Pure Blooded (20 page)

“You brang it back?” The shorter guide scratched his head like the concept was too much to process. “And you don’t want no money for it?”

The airboat we’d purchased was already parked on top of the dock, and Rourke, Ray, Tyler, Nick, Marcy, James, and I stood there waiting for the guides to get over their shock. My father and the rest of his wolves had gone back to the place they’d purchased theirs from and were heading back home by plane. No one thought getting on an airplane with me was a wise plan, so we were going to rent a vehicle and drive home. We figured it would be safer that way.

“That’s what I just finished telling you,” Marcy answered. “The boat is yours, but on one condition.”

“And what’s that?” the taller guide asked, his voice indicating that he knew there was going to be a hitch.

“We need a vehicle. One that will carry all of us. And once we’re gone, you saw nothing, you remember nothing.” A little
magic shot out of Marcy’s fingertips as she said the last part and I knew she was insuring us with a spell.

Once we left, we’d fade from their memories altogether.

The taller guide sized her up for a second before he answered, glancing around our group, trying to read our inscrutable faces. He was clearly the more intelligent of the two. He saw his opportunity to gain back what he lost, and then some. “Deal.” He drew a cell phone out of his overalls pocket. “My nephew Teddy might have what you need. He’s got a few of them big old vans he takes gator tours in. I’ll dial him up.”

The shorter guide assessed us. “Well, the least we can do is get you some more of that moonshine fer your troubles. I don’t see the jug in the boat, nor the guy who had it, so I’m ’ssuming that he enjoyed his drink.”

I couldn’t tell him we’d lost his precious hooch in a scuffle with a bunch of possessed snakes. “That’d be… nice of you,” I said. Nothing like a jug or two of moonshine for the road. “And one more thing—if you hear any gossip in this area, or if any of the other guides start talking, we’d like you to assure them that everything is back to normal. No one is going to bother anyone here anymore. No more mysterious disappearances.”

“Good to know,” the taller guide said as he clicked off his phone. “The lot of you are welcome in these parts anytime. Free airboat rides for the family for life. Anythin’ we can do, consider it done.”

“Thanks, but we’re not planning on coming back,” my brother said. Then he whispered too low for him to hear, “At least not in your lifetime.”

“Well, then, moonshine whenever you need it.” He fished something out of his front pocket. “Just gimme a call. We ship anywhere in the world.” Tyler took the card and grinned as he passed it to me.

It read:

“Thanks,” I said, tucking the card away. “If we find a need for it, we’ll be sure to get in touch with you.”

We began to walk up the banks to a dirt road. Right as we got there a brightly colored van turned into the drive. The vehicle was orange with lime-green accents—which appeared to be hand-painted drawings of tall swamp grass with a few alligator heads poking out. The side was crudely printed with EVERGLADES TOURS. SEE DEM GATORS UP CLOSE.

“Good criminy,” Ray muttered. “These people are beyond backwoods. They’re so far back, they’re only a step or two up from cavemen.”

“They are quite… uncivilized, aren’t they,” Nick added. He had joined us this morning, and insisted on accompanying us home. He’d been relegated to watching over the camps during the takedown of Marinette and the priestess, which I knew had been my father’s way of making sure he stayed safe. Nick was a fox, and if he’d been taken by the bokor, it would’ve ended very badly. My father loved him like a son, and even though I knew Nick was unhappy with my father’s decision to keep him back, he didn’t complain. That wasn’t his style. “But they do have a certain charm.”

“This must be what happens when you’re born and raised in a swamp,” I said. “But they deliver. We asked for a vehicle, and we got one within three minutes. Beggars can’t be choosers.”

“That thing looks like it’s made of Legos, constructed in some
kid’s garage,” Ray grumbled. “These guys don’t have two brain cells to rub together.”

“They’re harmless,” Rourke said. “And now they owe us. We brought their boat back, and that buys us considerable loyalty.”

Ray shrugged. “It might, but what are they really going to do for us?”

I gestured toward the van. “That.”

The driver got out of the car and Marcy reached in the window and honked the horn. “We’re ready to go,” she called. She’d been negotiating with Teddy since he’d arrived. He was supposed to be the tall guide’s nephew, but he appeared to be older—considerably older. We walked toward the van. Marcy came around the front. “James is driving and I’m riding shotgun. Anyone complains, I don’t give two hoots. I have to make a quick phone call before we head out so I can wire Teddy here some money for his beautiful van.” She nodded toward Teddy, who with his long, grizzly beard had a ZZ Top vibe going.

Tyler made a show of inspecting the vehicle as Marcy borrowed a cell phone from the shorter guide to make the call. “Will it make it eighteen hundred miles?” he asked Teddy, skepticism in his voice.

“Sure ’nough,” Teddy said as he spit on the ground in front of us. “This here van is sound. My twin brother, Glenn, is a mechanic.” He patted the hood. “She’s been rebuilt more than ten times. Won’t be no issue for you.”

Ten times? I hoped Marcy wasn’t paying him much.

“Last rebuilt when?” my brother asked.

“Oh, about seven years ago,” Teddy answered. “But that ain’t no problem. He tinkers with it a lot.”

Before my brother could tell him off, I held up my hand. “Thank you for bringing it over so quickly. I’m sure it’ll get us
home just fine. If it doesn’t, we’ll cope.” I turned to Tyler. “And here I didn’t think anything could trump the bright yellow Hummer
you
bought for us. Looks like you and Teddy have similar taste in vehicles, and I’m sure Glenn did a great job on the most recent rebuild.”

“That Hummer was built to withstand a war. This thing smells like it burns oil and gas every time the tires spin,” Tyler countered, irritated with me. “And that many rebuilds means its engine has parts from fifty different vehicles. It’ll be a miracle if we can limp back home in this piece of sh—”

“Done.” Marcy clapped her hands as she gave the cell phone back to Shorty and turned to the vehicle owner. “Teddy, the money is in your account. You can go check if you don’t trust me. We’ll take it from here.”

“Oh, I know you’re good for it, Red,” he said, tossing the keys to James, who was heading for the driver’s side. “Just like my uncle’s boat, feel free to bring it back anytime.” He winked and grinned at his own joke. I think we’d underestimated ol’ Teddy. Wrapping my head around how he was the taller guide’s nephew was too much trouble, so I turned and piled into the back with everyone else.

“How much did you pay for this thing?” Tyler grumbled as he climbed in behind me.

“Don’t ask,” Marcy said from the front. “It’s better for everyone that way.”

James revved it up, and it did the opposite of purr. It sounded more like a junkyard dog scrabbling for his next meal in a bunch of tin cans. Rourke and I were in the last row and I immediately lay down, sprawling out on his lap. It was a twenty-seven-hour drive in human time. But James would break the speed limit by a good fifty miles an hour and Marcy would make sure no cop stopped us.

I flew off Rourke’s lap, my body hitting the seat in front of me, before the van skidded to a stop. James’s outraged bellow followed one second later, and we were all instantly wide awake.

I scrambled back onto my seat, Rourke leaning down to assist me. “What is it, Irish?” Rourke called. He made sure I was fine and then maneuvered himself toward the van’s side door. “Did you hit something? Or is something out there?”

“I didn’t hit anything,” James said. “The van just died. On its own. It was all I could do to get us to the side of the road. A small tree took pity on us and stopped us.”

“Did the van die because it’s a complete piece of shit or was it something supernatural?” Tyler asked, getting out of his seat to look out the window.

“I have no idea,” James said, peering over the steering wheel into the darkness. “It just died.”

“I don’t feel any spells,” Marcy said. “But that doesn’t mean much. I didn’t on the plane either.”

“Where are we?” I asked. I’d been asleep the entire time up until this point.

Marcy turned around. “We crossed into Georgia about an hour ago. We’re on some small country road. Too many cops for me to keep spelling the highways. Since James insists on going over a hundred miles an hour, it’s made it difficult. It’s a miracle this rattletrap can even maintain that speed. It’s possible we just blew out the engine.”

We’d all discovered quickly that this van shook at high speeds. “Wouldn’t there be smoke or noise if the engine blew?” I said. “I didn’t hear anything, but I was asleep.”

“Jess is right,” Nick said. “I was awake and I didn’t hear anything. The van just stopped working.”

That meant trouble.

Ray had opted to fly an hour in, muttering about smells and gator vans, so he was somewhere out there.

The boys piled out of the van.

“Marcy, do you have your cell phone on you still?” I asked as I went to sit closer to her.

“Yep. I’ve been checking it religiously, but all’s been quiet in Juanita-Land. I’ve been secretly hoping she would send me little flashes to help us, but there’s no dire message blinking on the screen.” She pulled it out to double-check. “Nope, nothing there.”

“Are you sure you don’t sense a spell?”

“I don’t,” Marcy said. “But that’s not saying much. If it’s anything like what killed the plane, I likely won’t detect it.”

“If the van really stopped because of a mechanical failure, do you think you could fix it?”

“I can try,” she said. “I have no idea how to spell a motor, but it can’t be that hard. But, honestly, who are we kidding? I highly doubt it’s mechanical. It happened too abruptly.”

“Yeah, that would be too easy—”

There was a loud crash in the trees just outside the van. Marcy and I both sprang out of our seats, and right as we opened the doors, both our mates yelled in unison, “Stay in the car!”

“Yeah, right,” Marcy called, answering for us, “like that’s happening!”

We jumped out and headed over to where the guys stood just outside the tree line. “What do think that was?” I asked Rourke. “And why in the world would you tell me to stay in the car? I shouldn’t have to remind you that Marcy and I just took out the big bad ourselves.”

He growled. “It was just a gut reaction. I’m sick of seeing you in danger. The van is the only cover we’ve got at the moment.”

“That gator van is hardly going to protect us against anything—”

Twenty feet in front of us there was another loud explosion and we were all knocked backward from the force.

Each of us was up in a moment, glancing around but finding nothing.

Tyler called, “I don’t sense any magic, but there’s no question something’s coming.”

“We need to move out of here now!” Rourke tugged me back. “Everyone back in the vehicle.” He glanced at Marcy and nodded to James. “Open the hood and see if she can fix it with a spell.”

“Agreed.” James moved forward with Marcy tucked to his side.

I reached the side of the van first and wrenched the door open. I took one step inside and the door snapped shut behind me on its own, locking everyone else out. I turned, rattling the door handle, but it wouldn’t budge.

“Jessica!” Rourke shouted on the other side. “What’s going on?” He pounded his fists against the window, but it held when it should’ve shattered.

“I have no idea,” I called through the glass. “The door won’t open—”

The van’s motor turned over.

It revved once and snapped into gear. Before I could do anything else, I was tossed in between the seats as it sped off down the road, faster than it should’ve been able to go. “What do you want?” I shouted into the air as I maneuvered myself up from between the seats and made my way to the driver’s side. I climbed in and sat down, grabbing the wheel, but it wouldn’t budge. I jammed my foot onto the brake, taking it down to the floor, over and over again, but it was useless.