Inhuman Heritage (18 page)

“And if they wait for us as humans?”

“I’m hoping they’re smart but not that smart. I just need you to trust me.”

“No problem.”

I was glad that he was cooperating but some small part of me told me that I should be worried because he really meant that. He had no problem trusting me.

Chapter Fifteen

The barn door creaked as I pushed it open, as if that wasn’t creepy enough it was completely dark inside with no electricity. My night vision is better than most so I could make out some bales of hay, dry and old and I led LeBron over to them so he could rest his leg. Once he was settled I wrung my hands trying to think what to do. Sorin was looking around the barn-his night vision must be good too I noted-like he had never seen one before.

“Mother? What’s this?”

I didn’t look in his direction till I heard a metallic clunk. I found Sorin dragging an old hurricane lamp by a metal ring along the floor. I took it off him part fearing he’d hurt himself and partly because it could be useful. I bent down to check to see if there was oil in the burner before using my thumb to light the wick. The barn was illuminated and I blinked with the sudden change. I found a hook sticking out from a beam above me and hung the lamp on it. It swayed gently. LeBron looked awful in the dim light, his forehead was beaded with sweat and he was panting like he’d been running but I knew it was because he was trying to manage the pain. I bent down to Sorin.

“Do you know any good stories?” I asked. He nodded and started to tell me one but I put my finger to his lips. He looked at the finger then wide eyed at me. God it was cute. “Go tell a story to LeBron for me while I get us safely sealed up.”

I was still going with the theory that if we could last till morning, the wolves would have to go away or risk being caught. I closed the barn door thrusting down the wooden beam that would lock it. I started drawing a spell on the back of the door with chalk. Virginia had taught me this spell as a precaution but I’d never used it. I’d never felt the need. It was a ward. A ward was like the little shield I did for myself but it was for buildings. Remembering the symbols was most of what taxed me because basically it was two circles, a larger one with a pentagon and a smaller inner circle. From each of the side points needed to be a line that encircled the area. Virginia had a spell exactly like this painted onto the walls of her home circling the foundation, but she had several smaller circles so that it could be activated from several points. This place was so simple that one main spot would be fine. I drew the line across the boards making sure it never broke right back around to the door. LeBron watched me do this but was soon scolded by Sorin for not listening to him. I found a sickle hanging from a post and took it with me towards the door. It felt a little rusty as I ran my thumb over the round edge of the blade but I came away bloody which had been the point. I hoped my tetanus vaccination was still good if I could even contract it in the first place. I wiped my thumb over the inner circle coloring it red and the air was suddenly thick with magic. I held my thumb up and watched the cut close. It was just a pink puckered line after a minute. I rested the sickle against the door and joined the boys.

I dropped to my knees slowly peeling the makeshift bandage away. LeBron stiffened and I felt myself tearing up. Although I was calmer, tears were all too ready to come recently. I had gotten him hurt bringing him along, I’d gotten his foot nearly clean bitten off. I exposed the wound once again to the air. LeBron seethed with the pain and I found myself apologizing over and over again. Tears ran down my cheeks as I held my hands above his wound trying to remember a healing mantra.

“Cassandra, what are you doing?”

“I’m trying,” I said and my voice was a little shaky, “to take the pain away.” The tears fell from my face, splashing on his wound and under each drop the skin knitted itself back together. The wound began to look less like a ravaged piece of bloody meat and more like a human leg with a particularly nasty animal bite. I wiped at my face till my eyes were dry. I looked at the wet liquid on my hands. Did my tears have healing properties or was it just a coincidence because I’d been trying a healing mantra to help him? I rewrapped his injured leg and he took my hand giving it a gentle squeeze.

“It does feel better, thank you,” he said and the smile I’m pretty sure was meant to reassure me but it didn’t. Neither did the soft pat on the head that Sorin gave me. He wrapped his arms around my neck and I lifted him up into my arms. He seemed tired and I expect he was, he was so little to be up so late. I stroked his hair softly and looked around the barn to see if there was somewhere I could lay him down for a nap but there wasn’t much in this place that I could use to make it comfortable again. Then it happened again, the world was over laid with sepia and I could see the outside of the barn as from all sides the field was stalked by giant wolves. I blinked and it was gone. I tucked Sorin in next to LeBron.

“What is it?” he asked.

“We’re about to be surrounded. This is not good.”

“How do you...” he started to speak but his words were cut off by snarls from the other side of the wood. I could feel the presence of a man among the wolves, he was coming closer, walking behind them until they were in position then I felt him move past them. His power was immense, I could feel it coming at me in waves. He kept advancing till he hit the edge of the ward and he stopped. The ward hummed as he tested it. I sidled close to the door and I could feel as he pushed against it, it felt intimate, like he was pushing up against me. It was because I had used my own blood to seal the spell. In most wards blood was needed but dead blood worked best because it didn’t forge a connection between the ward and either the spell caster or the living donor. He stopped testing its strength and moved on to its dimensions. He stroked along its edge and it was like his hands were running over my skin. I let out a shuddering breath. I knew he heard it because the sensation suddenly halted.

“Little pig, little pig, let me come in.”

The voice was being muffled by something but even through that I thought it sounded familiar. For the first time I wondered if DJ had really gone to get help. He and Farai still hadn’t come back. Was it DJ stood outside now? Had I sent Farai into a trap? DJ had barely been injured in the car wreck and I’d not actually seen him shift or leap in to help Farai. I’d been too busy saving LeBron and Sorin to notice how the fight there had gone. Farai had said he’d gone back to get help but what if it hadn’t been help for our side. What did they want with Sorin anyway? I took a deep breath steeling myself.

“And who are you supposed to be? The big bad wolf?”

He chuckled darkly.

“I’ll gobble you all up for my supper little girl.”

Hey
, I thought,
less of the little
, as I reached down slicing my thumb again on the sickle so that it bled.

“You can huff and you can puff but you’ll still be full of hot air.” I jammed my thumb into the center circle shoving more power into the ward. I heard his body as it was thrown back skidding in the dirt and mud. Great satisfaction filled me until body after body of wolves bounced against the ward. It hurt deeply, I felt like my flesh was bruising. I growled and thrust my still bleeding thumb against the circle, increasing the ward one last time and was rewarded by whimpers and howls of frustration. I worked hard to regain my breath as for a moment their attack seemed to halt.

“Go get it,” I heard the human voice snarl and wondered what it was they meant to get. I looked around the barn for another way out or a way to at least look out. There was a small hatch in the roof. I began climbing the hay bales to reach it, my leg slipping through a couple of times. I pushed the lid, forcing the ward to extend and peered across the roof. I could only just see the wolves as they paced too close to the sides of the barn and I could not see the man. I did however see lights coming up the road and then turn onto the dirt track. Damn it, they had a car. Wards were designed to keep living things out, an inanimate thing like a car could breech its defense no problem and if the symbols on the door were destroyed so would the spell be. I hung perched in the gap and prayed for a miracle.

Behind me came the clattering of claws on wood. Something had leapt onto the roof. I did that slow turn you get in horror movies when you realize the axe wielding maniac with mother issues is right behind you. An elongated, green beaky face looked at me, I followed it down to a naked green chest and jean cut off shorts. I looked back to the face.

Jacque was a humanoid gargoyle. He was part of a pack? Group? Flock?-I’d have to ask what they called themselves-of gargoyles that had taken up residence in an abandoned church at the edge of town. It had once been home of the Soul Market-a underground black magic market run by a soul sucking demon until I’d put a stop to it. The gargoyles seemed quite at home there. I’d helped them out with medicine when the leader Leante’s mate-Belle I think her name was, had been horribly wounded. They’d let me go without a fight as payment believing they owed me no more than that.

“Hey, Cassandra,” Jacque said with a smile. I found Jacque was quite jovial. He had little more than a tuft of black hair on his head that he ran his hand coolly over. Another sound of skittering claws made me look behind him to see a female gargoyle. She was the same leaf green as Jacque, her horns seemed more ornate, twisting and curling back against her hair which was long, black and styled like the princess from Aladdin. Jacque followed my line of sight and smiled at her and I correctly judged that she had to be his sister.

“Marie, this is Cassandra.”

“I’ve seen her before,” she said tersely crossing her arms under her chest. She was wearing Capri pants and a long sleeved boat necked T-shirt in a deep burgundy. Jacque scowled at his sister before turning back to me.

“So, what’s going on with you and the terminally furry gathering?”

“Long story, let me sum up. They attacked us because they want to capture us, they’ve bitten my friend and my ward isn’t going to hold them out for long. You’re strong enough to carry a person right? I mean you’ve carried me before.”

“Sure,” he said looking back at his sister. “We’ll help.” Marie didn’t look happy at being volunteered to help but she followed her brother down into the hole. LeBron looked nervous when he saw them. I rushed to his side and patted his shoulder to reassure him.

“Don’t panic, this is Jacque and his sister Marie. They’re friends.”

“Okay,” said LeBron and there was a line of tension in his voice. He was nervous and I couldn’t blame him, they were intimidating figures, even the sister who was slimmer and less menacing looking than her brother.

“LeBron can’t walk because his leg got bitten,” I said pointing to where I had awkwardly bandaged the wound. Marie unfolded her arms and let out a gusty breath.

“I can carry him,” she said realizing that she was really going to have to help. She scooped LeBron up like he was nothing more than a rag doll, he gasped as she leapt up heading for the roof access.

“Come here Sorin,” I said bending down so that he could latch his arms around my neck. Jacque looked confused. “I’ll carry him and you can carry me, I know you’re strong enough.” He nodded and as I walked over to him I heard the engine of the car gun. The doors exploded inwards with the impact, I was thrown double like I’d taken a blow to the gut and the ward collapsed in a visual flash of light, like a firework flaming out. Sorin was thrown from my arms and into Jacque as I fell to the ground panting. I could already hear the scramble of claws behind me as they desperately tore at the wood trying to get it out of the way. The car reversed and the door fell inwards with a loud clunk on the dirt floor. A fine cloud of dust hovered in the door frame and slowly, growling as they came, the wolves advanced. I looked back over my shoulder trying to pull myself up onto my hands and knees. I was seriously winded and before I could decide if I could stand Jacques green muscled leathery arms went one under my knees and the other around my back lifting me to him. I held on coughing in the dust as he leapt up for the open ceiling hatch. I heard the snap of powerful jaws at his heel as he pulled himself, me and Sorin, who was desperately clinging to his neck I realized, out with one hand. I wrapped one arm over his left shoulder and one under his right arm, circling his chest till I could help hold Sorin to us. Jacque ran along the roof, his wings spreading out behind him, catching the air and we were soaring above danger now far from its clutches.

I coughed hard against his neck and finally managed to take air in properly, filling my lungs with its cool fresh purity. I looked up from his neck and could just about see the side of his face. I couldn’t judge, even up this close, if Jacque was handsome, his features were just far enough removed from human that my sense of attractiveness was thrown. His eye darted in its socket to look at me and under the tight green skin of his cheek I could see where his blood suddenly ran hotter.

“Thank you Jacque, really, thank you. You saved my butt.”

“Well, no big deal, I mean I like your butt,” he said his face flushing redder under the leafy skin, he realized he’d said something wrong but couldn’t find a way to backtrack so just continued, “I’d hate to see anything happen to it.” His hand twitched under my knees and I had the feeling that he wanted to smack himself in the forehead, a very teenage thing to do when you’d made a fool of yourself. I apparently made him flustered. Eek, cross species crushing was not something I needed to deal with right now.