Blood & Dust (24 page)

Taipan ran the bike in, finding space between the Rover and a Jeep with its bonnet up; a lamp
hung from a hook overhead.

The bike burbled to silence. Kevin stepped off, gingerly testing his regenerated foot for
support. Better. Not a hundred per cent, but at least it could take his weight. No crutch required.

'We were starting to think that maybe you weren't coming,' Acacia said.

'Me, too.' Taipan stepped from the bike and stretched. 'Good to see you, 'Cacia.'

They embraced and Kevin thought he saw tears in her eyes. 'Just you?'

Taipan nodded, hugged her again.

She stared at Kevin over Taipan's shoulder. He couldn't read her expression, didn't know if that
was good or bad.

'So who did you kill to get this place?' he asked.

She flinched.

'No one yet,' Taipan said, the threat obvious.

'You don't have to be afraid,' Acacia said. 'We didn't bring you all this way just to murder
you.'

Way to go, he congratulated himself. How to lose the closest thing to a friend he had, just
because he was scared shitless. Would the Night Riders really help the man who'd led to the
slaughter of so many?

A flash of light behind her caught Kevin's eye - a door opening and shutting at the house. A girl
walked toward them - late teens with shoulder-length corn-blonde hair, wearing cut-off shorts and a
tight T-shirt. A little chubby, definitely cute. She ran the last few steps to give Taipan a
rib-cracking hug. 'Cuz, you made it!'

'Cassie.' Taipan stepped back and the girl stood by Acacia, an arm around the woman's waist.
Acacia draped an arm across Cassie's shoulders.

'This is the new fella.' Taipan indicated Kevin with a jerk of his thumb.

'Kevin, isn't it?' Cassie said. 'You two look totally knackered. I'll take you up to the house,
hey. Get you something to eat.'

'I'll finish off here.' Acacia gave Cassie a peck on the cheek. 'Be up soon.'

'You betta get that truck sorted out,' Taipan said. 'We might need to move in a hurry.'

Acacia swore, and the sound of metal on metal followed them as they left.

Cassie led them up the few stairs onto the veranda. They took off their boots, Kevin favouring
his healing foot. The two heelers lay on either side of the door, reminding Kevin of the lion
statues that some fancy folks put on either side of their front gate. The dogs raised their muzzles
from their forepaws in tandem, sniffed, then resettled.

'Good boy, Byely,' Taipan said, kneeling to pat the white dog, and then having to reach over to
do the same for its whimpering companion. 'You too, Cherny.'

Cassie ushered them inside. 'C'mon, I got a brew on.'

They went down a hallway, the walls marked with bright rectangles of paint. Music played softly
behind a closed door, a radio announcer blared behind another.

Cassie heated mugs in the kitchen. 'The good stuff.'

Kevin took one gratefully and let the decanted human blood calm his nerves. It went down way too
fast; he swayed as the infusion flowed through him, setting his foot to tingling and leaving him
craving more.

Dogs barked, answered by a whinny outside the kitchen. Cassie went outside, closing the back door
behind her. Kevin glimpsed a caravan, dented and dusty, and someone leading a horse, the two heelers
panting at its hoofs.

'Mother's back,' Taipan said, and finished his drink. 'You better show some manners. She don't
hafta take you in, y'know.'

'Do I get a say in that?'

'You said plenny already. Just shut up and maybe learn somethin', eh.'

Cassie returned soon after. 'I'll take you to the study. Mother's on her way.'

Kevin rinsed his mug - Kala would've approved, he thought with a twinge - and followed the girl
and Taipan up the hallway. He felt like a duckling flopping around at the end of the queue. Tail-end
Charlie was always the first one to go, right?

The study felt cooler than the rest of the house, snug, the walls draped in dark
cloth and smelling of incense. Soft carpet. The only furniture was a crammed bookshelf along one
wall and a large wooden chest against another. Kevin glimpsed words like
The Final Solution
,
World War
and
Supernatural
. Cassie lit candles around the room, then gestured for them
to sit on the square cushions on the floor. They sat, facing the wall and its shuttered window.
Crystals hanging from the ceiling caught the light like a broken mirror ball. A shadow passed across
the doorway. Kevin turned. A middle-aged woman entered, hugged Cassie, then shut the door after
Cassie left with a promise to be close by if she needed anything. The newcomer stank of horse; under
that, some kind of herb, thyme perhaps.

The spice rack in the kitchen, his mother sorting through, lamenting her latest
failure to grow cardamom from a seed; his father saying a bit of salt 'n' pepper was all it needed;
and his mother saying, 'You aren't that spicy, Mr Matheson'; and the bolognaise being so bloody
good, flecks of mince and sauce splattering the table where the spaghetti got out of control; and
him muttering and his mother shaking her head, that gentle, gentle smile.

'Mother,' Taipan began, but he fell silent as the woman stood next to him and nursed his head
against her thigh. Her hair hung in two dark braids, as dark and glossy as a crow's wing, her
features somewhere between Russia and China, the eyes slightly almond shaped, the brows heavy,
cheeks severe. But her expression was pure compassion as she said, 'I heard; felt. A sad day.' She
sighed. 'I wish you could let her go.'

'She's my sister.'

'Willa hasn't been your sister since Turner sank her fangs into her.'

'And what about me? She did me, too.'

A hand in his hair. 'That she did. And yet, here you are.' She glanced at Kevin. 'And this one?'

'Somewhere between makin' and wakin', Mira got her fangs into him. I thought maybe we could use
him to track her down. Get even.'

Did her face harden, just then, when Taipan said Mira's name? Kevin couldn't be sure. But clearly
Mira was not in the woman's good books. Or perhaps scared her.

What chance did Kevin have if the Night Riders' grand guru was afraid?

'And still you think of revenge,' Mother continued.

'What else is there?'

'Survival.'

'What makes you think they're different?'

'Ask Penny and the rest.'

Taipan pulled away, and the woman hugged herself as though suddenly cold.

'Sorry,' she offered. 'That was petty of me. "I told you so" won't bring them back.'

Taipan rubbed his face with both hands as though waking from a nightmare. 'But you're right. I
made this fella and somehow that bloodhag got her hooks in him.' He hit his leg in frustration. 'I
shoulda checked. I shoulda bin more careful; maybe I shouldn't'a gone at all. It's my fault so many
have bit the dust.'

'It was their choice to follow you. Be careful you don't weigh yourself down with guilt that
isn't yours to bear.'

She studied Kevin, appraising but sympathetic, a vet diagnosing a sick pet.

'Now, what's this about Mira riding this boy?' she asked Taipan.

'His old man and me, we done a deal. Only, this fella ain't sleepin' so good.'

'Bad dreams?' She squinted, as though she could see through Kevin's clothes, and Kevin fidgeted,
not knowing what he should say, if anything. Her expression softened. 'My name is Danica, though
most of this bunch of miscreants call me Mother.'

Dan-ee-tza
: the way she drew out that ee, twirled her tongue around the last syllable,
sounded far too exotic to be out here in this isolated dust bowl. She should've been a pole dancer
or a circus performer - trapeze maybe, with her slender, tightly muscled build.

'Kevin,' he replied finally, his name sounding brutally common and sadly insufficient.

The scuffed toes of riding boots poked out from the bell-bottomed hems of her trousers. The front
laces of her puffy shirt hung loose as though to show off the numerous pendants she wore. She
reminded Kevin of a sideshow fortune-teller with her big hooped earrings and wrists jingling with
bracelets. What the hell was she going to do - read some tea leaves? They'd come all this way for
this?

She kneeled beside Kevin. 'Yours has been a difficult journey and I fear it's far from over.'

He wanted to say 'no shit', but the woman's presence didn't encourage rudeness. He winced when
his addled mind came up with, 'Um, Taipan's told me all about you.'

'Really?' She settled in a cushion facing them, then lit a small brazier; the flame cast an
orange glow on her dusky skin. Her dark eyes caught the light. Pungent incense wafted into the room.
She smiled, full lips parting to reveal perfect white teeth. Such dainty hands, flashing with rings.

'There,' she said. 'That's nicer, isn't it. Now, let's have a look at you.' She held out her
hand.

Kevin didn't move, confused.

'Give it over,' Taipan told him, pointing, and Kevin belatedly extended a hand.

Danica sliced his wrist with a fingernail, her grip holding him firm as he jerked under the
sudden pain, and bent to draw a mouthful of his blood from the wound. She sat back, eyes closed, and
began to rock ever so slightly.

Kevin glanced at Taipan but the biker's gaze was fixed on Danica's face, his features set in a
mask of adoration. The wound on his wrist throbbed but the bleeding had stopped; he held it in his
lap as Danica zoned out. The beginning of a headache beat behind his temples. The room heated up,
closed in around him. His heart pounded. What the hell was she doing to him?

Then the sensations ceased as though someone had snapped their fingers.

Danica opened her eyes, revealing irises of liquid violet.

Her voice sounded husky, almost echoing, as she told him, 'You've been marked, Kevin. Marked with
blood.'

'What does that mean?'

'It means Mira has traded blood with you. She uses the link to invade your dreams and possibly
even your waking thoughts. The risk is real.' She frowned, causing a sense of unaccountable unease
to sweep over him. 'But we're a long way from her and the power fades with distance.'

Her brow smoothed as she nodded to herself, licked her lip as though tasting the last of his
blood. She held his gaze. 'You will never be truly free from her while she possesses a sample of
your blood.'

'I don't think she took any,' Kevin said. 'Not like in a bottle or something.'

Got you. But you, you do not have me.

'She has her ways,' Danica said, staring at him;
into
him.

'I did what I could to keep her out,' Taipan said, fingering his pendant.

'You did well,' Danica said. 'And this place has its own protections. From what I can see, the
immediate threat to us is small.'

'Still, they might'a captured one of me pack. Kala, maybe, or one of them others. We oughta do
somethin'.'

'What would you suggest?'

He paused, then said in a rush, 'We got the firepower. Let's take 'em out, once and for all.'

She shook her head. 'You know that's not my way.'

'Damn it, Mother, all this slinkin' and runnin'-'

'How much more do you want to lose?'

He looked away, ran a hand through his hair. 'Nothin'. I don't wanna lose nothin' more.'

'We knew this haven wouldn't last forever. They never do. But I don't think we need to panic.
That's probably what they want. No, I doubt Maximilian will risk making more waves, not without
proof of our exact location. We'll move on, but in the meantime, I can give Kevin a talisman of his
own to protect him from Mira's sight until he either destroys the source of the spell or Mira uses
up her supply of his blood.'

'Are you saying that I should kill Mira?' Kevin said.

'You need to destroy the blood she has,' Danica answered. 'Or wait for her to exhaust it.'

'Or I could simply stay right the hell away from her.'

'She would infest your dreams. But if you offered no advantage to her, with time she would
probably grow bored and leave you alone.'

'So, what do you want from me?' Kevin asked.

Danica patted Kevin's hand. 'For now, you can stay here, rest, regain your strength. We can teach
you how to protect your mind from intruders and how to cope with the blood rush.'

'I could use some help, for sure.' Kevin rubbed his forehead, trying to silence the
voices…

Iraq is a fucked-up mess in the Middle-East

You're only young, Kevin. You've got time

No longer a basic food group

'What I really need is to talk to my mum.'

'That can be arranged.'

He glared at Taipan. 'And I need to know what happened to my dad.'

'We bin over this, fella. Whaddya want me to say?'

'I want you to tell me the truth!'

'I could say the Hunter. It was his gun. I could say me. I kinda brought the Hunter there, eh?
But I reckon most of all it was jus' dumb fuckin' luck what did ya old man in. You wanna take it
further, you jus' say the word.'

'That will be enough,' Danica said. 'Bad things happen. We cope the best we can. There is nothing
to be gained by taking anything "further". Not in my camp. Do I make myself clear?'

Both men nodded, with all the acceptance of chastened schoolchildren making a silent vow to
finish it outside the fence after the final bell.

She sighed. 'It's late and you've both suffered far too much. You need rest.' Kevin went to stand
up, but she took his hand. 'Before you go, I need you to help me prepare a talisman, Kevin.
Something to help you sleep uninterrupted.' She opened what looked like a wooden pencil case and
retrieved a glass vial as long as his little finger. She passed him a small knife and had him cut
his finger and fill the vial with blood.

'Good. It's going to take me a little while. Cassie will show you to your room. I'll send the
talisman when it's ready.'

Cassie stood behind him. He hadn't heard her come in. Kevin got up; his sore foot failed him and
she grabbed his arm to steady him. Taipan didn't move.