Diggin up crones, p.18
Diggin' Up Crones, page 18
I both appreciated and hated that about her.
“I want Gunner back.” I was firm. “I won’t let her take him from me. If I have to burn every bit of woods in this town to the ground to find her, I’ll do it.”
“Well, let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.” Mama Moon’s lips quirked. “What’s this shrike’s name?”
“She’s going by the name Lynn Barris,” Evan replied. “I think that’s an alias. She’s the new principal at the high school.”
“Graham is looking into her background,” I added. “He’s a bit distracted right now with Gunner … .” I broke off when I thought about the tortured look on Graham’s face the last time I’d seen him. He’d lost his wife to madness. Now his son was being taken over by a shrike, a different type of madness. He wouldn’t survive losing Gunner after everything they’d gone through.
“I know where your mind just went. Let’s not be defeatist,” Mama Moon suggested pointedly. “If you think you’re going to lose, you’ll turn it into a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
“I never think I’m going to lose,” I replied. “I’m just imagining the hundred different ways I’m going to torture that shrike when I get my hands on her.”
“In a weird way, you’re very much like the shrikes,” she said, a soft smile playing at the corners of her mouth. “They like to play with their food. That’s what she’s doing here. She’s playing games.”
“Why here?” Evan asked. “At first we thought she followed the new shifters. They told us a story about killing a shrike and then this one showed up. We were operating under the assumption that this one was chasing them for vengeance.”
“You mentioned a rune,” Mama Moon prodded. “Do you have a photo?”
I wordlessly handed over my phone with the photo of the rune we’d taken of the window. She nodded right away when she saw it.
“That’s a possessing rune,” she said. “The fact that she drew that on your window suggests she was targeting you right from the beginning.”
“Or Gunner,” Evan said.
Mama Moon opened her mouth, then tilted her head. “I don’t think she targeted Gunner. I think it was a fluke that she took him over. It’s working out for her well now, but that wasn’t her original plan.”
“It wasn’t,” I agreed. “I talked to her when I was in Jed’s head.”
Evan’s eyes went wide. “You failed to mention that.”
“I didn’t have much time. The second I emerged from his mind we had to flee from the birds. She was in control of Jed’s thoughts and actions. We had a brief conversation.”
“What did she say?” Mama Moon asked.
“That her original target was Raisin. She didn’t expect me to pull Raisin out of school the way I did.”
“Why did you do that?”
“I … don’t know.” I’d been going over the incident in my head since the truth about the shrike had become apparent. “Something inside of me just told me to take her.”
Mama Moon nodded. “Well, it was a smart move,” she said. “You saved Raisin and because you did, the shrike couldn’t use her as a weapon against you. I guarantee that would’ve happened if she’d been allowed to play the game as she wanted to play it.
“As it stands, you taking Raisin off the chessboard benefitted us in another way,” she continued. “She realized you were suspicious so she pushed her agenda forward before she was ready. That suggests her hold on the students might not be as great as she hoped.”
She had my full attention now. “What does that mean?”
“She couldn’t infect the students as she wanted. She likely infected the teachers, and they infected the students.”
Realization washed over me. “If we can free the teachers, the students will automatically be freed,” I said.
“That is my guess,” Mama Moon agreed. “I can’t guarantee it, but from what you described, the students aren’t nearly as lost as the teachers. Only the teachers are nesting?”
“It’s like vampires,” Evan mused. “You have born vampires, bitten vampires, and then half-vampires. The half-vampires have ties to the born vampires that are tenuous at best. They’re easily severed.”
Mama Moon bobbed her head. “You got the shrike out of the school before she could strengthen those ties. She can’t be happy about that.”
“Whatever I can do to make her hate her life,” I replied drolly.
Evan leaned forward. “You said you had history with shrikes. Have they been here before?”
“Definitely.” Mama Moon turned grim. “It was about thirty years ago. A shrike—she was older—moved to town. I knew she was different when I met her. I was with the group at the time, and we were trying to figure out if she was friend or foe.”
Something about the edge to Mama Moon’s voice told me that she regretted her decision. “You believed her,” I realized.
“Her name was Enid,” Mama Moon said. “She was … charming and funny. She told very good stories. I didn’t realize she was lying to me until we’d already been meeting for weeks. By then she’d already moved in at the senior center and was affecting the old-timers.”
My brow furrowed. “I don’t understand why she would go that route.”
“I didn’t at the time either, but I’ve had a lot of years to think it over,” Mama Moon explained. “And I have thought it over a great many times. I guess that’s her still winning in a way, even though she died a very long time ago.”
“You killed her?” That was promising. “How?”
“I dropped a building on her.”
My eyes went wide. “What building?”
“The old furniture store. She had been recruiting seniors because even though they weren’t a physical threat they were a mental one. We’re always taught to listen to our elders, right? That was her plan. She was going to take on all the seniors and then move on to the younger ones. I realized within a few weeks that something was going on.”
“Did you ask her about it?” Evan asked.
“Of course I did. I thought we were friends at this point. We met for tea every few days. I told her my problems. She tried to help. She was playing with me. It took me way too long to figure that out. I trusted her. I liked her. She was superficially charming.”
“What tipped you off?” I asked.
“Little mannerisms in the seniors. The moving in tandem, the flock mentality. They were both on display. Sometimes I would get a look at some movement out of the corner of my eye that reminded me of birds.”
“Did you confront her right away?”
She shook her head. “I might’ve made a mistake in trusting her, but I was suspicious enough that I started testing my theory. I had to be careful around her—I kept the pretense of the friendship up so she wouldn’t become too suspicious—and eventually I confirmed what I believed to be happening.”
“And then you dropped a building on her?” That was the part I couldn’t get over. I was impressed, and rightly so.
“No. I tried potions to free the seniors. I didn’t know that she was watching me through them the whole time … and laughing. Then I got too close, tipped my hand so to speak, and she panicked.
“She set what she thought was a trap for me in the furniture store,” she continued. “She thought she would kill me. Instead, I trapped her in her own trap and killed her.”
“No other shrikes came to avenge her?” I asked.
Mama Moon shook her head. “Not to my knowledge, unless … .”
“Unless what?”
“Unless the shrike isn’t here because of the shifters,” Evan explained for Mama Moon. “Maybe the shrike has been planning to avenge the previous shrike all along.”
Realization dawned on me. “I didn’t think about that.”
Mama Moon stood. “Ever since the first incident, I’ve kept the ingredients here for potions in case … well, just in case. I have one completed potion. We’ll have to make more.”
“We can test the potion on Gunner,” I said. “If it works on him, we’ll know we’re on the right track.”
Mama Moon nodded. “One thing you need to realize is that when the shrike understands you’ve managed to free Gunner—and that’s what I expect to happen almost immediately if this works—she’ll redouble her efforts. They don’t like to lose.”
“Neither do I,” I reminded her.
Mama Moon smirked. “You’ve had the shrike off her game right from the start. Everything she did to play with her food before hasn’t worked on you. She must be frustrated.”
“I am frustrating,” I agreed.
“She’s going to have to think outside the box. That makes her dangerous. We have to be prepared for that.”
“All I can think about right now is getting Gunner back,” I admitted. “I know the kids are a priority, but Gunner is … Gunner. We have to get him back.”
“I’m fond of the boy, and I have every intention of getting him back,” Mama Moon promised. “I need to gather some things. Then we’ll head to town.” She hesitated before leaving the room. “I’m guessing we’re going to have to take my vehicle because you arrived by plane door.”
“We left my truck on the pack lands,” I admitted ruefully. “They’ve probably already stripped it for parts.”
Mama Moon laughed. “Something tells me they have other things on their minds right now. The shrike will be angry that you figured out their part in this. She’s going to make a move.”
“And soon,” Evan assumed.
Mama Moon’s smile disappeared. “She’ll do something ugly. Count on it.”
I didn’t allow the worry to weigh me down. Not this time. “I bet I can do ugly better than her.”
“Yes, well, we do have that going for us,” Mama Moon agreed. “She’s never faced off with someone like you. That will be to our benefit.”
21
TWENTY-ONE
Iwalked straight to Rooster when we got back to the Cauldron with Mama Moon.
“How is he?”
The look on his face told me everything I needed to know. “He’s not Gunner any longer,” he replied. “He’s there but not really there. It’s good you’re back.”
My stomach was a hard knot of anxiety. “Mama Moon has a potion. I’m going to give it to him. Evan will help me. Then I’m going to sit in there and wait for it to take effect.”
“I’ll sit with you,” Evan offered.
I shook my head. “I want to be alone.” It might have been a surly response—okay, it was poutier than anything else—but I wasn’t backing down. “I need you to help me administer the potion. We only have one, so we can’t spill it. And then I’m going to sit with him.”
Evan held my gaze. Would he argue? Would he push me to the point of no return? Ultimately, he nodded. “Fine.” He shifted his attention to Rooster. “Mama Moon has ingredients in her truck. If this works on Gunner, we have a plan to free the kids. She’ll fill you in.”
Rooster nodded. “Okay.” He flashed a weak smile for my benefit. “Good luck.”
“Thank you,” I replied. “This is going to work. I feel it.” Or maybe I just hoped it. I didn’t want to look too hard at what I was feeling because I might crumble.
“I really hope it does.”
I took two steps toward the hallway and then stilled. “Where’s Graham?” It was just occurring to me now that the police chief wasn’t in the bar with everybody else.
“He was upset,” Whistler replied. “He decided to plant himself at the school and watch things there.”
What was going unsaid was that Graham didn’t want to be around Gunner when he was like this. “Okay.” I nodded and forced a tight smile. “I’ll go after him in a little bit.”
“We can just call him if—I mean when—Gunner is back to normal.” Rooster gave me an encouraging look. “Everything is going to be okay, Scout.”
It was an empty offering. He knew it as well as I did. Calling him out on it would be a waste of time. We had no idea if this was going to work. All we could do was hope. “I’ll see you in a bit.” I gripped the potion in my pocket tightly, then marched down the hallway.
Gunner was still shackled to the cot. He fidgeted with one of the arm restraints, intent, and jerked when we walked through the door.
“Scout, thank God you’re here.” He sounded higher pitched than normal. “They don’t believe me that I’m fine. I’ve fought off whatever it was. I think my blood runs so hot that it burned it out. You can let me go.”
There was nothing familiar about the way he looked at me. Rooster was right. Gunner was no longer himself.
I kept my face impassive. “You’re feeling better?”
“I am.” He sent me the one smile in his repertoire I’d never seen before. It was calculating. “Let me go. I want to hold you.”
Gunner would never say that. At least not that way. This was the shrike talking through him. He—or rather she—was playing games.
“I have an update.” I sat on the cot next to him. “We went to see the shifters. Don’t you want to ask about that?”
“Of course,” he answered. “I want to hear all about it. Just let me go.”
“Okay.” I acted as if I was reaching for the nearest shackle. Instead, I took his arm and twisted it so I could see the bite. The rune had taken over the wound and was staring back at me. When I lifted my eyes, I found manic amusement reflected back in his eyes.
“Let me go,” he pleaded. “You’re hurting me by keeping me here. Don’t hurt me, Scout. I just want you to love me.”
The words were delivered in his voice. “I’m going to rip your insides out and shove them down your throat,” I warned in a dark voice.
“Scout!” Gunner acted appalled. “Don’t hurt me. Please, all I’ve ever done is trust you. Don’t hurt me.”
It was like an arrow through the heart. Evan moved quickly.
“Come here.” Evan grabbed both of Gunner’s arms from behind and wrestled him back. Gunner fought, and even though he was shifter strong, he couldn’t overpower Evan.
“Do it, Scout,” Evan ordered. “Don’t let her get to you. This isn’t Gunner. We’re going to get him back.
“Don’t.” Gunner’s voice grew shrill as I withdrew the potion from my pocket. “You’ll kill me. Whatever that is … I know it will kill me.”
“I know you’re in there, Gunner,” I said in a low voice. “Somewhere deep. I’m hoping you can still hear me, because I’m coming for you. I promise.” With that, I steeled myself and froze his head in place as he thrashed.
I used one hand to pry open his mouth, using more magic than was probably necessary, and dumped the potion down his throat.
Gunner swallowed reflexively, then let out an anguished wail. “You’ve killed me,” he screamed, although it wasn’t his voice. It was the shrike.
“Lay down,” I ordered, forcing him flat with my magic as Evan released him.
Gunner stared vacantly at the ceiling, all the fight going out of him and leaving a limp noodle behind.
“I’ve got it from here,” I said to Evan.
He looked uncertain. “Scout—”
“I’ve got it. Just leave us.”
He didn’t want to. That was written all over his face, but he walked over and pressed a kiss to the top of my head. “I’ll be outside.”
“He’s going to be fine when he wakes.”
“Of course he is,” Evan readily agreed. “I have faith. You should too.”
There was no timetable for how long this would take, so I moved to the floor and propped my back against the cot. Gunner’s breathing went soft and regular, telling me he’d fallen asleep. Was that part of the spell? Was it something else? Fear had me coiled and ready to lose my mind.
I was so worked up as I waited for a sign of what was to come that I wore myself out mentally. I didn’t even realize when I slipped into sleep. I had no idea it had happened until I found myself in a familiar place.
Belle Isle. The Detroit River rushed in front of me next to a beach I recognized from more than a year ago. It was my safe place. Evan and I had held many a drinking party on the private beach, just the two of us laughing and having a great time. Then, after it was just me because I’d lost him, it had been the place I went to wallow.
It wasn’t Evan I was going to lose this time, it was Gunner.
“Well, well, well,” a craggy voice said from behind me, causing me to shift quickly to look over my shoulder. It was Bonnie. “I wondered if you would ever shut down enough for me to come to you,” the new lamia apex said as she regarded me. “I guess it finally happened.”
Bonnie no longer looked human. Her skin had stretched to the point it had almost split and she had scars down her face. They’d healed in an odd green. She’s lost all her hair. Her eyes were those of a serpent.
“You’re looking rough,” I noted, my attention going back to the river. She couldn’t hurt me in my dreams. If she’d been trying to contact me this way—and it sounded as if she had—it was because it was the only option she had.
“You don’t look so great yourself.” Bonnie sat on the bank of the river—being careful to leave several feet between us—and scowled at the rolling water. “Is this your happy place?”
“It’s where I used to go when I needed to think,” I replied. When I didn’t look at her, I could almost think of her as the friend I’d lost. “Why are you here?”
“You brought me here,” she replied. “Trust me, I wouldn’t have chosen this spot for our little tête-à-tête.”
“Are you learning French in your time away?” I taunted.
“I’m doing a great many things. You should prepare yourself.”
“Oh, listen to you talk big.” I was amused despite myself. “If you’re coming at me in my dreams—and had to wait until my defenses were wrecked—you must be struggling.” I showed her my teeth when I smiled. “It couldn’t have happened to a nicer turncoat.”
“I was never your friend, Scout. That’s the part that you don’t seem to understand. I held true to my beliefs, did what I had to do. I never actually wanted this for myself.” Briefly, she looked sad. “I thought I would be the assistant to the lamia apex. When Zeno was ready to sacrifice me, I reacted.”
