The Children and the Blood (30 page)

“Because they do.”

Cole tensed and Robert scoffed. “I’m not turning you in for protection. I’m not stupid. You know what’s going on, so they don’t need me anymore. Wizards aren’t nice, kid. I’m a lot better to them dead than alive and able to talk. One hit with their magic and they’ll be stronger and have my silence at the same time.

“But they spent a hell of a lot of energy keeping you happy, which means they won’t just kill you now. So this is what I figure. I might’ve been out of the loop for eight years, but I’ve still heard rumors of some cripples who help people like us hide. They’re a tight group; nobody talks about them unless they trust you or you have connections. But I’m working on it. If I can contact them, then they can get us both out of here. And in the meantime, if the wizards catch up to us, you can act as a diversion while I escape.”

Cole’s eyebrows rose. “And I’m just supposed to let them grab me while you scurry away?”

Robert glared. “What’re you going to do on your own, kid? You know how to get in touch with this group I’m talking about? You know where the safe hiding places are?” He sneered. “You have an armory of guns to defend yourself with?”

Cole paused. “What’s to stop you from just shooting me once you’ve gotten in touch with these people? You won’t need me anymore.”

“Idiot,” Robert said. “You’re not worth anything to me dead. So what? I get a place to hide. That doesn’t make the wizards not exist. That doesn’t mean the war suddenly ends. God knows how long it’ll take the bastards to wipe each other out. And in the meantime, I’d like a little insurance to give me a chance of getting away.”

Cole’s thoughts went to the girl curled up in the footwell. To say Robert was untrustworthy was an understatement, but his plan had benefits. They gained a chance at safety with people who might know what was going on, assuming they were real. And if things went wrong and the bad guys showed up, Cole could provide a distraction while Lily escaped. It wasn’t perfect, but it was something.

And meanwhile, she could see wizards. He almost laughed at himself for even thinking the word.
Wizards
were after them. It would seem idiotic, if not for the events of the past week.

“Saying I agree,” Cole hazarded. “Are we staying here? In a public campground?”

“I have a cabin. Melissa, the wizards and all their damn spies never knew about it. Keep half my gun collection up there. It should be safe till I can get in touch with this group.”

Cole hesitated. In Hollywood…

“Who were the spies?”

“The lady next door, the man with the terrier down the street, and the school janitor,” Robert said as though it didn’t matter. “They watched everything and reported to the wizards if there was a problem. We didn’t have any other way of reaching the bastards either.
Security,
you understand. Kept us from giving them up to their enemies.”

“And were they all wizards?”

“Who knows? We can’t tell, remember?”

“Were there any others?”

“Why?”

Cole shrugged.

“You’ve been in contact with someone, haven’t you?”

He paused. “A guy from school.”

“Son of a–” Robert slammed his fist on the table, making the gun jump. “Idiot! What the hell were you thinking? That’s where the truck came from, isn’t it? Did this guy know where you were coming today?”

He considered it briefly. “I don’t think so.”

“Well, we’ve got to get out of here. You screwed up everything! How could you–”

“I don’t think he’s a spy,” Cole said, hoping it was true.

“And how’re you supposed to know? Can’t see them, remember! And you just…”

With skill born of years of practice, Cole ignored him. If Travis wanted to betray them, he’d had a week to do it. And Lily hadn’t seen anything. Which raised another issue.

Cole’s eyes slid to the gun, but the man wasn’t paying attention.

He snatched the weapon from the table.

Robert froze in mid-rant, and then a baleful smirk slid across his face. “You sided with them, didn’t you? Your friend’s a wizard and he sent you to see what I knew.”

“That’s not what’s going on here,” Cole said cautiously, easing himself away from the picnic table.

“Oh, really.”

“I have a way of spotting wizards. I just didn’t want you to shoot her.”

The man’s eyes narrowed.

“A bunch of guys killed Vaughn,” Cole continued. “And yes, they glowed. They put him through the trunk of his car without laying a hand on him either. And then they went after her family. Killed them all.”

He paused. “I got her away. But she saw something weird about every one of them who just looked like a regular person to me. So she sees wizards. And if you try to sell her out for your own protection, I will personally make sure the wizards kill you. Understood?”

Robert’s smirk deepened.

Cole tightened his grip on the gun.

“Fine, kid,” Robert sighed. “Show me your wonder girl.”

Hesitating a moment longer, Cole backed toward the truck and opened the door. From the footwell, Lily looked up at him worriedly.

“It’s okay,” he told her, praying he was right.

She climbed out.

The blood drained from Robert’s face and he swore, half-rising. Cole made a cautioning noise. Slowly, the man lowered himself back onto the seat, never taking his eyes from Lily.

Wrapping her hand in his own, Cole led Lily toward the table. Easing onto the bench, he cautiously set the gun beside him.

“What
is
she?” the man asked.

Indignation broke through some of the fear in Lily’s eyes.

“She’s a girl, Robert,” Cole said dryly. “Her name is Lily.”

“But she’s
glowing
…”

“I noticed.”

The man wouldn’t stop staring.

“Robert!” Cole barked after a few seconds passed.

Blinking in stupefaction, Robert tore his gaze from the eight-year-old and tried to focus.

“The…” he gestured to the girl.

“Lily.”

“She sees wizards?”

Cole nodded.

“But can they see that glow thing around her? I mean…”

“I’m pretty sure you’re the only one besides me who’s noticed it.”

For a moment, Robert studied the table in shock, and then suddenly, a wide smile spread across his face.

“This is brilliant, kid!” he cried. “This is… She can see wizards!”

Cole watched him, wary of this latest shift of emotion.

“Anyone who comes by, we can tell instantly if they’re a threat. And they… they really can’t see anything around her?”

“No one’s reacted to it yet.”

“This is incredible. This is…” Robert trailed off, and then he smiled again, a disturbingly excited light in his eyes. “Lily. It’s Lily, right?”

She glanced to Cole, her unease clear, and then she nodded at the man warily.

“Lily,” Robert continued. “How’d you like to stay with me for a while? Me and Cole, I mean. Would you like that?”

She regarded him silently, but he continued as though she’d spoken. “You’ll love it. I have a cabin in the mountains, with lots of trees and birds and everything. It’s beautiful. Wouldn’t that be nice?”

The girl looked to Cole, alarmed.

“Oh, he can come too,” Robert said hastily. “Don’t worry.”

“We’ll both go,” Cole told him. “And if she’s ever out of my sight for more than a bathroom break, I call my friend and tell him to go see the neighbors.”

Robert’s gaze snapped back to him.

“Agreed?” Cole said.

“You don’t want them catching you either.”

“I’ll take my chances.”

Robert studied him for a long moment. “Fine.”

“Come on,” Cole said to Lily, jerking his head toward the truck.

“I have a car.”

“We’ll follow you.”

“You’re such a–”

“Said that already, Robert,” Cole snapped. “Are we going?”

The man sneered, and then swiftly stifled the expression and tried to replace it with a smile when he saw Lily watching him. Turning, he headed for the opposite lot and unlocked the station wagon sitting there.

Cole walked back to the truck, and held the door open for Lily to climb in. Circling around to the driver’s side, his eyes never left his adoptive father.

“He’s mean,” Lily said after Cole shut the door.

“You just figured out all there is to know about him.”

Glancing over, he met the kid’s eyes, and then followed the station wagon away from the campground.

“So who’s this?” Spider asked, scrawling a symbol into the riverbank with a stick.

“Samson,” Ashe said.

“Perfect. This one?”

Another symbol followed.

“Serenity,” she answered, naming one of the other Hunters.

“How about this?”

The series of interlocking symbols made her blink.

“Bus says someplace isn’t safe…?”

“You need to get faster at that one,” Spider said.

“I’m working on it,” Ashe replied tiredly.

The girl gave her a brief smile and then swiped the symbols away with her foot before drawing the next one.

Ashe ran a hand through her dark hair, trying to concentrate. For the past month, Spider had slowly but surely been teaching her to recognize the graffiti that comprised the language she and the other Hunters used to communicate on the streets. Elaborate interconnected designs showed directions, instructions and warnings, with each sign changing in relation to the overall tag of the person drawing it. Myriad symbols for safety, danger, and each of her friends’ names now burned behind her closed lids every night, interspersed with endless images of the firing range. Over the recent weeks, she’d reached the point of being able to hit a target with decently reliable consistency, and distinguish in an instant many of the cryptic paint-drawn calling cards.

But a few were still taking time.

“Okay, so what about this one?”

“Run.”

At her tone, Spider glanced over at her.

“Sorry,” Ashe said. “Keep going?”

Pausing a moment longer, the girl nodded and drew another.

“Safe house.”

She appreciated the effort the others were putting into making certain she was ready to be away from the Abbey with them. If they became separated, the symbols could save her life.

It was just that everything was taking so long.

Ever since she’d asked Carter to help her hunt down the Blood who’d killed her family, time had seemed to crawl. She hadn’t been so silly as to think they’d locate him immediately, but every passing day made the whole thing seem more and more like a stupid child’s fantasy.

Find the bad guy. Take the bad guy out.

Helped if you had any clue where he was in the first place.

Irritation surged and, with difficulty, she tried to calm down. The training, the planning and all the hours Carter spent on the phone searching for any sign of the Blood wizard had gotten her through a lot. Countless nightmares and sleepless hours when all she could do was sit in bed shaking and hugging her knees had been pacified by the knowledge that soon, they’d be after him and this would finally end.

But it’d been weeks, and life hadn’t stopped in the meantime.

Between calls to other Hunters around the country, Carter fielded questions and requests from everywhere. People needed moving. Hiding. Helping. Rumors reached them of a previously unknown cripple wanting relocating in the west, but no one recognized him or any of the connections he claimed. After a fourth person mentioned the man, Carter finally sent a few people to investigate, albeit with three attack dogs and enough weapons to start a second war.

If it was a trap, no one wanted to be caught unprepared.

Meanwhile, more violence raged up north, the area where most wizards apparently stayed. Ferals had increased almost exponentially in the past month and new reports of wizard battles arrived all the time. And while the idea of Merlin and Taliesin killing each other didn’t bother anybody, word of cripples being caught in the crossfire left the Abbey silent for days.

And in the midst of it all, the Blood were mysteriously absent.

The others attempted to make her feel better, reminding her of how things took time. She tried to stay positive, appreciative, and not let them see how she trembled every time another call came in, only to prove to be nothing.

“Ashe?”

Spider’s voice broke into her thoughts and she blinked, realizing she’d been staring at the symbol on the ground without speaking.

“Blood in the area,” she answered quietly.

Glancing up, she caught the other girl’s expression and then grimaced ruefully. “Sorry.”

“Break time,” Spider said. She twitched her head toward the main building. “Come on.”

Scratching the symbols out with her foot, the girl tossed the stick aside and then headed up the riverbank with Ashe a step behind. In the kitchen, the rotund and middle-aged Belle greeted them cheerily, bidding them to sit down and share in the latest gossip she’d heard from the outside world. Biscuits and preserves appeared from storage bins, and by the time the two girls extricated themselves from the hearsay, an hour had gone by.

“You knew that would happen,” Ashe said as they headed back for the riverbank.

“I was hungry,” Spider replied, shrugging defensively.

Ashe grinned. Skidding down the steep slope, they landed in a shower of rocks on the water’s edge.

“Feeling better?” the girl asked.

Humor fading, Ashe shrugged. “He’s still out there,” she said softly.

“Growing more desperate every day,” Spider finished. “Even if he just wants you for bait, time’s ticking for him too. He’ll get sloppy.” She paused. “And then we’ll find him.”

Ashe drew a slow breath and nodded. The others had debated the meaning of ‘only needing one’ over the past few weeks, concluding primarily the Blood must want her to draw someone or some group out of hiding. The theory held merit, though she didn’t know of anyone still alive who’d be looking for her anyway.

Retrieving her stick from the shore, Spider glanced at her briefly and then sketched a symbol on the ground.

Ashe’s brow furrowed. After a moment, she shook her head.

“Bus’ design,” Spider told her. “Means ‘nice place, bring food’.”