The One We Feed (37 page)

He was weak. He
had terrified so many, seemed so large, so inimitable and menacing; yet here he
was, broken, unable to crouch behind the visages of our pasts, haunting us with
their faces stretched like masks over his flat skull.

It disgusted
and delighted me all at once.

I knelt there
on one knee, panting with exhaustion, my right hand planted in the loose earth.
Fatigue momentarily gripped me, my raised leg buckled, and I collapsed against
the velvety surface of a rock.

My sword leans
against the sky.

The ground
shivered again, sending a shower of more small red and brown rocks over us,
accompanied by my kindred, racing down the cliff face as fast as possible. Their
feet slid and jumped. Several landed on all fours and skidded. Reesa found me
and with a single penetrating glance saw that I was uninjured.

Over her
shoulder, Mara began to move, deboned limbs drawn together by the creeping
vines of muscle, his body reassembled in ghastly stop motion. His lungs
inflated and expelled fluids of every kind in a spatter of crimson. Slowly, his
eyes became lucid, his head turned at a sharp, unnatural angle toward me.

I looked up at
the light casting us in shadows, haloing the great elephant’s head, sparkling
through the arch of its trunk.

With a smile,
I dropped my eyes to my body. My left hand lay open in my lap, the claws of the
Rakshasa slowly receding. My knees bent away from each other, the soles of my
feet nearly touching. My right hand was embedded in the soft clay dust.

“The earth,
itself,” I murmured, “will testify.”

Reesa stood
up, a lioness, threw back her head, and howled.

Chapter
30

The Floating
Door

“I wish I had time to go
through it all for you,” I said hoarsely to Reesa as she helped me stand.

“Know what I
need to know for now.”

She smiled at
me when I looked her way, but a glimmer in her eye told me something was not
right.

“You stole it,
didn’t you?” she said, as I reached up and touched my face. “His...power?” When
I did not immediately answer, she grinned. “You look just like her, you know. Except
that she would’ve been wearin’ a hat on such a special occasion.”

“True.” I took
her hand. “And matching gloves.”

Mara was
sitting with his back against a boulder. The Rakshasa prowled around him in a
circle like shadowy sentinels, though all the time, they looked less and less like
his monsters. As I approached, they slid aside, took up seats and perches on
the rocks around us.

His muddy eyes
were watching me fearfully, though in their depths there was a trace of
longing. I knelt in front of him. He flinched as I brushed his recently healed
face with a gentle hand.

“Who do you
see, I wonder,” I whispered.

He shook his
head and, even when I did not speak, continued to shake it.

“Enkidu,
perhaps?”

The blood
drained from his face. I met his shock with a smile and winked. I knew the moon
was reflected in my gaze.

“Well, sir,
now you are one of them and they are
all
immortal. Be careful what you
wish for.”

Reesa laughed behind
me sardonically. I caught her eye and smiled.

“Think you can
handle him? In this case, life is worse than death, I think.”

“Don’t worry,”
she said with a nod and a flash of her talons, “he ain’t any trouble now.”

The rumble of
my truck echoed up the rock face. On the gray flats below, Ananda parked. In
the bed was a group of disheveled prisoners, all happily eating the muffins and
bottled milk their new keeper had purchased at the local 7-Eleven like they
were ambrosia. He climbed toward us, and, as if they’d known him forever, the
Rakshasa approached him, touched him in welcome, and moved aside.

“Reesa,” he
said with one of his instantly affirming smiles.

“Hi.” I could
tell from her blush that the two of them would get along perfectly.

He dropped
beside me and examined Mara with a shake of his head. “You have changed,
Lilith.”

“Who do you
see?” I said with a poke to his arm. “Your cousin?”

To my
surprise, he tilted his head and looked at me instead of our unmasked quarry. “No.
I see you. Covered in slime.”

I couldn’t
help but laugh. “Sorry. I promise I’ll take a shower.”

He swept aside
my apology with a wave of his hand and turned back to Mara. “He is not so
fearsome now.” Reaching out, he planted his hand on the tiny man’s shoulder and
in a few seconds had stilled every misgiving the ancient king was feeling about
a new kind of existence.

“I’m not so
sure he ever was.” I shared a knowing glance with the Arhat but, for the
benefit of the others, stood up and shook my head. “He exploits our own
weaknesses. The only defense is to know them just as well.”

“Sound like
her, too,” Reesa said with a nod.

I kissed her
forehead. “But I’m not her. Just another student.”

“You should
come with us,” Ananda breathed in Mara’s ear. “You would like it, I think, not
having to be the one to discover what is next.”

Mara nodded
vaguely and closed his eyes as if in sleep. It was too much to take in, the
loss of an ancient identity in the same breath as the realization of several
eons of work.

The roar of
Jinx’s bike struck my eardrums like an angry tap-dancing titan. Soon he too was
bounding up the hill, taking rough terrain in little hops. I met him at the
edge of the landslide, where he came up short in a combination skid/gasp.

“Jesus fucking
H Christ!” he sputtered. “Ass-grabbing son of a motherless goat!” He walked
around me once, and, just for show, I blinked my new red eyes at him. He
finished with a whistle.

“Thank you.”

“You look like
a...like a fucking cat...thing.”

“In a bad way,
I’m assuming.”

“Um
...in an
awesome
way.” Then he fished in his pocket and held out a tiny mirror. “See for
yourself.”

I took it from
him and lifted it. Eva’s face smiled back at me, free from pain, free from
gore, perfect and happy.

Not for tellin’
your future, Gran, but maybe for seeing your past.

I dropped it
and shook my head sadly. “It’s just Eva.”

“Well, don’t
worry, you look
sick.”
He stepped back and pinched his nose. “Though you
smell like corpse cheese.”

“Thanks,” I said,
intending to go on at length about how unfair that was, until I realized that
he too could see me, the
real
me, beneath Mara’s artful disguise. My
mouth fell open.

“Yeah, I just
see you,” he said with a shrug.

I giggled and
handed the glass back to him. “More honest than my own mirror, my dear.”

He shoved it
back in his pocket with a conspiratorial grin. “Must mean you’re the one I
trust most, right?”

“Aw, Jinxy,” I
said, attempting to ruffle his spikes though he ducked and evaded my gruesome
claw, “you
are
my sidekick!”

He danced out
of my grasp and over to the curiosity Ananda was soothing. Spinning a little
circle inside the ranks of the filthy, dust-bathing Rakshasa, he found Reesa
and stuck out his hand.

“What’s shakin’
Cheetarah?”

She was
frowning, but soon a smile supplanted it. Jinx was someone you could not be
angry with for very long. The absurdity of his cute little face surmounted with
spikes was overwhelming. She took his hand and laughed.

“The name’s
Reesa.”

“Yeah, I know,
but I figured if anyone was a Thundercat….” At her confusion, he sighed. “Never
mind. I can see we have a lot of work to do.”

“Who are you?”

“This is Jinx,
my
sidekick
!” I called out just as Devlin trundled up in the moving van.
The headlights cast a dim glow over the cracked earth. He leaped out of the
high cab and pulled the locking lever on the back gate. I waited for him at the
brink. His ascent was slow in his expensive Italian loafers, but when he
reached the summit and caught sight of me, I knew he understood that we had
been successful. It was in the look of gut-wrenching misery on his already
strained face.

I now looked
like his brother, Radu.

“I’m sorry,” I
said in his just-acquired mother-tongue. “It will take me an hour or two to
control it.”

He took a deep
breath, the muscles of his jaw flexing. “My brother is dead, Lilith, and of
anyone possible, I am glad it is you wearing his face.”

“I choose to
take that as a compliment.”

He smiled, and
it was only slightly reptilian. I turned and glanced over my shoulder. Ananda
was pulling Mara to his feet and escorting him down the hill toward us,
accompanied by the entire host of Rakshasa.

“I’m going to
owe you big time,” I said with a grin.

He raised an
eyebrow in what might have seemed like cold disdain before, but, having felt
his emotions from the inside, I could now decode it as mild amusement.

“Don’t suppose
you can find a place for them?”

“Oh,” he said,
crossing his arms, “I imagine they will make themselves more than useful. Let’s
call this one square, shall we?”

“Fair enough.”
Mara slipped, and, to my surprise, it was Reesa who caught him and guided him
to the next stable footing. She didn’t even need to think about making her Gran
proud. She was already all that could be asked for. “Just don’t tell me you did
this to beat him.”

“Very well,l
then, I won’t.”

Chuckling, I
held out my hand. “You’re the only one who understands what’s coming, what I
have to do. Truce?”

He tilted his
chin upward, appraising my borrowed face and the knowing sparkle in my eye. With
a sigh, he took my hand and shook it firmly.

“Truce.”

There was something
in his palm, a hard lump pressed between our hands. When he pulled back, it
stayed in my grasp and sparkled. It was Camille’s ring.

“I thought you
might want it.”

I curled my
fingers around it and brought it to my heart. “Thank you.”

“You’re
welcome. She was gone...before.”

I nodded and
slipped the band around my middle finger, swallowing until I could find my
voice. “You know, you’re not such a bad dude after all. May I count on you as a
minion in the future?”

He was about
to answer when Jinx came to an abrupt halt beside me amidst a cloud of red
dust. “Ha ha!” He laughed and coughed all at once.
“Count.
Good one, Lily.”

Devlin
frowned. Jinx’s smile dimmed a bit but did not vanish.

“Get it? Count,
like, you know...Dracula!”

Devlin reached
up and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Believe me, young man, I have heard
them
all.
It’s one of the primary reasons I changed my name. If Mr.
Stoker wasn’t already dead….”

“Right,” Jinx
mumbled, crestfallen. “Sorry.”

The Count
reached out and, to my surprised, patted his spiky head. “Think nothing of it.”
To me he made a little salute. “Say the word, my lady. Never turn down a good
Apocalypse, as mother used to say.”

“Don’t worry,
you can keep him,” I said, tossing my head back at Ananda. “Just don’t go all
mushy on me now.”

Grinning, only
slightly evilly, he helped the first of the Rakshasa into the truck bed. Soon
they were all inside, grooming themselves and packing as tightly around Reesa
as possible. Mara sat on a wheel well, staring at the brood with something like
hope, while the other prisoners climbed in.

“Lilith,”
Ananda said quietly in my ear.

I turned just
in time to be caught in his embrace. He smelled good, clean and sweet; and, for
a moment, Arthur haunted me.

“You did this
on your own, my dear. With no help. It is proof of your ability.”

“I know,” I
said, though I choked on the words.

“Your life was
the foundation. This act is the cornerstone. Build upon that.”

“Good advice. Always
good advice.”

He nodded
against me. “I will see you soon.”

“Take care,” I
whispered. “And if Devlin gives you trouble, call me. Or sic Reesa on him.”

He laughed,
held me out at arm’s length, and nodded. “I will take care of them.”

“No one
better.”

He reluctantly
let me go, climbed into the truck, and pulled the gate down. Devlin locked it
and shot one more grin my direction.

“I hate to
ask, but etiquette demands.”

Jinx rolled
his eyes.

“Are the two
of you fine on your own for the last bit?”

The boy beside
me made a guffawing bellow and rolled his whole head. “She just turned into a
werewolf and stormed an impenetrable fortress. I am pretty friggin’ sure she’s
cool.”

I could not
hear him laugh, but I could see his chest twitching. “Are
you
?”

“I’m a
permanent delinquent. I think
I’m
cool.”

“Part of the
problem, I’m sure.”

“Shut it, or I’ll
tie knots at you.”

Devlin shook
his head and got into the truck. A few moments later, we were bathed in a cloud
of exhaust. We watched as the truck headed slowly down the highway, north,
toward the Circle.

“Shall we?” my
sidekick chimed.

“Yeah. Did you
get everything you need?”

“Every last
gigabyte. Ready for one hell of a barbeque?”

I looked out
over the desert and smiled. The Rakshasa had endowed me with a more refined
sense of smell, and on the warm wind I could detect the stink of the pit.

“Think there’s
a shower in the compound?”

“Uh, yeah. Let’s
go find out
before
we burn it down.”

A few hours
later, I was clean and shiny, wrapped up in a fluffy, soft sweater, wearing my
lanyard with the external hard drive, and sipping a cup of hot water. I still
stunk to my own nose, but Jinx wasn’t complaining. Beside me on the tailgate,
he popped the top on a giant can of Redbull and leaned back to watch the
fireworks break the paling sky.

All the
preciously guarded air vents had been thrown open, feeding the raging,
incendiary-driven inferno inside the earth. The flames had just begun to wind
up the walls of the false gas station like glowing, white ivy. As they grew, I
held my water and kicked my legs like a child.