Honeyed Words (28 page)

She stumbled with the strength of her swing and nearly fell. He caught her under her arms and hoisted her back to her feet, being careful to step back when she had her feet under her.

And, of course, she spun around and swung at him again. This time she landed an uppercut to his midsection. It was hard enough that Gunther grunted and bent with the force of the blow. Anezka fell to her knees, holding her wrist.

“Oof,” he said, rubbing his stomach. “Need to make a strong fist if you are going to hit someone, though.” He held out a hand to her.

She slapped his hand away from her and stood on her own. For a second I thought she was going to hit him again. Instead, she stormed into the house crying.

He looked at me a moment and quirked his mouth into a grin. “That went well.”

“You made her kobold disappear. How did you expect her to react?”

He shrugged. “He’ll be back. She’s got something here that is tying him to this place.”

That I knew. “Amulet. In the house. Ancient family heirloom.”

“That explains several things, actually,” he said, stepping toward the house and watching the door like she might come out with a gun.

Which reminded me … “She has a shotgun.”

“She’s not gonna shoot me,” he said, smiling. “I’d love to see that amulet sometime.” He glanced over at me and sighed. “And we were getting along so well.”

“Gee, ya think? Any more and I was gonna ask you two to get a room.”

He laughed at that. “I’m sure she has a room here,” he said, grinning. “But I don’t know her that well yet. And,” he waved his hand to take in the smithy, “there is the issue of the demon.”

“Kobold,” I corrected him. “Nothing particularly Christian about him.”

“Interesting choice of words,” he said. “Christians weren’t the first to encounter such creatures. They’ve been around a lot longer than Jesus Christ and his ilk.”

His ilk? Now, I didn’t know a lot about Gunther’s background. I knew he’d grown up in a Jesuit orphanage until middle school. Not much beyond that. “What did you say to him?”

“Just commanded him to leave. He’s a minor beastie, after all. I couldn’t ask one of his bigger cousins to just vanish without something to back it up.”

“Pretty impressive,” I said, leaning against my barrel and looking up into his wide face. “How come you’re not bothered by this?”

“Bothered? Who said I’m not bothered? Holy lug nuts, this is freak city.”

I looked around the place, trying to see what he saw. “Okay, besides Bub there, and the energy barrier which surrounds this place, what else?”

“See those beams?” He pointed up to the rough-hewn logs that made up the roof support of the carport. “They connect the smithy to the house.”

I looked up. Hadn’t really noticed them before. There were images carved there, runes and dancing figures. Demons, women, fire, mayhem.

“She goes to Burning Man a lot,” I offered, as if that mattered.

“That doesn’t surprise me,” he said, walking back a few steps to look at the other side of one of the huge beams. “These are not too out of place with a fire wielder.” He looked directly at me, a wicked gleam in his eye. “One who commands the flame to work the earth.”

“Smithing, you mean?”

“Aye, and more. You are kindred spirits, I think.”

I could see how we both had anger issues alike. We were both passionate about life, and other things. I thought back to the spring, when I’d gotten totally hammered and did that bit of dirty dancing with a couple of cowboys. Anezka wasn’t the only one who let herself get out of control.

“Point taken.”

“Some nice carving there,” he said, pointing to an elaborate bacchanal depiction of drinking and debauchery. Caligula and orgies came to mind.

“So, yeah. That and…” He studied me a moment, then shrugged. “She’s pretty damaged.”

“Well, you were sure flirting hot and heavy there.”

“She’s striking. And totally reciprocating, if I’m not mistaken. Besides, I said she was damaged, not broken.”

That pretty much described me, I thought. “So, she thinks, or thought—before you iced her buddy—that you two were gonna hook up.”

He smiled, sheepishly. “She’s a fascinating woman, that’s for sure.” He stared off into space for a moment, contemplating something, and I left him to his reverie. I couldn’t tell what he was calculating, or what music was in his head, but after a few seconds he smiled at me, then turned around a full circle—taking in the smithy, the house, the detritus, and sculptures. “There is much here to understand.”

“So, you taking her on as a project?” I wasn’t sure how I felt about all this. My head was beginning to hurt, and the secrets were thick. “I have to work with her.”

“Have to? Don’t you have a choice in the matter? You are not without skills and means.”

I narrowed my eyes, letting the heat flush my cheeks. “I’m just an apprentice. I can’t work without a master. I have to do things right.”

He didn’t look convinced.

“There are rules, you know? Obligations to fulfill.”

“I see.” He tapped the cane on the ground three times, and then hobbled over to the back edge of the carport, looking out over the dragon statue. “We use the word
obligation
to define our debts to another.”

The sun was high over the mountains by now, moving toward midday.

“These are scores kept in our hearts, and are of no consequence to anyone but ourselves.”

Uh-oh.
Now we were treading into different territory. I didn’t want a lecture on Black Briar, or Julie, dragons, fear, fire … damn it. The list was long.

“Jimmy doesn’t blame you,” he said, his voice gentle and quiet. “He’s hurting and scared. Hell, we all are. Sarah, you do not understand the magnitude of what you’ve done.”

“So it’s my fault!”
And
I was crying again. When the hell had this started? I think it was this place; the energy here sucked.

He turned from the view of the mountains and opened his arms to me.

I stepped forward and let him engulf me in a hug once again. It felt good to put my head on his shoulder. Made me miss my Da all of a sudden.

“No, you misunderstand,” he said, making shushing sounds.

After a second, I pushed away from him, wiping my face. “I’m not sorry I killed Jean-Paul.”

“No, and nor should you be. But you have opened yourself and others to a world that has been hidden from most of us for eons.”

“I killed Bub once already, did you know that?” I asked, feeling hysteria huddling along the edges of my brain. “Bashed his head in with a fire extinguisher, and he came back to discuss it.”

“You did what I did, really. Only with a little more force. He’s not really here, not truly. If you saw his true form, it would likely drive you mad.”

Here we were, discussing demons and dragons in Anezka’s carport like we were still discussing the motorcycle. I couldn’t take it.

“Gunther. You know I think the world of you, and Stuart … and…” I took a deep breath, keeping it together. “And Jimmy.”

“But?”

“But I can’t have this conversation here. It feels wrong.”

“Can’t argue with that.”

“I need to see if Anezka’s going to be okay. I need to get my work life back in order, get Julie out of my apartment, and try to have a normal life. Hell, I’ve run into freakier things than Bub in the past couple of weeks—things that would curl your short hairs.”

“Maybe you should come to Black Briar and discuss it.”

“Not today. Today, I need to fix this. Maybe salvage something, help her get on her feet.”

“You take too much onto yourself, you know that, right?”

I sighed, letting the stress flow out of me like Sa Bum Nim Choi had taught me when I was a kid. Letting my shoulders sag, loosening the muscles in my back and neck. “Look. I’m in over my head.”

“Amen to that,” he said, smiling. “Sarah, the world is a chaotic place. The dragons are aroused—”

“Eww…”

He gave me a stern look, and I settled back on my heels, hands in my back pockets. That look could really burn a layer or two off the top.

“And the gods are stirring again,” I offered.

“I think I’d be careful about what I discussed here,” he said quietly. “Alliances are not always what they seem.”

Bub claimed kinship to the dragons. Maybe Anezka felt that extended to her. I nodded. “She needs people, a way to connect to the real world. Might as well be me.”

“She does amazing work,” he said, pointing across the yard. “Very talented.”

“You don’t think Bub had anything to do with that?”

He considered it a minute. “He’s a creature of fire. If anything, he could help inspire her, but the value would be offset by the volatility. Passion is a double-edged knife, as I’m sure you know.”

Boy, howdy.

“I hope I never end up like this,” I said. “Scares the hell out of me.”

“You are young. Life is full of excitement, and…” he nodded past me. “Motorcycles. I’m sure Katie will be very impressed.”

“You think so?” I asked. I hadn’t considered that. Honest. Suddenly my head was filled with thoughts of her snuggled up behind me, holding on as we sped through the night. I smiled. That was a welcome fantasy.

“Tend to your friend,” he said, laughing again. “But do not make her any promises, and don’t be surprised if she is angry when I leave.”

“What about the bike?”

“We’ll load it into the truck, and I’ll take it over to Black Briar to work on it. Maybe you can come by this week and pick it up?”

He had the ramps in the back of his truck already. Man came prepared. He rode the Ducati into his truck without much effort. It ran for shit, but it ran long enough to get up the incline. Man had guts; I was sure it was going to fall off.

“Ask her about the carvings,” he said after he’d turned the truck around and was pointing toward town. “Her friend Bub didn’t carve those. There’s something else going on here.”

I climbed up on the running board, hanging onto his mirror. “You betcha,” I said, patting his arm. I leaned in and kissed his cheek.

“Ya’ll play nice,” he said.

I jumped down and waved as he drove away. Now to face Anezka and her craziness. I scuffed my boots as I crossed the road. Wonder how long it would take for Bub to get back this time?

Forty

I let myself into the house. I could hear her in one of the back rooms, crying.

“Anezka? Are you okay?”

She grew quiet but didn’t say anything. I listened intently for the sound of a cocking shotgun, but didn’t hear it. I wandered down the hall, glancing in each room, looking for her.

Opposite the bathroom was the laundry room, jammed full of boxes, like someone who was halfway between moving … coming or going.

Past that were two rooms opposite one another. The door on the right was closed, but on the left, I could hear her. The door was slightly ajar, so I pushed it open with my foot.

She sat on the edge of the bed, the shotgun in her hands all right, but she was putting the muzzle in her mouth.

“Holy shit,” I said, diving toward her. She had her shoes off, trying to reach for the trigger with her toes. I yanked her to the side, and the shotgun went off.

I couldn’t hear anything for a minute, but I rolled off her and pushed the gun away. She lay on the ground, sobbing, her arms covering her head.

There was no blood. But she’d blown a serious hole in the side of her house.

“Are you out of your fucking mind?” I shouted, pushing myself back onto my heels. I held my hands against my ears. “Anezka, seriously.”

She looked up at me, her face smeared with mascara, snot, and tears.

“Fuck you,” she shouted and launched herself on me.

I fell back as she pummeled me with both fists, more a tantrum than actual fighting. Hurt like hell, though, and she was stronger than I was.

She tried to pin me beneath her. I rolled to the side, smashing against a dresser and hurting my hip. She knew what she was doing and had the element of surprise.

For a moment she was on top of me, in full control. I squirmed, trying to get my legs free of the dresser and her weight. There were several things she could do to me in that position, and most of them resulted in me with something broken or otherwise maimed.

“Get off!” I bucked, trying to dislodge her weight, but she flattened herself on top of me, dropping her full weight on my chest.

It knocked the wind right out of me. I saw stars for a second and loosened my grip on her arms. She moved like a trained fighter, getting one arm under my neck and grabbing her wrist with her other hand.

Any second now, she would slide her arm down my side and crank my neck into a very uncomfortable position. I kicked out, knocking several things off her dresser. She head-butted me.

I blacked out for a second, and things got really weird.