Page 6

CHAPTER 6

After checking each other over for leeches and cleaning up Victor’s arm, we began to feel half way to normal again. Normal for us, anyway. The shack was cozy, although it did feel as though we’d stumbled into bookclub night, with fewer books and more pickup trucks.

The people chatted like old friends or family members. They didn’t seem to mind us, but didn’t go out of their way to introduce themselves either. We were obviously outsiders.

Hooper vanished into a kitchen area at the back of the shack, then returned with tumblers on a tray, offering the drinks to everyone. When he got around to us, Victor took a glass and discreetly sniffed it while Hooper was offering one to me. Victor’s slight nod said it was okay to drink.

After our last stop on the road had us encountering drugged lollipops and sandwiches, we’d become a bit suspicious of freebies.

“Do uh... do you have a phone we can maybe use?” I asked, after setting my glass down.

“No signal out here,” Hooper replied, then nodded at the small TV mounted high on the wall. “Barely get a signal for that.”

A baseball game showed on screen, but the interference blurred out most of the details.

“May I ask... where are we exactly?” Victor spoke up.

“South of Gator Park.”

Zee gulped and whispered, “Gators have a whole fuckin’ park?”

“I see,” Victor continued. “And how far is the nearest town where we might find a phone?”

“A few hours’ drive in that direction.” He thumbed over his shoulder, then blinked oddly out of order, one eye blinking at a slightly different time to the other.

“Is anyone leaving later? Someone we might get a lift with?” Victor asked.

“Apologies friends, but not tonight. Wait till morning, then maybe.” Hooper headed back to the kitchen, leaving me, Victor, and Zee to huddle closer. We really did need to get to a phone, and waiting until morning wasn’t an option if we wanted to get ahead of the massacre we’d left behind.

“A few hours’ drive is likely a day’s walk,” Victor said. “I’d rather do so at night, for obvious reasons.”

“Yeah, okay. Zee, you up to it?”

Zee looked up from fishing a speck of something out of his glass. “Huh? Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Uhm, your leg?—”

“You fainted,” Victor pointed out.

Zee’s expression blew wide with disbelief. “The fuck? I did not.”

“I was there, and you did.” Victor blinked slowly, hiding his smugness. “Into my arms, precisely.”

Zee snorted a laugh. “Fuck off, that did not happen. I would know if I’d fainted, and nope, don’t remember that.”

Victor arched an eyebrow, but left it at that. We all knew it had happened, including Zee. “Are you up for a several-mile trek?” Victor asked him.

Zee rolled his eyes. “You guys do know I have these amazing things on my back called wings, right?”

“Okay, so we walk out of here, find a phone, call Leomaris, and hopefully they send some help. We can explain the whole Toby incident then, and get this all cleared up.”

“You mean explain how Victor murdered a mafia don’s family?” Zee said. “Igniting a blood feud that’ll last for generations? Netflix gonna love it.”

“It was an accident,” Victor grumbled. “I was not expecting the shotgun blast to my back. It was an easy mistake to make.”

“Uh-huh, sure. I’m sure Toby’s crime-boss daddy is goin’ to be totally fuckin’ fine with you twitching and accidentally snapping his son’s neck in half.”

“He has other sons,” I said, then shrugged when they both looked at me. “I’m just sayin’, it’s not as though we wiped out his entire family. Just that one guy.”

“I doubt that will ease his thirst for vengeance, but at this stage we can hope,” Victor agreed.

“Okay, so I guess we’d better get moving...” Hearing my name from the TV’s crackling speakers, I looked over... and spotted a vague outline of someone who looked a lot like me on the screen. The words WANTED FOR MURDER scrolled across the bottom. Of course the signal had improved, so the words were crystal clear at that precise moment.

The heads of all eight people in the shack swiveled toward me.

“So uhm... we’re gonna uh... go...” I got to my feet and heard Zee and Victor do the same. “It was nice meeting you all.” While I was crossing the floor, the glares stayed locked on me, but the TV had gone back to unrecognizable static. “Enjoy the rest of your uhm... meeting.”

Hooper made his way over and escorted us back outside to the dirt lot and the parked trucks.

“Stick to the road,” he said. “There’s a whole lot of critters in these waters that’ll chew you city folk up like candy.”

I couldn’t really explain that I was the biggest critter of them all, so we just thanked him and headed up the dirt track, away from the little shack and its lonely light. Gloomy darkness quickly swallowed us, but there was just enough light from the stars to illuminate the track ahead.

We didn’t talk much. Our situation wasn’t great. We were a long way from home, and the story out there about us wasn’t a friendly one. If we got picked up by local law enforcement, or even the local SSD, things would get rough unless we could get hold of Leomaris. Some places didn’t like Lost Ones, and sometimes the people who were hired to help folks made them disappear instead.

“I can fly on ahead... see if there are signs of life anywhere...” Zee offered, then plucked a bit of dried algae from his purple hair.

“We already know it’s going to be a long walk, and I imagine from above we’ll be difficult to see on your return. I do not want you to get lost in this environment. I believe we should stay together.” Victor walked on, his footfalls a lot lighter than Zee’s and mine behind him.

Zee jogged to fall into step beside him. “Wait, are you looking out for me, Fancy Fangs?”

“Of course.”

“Huh.” Zee ambled along, curiously quiet. Quiet enough for Victor to notice.

“This is typically the point at which you ignore my advice and proceed with whatever dangerous or risky idea you have already decided is the best course of action.”

“Nuh-uh, I don’t ignore your advice .” Zee’s Victor voice was spot on. “I listen to it very carefully and go do the exact opposite.”

That got a chuckle out of Victor. “I see. Then your willful disobedience is deliberate.”

“Exactly. Now he’s gettin’ it. It’s almost like you be learnin’. Not bad for a fossil.”

“Thank you. I think.”

Zee snorted, and at the same time, ruffled his wings open into the visible spectrum. “Willful disobedience, here I come.” He flapped a few times, whipping up dust and grit, then took to the air. “My wings glow, Fossil Fangs,” he called back. “When you see me, call out, an’ I’ll find you again. Night-flying problem solved. Be right back, Kitten.”

Victor and I stopped to watch Zee’s purple glow vanish into the sky.

“At least his willful disobedience is predictable,” I said.

“I should know better than to advise him when he’ll do what he likes regardless.”

“He’s sort of right, though.” We began to walk again, listening to crickets chirp and other things croak and chitter. “His wings do glow, so we can spot him.”

“If we can see him, so will others. There is risk to his plan.”

“I guess, in his mind, there’s always risk.”

Victor waited a beat and said, “Zodiac is not immortal.”

A slight quiver in his voice had me looking over. Much of his face was shaded by the darkness, but I caught the concern in his night-shining vampire eyes. He really did care, just like Zee had picked up on. Despite Zee’s strength and bravado, he was the most vulnerable of us. I could heal almost anything—Victor too—but Zee only healed bad wounds when we were intimate. Yet he still threw himself into danger without much thought for his own safety.

“He’ll be fine,” I said. “He’ll come right back, I’m sure.”

“Yes, of course, you are correct.”

I knew how Victor was feeling, because I felt the same when I thought of how they’d have to face my brother. Victor’s immortality wasn’t going to stop Syros, and despite Zee’s new godlike powers, Syros would still be able to crush him like a bug. When the final battle came and we faced Syros, I’d be terrified for them.

I already was.

Victor stopped. “A vehicle... You hear it?” He tilted his head. “Headed this way.”

We hurried off the road, skidded down the bank, and pressed ourselves low in the brush, so we could see the vehicle but hopefully they wouldn’t see us.

The grumble of an engine grew louder, then a bang as it backfired. Headlights swept through the gloom, washing the track and everything along it in pale white light. We hunkered lower. The pickup truck raced by, kicking up grit, and as the sound of its engine faded into the night again, I frowned. In the back had been three figures, each carrying guns.

“Hooper’s friends?” I whispered, staying low just in case there were any more on the way.

“Possibly.”

A glowing meteor of purple glitter shot from the sky, landing dramatically on the track. Panting, Zee straightened, ruffled his wings and his hair around his horns. “D’yah miss me?”

“You’ve been gone for all of four minutes,” Victor said, straightening and joining Zee on the track.

“Yeah, I know, so—” He took a breath, and lowered his wings, reducing their glow. “Those guys? You know how I feel emotions? When I spotted them below, I got muchos bad vibes off ’em. Also, they took a shot at me. Missed... mostly.” He flung out his left wing, where a little bit of the membrane had been torn free.

Victor’s growl silenced all the nearby chittering.

“Easy, Vic. I’m fine. But those guys are headed out to Hooper’s love shack with bad intentions. Since they kinda helped me, and we’re supposed to be heroes an’ all, my gut says we should maybe go back there... just in case.”

I checked Victor’s expression.

“At the very least, we do not want to be blamed for two massacres in one night,” he said.

“Good points, both of you. Let’s go back.”

“And bonus, maybe one of ’em will have a phone.” Zee shrugged.

We started back, walking faster now.

“I can fly ahead an?—”

“No,” Victor snapped.

“Easy there, Bossy Fangs. I like the sass between the sheets, but out here you ain’t the boss of me. Remember?”

“You are already wounded?—”

“’Tis but a scratch.”

“No. While I know you are a capable warrior, those people were carrying multiple shotguns, and having recently been on the receiving end of a shotgun blast, I strongly advise you not to put yourself in front of one of them.”

“That’s a lot of fuckin’ words for I love you an’ I don’t want you to die . You can say it. We’re all grown-ups. Say the words. . . I love Zodiac . See, so easy. Copy after me?—”

Victor stopped. “I do love you, and I don’t want you to die, and frankly, your insistence on throwing yourself into peril is?—”

Zee grabbed Victor’s face and slammed a kiss onto his lips that had Victor instantly melting into his embrace and clinging to Zee as though this might be their last moment together. Zee parted from him with a chuckle. Lust flashed purple in his eyes, and with a lick of his lips, he laughed and shot into the sky.

“He is infuriating !” Victor growled, coming as close to a tantrum as I’d ever seen from him.

A shotgun blast boomed in the distance.

“Go!” I told him. He and Zee could reach Hooper much faster than me.

Victor was gone in a whip of hair and vampiric blur, leaving me to sprint up the track and hope I didn’t arrive too late to make a difference.