True North (The Bears of Blackrock Book 4) (10 page)

His head hurt almost as much as his chest, and Theron squirmed again on the couch. The words were beginning to settle in. They’d shot him. In the chest.

How was he alive?

His grandmother’s hands pressed to his shoulders, holding him still. “Come now. Listen when I tell you to do something.”

“They shot me? They fucking shot me?” He said, half mumbling the words.

“Well, they tagged you. Sucks, doesn’t it?”

This was Darrell again, still speaking from somewhere in the room. Theron couldn’t look around yet. His head was pounding.

He touched a hand to the back of his head and felt tangles in his black hair – blood.

“Tagged me?”

Theron reached for his chest again, only to have his grandmother stop his hand, making a stern tsking sound as she squeezed his fingers. The pain in his left pectoral was intense, but not the kind of bone deep pain he’d expect from a bullet wound. Theron tried to pull his hand from Pearl’s grasp, but she wouldn’t let go.

“How much did you give him?” The older woman asked, her voice betraying a half chuckle.

“As much as I could get in him. He was thrashing pretty badly.”

Theron stopped, and despite the pain in his head and chest, he smiled. Sinead was there.

“I bet he was,” Pearl said.

Theron forced his eyes open, but quickly shut them again as the room began to spin.

Theron frowned. He had a tracker shot into his chest, his head busted open on a rock, and to top it all off, he was drunk. He had half a mind to feel humiliated, but he was too busy smiling like an inebriated idiot.

“If you promise not to touch your chest, I’ll let Shinny sit with you,” Pearl said, leaning over Theron.

He grinned. “I promise.”

Theron opened his eyes just long enough to see Sinead’s face looking down at him. “God, you are so beautiful,” he said.

“For fuck’s sake. Kid’s here for less than a week and he’s already putting the moves on the finest eligible woman in the place,” Darrell said from somewhere nearby.

“Correction. I’m the only eligible woman in the place.”

Theron fought to focus his eyes on her face, but the effort made his head pound.

“That’s even worse,” Darrell said, groaning. It was then Theron realized Pearl was tending to Darrell’s health as well.

“And who’s to say she’s not the one putting the moves on me?” Theron said, opening his eyes just long enough to catch Sinead’s cheeks turning bright red.

God, what did they give him? Whatever booze they managed to get their hands on on the Extension, it was damn good stuff.

Theron’s cheeks burned he was smiling so fiercely. “You can put any move on me you like,” he said, and he and Darrell both began to laugh in the same drunken way.

There was a tension in the air that both women seemed to be fighting, and Theron knew a distant memory of terror and despair, but those memories were drowning in a sea of alcohol. He almost wanted to sober up and delve in – what had he missed? What happened to the Holdens when their escape attempt was discovered? Theron knew at least his close family was there, but what punishment had they known for their insolence?

And how much alcohol did she give him?

“Here you are, dear. Bandage him up and leave him. These two need to sleep it off.”

Theron felt Sinead’s hands move over his bare chest, and he sighed. Somewhere hidden away beneath booze he thought to be embarrassed, but for now, he just relished in the way her fingers felt on his bare skin.

Then she pressed the tape down over the bandage and he hissed.

“Sorry,” she said. She pressed the second piece of tape into place, then let her hand linger on his chest, as though she wanted to feel his heartbeat.

“Come on, then. I’ll make you some tea,” Pearl said.

Sinead’s hand remained there for a long moment, and Theron fought to open his eyes and look at her. When he finally managed it, Sinead was already halfway across the room, disappearing into the kitchen with Grandma Pearl.

Theron didn’t have a chance to protest her exit. He was asleep before their tea was warm.

***

The house was quiet when Theron finally woke up. His head and body screamed to greet him with a miserable amalgam of pain – sticky-mouthed nausea and headache of a hangover, the throbbing pain from his chest, and a subtle sting at the back of his head. He swallowed hard, tasting bile in the back of his throat.

“You finally awake?”

Theron turned on the couch to see Darrell sitting in the beaten up recliner across the way. Theron’s head swam from just the small effort of turning and he groaned.

“Yeah. They did us both in with that shit,” Darrell said, a groggy disinterest to his voice.

Theron touched his hand to his head. “Where the hell did they get that much alcohol up here?”

Darrell raised his eyebrows and gave an almost satisfied smile. “You know vodka is made from potatoes, right?”

Theron thought of the greenhouse and the thriving crop Darrell was tending when he found him the night before, and he gave a half laugh. “And here I thought you were trying to feed everyone.”

“Well, that, too. Still, I wasn’t the only person who thought having the option to drink one’s self to death instead of starving might be nice.”

Theron glanced across the living room of his grandmother’s house. There was no sign of Pearl or Sinead in the afternoon light. “Where is everyone?” He asked.

Darrell took a slow breath. “Sinead is down the school. Pearl is going to each house to check on everyone. Trying to figure out how we’re going to go forward.”

Theron lingered on these words. Go forward? What had changed since the night before?

“Is everyone else ok?”

Darrell shrugged. “No. We’re the only ones who almost died, but no. They didn’t find the greenhouses, thank god, but they took one of the generators. And they’re cutting our rations again.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Theron said, his tone dropping to a near growl.

Darrell snorted. “You sound surprised. They put us in an internment camp, but it’s this detail that really surprises you?”

“Did they find your wires?” Theron asked, his stomach dropping for an instant.

Darrell stared at Theron. “No. They did not.”

Theron slumped back into the couch, his head punishing him for the sudden movement, but he was relieved. They’d be able to grow at least some food, and if they stripped a house of some of its wiring, they might be able to expand what they had.

Fuck that
, he thought.
We need to get out of here.

“Have you tried rerouting the current? Not sure how much wiring you have, but it might be possible to render a section of the fence. The gate. If you hook up to the connectors on either side, you might be able to bypass -”

“I’m gonna stop you right there. I wouldn’t know the first thing -”

“But the greenhouses? That was you, wasn’t it?”

Darrell gave a half laugh. “If that shoddy craftsmanship gets you off, I’m beginning to question your credentials.”

It wasn’t perfection, by any means, but it got power where it needed to go, and it held a charge. With the right tools and crazy enough bastards to test it, there might be answers in Darrell’s ‘shoddy craftsmanship.’

They both sat there for a long moment, neither one speaking. Theron glanced at his cousin from time to time, finding a distant expression on his face.

Darrell caught him looking by the third time and met his gaze. “I suppose I should thank you,” he said.

These were not the words Theron expected. “What? No.”

“That fence killed my little brother when we first arrived. If it’d taken me, too?”

Darrell turned, staring off into space.

Theron thought of Buniq. He remembered what it felt like to lose a sibling. Candyce had only been gone a few years, but he felt her absence everyday. He couldn’t imagine Buniq losing both her older brothers on the Extension.

It would be too much for a grown woman, let alone a child.

“Hey, man. It’s – don’t even worry about -”

“I think about that from time to time, you know. What would’ve happened if I wasn’t here?”

Theron watched Darrell, waiting for a sign of more. “What do you mean?”

Darrell gave a half smile. “You know I’m the reason your Mom and Pearl don’t speak anymore, yeah?”

Theron’s mouth fell open, but he didn’t speak. He remembered the one time his mother mentioned their falling out. Karen had been so absent much of his childhood, he didn’t see her often enough to really notice.

“Aunt Karen had given me the welcome to come down your way. Was gonna take classes at the University of Maine. That’s somewhere near you, right?

Theron’s eyes went wide. Mom had never once mentioned his cousin Darrell, or that she’d welcomed him into her home so he could attend the University. “Yeah, Machias.”

“Yup, that’s the one. Pearl and everyone told me I was abandoning the tribe if I left. That I was trying to be something I’m not. Pearl wanted me to stay put and carve boats like my Dad. When I told her that I wanted to pass on more than just my carving skills, she went after Karen.”

“And she rescinded her invitation?”

Darrell gave Theron a side eye. “Nice fifty dollar word, pal. You learn that one in college?” Theron stopped, searching for a response before he realized Darrell was joking. “No. I cancelled my plans. Gave my spot up at the University to stay here.”

Theron thought back to his teenage years and imagined having another polar shifter on the rez. Darrell was five or six years older than Theron. He would have been around right as Theron was first joining his family’s hunts.

“Why? Why didn’t you go?”

Darrell shrugged. “Our Mum died. Couldn’t leave Eddie and Buniq. They were just kids.”

Theron took a deep breath, letting silence coax more from his cousin.

“Then a couple years ago, I went behind Pearl’s back – signed up for classes again.”

“You did?”

Darrell nodded. “Your mom knew. Buniq and Eddie knew. Had my bags packed up, ordered half of my textbooks for my first semester as a thirty three year old college freshman.”

“And you didn’t go?”

Darrell gave a sad smile. “The day I was going to tell Pearl was the day the officers came and took Buniq. By the end of that day, it was ‘get on the bus, or you’ll never see your sister again.’ I got on the bus.”

“Holy shit,” Theron said in a half whisper.

“Yeah. Managed to read every page of my textbooks while up here, though. So you’re not the only pseudo-college educated asshole in this family.”

Theron opened his mouth to deflect, but Darrell simply took a swig from a small metal flask, then tossed it to Theron. Despite the weight of the silence between them, Theron took a swig. His head was pounding.

“Is that how you knew to set up those greenhouses?” Theron finally asked, taking a second swig.

“Pfft. Naw, that is good ol’ Shinny’s handiwork,” Darrell said, giving a nod toward the east. “That wiring job, though. That’s me.”

Theron’s eyes went wide. “That’s fantastic. You were going into the Sciences?”

“Hell no,” Darrell said, holding his hand out in wait of the flask. “Shinny had that covered. No, I was going for English, actually.”

“English?”

Darrell nodded. “You sound disappointed.”

“No, no. I just -”

“As I saw it, your Sinead there has Math and Science covered. Kids want to build a rocket? Dig a pit and grow potatoes? She’s got it handled. But what if some kid doesn’t swing that way, you know? Who’s gonna teach them how to write stories? Or poetry? I figured I could come back and offer something to the creative kids – more than just the carving, you know?”

Theron stared at his cousin as though he’d just discovered a secret passage through a mountain.

Darrell noticed the look and gave Theron a glare. “What?”

Theron shook his head. “Nothing. I’m just finding it harder and harder to dislike you.”

“Fuck off.”

“I mean, you write poetry.”

“I’m gonna stab you,” Darrell said, but he was laughing through the words as he took another swig from the flask.

“
What light through yonder window breaks
?”

Darrell chucked the flask at Theron with all his might, Theron flinching, taking the full hit against his thigh. He hissed in pain, not only from the impact of the flask, but from the wound in his chest being jostled.

Darrell glared at him, pointing a warning finger. “Serves you right, dick.”

Theron pressed his hand to his chest, feeling the bandage shift and stick from his drying blood and remembered the night before. The comfort of their exchange caught him off guard. This was his nemesis, wasn’t it? This man tried to kill him.

He met Darrell’s eyes and saw a similar expression there.

It seemed Theron wasn’t the only one surprised to be enjoying the conversation.

The front door to Pearl’s house burst open and Buniq rushed in, coming around to settle into Darrell’s lap. Darrell took a deep breath, letting her curl up there. He muttered something to her, assuring her he was alright.

Then he turned back to Theron, Buniq content to stare off at the wall. “So you’re officially one of us, now,” Darrell said, gesturing to Theron’s hand on his chest.

Theron frowned. He felt violated by the tracker’s presence – violated and furious. “I guess so.”

Darrell groaned as he hoisted himself up from the chair, keeping an arm around Buniq’s shoulders. He held a hand out to Theron in wait. Theron took it, letting his cousin help him to his feet.

He met Darrell’s eyes and nodded. “So what do we do now?”

Darrell’s brow set, shooting a sideways glance down at his baby sister. “We find a way off this fucker or we die trying.”

The words rattled in Theron’s ribcage.

Yes
, he thought.
Yes!

They both took a moment to eye each other as they made their way to the door of Pearl’s home. They were both weakened by the night before, but neither dared question the other’s strength. Such a thing simply wasn’t done in male circles, not in Holden male circles, at least.