Wildfire Gospel (Habitat) (22 page)

“No. I didn’t.” I thought back to that simpler time—my hands all over La La’s soft body in the back of the library. Those demon books lay on the desk, completely ignored.

She was so innocent then, and I had a decent amount of experience from making out with the cheerleading squad the summer before. However, nothing prepared me for the first time I slipped my hands under her shirt, gently pulled her bra down, and teased those dark little nipples. She moaned so loud the librarian almost stomped to the back of the library to the one study room enclosed with a door. Our favorite make-out spot. La La’s moaning forced me to stick my tongue in her mouth to quiet her. She would groan against me and wiggle those hips as she sat in my lap. Beast would go wild. My length would grow hard and erect.

I craved her more than any other, but I never could understand why. Sure, I lusted after her all the years we grew up together. Of course, she served as my best friend and the only true confidant I had in my life. Nevertheless something greater surged between us in that moment and all the others.
Why did she make me so crazy?
Wherever I touched her, she reacted with a seductive noise or moved that body in such a way that made me long to tear off her clothes. Beast would claw at my ribs, begging me to let him free.

Mate.
He would say it over and over in my head.
Mate.

A year later, she finally let me spread those luscious thighs apart. It was prom night. She wore this sexy violet dress that clung to her body and formed around every yummy curve. I’d dressed in an ugly purple tuxedo, just to please her and make her happy enough to let her guard down and give me what I begged her every night to have.

And when she did, that was truly my undoing.

“Are you over there thinking about Lanore?” Graham interrupted my thoughts.

“Yeah.”

“Do you know that you flick your thumb against your index finger anytime you’re daydreaming about her? That’s how I realized you liked her. She would walk by while you were doing something in the kitchen. You’d stop what you were doing, smell the air and stand there like an idiot flicking your fat thumb over your index finger.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t kill me right there.”

“I’m surprised too. I think I felt some loyalty for Fiona.”

I cringed at the mention of my dead mom’s name. “This day is bad enough as it is. Let’s not talk about my mom, please.”

Frowning, Graham returned to checking out Fray’s scalp. “I’m going to cut him at the top of his head right here. And slice to the area above his anus, but not right to it or the skin will never enclose properly, not to mention you’ll be crapping inside of your flesh the whole time.”

He giggled.

“Is that supposed to be funny?” I asked.

“It’s a little Demon humor.” He ripped off Fray’s clothes and slung them on the ground. “When I start peeling away the skin, I’ll cut off chunks of him for you to devour. You’ll need to eat all of him, including the bones. Your flesh is different now. To you, your body is a bunch of fire inside of … what you called gel skin. But it is actually a complex system of cells connected to a network of thousands upon thousands of tiny little hot veins barely thicker than silk thread. Pyrobem oil keeps them all lubricated.”

“La La has pyrobem oil right? She’s always complaining about it.”

“Yeah. It’s what she refers to as sweat because it comes out of her like that stuff. Either way, when you consume beings, you’re taking in their magic. It’s what you survive on. Umbutus never eat humans. They have nothing to give. When you consume a being whole, your body not only takes the energy, it absorbs the being’s memories, reads the DNA so that it can mimic it later, which is great because that’s how you gain control of the skin and everything else that comes with it.”

“Control?”

“You can make it darker. You’ll be able to grow hair and heal most of your wounds to the flesh. When you have the right skin, you become unstoppable. If you had it before the fight, Fray would’ve never been able to slice through your chest. You would’ve armored your skin before the fight, made it too hard to pierce. A well-trained Umbutu can be hard to kill.”

“But how can I die?”

“Two ways.” He let go of Fray and held two fingers up. “You starve and don’t get the magic you need to survive, just like supes and humans eventually die from not eating. It would take several days, but it could happen. My father killed his Umbutus that way when they got out of hand and were too much for him to control.”

“And the second way?”

“There’s a crystal that unfortunately exists in this realm too. It’s lethal to Umbutus as well as Demons. Not many people make swords out of it. In my realm plenty did. It’s what we fought with. There they called it grox, which means melter. As soon as the crystal touches our real layer of flesh and insides, it melts us. Once the melting starts, there’s nothing to really stop it. Most cut it out. My uncle was stabbed in the arm with a grox knife and hacked his whole arm off. If he hadn’t, he would’ve never survived. A female cut him. Always remember this if you go to my realm, never play with a Demon female’s emotions. They’ll cut you when a normal woman would talk it out.”

I ignored his advice. “What is this grox called on Earth?”

“What?”

“The crystal.”

“Oh. It’s called quantum quattro silica. Earth Witches use it for healing. It’s a beautiful thing to witness, a blend of royal blues, forest greens, and flecks of gold, but if you see it, go the other way.”

I walked off and did my best to keep all of this information in my head. It was a lot, good and bad, but a whole mess to process. I scanned the space with my eyes, studying the lack of photos or memorabilia on Fray’s walls. A rolled up sleeping bag lay in the corner near the area where he’d been sitting earlier, right by a white desk. No trinkets or items sat on the surface of his desk. I headed over there and opened the one drawer.

Empty. Where did you put the money, Fray? In the bank? Where do you have all of your memorabilia and belongings?

XO returned with a big carton of saws, plastic bags, towels, and a blender. “What are you looking for, a diary?”

“That would be nice.”

“Fray lived in this room, but he wouldn’t have kept anything in here. I don’t keep locks on these doors. Anybody can come in and out of these rooms. All of his personal stuff would go in his locker.”

“Where’s his locker?”

“On the level above here.”

“Can you show me? Fray said someone put a large amount of bills in his hand to kill me. If the money is in his locker, then I may be able to sniff it and catch the scent.”

“Sounds like a good plan.” XO shrugged his shoulders. “We may all be able to catch the scent. Fray didn’t know many people. I most likely know the person who hired him. If not, then I know who recommended the person who hired him. Either way, since I’m a fighter down, it’s in my best interests to help you find this person so you can get it off your mind, hibernate, and return to fight for me.”

I scrunched my face in confusion. “Hibernate?”

“I was going to get to that part.” Graham stood up and grabbed the carton of tools from XO. “After forty-eight hours of consuming Fray, you’ll have to hibernate for five days. Your body needs time to learn his genes and connect them to you. I have a place in my back yard that some rent out for hibernation. I stopped when La La was born. I’ll have to check out the soil, but it should be fine for you to bury yourself in and hibernate.”

“I’m not sleeping in dirt for five days. They’ll be bugs and—”

“If you think any smart creature will come within a few feet of you, then you’re dead wrong.”

I sighed. “I need to find out who hired Fray before I go in the ground. I also have to make sure La La is okay.”

Graham’s eyes flared. “She’s fine. Anytime she’s hurt, I sense it. Anytime she’s in danger, my skin burns with awareness. Am I not a good father!”

XO and I both stepped back.

Graham cleared his throat. “Lanore is alive and okay for now. If she’s been fine for this long and not managed to let her mouth get her into more trouble, then she’s not in danger. You need to focus. Let’s deal with one problem at a time.”

He set the carton on the ground and pulled out the blender. “Are you hungry?”

I gazed at Fray’s dead body and groaned.

Lanore

Zulu and I sat on a roof across from Guerilla Ink, a tattoo parlor and front of Mixbreeds for Equality’s headquarters. Blue and white bricks made up the whole building. On the outside it resembled a small shop. On the inside, it boasted a huge amount of space—a big lobby with a sculpture hanging from the ceiling and fluorescent painted speakers blasting reggae music, five full bedrooms, even more bathrooms, two little offices, and a massive warehouse space in the far back where all of the Rebels used to hang out, playfully fight in beast form, and smoke.

Earlier after stepping through the Bottelli portal, we took our time and headed back to MFE. All of the prisoners we released had fled without a thanks or any concern that we’d made it through ourselves. Zulu remained in Prime form, something he barely did out in the open in Santeria, but things had changed us. Too many died and the more we sank into tribulations the more our enemies multiplied and united together.

Enough was enough.

After my initial glee of being out of the vamp compound, I waited in an empty alley as he flew the Mermaid to Orisha Beach and placed her in the water. He’d promised her that he would return, but he said she swam off before he could even finish, probably thinking that since she was at the beach she could swim away to freedom. She would find out eventually that the habitat boundary wall wrapped around the beach too.

When he flew back, we decided to head to MFE. We’d only been a few blocks away when Zulu sniffed out the stink of Rebels. Without even asking if it was a good idea or not, Zulu seized me, launched in the air, and put us on a roof right across the street from MFE. It was a good thing too. About thirty Rebels stood outside in that half human, half beast form. Fur coated their bodies. They stood on two feet, instead of four. Most of their eyes, noses and mouths remained Human. Some wore no bottom clothes and let their tails wag back and forth.

“They’re trying to take over MFE.” Zulu’s fangs shined in the moonlight.

Nona stepped out of the front door of Guerilla Ink and gestured for some of the Rebels to come inside. We ducked down behind the roof’s ledge.

“Correction.” I frowned. “They
have
taken over MFE. There’s no way my father is in there, not with a bunch of Rebels going in and out.”

“Maybe they … hurt him.”

“No.” I shook my head. “The place would’ve looked damaged and on fire. Dad’s not there and, if he’s not there, then Ben isn’t. I hope.”

Did you leave him, dad? Please say you didn’t just leave Ben there by himself.

More Rebels strolled up to the door and entered. “How the fuck did they even get past the glamour you had over the whole building? It was supposed to prevent people who meant MFE harm from getting inside.”

Zulu peeked back over the edge. “You see the short woman near the corner?”

“Which corner?” I looked up with him.

“On the right.”

A little brown skinned woman probably four feet tall stood between two huge Were-wolves. Her red curly hair moved a little in the wind. She gazed at the ground and held her hands together as if scared. “I see her.”

“Her name is Harmony. She did all of the glamour for MFE. There’s only two people on this planet that knew she had the code to the spells. I was one of them.”

“Nona was the other?”

“Yes. Nona was with me when I asked her to do the job. I just never thought there would be a time when I wouldn’t trust Nona. We’ve been fighting together for as long as I remember.” He gave up with peeking over the ledge, sat all the way down on the ground, and put his back to the view. “I should soar down and kill them all.”

“I know you want to do this your way, Zulu, but we should at least check out the area for a few minutes to try and figure out how many people are in and out of MFE. Plus Ben and Vee’s kids may still be inside. Nona is smart. Mother Earth is even smarter. They’ll use the kids against us, and we’ll end up all dying in the end.”

“Fine. Just as long as I get my claws on Mother Earth and Nona, I’m fine.”

I chewed the inside of my cheek. “Do you really think you could kill Nona?”

“I’m not sure.”

“How long did you know her?”

“Ever since I was ten. We grew up in the same foster home and later killed the foster parent together. The woman’s name was Sadie. My first intentional kill. I think Nona was ten too.”

I continued to watch the front of MFE. The two Were-wolves escorted the little woman into the shop and she didn’t seem pleased at all. “Why did you and Nona kill Sadie?”

Zulu stayed quiet for a few seconds and then admitted. “Sadie liked to do things to us at night, when we lay in our beds. Nona and I slept in different rooms, but that never stopped either of us from hearing what Sadie was doing to the other.”

I forced myself to keep my gaze on the front of MFE and not rush to Zulu and hold him. He never discussed the things that happened when he was younger. He hated when I asked. Still at night, when we slept together, he would wake up screaming and his claws extended from his fingers. Each time, I calmed him down and told him he was with me and safe. He usually never went back to sleep once he woke up from a bad nightmare. I would try to stay up as long as I could with him, before falling to sleep in his arms as he held me tight to his chest and shivered.

“After we killed Sadie, our counselor sent us to another home.”

“No one knew you both killed her?”

“No. When Sadie came into my room one night, the Prime took over. He’d been threatening to do so. I gave him my body. At ten, I just needed someone to stand up for me. I wasn’t the person I am today. Prime took over and it wasn’t pretty. He gutted her with his claws before she could even climb in my bed and take off her … underwear. And so there wouldn’t be any regeneration of any type, he dug our claws into her chest, broke the bone, and crushed her heart.”

“That’s the first time you both ripped out a heart?”

“Yes. Nona came in next. She asked no questions, looked at the body, and simply said she would eat Sadie to get rid of the evidence.”

“Why not set her on fire or bury the body or … I don’t know. Why eat her?”

“We were ten. We did what we saw on TV. Our counselor discovered Sadie was missing a week later when she didn’t pick up her checks. She came to ask her where Sadie went. We lied and said she just walked out one day and never returned. Not knowing what else to do with us, we got sent to different orphanages. Nona went to the Pureblood one, me the one for Mixbreeds. We lost touch for a few years.”

The Rebels continued to stand outside. They didn’t talk and barely moved.

What are they waiting for?

“How did you and Nona hook back up?”

“Why?”

I turned to him. “I’m interested in your path and the longer I sit on this roof, the longer I realize that I haven’t slept or ate in days.”

“My past is not that great.”

“Neither is mine. I would never judge you.”

He turned away. “I ran away from that orphanage at twelve, became a street kid, before they started calling them all cage punks. I did a lot of drugs and stole whenever I could. One night I was so out of it, I went up to this Fairy and stole his diamond watch. He grabbed me and took me into an alley, pulled my jeans down, and whipped the shit out of me. I couldn’t get away from his hands. The Prime took over, but in those days when I got high, the Prime would be just as blown. He just sung songs while the Fairy whipped. It wasn’t until the end of the beating that I realized the Fairy was Ray.”

My mouth dropped open. I hadn’t seen Ray in so long and knew him for a short time, but the little bit of him that I got to understand, blew my mind away. When he died, it had shaken me, just like a close friend had died.

“Ray brought me to his house and kept me there with his wife. I still did drugs, sometimes I stole right from his house. Other times I just never returned. Every time he searched for me, brought me back, beat the shit out of me, as well as detoxed both Prime and me. None of that mattered. I didn’t stop doing drugs until I stumbled on to this deserted block one night called Ochosi Way. I’d heard cheap drugs were there.”

“Why type of drugs did you do?”

He still wouldn’t look at me. “Anything I could get my hands on. I was skinny and smelled like crap all of the time. Everything itched. My nose always leaked from all the stuff I put in it.”

I gripped the brick in front of me hard as the vision of a junky Zulu hit my mind. It was difficult to even picture, a muscular god, not so muscular or even god-like, just a skinny little kid full of tragedy and hate from a mother who abandoned him, a dad who died to save him, and a foster parent who instead of loving a ten year old boy, spent her evenings molesting him. I wished I could kill her all over again for him.

“I didn’t have any money to cop drugs that night on Ochosi Way so I stole from the first dealer I met. It was Prime’s idea.”

I shook my head. “Bad Prime.”

“Yeah. I grabbed the stuff, ran off, and shifted into Prime to fly off, right before I lifted off the ground a bunch of thugs caught and knocked me out. I woke up later in this gigantic warehouse, right next to a cage. They threw me in there to fight. Ten others were already inside the cage. All these spectators sat around betting on who would survive. I was scared out of my mind, just skin and bones and barely able to stand. A one armed Elf raced after me with an ax. Someone hooked their arm around my neck, tore the Elf’s head off, slung me on their shoulders, and killed the rest while carrying me around.”

“Who was it?”

“Nona.”

“Fuck,” I muttered. “She saved you.”

“Yeah. We were the last two standing and I was barely awake enough to know what had even happened. That night was the last time I got high. Nona towered over me. I was a late bloomer. I didn’t get height or muscle until I was fourteen. But anyway, after that first fight, Nona threatened to eat me if I got high. I didn’t doubt her so I never touched another drug again. The dealer who I’d stolen from said I had to fight a few more times to win him back the money. I knew it was Were-bullcrap, but I couldn’t figure out a way to get free of him. Nona taught me how to survive in the cage. Ray taught me how to dominate it.”

“How did Ray even find you?”

“Ray had three vices—alcohol, strippers, and gambling. He couldn’t find me all over the habitat and happened to hear about the weird little black creature with wings that managed to never get caught in the cage. He showed up, grabbed me, heard about my situation, and then spent the rest of those years as my sort of coach.”

Across the street, more Rebels showed up. They marched toward the building draped in bright colors, high yellow pants, bright pink tops, glittery sky blue shirts, sparkling lime green jeans, and almost all of them wore white boots. I still hadn’t seen Mother Earth. The new group of Rebels got in front of the ones that had already been standing there. I counted fifty Rebels all together.

They look like they’re preparing for war.

“Nona and I became champions. We never battled against each other, just everyone else. I held loyalty to no one, but Nona, Ray, his family, and … Cassie. Since I was clean, I would visit my mom and play with Cassie the few times Mom would let me. Cassie was just a little girl then.”

“What about the Rebels?”

“Nona hadn’t formed them yet, that would be a good year later. During that time, she just started uniting with Shifters and helping them in and out of the ring. She never considered me a Fairy, always a Shifter. She used to call me Batman. Once Mom found out about the fights, she paid me to stay away from them and Cassie. Her husband hadn’t run for mayor yet, but he was walking down the path toward it. He was just a Shapeshifter Council member then. I did stay away from my mom, but I never left Cassie alone. I would visit her at school and give her presents during lunch.”

“What did you do with your Mom’s money?”

“She would mail the money to me. I saved it all in an account and continued to fight. After one victory, I paid off the dealer and then ripped out his heart to show everyone else on Ochosi Way I would be no one’s punk. No one messed with me anymore. I continued to fight. As a champion, I earned a lot. I had Ray bet on Nona and me to triple the money.”

“That’s why you’re so rich?”

“No.” He rested his gaze on me. “That’s why
we’re
so rich. Whatever I have you have.”

“Zulu—”

“We’re together.”

“Yes, but I still don’t need to be taken care of.”

“Our bond represents marriage. Legally, you could claim half of what I own. Officially, I give you everything.”

I turned back to MFE headquarters and the Rebels, not ready to discuss it anymore. I was ready for a committed relationship, but marriage I wasn’t so sure.

“After all the things I’ve been through, I’ve finally found someone to love,” Zulu said.

My chest warmed. A smile broke out on my face. “Even with a war right in front of us, you can still be romantic.”

“I’m just trying to explain to you why you’ll never be able to escape me.”