The Burning Bush (33 page)

“You know what? Fuck it.” MeShack shrugged. “What’s a little torture? We could try it out. Last time I went twelve hours. Only thing is we’re supposed to call this guy every fifteen minutes and let him know we’re okay.”

“Me had no problem with you Lanore,” Nona said. “But now with you threatening my kin—”

“You can save it.” I held up my hands. “I don’t need to talk to you anymore. It’s clear you don’t speak for the Rebels. You’re just a puppet, and Mother Earth is pulling your strings.”

“You just Zulu’s whore.”

“Regardless.” I targeted Nona with my eyes. “You really want to put your boys’ lives on the line, when all you have to do is walk out with us and make sure your Rebels don’t touch us tonight?”

“Just tonight, huh?” Nona growled.

“Oh yeah,” I stepped forward, shifting my eyes to fiery orange. “After tonight, feel free to come for me, little doggy. And let me give you a quick tip about plastic water guns.”

I slung fireballs at the guns. The smell of melting plastic filled the air. The Rebels dropped the dissolving guns as water spurted to the ground.

“Let’s go congratulate Mother Earth on her promotion.” I held out my arm, and MeShack hooked his around mine as we passed Nona and her Rebels.

“You really had to show her that you could burn the plastic?” MeShack hissed in my ear. Nona and her Rebels marched behind us.

“Now I get what Angel was saying tonight.” My hands formed into fists.

MeShack sucked his teeth. “You mean the same Angel who is now in jail. The Angel we will have to figure out how to free. You’re taking advice from her?”

“Well, she had a point about one thing,” I admitted. “I’m really starting to get tired of people fucking with me and those I love. I’m about to show everybody what I can do.”

“That sounds pretty stupid to me,” MeShack said as we walked out of MFE’s door and beyond the Fairy glamour that hid the Inked Guerilla.

“MFE and Rebels, them one group, one nation.” Mother Earth did a big dramatic motion of putting two hands together.

“And what of the new MFE coleader Lanore Vesta? Will she be serving in this unified group?” An Earth Witch held a microphone up to Mother Earth.

“Maybe in an advisory position.” Mother Earth spotted me heading toward her and threw a quick scowl at Nona. “We respected Zulu’s wishes to have her as our leader, but now him gone.”

I directed flames to Mother Earth’s dreadlocks. Fire sparked against the kinky ropes like a match to a bucket of gasoline. She screamed, falling to the ground. The area now reeked of burnt hair right along with her Were-bullshit. Rebels patted the fire out with their bare hands, but it didn’t help. I waved my hand and smothered the flames with a command. Cameras flashed at me. I froze, remembering Cassie and how she always loved taking pictures.

“Really, La La?” MeShack whispered. “You’re just going to do this shit right in front of the cameras. Are you trying to get yourself killed?”

“It’s a new day.” I glared at Mother Earth as she sat on the ground. One news reporter spotted me and raced my way, gripping her microphone in her hand. Others noticed and headed in the same direction.

“Miss Vesta, what’s going through your mind now that MFE’s leader is gone?” one reporter asked. “How do you feel about the unification of MFE and the Rebels?”

Mother Earth finally rose with the help of three Rebels. I stepped to a microphone and shifted my eyes to fire. The crowd around me gasped and whispered. More cameras flashed in my direction, almost blinding me.

“There is no unification under Mother Earth,” I said loud enough for anybody in the back to hear. “MFE and the Rebels remain as two separate entities with one common cause, equality for all species in the habitat.”

“Who will lead MFE?” another reporter yelled on my right. Ignoring the question, I walked toward Mother Earth and didn’t stop until we were toe-to-toe.

“You try some Were-bullshit like that again, and next time I won’t put the flames out.” I bared my teeth, wishing I had fangs to chomp off her head.

“Be careful, little girl. I have no problem with you yet,” Mother Earth warned as her eyes shifted to large black-red pools. “I’ll even forget what you just did. You’re not thinking clearly with Zulu’s death.”

I still didn’t know what her animal was, but I doubted it was in the cat family.
Maybe she’s a Were-rat with those red pupils.

“You bombed his condo,” I hissed, forming fireballs above her head. A huge mass of Mixies squeezed through the reporters to get a better look. Shock glistened in most of their eyes.

“You just going to kill me here?” She grinned. A few Rebels chuckled behind her. I commanded the fireballs to move an inch closer.

A Mixie female shuddered. “She has power.”

I scanned the large crowd. There must have been close to a hundred Mixies and maybe thirty Rebels. Still, if the news crew wasn’t here, I might have considered killing Mother Earth.

“You know damn well who bombed the condo.” Mother Earth spat a huge glop of liquid near my foot. “Just because I’m trying to take over MFE doesn’t mean I killed Zulu. I’m just seizing the opportunity in front of me.”

I leaned in closer to her. Her scent of rancid cooking oil floated from her skin and seeped into my nose.

“Are you working with Dante?” I asked.

“No.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Doesn’t matter.” Mother Earth flashed me with a wide grin. “You have MFE tonight. Tomorrow, I’ll have MFE again when the cameras are gone. Why would I have to lie to you?”

“Now what?” Nona stomped to us, not standing on Mother Earth’s side or my side. She hung right in the middle.

“We’re done here.” Mother Earth’s eyes changed back to their normal color.

Sirens sounded in the distance. Smoke lingered over our heads now mixing with the sad fragrance of death. Kids cried across the street with no adults in sight who were willing to help. Mother Earth and Nona waited, gazing at me.

“La La, did you want to say something else?” MeShack asked.

“I’m tired of hearing the sound of kids cry and not doing anything about it,” I blurted out.

“Oooo-kay,” MeShack uttered the word with a questioning look.

Microphones floated over to us. It would have been nice to sever ties with the traitors in that moment. But the condo’s fire still brightened the night sky, making the horizon resemble a sunset. People in Yemaya were now homeless, starving, widowed, and orphaned. What was the use of holding onto MFE’s leadership if all we did was stomp around and fight the Rebels?

Time to put your big-girl panties on, Lanore.
I gestured to the microphones hovering above us. “We need to work together. Don’t you agree, Mother Earth?”

A stunned Mother Earth checked where I was gesturing and then nodded reluctantly. “Yeah, mon. Let’s help.”

Her words seemed forced, but I knew how much Mother Earth enjoyed being in front of the cameras. She would help as long as the media was around, which was good enough for me. Across the street, children huddled in a group, gaping at us.

I pointed at the kids. “Then let’s start over there.”

Helicopters hovered just outside the habitat’s barred ceiling as if scared we might escape.

“Hold up.” A big, burly Mixie stomped my way with a long machete. “They think Mixies did the bombing. If we help around the districts, it will prove some of us are guilty.”

“Where’s the logic in that? And if that’s true, then frankly I don’t give a fuck.” I walked away. MeShack and Nona flanked me as I headed toward the kids huddled near the rioting. “We have to get all these kids out of here.”

“And put them where, La La?”

“MFE’s warehouse.” I chewed the inside of my cheek. “Zulu had a spell put on headquarters, so if more people are added to the building, it will expand to fit everyone.”

“What about his approved list, which limits people from finding the place?” MeShack asked.

I raked my fingers through my dreadlocks. “Well, we’ll deal with that problem if it comes. Overall, the warehouse should let anyone in who doesn’t wish to harm MFE at the time of entry.”

“Get them little ones there and move your feet fast, mon. Kick up the dirt,” Nona ordered several Rebels who stood around behind her. She turned her attention back to me. “Where are me sons?”

“The Kappa Sigma Que frat house in Oya,” I replied and explained the real reason why the boys were there.

She exhaled, blinking away tears. “Me sorry about tonight, but me had to follow orders.”

“Are you all working with Dante?” I asked, looking directly in her eyes.

“No. But things bigger than us going on.” Nona’s face tightened around her eyes. “Me always protect mine.”

“What bigger things?”

Nona left me in the middle of the street as if I hadn’t said a word. I still wasn’t sure what to believe. She assisted the other Rebels and Mixies as they picked up kids and carried them toward the glamoured warehouse. The news crews recorded everything, even though, when the Rebels entered the Inked Guerilla’s Fairy glamour, it must have looked like the Rebels just disappeared. So far no one had been prevented from entering the warehouse, which meant for that moment, no one wished MFE or me any harm.

But things will change tomorrow.

More Mixies gathered around me. Others tramped in from some of the nearby neighborhoods, perhaps seeing what we were doing on the news and wanting to help. Most still clung to their pipes and sticks.

“Put your weapons down!” I shouted to the group that gathered. “This is a riot- and war-free zone. Grab any injured people you see from here to Yemaya, especially Mixies.”

Santeria emergency crews were known to bypass injured Mixies, so as far as I was concerned, wounded Mixies were getting top priority tonight. All the Mixies who had been heading toward me turned around. They divided into groups, yelling out, “Anyone need any help?”

“Here!” a woman screamed from down the street.

One of the groups raced her way to check out the problem. I stood there in shock, too exhausted to move, observing how they worked together. The big, burly guy who had protested earlier was now gently lifting the woman. Her leg hung at an odd angle, probably broken. A baby lay in her arms. A female Mixie took the child, rocking him and hurrying back in the warehouse’s direction.

“Breathe,” MeShack whispered and kissed my cheek.

“They listened to me.”

“Of course they listened to you,” MeShack said with clear certainty. “You’re smart, beautiful, and now the official MFE leader.”

“Thank you, MeShee. I think I need some confidence.”

“On another note, how many people can the warehouse expand to?” MeShack asked. “I know you better than you know yourself. You’ll try to fit the whole city in there if they’re injured.”

“I don’t know.” I spotted a few teenage Mixies throwing bottles with flaming rags hanging out of them at a store a few blocks away. “We’ll definitely find out the maximum limit because I’m going to stuff our building to the brim.”

The store went up in flames. The teens rushed away laughing with more bottles in their hands. A rusty maroon truck screeched up to me as I headed for the burning store. A Mixie with a gray, dangling beard peered out of the truck window. “You’re taking sick Mixies? My wife just called me and said you’re on the news helping out all the injured.”

Now it’s time to put my money where my mouth is. Well, Zulu’s money.

“Yes.” I rushed to the truck and peeked inside. “Take your injured over to—”

My lungs ceased breathing for a few seconds. A man lay back in the passenger seat with an open stomach. Blood oozed out of the wound, mixing with a puss-like fluid. Black-crusted scorch marks outlined his intestines.

“My son is a cashier over at Caramel Castle in the Yemaya Shopping Center,” the driver explained. “The medical units wouldn’t take him, said he might be a suspect and for me to take him to the habbies.”

I pointed to the Inked Guerrilla. “Take him over there.”

The car sped off toward MFE. MeShack’s hand went into mine. “What do you want me to do?”

“Call Vee and see if she can come with some of her friends and heal the ones she can. Tell her I’ll pay her.”
I just have to figure out how I’ll pay her.