Ash to Embers (Courting Shadows) (34 page)

The pile on the floor heaved and eventually one of the thicker vines crooked into an alarmingly sharp angle topped by a knobby projection. Another root looking leg followed suit. Funny, in all the horror movies the zombies dug themselves out hands first. The brown mulch encrusted paws came next though, followed by a narrow sharply angled face with about ten pounds of metal in it.

The guy in the compost pile made his way coughing, snorting, and gagging to a sitting position. He was covered in a thin membrane of translucent slime that stretched in unsightly ways. The dryad flicked the goop onto the floor in front of them with cranky, angry movements.

"Morning sunshine," Tian said. She used the toe of her boot to nudge the brown paper bag she'd dropped further away from the mess on the floor. "We need to get to Union Square, so I need you to get up."

The guy on the floor, whose name Sio could only assume was Todd, snarled, yawned, and ran a hand through the strawberry blonde assortment of tiny leaves that stood in mucous covered spikes across the top of his head. His pinched face had a greenish cast to it and he hadn't bothered to look up at them as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes with both balled fists.

"Yeah, and I need to be unconscious, so it looks like we have a conflict of interest," Todd said around another massive tongue flashing yawn. There were at least six studs in the thing. Two of them were gauged. It was a wonder Todd could spit out a coherent sentence at all.

The vines in what was left of the pile began to unfurl, sliding ominously across the warped floor boards. One of the slithering tendrils spun to intimate heights up Tian's leg. She flinched and kicked it off, grabbing the damn thing and wrapping it around Todd's neck. She stood up and yanked it hard, planting the sole of her boot right in the middle of the dryad's boney chest until his eyes bugged behind the closed lids.

"You still feeling conflicted?" she asked.

Todd's eyes opened wide. They were the rich meaty brown of fresh earth, unencumbered by the usual appearance of pupils or whites. The remaining tangle of vines, which had been writhing angrily, froze as recognition began to dawn in the dryad's bulging mulch flavored pools.

Todd blinked once and swallowed around the vine constricting his airway. He looked up at Tian in barely disguised awe. "Hi, Tian, Union Square you say." His voice was reedy due to lack of oxygen.

"I did," Tian responded, easing off the throttle and dropping the vine on the floor.

"It would have been faster to take the bus," Sio said.

Todd's head shot around, snapping to attention as if he'd been popped in the face. The dryad licked his lips, eyes darting from Sio and back to Tian. The guy looked back towards Sio and his gaze stuck.

"Please, please tell me that by using the term Avery's goody bag you were referring to him." The kid looked like a rabbit that had accidentally stumbled into a lion's den.... If the rabbit was contemplating setting out silverware.

Tian snorted and swiped the paper bag off the floor. "Nope." She opened it up, pulled out a DVD case, and held it up between her index and middle fingers. "But you'll always have 'Day of the Triffids' as a consolation prize."

Todd looked dejected.

"It's not quite the same is it?" Sio asked. He wasn't sure what stupid self-destructive impulse had pushed him to throw his two cents in.

All the latent heat they'd been suppressing since the incident in the hallway snapped back with a vengeance. Tian's pupils dilated, her nostrils flared with the effort she was making to regulate her breathing. Sio swallowed, noting how he wasn't left unaffected. His circulatory system was pulling a drain and divert, packing platelets into his cock as if it were a 5 p.m. Muni through Chinatown.

"No kidding," came Todd's reply from the floor.

Sio bit down into his tongue until he tasted blood. She was killing him. They were going have to get this under control.

"Sorry."

Tian laughed even though he knew she didn't think the situation was funny. There was a hysterical edge to the sound.

"We don't have time for this."

Whatever it was that had her on lockdown was holding tight, even as it started to crack. Sio could feel it, could feel pieces of himself seeping away into her. Even wanting it as badly as he did, it was still deeply unsettling.

Todd broke into their private moment with an obnoxious reminder of his existence. "I do. I totally have time for this."

The guy was all Ichabod Crane as he extracted himself from the swamp on the floor in an awkward flurry of elbows and a series of even more uncoordinated knee thrusts. The vines jerked back and forth in a desperate attempt to get out of Todd's path of destruction. Standing, the dryad turned and leaned against the counter, offering up an encouraging little nod as if he were giving them the go ahead to resume the show. Tian shot the DVD box she'd been holding at his head. Todd smirked, folding his arms in front of himself before losing and then recovering his footing with a loud squelching sound. One of the vines shot out in a graceful arc, snapping the DVD out of the air and curling protectively around the case.

"Nice panties," Tian said.

"You don't throw the good stuff," Todd scolded her. "They're bikini briefs and I was sleeping."

The bikini briefs in question could hardly be classified as underwear. What Todd was sporting was a pair of black skull and cross bone grape smugglers that had long since passed twelve year old girl and were working their way towards fig leaf microscopic.

"To each his own, man," Sio said. "They do sorta complement the dead cartoon thing you've got going with the nipple piercings."

Todd fingered the bisecting bars in his left nipple absently. "Yeah, I always figured the whole black X through each of the nips made a statement, ya know?"

"The Iron Maiden is my dream girl?" Tian asked. She tried, but couldn't manage to suppress her amusement.

Todd flicked the mat finish ball on one of the barbells and grinned. "Exactly," he said, "but for you two I'm open to suggestions."

Tian rolled her eyes and Sio fought the urge to go over and make out on her. Sio knew she was itching to get out of there and he was feeling the sudden spark of inspiration as to how to make it happen.

"I'm glad you said that," he focused his attention on the pincushion dryad over near the counter. The statement came out perfect, predatory.

Todd's jaw slipped, his eyes grew wide, and his Adam's apple bobbed wildly in his throat. "You are?"

"I am. Do you want a suggestion from me, Todd?" Sio asked.

"Yes."

"Yes what?" Tian said in the kind of whisky soaked tone that caused Sio's dick to jerk. Damn, she caught on quick. Todd's eyes flicked over to her as if he couldn't believe his luck.

"Yes, Sir," the dryad choked. The mostly naked non-human looked like he was about to faint.

The roots around Todd vibrated with anticipation as they curled over the dryad's limbs, holding him up near the side of the counter like a vertical sacrifice. Sio reached out and grabbed one as it stretched out from the counter top. He slid his hand over the surprisingly rough surface toward the tip and watched Todd's eyes glaze over. The dryad's knees buckled as Sio jerked the vine.

"Get me the portal key to Union Square."

"What?"

"You heard me. Do as you're told."

Todd's tree roots shot out, searching the shelves with single minded drive, pulling out plastic cases and shaking them around, before slamming them back into the appropriate slots. A couple of the bulbs on the ceiling shattered with a loud crack, showering them with tiny shards of broken glass as if punctuating his command.

"Shit," Tian said.

"What's looking for you?" the dryad asked.

"Wizards."

Todd's shoulders slumped and he shook his head. "The hot ones are always trouble."

The vines found what they were looking for with a lot of excited flailing. Todd presented Sio a DVD case with a shaking rooty tendril. Another bulb burst above them. "I would have gotten it for you anyway. But damn, good times."

Sio looked down at the DVD case as he accepted it. "The Birds?"

"Have you seen Union Square," the dryad asked. "Motherfucking pigeons are
everywhere
."

"Good point."

Todd Cheshire catted at the response. "I have a lot of those."

"Queens tits, stop already, we don't have time for this," Tian said. She grabbed Sio's jacket and tugged him toward her. A small bulb popped in the corner, raining microscopic shards down onto the counter.

"You see that?" she asked. "Electronics and wizards don't mix. If we don't get out of here, eventually they're going to notice they've got a blind spot and we're going to be ass deep in Guardians."

"I can think of worse ways to entertain myself," Todd said.

Tian leaned around Sio to shoot the guy a skeptical look. "Really?" she asked.

Todd thought about it a minute before shaking his head. "Not so much."

Sio opened the DVD case and stared inside. There was a disk in it. Tian grinned at his expression and popped the thing out. She held it up and spun it up on her middle finger like it was a basketball until the disk pulsed with a familiar white light.

She tossed it at the far wall and turned to Todd. "Ceyla's at the house, call her if you have any problems, then call me because we're coming back through."

"Uh, you do realize that I'm only, like, a couple thousand years older than you, right?"

"Great. You can call her if you fall and break a hip too," Sio told him.

Tian chuckled and Todd turned to stare at her. "Since when do you laugh?" he asked.

"It's a recent development."

"You seem different, you know."

"So I've heard," she said, backing toward the portal.

Todd nodded and winked at Sio. "Miss you."

"I'll bet."

Sio aimed for the portal. He was practically on top of Tian when the world around them dissolved. Just in case, Sio looped a finger through the back belt loop of her jeans as she turned into him. The side of his thumb inadvertently grazed the delicate skin of her waist under the top she was wearing and the minimal contact was all it took to kick off another endorphin overload like an inhuman metallic maelstrom. It rocketed through his system, dragging along a whole mess of conflicting emotion in its wake. Tian looked up at him from inches away and focused on his mouth.

"When you meet Baba, don't stare or she'll eat your face," she told him.

Sio wasn't sure what he'd been expecting, but that hadn't been it. He narrowed his eyes and watched her through the lashes.

"So we're clear, I'm not going to let you avoid what happened in the hallway forever."

"You will for now though."

"Yeah."

She leaned in and brushed silken lips lightly against his own. Maybe she'd intended it as a chaste kiss, but it didn't stay that way. She leaned into to him as he pulled her closer, her mouth soul-stealing hot on his own. His pulse cranked so high he barely noticed when they slid out of the portal, slamming into a concrete wall. He was breathing hard as she disengaged. They were in the back corner of a parking garage.

Tian shook her head. "I used to have better self-control than this."

An expression that looked a lot like affection slid across her features a split second before she turned away and started walking. Sio didn't trust himself to say anything. Hell, he didn't even know if he could say anything. He watched Tian walk away, wanting to drag her over to the nearest vehicle and fuck her over the hood. Eventually he followed her. When he got his voice back he said, "Tell me about Baba Yaga."

Get a room.

It was the first coherent thought she'd managed since they'd slid out of the portal. Sadly, it was hard to tell whether the idea had sprung from a statement grumbled by a passing third party or if she'd come up with that motherfucking gem all on her own.

Tian disengaged with every cell screaming in protest. It was a wonder the bastards weren't audible. She felt like she'd sprinted flat out for about fifty miles. Her pulse was slamming itself around her jaw, her lips, and about a dozen other places she'd love to pretend didn't exist. The more she touched him, the harder it was becoming to remember why that kind of kamikaze move was a bad idea.

"I used to have better self-control than this," she said.

Sio leaned against the wall of the garage, bedroom pout working its way around some seriously ragged breaths. Even so, he might have pulled off smug if he weren't spilling more steam than a sauna. For a dangerous heartbeat of time it was impossible not to love him. To admit it. Tian turned away and started walking so he wouldn't see the look of undisguised horror that had come barreling in on the heels of the reaction.

I'm yours... I've been yours.

Numb, please, fuck, just be numb.

Love meant chained naked in a fetid dungeon, broken and trapped in a puddle of your own blood and piss. The recollection made Tian long for hollow. Emptiness had a comforting quality to it, like slipping on a favorite robe at the end of a long day. It was getting harder and harder to compartmentalize the mess in her head. Little bits of electric static kept interrupting the painstakingly cultivated balm of soulless emotional vacancy.

"Tell me about Baba Yaga." Sio said, catching up in a couple of ground eating long legged strides. She still wanted to touch him...taste him.

"Baba Yaga is part Crone, part Duegar, and it's a bad idea to go to her for help."

"And yet here we are about to do it anyway..."

"Cause we're out of options," Tian cut him off with the irritated realization that she'd finished his sentence.

The rain had slackened from torrential downpour to drizzling nuisance by the time they emerged out in front of Macy's. Pedestrians hunched under the flimsy canopies of their umbrellas fighting the bitter cold and scampering with purpose from shop front to shop front.

"Tian, you should be thrilled that I knew what a dryad was. What the hell is a duegar?" Sio asked with an annoying level of good humor.