Bloodfire (Blood Destiny) (21 page)

Tom stood there and looked at me
hopelessly.
 
The desire in him to
join them and be part of the Brethren, even if only just for the brief trip
back to the keep, was so overwhelmingly transparent that I waved at him in
irritability.
 
“Go.”

Gratitude flashed in his eyes and he was
gone, leaving just Alex and I alone in front of the dunes, with the terrametus
and a few fading blue smoky tendrils.

Chapter Twelve

Before too long the only sound left was
the gentle to and fro of the waves lapping on the beach behind us.
 
Alex pulled a small round object from
the pocket of his jeans and began to murmur something.
 
I watched in fascination.
 
The tiny sphere grew and lifted itself
into the air then moved to hover the corpse of the terrametus.
 
All of a sudden, light exploded from it,
showering the body and causing me to shield my eyes.
 
A heartbeat later all that was left was
a faint shadow outlined on the sand.

Alex reached out and the sphere flew back
to his hand, returned to its original size and landed in his opened palm.
 
He stuffed in back into his pocket and
looked at me.

“Now the beast dudes are gone, perhaps you
can tell me what a human is doing here.
 
And why you smell so – different.”

I was still momentarily mesmerised by his
display of power but I shook myself out of it and gazed at him assessingly,
wondering how far I could trust him.
 
He could reveal my true nature to the Brethren at any point.
 
But there was just something about him
that made me feel comfortable and I figured that if he’d been going to tell
away all my secrets, he’d have already done so already by now.
 
And he had managed to explain away why
I’d ignored Corrigan’s compulsion.
 
I
felt the sudden overwhelming desire to unburden myself.
 
I rarely brought the subject up with the
pack because it made them feel uncomfortable to be reminded of what I was.
 
Even Tom tried to change the subject
whenever I’d spoken about it.
 
Added
to which, I was starting to both like and admire the gangly mage.
 
In for a penny in for a pound, I supposed.

“I don’t know who my father was,” I said
softly.
 
“And my memories of my
mother are rather hazy.
 
I have
flashes – I know she was petite and dark haired, unlike me, with a kind
voice and a good heart.
 
I remember
little things, like driving through the snow and wishing I could make a
snowman.
 
She stopped the car in a
layby and we got out and did just that – built a tiny one by the side of
the road, even though we had no gloves and it had to have been below zero.
 
She made things fun.”

I paused, remembering.
 
Alex stayed silent.
 
“I know that we were always on the move
and we never stayed in one place for very long.
 
She discouraged me from making friends
and it was if we were always running from something.
 
At least I certainly never knew where we
running to, so I suppose that we were trying to escape from something.
 
Or someone.
 

And then one day we ended up here.
 
It seemed like she knew where she was
going and that she knew
who
the pack were.
 
But she must have been human because
that’s what I am so I don’t know how she knew of them.
 
She walked straight into the keep
without knocking and was stopped by John in the hall.
 
He asked her what was going on and all
she did was push me at him.
 
Then
she turned and walked out.
 
Before
she left the threshold of the keep, she turned and said, ‘No-one must ever
know.
 
You are all bound to keep her
secret.’
 
And she left.
 
She never came back.
 
I’d sit by the window of the library for
hours and days, and then weeks, watching for the car to come and for her to
jump back out and take me away with her, but she never did.

The words that she’d said must have had
power to them because
no-one
in the pack has ever been
able to talk of me to another.
 
They
tried – John later told me that he had called up the Brethren for help
with what to do with this human child they’d suddenly found themselves lumbered
with and found he couldn’t speak.
 
He’d said it was like having a weight clawing his tongue to the bottom
of his mouth, and that the pain inside his head when he even thought of
revealing to
an
 
outsider
who I was had been excruciating.
 
After trying to break the geas himself,
and failing repeatedly, he compelled the others to never attempt it themselves
either.
 

I laughed, sharply.
 
“They weren’t happy to have me.
 
John was always kind but sometimes back
in those early days he had a look in his eyes as if he’d like to just drown me
in the nearest well.
 
There were
others who were less kind.

But the longer I stayed, the more they got
used to me.
 
The
pack
here aren’t
particularly violent or even particularly active.
 
They keep the Way and follow the
Brethren’s orders from London but they’re not monsters.
 
Before they knew it, I was part of the
furniture.
 
I made friends.
 
Tom, the wolf who was just here, and
Betsy, a werelynx.
 
And others too.

John started to train me and I quickly
worked out that even though I couldn’t shift, I could be just as strong as they
could.
 
I helped hunt.
 
I helped keep them safe.”

I swallowed.
 
“And then when it was my eighteenth
birthday, John bit me.
 
I wanted it,
so badly.
 
I didn’t care what my
shift was to be, I just wanted to be like them.
 
And it was a pain that I’ve never
experienced before or since.
 
The
shifter virus ate through me for days.
 
It felt as if my whole body was crawling and turning itself inside out.
 
And after three days, I was still
me
.
 
Still
human.”

I kicked angrily at the sand.

“But you stayed,” Alex said, his eyes
projecting empathy.
 
At least it
wasn’t
pity, that
much I didn’t think I could deal
with.

“This is my home.
 
There are still one or two who wish I
was gone – or worse - but for the most part, the pack accept me.
 
And besides, where else would I go?”

Alex nodded, understandingly.
 
“So if the Brethren found out, they’d…”

“Kill me,” I answered flatly.
 
“Maybe kill the rest of the pack too, I
don’t know.
 
Even though it’s not
their fault.
 
The geas my mother
placed on them meant that they couldn’t tell anyone.
 
So either they murdered me and disposed
of my body, or just accepted me in.
 
And like I said, they’re not monsters.
 
Not this pack.”
 
My last sentence was heavy with meaning.

Alex frowned at me.
 
“Are you sure the Brethren would do
that?
 
I mean, I know they used to
hold with all that ‘death to anyone who discovers our secret’ shit,” he
sketched imaginary quotation marks in the air, “but I don’t think they’re still
like that.”

I snorted.
 
“John seemed pretty sure they’d react
violently.
 
So do all the others now.
 
And I’ve heard proof with my own ears of
what Lord fucking Corrigan himself thinks of humans.”

“Really?
 
Word on the street is that he’s a strong
alpha, maybe stronger than they’ve had for centuries, but that he’s not a bad
dude.”

“I don’t care what word says,” I
answered.
 
“I just need them to do
their thing and leave so I can carry on with my life.”

“And the alpha?
 
I mean, John, the Cornish alpha?”

“I will find that bitch who slaughtered
him and left him here to die and I’ll kill her,” I said matter-of-factly.

Alex looked at me quietly.
 
“Do you know, I just believe you might.
”

I faced him head on.
 
“So you understand the consequences if
you tell them who I really am?”

“Tell me why can’t they smell that you’re
human first. Shifters have noses like bloodhounds.”

“I wear a lotion that Julia, our new
alpha, created.
 
It mimics a shifter
smell.
 
I think the actual result is
a cross between a hamster and a rodent.
 
As long as I keep applying it, they won’t be here for long enough to
smell a rat.
 
So to speak.”
 

Alex moved a bit closer and sniffed,
experimentally, before stepping back and shaking his head.
 
I guessed that mages didn’t have
superior smell as one of their super powers then.
 
“I still don’t think they’d do the whole
killing you thing if they found out.”

I hardened my gaze.
 

He sighed.
 
“I won’t tell them.
 
I have nothing to gain from getting
involved in shifter politics.
 
‘Sides which, I wouldn’t want to be responsible for the bloodbath that
the Mack Attack would create.”
 
He
winked suddenly and punched me on the arm.

I smiled at him.
 
I really did feel better now that
someone else knew my secret.
 
It
also almost seemed oddly better that he was a virtual stranger.
 
And lightning hadn’t struck
me or him
down yet either.
 
I punched him back lightly and began to
search around in the darkness for my throwing daggers.
 
Alex helped me hunt for them in the
gloom.
 
One had landed next to the
ring of black
coals which
I pointed out to him.
 
He stared back down at the tree runes
from the top of the dune, frowning.

“So it was a woman who was conjured by the
scrying?”
 
he
asked.

I was puzzled that he didn’t know and it
must have shown on my face because he continued with, “I don’t see
who
I scry because I need to keep my eyes shut to maintain
my power.
 
Which admittedly doesn’t
make it a very useful tool for a solitary mage to use.”

I laughed slightly and described the blue
vision to him.
 
He nodded slowly as
if considering the matter.

“So tell me what else has happened.”

As much as I had decided I liked him, I
hadn’t exactly gotten the impression of someone who wanted to help beyond what
he was being paid for.
 
“Why do you
want to know?” I asked warily.

“’Cos I think I like you Mack.
 
And you need help.”
 
He looked in the direction of the keep
for a second, even though its distant outline was submerged in the trees.
 
“A lot of help.
 
I might be able to draw on my wizardly
skills to do something.
 
Not
physical something, you understand, but you never know what I might be able to
do to get this sorted out.”

I was tempted for a second to tell him
that I could manage this on my own and that it was my fight and no-one else’s,
but I realised that no doubt there were things that he might know or could help
me puzzle out.
 
I’d be a fool if I
didn’t take him up on his offer of help.
 

I sat down on top of the dune, but not too
close to the ring of stones.
 
Even
though I knew that they were just coals, they gave me the creeps.
 
He sat down beside me and stretched out
his legs.
 
I started at the
beginning, sketching out everything that had happened, including what I’d found
out at Perkins and the shadowy CCTV shape that Nick had shown me.

Alex pursed his lips.
 
“I don’t know that I can offer much
about who this woman might be.
 
Obviously the fact that she had to break into a local store to get coals
means that wherever she’s from, or wherever she came from to here at least
,
 
doesn’t
have those
sorts of materials ready to hand.
 
She must have some magic training though to be able to create a
triangulated grid.”