Master and Apprentice (36 page)

“He’s not,” I whispered. Jesus, what a mess. My eyes burned looking at him. What if I couldn’t heal him this time? Would he just stay like that, bloody and broken and gray, forever? “Tell them to stop,” I said, indicating the two scions working ineffective spells over him.

Lynus nodded. “Payton, Jimmy. Leave off awhile. Clear out of the way.”

They pulled back and strayed over to Kit, who sat cross-legged and glassy eyed on the ground a few feet away. He stirred when they sat next to him, and looked over at me. “Did you kill her? Val, I mean,” he said in scratchy tones.

“No. She’s alive, but powerless. I sealed her away inside the mountain.”

“For how long?”

“Forever.” Or until someone broke her out again. I wouldn’t voice that possibility, though. They were freaked out enough as it was.

The younger of the other two, who looked right around Kit’s age, broke out a grin. “That was some shit,” he said. “Yankin’ her down in the ground like that. Hey, you gonna do that to Father too?”

“Shut up, Jimmy.” The other one, Payton, looked exhausted. “The old man’ll probably hear you flappin’ all the way out here.”

Jimmy’s smile vanished.

“Some of the elders left,” Lynus said. “They’ll report back to Father, tell him where y’all are.”

I did a quick mental rewind. They’d left just after I attacked Vaelyn and failed the first time. Hopefully, they didn’t know I’d taken her down. If we were lucky, Nurien would assume she could take care of herself.

Of course, neither Ian nor I had much in the luck department now. We were surrounded by Morai we didn’t intend to kill.

I knelt next to Ian. The whole contact thing was pointless, but I tried anyway, pressing both palms against the least damaged spots I could find. I expected nothing and got it.

A choked curse in djinn erupted behind me. I glanced back to find Tory standing there pale faced and furious. A huge knotted bruise stood out on his forehead, and blood matted his hair on one side. “What the hell happened?” he demanded.

“Ian saved my ass.” I turned away so he wouldn’t see me
laughing. “What happened to you?” I asked, knowing damned well who’d knocked him down a few pegs.

There was a pause. “Your crazy friend hit me with a frying pan,” he finally said.

Well, nobody could say Mercy wasn’t resourceful.

Tory came around and squatted at Ian’s opposite side. “How long’s he been gone?”

“Not sure. Awhile.”

“Damn.” He reached out with a trembling hand and brushed some of the hair away from Ian’s face. “Can you heal him?”

“Don’t know yet.” I’d have to hope I could get to the earth magic again. I gave a tentative prod, and felt relief along with the familiar warmth. But when I directed it toward Ian and looked for his points, I found nothing.

I tried again, longer this time. Everything inside him was dark.

“He’s so far gone. I can’t …” I let out a sigh. Cyrus wasn’t here, and the thing we’d done before wouldn’t work with anyone else. I could think of only one other possibility. “Maybe if we give him some blood,” I said.

“That won’t be necessary.”

I looked back. Calvin was crossing the yard, with a protective arm draped around Mercy. “I can heal him, if you’ll help me,” he said.

“Heal?” Mercy snorted. “Shit, Calvin, you’re full of crazy today. First I find out you ain’t blind, then y’all are magic, and now you’re sayin’ you c’n heal dead people.” Her tone stayed light enough, but she’d gone pale and kept her gaze averted from Ian’s body, like she’d go insane if she looked for too long.

I noticed Brother Calvin didn’t take offense at her language.

“He’s not dead. He’s djinn.” He rubbed her arm gently and disentangled from her. “So, apprentice. Will you help me?”

“Hey, I’m willing to try anything.” I stood and moved a few steps back. “But I don’t know how much help I’m gonna be. I don’t think I can hold anything for long.”

“That’s all right. I’ll provide the power.”

I frowned at him. “How’d you get this much mojo all of a sudden?”

“Vaelyn.” A fresh jolt of fury infused his features. “She performed the
rohii’et
on me years ago. Unlike your bond, ours was unequal. It strengthened her and crippled me.”

“So that’s why you didn’t heal yourself after the fire, then,” I said.

“Yes. I was weakened until you sealed her. Which was, by the way, brilliant on your part. Now it seems I possess her power along with mine, since she’s unable to use it.”

“Thanks.” I barely registered that he’d called me brilliant—a quality no one had ever accused me of having. “All right. How are we going to heal Ian?”

“I’ll focus the spell through you.” He smiled. “You won’t even have to drink any blood, since you’re his scion.”

“Gee, thanks. So I should …”

“Lay your hands on him.”

“Right.” I went back down and tried to find a few spots on him that weren’t covered with blood. There weren’t any, so I settled for places without bullet holes.

Calvin gripped my shoulders. I beat back the urge to start confessing my sins.

“Ready?” he said.

I nodded, closed my eyes. “Okay, Ian,” I muttered. “Come back, or I’ll kick your ass.”

Calvin’s power was red. Like fire and blood, like the snake he could become. I let it fill me and shut out everything except Ian.

The blackness inside him was frigid. A wasteland. Nothing beat or twitched or flowed. Mercy was right—I was trying to resurrect a corpse.

A tiny flicker caught my eye. Black on black. The faintest glow, like the afterimage of a black light in deep space. I seized it and hammered magic through it. Every last scrap I could summon. Slowly, the flicker solidified and shimmered through a washed-out rainbow of colors, black to dark gray, flat silver, ghost, white. Pale yellow. Orange. Crimson.

Blood red. And I was burning.

Something slammed me so hard, I rocked back and fell on my ass. It felt like I’d run full tilt into an electric fence. I gasped out a breath, exhausted at a cellular level, and cracked my eyes open.

Ian glowed. The familiar brightness of his transformation flickered along the lines of his body and grew steadily stronger, until he looked made of light.

“Thank the gods,” Tory said. “You all right, Donatti?”

“Fantastic. Let’s run a marathon.” I scooted closer. Through the light, fur bristled. Bones shifted and raised thick ridges. Usually the change happened too fast for me to see. I hoped this didn’t mean he’d stall out in midshift and get stuck as half a wolf.

Eventually the glow fizzled out. A few streams and sparks of light ran down the wolf like water beading on glass. He slept, tongue hanging crookedly from his parted mouth, sides jerking with erratic breath. But he wasn’t full of holes anymore.

“He’ll come around,” Tory said. “Just needs to sleep for a while.”

“He’s not the only one.” My eyes watered with the effort to keep them open. I made a bleary search for Calvin, and found him just behind me. He seemed tired, but not spent.

Mercy, on the other hand, looked like she’d just seen Elvis.

“So I’m dreamin’, or my weed’s got more kick than I thought.” She blinked and shivered. “How many more of y’all are werewolves?”

“Just him.” I focused on Calvin until the two of him merged together. “We all need a few hours. How strong are those wards you put on Mercy’s house?”

Calvin blinked openmouthed, then laughed. “I suppose they’ll have to do.”

I tried to smile back, but the situation failed to amuse me. Vaelyn had been hard enough to deal with. Now we had to face Nurien, who had Morai and Bahari magic, a big bunch of scions powering him up, and Akila to use as a shield.

Lucky us.

E
leven of us, from human to djinn and everything in between, hung around in the bloodied yard. Six Morai scions, three djinn, Mercy, and me. Lynus was the obvious leader among the scions. Calvin, the oldest and most powerful djinn. And we were on Mercy’s property.

But for some reason, they all looked to me to decide what we should be doing.

We had to bury the bodies and get everyone inside, including Ian, who couldn’t get there on his own. I managed to prod Mercy for shovels and a blanket to carry Ian with. Somebody—might’ve been Lynus—brought up the possibility that Nurien might send an unfriendly search party out.

I responded to the effect that my give-a-shit was broken. We’d take our chances.

Eventually, everyone straggled into the house. I limped in clutching the rest of my clothes, which I hadn’t bothered to put back on. Someone had gotten a fire going in the fireplace, and they’d arranged Ian on a blanket on the hearth. Tory was helping Mercy with pillow-and-blanket detail, bringing
armfuls of bedding out from the back rooms and distributing them.

Deciding they could handle things without me, I picked an empty spot and stretched out on the floor. Didn’t bother waiting for a pillow.

Sleep swallowed me whole.

Sometime later, I woke with a start, sure I’d heard something. Breathing, soft snoring, and the low crackle of a banked fire filled the room. I lifted my head a bit and scanned the area. The door and windows were still closed, and a red dawn crept through the screens to stain the glass. Sleeping bodies scattered the floor and draped the furniture. Nothing ominous seemed to be lurking anywhere.

The sound came again—a low, mournful whine. Ian, still in wolf form, twitched and shivered on the hearth.

I hauled myself up, shrugged stiffly into my jacket, and headed over to him. Couldn’t tell if he was in pain or dreaming. Maybe both. “Ian,” I whispered. “You in there?”

His eyes opened, and he whined again. At least he didn’t try to bite me.

I knelt and laid a hand on him. A shudder rippled under my palm, and light seeped from the contact point to infuse him with the changing glow—faster than the last time, but still not quite up to speed.

“Thief,” Ian slurred when he was himself again. “Please tell me you have defeated Vaelyn.”

“She’s gone,” I said.

His body sagged. “Gone does not precisely mean defeated.”

“So you’re an English professor now?” I grinned. If he could make smart-ass remarks, he was definitely feeling better. “She’s defeated. Sealed back in her tether.”

“How?”

“Long story.” I glanced around again. No one else was awake, and I wanted them to sleep as long as possible. “Feel like stepping outside with me?”

He groaned. “I feel like excrement. But if we must …” He pushed up and took in the room. “Ah. The young ones have stayed.”

“Yeah. Their survival instincts are busted.” I waited for him to stand and led the way to the door, then outside onto the porch.

Ian shut the door gently, frowned at me. “You look terrible.”

“I don’t doubt that.” I searched my pockets and found a crumpled pack of cigarettes. When I pried the flip top open, tobacco and torn bits of filter paper dribbled out. Crud. I found one that still looked smokable, straightened it out, and lit up. “Don’t give me any shit,” I said. “It’s this, or I’m gonna start smoking Mercy’s weed.”

Ian declined to comment.

We sat on the steps and I told him what had happened, telegram style. Calvin distracts Vaelyn. Stop. Lynus unloads a clip into me. Stop. I don’t die.

Full stop. Ian gaped at me. “You are no longer mortal?”

“Apparently not.” I took a deep drag and let it out slowly. “Whatever you did to me, I’m completely attached to your tether now.”

He stared across the yard. “I did not expect that.”

“Well, it was definitely one of the more welcome surprises today. Dying wasn’t on my to-do list.”

I explained the rest—how I’d found Vaelyn’s tether, Lynus plugging her, the way the ground had swallowed her. When I got to the part about Calvin healing him because I had nothing left, his features contorted. “I would not have blamed Khalyn if
he had left me injured,” he said. “I have not treated him well.”

“I think he understands why,” I said. “And I wouldn’t worry about him right now. I’d worry about Nurien.”

“As would I.”

I drew a fast breath at the voice behind us and damn near choked on smoke. “Shit, Calvin,” I sputtered. “I thought monks had better manners than to sneak up on people like that.”

“I’ve been considering retirement.” He leaned against the porch rail and sighed. “Nurien won’t be easy to defeat,” he said. “I can’t imagine how we’ll be able to contain him, or even enter the compound in the first place.”

I took a last hit and pitched the cigarette. “Any ideas about his tether?”

“None whatsoever.”

“There’s a shocker.” I looked at Ian. “You think Tory could find it?”

“Perhaps,” he said. “It would depend on whether he has wards in place, and how strong they are.”

“Nurien is well protected.” Calvin grimaced. “I believe Mercy would say he’s dug in like an Alabama tick. Whatever that means.”

This called for another smoke. I fished out a rumpled one and pinched off the torn end. “It means he’s probably smart and paranoid as hell, and he’s had years to make the compound a fortress. Kit said there’s a huge subsystem of tunnels under that place, so God knows what he’s got down there. Sorry, Calvin.” I lit up and snorted at Ian’s surgeon-general face. “Come on, man. If a half dozen bullets aren’t gonna kill me, neither are these.”

“They smell terrible.”

“Stop breathing, then.” I almost blew smoke at him, but decided to be nice. “Anyway. There’s at least one permanent
snare, on the building with the big mirror. That’s probably not the only one.”

Silence dropped like lead. I smoked, Ian stared, Calvin frowned.

“Maybe we could …” I stopped before the word
fly
left my mouth, and a different idea presented itself. One with a higher stupid factor, but if it worked, we’d be in a better position to survive. “Either of you guys ever seen
Star Wars
?”

“No,” they both responded in stereo.

“Man, are you ever culturally deprived,” I said. “Okay. I think I know how we can get in the place.”

“How?” Calvin said. Ian just raised an eyebrow.

I summoned a grin. “As prisoners.”

Tory didn’t particularly like the plan. Especially since he had the dangerous part.