more than his bare hands. Tristes were famous for making vampires their preferred prey, and an injured Triste was probably in no mood to be gentle.

Alysia saw the sniper just past where Christian was grappling with his vampiric target, and managed to throw her opponent in front of the next bolt that came her way. She
followed him down with a stake, but the archer reloaded too quickly; before she could get under cover, she felt the impact in her flesh. A steel-and-aluminum shaft shattered her kneecap on its way to burying its head in that vulnerable joint, sending black pain through her.

She was more aware of shadows and movement than she was of events in the next few seconds while she struggled to breathe, to somehow get her body ready to fight.

She looked up again to find Christian standing, facing the direction where the archer had been a moment ago. The attacker must have decided flight was the better part of valor.

Thankfully, he didn’t see what Alysia saw, which was Christian stumbling back so he could lean against the car and slide slowly to the ground, gray-faced. The blood on his lips spread further when he tried to talk and ended up coughing instead.

It took all Alysia’s willpower to move herself closer and not scream as the bolt in her knee shifted. The distance couldn’t have been more than a couple feet, but the move sapped all her energy. By the time she reached Christian, she was fighting nausea and breathing heavily, struggling just to stay conscious.

Don’t you dare pass out
, she told herself.
You will not wake up in a better place
.

Christian reached over, and the instant his fingertips touched her cheek, the worst of the pain receded. The fluttery sensation in her chest remained, as did the pulse of adrenaline and the bolt that had completely punctured her left knee. Her
good
knee. He had been able to take away her body’s reactions, but not the injury itself.

As she examined the bolt high in Christian’s chest, she said, “If you were still human, I’d say your only chance with that injury is a damn good witch.”

How well could Christian heal these days? How fast? And how well could he fight once he was done? Because the vampire with the crossbow might have run for now, but he would be back, probably with reinforcements.

“Pull it.”

At first, Alysia could only stare. “You sure?”

When he nodded, she tried to remind herself that he knew what he could take far better than she did. It took a moment to get in a position where she had leverage, but then she reached forward, braced her opposite hand next to the wound, and yanked on the shaft with all her strength.

She could feel it fighting her. The tip was barbed; it tore flesh as she ripped it out. After it was free, she instinctively slapped a hand over the wound, trying to staunch the flow of blood as Christian hunched over, his breathing full of rattling and gargling sounds that gradually lessened, until within a minute he was able to look back up.

His wound wasn’t gone, but it wasn’t bleeding anymore.

While Christian leaned over, Alysia watched with a curious detachment as he snapped off the front of the bolt set in her knee, a move that should have caused agonizing pain, and then tugged the remainder of the shaft from her body before pushing himself to his feet.