Wildfire Gospel (Habitat) (14 page)

Her small Adam’s apple slid up and down in her neck as she swallowed. “Hot?”

I heated the space around us. “Very.”

Keo and Taki groaned and made no attempt to hide their enjoyment of the warmer temperature.

“What do you both shift into?” I asked.

“Nothing,” Keo spat the word out like I’d insulted him.

“I saw you make fire on television,” Sakura said. “There have been lots of debate on whether you had Fire Witches in the area, pretending you could make fire or other tricks to make you seem like a powerful Mixbreed. I believe you have the power yourself. It’s why I eagerly worked with Dante to have you here in my compound.”

“Doesn’t the Shinto Habitat have its own magic users with fire capability?”

“Not many. The ones that do, won’t work with Vampires. The few that will work with us have been stunted.”

“Stunted?”

“Keo and Taki, take off your glasses.”

The two men obliged. Crimson dots and Flames swirled in their eyes where white should’ve been. Instead of regular pupils, theirs appeared black and slit like a lizards.

“What do you shift into?”

“Nothing,” Keo said through clenched teeth.

“They’re stunted. They lost their shifting ability long ago before the habitats. But if they could transform, it would be into Dragons,” Sakura said.

My mouth dropped open. Questions flooded my head and with that excitement came next. “I didn’t even know Dragons were real.”

“They are.” Sakura shrugged. “When the Fairies found Earth many centuries ago, they incorporated into most nations, taking over the land and experimenting with the species. Many fought against them. Some won. Others lost. The Dragons were the only things to protect my ancestors in Japan. Dragon fire turned Fairies into ashes when they tried to take over Japan. Then one woman came with white hair and black skin. No one knows her species, but she sold a stone to the earthbound fairies that would stop the Dragonshifters from transforming into their beasts. All they needed to do was insert flecks of the stone into the Dragonshifter’s bloodstream and he or she would turn into a regular being with only the ability to drink in fire, but not push it out. These flecks don’t stop there. They merge with the system, alter the carrier’s genes, and keeps their beasts and offsprings’ beasts at bay.”

“So their beasts are still alive inside of them?” I asked.

“This is my understanding.”

“And how do you think I can help them?”

Sakura laughed. “You can’t. The Dragonshifters aren’t my problem. The deliveries are.”

“Deliveries?”

“Are we in fact aligned, Miss Vesta?” Sakura extended her hand to me for a shake. “Whether you can get through my portal or not, I will need your help. These deliveries come to my compound and cause great damage. No other family down here will give me a fire user. It seems all are happy to see the Endos burn away. Dante has offered your services in the future if I help him now.”

“Did he now?” I leaned my head to the side. “Dante doesn’t control who I work with or not.”

“I don’t trust him.”

“Me either.”

“I want Endo and MFE to align. I need you to help the Endo Family survive these fire attacks, and in turn, I will assist you and your lover with surviving Dante.”

I almost blurted out I didn’t need her help in surviving him, but that was more pride talking than real logic.

She gestured to the doorknob. “Taki, stay here. Keo come with me so Miss Vesta can see my special delivery.”

Taki bowed and placed his glasses back on his face. Keo opened the door and motioned for us to come through.

“So the deliveries are the fire attacks?” I followed them.

“Yes. In a way.”

“Does it have something to do with the Dragonshifters’ powers being stunted?”

“No. This doesn’t concern them.”

We walked down a long hallway painted in white. Smoke filled the space. Sakura covered her face and slowed down. Beads of sweat formed around her full moon brand as the temperature increased and the smoke thickened. Keo and I met each other’s pace. I inhaled the smoke with no problem and tried to figure out what the scent smelled like. It was a strange spicy fragrance. Something I’d smelled before. I breathed it in again. The aroma reminded me of pancakes. No, French toast. Burnt French toast and syrup. I licked my lips. My stomach grumbled. Only one thing had that scent.

Demon fire.

“What are you?” Keo glanced my way. His eyes gleamed brighter right before he slung his glasses back on.

“Mixbreed.”

“You smell like fire.” He stepped closer to me as we walked. “I like that. I want to taste you.”

“Excuse me?”

“I want to taste you, anyway you’ll let me.”

I lengthened the space between us. “I’m taken.”

“Does he have fire too?”

“No. Just everything else that could kill most creatures in seconds. He also doesn’t like to share and is pretty adamant about that.”

Keo gave me more space.

He’s smart.

“What are these deliveries?” I asked him, since Sakura slowed her pace and covered her nose with her arm.

“Tongues. Flaming ones. Most of them are cut from kids. The magic in children’s bodies tends to be pure and unadulterated. It’s the best to use for a spell. I’m not sure if the kids are killed after their tongues are removed, but I believe it’s most likely. Spells like this require a huge sacrifice. By the time it gets to us. The flaming tongue comes in a box. We open it and the tongue ignites into an animal made of flames. The fire beast usually just attacks the Vampires. My job is to get close enough to it, suck the animal into myself, and take in the fire.”

So he was drinking in demon fire, an action that would kill most people. I never knew Dragons could do that, but then I never knew Dragons existed. “How does it feel when you suck in the fire spell?”

He looked away. “It hurts. I pass out for days. It takes more than four of us to drink in all of the beast. It is that painful.”

“It should be. I smell demon fire. That’s toxic to most people, fire enablers or not, but to a Demon, especially one that can’t make its own fire, it’s priceless and tasty.” My stomach grumbled.

Keo snapped his face my way. “And you are a Demon?”

“I’m half.”

“And what else?”

“Fairy.” I noticed him frown. “Sorry. I know your kind has a history with them.”

“No need. You didn’t do anything.”

We approached a black door. “On the other side is the spell. Someone already opened the box and triggered it.”

Sakura ceased from walking. “What is the fire beast this time?”

“It’s a tiger.” Keo opened the door.

“Where is it?” I asked.

“In our living space.”

MeShack

The sun set. The moon rose. The stabbing pain never ended.

We’d been walking for thirty minutes and doing our best to follow Graham’s spell as it tracked my killer. I limped toward the green light flowing out of my chest. It never stopped moving and guiding me so we never stopped. Yet, the pain made me stumble several times. It gnawed within my core and snatched at my insides with no mercy or relief. I walked, always moving forward. By now the skin I wore bubbled with tons of sweat. Graham complained, nagged, and threatened to just take his skin back right there if I didn’t stop sweating.

I gritted my teeth. “Don’t worry. I want to give you back this skin as much as you need it back.”

“Just try not to sweat too much.”

We turned the corner and entered an area that looked unfamiliar.

Although the sky shined clear and dark blue from the full moon, darkness lathered us as we moved on the sidewalk. None of the streetlights were on. Nobody had parked a bicycle, car, or motorcycle on the street. No one hung about or even drove on this block. The whole place was empty. I had no idea what the street name was called. Someone had removed the sign. Battered buildings flanked both of our sides. Wooden planks covered all of the windows. Graffiti decorated the bricks. There were loads of street art—the obligatory penises and breast shots with a lewd joke under it, elaborate murals of gods and goddesses on each building, and on one building there was a list of names.

I peered to get a closer look and maybe have something else to focus on besides the throbbing ache within me. “What’s that list about?”

“That’s their dead.” Graham gestured to the list. “Bodies are never found around these parts so instead of burying them, they write their names on the wall as a way to give tribute.”

“Where is everybody? Are they all gone?” The whole space looked like one of those ghost towns in old black and white movies, all empty and silent.

“No way. I bet this whole block is packed with people. Bet they’re watching us right now through windows, cracks in the walls, and broken planks of wood. I’ve smoked in many of these buildings with others. Some of the things that happened in those hidden spaces blew my high.”

“Where are we?”

“Ochosi Way.”

Ochosi was the god of the hunt and wild forest. Many saw him as a warrior. Artists depicted him as this lone figure wielding a huge bow and arrow, wrapped in animal skin, a mask or face paint on his face, and standing in some sort of dominating stance as he silently waited in the wilderness for his prey. Many Shapeshifters worshiped Ochosi and believed he understood the beasts inside of them. All tended to pray and offer blessing to him when they desired swift justice against a wrong doer. For that reason, the fact that someone named the dark and barren neighborhood after the god shocked me.

“I’ve never heard of Ochosi Way. I’ve heard of Ochosi Road but not way.”

“Because it isn’t on a map and you have no business down here. When I’m really broke and empty on luck I come here to earn money. There’s odd jobs to get, if a person can hang around and survive long enough to hear an offer. Lots of people are down here to get revenge or settle some score with another person. Lots need a discreet killer to murder someone and not ask questions. Then there is the black market stuff. The whole industry is down here. You see all the buildings that are spray painted with gods in the front?”

“Yeah.”

“Each one building has its own gang and a god they honor. They all have their own specialties and dirty hands in the big pot of crime around these parts.”

“So there’s nothing but killers down here?”

“No. Thank the gods. Assassins are just one part of the black market. After death, sex is the next biggest thing down here. Then drugs and right after that are the underground fights that people like to gamble on.”

I followed the light coming out of my chest and watched it continue to the middle of the street. “Where do you think this light is going?”

“Three blocks up is a dead end. Right there is a huge warehouse with five levels.” Graham formed his lips into a frown.

“You think he’s in there?”

“Yeah. I was hoping he wouldn’t be. These buildings with their gangs have their own killers. I’m not worried about any of them. It would’ve been easy to bust through and grab the skin. The warehouse presents several problems. One of them being that you can only gain entrance by three different ways—be invited, volunteer as a fighter in the fights, or come with money to bet. Do you have any money?”

“No.”

“Then it looks like we’ll be fighting.”

I limped along. My right leg had lost all feeling. It was just numb flesh surrounded by bone that I dragged with me. “I can’t fight, not like this.”

“You’re my Umbutu. You can do anything you want.”

“If it was only that easy.”

“Actually it is. I didn’t want to have to show you this until later when you had your own skin. A man needs to be in his own flesh when he hears things that could be taken as bad news.”

I paused in the middle of the sidewalk. “Bad news?”

“Umbutus are many things for their Demon family.”

“Okay?”

“You’re full of the family’s blood now. That gives me a lot of control.”

I tensed and didn’t like where this was going at all. I’d seen Graham fill people with his blood before and then sling them around the area just by flicking his hand. “You can control my body?”

“Yes.”

“How much control?”

“In Demon, Umbutu means puppet.”

I formed my hands into fists. “Excuse me?”

“We don’t have time for you to have a hysterical fit like a little wimpy Elf. Suck your chest in and move forward. The spell runs out in less than thirty minutes. Once we get into the warehouse we’ll still have to find your killer. I’ve seen that place pack up to three hundred people. We’ll need the spell or it will be impossible.” He walked on.

I stayed there. “Puppet?”

“Don’t make me have to command you to come forward. It’ll only further ruin our great father-son relationship.”

I limped on. “Why didn’t you tell me that earlier?”

“You didn’t have your skin.”

“It wouldn’t have mattered if I had my skin or not!”

“Don’t raise your voice.”

I breathed in and out to calm myself. “It wouldn’t have mattered.”

“What wouldn’t have mattered?”

“Having my own skin.”

“Huh?” He squinted his eyes. “What are we talking about?”

“You just told me I was the goddamn family puppet,” I said through clenched teeth.

“Oh, I did.” He shook his head. “I wanted to wait until you had your skin.”

“This wouldn’t have mattered.”

“It would. Having your own skin makes everything better.”

“I’m a Shapeshifter not a Demon. I—”

“You’re an Umbutu now, boy. Skin will make you feel better. It centers you. It’s your home now, which means that wherever you go, your home remains with you.”

“I don’t care about any of that stuff. I don’t like not having control of my own body. Are you the only one that can move me around like a puppet?”

He raised his eyebrows. “What?”

“Can La La control me too?”

“Of course she can, but she didn’t need you to be an Umbutu for that.” He winked at me and a loud barking sound left my lips.

Dear Shango. I bark. Kill me now. I’m a Were-cheetah that barks like a stupid dog.

We did the rest of the walk in silence. I had nothing else to say after that news. If cheetah talked, he would repeat,
we live.
So I repeated that statement in my head over and over until the words mingled together in incomprehensible sentences and all I could focus on was those strings of thoughts instead of all the pain, anger, and fear rising in my chest.

We live. We live.

We approached the huge warehouse.

The whole building rose high in the air. I could see how it was five levels. Green paint covered it, except the right side of the front where it appeared to be a fire. Living with La La long enough helped me differentiate the difference between fire damage and all others. The light flowing from my chest wavered a little, but still continued right through the front door of the warehouse. Somewhere in there my killer sat with skin that would be mine and a body that I would stomp over and over until he confessed who paid him to kill me. I expected that this all involved the mess that Zulu had gotten La La in. It all had to deal with those bombings and war they initiated.

Five men stood in front of the door. Although they held different complexions, all of them had bald heads as well as wore black jeans and dark shirts. I scanned their faces with my eyes. Silver X’s were embedded in all of their foreheads. I took Graham’s advice and took in their scents to try and decipher what species they were. Sweet fragrances drifted into my nose. All of them possessed an undertone of some aromatic herb—lavender, sage, rosemary, and mint.

Every one of them is a Fairy, not Mixbreeds at all.

The tallest of them stepped forward. “Graham, I thought we told you that you weren’t welcome back here.”

Graham rubbed his eyes. “I don’t remember that and my memory is pretty good. It rivals the best of them.”

“Man, your
kick out
is down in history as one of the biggest things that ever happened here.” The guy dug his hands into his jeans pockets. “I heard it took twenty Were-wolves to get you through the door.”

Graham waved the comment away. “None of that jogs my memory. Did those mangy dogs manage to keep me out?”

The head guy glanced over his shoulder at a dark-skinned guy with a gold hoop in his ear. “Tell Graham what happened? You were there.”

“I was just a kid then, but they had to give you a hit of hemo drop first to even get you calm enough to drag you through the door. The stuff must have been weak because once the outside air hit you, your eyes went all orange and fire rode up the outside walls. You see that over there.” He pointed to the right half of the building where it was solid black and I’d figured there was fire damage there.

Graham snorted. “When did this happen? Are you sure it wasn’t anybody wearing glamour that looked like me?”

“Oh, it was you.” The dark skinned guy with a hoop said. “I think this was last week.”

I leaned my head to the side. “I thought you said you were a kid then.”

“I was a kid last week.” He didn’t explain anymore, and I didn’t feel like asking. Anything dealing with Fairies ranked high on the unusual. Most Supes didn’t even call them Fairies and referred to them as Aliens behind their backs. I never told La La, but to me the alien part made sense. Fairies couldn’t prove the Fairy Realm even existed or point to how they arrived on Earth so many years ago in the pre-habitat years. Historians possessed witness accounts that said Fairies just came out of the sky one night, in a bright hue, and landed on Earth without using a ship, vessel, or anything else but their own bodies. I read a couple Witches that argued they saw Fairies step out of a spark of light that appeared out of thin air.

“Either way, we can’t let you in.” The leader shrugged. “XO said no more. You know no one goes against XO.”

“Let me talk to him,” Graham offered. “This is an emergency situation here. We have to get in. Me and XO go way back since the Demon Realm.”

“Why is it an emergency?” The guy asked.

“Money is bad. This is my son, MeShack by the way. I’ve talked about him before, right?”

A few of them nodded.

“And my daughter?”

They nodded again.

“Well she’s in trouble. I’ll need money to get it solved, fast money, which means I need you to let me in there to fight. My son and I.”

“No haps.” The leader gestured to all the four behind him. The four guys took off their shirts.
What are they doing?
The leader turned back to Graham. “We can’t let you in and I’m not getting XO to come out and deal with you because if XO comes out then I’ll have to deal with him later, and I like my skin.”

Graham smiled, and not the nice one, but the one that always delivered cold shivers up my body. “You do have nice skin, boy. It’ll hold a lot of power and do real good in my collection. What would you give me for it?”

The leader laughed. “Graham, you’re crazier than a seasoned Shifter on blue fi. I’m not giving you anything for my skin.”

The light moving out of my chest darkened a little. It didn’t dull, but it wasn’t as bright as before.

“Please let us in. I promise to make sure Graham doesn’t do anything he isn’t supposed to,” I suggested.

“No. He’s always coming inside and breaking the rules. He kills his opponents when he’s not even in a death match. He steals hookers away from their customers. Doesn’t pay up for any of his drugs or bets, but when it’s time for him to collect his winnings he takes more than he should and bullies other winners for their cut. He’s not coming in.”

“Then I’ll go in by myself.”

“No, you won’t,” Graham growled. “We go in together.”

The leader back up and let his four guys get in front of him. “You have five seconds to walk away, Graham.”