Unbound (4 page)

 “Kayla? How…?
Why are you here? I thought you were dead,” Jerry stammered before gripping her in a bone crushing hug.

“I need the Gate, Jerry,” she said, getting the words out with the last of her breath.

“What? Oh, ah… I can’t tell you. You can’t go to the Drifts, Kayla. They’ll kill you.” He stiffened and pulled away to search her face. “Do you think you can come in for a minute?”

She looked at her mentor, at the ground and then back up at him and almost said no, but there was desperation to him that she’d never encountered before. And besides, she thought, she still had plenty of time to make the delivery, and the Drifts couldn’t have changed that much. She shrugged. “Sure, but I can’t stay long.”

“Good. I’ve got something I’ve been saving for you. Follow me.” He turned on his heel and walked back into the house. He led her up the stairs, past pictures of a smiling family, and into a small room. It looked like it didn’t get much use.

A dusty treadle sewing machine sat in one corner. She liked the small floral print on the drapes and matching bedspread. Something about the place seemed familiar. He stood in the open doorway, watching her quietly. When she didn’t say anything, he nodded. His face fell.

“Kayla, if you could step over there by the sewing machine, I need some room to work.”

She complied, wondering where Roo had wandered off to. She turned and saw him lying in the hallway.

Jerry half pulled a large bureau away from the wall, and slid his hand behind it. She felt a thunk beneath her feet. She squealed and jumped away from the spot. He looked at her, grinning sheepishly.

“Sorry ‘bout that. Guess it’s been a long time since I opened this.”

“Opened what?”

He gestured to the wooden plank beneath her feet. She looked at him, unsure, then bent down and felt along the seam. When she pushed against it, the wood gave, springing open, to reveal a dark hole beneath the floor. She reached in and grasped something cold and leathery. Confused, she pulled it out. Holding it up, she studied the sheath in the light, then drew the blade out, watching a blue light flare and then dim. Her breath caught at the beauty of the sword.

“Where’d you get this?”

“It’s yours,” Jerry said, scuffing his feet. “Look, I thought you were dead, but I wasn’t just going to get rid of your things. You meant too much to me for that. Anyway, you’ll need it if you’re going into the Drifts.”

Her emotions caught what she would have said in her throat. Kayla reached back into the floor and pulled out a coat along with a pack and some other blades wrapped in loose cloth. She fingered the items. A whiff of smoke froze her as a memory teased the back of her mind.

“I'll be back in a second, okay?”

She looked up at him, distracted, and nodded. He left the room. She heard a thump in the distance, and he came back almost immediately with a small pouch. Kayla stared at him in confusion when he shoved it at her.

“It's wolf serum. You remember how to use it?” he asked.

She nodded.

“Good. The MoonSkins have been acting weird lately, and with everything else that’s wrong, with you going back into the Drifts, I don’t want a mauling on my conscience.”

Kayla shoved everything into her bag and replaced the board. She stood up and, dusting off her hands, took one last look around the room, unsure of what to do next. She reached out and touched his hand, looking into his eyes. “Thanks, Jerry, for everything.”

He nodded and escorted her out. Standing on his porch he watched as she and Roo walked away.

5

 “Roo, watch.”
Kayla ducked into a nearby alley, going through the pack and picking up the things that Jerry had saved for her. Memory tugged at her as she fingered each piece. She stripped off her faded jeans and shimmied into her tight leather gear, tugged on her boots and felt as though she’d come home. How long had it been since she’d worn this outfit, she wondered, yet it fit as perfectly as the day she’d had it made.

She felt along the length of her sword, letting her hand play in the silver-blue flame. A tight feral grin crossed her face while she admired the gleam in the moonlight.

She slid the sheath over her shoulders and onto her back, looked over her arsenal, flipped the knives around, and slapped each of them into the various sheaths attached to hidden places in her clothing. After finding her charm bag in a pocket, she slipped on one of the charms, then clipped the bag to her belt loop.

Kayla put her mage-tech wrist transmitter back on, snapping it into place on her wrist and input the final quadrants for the night’s run.

Then she attached the hip pouch to her pants. Fully armored, she felt safe for the first time in years.

Searching through her clothing, she found the bag Keaton had given her and put it into her pocket again, then rubbed her hand against her leg, trying to rid herself of the slimy feel that clung to the pouch.

She dumped her old clothing into her pack and slung it over her shoulder, stuffing the extra bag in along with it.

“Roo, heel,” she said, leaving the alley without a look back.

Her blood hummed the closer she got to the Drifts; she began to feel the hunger and darkness, an unrivaled wanting that only the Drifts could slake. She closed her eyes, fighting the urge. Jerry was right; she shouldn’t go to the Drifts.

As the hunger for vengeance raged through her, she opened her eyes and saw a darkened world. Her face upturned toward the moon and she reveled in it, giving way momentarily to the violence before she caged it again.

Kayla glanced at her mage-tech wrist transmitter and frowned; looking over the coordinates she’d been given.
These look wrong.
She punched a few buttons and brought up a holo-map in the air in front of her She traced the path with her finger. The directions didn’t seem to lead anywhere, but then it had been so long since she’d entered the Drifts that she didn’t know for sure. She powered down the screen and thumped her palm lightly against her leg.

“Come, Roo. I don’t like this.”

He whimpered as he kept pace.

Kayla hit her hand against a wall in frustration; she felt it give. The ward’s slime coated her hand while the building tried to swallow it. She yanked back, shaking her head at her own stupidity, knowing better than to touch the buildings in this place. Flinging the slime from her hand, she felt in her pocket and activated one of her charms to protect her from hungry boundary wards. The charm she chose, illegal nowadays, rendered her signature invisible.

“How could I have been so stupid?” she lamented as she stumbled into yet another dead end alley. Roo whined, growling at shadows, uneasy as howls filled the night.

Kayla paused at the opening to an alley and brought up her wrist unit. The map didn’t seem right.

“Recall previous data.”

The map flickered and went dark. A static roar filled her mind. She dropped to her knees, clenching her head. Staring at the unit, she realized the sounds weren’t coming from it.

Her hand wearing the wrist unit moved without conscious thought as it reached into her pocket, fingering the bag she’d gotten from Keaton. A numbing sensation crawled up her arm. Pulling it out, she held the bag in her hand, but couldn’t feel it.

Her other hand took the bag and the tingling numbness spread up her left arm. She tried to fling the bag away, but it didn’t move. She couldn’t stop her hands from working open the knots. Her mind screamed in denial. She’d never opened a client’s package before. Her rep would be ruined. Her rep was all she had.

Her arms brought the contents of the pouch into her field of vision. She studied them in numb fascination as visions exploded into her mind, uncontrolled. Slumping against the wall, Kayla tried to focus, striving to see, as her third eye blasted open, followed by searing pain that shot throughout her body.

She vomited and clung to the wall, unable to control her convulsing body. The small pouch slipped through her fingers, forgotten. She didn’t know how much time passed before her equilibrium returned. At the edge of her awareness, she felt Roo lying near her.

The light in her mind dimmed, but not the memories. Haunting images of herself doing things she had no memory of seemed familiar. She searched the memories and came upon something elusive, something that hadn’t been revealed. Unsteady, she took a deep breath and pulled herself into a sitting position. She dragged her hands down her face, using the back of one to wipe the vomit from her mouth.

Kayla regained control of her body. Fearing what she didn’t understand, she reached out tentative fingers towards the pouch. She forced her hand to close around the vile thing; fearful it would open again, and slipped the pouch back into her pocket, vowing not to take it out before she reached her destination.

She had the feeling she’d been set up. She just needed to finish the run and get the hell out of town before Keaton put a bounty on her head for violating her contract. Though she had charms to protect her against compulsion spells, they were old and ineffective.

Kayla slid up the wall, leaning heavily against it. The night seemed darker from a moment ago. How long had she been in the trance, she wondered
—
a second? An hour? She pushed herself off the wall and staggered out into the alley.

Kayla looked over her shoulder, examining the shadows. The hair on her neck stood up. She felt as if someone was watching her, but shrugged it off, walking farther into the darkness of the alley.

When Roo pawed her leg, she looked down at him, unable to shake the feeling of eyes on the back of her neck. Walking faster down the length between the buildings, her heart pounded in her ears and her breathing became ragged.

She felt off; something in the pouch had shaken her very core. She looked frantically around, but realized she was lost. With no hope left, she turned and faced the oncoming terror.

She crouched, controlled her breathing and waited. Everything clicked into place as Hidalgo, Keaton’s wolf, made his way towards her. She knew it had all been a lie from the beginning, and wondered if the address she’d been given even existed. The stench of the alley flooded her nostrils while she pulled her sword and waited for him to reach her.

“Roo,” she whispered when he growled. “Stay, boy. It will be okay.” Tightening her grip on the sword, she taunted, “Well, well, if it isn’t Hidalgo. Keaton’s little doggy come out to play?”

“Why aren’t you running, bitch?” He snarled, his words slurring through his misshapen mouth. His features grossly distorted in mid-change.

“Because I don’t run from bad little doggies. I kick them.” She grinned.

“You’ll regret that.”

“Bring it,” she taunted. “Roo, left flank!”

Hidalgo lunged at her, completing his transformation mid-leap. She reacted with lightning speed, her muscles remembering motions long in disuse. With a flick of her wrist, the sword moved in a smooth arc, hitting him across the hindquarters. Blood flew; he landed on his side, skidding. She knew she’d gotten lucky; MoonSkins were notoriously hard to kill.

She prayed for time before he got to his feet again. Roo tore into his side, knocking him off balance when he tried to rise. She backed away, reached into her hip pouch and pulled out a syringe. Pulling the cap off with her teeth, she injected wolf serum into her thigh.

Kayla hoped it reacted before he got his teeth into her. She had no wish to become a wolf. The serum raced through her blood, leaving trails of fire in her veins.

Hidalgo regained his feet, this time circling her, looking for an opening. Roo dashed in for quick rips and slashes; Hidalgo snapped back.