Destiny's Child (Kitsune series Book 3) (22 page)

“Direct attack is all that’s left.”

“Maybe not.  Why aren’t the bugs attacking?  It’s almost as if…” 

A wild thought occurred to me.  I collapsed my shadow blade to free my hands, and stripped off the black denim bolero jacket I’d borrowed from Fran.  It had been growing ever snugger.  I dropped it on the flat rock and pulled my black tee up in back, leaving my breasts covered in front.

Cassie shot me an inquiring glance that I caught from the edge of sight, my attention turned to the Hysane who crept closer like cooling lava. 

Jeez, could this moment get any tenser?

I took a couple steps past Cassie, as if on my way to meet the enemy.  I heard a gasp from Cassie and knew that what I’d suspected was true.  “The squishy bumps are back, right?”

I felt Cassie’s fingers tracing the skin over my shoulder blades, but no pressure on the bone ridges themselves. 

She said, “Like balloons about to pop.”

“Stand back.  I’m about to … flex … and hopefully spew out some pheromones.”

Cassie came abreast of me, out of the line of splatter as I worked new grown muscle and burst the bubbles on my back.  I felt warm goo seeping down my back, and sudden freedom as sprouting wings unfurled.  I managed to waggle them, boosting circulation. 

The closing line of Hysane stalled a moment as they studied the situation.  Then their relentless advance continued.

I stared up at the whirling cloud of moth folk.  Their eyes were awhirl as well, a blue-green dance.  Antennae fanned, slurping scents out of the air.  There was a murmur of voices as a bunch of them rose and fell back, dropping like stones toward Cassie and me.  “Just go with this,” I told Cassie.  “I think they’re on our side.”

“I hope you’re right.”

Me, too.

I lifted my arms.

The Hysane were finally hurrying now.  The rock walls surged, climbing higher and curving in to cage us.

A pair of mothmen caught and jerked me into the sky.  The shifters were inhumanly strong, the hands holding my wrists like bands of iron—not that I’d ever worn any for comparison.   

I heard a grunt from Cassie as another pair caught her, bringing her along as well.  We were carried over the Hysane, and past them, back toward the woods we’d left.  Ahead of us, thin spikes of rock stabbed up to block our way.  We simply swayed around them at ever increasing speed.  And then we were rushing above the woods that blurred past.  The rectangular roofs of cabins appeared in various clearings connected by trails.  And then we zoomed over the lodge, gliding down into the forest beyond.

My moth guys swung me onto a tree, letting go.  With half-numb hands, I managed to scramble and settle on a swaying limb, staying close to the trunk.  Cassie was deposited near me, a little higher up. 

She stared down at me.  “Seems like you were right.”

“Had to happen sometime.”

The rest of the mothfolk settled around us in nearby trees, their eyes fixed on me in a really creepy way. 

“Smart,” Cassie said, “staying off the ground so the Hysane can’t read their location, or ours.”

The females in the surrounding—flock?  Pack?  Herd?—were changing.  Their faces turned human, shedding fuzz, but the antennae remained, as did their wings.  They showed no sign of modesty over their
au naturel
state.  I’d have thought the moth dudes would be covertly ogling, the way males do, but no, they were sunflowers and I was the sun.

Cassie said, “Uh, Grace, do you know what’s going on here?”

“Unfortunately, I
do
have a clue.”

The closest mothwoman spoke in fluting tones, “You have returned to us, My Queen.” 

I’d thought they might pick up on my mothy DNA, and hopefully help out.  This was more than I’d expected, so I floated a question.  “Queen?”

“Spawn of the heir,” another mothwoman said.

Spawn of…  Ryan?  The heir?

My eyes bulged.  “Ryan’s mom was your last—rather psycho—queen?”

Their unrelenting stares were answer enough.

“I’m sure one of you wants the job more.  It’s not like I’m fully converted anyway.  And don’t you people feel anything about me getting a bunch of you shot up last time?”

The men stayed still, unmoving gargoyles.  The women looked at one another, then back at me.  The one with the fluty voice answered, “Only your smell is right.  Ryan claimed you as his.  So did we.  You will get used to our ways in time.  As for the change being incomplete—” she smiled—“that can be remedied.”

I hated what I knew was coming.

She continued, “You need only pick a new mate from among us, and he will finish what Ryan began.”

Why, the hell, can’t Fate pick on someone else?

T
WENTY-TWO

“Links of steel drape my soul,

decisions I have made.

Broken by the weight of need,

pale as death, I slowly fade.”

         
                                             —Chains

                          
                                Elektra Blue

My feet kicked back and forth, the way my cat lashes his tail when irritated.  There was something wrong with literally being up a tree, especially since I had so many uber-powered protectors supposed to be keeping me safe.  Well, at least Cassie was here to share my discomfort, except it was a little irritating to see how cool and comfortable she looked perched in my tree.

The mothwoman said, “We have many fine candidates for you to—”

I lifted a hand to cut her off, my other hand and arm encircling the tree trunk beside me.  “Give me a minute.  There’s so much I’m still trying to wrap my head around.”  Marrying a mothman wasn’t even on the list.

You’d think lying around a hospital would have given me plenty of time of time for reflections.  Then again, I’d had Shaun and Fenn for distractions.  And the drama of two moms waiting on me: one of them in the middle of a divorce, her life in shreds, the other a kitsune psychopath.

They’d used me as bait, and ISIS had closed in for the kill—getting away with me.  Sure, Virgil’s forces hadn’t been fully in place, and ISIS had moved in way faster than anyone expected, employing magic, and a gas attack we’d not been prepared to stop.  ISIS had upped their game as wanna-be terrorists while my guys had gotten careless, consumed by their own sense of awesomeness.  Despite everyone’s best intentions, crap happened and it rolled downhill, squishing me flat.  The list was long and getting longer of all the people wanting me because I was born between two worlds and raised on a third.

“Things gotta change,” I said.  “There’s just so long I can smash my head into a wall.”

Cassie pitched her voice low, keeping it soft, “Grace?”

I looked at her.  “Go to Virgil.  He’s the man for
helicopter rides
, if you know what I mean.
”

“Yes, I do.  I’ll be back as fast as I can.”  Cassie
crossed over
.  I couldn’t see her, but knew she was jumping from branch to shuddering branch.  She’d do that a long while before going to ground where the Hysane could track her.  She’d get to Virgil and the others and return with the chopper. 

What I hadn’t told Cassie was that I didn’t intend to be here when the cavalry came.  A bright and shining realization had hit me between the eyes. 
Only I can keep me safe
.  In all the stories I’d read of Japanese kitsune living among humans, happiness had come only as long as the kitsune wasn’t discovered for what she was.  Once I’d been outed on the internet, there had never been a real chance to be both safe and free.  Apparently they were mutually exclusive.  I could live under guard, under lock and key, or break my ties—and people’s hearts—getting away.

I was choosing
away
. 

No one could go with me who wasn’t willing to walk away from their life.  Fenn and Cassie might, but I couldn’t ask for that sacrifice.  With a deep, tearing pang in my soul, I thought of Shaun.  He had deep ties to his life.  And Michiko needed him whether he knew she was there or not.  While I loved him with every furious beat of my heart, I had to face the fact that he didn’t return my feelings.  If he felt anything for me at all, he wouldn’t have been flirting with Janet, with me in the same room.  Giving up on him would be the hardest thing I’d ever had to do, but it was time to grow up and be an adult, ready or not.

All I really need is to decide is where to go so Wocky can’t track me with the demon brand.

I wanted to go back and to say goodbye to Michiko, Drew, Jill, Fenn, Fran, and Madison.  They became like family in such a short time.  But they’d want me to stay, and that would be messy.  Especially if I had to choose between Moms.  Maybe, after things calmed down, I could sneak back and make sure they were okay. 

I was leaving them with equal pieces of my heart.  What was left over was a tiny, cold lump of memories that I’d need to keep going.

Churrr! 
The sound echoed inside me.  Taliesina’s gold eyes opened in the back shadows of my mind.  My inner fox was reminding me I’d always have
her
, too.  My face felt heavy with sadness, but that thought made me smile.

I became aware that all of the moth people had gradually crept closer along their assorted perches.  The women were close enough to reach out and touch.  All compound eyes were on me.  They whirled with a soft, dusty blue.  Wings twitched.  Their antennae rippled, though there was no breeze in the cold air.  I got the feeling they were sniffing me, absorbing my scent the way Tukka’s pack had when I was adopted into his clan.

“Sorry to disappoint you, but I must.”

The women echoed me, “Must?”

I pulled on the planetary magnetic field.  My thoughts used that energy and my aura to
cross over
the veil.  Gravity sloughed off a little, leaving me lightweight.  The orange haze of my aura appeared, dancing along my skin.  The closest moth people moved their hands through my body.  They couldn’t see me anymore, but I could see them fine, along with their off-green auras.  Everything else in the forest was now charcoal-colored. 

I leaped through the closest mothwoman—passing straight through her—and landed on another tree’s branch.  I kept going, needing distance for now.  I kept an eye out for Hysane that might be running a blind search pattern for me.  So far, no dragon men down below was good news.  I also kept the usual watch for ghosts and demons.  Oh, for the simple times when spooks and evil spirits were my only worry. 

I stopped in the fork of a huge oak tree—serpentine limbs stripped bare by autumn—and checked my back trail.

Gosh-darn bugs are following my scent even though I’m in the ghost realm. Can’t anyone take no for an answer?

I had to lose them.  The moths would be a dead giveaway of my position if this kept up.  I needed a stream, since I couldn’t swim through the earth right now.  I riffled through my thoughts.  When I’d first come to the area, Jill had used her personal supercomputer to pull up some maps of the area.  Closing my eyes, I saw the screen, blowing up the image so I could now review it in fine detail.  The ranch was at the edge of one her highway maps.  Beyond that, on the other side of the highway, was a reservoir.  It was fed by several streams.  That was the area I needed. 

Or maybe not.

If I reached the highway and had my timing right, I could go immaterial and catch a ride with an unsuspecting stranger.  Inside a vehicle moving at high speed, I could probably lose the bugs.  I’d have to take the first passing car.  I wouldn’t want to stand there exposed for too long. 

I launched from the oak, veering back in a large circle to get past the moth posse on my trail.  Bounding from tree to tree, I had to occasionally drop height or climb a little, but I made sure to stay off the ground.  The bugs had to spread out while seeking my scent.  This slowed them down.  I soon lost sight of them over my shoulder. 

I worked up a sweat despite the low gravity, feeling strain from all the abuse my body had taken in the last few days.  The wounds had closed and all, but my endurance had taken a hit.  I felt myself weakening and checked my aura.  It was burning off at a faster-than-normal rate, like I wasn’t quite myself.  My new, baby wings fluttered happily as I shot through space.  Maybe that was it—too much weird mixed in my DNA.  My kitsune and shadow-man natures had long ago worked out an accord.  Now they were adjusting to mothy elements.

More reason to hurry and catch a ride before weakness makes me stop.