All Wounds (17 page)

“Everyone deserves their vengeance, Syd,” Billy said in a low voice.

“You don’t let them take it, it just sits inside and gets so big eventually it comes out in ways you never meant it to. Let her come. She should see, anyway.”

“I think she’s seen enough for one day, don’t you?” Syd asked. He met the anubi’s eyes.

This time, Billy didn’t flinch or look away. “That shit don’t work on me, fang-boy, so back the hell off. I’m in your clan, but that don’t make me your bitch.”

So Billy was in Syd’s clan.
How does that work?
she wondered. A werewolf in a vampire clan? Didn’t Syd say the vampires and werewolves were at perpetual war? Whatever they were to one another, they weren’t going to get anywhere arguing. Something else Syd said prodded her memory and she decided to put this supposed authority she had to the test.

“Guys, knock it off,” Rebecca said. She pinched the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger. She was getting a serious headache, and her stomach rumbled. She hadn’t touched the slice of pizza Billy had brought her. Her stomach might be empty, but she just couldn’t think about food right now. She looked at Syd. “So you’re going after Ryan? You know where he is?” Syd nodded. “I know which group took him, and where they generally make their lair. We can start there. That is, Billy and I can start there.

You’re staying here.”

“Not with that portal thing I’m not!” Rebecca said, shaking her head as she pointed at the ceiling. “What makes you think they’re not just waiting until no one is here before they come back? What if they took Ryan so there’d be nothing in the house that has any kind of power so they could...I don’t know...read me or something when I got back? Pick me up on their power radar or whatever? I’m not any safer here alone than I am with you!” Syd began to pace the room.

“You can’t take her to the clan lair, Syd,” Billy said. “They’ll look there.

They’ll know from Ryan who his Master is. Matter of fact, you should—”

“I’ve already linked with the others and apprised them of the situa-tion,” Syd interrupted. “They know not to expect my return and to fall back to the haven.”

“What about—” Billy began.

Syd cut him off with a sharp look. “She’ll be all right.” Rebecca couldn’t be sure, but she didn’t think Syd was talking about her.

“So like Bit said,” Billy went on as though Syd hadn’t said anything.

“What are we going to do?”

“Can you jump the car?” Syd asked.

“With your help, yeah,” Billy replied, though he didn’t sound happy.

“Then let’s go,” Syd said.

“Go...where?” Rebecca asked, suddenly hesitant.

“Into the lair of a demon.”

Rebecca swallowed hard and made herself remember that she’d pitched a fit about being told she couldn’t go and followed him and Billy out the door.

w x

Rebecca slid into the mangled passenger seat of Billy’s Mustang. Syd got in the back as Billy got behind the wheel.

“You know—” said Billy.

“Not now, anubi,” Syd interrupted.

“Just sayin’,” Billy muttered. “Bit ain’t had nothin’ to eat. Some of us actually need to eat. Also easier to fight with food in me, and if I’m gonna die, I want to do it on a full stomach! Besides, the gate’s just past a burger joint next to the interstate. We could—”

Rebecca looked at Billy in open-mouthed horror. “You just ate four whole pizzas! Extra-large ones! How can you still be hungry?”

“Them? Barely a snack. ‘Sides, we’re about to go into a demon lair—”

“Fine,” Syd interrupted again. “Let’s just get going.” Billy again drove like a maniac, and Rebecca realized that doing that was probably normal for him. Once they got to the fast food place, he ordered a huge amount of food before asking Rebecca what she wanted, then shook his head at her when she stammered that just one cheeseburger would do for her.

“I’ll share my fries with you,” Billy said, giving her his lady-killer grin before he ordered drinks.

Rebecca glanced at Syd and made a deliberate effort to speak to him in her head.

He can’t possibly eat all that before we get there..., can he?

Syd smiled, but he hid it fast.
Just watch. I suggest if you want any of those
fries he said he’d share that you take them immediately, for they won’t last long.

Uh...thanks. This is weird. I mean, talking like this. Not just...ordering fast food
with a werewolf.

Syd didn’t reply as Billy started filling up the space between the seats and Rebecca’s lap with bags. He shoved a drink carrier full of soda at her, then balanced another full of milkshakes on his own lap.

“There we go!” Billy said as he pulled out of the drive-thru. “A nice snack before I munch on some demons. They’re chewy and not at all filling, so we might have to stop back by here after we find the punk.”

“This is a snack?” Rebecca looked at the bags scattered all around her, filling up her lap, the floor at her feet, and the space between her and Billy.

“Mmmhmm,” Billy said as he turned one of the bags in his lap upside down. Burger wrappers went everywhere as he drove toward the interstate, and Rebecca just watched in fascination as each burger Billy ordered was devoured in a single bite.

He was indeed finished with fifteen burgers, ten orders of fries, three colas and four milkshakes in the less than five minutes it took them to reach their destination.

Rebecca hadn’t touched her own burger, or the fries in the box resting against her thigh, or the soda held between her knees.

“Eat, Bit,” Billy said as he parked the car beneath an on-ramp at the highway. “I’m gonna prep Rox for the jump.”

Rebecca didn’t ask what that meant as Billy got out of the car. Syd sat in the back seat, silent, though Rebecca could feel his anticipation, worry and urgency. She opened her burger wrapper and took a bite. She nearly spit it back out. It tasted awful and she couldn’t bring herself to swallow it.

She found a napkin and spit the bite into it before stuffing it into one of the empty bags.

“It would have done no good to tell him you can’t eat,” Syd said. “Take a drink instead.”

Rebecca reached for the soda between her legs and took a long sip.

Now
that
was rapturous. She took the lid off and drank directly from the cup, gulping the cold drink down.

“I don’t get it,” Rebecca said when she finished the soda. She wrapped up the rest of her cheeseburger and set it on the dashboard. “What’s the deal?”

“To put it in easy words, you need to replace your fluid loss,” Syd said.

“A side effect of having your blood taken. It will wear off in an hour or so.

Then you’ll be ravenous.”

That explained why she’d been so hungry at school that morning. No wonder the macaroni-and-cheese paste had sounded wonderful.

“Syd, move your butt,” she heard Billy call. “Almost done here.” Rebecca wondered what they were doing. Billy had said something about “prep,” and said he could...jump the car with Syd’s help. Rebecca knew what jumping a car meant, but she didn’t see...

She got out of the car to see what was going on.

Billy and Syd were staring at thin air under the overpass and talking in low voices, gesturing at the incline that led up to the ramp.

Rebecca sure didn’t see any jumper cables.

She looked back at the car.

The crumpled blue Mustang wasn’t blue anymore. Now it was black, and again it had spikes and chains covering it. She shook her head and walked toward the two Ethereals.

“Tricking out your ride is your idea of jumping a car?” Rebecca asked.

Billy laughed. “Taking her through the realms is rough—poor Rox’s gotta have protection.” He looked at Syd. “We ready?” Syd looked back at the car and then at thin air again. “I think so.”

“Ready to do what?” Rebecca asked.

“Jump the car through realms,” Syd replied. He pointed to the overpass.

“Just between the ground and the mortal construct there is a gate. We’re going to take the car through it to the demon lair. With any luck, we’ll land right on top of them.”

“Why didn’t we just...I don’t know...poof from the enclave, like you did with the kitchen and the water?”

“Because this is a much bigger jump over a much greater distance, and we’re doing it with an anubi and a mortal,” Syd explained.

Rebecca just looked even more confused. “But Billy and I...jumped...

earlier and didn’t have to stop and do anything special. We weren’t even close to here, either.”

Syd looked at Billy and raised an eyebrow.

“That weren’t a jump. Just a quick slip between the realms to shake the goons after us,” Billy defended. “Ain’t like what we’re doing here.”

“To put it simply, a big job needs big tools. This is a big tool,” Syd said.

“I still don’t see anything,” Rebecca said. “But I’ll take your word for it.”

“When your own power manifests in its entirety, you’ll be able to,” Syd said. “At least, you should be able to. For now—let’s go.”

“What if someone sees us?” Rebecca asked as they all got back in the car.Billy snorted. “Humans never see anything. Bunch of the blindest—

uh—I mean...well...” He put his hands on the wheel and took a deep breath.

“All right, Rox. Don’t let me down, girl.” He looked in the rearview mirror at Syd and gave him a nod.

Syd closed his eyes and tilted his head back. Rebecca saw his hands clench into fists, and looked back just in time to see Billy doing the same, except his head was bowed.

Rebecca felt what she could only call a “pop” and suddenly the overpass in front of them was gone, replaced with an empty field. The stars shown bright outside the window in the night sky, unhindered by the glow of the streetlights they’d just left.

It was very dark, and very, very quiet.

It didn’t look at all like a demon lair.

“Just what did you expect a demon lair to look like?” Syd asked, amused.

“I don’t know,” Rebecca replied. “Blood, guts and gore, I guess. Red guys with pitchforks poking people on sticks?”

“You watch far too much television,” Syd said. “However, you are correct. This isn’t the demon lair. This is just where the gate ends. The lair is farther on.”

“Good thing you all have a car or you’d have to walk it,” Rebecca muttered and looked back out the window again.

“You didn’t eat your sandwich, Bit,” Billy said, nodding toward the wrapped burger that had fallen off the dash to land in Billy’s lap.

“Uh...there’s...mustard on it,” Rebecca said, remembering what Syd had said about Billy not understanding she couldn’t eat right then. “I forgot to say no mustard.”

“I’ll remember that next time,” Billy said as he unwrapped the burger and polished it off in one bite. “Which way, Syd?”

“Fifteen miles south,” Syd replied. “Then four to the west. A warehouse overlooking the river.”

River? Warehouse? Where were they?

“Demons prefer the mortal realm,” Syd said. “And the leader of this little band of miscreants, favors an outpost in Scotland.”

“We’re in Scotland?!” Rebecca asked, incredulous.

“I told you it was a great distance,” Syd replied as Billy started the car.

“We don’t have a lot of time here, either,” Syd continued. “The night hours have been considerably shortened by this jump eastward.”

“In other words, we gotta hurry,” Billy said, and gunned the engine.

Fifteen miles sounded like a nice, leisurely drive to Rebecca. Billy had them there in less than five minutes.

“It’s a good thing I didn’t eat,” Rebecca said as they ground to a halt before the turn to the west. “Or I’d have thrown up. Haven’t you ever heard of a speed limit?”

“Stupid mortal rules,” Billy muttered. “Limits are for humans.”

“Don’t you ever get pulled over?”

“What? Cops?” Billy asked with a snort. “They gotta catch me first, Bit, and I ain’t met a human yet who can keep up with me behind the wheel.

Besides, Rox has an engine in her like you wouldn’t believe—”

“Slow this time, Billy,” Syd interrupted. “Remember, they don’t know we’re coming. Let’s not give them any warning.”

“Let’s leave the car here then,” Billy said. He looked at Syd in the rearview mirror. “You can get us all the rest of the way, right? You’re the one knows where we’re going.”

Syd nodded. Billy parked the car under a nearby tree. Rebecca got out and noticed they hadn’t been driving on a road.

“Don’t you ever get a flat tire?”

Billy grinned. “Remember when I said I had to prep Rox? Well, she’s prepped. Better than a Humvee, Rox is, especially with Syd’s help. I’m gonna leave the keys in her, just in case.”

“Just in case...what?” Rebecca asked.

“In case I don’t make it out of there alive and you all do,” Billy said with a shrug. He looked hard at Rebecca. “Now you listen close, Bit—” Syd didn’t wait for Billy to finish. Instead he took Rebecca’s hand and brought her wrist to his mouth. He bit down hard and Rebecca yelped. Billy grabbed her shoulder and closed his eyes.

Rebecca’s eyes slid shut of their own accord. Was this what it was like for Syd when he took her blood? So much...she knew so much now. Billy kept another gun under the driver’s seat loaded with silver bullets...there was a first aid kit in the trunk and a blanket and pillow...

Directions to the gate and how to use it.

But she was powerless. Didn’t she need—

Just get there
, Syd ordered.

I don’t know how to drive!

Syd dropped his hold and his bite. Billy let go of Rebecca’s shoulder.

“You don’t know how to drive?” Syd asked aloud.

Rebecca blushed and shook her head. “I never learned. Nana—”

“Then run,” Syd growled. “If this goes badly and neither Billy nor I can help you, you get to that gate, do you understand?” Rebecca swallowed hard and nodded.

“Then let us go.”

“Syd?” Rebecca asked, her voice trembling.

“Yes?”

“What if...?”

“Yes?”

“What if...I’m the one who...doesn’t make it out of there alive?”

“They won’t kill you,” Syd assured her. “They’ll keep you alive. At least until—”