Bash, Volume III (18 page)

Bash

The jeweler Bud and Duke had set me up with lived three hours away, so Angelica and I made a weekend of driving into the mountains of North Carolina. We rode side-by-side, because we intended to navigate The Tail of the Dragon and she wanted to pilot her own bike.

We’d set a wedding date for five months out, which is apparently the least amount of time it takes to plan something extravagant, which her father was insisting was going to happen. Bud and I almost came to blows again when he informed me he’d be paying for the wedding, but Angelica intervened and informed me the father of the bride is
supposed
to pay for it, and I’d backed off and turned it into a negotiation. So I’ll be paying for the honeymoon, Bud will pay for the wedding and reception, and Angelica won’t spend a penny. Her dad and I are happy, Angelica is a bit miffed, but I think she secretly likes the fact we’re taking care of her.

We woke early the next morning to get on The Tail of the Dragon before traffic picked up. We traversed it down and back three times. She followed me the first two, but then insisted I follow her. As it turned out, I loved watching her navigate the twists and turns, piloting her bike like a pro. Angelica is strong, capable, and sure of her ability to ride.

And sexy as all fuck.

It was time for us to head to see the jeweler, but traffic was picking up anyway, so we weren’t disappointed at having to leave. We got something to eat on the way to his house, and I made introductions when we arrived. He’s a wolf, and is considered an RTMC Nomad. The dude’s in his nineties and hasn’t been active for years, but he’s held up well even for a wolf, and doesn’t look a day over sixty.

We had drawings of how we wanted our rings, along with pictures of similar rings. I’d mostly designed how I wanted mine to look months ago, but Angelica had insisted on adding her own flair.

My ring would have a flat top like a lugnut, with angel wings going up the sides, and at the top a pumpkin with Tinkerbell wings, wearing a tiara. It sounds cheesy, and my original drawing kind of was, now that I look back at it. My Princess had found an artist who’d made my original idea into a thing of beauty, so if you just glanced at it you only saw a set of crossed guns, and you had to look close to see the other details. Where my rendering had been bad-comic-book, the artist who drew it used words like
abstract
and
surreal
. People who took their time to see it, or who knew us, would see the pieces and know my ring represented all the aspects of my wife. Everyone else would see a rough-and-tough biker ring.

And, best of all, the vine he wound through it matched the vine on Angelica’s rings.

Her wedding band would be arched and curved so it fit perfectly against the vines of her engagement ring. It would be the epitome of simple and graceful, and would enhance the design I’d come up with for her engagement ring without altering it.

We spent a few hours with the jeweler, talking about our concepts and seeing how much of them he could put into actual rings. He made a few minor changes, and assured us he could give us exactly what we wanted. I handed over another chunk of the metal from the gun. “I want whatever you don’t use.”

* * * *

Angelica

Bash hadn’t been forthcoming about our plans for the weekend. I’d known about riding the Dragon’s Tail, and about the jeweler, but he’d avoided the question when I asked about his other plans.

Now, he only told me, “We’ll be up and out before dawn again tomorrow, so we need to get a good night’s sleep.”

He’d booked an extravagant suite in an adorable historic lodge not too far from the Dragon’s Tail, and it had a super-fancy restaurant. I hadn’t brought dressy clothes, but Bash assured me they were used to bikers, and sure enough, they didn’t bat an eye at our attire. We had wine with our dinner, and our waiter took great care of us. We walked down to the river after dinner and sat on a bench, watching the water jumping over and around the rocks and boulders strewn along the riverbed.

“I love the energy of this place.”

“Me too,” he said, his voice relaxed and lazy.

“Do you think we’ll retire to the mountains when we’re ninety?”

He chuckled. “We might. I can think of worse ways to spend our final thirty or so years.” Werewolves have to pretty much drop out of official existence sometime in their eighties or nineties, which means no driver’s license, no taxable job. We’d have to pay the jeweler in cash.

“I like the idea of growing old with you. I’m terrified of losing you, so I just keep my focus on how we’ll be when we’re both over a hundred.”

“I’m too mean to die, Princess.”

Now it was my turn to chuckle. “You got that right. When do you plan to tell me what we’re doing tomorrow?”

“Not until we get there, and there’s a reason for it. We need to dress like wannabes, so no cuts or patches for either of us. It’s a nice drive through the mountains, though. We’ll get up and have breakfast here before heading out.”

Bash

I wasn’t sure how Angelica would feel about today’s plans, but Duke and Brain had convinced me it was important for us to figure out her abilities, and whether we could tie into them as well. She could pull from us, but could we pull from her?

To be honest, I wasn’t sure how
I
felt about it, but I knew they were right. We made our way out of Robbinsville, and I stopped at a turn-off and handed her a signal-blocking envelope for her cellphone. She had a zillion questions, but she trusted me, so she turned her phone off and put it in. I put mine in one as well, and we took off again. Brain had given me directions, but before long there were signs pointing the way to Franklin, NC.

Their bikes were already in the storage unit when I opened the bay door, and we parked our bikes inside as well. Angelica couldn’t keep quiet any longer as we left all of our gear, including cellphones, behind and headed out on foot.

“Duke and Brain are here?”

I nodded and changed the subject as we stepped into the woods and took a little-used path. “I’m glad you agreed to not have a wedding party stand with us for the ceremony. Gonzo’s learned to live with the fact Dawg joins us sometimes, but there was no way for me to choose which of them was going to be my best man, and even if I’d picked them both, someone would have to stand beside me, and someone else on the other side.”

“I was kind of in the same situation. I’ve grown close to Gen and Harmony, and neither would’ve said anything about having their feelings hurt, but… it would’ve still been awkward. Neither of us needs that kind of stress, this is supposed to be a celebration.”

“Aaron Drake is offering us the use of a house he owns in Hawaii for two weeks as a wedding gift. I know we’d planned on the Caribbean, but this house is on the ocean, and close to a dormant volcano we can explore.”

“Wow,” she exclaimed, her eyes big. “That’s a helluva wedding gift. Do we have pictures of the house?”

“Yeah, and it’s nice, but if we go it’ll be a surprise so I’m not showing you.”

I smelled Duke and Brain before we reached them, and no one spoke as we followed them another mile or two. We stayed under the cover of the forest, and took trails made by deer and other large animals.

We made our way into a cave, and after a quarter mile, came to a large steel door. Duke produced a key, opened it, and explained, “I have permission from the owner for us to be here.” He looked to Angelica as he closed and locked the door behind us. “When we reach our destination, you can throw around as much power as you want and no one will be able to pick up on it. Not your dad, not Randall, nor any other Alpha or Vampire, or even Fae. It’s shielded a number of ways, and we feel it’s important for you to figure out exactly what your capabilities are, so you’ll know how to use them, should the need arise.”

* * * *

Angelica

We must’ve hiked two miles through the cave, and went over a couple of sections I was pretty sure a human couldn’t have managed. Duke had handed flashlights to all of us when we first entered the cave, but the darkness still threatened to close in on me. I needed sunshine and trees, and I felt cut off from all of it down here.

I stopped once, uncomfortable and itchy as I wanted to be
anywhere
but this cave, and Brain said, “Think of it as the womb of mother earth. There’s life down here, it’s just different than the kind of life we thrive on up above. You’re cradled inside the planet, though.”

I breathed in, tried to find myself inside the earth, tried to find energy in this god-forsaken place of darkness and rocks and nothing green, but it didn’t help.

Brain must’ve realized, because he said, “We’re headed to a waterfall. It’s better, there.”

When we finally reached the waterfall, we all pointed our lights at it, and just stood and watched it for several long moments. I breathed in the energy of the flowing, vibrant water, and Bash put his arm around me. “Brain was right. This is better.”

“Yeah.” I didn’t need more words, I just needed the beauty and life of the falls.

Duke set two lanterns on the floor around us. “Brain and I once spent a few weeks down here, and we learned ways to deal with it.” He turned the lanterns on, throwing sharp light and odd shadows around the huge cavern. “We should be able to put our flashlights away now. Punkin, we want to try some experiments — the first is for you to draw as much energy in from the waterfall as you can.”

“What do I do with it?”

“Distribute it to Brain and Bash.”

I looked at him a few seconds before saying, “That breaks the rules. Lone wolves can’t—”

“Which is why we’re here. Brain and I left our cellphones at a cabin in the North Georgia mountains, and we’ll drive back there to get them before going home. Bash had you put your cellphones in a bag in an area without cell coverage, and you’ll go back to an area within ten miles of it to get them out and turn them back on. This cave used to have people watching it, but it isn’t likely anyone is anymore. Brain disabled the cameras around it as we approached, and we’ll leave via another way — a new entrance the owner installed that no one knows about. There’ll only be one malfunction for the cameras at the entrance we took, negating the idea someone entered and then later left. Since we’ll only leave through the new access point, no one can follow us
to
it, to give it away.”

“Randall felt us when we were two mountains away.”

“He wouldn’t feel us
here
if he were standing on the ground over our heads,” Brain said, and I could tell he was certain of what he said. Not just because I couldn’t smell a lie, but because I knew Brain, and knew what he looked like when he was speaking with authority.

I nodded and reached out with my consciousness for the falls. I’d drawn energy from them when we’d first arrived, but only enough to put me back to rights.

Now, I drew it in, and in, and in. I looked at Bash and Brain, the shadows playing with my vision, and I streamed it towards the two of them. I heard them both suck air into their lungs, and I kept pulling from the falls, kept giving it to them.

Brain was the first to say, “Enough.”

I stopped sending to him, kept sending to Bash, and now my stream wasn’t divided, so he was getting it all. Fifteen seconds later Bash’s breathing didn’t sound right and I stopped sending to him, too.

“Take some back from Bash, Punkin,” said Duke, his voice soft.

I did, and Bash leaned over to put his hands on his thighs.

“You’ll note they’re exhausted, and you’re energized?” asked Duke.

“Yeah?”

“You sent it to them with the intention of giving it, as if you were giving them money, except it was energy. If you sent it with an ill intention, it’d hurt. You might have the capacity to kill, Angelica.”

“I don’t understand. Is it just because I have a connection to them, or could I do it to anyone?”

“We’re about to find out, but I want you to be careful.”

“No,” I told Duke, my voice firm. “I won’t try to hurt anyone with it.”

“Not just
anyone
. Me. You’re going to try to push me to the floor and keep me from breathing. Count to five in your head and then withdraw, this first time.”

I stared at him, thinking of a million reasons for me not to do this, when Bash reached for my hand. “We need to know what you can do, Princess.”

Brain chuckled, and I looked at him in question. “Sorry, you aren’t the first princess I’ve been in this cave with. Long story, but Duke is right — if you’d intended harm with it, I’d have been in serious trouble.”

I looked back to Duke, who said, “I grew up Pack, and my grandfather was the Alpha. I know a lot about how the energy feels, and I know a lot about how to use it. I’ve been held down with it before. I’ll be fine.”

I nodded and pushed it towards him, intending to push him to the ground. I felt him fighting it, and I pushed harder as Bash said, “Five seconds, Princess.”

I stopped, and Duke said, “Count twenty seconds this time.”

He nodded to me and I pushed more energy than I had the last time. Duke went down, and I could
feel
myself holding him down, as if I had an ethereal hand I could use at will.

I let him up when I realized he was in trouble, and he gasped air into his lungs before he said, “That wasn’t twenty seconds.”

“No, but I knew you were in trouble.”

He nodded. “How much more power could you’ve sent?”

“I think that was maybe half of what I can do?”

He nodded. “Then you have enough, you can use it to fight. It’ll only work on magical beings, and the first time you use it you’ll have some serious problem with not only Randall, but possibly the Concilio — but if it’s a life or death situation and you have no other options? Use it.”

“Aren’t Alphas the only ones who’re supposed to be able to wield power like… that?”

“Yeah,” said Duke.

“There’s another test for Angelica,” Brain said, his voice quiet.

“Two more,” Duke told him. “You were raised in the Pack and you were groomed to someday be Alpha. I know why you haven’t used any of what you learned since you broke from the Pack, but it’s safe to do it here.”

He shook his head. “We agreed you’d send it to me, and she’d try to block it.”

“And we can do that later, but right now I need you to try to put me down, so we can see if she can stop you.”

“I have no idea how to even begin to stop someone,” I told them.

“No offence, Duke,” Bash said from behind me, “but she’s closer to Brain, and her instincts might kick in faster to defend him.”

“Fine,” he said, obviously ticked, and he flung enough energy towards Brain to knock him to the floor. Brain couldn’t breathe and was in serious trouble just a few seconds in, and without thinking I pushed energy at Duke until he was on the floor. He pushed it back at me,
hard
, and I took several steps back before I pulled from both the waterfall and Bash, and pushed it at Duke hard enough he had trouble breathing.

“
Enough
, Princess.”

Bash’s voice brought me back, and I let Duke up slowly, to be sure he wouldn’t strike out again. “Damn, Punkin. That’s impressive.”

“She pulled from me,” Bash told him.

Duke took a few seconds to catch his breath, and finally sat on a large boulder before telling me, “The binding you have with Bash, and whatever connection you have with Brain… these allow you to pull from them, almost as an Alpha pulls from his Pack. The rule against wolves forming little mini-packs is supposed to keep lone wolves from gaining strength over an Alpha. Ya’ll haven’t broken any specific rules, because Brain and Bash aren’t connected, but by you being able to pull from both of them, you’re in a grey area.”

“Which is why Randall had a problem.”

“Yeah. Which leads me to my next point.”

He looked at Bash a few seconds, and Bash finally said, “Her wolf submits to me, and I held out longer than Brain.”

“Yeah,” Duke said, his face solemn. “You’ve never been part of a Pack, never been allowed to play with the energy, and yet you handled her power better than Brain, who knows how to deal with it.”

“You want us to go at each other?”

“We’d like to get your thoughts on it,” answered Brain. “If Angelica proves stronger, it could affect your relationship.”

“Maybe not,” I told them. “He won’t do it, but he can always win a fight with me with his fists in human form, and teeth in wolf form. I’m strong, but he’s stronger, and he’s scrappy. I’m not allowed to use energy, and it’ll never be a life-and-death fight with us, so… even if I prove stronger magically, it won’t really mean anything.”

Duke and Brain looked at Bash, who seemed to consider his words carefully before saying, “No, it’ll still matter.” He sighed. “But we may not have another chance to try, so we kind of have to do it now.”

I shook my head as I realized what he was saying. “No, I won’t do it. My wolf submits to you in bed, and we’re mostly partners out of the bedroom. I won’t do anything to fuck that up.” I looked down at my engagement ring a few seconds, and then back up to meet his gaze in the strange shadows the two lights were throwing around the cave and on our faces. “I love you, and you know I’m terrified of… there’s more than one way to lose someone, Bash. I gave all of myself to you. I won’t battle you.”

“Well then,” Duke said, walking to a cave wall just outside of the light. “Let’s see what the two of you combined can do.”

He pushed a decent sized rock to the center of the floor — perhaps three times the size of a basketball.

“I want the two of you to hold hands and press down on the rock with your minds. We’re all going to move farther away from it, because if you succeed in crushing it, smaller rocks are going to fly everywhere.”

“What do we do?” Bash asked as he looked at the rock with doubt.

“Hold hands, whatever feels right, and then press down on it with your combined energy.”

“I’m assuming I pull from the waterfall? And he does the same? And our combined energy will be greater than what it would be apart?”

“Yes, and for this, you don’t have permission to pull from Brain.”

I looked at Bash. “We’ll hold hands, and pull it in until we’re ready. I’ll squeeze your hand when I’m ready, you squeeze mine when you’re ready. When we’ve both squeezed, we’ll do it.”

He nodded, reached for my hand, and we faced the rock. I pulled energy in and was surprised I filled up and nearly overflowed so fast. I squeezed Bash’s hand, he squeezed mine back, and I used the big ethereal hand I’d discovered to push on the rock.

It exploded in a rain of smaller rocks and power, and I turned my face away as the rocks struck me. Bash shielded my body with his, and there wasn’t time for me to protest because it was over seconds after it started.

I looked at Duke and Brain, who’d been near a larger boulder they could move behind. They stepped back out into the light, and they were staring at each other in shock. “Guess it’s a good thing we didn’t tell them they aren’t supposed to be able to do it.”