Page 37 of Taken By Raider Kings
“Let me guess.You were married to him.”Zach couldn’t suppress a mirthless little laugh when she started and stared up at him, pale eyes wide behind her glasses.She lookedjustlike a librarian.A really hot one.“It’s not that hard to figure out,” he added, when he could keep a straight face.“How bad was it, with him?”
She was silent for a long moment, staring at the charred fingers of timber and blackened concrete.
“Bad enough,” she muttered, then tried to lean away from him.He didn’t let her, pretending not to notice the movement.
He decided to push a little more.“How bad is bad enough?”
“Bad enough that I left in the middle of the afternoon while he was due to be gone on business for two days.He got angry before he left.When I could stand again, I… I didn’t take anything with me except what I was wearing and all the cash I could hide.”She halted abruptly, licked chapped, pretty lips.“I went to the emergency room and insisted they take pictures.My—Lucy, she got me into a shelter.She didn’t have much, but she managed to keep both of us fed and got me a job at a doctor’s office.She…” This time, when she stopped, it was for good.She took a deep aching breath, and Zach’s chest hurt for a moment.
Goddamn.It was one thing to see in the divorce papers—the admissions statement from the hospital, copies of digital photographs, the maneuvering of his high-priced lawyer, the torturous machinations of a so-called justice system.It was another thing to feel the tension running through her, the flinch as if expecting another blow, and to smell the old hurt and fear under the ice-moonlight of a fully triggered shaman.The beast in him twitched restlessly, searching for whatever was threatening her.I’d like to talk to this ex-husband.Right up close and personal.
“I’m sorry about your friend.”I’m glad it wasn’t you, though.“Come on.We’d better not hang around here.”
She stared at the wreckage.Curls of lifting steam mixed with the fine mist; the wind veered, heavy with the smell of sodden char.“It was raining hard last night.Why did it burn so badly?”
He shrugged, careful to keep his arm light on her shoulders.“I don’t know,upirgenerally hate fires.Open flame’s deadly for them.”
“This was everything I had.”She sounded sad, clutching her black leather purse to her chest.“Everything.And now it’s gone.Again.”
“I’m sorry.”It was the only thing he could say, and completely inadequate.But you’re alive, aren’t you?We’re together.You’re going to keep my Family together, and we’ll make sure you never have to lose anything you don’t want to, ever again.
“It’s not your fault.I guess.Maybe.”She sighed, and sagged hopelessly.“Yes, we’d better go.It was useless to come here.”
“Not quite.”He liked the closeness, and almost pretended it was for some other reason than the obvious—that she was exhausted, and had literally nowhere else to go.
“You’re right,” she agreed, almost immediately.“Now I know I’m trapped.Ihaveto go with you.”
It should have felt like a victory.But she looked so lost, clutching her purse, her eyes far too bright.She blinked angrily, denying herself tears, and that weird pain speared the inside of his chest.The beast turned uneasily, again, searching for the source of the hurt, not finding anything physically wrong.
“It’s a mystery.”He finally took a few experimental steps, pointing them down the street for the bus stop.“Why do they want you so badly?”
“I don’tknow.I never even knew you people existed.What the hell would v-vampires want from me?”She sounded calm enough, but the trembling stress in her hitched up another notch, and it would get difficult to keep his animal under control.
“We’ll find out, Sophie.I promise.And when we do, we’ll settle it.”
Instant wariness.“What do you mean, settle it?”
What do you think I mean?“Get them to stop chasing you.Find out what that one rabidupirwas doing at the nightclub.Maybe he was someone important.Maybe they’re after us, not you, but you’re a tempting target.They can’t take out shamans very often—your kind’s too well-protected in most Families.The shaman’s the most important person, you know.Maybe you just got mixed up with us at just the wrong time, I don’t know.It could just be coincidence.”But I don’t think it is.
“But maybe not.”She hunched and stared at the sidewalk, letting him steer them both.Tiny crystal drops clung to her curls, and he had to tear his attention away to watch where they were going.The sidewalk was a quilt of cracks and pounded-flat stains; a sudden impulse to tighten his arm around her left him sweating.“There’s no way to be sure, is there?”
“I can take you back to the Family.Then we can go visiting, and searching for information.If you want.”And if you’ll cooperate.
“Go visiting?”
Baby questions; she knewnothing.But this was far better than her just staring off into the distance with those big eyes, refusing to even engage.“There’re other Tribe around here.If we’ve got a shaman, we can ask them, get some answers.If there’s any of the Bear Tribe around, or the Felinii, we’ll probably even have allies.Best would be other Carcajou, but we’re rare.”And the ones we do scent we stay downwind and far, far away from, without a shaman.“There’re just a few problems we’ll have to solve before then.Like getting you some clothes and making you comfortable.”
“Comfortable.”Sophie let out a soft, bitter laugh, and he instantly regretted opening his big fat mouth.Still, she wasn’t screaming and struggling.Things were looking up.“Yeah.So what other problems are there?”
“Well, you need a crash course in being a shaman.”And I need a couple days to show you I’m not a bad guy.“We’ll help you all the way, of course.And then we can find out who wants you dead.Deal?”
The bus stop was a Plexiglas-and-metal cube, its benches marred with trash.Sophie sighed heavily, but hitched her purse on her shoulder instead of clutching it to her chest.“All right.”The words were almost lost under the sound of traffic.“Deal.”
Zach still wished for a better van and a few thousands’ worth of traveling money, to take her and his Family away from all this.He relaxed slightly, though, and smiled down at the top of her head.“Okay.Are you still seeing those faces?”
A guilty little flinch.“I—yes.They’re not as clear right now, though.”
“Yup.First lesson: you’ve got to take care of yourself.When you have enough sleep and food in you, you’re going to be able to control seeing themajirbetter.You’ve been triggered, which means you’ve changed.You’re not going to Change like we do, but you’re kind of halfway between us and the spirits—you can do a lot of things we can’t.Make sense?”
