Changeling Dawn (27 page)
Authors: Dani Harper
Her mother nodded. “You were very clever and very brave, honey. And you have to be very brave now, too. We’re not home, sweetheart, not really. We’re just visiting while you’re asleep.”
“I’m not asleep, I’m awake!”
“This is a dream, honey.”
Suddenly Anya remembered everything Kenzie had said to her, and her lower lip began to quiver. “They said you were dead, but you’re
not
noiv . I can see you! You can’t go away again—I don’t want you to!”
not
noiv . I can see you! You can’t go away again—I don’t want you to!”
“People who love you are never far away, baby.” She held Anya tight and rocked her again. “Let’s just cuddle for a while. You like Kenzie, don’t you?”
“Yeah.” Anya hiccupped as the tears spilled down her cheeks again. “But she’s not
you
.”
you
.”
“No. But she loves you.”
“But I love
you
. I missed you!” Anya sat up and knotted her hands in her mother’s sweater. “I don’t want Kenzie, I want you!”
you
. I missed you!” Anya sat up and knotted her hands in her mother’s sweater. “I don’t want Kenzie, I want you!”
Her mother smoothed Anya’s hair away from her face, which was sticky with tears. “I love you too, honey, with all my heart. And I would stay right here with you if I could, but I can’t. That’s why I need you to be with Kenzie.” She cupped Anya’s face in her hands and touched her forehead to hers. “It’s okay for you to be sad or mad or upset about it. But there’ll be good things to look forward to. You’ll be part of a pack—remember we used to talk about how nice that would be? Kenzie’s pack has kids that are almost as old as you are. You could play together. I know you’ll have sad days but you’ll have happy times too. I promise you, honey, it’ll get better.”
“No, it won’t. It’ll never,
ever
be better if you go away,” declared Anya.
ever
be better if you go away,” declared Anya.
“Kenzie rescued you, did
n’t she? She must love you very much to go to that scary building to get you back.”
n’t she? She must love you very much to go to that scary building to get you back.”
“Yeah, but she got caught and I had to help. I opened the lock all by myself.”
“That’s my clever girl. Maybe Kenzie needs you around to help her?”
Anya thought that was probably true but she wasn’t going to say so. “You’re still gonna leave me, aren’t you?”
“Not forever. Sometimes we’ll visit when you’re dreaming, just like we are right now.”
“Really? You’ll come back?”
“Yes, I will. Not every day but
sometimes
. Just like this. And next time, you can read
me
a story, okay?”
sometimes
. Just like this. And next time, you can read
me
a story, okay?”
“ ’Kay. Can I pick?”
“You bet.” Her mother gathered her close. “Just rest now, baby.”
Anya laid her face on her mother’s shoulder and let herself be rocked for a long, long time.
Chapter Twenty-four
K
enzie helped Birkie to her feet and hugged her. “Thank you for whatever you did for Anya.”
enzie helped Birkie to her feet and hugged her. “Thank you for whatever you did for Anya.”
“You did the tough part, sugar. I got the easy job.”
Josh still sat with his back against the bunkhouse and his powerful arms curled protectively around the little girl. She was snoring ever so slightly and her tear-streaked face appeared peaceful at last. “I don’t know what she’s dreaming about but I can feel that it’s good,” said Josh. “Thanks. Anya’s a really great kid, you know.”
“She’s that and more.” Birkie surveyed Anya’s serene features with satisfaction and murmured softly, “She’s an amazing child. And she’ll be an amazing woman... .” Her voice trailed away and she seemed lost in thought for a long moment.
“Are you all right?” Kenzie studied her face in consternation, but Birkie shook herself and waved her off.
div“Never better, dear. I have some other things to attend to now. My goodness, this is the slowest escape I’ve ever seen.”
As she left, Kenzie smiled down at Josh as Anya slumbered on. “Birkie has a point, you know. We’re not exactly running for our lives.”
He snorted. “We’re just lucky we don’t have to, not yet at least. The IBC staff can’t call for help from this remote location thanks to whatever Devlin did, so we’ve been able to take our time so far. Still, we want to be gone by daybreak. After the fireworks of course.”
“Of course.” A rumble of thunder made her jump. Culley, Devlin, and Birkie were grouped together near the helicopter pad. A large white chopper gleamed in the waning moonlight like a newly stranded whale still wet from the ocean, but the trio wasn’t paying any attention to it. They were watching the main building, and as Kenzie turned to look too, she saw the stars over it disappearing one by one as if being switched off. A massive cloud, dark and ominous, appeared to boil up from behind the building, eerily rising higher and higher until the building was dwarfed. The moon illuminated the roiling cloud as it gathered strength, and the top of it flattened out into a looming anvil shape. Flickers of greenish light shone briefly here and there in the monstrous column. Kenzie rubbed her arms, aware of the buildup of static energy in the earth, the air. It was exactly what every Changeling drew on in order to shift their shape, but
this
—this was on a colossal scale.
this
—this was on a colossal scale.
Kenzie’s Changeling hearing picked up Birkie’s voice: “I think
now
would be a good time, don’t you?”
now
would be a good time, don’t you?”
“You bet,” said Culley. A sudden explosion had Kenzie throwing herself over Anya. The glass blew out of the building, and flames and smoke erupted from the windows. There was nervous laughter from the crowd behind her and she knew she hadn’t been the only one taken by surprise. Although they were all a safe distance away, it was unnerving just the same.
Unnerving
didn’t begin to cover what happened next. Kenzie knew her friend had a lot of powerful abilities, but had very seldom seen them demonstrated. Birkie took great pleasure in doing ordinary things. She went to work at Connor’s clinic every day and ably dealt with paperwork that would choke an elephant and customers that would frighten a Marine. She grew and nurtured her plants from seed, shopped and cooked like everyone else, watched movies, and ordered pizza for fun.
didn’t begin to cover what happened next. Kenzie knew her friend had a lot of powerful abilities, but had very seldom seen them demonstrated. Birkie took great pleasure in doing ordinary things. She went to work at Connor’s clinic every day and ably dealt with paperwork that would choke an elephant and customers that would frighten a Marine. She grew and nurtured her plants from seed, shopped and cooked like everyone else, watched movies, and ordered pizza for fun.
Yet the immense storm that had gathered directly over the IBC main building was there at Birkie Peterson’s bidding.
Kenzie flinched as the first lightning bolt struck the building, and thunder pealed almost simultaneously. She held her hands over her ears and felt the vibrations roll through the earth beneath her, through her. Lightning flashed again and again, and the thunder became continuous. She wasn’t afraid of storms—in fact she’d always found them to be exhilarating—but this monster was overwhelming. She turned her face away from the blinding spectacle to check Anya again, certain that the little girl would be terrified. To her surprise, the child slept on. Her head was still on Josh’s chest and he had a protective hand over her ear, but she appeared peaceful.
“She’s okay,” said Josh, shouting to be heard over the thunder. He held out his arm on the other side, and Kenzie didn’t think twice about diving under his shoulder. The deafening thunder drove away any further thought.
Eventually the lightning slowed, then ceased, and the cloud itself began to slowly disperse. Whether the storm had lasted a few minutes or a few hours, Kenzie couldn Ke th’t tell. All she knew was that her ears were ringing from the thunder and even her body felt jarred from its loud assault. Yet Anya slept on as if nothing had happened and Kenzie reached over to brush her hair away from her face. “How on earth did she manage to sleep through it?” she asked.
Josh shrugged. “I don’t know what Birkie did, but I’m glad she did it. A storm that size would have been terrifying for a little kid.”
“It was almost too much for
me
.”
me
.”
The storm had definitely been too much for the building. Kenzie realized with a start that part of the vibrations she’d felt hadn’t been thunder at all but the collapsing of the walls and roof. Nothing was left standing but heaps of fine rubble, punctuated by strange blazes of blue-white flame crowned with daffodil yellow. The effect would’ve almost been pretty if it hadn’t been so alien. “I thought fire was supposed to be orange.”
“Depends on the temperature. Concrete doesn’t burn but it’ll crack if you get it hot enough.”
“It’s not cracked; it looks like the stuff you dump out of the bottom of a toaster.”
“And if the heat was intense enough to do that, everything else is ash.”
Kenzie closed her eyes for a moment. Josh and Nikki had taken Anya outside with the others, while the Macleods had lingered in the building to perform one last task. Five Changeling bodies were carefully laid out in one of the larger rooms. Culley and Devlin had surprised Kenzie by singing over them, and even James had joined in. Birkie had scattered fireweed flowers and birch leaves over each of them and said what sounded like a blessing. Kenzie hoped they were at peace now, especially Anya’s mother.
As for Nate and Gessler, their bodies had been placed in a room as far from the others as possible. It wasn’t right for their ashes to touch those of the Changelings who had died from their actions. Birkie hadn’t visited that room, and no one sang for them. It was sad, thought Kenzie, but it was just.
Culley approached, with two laptops tucked under one arm. “I’m taking these with us.” He patted the black one. “In this one, I’ve got a good overview of what the scientists here have been working on. This one”—he tapped the silver one—“is my ticket to linking up to IBC’s satellite. Between the two of them, we’ve got a helluva lot of email addresses, so we know who’s been getting all this information. We may need to know that in the future. And of course, I’ll be sending them all a little
present
which I hope will wipe out whatever data about Changelings they’ve got stored on their own computers.”
present
which I hope will wipe out whatever data about Changelings they’ve got stored on their own computers.”
“That’s damn good news,” said Josh and touched his brow in salute. “Wish you could do the same with the staff’s memories of us.”
“Some of us don’t have to worry about that.” Culley pulled a little leather pouch from beneath his shirt. “Thanks to Birkie’s mojo.”
Josh looked at Kenzie, obviously hoping for a translation.
“Don’t ask me how it works,” she said. “I only know that if you’re wearing one of these little bags, strangers can’t remember your face. Our pack has used them before.”
He looked at the smoldering rubble that had once been a very large building, then put his hand over the pouch that hung around his neck. “Birkie and my Gramma Kishegwet would have a lot to talk about,” he said quietly.
Guillermo and Shaggy Sam walked by, supporting Beau between them. Rico hadn’t yet Changed, and trailed the group on fthe
“I guess it’s time to move out.” Kenzie leaned over to pick up the sleeping Anya, but Culley was quicker. He scooped the child up over his shoulder, winked, and walked away with her.
Josh put out a hand and let Kenzie help him to his feet. “It’s been a great party but we want to be gone before the sun comes up and somebody reports a forest fire from all the smoke. And IBC might send someone from the outside once they figure out that communication’s been disrupted.”
“It’s going to be awfully crowded in the trucks,” said Kenzie. “Too bad we couldn’t have kept the Humvee for a while longer.”
“Stanton’s going to take my truck back, and your brothers are taking their own of course. Can’t leave the vehicles here after going to all the trouble of eliminating evidence. There’ll be two IBC trucks and the ATVs for the staff to make their way elsewhere—they’ll be free to go as soon as we leave.
“But there’s a perfectly good chopper right over there just begging to be borrowed. In fact, I have a flight leaving right now for Telegraph Creek.”
“You’re leaving?”
“Just for a short while. I want to visit my gramma and my sister, all the rest of my relatives. You should come; you’d like them. And besides, wouldn’t you rather fly than bounce over that damn goat path again?”
She sighed. “Sounds a
lot
more comfortable but I really have to get back to my camp, get back to work.”
lot
more comfortable but I really have to get back to my camp, get back to work.”
“It’s not safe anymore, Kenzie. Why don’t you have your brothers collect your stuff and take your truck back to the rental place. Your camp’s too damn close to this compound and it’s the first place IBC will look for you.”
“Look for
me
? But ...” Her voice died away as realization hit her hard. “IBC is never going to stop, are they? Not if Nate told them who I am.”
me
? But ...” Her voice died away as realization hit her hard. “IBC is never going to stop, are they? Not if Nate told them who I am.”
“We can hope that he might not have had time or didn’t want to. But for a while at least, you’ll have to behave as though IBC knows your identity. They’ll probably resist trying to kidnap you again since you’re practically famous, but you’re a known shapeshifter—they’ll want to ask you questions, maybe even win your cooperation somehow.”
A known shapeshifter.
The other prisoners had said that Nate was IBC’s only means of knowing who was a Changeling and who wasn’t. That role was vacant now—what if IBC wanted
her
to fill it? The thought filled her with revulsion.
The other prisoners had said that Nate was IBC’s only means of knowing who was a Changeling and who wasn’t. That role was vacant now—what if IBC wanted
her
to fill it? The thought filled her with revulsion.
And then there was her family ... “Omigod, they’ll assume everybody I know is a Changeling too.”
“They’ll suspect it, yes. The other prisoners are in a better position, even Anya. They were taken while they were wolves, and none of them shifted during their incarceration until you did. So IBC has no names, and photos of their human faces are in the ashes of the security cameras. All the company has to go on are the different locations where each one was captured.”
“I guess it’s a good thing after all that none of them belonged to a pack.” No one else would be in danger from IBC because of them. Not like her own pack, back in Dunvegan.
“Actually, they
do
have a pack now. Stanton says the guys have decided to pull up stakes and leave the state, but they’re planning to stick together.”
do
have a pack now. Stanton says the guys have decided to pull up stakes and leave the state, but they’re planning to stick together.”
“That’ll be good for them. But where do seve whe deciden Changelings go to start over?”
He grinned then. “To the ancestral friends of the wolf, of course.”
“You look like you swallowed a canary,” she laughed. “That’s the real reason you’re going to Telegraph Creek, isn’t it? You’re taking them to your people.” She turned and sure enough, there were several Changelings boarding the helicopter.
“Why don’t you and Anya come along for the ride? There’s lots of room.”
Anya.
Even if it was perfectly safe to go back to camp, Anya had no one but Kenzie now. She had to start thinking in terms of what the little girl needed. Did the child have family? Relatives? Godparents? Kenzie had a lot of searching to do. And maybe Josh needed some time to himself too. She was still afraid of influencing his decision; even if there hadn’t been a cardinal rule about it, she wanted him to choose for himself to be a Changeling. Kenzie sighed and put a hand to her head. Obviously it was way past time for her to regroup.
Even if it was perfectly safe to go back to camp, Anya had no one but Kenzie now. She had to start thinking in terms of what the little girl needed. Did the child have family? Relatives? Godparents? Kenzie had a lot of searching to do. And maybe Josh needed some time to himself too. She was still afraid of influencing his decision; even if there hadn’t been a cardinal rule about it, she wanted him to choose for himself to be a Changeling. Kenzie sighed and put a hand to her head. Obviously it was way past time for her to regroup.
“I should have thought, I need to take Anya to Dunvegan,” she said. “She needs some stability and a safe place to grieve and heal. It’ll be a good place for me too. I can hang out there for a little while and just
think
. I have to figure
out what to do next if I can’t go back to the dig. Maybe I can get someone else to work it for me or something, and—”
think
. I have to figure
out what to do next if I can’t go back to the dig. Maybe I can get someone else to work it for me or something, and—”
Josh tipped her chin up with his fingertips and kissed her, warm and soft and slow. She shivered as his strong arms slid around her, as his lips traveled along her jawline and nuzzled her ear. “Take your time,” he whispered. “But make sure I’m at the top of the list of things you’re thinking about, because when I’m done delivering these shapeshifters and getting them settled in, I’ll be on my way to
you
.”
you
.”
His strong fingers made little circles at the back of her neck and she ached for them to touch her everywhere. Her inner wolf definitely didn’t want him to leave, and despite Josh’s reassurance that he was coming back, her heart hurt and she felt like howling aloud. She rested her head on his shoulder and just breathed in his unique scent, allowing it to comfort her.
Once Josh accepted the Change ...
He had to. Because once he was like her, then everything would be all right.
Once Josh accepted the Change ...
He had to. Because once he was like her, then everything would be all right.
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