Alaskan Fire (64 page)

“Okay everybody,” Blaze said,
ending the call and lowering the phone.  “Come on.  Let’s go back up to the
lodge.”  She started up the 4-wheeler trail that wound up the hill, but stopped
when she realized no one was following her.  Seeing the two newcomers facing
off the wereverine, Blaze had a sudden surge of panic. 
Oh God, Jack, please
don’t turn this into a fight…
  She was nonetheless frozen in place, knowing
that, at this point, she needed to let the three of them come to their own
understanding, and that trying to heavy-handedly defuse the situation would
only make it explode.

Kimber remained where she stood,
giving Jack a long, analyzing look—the look of a wary cat.  Finally, softly,
she said, “May ‘Aqrab and I pass, Shadowkiller?”

Jack sniffed, rubbed a hairy arm
across his nose, then squinted at her.  Snorting, he tilted his head and looked
up at the nearest tree-top as if it had something incredibly interesting in it,
then wrinkled his nose again and glanced at the muddy stones at his feet.  “You
the Blade o’ Morning?” he finally asked.

Kimber froze, paling.  She
swallowed, hard, and started to back up.

“Just checkin’,” Jack said.  “Not
a big deal.”  He gestured at the djinni.  “You got the gorilla under control?”

Kimber had stopped backing away,
though she was still pale.  “Thoroughly.”  It came out as a hoarse whisper. 
Even as she said as much, a look of pain crossed the black man’s face before he
simply vanished.

Jack grunted.  He sniffed again
and glanced out over the lake.  Then he glanced down at his foot and dug his
boot into the muck of the lake-bed.  Very reluctantly, he muttered, “You like
goat?”

“You have my oath that I will do
everything in my power to protect the phoenix.”  It sounded…desperate.  And the
woman, Blaze realized, was trembling, her arms much too thin, her legs almost
emaciated.

“I don’t know about staying, but
we’ll get you something to eat,” Jack said gruffly. 

Blaze saw the disappointment in
the werewolf’s eyes, the hopeless depression at Jack’s words. 
She’s looking
for a home
, Blaze realized. 
She needs help.
 

Oblivious, Jack gestured at the
4-wheeler.  “Take a seat.  I’ll drive you up.”

The werewolf stiffened, eyes
locked on the red padded seat of the four-wheeler.

Immediately, the air above Jack’s
head growled, “My mistress does not touch beasts of metal and coal, Third
Lander.”  Like Jack had asked her to smear excrement upon herself and dance
naked under a full moon, chanting Voodoo curses.

Jack snorted and opened his
mouth, and before he could say something rude, Blaze blurted, “That’s all
right.  We need to leave it down here to collect groceries when we get back
from town, anyway.  We can walk up.  Get you guys settled in.”

Very slowly, Jack and Kimber both
turned to her.  She saw the indecision in Jack’s face, felt his frustration,
then he just shrugged and started walking towards her.  Blaze let him take the
lead, falling back to walk beside Kimber, the huge African man drifting in and
out of the woods off to the side.

“So, uh,” Blaze said gingerly as
they walked, “how long has it been since you had something to eat, Kimber?”

The werewolf glanced at her,
brown eyes nervous.  “I found a dead rodent on Monday,” Kimber managed. 
Indeed, it looked like she was having trouble keeping her balance.  Ahead of
them, Jack glanced back with a look of…
concern
?

“Jesus,” Blaze cursed.  “Are you
all
right
?  You look so thin…like you can barely stand.  Why are you not
shifting and trying to eat me?”

The black behemoth was instantly
back in sight, looming between them dangerously.  “The demon has no control
over—” he began.

Kimber made an irritated gesture
and the djinni narrowed his violet eyes, but then made a…sarcastic?…bow and
slipped back into the ether.

“I have more control than the
child you’re bedding,” Kimber said.

And, oddly, the wereverine did
not retort, though Blaze saw his shoulders stiffen.

“The Third-Lander slime has not
had control for a thousand years,” the djinni said, pride thick in his deep,
rich voice.  “My mistress conquered the beast centuries ago.”

A flash of anger crossed the
little woman’s face, and she turned on the djinni in irritation.  “You are not
wanted
here, ‘Aqrab.”

The big black man bristled.  “I
am within my rights to hold a
conversation
, mon Dhi’b.”

The darkness in the woman’s eyes
made Blaze cringe, realizing there was something
very
wrong, here.  “I
will be the judge of that, djinni.”  It sounded like a warning.

It looked like the huge man would
argue, then the djinni simply gave a disgusted sound and vanished.  Turning
back to Blaze, Kimber said, “So you intend to stay?  For truth?”

Blaze felt uncomfortable at the
blatant hope in the woman’s eyes, so soon after…what?  Anger?  Rage?  “Uh,
yeah.  That’s my plan, anyway.” 

The wolf sounded relieved.  She
bit her lip as she watched the wereverine’s back, a few paces ahead.  “That is
very
good news.”  She gestured at the woods with an emaciated arm.  “These
lands…they have needed it for some time.”

Blaze gave an awkward chuckle. 
“Well.  Like I told Jack.  I’m here to stay until someone in combat gear drags
me off in a helicopter.”

Kimber’s eyes narrowed, and there
was a deathly chill in her words when she said, “That will not happen again.” 
The vehemence and confidence in the woman’s words was unnerving.

“Damn right, it won’t,” Jack
agreed, up ahead.

“Uh,” she said, suddenly feeling
self-conscious beside the tiny, assertive,
beautiful
woman.  Kimber’s
commanding attitude, combined with her delicate body and graceful steps—even
half-starved—reminded Blaze of Hollywood portrayals of Arab princesses, or
wives of sheiks, acutely making her feel like an elephant trundling beside a
gazelle.  “Well.  I’m glad you think so.”

“My mistress has done war with
the magi of the sons of Christ and won,” the air somewhere near Blaze’s head
said, in a voice meant to soothe.  “She does not think.  She knows.”

“Ibin himaar, ‘Aqrab!” Kimber
snapped.  “
Go
!  I will summon you again when you are necessary.”

The voice said nothing more,
though Blaze could feel the sunlight shifting on something unseen nearby, just
out of reach.  She decided to keep that information to herself, however, as the
effort that the tiny woman had expended in barking at the djinni had left her
shaking.

“Come on,” Blaze said, hurrying
her pace to catch up with Jack.  “Let’s get you something to eat.”

Blaze butchered two
goats—judiciously deciding that the two moon-kissed probably would be adverse
to sharing—while Jack took the wolf inside and fed Kimber scrambled eggs, yak
milk, and cherries.  Then the wereverine hung off to one side as Blaze roasted
the meat in her ovens, still watching the wolf with wariness. 

For her part, the wolf graciously
ate everything they put in front of her, and even while starving, she dined on
Blaze’s offerings with a thousand times more delicacy and finesse than the
wereverine had on his best days.

“There,” Jack muttered, once the
seasoned goat haunches came out of the oven and Kimber had spent two hours
carefully carving off strips of meat and neatly devouring the carcass to the
bone, “you fed her.  Now she can leave.”  He gestured out the window.  “Give
her a yak for the trip.”

For his own part, there was a
smear of grease and gristle across the kitchen counter, which had dribbled onto
the floor in his haste to stuff meat into his mouth, and Blaze was pretty sure
she saw spatters on the ceiling that she hoped weren’t going to stain the
paint.

“Kimber’s going to be staying,”
Blaze said.  “As is ‘Aqrab.”  Her tongue stumbled over the Arabic word, but
Jack got the point.

“Bullshit!” he roared.  “I will
not tolerate a slave in my house.”

“
Eyreh be afass seder emmak
,
rodent,” the air said nearby.

Though Blaze did not understand
the words, Jack did, and the rush of fury that followed made her wince.  Sure
enough, Jack bristled and startled to growl.

Delicately, from the counter,
Kimber said, “Please stop provoking the child, ‘Aqrab.”

“I’m merely holding a polite
conversation,” the air said.  “He is the one spewing insults.”

“Please tell me how ‘my dick in
your mother’s ribcage’ is somehow furthering our endeavors here, djinni,”
Kimber said, her brown eyes narrowing at the air.

“It was just a thoughtful
suggestion,” the djinni said.

“Stop hiding like a
yellow-bellied coward!” Jack snarled, talons snapping from his fingertips.

The djinni chuckled, a deep
melodic sound.  “I believe I’m making the rodent nervous.”

“Show yourself, ‘Aqrab,” the
werewolf sighed.

Immediately, the enormous black
man appeared directly in front of Jack, leaning casually against the wall, arms
crossed, peering down at him with amusement.

Seeing how close the djinni had
been, Jack growled and took a step backwards, sprouting fur, snarling up at the
djinni like a martin facing off a brown bear, and Blaze could
feel
how
close he was to once again destroying her drywall.

“Jack,” Blaze said, firmly. 
“They’re staying.  We could use the help.”

Jack sucked in a breath to argue,
then glanced at her, saw the pleading in her eyes, and deflated.  “I don’t
need
their help,” he muttered, sulking.  But he put the Third Lander away and
started picking at a splinter in the hardwood trim they had installed that
winter.  Digging it out and snapping it off, he started using it to pick his
teeth.  Blaze shuddered against the urge to yell about splintering her trim,
and instead forced a smile, deeply grateful that he wasn’t going to continue
making a scene.  “Maybe you don’t
need
them,” she offered gently, “but they
could use our food, and Kimber
did
help us take care of Amber’s pack. 
Besides, it would make me feel better about the whole
assassins-dropping-from-the-sky thing.”

She met Jack’s green eyes, felt
the anxiousness there, the desire to keep her safe warring with the desire to
keep her happy—which, in this case, was letting the werewolf and her…friend?…stay—and
gently reached out to touch his hand, letting him know she understood.

Kimber must have seen it, too,
because she said, “We’re all on the same side, here, Shadowkiller.  We want to
see the phoenix safe as much as you do.”  Then she bit her lip and glanced out
the window at Blaze’s pastures.  “But we will not stay where we are not
welcome.  Tell us to go and we will go.”  She looked back to Jack.  “However,
if you
allow
us to stay, neither my servant nor I will in any way
interfere with your daily life, nor try to claim your territory.  We will defer
to your rule, here, in all things.”

“I would rather
drown
than
defer to this
child
,” the djinni rumbled.

“You may leave, ‘Aqrab,” Kimber
said.

“Look what happened
last
time you made such concessions,” the djinni snapped.

“Now.”

The huge black man bristled, but
flashed out of existence in a wavering flicker.  Blaze felt him lingering
nearby, stalking back and forth across the kitchen floor.

Still standing at the head of the
stairs, Jack had narrowed his eyes at the werewolf.  He glanced quickly at
Blaze, then, almost tentatively, he cleared his throat and said to Kimber, “
My
rule, huh?”

“When it comes to the defense of
this land and our use of its resources,” Kimber said, bowing her graceful neck
in agreement, “you shall command us.”

At that, Blaze felt the fourth
presence in the room disappear entirely. 

“Will you allow us to stay,
Shadowkiller?” Kimber insisted, bowing low.

Jack wrinkled his nose, eyes on
the top of the werewolf’s head.  “Guess so,” he muttered, under his breath. 
Then, quickly, “But we’re building you a cabin out back.  Like hell you’re
living with us.”

“You wish your privacy,” Kimber
said softly.  “This is understandable.”

“No more making baby wolfies,
either,” Jack growled.

“Never again,” Kimber agreed. 
“It was a mistake I only made once.”

Jack grunted.  “And you’re going
to tell your slave to stop with his damned vanishing act.”  He gestured where
‘Aqrab had disappeared.  “We’re going to have guests this summer, and the last
thing we need is a three hundred pound African gorilla vanishing while serving
dinner.”

Kimber gave a slight nod.  “I
will inform ‘Aqrab of his new restrictions.”

Jack grunted.  He wrinkled his
nose again, then licked his lips.  Blaze thought she saw a bit of uncertainty
in his green eyes when he said, “You’re…uh…a magus?”

Again, Kimber gracefully lowered
her head in acknowledgement.

“You…uh…”  He swallowed, glanced
at Blaze, then reached up and scratched the back of his neck.  “Think you could
place some wards around this place?”

“Of course,” Kimber said.  “What
do you have in mind?”

“Well, for one,” Jack said, “Make
it less obvious what’s happening here from the air.  Give anyone flying
overhead the impression they’re just seeing more woods, all normal-like.  We’ll
let the world know when we’re damn good and ready.”

Kimber nodded again.  “As you
say, Shadowkiller.  I will do that tonight.”

For once, Jack’s eyes scanned the
werewolf and he actually looked a bit guilty.  “I, uh, you look kind
of…hungry…still.  Whenever you get around to it would be fine.”

“I thank you for your
generosity,” Kimber said softly.  “You are kind beyond words.”

Jack grunted, looking decidedly
embarrassed.  “Uh, yeah.  No problem.  Uh.”  He cleared his throat, flushing,
and Blaze felt the discomfort from Kimber’s gratitude rolling off of him in a
wave.  Scratching his neck, he said, “I, uh, gotta go change the oil in the
generator.”  Then, turning, he bolted down the stairs, leaving Kimber and Blaze
standing in the kitchen alone.