Vesik 04 - This Broken World (11 page)

“Oh, stop,” I said as I groaned. “That was just an experiment. I didn’t know there was anyone else around.”

The Old Man burst into laughter at that point. “Serves him right for dropping eaves.”

I growled and flicked a twig into the fire. It hissed for a moment and then popped. “Have you met her Queen?” I asked, turning back to Zola.

Zola was biting her lips and smiling as she nodded. “One crazy bitch.”

The Old Man blew a stream of smoke through his nose. “You aren’t wrong about that.”

I stood up and walked away from the fire. Something skittered away from me on the rocks. I could see the shadows of some of the stones the Old Man had shattered. A furry form scratched at one of the fragments and then vanished. The Old Man had put on a frightening display by destroying that stone. I could scarcely imagine what kind of damage he could do when he lost control. I walked slowly back into the circle of light.

Zola was shaking her head. “Ah saw the stone. You lost your patience.”

“There was no risk,” he said. “I have it in check.”

“What was it like when you didn’t have it in check?” I asked. “What did you do?”

The Old Man stared at me for moment before he sighed and turned his gaze to the fire. “There was a long, long time I didn’t know what I was. I travelled from war to war, hunting for any trace of Ezekiel. When I found war … I became war.”

“How did you recover?” I asked. “The first time you lost control to the gravemaker … I saw it, when I fought Prosperine.”

“I’m sorry you had to see that, son.” He looked away. “It was an Old God that imprisoned me. Stayed with me for almost a month, as I recall—or that is what he told me—until the rage eventually subsided. I still wonder if it would have been easier for him to kill me.”

“Who?” I asked.

“Camazotz,” Zola said.

“Rest assured he had his reasons,” Aeros said from beside me.

“Oh, I’ve no doubt he had his reasons,” the Old Man said. “I just doubt whether or not I’ll like those reasons when I discover what they were.”

“Have you heard from Mike?” Zola asked.

The Old Man shook his head.

“I have not,” Aeros said.

Zola looked to me. I gave a small shake of my head to let her know I hadn’t heard anything either.

Zola rubbed gripped the top of her knobby cane and rapped in on the granite at her feet. “He has been gone a long time.”

“The demon will not betray us,” Aeros said. “Give him time.”

Zola nodded slowly. “Perhaps you are right.”

“Okay, I think we’ve had enough doom and gloom,” I said unzipping my backpack. I chucked a crinkled package of graham crackers to Zola, an enormous chocolate bar to the Old Man, and a bag of marshmallows to Aeros.

Aeros held up the bag, pinched between his rocky thumb and index finger. “What … is this?”

“S’mores!” I said.

“Why in the world was all this in your backpack already?” the Old Man said.

“Uh, s’mores, obviously,” I said, snatching the bag of marshmallows back from Aeros.

Zola just sighed and shook her head, but that didn’t stop her from opening the graham crackers.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Z
ola didn’t stick around long after the s’mores were gone. The Old Man and I made it back to the cabin around two in the morning. He actually went into the cabin to sleep before I did. I was used to him staying up well past the time I was out cold. Maybe Aeros had actually taken a little something out of him.

The pond connected to a thin underground river. Depending on the height of the water table, I could reach Nixie. I made my way toward the pond, leaving the nicely trimmed yard and wading through the taller reeds that surrounded the water. I took off my boots, rolled up my jeans, and stepped into the chilly pond.

The symphony of frogs immediately shut down when my foot broke the water’s surface. The crickets and cicadas still sang from the trees. I slid the blue obsidian disk out of my back pocket and laid it on the bottom of the pond, keeping my fingertips on the disk’s surface.

All I had to do was think about Nixie, and the surrounding ley lines flooded the pond with electric blue light. The disk grew warm beneath my fingers as the water above the disk began to bubble. I would have said it was boiling, but the water was nowhere near that warm. A curious frog flexed his legs and swam around the bubbles. It tried to swim faster when the bubbles rose into a dome above the water, but the frog was pulled up into the swell.

Slowly, a face formed in the rising water. I waited as Nixie’s sharp features materialized in the swell. Her eyes were unfocused at first, and then they rolled up to meet my own. The water sending didn’t do her bright green eyes justice, but a flood of warmth rolled over me being able to look at her again.

“Damian.” Her lips curled into a smile. Nixie’s voice was musical, even in the sending. Her image grew undefined, flowing back into a dome of water before sharpening again a moment later.

“Reception kind of sucks down here.”

“You’re in the middle of nowhere, you brainless lunk.”

I pulled my lips back in an exaggerated grin. “It’s good to see you too.”

“I’m afraid my head is the best you’re getting tonight,” she said.

I waggled my eyebrows.

“Pig.”

“Pig?” I said. “Pig? Where did you learn that? You’ve been talking to Sam again, haven’t you?”

“That’s between me, Sam, and Jasper.”

“What?” I said in such a loud voice that the insects around us fell silent.

Nixie giggled and blinked several times. It took me a second to realize she was batting her eyelashes.

“Where did you find Jasper?” I asked.

“He is here,” Nixie said before she frowned slightly. “I was hoping you would have called earlier.”

“Did something happen?” I asked. “You could have sent out the emergency bat signal. Also known as the freeze my ass off with your disk signal.”

“If you weren’t near a water source, you would have worried.”

“What is it?”

“Sam is here,” Nixie said, “and Jasper. Though I don’t believe she knows Jasper is guarding her from the shadows.”

I stared at Nixie, my mind an absolute blank.

“Damian?”

“How?” I said. “Why didn’t she tell me? What happened?”

“Glenn invited some of the Pit to the Concilium Belli. They came early.”

“Who else is with Sam?”

“Vik is here, and I am checking on her when I can.”

“Thank God for small favors,” I said. I trusted Vik more than any of the other vampires. He’d shown his loyalty to Sam and Zola both on more than one occasion.

The scars on my left arm began to tingle. Lately I’d come to realize it meant something significant was happening with the pack. I ran the fingers of my right hand over the scars and met Nixie’s gaze. “The River Pack?”

She nodded, her image collapsing and reforming in the motion. “Yes.”

I needed to be at the Concilium Belli. Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew this gathering was growing more and more significant, but Zola’s words stuck in my head. “I have to finish my training.”

“Yes. I know. The day grows near when I can hold you in my arms again.”

“That’s awfully touchy feely.” I said, cocking an eyebrow.

“You have no idea.”

Both my eyebrows shot up and she giggled again.

“How is Levi?” she asked.

“Whoa whoa whoa, let’s get back to Jasper.”

“Jasper,” Nixie said. Her eyes closed slightly and her head hung forward, as though someone had placed a great burden on her shoulders. “Jasper was with Ward at the fall.”

“Falias,” I said under my breath.

“He has lived in Faerie since you and Sam no longer needed him. He is one of the few survivors of Ezekiel’s rampage.”

My fingernails bit into my hand and I ground my teeth together. So many lives lost. So many Fae I didn’t know. So many Fae I’d never have the chance to meet. Rage warred with the desire to keep my family safe. Keep my friends safe. I could almost understand why the Old Man had lost himself. If everything you live for is taken away …

“Damian.”

I looked up and the expression on Nixie’s face almost tore my heart out.

“Do not lose yourself.”

I took a deep breath and nodded.

“It’s gotten worse, hasn’t it?” she asked. “The temptation?”

“We have to kill Ezekiel,” I said. “Look at what he’s done. We have to stop him.”

“The Old Man is the most powerful necromancer ever to walk upon the earth. Even he was barely a match for Anubis.” Her voice began to get shaky. “If you lose yourself, Ezekiel wins.”

“I won’t leave you,” I said.

The water along her cheeks shimmered and flowed downward. I wasn’t sure if it was just a stutter in the sending, or she was crying.

“How’s the Queen?”

Nixie’s face shut down. That was really all the answer I needed. “We’ll talk about it when you get here. Focus on your training. When you use the hand of glory, do not let go of it for any reason.

“How is Levi?” she asked.

I laughed a little and rubbed my eyes before looking at Nixie’s translucent image again. “I got a bit nasty with the Old Man today. It’s like Russian roulette with sarcasm.”

“Levi is not someone to fuck with,” Nixie said.

“You’re picking up some of the worst parts of our language quite well. Mom will be so proud.”

“Which mom?” She asked. I could barely make out the rise in her eyebrows.

“And
sarcasm?” I wiped my brow with an exaggerated motion. “That’s sexy.”

She grinned at me. “I miss you, Damian.”

“I miss you too, Nix.”

“How much longer will you be training with Levi?”

“I’m not sure. Until he says so, I suppose.”

Her image shimmered, faded, and then resolved itself in a fountain of water. “I haven’t felt your warmth in almost a year.”

“You have a frog in your head.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Are you changing the subject?”

I laughed and held my hand beside her image. The frog swam out of her cheek and onto my hand before it croaked and I set it down. “Really, you had a frog in your head.”

She blinked and said, “Oh.”

“I wish the world would calm the hell down so we could take a vacation together or something.”

“We’ll have some time here. You can see one of my homes!” She smiled, and it was warm, even in her watery state. “I love you.”

A small smile crossed my lips. “I love you too.”

She faded into the water and the light left the blue obsidian disc. I picked it up, shook most of the water off, and slid it into my jeans. In some small way, it felt like Nixie was still close.

***

I walked back to the cabin after strapping my shoes on. It wasn’t a great idea to walk around southern Missouri without shoes. Copperhead snakes have a nasty bite. At least the ticks weren’t out in force. I hate those bloodsuckers.

I ducked through the front of the cabin and eased the door shut. The s’mores hadn’t cut it and I decided to indulge in one of Dell’s most amazing of gifts.

I was on the couch about ninety seconds later, freshly microwaved chimichanga in hand. It was fantastic slathered in sour cream, but my mind was focused on far more troubling subjects.

Sam was in Faerie.

Glenn had brought the pack and the Pit.

Jasper was with Sam.

Mike was nowhere to be found.

Neither was Ezekiel.

I blew out a breath, turned awkwardly on the couch, and set my dishes on the counter. I smiled at a brief memory of Zola scolding me as a child for leaving my dishes in that exact same spot instead of the sink two feet away.

I stared at the backpack beside me and my smile faded. I unzipped it and pulled out the thin, black leather journal. My index finger slid to a random page and prodded the book open. Philip’s looping scrawl was almost familiar now. I hoped to find some new insight into Ezekiel buried in those pages, but we’d long since studied everything useful.

I flipped further back into the journal. My eyes skimmed the text until I realized what I was reading. It was a page I’d read more than once. I started at the top again. There was a faint coppery stain at the top edge of the page. At some level, I knew it was blood.

January 1
^st
, 1862

I have never seen death on such a scale. The Chicago boys are calling it the Slaughter Pen. We were some of the first to retreat. Without Aeros’s quick thinking and Sheridan’s response to the Confederates’ flank, I don’t know if anyone would have survived. They closed on us from the north. We expected them from the east.

Sheridan inspires a loyalty in his troops I can scarcely comprehend. They hold their ground, charge, and die, at his whim. His strategies are sound, methodical, but how can someone send so many children to their deaths?

Zola spun the most fantastic tale around the fire. A man who could step from nothing and vanish into the same. I had my doubts, but Aeros claims he saw the same. I do not know who the stranger was, but I fear my love would have been run down in the retreat if not for his intervention.

I was not fast enough to help them. Not strong enough to protect the woman I love. It won’t happen again. It can’t happen again. I will never let Zola suffer again.

A man who chased power to protect the people he loved. How did he fall so far? My eyes drifted closed. The night was haunted with dreams of what Philip Pinkerton had been, and what he had become.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

“I
will stab you in the face,” I said as someone shook my shoulder, waking me from the first decent dream I’d had all night.

“You can try,” a gruff voice said.

My eyes shot open and found the Old Man about a foot away. I groaned and winced as I straightened my neck. Sleeping on a too-short couch is generally not recommended.

“Let me see that journal.” He pulled out a thin pair of reading glasses.

“The what?” I said before I realized Philip’s journal was lying beside me on the couch.

I tried really hard not to smile as the Old Man tilted his head down and looked at me over the rim of his glasses. I failed.