Part 27 (1/2)
”Where is she?”
”She'll be here as soon as she wakes up. We have her in the next room. I wanted to have a moment to chat with you alone first.”
”What did you do to us, while we were unconscious?”
”My goodness, you ask a lot of questions. Don't worry, I didn't defile you. No one did. If that happens with us, and I would really very much like that,” he stopped to caress my arm with his fingertips, in a way that made me shudder with horror. ”I want you awake for it so you can say my name.”
”You won't get away with this,” I told him.
”Oh, but you see, that's where you're wrong. I already have.”
At that moment, the door opened, and a flood of light poured in from the dank hallway beyond. It looked like we were in an old trailer of some kind. Two men stood on either side of Kelsey, who looked like she'd been roughed up a bit.
”Maria!” she cried when she saw me. ”Are you okay?”
”I'm fine,” I told her. ”Are you?”
”I'm okay.”
”Shut up, females,” said Hilario now. ”You're giving me a headache.”
We did as he said, because in that kind of situation it was the best decision you could make. The men came into the room, carrying a lantern of some kind. I realized that the light wasn't coming from any fixtures in the hallway, because this was actually an abandoned home, without electricity. As they came closer, I saw that one was Ulysses, from the trailer. The other was Logan.
”How?” I asked Logan. ”How is this you? What are you? Why are you doing this?”
Logan looked at Hilario as though requesting permission to answer me, and Hilario cut him down with a curt shake of his head. Logan and Ulysses dumped Kelsey on the bed next to me, and retreated to the wall near the window, to stand guard. I noticed Logan had a gun in his waistband. Kelsey and I scooted as close to each other as we could, not that this was going to help in the even that we were shot, but instinct is instinct.
”Here is the short version of the story for you, Maria,” said Hilario, getting up to pace nervously back and forth, back and forth, in a way that very much reminded me of the coyote he sometimes materialized as. ”My brother is too soft. He is a sellout, and a traitor. He left the gang, or he tried to, and that was a no-no. You don't have a lot of rules in the gang, but you have rules. You don't snitch, and you don't leave. We don't let you leave. But he thought he was better than we were, and he wanted to get himself out. Thought he was going to do good in life.”
”He did,” I screamed. ”He graduated with honors and he got a college scholars.h.i.+p. He was on his way.”
”Shut up!” roared Hilario, stalking in a strange way now, s.h.i.+fting shape before our very eyes. His shoulders grew hunched, and his arms became thinner, and longer, and the bones made a terrible din of crunching and crackling, as he became a coyote. Even so, he was able to keep talking, through his coyote's mouth, the voice deep and horrible now, snarling and guttural.
”I wasn't going to let that happen, you understand. I wasn't going to let him go free like that, and risk having him turn me in, rat on me. He knew that. We were having that talk the night it happened. And then, when it happened, wouldn't you know, it was the same old thing again, with him getting the better deal. He always had it easier.”
Kelsey and I backed up as far as we possibly could on the bed, and she was shaking as much as I was.
”I studied, after I died. I wanted to know everything there was to know about revenants, about the system, and how to manipulate it. I found out about the system of Kindreds, and about Kindred Primaries. This intrigued me. And I found out that there were spells you could do, divination ceremonies, deals that could be made, to find out information like that, and that's how I found out about you.”
”You knew about me?”
”I've known about you longer than he has.” His eyes glowed with pride.
”I don't understand.”
”It's not my doing that you drive past his haunting grounds twice a week, Maria. The Maker has a way of throwing souls together and hoping they figure it out. But the two of you, without my help, you would have never figured it out. Too stupid.”
”You caused my crash.”
”Of course I did.” He seemed insulted that I might have ever thought otherwise.
”But why?”
”Because, I knew we'd eventually end up right where I wanted us.”
”And where is that?”
”Here, of course.” He shape-s.h.i.+fted again, this time into something even more horrible than a coyote. I heard the bones of his body as they crunched and grew and shrunk and reformed in the shape of something I can only describe as a demon, hairless and spiny, with a long, barbed tail. The voice, when it came, was even worse now than it had been before.
”Here,” he growled.
I didn't ask anything more, because I didn't like the looks of the way he licked his chops and his yellow-green eyes glowed at us.
”Your date, Logan here, is my friend. He's always been my friend.”
”Is he like you, a spirit?” I asked.
”No. He's human. He's one of the minions of humans who do what we ask of them.”
”Gladly, your highness,” Logan said.
Hilario continued. ”I found Logan because he called me. There are some among you who seek to be a.s.sociated with us, or with even darker souls. They reach out in their own ways, through their own magic, and I was lucky enough to find him just in time to get him to ask you out last year.”
”But for what?” I asked. ”For what?”
”The answer to that question is very simple, Maria,” growled the beast. ”You are the bait. My brother's soul is the prize.”
”He thinks you're good!” I cried. ”He refuses to believe you'd do this.”
”Of course he does,” chuckled the beast, as it seemed to be calming down now, and taking the form once again of the man. ”It's all part of the fun.”
”He's your own brother! How can you do this?”
”Because I enjoy it.”
”All so that you make him fail?” I asked. ”Even though you fail, too, in the process? Does that even make sense to you?”
He came in close then, and kissed me on the lips. I resisted, and spit his acrid taste off when he was done. Kelsey somehow curled her legs into her chest, and unleashed them with a stunning blow to Hilario's chin, knocking him down, to protect me.
He rose up, furious, with bright red blood dripping from his lower lip, and took a knife from his pocket, unsheathed it with slow, cold deliberation and a devilish smile. The blade gleamed like the ones that had been used in the ceremony, with snaking, moving lettering along the blade.
”You shouldn't have done that, BFF,” he told her. ”You do realize you're the disposable one here, don't you blondie?”
”No!” I screamed, as he came close to her, and, grabbing her hair in his free hand, yanked her head back and held the blade to her throat. ”She was only trying to help me. Take me. Not her. She hasn't done anything to you.”
”My brother won't come for Kelsey,” Hilario hissed in her face. ”Pretty as you are, delicious as you look, he doesn't care about you. And that hurts you, doesn't it? I see what Maria doesn't. You're jealous. You hate that she gets more boys than you do.”
Kelsey's face was such a ma.s.s of fear and pain that it physically hurt me to look at her.