Matt Archer: Bloodlines (Matt Archer #4) (20 page)

Somehow that made things worse.

It took a few hours for a tow-truck to come out. While we
waited, we dragged the monsters deeper into the woods one by one and covered
them with branches and leaves. Mamie stood by and watched the road to make sure
no one spotted us until the wrecker arrived. How we’d keep the bodies from
being found was a bigger problem. Mike said he’d alert his people at Fort
Carson to take care of retrieval, but it would be a few days before they could
come.

Without room to take us all, the tow-truck driver offered to
give Johnson a lift back to Missoula to see if he could rent another car.
Johnson wasn’t willing to leave us out here alone, though, so he told the
tow-truck guy he’d call it in, and the rental company would come to us. Not
sure the driver bought it, but Johnson wasn’t budging. The rest of us snagged
the camping gear from the back of the truck and hiked into the woods to set up
tents. I swayed on my feet more than once, until finally Mike told me and Will
to sleep.

“You’re both wasted,” he said. “Mamie and I will build a
fire and keep watch for a while.”

Mamie, who’d been very quiet, brightened a little at this.
“Do you have marshmallows?”

“Kill a monster, eat a marshmallow,” I muttered.

“What?” she asked.

“Nothing.” I sat down next to her. “Sis, what did the Bears
mean about you being important to their master?”

Mamie looked away. “You heard that, huh?”

“Yes,” Johnson said, sounding reverent. “I was wondering
when it would finally come out.”

She gave him a timid smile. “You knew?”

“For a while now. It’s easy to spot if you know what you’re
looking for, and I’ve seen enough to know.” He came and laid a large hand on
Mamie’s shoulder. “Now it’s time for you to tell them.”

Her sigh was heavy. “I kind of hoped I wouldn’t have to.”

Johnson nodded. “I understand, but we’re beyond that now.”

I looked back and forth between them. “What are you two
talking about?”

“It might be easier to show you.” Mamie stood and motioned
for me to stand, too. Once I was facing her, she took off her glasses and
looked deep into my eyes.

My heart started to race, wondering how I never saw it, how
Johnson had spotted something so important that I missed altogether. “Good
God.”

Mamie’s gaze, intense and fathomless, reminded me of someone
else.

Jorge.

There, in her eyes, was the soul of someone ancient, someone
who knew things she couldn’t possibly know. Someone who spoke with the stars
and could understand what they said in return.

“The monsters here were never looking for me or the knife.
You’re
the one they’ve been searching for all this time, since that very first
eclipse,” I choked out. “You’re the Montana shaman.”

“That’s not possible,” Mike said, sounding exasperated. He
hadn’t seen her eyes, and even if he had, I wasn’t sure he could wrap his mind
around the idea.

“Uncle Mike, didn’t you ever wonder why I could find
patterns in data before anyone else could? I’ve known for a long time there was
something strange about me. I’m smart, sure, but the way I just…knew things was
weird somehow.” She let out a shuddering breath. “I have the Sight. That’s the
only explanation. I
See.
Maybe it has to do with my father’s family
tree, or maybe it was a fluke. Either way, the monsters were after me, and for
good reason.”

“That’s why the signal was muted,” I said. “Tink couldn’t
hear them in Billings last night because they were here, looking for you.”

Tink’s sigh was heavy.
That’s…likely. We should’ve found
her long before now. I should’ve known what she was…I just didn’t think to
look. For that, I apologize.

An apology was so rare that I blurted out, “So you’re
fallible.”

Apparently.
She sniffed.
Doesn’t mean I have to
like it…or like admitting it, either.

“Daisy May.” Mike’s voice was anguished, like he suddenly
understood and saw the risks she’d be forced to take. “This can’t be…I don’t—”

“It’s the way it is and we can’t change it,” she said. “It’s
because of me that my friends are dead. To keep other people safe, I should go
back to Billings with you.”

“No.” Mike’s bark was colder and more stern than ever. “I
want you in protective custody. Now.”

“What?” I turned to him. “Colonel, unless she’s in a metal
room without windows with Will and me guarding the door, cooping her up won’t
keep her safe.”

“And I can’t live that way, imprisoned for my own good,”
Mamie said. “It’s clear I need to leave school. I can’t stay there, not when so
many people will be endangered because of it. I’ll withdraw, come home, and
enroll in online classes. But I won’t be a prisoner.”

“She’s right,” Will said. “We can’t ask her to lock herself in
a box to make our lives easier.” He gave me an apologetic glance. “No matter
how much we might want to.”

I thought Uncle Mike was going to punch a hole through his
canteen. Or through Will’s head. Either seemed possible.

Mamie touched Uncle Mike’s sleeve. “It’s all we can do. Take
me to Billings. Maybe someone can go to Missoula for my things later, but for
now, I’ll go home.”

He put a hand over his eyes. “Daisy May’s the shaman. How
could we not see that coming?”

I wasn’t sure, but I should have seen it. She’d come up with
so many answers for us, seemingly out of nowhere…all the way back to the night
she busted me in the mudroom when I first became a wielder. Yeah, I’d been
acting a little suspicious, but she just seemed to
know
I was in
trouble.

“I think I’ll go rest,” Mamie murmured. “I’m a little tired
and you all need to digest everything without me here.”

Once she disappeared into her tent, Johnson said firmly,
“Before any of you starts arguing, it is what it is, just like Mamie said. The
only important thing now is keeping her safe and, if need be, I’ll stand guard
over her around the clock.”

“Captain, every time you say her name, it’s like you’re
invoking a saint or something,” Will said. “Why?”

“Because she is,” he answered, his expression grave. “That
girl is tougher than reinforced steel, smarter than most of the adults I know
and latches onto a problem tighter than a tick on a dog. But underneath that,
she has the most lovely soul. Don’t know why I see it, but I knew from the
first time I met her, when we came to get Archer at the bowling place so we
could send him down to Peru. Mamie was fierce with us, trying to protect her
brother, but the way she looked at him, worrying about his trip…it ran deeper
than I expected. There was something…magical about her. An aura.”

“
Aura?”
Will mouthed, making at face at me.

But I was thinking about something else. “This isn’t the
first time they’ve tried to kill her.”

Mike clenched his fists at his sides. “What?”

I told them about how I nearly got turned into road kill
during my driver’s exam, then how Mamie’s bookcase had crashed on top her. How
Tink had given me a warning, even then, that the other side was interested in
my sister and that we needed to be watchful.

By the end of my spiel, Mike’s face had this pinched look—a
combination of fear and utter fury. He let out a harsh breath. “Dani is going
to go mental when she finds out about this. She’s finally reconciled herself
with the fact that you need to be out there, but her only daughter? Nothing can
happen to Mamie. We play it safe, by the book, the whole way.”

I wasn’t sure if the Shadow Man would let us play it safe,
but at least Mike’s eyes weren’t bugging out of his head anymore. “Sir, yes
sir.”

A wave of exhaustion rolled over me—the aftermath of a fight,
mixed with more terror than I’d felt since I rescued Ella from those monsters
more than two years ago.

“Johnson, I’ll take you up on your offer to stand watch in
my place. Wake me up in a few hours if you need me.” I crawled inside my tent
and took off my boots. I’d cleaned up with some of our bottled water, but the
yellow-brown Bear blood had stained my cuticles and the creases in my finger
joints. It’d take hot water and lots of soap to get clean.

On the outside, at least.

Tired as I was, sleep didn’t come easy. I had so many
questions. That there were only thirteen monsters here seemed to be the most
important. It made absolutely no sense. If the other side knew about Mamie, why
send so few after her? And if the rules kept changing, how would we ever win?

Would I spend my lifetime hunting?

That thought settled cold and hard in my gut. I didn’t want
to end up like my old man, but in a way I already was. Hunting was what gave me
purpose—protecting others by flinging myself in front of whatever danger came
my way and striking down everything that threatened to do them harm. Was this
what Tink meant when she told me I was closing in on a truth about my father?
Make that
fathers,
plural. So many of them, soldiers and hunters. Was
that my path?

I shuddered. That’s not the life I wanted, not for always.
For now, it had to be done and I had to do it. But what about twenty years from
now? Would I still be fighting? And if I was, would Ella stick with me for that
long?

I pulled my sleeping bag over my head, feeling a little
hopeless. Maybe it’d be better to plan for an absolution, instead of worrying
about where I’d be in ten years.

So I came to a decision that had been floating around
half-baked for a while. If this war ended sooner rather than later, I wanted to
go to West Point just like Colonel Black had suggested…and then on to medical
school. After all the lives I’d taken, and those I’d failed to save, I’d spend
my future working as an Army doctor. I knew what kind of toll war took on a
soldier. I got it, and I wanted to help them recover. Instead of breaking, I
wanted to mend.

I would pay for my own redemption.

Somehow, having a plan settled my conscience a little bit
and I finally dozed off.

* * *

The car that arrived to collect us the next morning came
with a surprise.

When the gray minivan pulled off the highway, I watched it
warily, hoping we weren’t about to be accosted by do-gooders. The monster
carcasses weren’t that well-hidden and we didn’t need that kind of attention.
But when the driver got out, I laughed in relief. Davis moved slowly over the
mulchy ground, using a cane to balance himself on his prosthetic foot.

“What are you doing here, Sergeant?” I asked, grinning.

“Heard you had a little trouble and I couldn’t let the
captain have all the fun, could I? I was at Fort Carson, on alert in case
anything went wrong. Good thing, too, looks like.”

“I can honestly say I’m glad to see you,” I told him, and
shook his hand to make sure he believed me.

After a pit-stop for bacon breakfast burritos at a gas
station—which were surprisingly good—we got on the road for home. Mamie was in
better spirits, insisting that Will and I sit in the middle row, “since you’re
legs are so long, your knees will bang into our seats, otherwise.”

“Hey, when have I ever banged your seat?” I asked her.

“In the last year, or over the course of your entire life?
Because I could go back to when you were eighteen months old and kicking my
little bean bag chair while we watched cartoons.”

“No respect,” I told Davis, who was sitting next to Mamie,
laughing. “I save her from a monster, and she’s still holding sixteen-year-old
grudges.”

“I’m going to call Dani,” Uncle Mike said over us. “Think
you could can it for two minutes?”

“Maybe.” I punched him in the shoulder over the headrest.
“If you give me your second burrito.”

Grumbling, he forked it over. “Good thing I’m watching my
girlish figure, otherwise I’d tell you to get your own damn burrito.”

I divided the spoils with Will, who ate his half in three
bites. I made mine last for five; let’s hear it for manners.

“Dani?” Mike said. “We’re on our way back…long story, but we
ended up in Missoula and we’re bringing Mamie with us. We’ll need to tell
you--…
What?
When?...”

He turned in his seat, giving me a long look. “What?” I
asked.

Mike shook his head. “Where are you?...Do you need
anything?...Okay, I’ll call Julie and tell her I’m staying with Mamie and Matt
for a few days until everything’s settled…Yeah, we will…Love you, too.”

He hung up and I asked, “What’s going on?”

Before he answered, Mamie gasped. “Brent’s hurt.”

Mike turned all the way around, leaning over the central
console, his eyes wide with surprise. “Yes. He was injured in the season opener
yesterday. It’s bad.”

“How bad?” I asked.

“Severe concussion and a broken collarbone. It snapped and
the bones were misaligned, so he’s undergoing surgery as we speak. Your mom is
at the Helena airport, trying to get on a regional flight to Pullman.”

Will let out a low whistle. “He’s done for the season.”

“Sounds like it,” Uncle Mike said.

“When did it happen?” Mamie asked, her expression fierce.

Uh oh.

“That’s the, uh, weird thing. They were playing a night
game, and it happened in the fourth quarter…right about the time the Bears
wrecked our truck.”

“Wait, you mean to tell me he got injured at the same time
we were under attack?” At the question, Tink growled in my head. “You got
theories?”

“I do, but I think she wants to go first,” Mamie said.

Had she heard Tink’s reaction? I tried not to let that freak
me out, but getting used to this shaman thing was going to take some effort.
“Tink?”

I told you that your family needed to be watchful. It
seems your brother is a target, too. You share blood, so perhaps the dark
Master feels he has to destroy all of you to be victorious.