WINDWALKER (THE PROPHECY SERIES) (9 page)

He ordered some bread and cheese and a bottle of his favorite wine to be brought up from the wine cellar, then settled into the most comfortable chair in the library to make the call. It was a silly little ritual, but Prince believed in bad luck, so repeating a ritual that had brought him good luck was needed to offset the bad.

He took a sip of the wine, rolling it around in his mouth and then sucking it under his tongue to get the full bouquet before letting it slide down his throat. He allowed himself a small moment of ecstasy at the perfection of the taste, and then broke off a piece of bread, slathered on some of his favorite soft cheese, and took a big bite. He was chewing as he punched in the numbers, and swallowed as the call went through. One more sip of wine as the phone began to ring, and if everything in the universe was aligned as it should be, his call would be answered before the third ring.

One ring, then two. He was holding his breath as the third ring began, then a click, and the voice he’d been waiting for came online. He smiled.

****

Maurice Tenet was an oddity in the world of humans. Being an albino meant always being the one who stood out in a crowd – never being the guy on the beach with the buff bod and oiled-down pecs. Women were nice to him, but mostly through curiosity. He had sex when he wanted it because he could buy it, and liked the setup far better than all the crap that came with a ‘relationship’.

But the older he got, the more serious his eye condition became. He lived with the risk of blindness, not to mention suffering with the skin conditions that were a result of his affliction. He could have become a bitter man, but instead of feeling like he was missing out, he had, instead, created a world around him in which he was the norm, and anyone else he let in became the odd man out.

He drove a white car with white interior and wore only white clothing. He lived in an oversized white beach house in LaJolla, California in which all the walls, furniture and floor coverings were white, and both his maid and his personal chef were people who’d also been born with albinism.

The art on his walls was black and white, and the light fixtures were either all white milk glass or glass with no color at all. Today was Tuesday, which meant it was feeding day for Winston, his pet albino boa. And, keeping with the décor, he was, at the moment, feeding Winston his bi-monthly diet of white mice. He dropped the last mouse into the snake’s mouth, watching absently as the boa began swallowing it whole. He never got bored watching the little mice wiggle, even after they were well inside Winston’s body.

Satisfied that task was over, he slid the lid back onto the boa’s glass case and then walked out of the game room into the library just as the phone rang. He waved at the maid, indicating he wanted a drink. She knew the routine and scurried away as he answered the call.

“Tenet here.”

“Maurice, it’s Landan. How are you?”

Maurice leaned back in his chair and rubbed his belly, as if contemplating a meal he was about to eat.

“Landan, I haven’t heard from you in ages. I’m fine, and you?”

“The same, always searching for a new and better world.”

Maurice laughed. “Ever the dreamer,” my friend. “So to what do I owe the pleasure of this call?”

“What? You think I don’t call just to say hello?”

“You haven’t yet and I’m thinking you’re past the age of changing your spots. What do you need of me, Landan? What curiosity do you have need of this time?”

“It’s not a thing, it’s a person… a woman actually.”

Maurice’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully. Acquiring people required more skill than finding relics.

“It will cost you, you know,” Maurice said.

“Money is not an issue,” Prince said.

“Well, it is with me. So talk. Who is the woman? What trick is she capable of pulling that might warn her in advance of my arrival?”

“Her name is Layla Birdsong. As for abilities, I’m not exactly certain. I have a tentative location and a photo. I’ll email you the particulars.”

Maurice frowned. “I know that name. Why do I know that name,” he muttered, and then it hit him. “Oh shit! You want me to go after a woman with an evil genie in her back pocket that peeled the skin off the last man who got near her? I don’t think so.”

Prince frowned. He didn’t like to be told no.

“What would it take for you to go after her?”

“Everything you have on what you think she is, and 24 hours to think about what my life is worth to me.”  

“Done. I’ll call you this time tomorrow and just so you know, I expect a positive answer.”

Maurice frowned. “Don’t threaten me, Landan. Not even subtly. Do we understand each other?”

Prince sighed. “Yes, and I apologize for that. It’s just very important to me.”

“Yes and so is my next breath. I’ll be in touch. Nice talking to you.”

He hung up before Prince had anything more to say and smiled at the maid who brought in his drink.

“Thank you, Pet. You’re the best.”

Petula Sims smiled and giggled, then scurried off before her boss got that look in his eye. They didn’t love each other, but shared the occasional meeting of the minds and bed for a twenty minute stretch, after which Pet had the job of removing dirty sheets and remaking the bed, while Maurice took himself off to the shower. He always compensated in her paycheck, she banked the extra for hard times, and that was how it worked in this house.

Chapter Six

One week later:

Layla and Niyol ate once a day, usually rabbit; occasionally a prairie chicken or snake. When they’d first reached the cave, he’d started her out drinking water three times a day, and now she was down to two without feeling thirst. She needed to be physically able to withstand hardship for the days ahead, and there was not much time to prepare her.

Layla had always been fit, but after the week in the hospital, and now the rigors of the training he was putting her through, she was losing body fat a rapid rate. Her jeans were old and soft, but they were hanging low on her hips. Sometimes she wore a loose shirt, but more often than not nothing more than a gray sports bra and her daddy’s necklace dangling between her breasts. She kept her hair braided, or in a ponytail at the nape of her neck, and her smooth brown skin was getting browner. The cuts on her belly and cheek were mostly healed and the scars were noticeable, but she didn’t care. The cut on the back of her arm was healed, but tender.

This morning Niyol had sent her out to run the canyon, beginning from the cave all the way to where the wall began to curve - and back again. She’d been running for only a short while when Niyol waved her in. She jogged in gratefully.

“That wasn’t much of a workout.”

“It wasn’t meant to be,” he said. “I had things to do that you aren’t meant to see.”

Layla stared, first at him and then at the floor of the cave behind him.

“Where did all that come from?”

“From me.”

Her eyes widened. “You can conjure up physical things?”

“It is not conjuring. It is a simple matter of acquisition from one place to another.”

“I am impressed,” she said, eyeing a spear and the bow and quiver of arrows – nice ones with a fine metal tip, a lot like the ones her father had used. There were other knives, although she preferred the hunting knife she wore around her waist, but no guns or ammo.

“Why all the old stuff? Why not some guns and ammo?”

“Because you will fight the old way, or the Old Ones will not deem you worthy.”

She walked past him for a closer look, heard a slight shuffling of feet and reacted, but not fast enough. Once again she was on her back with Niyol on top of her.

Layla sighed in frustration. “Crap.”

“You are-“

“Don’t say it. I know, I know. I’m dead,” she muttered, as she pushed him off.

He was frowning as he helped her up. “You are not paying attention. You can learn anything if you just pay attention, and there’s not much time.”

Layla nodded. “I will do better,” she said, and slid her arms around his neck, as if to hug him, but tried to trip him, instead.

She saw his eyes widen just a fraction of a second before she moved, but he was grinning.

“I wasn’t expecting that, but you gave yourself away.”

“How?”

“Your eyes always close when we’re about to kiss. This time they widened slightly as you mentally assessed what you were about to do.”

“Crap again.”

He laughed, and this time swung her up into his arms. “I want to make love to you.”

Layla’s pulse kicked. “The feeling is mutual.”

“But this is not the time.”

Her disappointment was physical. “Then put me down and pay attention to what I’m going to tell you.”

He frowned slightly, but did as she asked.

“Here’s the deal, Windwalker. When you walk in human shoes, you don’t tease a woman with heaven, and then pull back and tell her the dishes aren’t done.”

His frown deepened. “I don’t understand. I did not ask you to do these dishes of which you speak.”

This time she was the one grinning. “It’s an analogy. What I’m saying is, don’t turn a woman on and then walk away. It’s called teasing.”

His expression lightened. “Ah. Teasing. I get it. I will never tell you to do dishes.”

All of a sudden Layla felt like crying because she knew that to be true, and it was probably the saddest thing she would hear all day.

Her eyes welled as she turned away, but Niyol saw. A sharp pain pierced his chest and his hand moved to the pain without thinking. It had been a long time since he’d felt regret, and was remembering he hadn’t liked it then, and didn’t like it now.

“I am sorry for hurting you,” he said. “But I am here to keep you alive, and you must learn many things before it’s too late.”

She shrugged and wiped the tears from her cheeks before she would face him again.

“I just over-reacted. You do your job and I’ll do mine, and we’ll say goodbye without making it a big deal. So what’s the next lesson?”

The pain in Niyol’s chest grew more intense. He couldn’t bear the look on her face another moment longer without trying to explain.

“You are wrong. It will be, what you call, a big deal. Standing in this body, feeling what I feel, it will be a most cruel and unjust goodbye. I will mourn your loss as great as you mourn mine. What you must never forget is that you belong to me. You have always belonged to me. As you take your last breath, look up. I will be standing beside you, waiting to take you home.”

A sob rolled up Layla’s throat as she threw herself into Niyol’s arms.

“You break my heart,” she whispered.

Niyol buried his face in the curve of her neck, then began taking off her clothes.

“I thought you said this wasn’t the time,” Layla said.

“I was wrong.”

He shed his clothes as if they were water and laid her down on the bedroll. Deep in a cave in the Canyon del Muerto, surrounded by an arsenal of weapons, he showed her how very wrong he had been.

****

Against every ounce of good sense he possessed, Maurice Tenet gave into his greed and accepted the job Landan Prince offered him – to the tune of five million dollars, plus expenses.

After the dossier Prince sent on Layla Birdsong, Tenet caught the first flight out to Arizona, rented a car in Phoenix, and headed toward the Navajo reservation armed with a camera, his usual protective garb from the dangers of sun and wind, and wearing an assortment of Native American jewelry to make it appear he was both a fan and an admirer.

He wheeled into a gift shop on the reservation, booked a tour to see the pueblo ruins in Canyon del Muerto, and insinuated himself into a faux friendship with the driver along the way.

The oddity of his condition always made it easy to strike up a conversation. People were curious about the pasty-white man garbed from head to toe, wearing wrap-around sunglasses.

All he had to do to get a reaction was take the sunglasses off. The moment they saw his eyes, no matter how hard they tried to hide it, they freaked. With no pigmentation to color the irises, all that was visible was the blood behind the lenses, giving him the appearance of a living, breathing vampire.

As they rode, he listened to the tour guide’s spiel, while eyeing the landscape and scoping out the places someone with Birdsong’s issues might hide. The good news was that he was here, but the bad news was how vast the canyon actually was. Unless he got very lucky, a search by air would be required.

The guide stopped in several places for the tourists to take pictures. Tenet bailed out with all the others, and snapped pictures at random while watching for his next opportunity to get information. He didn’t have long to wait.

The tour guide, a Navajo man who introduced himself as Leland Benally, was standing at an overlook answering the tourists’ questions when a woman drove up in a truck. Tenet watched her get out on the run, heading for their guide.

After a hurried conversation between the two, Leland announced to the group that there was a family emergency at home and that his wife, Beverly, would finish the tour for him. He took off in the truck she’d driven in, and she began moving among the tourists, introducing herself and making them feel at ease. When she got to Maurice, she couldn’t help but stare at how covered up he was in such heat. He quickly put her at ease with a brief explanation of his condition.

“Wow, that’s something,” Beverly said. “You know, in an ironic way, I understand a little bit about how out of place you feel. I’m a white woman, married to a full-blood Navajo and living on the rez for almost fifteen years. We have three kids together, but there are times when I still feel out of place.”

Maurice nodded sympathetically, but the wheels were already turning. An outsider might be the way into any secrets they were keeping regarding Birdsong, especially if there was money involved. He took a step toward her and put a hand on her shoulder in a gesture of sympathy.

“It’s hard being different, isn’t it?”