House of Slide Hybrid (34 page)

“You really think that being close to me is good for him?”

He nodded. “The two of you are practically one person what with the soul stuff and then the bond. How can you stand it?”

I stared at him, feeling weird about being so close to Lewis while Ash stood there, but not willing to move. “My dad took it away from me. I know it’s hard for Lewis, but I’m fine.”

He frowned then leaned closer like he was checking out the buttons on my shirt before he straightened up with the frown etched deeper between his eyebrows. “That explains it.”

“Does it? Great.”

“We should talk about this, but it’s hard to put into words. Right now I need to be focusing outside, around, you know?”

I nodded because I did know. He was somehow looking at me and focusing on the soul sight at the same time. Tricky.

“So, maybe I can take a bath, to concentrate and cloak us from the people who are after us. I concentrate better in water. It’s good that you’re blocked off from Lewis, you know, makes things less awkward.” He actually blushed then.

“Whatever you say,” I said, shifting until I was curled around Lewis, my cheek resting on his chest.

He shut the door firmly behind him leaving me alone with Lewis who I tried to ignore. It was like ignoring being burned alive, or ignoring a grizzly bear charging you, or like ignoring my soulmate who I didn’t begin to understand but who felt like home.

I slid my arms around his neck hoping that Ash was right, that somehow Lewis could soak up my strength, that I could help him instead of putting him in harm’s way. I felt safe, warm, and worn out. I’d been running on hysteria ever since I’d seen Ash drift off. I hadn’t really relaxed since I’d gotten tattoos but there in that out of the way motel I felt the tension ease from my shoulders. The gentle rhythm of his breath, the weight of his shoulder and leg pushed the stress out of me, and I drifted again.

When I woke up, I couldn’t remember where I was, but I felt better than I’d felt in a long time. I sighed and shifted closer to the warm body beside me until with a gasp I sat up, remembering that I was curled up beside Lewis and the rest of it, the cows, the demon man, and Ash losing it came back to me.

The motel looked even worse in the light of day, and I wondered how I’d missed the smell of stale sweat and mildew, a combination that was even lovelier than cigars and gunpowder. Of course, I hadn’t noticed much besides Lewis’s warmth and weight. I brushed his hair back off his forehead tentatively.

I studied his face, touching the skin gently with my fingers as I searched for signs of improvement. I wanted to memorize the feel of his skin with my fingers, skin so warm, so soft while his face was so young and innocent looking that I could see the boy in him. My fingers jerked to a stop and I stared at him, at his soft mouth that looked like the mouth of a sleeping angel. His lips were pale, his skin cooling the longer I was away from him. Was he absorbing my warmth? I shivered at the thought that he’d have to rely on me when I couldn’t remember to bring a coat for anyone.

“If you’re awake we should probably make our next move.” Ash’s voice jolted me out of my fascination with Lewis. I turned and saw the lump under the brown blanket on the other bed where Ash was. “I cloaked us from two more demon men and four others who are after you or Lewis. I don’t know which because if you dip into people’s minds they’re more aware of your presence. The demon men have backed off, they’re not really comfortable day-timers, but the others are still out there looking for us. Do we have a plan yet?”

He kept his head under the blanket, like he didn’t want to move. He sounded good though, not too tired even though he’d been up all night. I remembered my dad and how he hadn’t needed much sleep. It was probably a Cool thing.

“A plan, right. Um, I’m not really good at plans. You’d think I’d be great since I’m half Wild, but dragging you out to free the cows was probably an indication that someone else should do the planning.”

Ash sat up so the blanket fell off him. He looked at Lewis beside me, like maybe he could do the planning.

“Do you have any ideas, Ash?” Apparently he wasn’t an in-charge kind of person even if he knew more about pretty much everything than I did.

“We’ll need food. I’m good but when Lewis comes to…” he didn’t have to finish that sentence. I could remember when I’d had the fury and how hungry I’d been. Of course, I’d always been hungry when I’d had his soul. “If we could contact Hotbloods, they could get us something for his fury. I’ve heard of some bad side effects.”

“Yeah, like death,” I said, turning back to Lewis to check him. He looked better than the morning in the Hollow House so that was something.

“I’ve heard of brain damage,” Ash said, once more getting my attention.

“Where will we find Hotbloods? Are there any clans near here?”

Ash shook his head and looked uncomfortable. “Only the Hybrid camp I already mentioned. It’s part of the directions I picked up on Lewis when he touched me, like he was running through various scenarios and that one was stuck in his head at the moment that he burned out.”

“Yes, so let’s do that then.”

“It’s not one hundred percent foolproof,” Ash said reluctantly. “It’s where Hybrids gather to be trained as Hunters because Wilds aren’t allowed to kill Hunters. It’s a horrible system because Wilds shut down the camps, put trackers on Hybrids, check them to make sure there aren’t any Hollow touched among them. Camps aren’t illegal but Wilds hate them. Most Hybrids just want to survive as a Hunter, but a few are anti-Wild. Can’t say I blame them.” He shook his head at the injustice of it. “The camps are secret to protect the Hybrids while they’re training to kill demons.”

I shuddered when I thought of demons, of trying to kill demons then put my arms protectively over Lewis, like I could keep him from being in danger from demons again. For me it was training or death, for most Hybrids, Hunting or death. Were all Wilds so extreme?

“You think there will be people who can help Lewis though, even if there’s a threat from Wild’s coming?”

Ash nodded slowly.

“Let’s go.” I moved fast so I couldn’t rethink leaving Lewis. I felt like I’d been stripped and wrapped in cold emptiness the moment I lost contact with his skin. I blinked, stunned while I waited to adjust to the feeling. It was crazy how the way I normally felt seemed so cold and awful in contrast to being in his arms.

Ash jerked, dropping the shoe he’d been putting on his foot while he stared through me. “Do you hear that?” he whispered. “Hear is the wrong word. Close your eyes.”

I obeyed and wondered what I was supposed to see besides the back of my eyelids.

“In a moment you’ll feel the tracers. Try to see them. There’s not much to see except for the energy wake behind them. I can block what people see but I can’t block actual energy waves. Some Wilds could block with runes. It’s one of the Wild gifts, the ability to send out energy that traces, responds to the energy of others. If they’ve brought someone who can trace then we’ve got to go now.”

Ash’s voice was mesmerizing, soothing me and pulling on me at the same time. With my eyes closed I caught a glimpse of Ash’s silvery blue soul, then became absorbed by Lewis’s, red and dark, a soul that called to me so forcefully that I took two steps towards him before I could stop myself. Past him in the silvery dark nothing there was an almost something that looked a little bit like a current in water, a ripple that created a slight a distortion without changing the rest of what I could see with soul sight. When it passed through our little room, I could see the reaction, the way the energy wave bounced back where it had come from on each point that it touched one of us, Lewis, myself, and Ash. I recoiled in shock as the tracer made contact with me even if I couldn’t really feel or see it. I blinked out of the soul sight, realizing that was the first time I hadn’t touched Lewis when it had happened.

“Let’s go,” Ash said after he had on his old tennis shoes.

“Yeah,” I mumbled, but my voice wasn’t quite level. I wasn’t quite sure what to think about this guy who could see energy disruptions in the fabric of space and time. “Let’s go to Hybrid camp and hope that they can help us.”

Ash nodded and then spent a long time leaning against the door with his eyes closed, watching people with his soul sight so they wouldn’t see us sneak out in daylight. Sneaking in daylight may not have been ideal but it was better than waiting until dark when there would be more demons.

It was nerve-wracking and back-breaking to haul Lewis out to the car then duck down with my head on his lap while he lay reclined on the seat. We edged out of the parking lot, down the street, and back on the small highway. My neck was bent at an odd angle, but when I turned my head and accidentally had contact with the skin of his stomach I had another flash of his soul, the burning pull of it bringing my head back, against the dashboard with a crack.

“You might want to get that under control,” Ash said, helpfully.

“It’s on my list,” I muttered, unsure where to put my head. At least his soul was still there, still burning.

He shook his head and looked confused. “You have your father staying with you, don’t you? He’s legendary. He can do things with his Cool skills that I can’t even imagine. Why isn’t he teaching you the basics?”

I shook my head. “I know how to block leaning other people. My dad didn’t teach me that, though. I don’t know. It’s like he doesn’t want to change me, I guess?” I rubbed my forehead. “I have a Trainer, Carve. He’s Wild and Cool. He’s shown me a few things, like soul flight and…”

“Soul flight?” Ash slammed on the brake sending me against the dashboard again.

“What was that?” I asked.

“Sorry. Soul flight isn’t a good idea, Dari. That’s what Hollows do.”

I sighed. “He taught me so that I wouldn’t do it.”

He shook his head, squinting at the road like he saw more than the pavement. “Don’t tell people that you can do that, all right? Hollow blood is not a small thing.”

“Are you going to turn me in, Ash?”

He looked at me, stunned by my question. He didn’t almost drive off the road. “I owe you my life.”

I rubbed my face. “I was joking. I trust you. And me saving your life should not mean exposing you to the demon man.”

He laughed and patted my shoulder lightly sending a sensation of light and peace through me.

Ash was right, though. What Ash had done with the cows, cloaking us from people, sensing the tracer, it was useful stuff that didn’t require painful training or tattoos. I needed to learn that. I needed to learn everything.

“I don’t even know what I don’t know,” I muttered.

“You’ve come a long way from soulless,” he said encouragingly.

I shivered and tightened my hand on Lewis’s knee. “Do you know what my brother planned for me?”

Ash looked surprised. “Your brother never communicated with me about you.”

“Why did he take my soul? How did he fragment it so that I would stay alive?”

He sighed. “Don’t tell anyone about having a fragmented soul, either. All right?

“Is that a Hollow thing, too?”

He made a choking laugh sound. “No. That’s a demonic thing. Do you know much about history? I mean, the kind you don’t learn in school?”

I stared at him blankly.

“Nether people like Cools, Wilds, Hotbloods and Hollows are here on this plane to fight for the Nether who can’t survive here for long periods of time. If they tried they would end up destroying innocence, and that’s against their nature. That, is a good thing,” he said pointedly. “Where was I?”

“We’re here as the Nether mercenary armies?”

He shook his head. “We’re left to our own devices, but we’re supposed to be united in destroying the demons. They come to this plane to grow in power, so they can leave and attack the Nether, at least that’s what someone explained to me that almost makes sense. No one really knows the motives of demons, or Nether either very well. They’re all mysterious and misty. Not a very pleasant group from what I understand, but completely irresistible to humans.”

“But not as bad as demons.”

“Definitely not as bad as demons.” He shuddered. “I’ve never seen a demon man before. Most people don’t see one and live. The way that Lewis burned it from a distance like that?” He shook his head in amazement. “I had no idea a Hotblood could do that much less a Hybrid.”

I smiled and caressed Lewis’s face, smoothing my fingers over his jaw and cheekbones.

“He’s able to survive most things that would kill an ordinary person.” Like me. I shivered and moved closer to Lewis, shifting so that his head fell on my shoulder.

“Right. What was I saying? Oh. The Nether have gifts that we know about. Soul flight and other soul manipulation for Hollows, and sundry other stuff we won’t get into today, Cools lean, Hotbloods burn, Wilds manipulate elements. The demons have their own gifts, their own abilities that they pass on to those that serve them.”

“Like what?”

He shrugged. “Like enhanced physical ability and gifts, like runes only more. Like manipulation of plants and animals, tainting them until they’re warped versions of themselves, more deadly, more powerful, more cunning. Like fragmenting souls and raising corpses to life and controlling those around them.”