Vulcan's Kittens (Children of Myth Book 1) (13 page)

She put a hand on Lambent’s pommel. She had been learning, too. How to run, mostly. And how to survive.

“Where is Bes?” she asked Coyote.

He answered without looking up from the edge of the couch. Spot One had flattened himself and scooted under it. “On his way. The gelding came home by himself just a few hours before you got here. Of course, he was able to travel faster without a burden.”

“How do you know, then?” she asked curiously.

“I know everything that happens on my land.” He sounded utterly sure, and suddenly she wondered how far the extent of his land stretched.

Linn sat down, arranging Lambent to hang properly. He knew everything... “Then why did you let us be attacked? The other two kittens were killed!”

“Knowing and being able to act on are two different things. I was able to keep an eye on you as you came here, once I intersected you.” He padded over, leaving the two kittens wrestling with one another. Putting his front paws on Linn’s knees, he reached up and kissed her face with his long wet tongue. Linn’s giggle was watery with her tears.

“I am sorry for your grief, child.” He spoke softly, his golden eyes fixed on hers.

She hugged his neck, feeling the soft ruff of fur. “I was supposed to be their guardian!” she wailed. She felt him shift abruptly and opened her eyes. He’d changed to human form, and was holding her gently, kneeling on the floor. Long black braids fell over his shoulders, and a peaceful face that looked as though it were made of old leather looked at her. He was wearing a buckskin shirt and jeans. His feet were bare.

“Cry it out. You will feel better.”

Linn sniffled. “I’m OK.”

He nodded. “You saved two of them. Bes is not dead. You are not dead. It is a victory.”

“No, it’s not...” Linn felt the tears coming back. “I left them behind.”

“I, too, have left many behind.” Coyote hugged her. Linn cried on his shoulder. She remembered the last time she had cried like this. After her father’s death, she had crawled into her mother’s lap, and they had both cried until they fell asleep. Linn couldn’t bear losing the little ones. Not again. She couldn’t do anything about it, though.

Coyote picked her up and carried her to the couch. He tucked her in with one of her grandmother’s afghans, she recognized the pattern. She clutched at it and whispered, “Thank you.”

He kissed her forehead and said, “Sleep, sweet child. You have ventured much and will win more than you know.”

Linn felt as though she were falling into a well. She clutched at his sleeves, and then everything slipped away. First Bes, now Coyote. Drat them. She was going to have to learn how to counter the sleep spell. As soon as she woke up...

When she woke up she realized the sun was shining. She looked up and saw what she hadn’t the evening before. Where the eyes of the monster had been were two great windows. She looked back down to see Spot One lying across her legs. She twisted her head around and realized that Blackie was draped over the arm of the couch, one paw on her head. She felt warm and safe. She closed her eyes and drifted off again.

She woke up to the smell of bacon and eggs. She sat up and rubbed her eyes. Coyote was standing at the stove, stirring something in a skillet. The kittens were at his feet eating already, tails straight up in the air. The immortal looked over his shoulder at her.

“Shower while you can and then come and get it... You have a long day ahead.”

Linn stretched and staggered toward the bathroom. She had been in it briefly the night before. Now, she found a towel and clothes laid out waiting for her. Gratefully, she got clean and dressed. They were too big for her, but they were clean.

Coyote nodded when she came out. “Good, you were getting pretty ripe, kid,” he teased.

He put a plate down and Linn sat, glad to eat. He had cooked the bacon, then chopped it and added it and some tomatoes and herbs to the scrambled eggs. It tasted like heaven. She giggled a little. Coyote sat down and looked at her quizzically.

“Food of the gods,” she explained. “Ambrosia. I never thought it would look like this.”

He laughed. “It is good to feed a hungry child again. I had forgotten how satisfying it was to cook for someone who appreciates your food.”

“Well, I like it. You can feed me anytime.” She finished the last bite and took the plate to the sink.

“What are we doing today?” she asked Coyote.

“You are going to take it easy and perhaps read. My library is yours,” he instructed.

“And you?” she asked curiously.

“I prepare to join your grandfather.” His voice was solemn.

“You will leave your land?”

“I must, this time. I never go, but this time I am needed.”

“It’s bad... isn’t it?” Linn heard her voice tremble. She gulped. She wasn’t a little girl, and she wasn’t going to cry again.

“It could be. But we will stop them. Your grandfather is formidable.”

“This has happened before.” She knew that from some things her grandfather had hinted at.

His eyes focused on something very far away indeed. “On a small scale, so many times. On a grander scale, the world has been rolled back to the Stone Age a handful of times. That... that is what they want this time.”

“What can we do?” Linn felt very small and young again. She had been feeling very confident after her trek.

“You and Bes are going to keep the children safe.”

“I hate babysitting.” She hadn’t been all that good at it, so far.

Coyote laughed. He did that a lot, she noticed. “The children of the immortals are the key to the future of the earth. You have proved your worth...”

Linn felt her lip wobble. She bit it and listened hard, trying not to think about what she had left behind.

“You are a child yourself, but this is an important task.”

Linn nodded, not trusting her voice.

Coyote stood. “I’ll be in the stable if you need me.”

Linn sat looking up and out of the eye of the monster for a long time. The kittens were asleep on the couch. Finally, she stood and went to find a book. Today she wanted something to make her laugh. Coyote could, and she could learn. She had a feeling it was an important survival skill.

She was curled up with a kitten on her feet and the afghan wrapped around her when Bes walked in the door. She shrieked and ran to him, hugging him hard.

He staggered back a little, laughing. “Oof! Girl, I’m immortal, not unbreakable.” He hugged her back hard, though.

“I thought I’d never see you again!” She sniffed as she realized she was crying.

“I have a surprise for you.” He put her a little away from him.

“What?” Linn was trying not to cry.

“Close your eyes.”

Obediently, Linn closed her eyes. She heard the door open again, and then a soft, warm, wiggly bundle was in her arms. Her eyes flew open and she cried out.

“Kittens!” She stopped abruptly.

Coyote gave her the other toddler.

Linn looked down at the little girls in confusion. “Who are they?”

“Patches and Spot Two.”

Linn protested, shaking her head. “They’re human!”

The redhead put her arms around Linn’s neck and cuddled. Spot Two cooed up at her.

“They don’t talk quite yet.”

“They are human,” she repeated.

Coyote sighed. “They are immortals. When they were killed in the house...”

“What!?” Linn looked at him, horrified.

“They died in the blast. Their bodies were destroyed. Their consciousness was not. They are the children of two immortals and possess the power to revive in a formed body.”

“But their imprinting dictated the form. And they think of you as mother, right now,” Bes finished.

Linn looked down at the sweet faces. Her mind was reeling. “They are alive.” she whispered finally.

She took them over to the couch and sat down. Blackie sat up and yawned, showing his fangs. Then he sniffed Patches and mewed at her. She hugged his neck. Linn looked up at Bes and Coyote, aware that tears were silently falling down her cheeks.

“I can’t keep calling them Patches and Spot.” she said.

Coyote shook his head and chuckled. “You think of names. Plan to stay here tonight, we’ll leave in the morning.”

Bes patted Spot One, who was trying to climb the short god. He’d gotten too big to do it, though.

Linn nodded and buried her face in Spot Two’s hug. The child was wearing a simple dress and no shoes. Her tumbled ringlets badly needed a brushing. She didn’t look at all like the kitten Linn knew, but she felt right.

Linn looked at her. “You all need names that mean something.”

Blackie headbutted her cheek. “I know you like your name,” Linn assured him.

She looked at the black-haired child. “Moira. You are Moira.”

The little girl smiled at her and then grabbed Blackie. Linn let her wiggle out of her arms and down to the floor. She picked up Patches and hoisted the redhead up in the air. The little girl squealed and kicked.

“Patricia. Close to what it was before.”

Linn put her down and turned to Spot One, who was sitting next to her with his tail wrapped around his feet. “And you?”

He opened his mouth in a soundless meow. She stroked his head and he arched his jaw into her palm.

“I just named one sister for the Fates, and the other for a Roman high society. What shall we do for you? Your mother is Sekhmet, also called Hathor. Your father has an unpronounceable name and prefers to be called Steve.”

He just looked at her, purring.

“You’re no help. I need a baby name book.”

She got up and walked over to the bookcase. No baby name books - she would have been shocked - but there was another copy of the Standard Dictionary of Folklore. Her idea for Moira’s name had come from that. She hesitated over it and then looked further. She didn’t want to name them for an immortal who might object to them using the name.

She pulled a couple of books out and sat cross-legged on the floor. The kittens and girls had occupied the couch and were getting reacquainted, which seemed to involve lots of wrestling. All that was missing was Coyote, who was still outside with Bes.

It seemed so surreal. Here she was, sitting on the floor of a house built into a Monster’s skull, waiting to be taken to safety while the end of the world was coming. And she was looking up a name for an immortal being who was currently shaped like a kitten. A rather large and inquisitive kitten, she thought as he romped over and leapt up on the book to headbutt at her face, rubbing his cheeks on hers.

She looked down at the book she had been leafing through. “How about Lancelot?”

He chuffed a little sneeze.

Linn chuckled. “Then maybe Gareth. He was one of the Knights of the Round Table, and the name is Welsh for peaceful.”

Spot One put his paws on her shoulders and started to lick her face.

“Hey! That tickles... I’ll take that as a yes. You’re Gareth, now.”

Patricia and Moira came over slowly, still walking unsteadily. Blackie walked between them, letting them hold onto him as they needed support. Physically they might look they were three years old, but they had only assumed a two-legged form three days before. It was harder for them to learn to walk with two legs than with four.

Linn hugged all of them as they got near enough, grabbing them indiscriminately. She had thought she had lost them. Now, having them all near to her was making her cry, still, but they were happy tears now, and those she didn’t mind. Blackie and Gareth wiggled free and prowled around the room, while Patricia and Moira were content to snuggle a little longer.

Linn got up and gave them each a hand to hold onto. They walked across the room slowly and she put them each in a chair. Then she pointed at herself. “Linn. My name is Linn.”

She pointed at Patricia, “Pat. Your name is Pat,” and then at Moira, repeating the phrase. “Now you say it. I am...” she pointed at herself.

The girls both giggled.

Linn sighed. “I guess you guys will start talking when you are ready, huh.”

They climbed down from their chairs and toddled off hand in hand. They didn’t get far before their brothers pounced on them. Linn went back to clean up the books she had taken out. She stopped when she was done, running a finger along the spines of the library. She was beginning to have a feeling the science fiction collection was as much a part of the answers to immortals as the mythology books.

Reluctantly, she turned away from the books and started to make dinner. Coyote’s late breakfast for her was a distant memory. She looked in the vintage refrigerator with its avocado door and saw the leftover stew from the night before, and four fresh rabbit carcasses. She smiled. Chicken-fried rabbit, coming up. With biscuits, and...something from the garden she had seen coming in. Not to mention that she’d been here thirty-six hours and hadn’t been back outside.

She looked in the cupboard and found a colander. Carrying it, she opened the door and stepped outside. She looked down at the valley. Coming in that evening, she had been too tired for the weirdness of it all to truly hit her.