Nevermor (11 page)

Wren tried to
keep track of what was going on, but she had a hard time following it, even
though she had a clear view of the spectacle.

One man reached
for his blade but he didn’t manage to pull it from the sheath before Rifter had
hit the end of it with his own hand and forced it back inside.  The man looked
stunned and tried again, but Rifter leapt into the air – unnaturally high – and
kicked him squarely in the chest, knocking him to the ground.

At nearly the
same time, another managed to fire a shot from his pistol, and though it was
loud, it hit nothing.  He had not even lowered the barrel when Rifter had
appeared beside him in a flash, grabbed the man’s arm and hit it with the hilt
of his own sword in such a way that the bone cracked.  Wren clenched her teeth
together when she heard that sound, but she was so absorbed that she could not
turn away.

A cry of pain
had just erupted from his throat before Rifter spun around and lopped off the
man’s head in one motion.

Wren saw the
dark mass of it fly back through the air – heard it hit with a thud against the
sand – but she couldn’t look.  She shut her eyes and refused to watch the rest.

I can’t…  I
can’t see this!

She kept her
head pressed against her knees until the gurgling screams were silent and the
last body had fallen – until all she could hear was the sound of the waves
rolling in.  Everything was settled.  All was quiet once again.

“I leave you alone
for a couple of minutes and you’ve already gotten yourself in trouble.  It’s
going to be a lot of fun having you around.”

Rifter’s tone
was sarcastic.  His voice came from directly over her, but she had not even
heard him approach.

Wren dared to
open her eyes and she saw that he was standing beside her, completely unscathed
for his trouble and only a little winded.  She should have been thankful that
he had rescued her, perhaps, but she could only stare up at him in horror.

He offered his
hand and she took it without thinking, still in shock.

“You just killed
them!” she exclaimed, glancing down at the bodies that littered the shore.

Wren had never
seen a dead body so close before, and it was not a pretty sight.  Blood pooled
out across the sand; their tongues hung limply.  Her stomach churned, and
coupled with the panic that was still lingering, she thought she might be sick.

He stared at her
a moment, hard, trying to figure her out.  Then, she saw his eyes shine as the
corners of his mouth turned up.  He laughed, and the notion of it was ghastly
to her.

He’s laughing at
this violence
,
she realized, and she felt a line of heat flare across her cheeks. 
And at
me.

“That’s a good
one,” he said, slinging the blood off his blade before he put it away.

“It’s not a
joke!” she cried.  Wren couldn’t seem to find a place to direct her eyes.  She
didn’t want to look at the blood, or the ocean, or at
him
.  She glanced
upward at the sky, but it wasn’t long before she was looking back at his
laughing eyes.

He was staring
at her again, looking incredulous.

“What would you
have rather I did with them?” he asked, stepping closer to her.  “They wouldn’t
have been so gentle with you.”

She didn’t
answer, because she would have to agree with him if she said anything.  She had
been frightened, and she knew that what they had been planning to do to her
would not have ended well if he’d not shown up.

Wren saw how he
looked at her so pointedly, and she had nothing else to say against it.

“Who were they?”
she asked instead.

“Scum,” he said,
pushing the nearest corpse with his foot to roll the body over.  She stared at
him blankly.

“
Pirates
,”
he clarified.  “They prowl when they dare, but I don’t let them get far when I
see them.  They are vile men who don’t deserve to live.”

Was that true? 
She didn’t know a lot about pirates except from stories, but
vile
was
certainly a word she might have used to describe them.  But to be killed like
this?  She just wasn’t sure how she felt about that.

“I knew they
were close,” he explained.  “I saw the boat down the beach when we first
arrived here.  I don’t like it when they get too close to my territory.  I was
trying to hunt them down, but they found you instead.  I guess it worked out
anyway.”

“You
guess
!”

“You distracted
them,” he explained with a careless smile.  “It did me a favor.”

She was
smoldering.  What if he hadn’t come back when he had?  What then?

You should be
glad he came back at all,
she told herself. 
That’s more than you would get
if you were back home.

Rifter touched
her face, making her focus on his eyes.  She felt a shiver rush through her,
and she wasn’t sure whether it was from dread or excitement.

“You’re alright,
aren’t you?” he asked gently.  “Live another day.  That’s all that matters.”

Wren could do
nothing except keep silent, and Rifter shook his head at her. 

“I see a mimic’s
found you already too.  You’re
such
an easy target.”

“How do get it
off?” she wanted to know, ignoring how he chided her this time.  “I don’t like
the idea of it.”

“You don’t get
it off.  You’re stuck with it now.  Once one molds to you, that’s it.  It’s
with you for life and it’ll always have your shape – though they have been
known to get away.  If it does, you’ll want it back.  You get strangely
attached to the things.”

He turned away,
done talking to her for now.  She saw him counting the bodies and then he
dipped his fingers into the blood of the nearest one and wiped four streaks
across his bare chest beneath the coat of leaves.  Wren forgot her displeasure
long enough to be horrified even further.

“What are you
doing?” she asked as she observed his grim display.

“Marking my
kills,” he told her easily.  She suddenly remembered the two red lines on his
face when she had first met him.  They hadn’t been paint, but
blood
.

He’s dreadful!

“Just for you,”
he began in a mockingly good-natured tone, “I won’t take their heads with me.”

Rifter grinned
and began to walk away, leaving her standing there, feeling like she’d been
awakened from a pleasant dream by violent shaking.

What sort of boy
is this?  What have I done by coming here?

“Are you coming
or not?” he asked, and she pulled her eyes up from the blood long enough to
realize that he had gone several steps away from her.

“Well, I’m not
sure that I want to go with you,” she said honestly.

Once again, he
laughed.  “Where else are you gonna to go?”

Wren looked
around, as if she hadn’t already seen all there was to see.  Unfortunately, he
was right.  She wasn’t sure if she could find her way back if she started off,
and swimming was out of the question.  She could wait here until more thugs
came along, or she could go with him.  She already knew which was safer.

Aren’t you
forgetting something?

“Wait!’ she
said, remembering suddenly.  “Where are my brothers?”

“I left them
behind,” Rifter said with an easy shrug.  Wren felt her skin grow hot with
fury.  Hadn’t she told him that the whole reason she’d wanted to come here was
so that she
and
her brothers could escape their life?

“The point was
that they could come
with me
!”

“I looked them
over, but I wasn’t interested in them.  I’m interested in
you
.  You’re
the one who found this place.  They didn’t.  Besides, I already brought you all
this way—”

“Well go back
and get them!” she insisted.

He gave her a
hard stare, but her expression was just as firm as his was.  He must have seen
that, because he gave up first – to her surprise.

“I’ll think
about it,” he said firmly as if that was to be the end of the argument. 
“First, you come with me.”

He snatched up
her hand, and she was thankful that it was not the one with blood on it.  Somehow
– despite her revulsion toward what she had seen him do – she felt calmer at
his touch, and found herself wondering if he was holding her hand because he
wanted to flirt with her, or simply to keep her from escaping.  She had never
held hands with any boy aside from her brothers, and she had to admit that it
made her feel a bit mushy inside.

Wren relented on
the issue for now, consoling herself that there was still time to convince him
to go back after Henry and Max.  There were a few days – perhaps weeks – before
either of her brothers were to be sent away from the Home, considering that
Henry didn’t decide to run away first.

If I had only
woken them up before, maybe they would be here with me now.

Or maybe I
wouldn’t be here either.

That thought
brought her around to consider how she had come to be here now – how she had
been grabbed and blinded, spirited away without a warning.

“You know,” she
started, “you didn’t have to kidnap me like you did.  I would have come
willingly.”

“Do you ever
stop complaining?” he sighed for his own amusement.  “That’s the way I always
do it.”

“Well it was
really very rude.  You can’t just take what you want all the time.”

He stopped and
turned on her so abruptly that she almost ran into him.  He peered down at her
with cool blue eyes, and her heart leapt into her throat.

“What’d you say
your name was again?” he asked, his eyes narrowing to slits.

“Wren,” she told
him, annoyed that he hadn’t cared to remember.

“
Wren
,”
he addressed her, and she tried to pretend that she didn’t like the way he said
it.  “It’s my world.  I can do as I please.”

She could see
that he was serious.  Initially, she wasn’t sure how she should feel about the
way he looked at her, but then he changed his demeanor and smiled.

“I don’t like
anyone to know the way here,” he explained.  “That’s the reason I took you as I
did.  Can’t have just anyone knowing how to find this place.”

Wren swallowed
hard, but she believed that made sense.  She was sufficiently humbled, and once
he had seen that, he allowed them to continue on – but he let go of her hand,
and Wren felt a bit saddened at that.

4

Rifter guided
the quiet girl across the beach and to the tree line, where they passed into
the woods.  It wasn’t long before Wren had realized that the tropical trees
from the beach had become a forest of pines and oaks which reached to the sky
with leafy fingers.

How unusual…
  The world had
changed in an instant.

She stole a
glance at Rifter, seeing he had pulled his hood back up over his head, and she
guessed that he was in good camouflage.  If he was being very still, she didn’t
think she would have seen him.  She couldn’t say the same for herself,
however.  Her gown was practically glowing in the moonlight, welcoming trouble.

Wren found
herself looking at his face, and she began to feel lenient toward him.

I shouldn’t be
too disagreeable at once
, she told herself. 
It was good of him to save
me from those pirates, and to bring me here.
 
He didn’t have to.

Rifter didn’t
say much as they walked, keeping an eye out for danger, she supposed, but since
things seemed quiet to her, she decided to try talking to him.

“May I ask you
another question, Rifter?” she asked nicely.  She thought that he would respond
to being asked permission, and as she watched him, she could see the little
smile on his face.  He was amused she’d
asked
to ask a question.

“Alright, but
just one more for now,” he teased.

“Earlier at the
beach – and at the orphanage as well – there was a strange little light zipping
around.  I assume it was a fairy, but where is it now?”

At the mention
of that, Rifter stopped dead in his tracks and Wren had stepped ahead of him
before she’d even realized it.  He’d grown pale – white as a ghost.

“Oh hell,” he
groaned, and Wren was stunned, unable to grasp what had brought on his severe
reaction.

Rifter looked
all around, and Wren guessed he was looking for the light, but of course it
wasn’t there, as she’d said.

“Just, uh, wait
here a minute,” he instructed her, and a second later he’d taken off like a
rocket into the sky and disappeared.

Where...?
  She shook her
head, dismissing the thought before it had finished. 

He is not very
considerate sometimes.