All Wounds (16 page)

Billy tossed his pizza box on top of the others on the table and went to rummage through the fridge. “Got anything to drink?”

“I’m making some coffee,” Rebecca offered. “Want some?”

“You humans don’t know how to make coffee.” Billy scowled at the fridge and slammed the door shut, causing the condiments in the door to rattle. He took a deep sniff before he stood up went to the pantry. He reached above the door, his brow furrowing before he smiled. In his hand was a brown unlabeled bottle. “Ha! Wasn’t sure Martha had any left. Not like this stuff goes bad.”

Billy pried the brown leathery-looking cap off with his teeth and spit it toward the sink where it landed with a thud against the stainless steel. He took a long drink, draining half the bottle.

“Even warm, this stuff is the nectar of the gods!” He took four more bottles down and went to the kitchen table where he flopped in a chair next to his empty pizza boxes.

Rebecca’s brow furrowed and she went into the pantry and looked up.

There, above the door, was an open cupboard without a handle. She looked at Billy, confused.

“Most Healers have a place to stash stuff outside the enclave that don’t belong in it, and don’t want company snooping around in your private things,” Billy explained the hidden cupboard in the pantry. “And I have a sensitive nose. Can’t hide a whole lot from an anubi, especially in this realm!”

“Hey, I’m beginning to realize there’s a lot of stuff hidden in this house,” she replied, shrugging as she came back to the table. “What is that, anyway?”

“Fae ale,” Billy said. “Faerie beer,” he clarified when Rebecca gave him a confused look. “Those garden boys know how to make all kinds of stuff from the plants they love so much, and they make a mean drink!” Rebecca shook her head and made herself a cup of coffee with loads of milk and sugar. She sat back down at the table and smiled at the big guy.

The werewolf winked at her and nodded toward the pizza box. “Eat up. You wouldn’t make a mouthful.”

When she made a face and shook her head, Billy shoved the top box toward her. “Come on now. You gotta eat. Chow down.” Rebecca sighed and took a single slice of the cold pizza just so he’d stop offering it to her. “I’m not a dog, Billy.”

“Neither am I, Bit.” He took a swig of his beer. “Since I’m stayin’ here tonight, you got anyplace special you want me to den up?” Rebecca shook her head. “Wherever you like, I guess. I’m not real sure what a guy like you would find comfortable. You can have Nana’s bed if you want, I guess. It’s not like she’ll be using it, and it’s the biggest one we have.”

“Nah. Beds is for humans. I’ll find someplace comfy. Just the night, mind. Any longer and...well...let’s just say you ain’t the only one with jerks wanting to take a bite out of you. My brother Denis makes old Armaros look sweet.”

He eyed the pizza left over in the box in front of Rebecca. With an impish smirk he leaned over and took two slices in one hand. He winked at her stuffed both pieces in his mouth at one time.

“Do you always eat like that?” she asked.

“Like what?”

“Uh...”

“Like a pig?” Billy teased. He grinned at her. “I might look it sometimes, Bit, but I ain’t human, and you humans don’t eat enough to keep a pup alive, let alone a full-grown anubi.”

“Which is right? ‘Anubi’ or ‘werewolf ’?” Rebecca asked, propping her chin up on her hand. “‘Anubi’ sounds like that Egyptian god we learned about his history class—Anubis. He has the body of a man and the head of a jackal.”

Billy nodded and grinned. “Egyptians worshiped us as gods once, and named Anubis after us. The real word for my people is ‘Anubi’, though

‘werewolf ’ is an easier term for humans to understand. I’m an anubi—a
man-wolf
, not some silly wolf-man like in a movie.”

“What’s the difference?” Rebecca asked. She was serious and interested, not flippant. “Are there...wolf-men?”

Billy shook his head. “Those are just made up, and a way for humans to explain the occasional anubi sighting. I’m a wolf who can look human.

I walk on two legs, just like humans, but can and do run on all-fours like you’ve seen. Just remember, when you see me as a human, it’s just in human form. That’s not what I am.”

“So, you’re just looking human?”

“No, I’ve changed my form to be human at the moment,” he clarified.

“And if you noticed, it isn’t some stupid transformation under a full moon where I snarl and drool and howl and every bone in my body cracks and stretches blah blah blah. This form won’t fool anything Ethereal. It’s really just for looks. For humans.”

“Why don’t I see you as a wolf then? I’m supposed to have this power, right?” Rebecca asked. “You look like a normal guy that belongs on my school’s football team.”

“You’re not old enough,” Billy replied. “When you turn seventeen, your power will manifest fully and you’ll be able to see more things for what they are.”

“I still don’t know what this power thing really is,” Rebecca admitted.

“Or what’s so special about me turning seventeen. I’m supposed to have a lot of power—so much that Nana and Syd are worrying about it possibly doing something bad to me when my birthday comes. If I’m this big deal, why hasn’t anything messed with me before?”

“Because you’re not an Ethereal,” Billy replied with a matter-of-fact shrug. “You have power, yeah, and a lot of it. Even I can feel it and anubi ain’t no kind of sensitive to those things like the vamps, but it’s...mortal. It comes from you, your life-force, here, not from another realm. Mortals can’t share their life-force with anyone, not even among themselves, except a few like you. Ethereals can, and do, share their power with one another, and with those who can be receptive.”

“Like...?” Rebecca prompted.

“I’ll try to explain in a way you’ll get, but I ain’t no good at stuff like this like Syd is,” Billy replied, sighing a little. “Let me think.” His eyes went to the pizza still in the box before them. He pointed to the missing slices.

“Say this pizza, when it still had all the pieces, is the power an Ethereal has,” Billy said. “Let’s say...a vamp, like Syd.”

“Syd is a pizza, got it,” Rebecca said with an impish grin.

I am not a pizza, Acolyte.

Syd? Aren’t you supposed to be finding out which demon clan took Ryan? Stay
out of my brain!

Aren’t you supposed to be working on shielding your thoughts?

Oops.

“Hey, Bit, pay attention,” Billy chastised, though he was smiling. “I’m lessoning you here.”

“Sorry, Billy,” Rebecca said, but without sincerity. She enjoyed the thought of Syd being a pizza too much to really be sorry.

Billy rolled his human eyes at her and continued. “Now, we’ve eaten some of the pizza, and it’s filled us up, right? We’re not hungry anymore.”

“Well I’m not,” Rebecca teased. “Can’t say you’re not, because you’re probably thinking about waffles.”

“Good places, waffle joints, especially the ones that are open all day and night. Sometimes a guy just needs a waffle, no matter what human time it might be. But you’re missing the point. You ain’t hungry no more, are you?” Rebecca shook her head.

“So Syd gives—let’s say Ryan, who has a hard time keeping hold on his and making his own, or your Nana, since she ain’t got much of her own no more—a slice of pizza.. his power. .so they ain’t hungry,” said Billy. “He’s sharing his own with them. Get it?”

Rebecca’s brow furrowed. “I think so. It kind of makes sense. So...

Nana...can’t remember things because she needs...a slice of pizza?” Billy nodded. “When she was younger, like you, she had her own pizza to keep her fed. Like you, she could make more pizza to replace what she shared with others, unlike now. She could, and did, share it with those who needed it, like you do with Ryan.”

“I’m a pizza too,” Rebecca said, looking at the boxes.

“Right,” Billy said. “But where Syd is an extra-large supreme pizza with everything on it, you’re just a small cheese pizza. Well, that’s not really true.

Nobody’s sure yet exactly what size or kind of pizza you’re going to be, or...

or even if a pizza is what you’re going to be.” That didn’t sound good.

“What do you mean?” Rebecca asked, her heart pounding in an uncomfortable rhythm against her chest.

“You’re stil being made,” Bil y said. “And since Martha didn’t do nothin’

with your dough when you was growing up—she just let you sit there—you might not come out a pizza like you’re supposed to. Whatever you end up being, you gotta be baked first. But that doesn’t mean that parts of you ain’t okay to eat now. It’s just your dough that isn’t ready to eat.”

“And my birthday is baking day?” Rebecca asked. “The day we find out? And if I’m a good...whatever...or a bad one?” Billy nodded and snagged the last slices of pizza before he closed the lid of the box.

“Syd is like the baker,” Billy went on. “And with luck, maybe you’ll be a good pizza. The size you’re going to turn out and toppings you’ll have nobody’s sure about yet, but even if they’re wrong, a cheese pizza is still a good pizza if you bake it right, and don’t pull it out too soon or too late.

Burnt pizza ain’t good no matter how fast you choke it down.”

“And that’s the part everyone is worried about, right?” Rebecca asked.

“That it might be too late to make me a good pizza?”

“It’s more ‘how you’re going to turn out’ now. You know those guys you see tossing the pizza dough in the air and catching it?” Billy asked.

Rebecca nodded.

“Well, you been dropped a few times,” Billy said. He looked at Rebecca and smiled before he stuffed the pizza in his hand in his mouth and shrugged.

“Didn’t seem to make no difference, though. You’re still good.”

“Gee, thanks,” Rebecca muttered, feeling less assured and more confused than before.

“Hey, you asked,” Billy said. “Told you I wasn’t any good at this stuff.”

“So after my birthday...will things stop...messing with me?”

“Things are always hungry, Bit, and you’re about to open an all-night waffle joint.”

“Ready?” Syd asked as he returned to the kitchen.

“When you are,” Billy replied. “Ain’t gonna sit around here. Bit’ll be safe enough.”

“Ready. .for what?” Rebecca asked. “You’re not leaving me here alone!”

“And what do you propose I do, Acolyte?” Syd asked. “
You
tell the anubi to sit out the search for one of his clan—especially Ryan.”

“Don’t do that! I gotta go, Bit,” Billy said, giving Rebecca puppy-dog eyes. “I ain’t hurt half as bad as that kid, and he’s gonna die if he don’t get help soon. Those Hell-goons...they ain’t nothin’...once you find them. Really they ain’t. They’re good at hiding, though, so Syd needs me to sniff them out. Vamps ain’t got no sense of smell. Well, not like anubi do. I gotta go!

Don’t tell me I can’t, please!”

Rebecca just looked at Billy. Why was he begging her? What did Syd mean, one of Billy’s clan? Was Billy related to Ryan somehow? She made a mental note to ask about that later when she wasn’t about to be left alone in a house that had just been ransacked by demons.

“Because the word of a Healer is to be obeyed as ultimate law,” Syd replied to her unspoken question. “Tell him to stay, he’ll stay.”

“But...I’m...I’m not...” Rebecca began, swallowing hard. Wow. She had no idea she had that kind of power. That kind of authority.

That kind of responsibility for lives. Existences. Whatever. Suddenly she wished that the only responsibility she had to worry about was studying for her algebra test. She remembered thinking something like that about taking care of Nana. That seemed so silly now—a tiny little thing in comparison.

If she screwed this up, she couldn’t just erase the answer and try again, or retake the test. If she screwed up now, lives would be lost.

How did real doctors deal with that? How was
she
supposed to deal with that? She could barely deal with an exam she’d studied for!

Suddenly she wanted to talk to Robin, but what would she tell her?

Rebecca shook her head and put something of her thoughts into words, more for Billy than Syd, as she knew Syd had likely heard her thinking.

“So if he goes and he gets hurt even more, or worse, he gets killed because I didn’t tell him to stay here, that would be my fault, wouldn’t it?

And then his clan or family or someone would come after me for letting their...whatever...die?” Rebecca asked.

Syd shook his head. “You are a Healer. Your decisions will never be questioned. Resented, perhaps, and disagreed with, but never called into question. Remember what Martha said about Healers having certain clemencies? That is one.”

“Bit, please,” Billy said. No puppy eyes this time. Just deadly earnestness.

“I gotta find that kid. I’m...I’m the one that busted the little punk, and—”

“—and he’s like a brother to you, right?” Rebecca said. She smiled and heaved a sigh.

Billy grinned.

Rebecca shook her head and sighed.

“So what are we going to do?” Rebecca asked as she looked at Syd.

“‘We’?” both Syd and Billy echoed.

Rebecca rolled her eyes at both of them. “You don’t honestly think I’m going to sit around here alone while you two go off and do who-knows-what chasing after these demons, do you? I have to go, too. Ryan will need help right away, and...and...”

She looked at Billy. “I might not have senses like an anubi or eyes like a vampire, but I have something. I can’t explain it. Maybe I’ll be able to...I don’t know...feel him, or something. I’ve been feeding him, and I felt it today when Billy was hurt so maybe...maybe I can feel Ryan, too.”

“That’s an awful lot of ‘maybes’, Bit,” Billy said. He rubbed the back of his human neck with one of his large hands and looked at her from under his shaggy brown bangs.

Syd shook his head. “I’ll not risk a Healer, Acolyte or no.” Rebecca scowled and crossed her arms over her chest. “So, it’s all right if demons come in my house, mess stuff up, hurt my nana, take someone I’m looking out for and, according to both you guys, probably kidnap me too, but it’s not all right if I try and take back what it is they stole? How is that fair?”