Fire on the Island (14 page)

"Marduk."

"Last
name?"

Another pause.
Another smile. "Just Marduk."

Speaking in a
calm, even voice, Jeremiah addressed Marduk. "So you are a
feradux
,
then?"

"Yes,"
he answered. "I have been watching the lady ever since she came to the
island."

"Well,
that's not creepy at all," Jeremiah muttered under his breath.

"Ten
years?" Isla exclaimed. "How old
are
you?"

Frowning, Marduk
looked down at his hands and seemed to be ticking off fingers.
"Twenty...five."

"Are you
serious? You don't look over twenty."

He gave her a
small smile. "From what I can tell, I do not age physically while in beast
form. Since I can only retain a human shape for short periods of time, I guess
I have not aged much."

Seeming to
forget his original trepidations, Jeremiah leaned forward, fascinated.
"Mhairi said that the
feradux
were
Bruixi
who had committed
some kind of crime and were given the opportunity to redeem themselves. What
did you do?"

Withdrawing
into himself, Marduk turned to look out the window. His eyes took on an
ancient, haunted look. Turning back, he met Jeremiah's questioning stare with
one of his own and cocked his head to the side.

"I killed
my father." His brows drew low over the arctic stare, and a muscle jumped
in his clenched jaw.

"How come
you never approached me before? Or... changed?" Isla asked.

"You did
not know what you were then. I am not allowed to force you to believe."

"I only
noticed the wolf a few days ago."

"Things
have...escalated."

"Damn
right they have," Jeremiah bit out. "Can you tell us about the threat
to her?"

Marduk yawned
so wide his jaw cracked, and then he flashed his fangs at Jere. "Yes. I
can."

"Can you help
her learn to use her powers to fight this thing?"

Another yawn.
"Yes."

"Jeremiah,
he's tired. I'll bandage his wound and we can all get some sleep."
Encouraging Marduk to lay down longways on the couch, Isla made quick work of
covering the bloody gash with a thick bandage. The boy's eyelids drooped shut,
and soon his breathing had evened out.

Putting away
her supplies, Isla stood on her tiptoes and kissed Jeremiah on the lips.
"Let's go to bed."

Leaning into
the kiss before breaking away, Jeremiah nodded. "Be right there."
Isla disappeared into the bedroom, while Jeremiah walked back to the couch and
pulled the blanket up to cover Marduk's shoulders.

"If you
can help me keep her safe, then kid, you're my new best friend." As he
turned to leave, a hand snaked out from under the blanket and grabbed him with
an iron grip. He looked down to see clear, blue eyes boring into him from down
below.

"
Protegam
eam cum vita.
" I will protect her with my life.

"Why?"
Jeremiah asked, not really expecting an answer.

"Because
our survival depends on it."

"Whose?"

"Everyone's."

~~~

Awaking early
as usual, Isla shuffled groggily out of the bedroom and into the kitchen to
start a pot of coffee. The dim early morning light was diluted to a diffused, green
glow as it filtered through the kitchen curtains.

It was when she
was leaning down over an open fridge, trying to find the makings of a decent
breakfast, when the macabre events of the past twenty-four hours came rushing
through her head like an old movie reel.

Shit.
Man-wolf-person. In her living room. Swallowing, she skirted around the
cast-iron stove and tiptoed up to peer over the back of the couch. Sure enough,
there was a silky, grey-furred lump curled up on the cushion where the man had
been hours earlier.

She shifted her
weight from one foot to the other, wondering what she would do. Finally, she
decided on the direct approach. "Hey there, buddy," she whispered.
Idiot
.

Tentatively,
she reached down to stroke the thick pelt across the animal's back. It was warm
and soft as a newborn kitten. The wolf stirred, causing her to jerk her hand
back, but did not awaken, making her feel silly for jumping.

Feeling a
little bolder, she cleared her throat and spoke louder. "Marduk. Wake
up." She had to cover her face when a blinding white light filled the
room. When she felt it was safe to open her eyes, she looked down to the wolf
and saw the young man in its place.

"Uh...good
morning," Isla said tentatively.

Marduk uncoiled
his long, lean body from the couch and stretched like a cat.
"Morning!"

"Gonna
have to see about getting you some clothes today. Jeremiah will have an
aneurysm if you keep walking around like that.

The boy just
smiled at her, unaffected by his own nakedness. Isla handed him the blanket and
he wrapped himself up just before Jeremiah shuffled in.

Isla drank in
the sight of him. He looked bleary-eyed and deliciously rumpled. The three of
them returned to the kitchen, and Jeremiah grunted when she handed him a mug of
coffee. Sitting at the kitchen table, the two men regarded each other silently
while Isla busied herself making breakfast.

When she placed
plates in front of them, they both dug in like starving men. After they had
finished eating, Jeremiah collected the dishes, washed them in the sink, and
put them away.

Still silent,
he walked back to take his seat, carefully folding his napkin and placing it on
the table. He pegged Marduk with an inscrutable stare. "You ready to
talk?"

Unfazed, the
boy flashed them what Isla was beginning to learn was his signature smile—it
kind of reminded her of a puppy that didn't know when to be cautious. "Of
course. Ask me anything and I will try to answer as best I can."

Seeming
satisfied, Jeremiah leaned his chair back and steepled his fingers together.
All scientist now, Isla thought with a smile.

"What are
we up against?"

"An entity
of great evil," Marduk answering, his face impassive.

A muscle in
Jeremiah's jaw ticked, but he showed no other reaction. "Can you be more
specific?"

"I shall
try." He scrunched his brows and looked off to the side, as if thinking of
how to begin. "His name is Alastore. It is said that he may have once been
a god, although it is disputed as to which pantheon. Corrupted by evil, he was
banished to the
caligo
—the space between Heaven and Earth, dreaming and
waking—to live as a
Lochrim
. He remains trapped there, and his only goal
is to hoard enough energy to support his corporeal form. If he is able to do so
during one of the few days of our calendar year in which the veil between our
world and the spirit world is lifted—Samhain and Beltane—he could escape for
good, to wreak havoc among man."

"And
supposedly it is Isla's job to, what? Kill him? Contain him?"

"Kill him,
no. In my time, I've never seen it done. But to contain him, trap him,
yes."

"Says
who?"

"Jeremiah,"
Isla warned.

Marduk merely
gave them a secret smile. "She was born to it."

Isla spoke in a
determined, if quiet voice. "How will I know how to do this?"

"The power
to do so is in you, has always been in you. None other than an act of the gods
could take it from you. Now that you know this, I can try to show you what to
do."

Jeremiah leaned
forward to rest his elbows on the table. "This Alastore," he said,
punching each syllable through a clenched jaw. "Can he kill us?"

Raising his
head, Marduk turned cool arctic eyes to Jere's face. "Yes. He can.
Alastore feeds off of energy—primarily negative—and he must consume this energy
to be able to create and maintain a corporeal body. Once he has, everyone is fair
game, physically."

"Where
does he get the energy?" Isla asked.

"There is
always latent energy from times past lingering in the atmosphere, plus what is
produced by the local flora and fauna, but that is not enough to sustain him.
His goal will be to draw humans to him, to his
locus
, to trap them there
and feed.

“He'll prey on
the worst parts of them, their fears, anger, frustrations—trying to extract the
evil from them. He magnifies and enhances those thoughts and feelings until
they just have to come out, to explode, and then he consumes the malevolent
energy. There is usually nothing left to save after that.

“The more
energy he consumes, the more power he has to attract more. He can possess
people, even animals sometimes, and force them to do his bidding, until he is
able to materialize completely and do it himself."

Isla turned
troubled eyes to Jeremiah. "That's what happened to the hikers, isn't it?
They were being controlled, in the grips of some evil creature." She
lowered her eyes, wrung her hands. "And it was after me."

"No,"
Marduk said firmly. "Alastore is after them, all of us, really. He'll come
after you because you are an obstacle to that, but he wants to destroy
everything. This isn't your fault."

In that moment,
Marduk's brows drew together into a frown. "You said hikers, plural. I
only saw the one who attacked you."

Taking Isla's
hand, it was Jeremiah who spoke up. "We found his wife first, out on
Raven's Rock. She jumped."

Shaking his
head sadly, Marduk looked to Isla. "That's how he'll come after you. He
knows you have defenses against him, especially in a one-on-one battle. He'll
try to catch you unaware, during sleep—through dreams—or in moments of intense
emotion, and take hold of your mind."

Isla and
Jeremiah shared a nervous glance.

"What?"
Marduk asked, looking back and forth between the two of them. "Has that
happened?"

"Twice,"
Isla said. "Once in a dream, before I really knew Jeremiah. Then after I
started spending time with him, it escalated. I think he possessed
me...briefly," she said, flicking her eyes back to Jere's face.

"
Cazzo
!"
Marduk said, and they certainly didn't need a translation for the outrage.
"It's worse than I thought. For an
embulibruixi
—one who was not
raised in the order and who's powers are repressed—it takes a significant
disruption or emotional change in one's life to fully unlock them. If Alastore
sensed that happening, it follows that he would try to make a move. It seems
like meeting Jeremiah might have been your
concitatus
."

"My
what?" Isla pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes.

"Your
catalyst," murmured Jeremiah, who seemed deep in thought. "If
this...entity has already made a move on Isla, we need to get her up to speed,
like yesterday."

"Agreed,"
Marduk said. "And one more thing. Make no mistake, Alastore is
not
human. While still a target, Isla has natural defenses against him. Jeremiah,
you do not, so take care."

~~~

After
breakfast, the three of them congregated on the cabin's faded front porch.
Marduk said being out in the open air would allow Isla to center herself
quicker, but Jeremiah thought they were all probably just a bit claustrophobic.

Reclining in an
old, plastic patio chair, Jeremiah watched Isla and Marduk through slitted lids
in the soft midmorning light. They ambled about the front lawn as Isla
explained the strange things that have happened around her.

Beautiful, he
thought. Pure. And in that moment, as he watched her earnest face and animated
gestures, he would do anything to protect her. As the pair wandered back over to
seat themselves on the porch steps, he wondered just what that said about his
feelings for her.

With his body
angled to face Isla, Marduk sat on the porch with his back against a column.
Holding his left hand out, palm up, he smiled brightly at Isla. "Watch
closely, Grasshopper."

When Isla
flicked a confused look up at Jeremiah, he just flashed her a crooked grin. The
kid was growing on him. The grin faded to a slack-jawed look of wonder as
Marduk settled his right hand above his left, and a small ball of blue flame
licked up from his upturned palm.

"As an
order of natural witches, the
Bruixi
need not rely on spells for our
magick. Spells can sometimes enhance the effects, but they aren't necessary. I
don't know all the physics of it, but it feels like an extra reserve of energy.
When you open your mind to it, you can control its movement."

He held out his
hand to Isla, and she waved hers through the flame. "It's not hot."

"It's just
an illusion. Not the David Copperfield kind, but a sort of projection. Not that
I can't make real fire, but I figured we should start slow," he said,
making her laugh.