Firebug (22 page)

10

H
EART
B
URN

“
WE'VE BEEN TRAVELING
for hours,” I said, my throat tightening. I didn't realize that the ladle had turned a molten red until Lock took it with an oven mitt. “He only had to cross town. Where is he?”

“He's not here yet,” Duncan said. “I offered him an escort, but he said it was unnecessary. I was about to send out a scouting party when you showed up.”

I had to take several deep breaths. Now was the time to concentrate, control, and calm down. I looked around Duncan's cabin, which was big and open beamed, made of a honey-colored wood. Upstairs was a loft where he slept. At least, that's where he used to sleep. I hadn't been out to the cabin in a while. The kitchen held a large, beat-up kitchen table—the one we were parked at. There was no real divide between the kitchen and the living room, which held a big fireplace built out of river stones. There was a hallway off the living area where I could see a few doors—probably a bathroom and a guest room or two. All the furniture was worn and the rugs were frayed, but it looked more lived in and homey than run down, and it was all I could do not to turn every last stitch and whorl into ash.

I felt sick. Lock took my empty bowl and returned it full of chili, putting one in front of Ezra as well before he sat down with his. It smelled delicious, but I had no desire to eat it. “Duncan, you know why she offered me your contract, right?”

“I surely do,” he said, leaning back in his chair, resting his folded hands on his gut.

“Because I can get close to you, like I am now. You knew that, but you let me up here anyway. I have an enraged Venus claiming you're building an army, and when I get here, I find one. You've offered us sanctuary, but Cade isn't here. All this smacks of a trap.” It's possible that I was feeling a little sensitive after Ryan's betrayal, but I couldn't ignore the coincidences.

In the span of a breath, the guards in the room changed. Just a subtle shift of their bodies—a tightening of muscle, a knife in Sid's hand where there'd been none.

“Down, boy,” Lock said, holding up his hands. “No need to be jumpy.”

Ezra snickered but just shook his head when I stared at him. Well, at least someone was having fun.

In a flash the knife was at Lock's throat. “That supposed to be funny?”

Lock looked at him in bemusement, but I could see the sweat beading on his brow. “No. Did it come out funny?”

Les gave the table an odd thump with his fist. “Take a breather, Sid. He meant no offense.” Sid gave a little bob, the knife disappeared, and just as quickly he slipped outside.

“What did I say?” Lock asked. “I'd rather not say it again, whatever it was.”

“Some of the young bucks are more sensitive than others. That might lead them to … overcompensate on occasion.”

Ikka snorted. “On occasion?”

“Bucks?” I asked, putting my hands to my head and making little antlers.

Lock slid down in his chair, smacking his forehead at the same time. He has a tendency toward the melodramatic. “Stupid, stupid, stupid. Their jackets!”

I looked at Les's leather vest. I certainly didn't notice anything spectacular about it. “They're … cows?” I ventured.

Now it was Lock's turn to put his hands up by his head, only instead of antlers, he made little rabbit ears.

Ezra made little whiskers with his fingers. Then he laughed so hard, tears shone in his eyes.

I stared at Les and Ikka, my mouth all but hanging open. “You guys are
bunnies
? But … you look so badass.”

“Hares,” they both corrected automatically.

“Oh, man,” Lock said, sliding even deeper into his chair. “That's even worse. Were-hares. It
rhymes
. I thought were-bears had it rough, but no one's going to laugh at someone who turns into a grizzly.” He shook his head. “You're wrong—a knife isn't overcompensating. If I was Sid, I'd carry a damn machete everywhere I went.”

“Please,” I said, pushing my bowl away. “You're part tree. So let's not start throwing stones.” I'd never heard of were-bunnies before. In fact … “Wait, aren't all weres predators? I mean, you always hear of werewolves and stuff, but I've never—”

“Nonsense,” Sid said, gliding back in the door. “That's part of the therianthropic conspiracy, isn't it? Putting wolves and bears at the top, like we're nothing. Let me ask you, lady—you ever catch a wild hare with your hands?” He didn't wait for me to shake my head. “You can't. They're too fast. Even if you managed it, they'd scratch and bite. Powerful hind legs, that's what they've got. A five-pound hare can do a lot of damage.”

“Oh, leave it, Sid,” Ikka said, tying off her thread.

“No,” Sid said emphatically. “Look, you think we don't get shit from other weres? Of course we do. They think because we turn into hares that we're going to be gentle and cute.” He jabbed the air with his index finger. “There's a difference between domesticated rabbits and
hares
.”

“Not to mention that we're half-human,” Les said softly. “Everyone always forgets that. Is there a more bloodthirsty predator than humans?” His fingers traced the fine lines on his neck. How did a were get scars, anyway?

“We aren't an army. We needed a place to winter, and Duncan offered us one. As a trade-off, we're acting as extra security.” He looked at the three of us. “Which he clearly needs. Security, Ava. Nothing else. We didn't take Cade.”

Duncan lit his pipe. “That's enough, I think, children.” He gave the pipe a puff as he studied me. “I know you're not here to kill me, Ava, because I know
you
. That's why I offered you sanctuary.”

I looked at my hands in my lap. “What if the Coterie had convinced me?”

“That would take some leverage,” he said. “It would take Cade. Last I checked, they didn't have him. But you're right, he should be here by now.”

Les pulled a phone out of his pocket and handed it to me. My throat tight, I dialed the numbers, only to get voice mail. My stomach fluttered at the sound of Cade's voice telling me to leave a message. What if something had happened to him and this message was the last time I'd hear his voice? I quietly handed the phone back to Les.

“Someone will run you into town,” Duncan said. “Just in case.”

“That could put them in danger,” I said, but I was already putting my jacket back on.

Duncan puffed his pipe. “You're not going to stay. If it was just you and Lock and Ezra, I'd be concerned about your safety, but with backup you should be fine. We need more information; it's as simple as that. Cade isn't answering, so we need to go there and see what's keeping him from the phone and from here.”

“Shotgun,” Sid said, peeling himself away from the wall.

“What, you're not going to try to drive?” Ikka asked, putting her sewing away.

“You always win on that, so I thought I'd save us both some time and just go for shotgun.”

“Aw,” Ikka said, tousling her brother's hair. “You're learning.”

He batted her hand away. “Let's not leap to conclusions, now.” Ezra got up, and Sid shoved him back down. “Not you. You stay.”

Ez didn't argue. A sly grin split his face, and he put his elbows on the table, his hands cupping his face. Horatio gets that look sometimes when he's mousing. I was about to argue, but Lock put a hand on my elbow.

“We brought a fox into the rabbit warren,” he said. “They want him where they can keep an eye on him. Honestly, I can't say I blame them.”

“You'd think they'd want him out.”

“We've learned,” Ikka said, eyeing Ezra, “that it's better to keep trouble in sight. Especially when that trouble is a fox.”

Five minutes later, we were bouncing along in Duncan's Jeep. We went to the bookstore first because it was on the way and Cade spent most of his time there. Well, we went to where the bookstore used to be, at any rate.

I stared at the charred ruin. There wasn't much left. It looked like the fire department had at least been able to get to it before the flames spread to the other buildings.

Even though I had no proof that Owen and, ultimately, Venus, were to thank for this mess, it had Coterie written all over it. I'd like to say that I stood there stoically, taking it all in and making a vow of revenge. Everyone wants to believe that they're strong, that they'll take things like this in stride. The truth is, I totally broke down. The bookstore was my true heart. My safe place. And it was ruined.

One minute I was looking at the building, the next I was a sobbing wreck being held up only by Sid's lucky catch. At first I thought he was Lock. Both smelled like leather, both were strong, though Lock has wider shoulders. And I guess I was really only used to being hugged by three people—Lock, Ezra, and Cade. Sid made soft shushing sounds and stroked my hair.

That's actually what snapped me back into reality. Lock never did that. I heard Sid say, “Not that I mind, but could you take her for a minute?” And then I was transferred into Lock's arms while Sid dropped to the ground and rolled.

“Sorry,” I mumbled into Lock's chest. I mentally reached out to Sid and extinguished the sparks.

“It's okay,” Sid replied, getting up and patting his jacket. “What's a little smolder between acquaintances?”

“I don't—” My voice broke and I had to start over. “Usually I have better control.” I'd been out of it a lot lately. This was the third or fourth time in as many days that I'd lost my handle on my power. Sloppy.

“Where are we?” Ikka asked, casting her eyes around the wreckage.

“Cade's bookstore,” I said, leaning back from Lock. His features were bent in concern as he wiped my cheeks. From the look in his eyes, I knew he was as heartbroken as I was. “Kind of a second home.”

“There's no ‘kind of' about it,” Lock said, his voice firm. He pushed a strand of hair behind my ear and hugged me tighter.

Ikka touched my shoulder—just a gentle feather of pressure, and then her hand was gone. “We shouldn't linger.”

I straightened up suddenly. “No, we can't go. Not yet. We need to find Horatio. And Sylvie. What if Sylvie was in there?”

“Cade was planning on heading up to Duncan's. Which means he got off the phone with us and closed up shop. The place was probably empty when this happened,” Lock said. “He wouldn't have left Horatio here if he wasn't sure when he was coming back. Call Sylvie.”

I jogged down to the corner gas station to see if there was a pay phone about. There was, but it had obviously been broken for a long time. I cursed and felt the overwhelming need to kick something. While I wanted to call to check in with Sylvie, I didn't want to use my disposable cell yet. After a short fuming fit in the booth, during which I may or may not have melted the receiver into a lump of plastic, I slumped back to the van. Sid tapped my shoulder and handed me his phone.

“This should be clean,” he said. “You took off before I could offer it to you.”

I dialed Sylvie's cell number from memory, getting a very excited—and squealy, but certainly relieved—“Ava!” for my efforts. She started babbling about how terrible the fire was.

“And I'm not just saying that because I don't like looking for a job and I'm worried I'll end up at some lobster place and stink like crustaceans forever—unless you think Lock would like that?—it's just I really
liked
the bookstore and it would be such a shame to lose it and I think that something like that would be a real loss to the community. I mean, the closest bookstore is two towns over and they don't even have used books and not everyone wants to search through the stacks at Goodwill, because they don't even organize. Plus, it has this smell? You know? I have to wash everything I get from there twice. They use this chemical—I wanted to analyze it but my science teacher said I'm not allowed to use the equipment unsupervised anymore.”

The car was moving and well away from the gas station before I could break in. Sylvie talked more when she was nervous, worried, or upset, and she had obviously worked herself into a proper tizzy.

“Sylvie!” I yelled into the phone.

“What? You don't need to shout. Geez, gimme palpitations, Ava.”

I rested my head against the dashboard, resisting the urge to crack open my skull on the hard plastic. “Syl, I just need to know if you've talked to the boss-man.”

“He's not with you? Weird. I guess I just assumed he would be. I haven't seen him since he dropped Horatio off.”

I straightened up suddenly. “You have Horatio?”

“Well, yeah. Cade brought him by, said he was going to be busy or something, and gave me some money for food and kitty-sitting since the shop was going to be closed for a few days. I guess it'll be longer now.” There was a brief pause—the barest of seconds—but for Sylvie it was the equivalent of a vow of silence. “Come to think of it, he didn't say when he was coming back, and he gave me kind of a lot for food.… Are you guys okay?” The last part was quiet and said in a very un-Sylvie-like tone.

“Yeah, I think so. Look, just … be careful. Don't tell anyone you talked to me, especially people you don't know. Cade and I will be back as soon as we can.”

“Okay.” Another pause. “I know something's going on. Some kind of trouble. You don't have to tell me what it is, but don't try to deny it. Just be safe and come back. I won't forgive you if you don't. I don't want to get a job at the pharmacy. I'd gain a million pounds being that close to the frappé counter. My dad says its not good for me to have all that sugar, anyway. And I don't want to work at the lobster place and get nicknamed something putrid like Crustacean Queen.”