Collide and Seek: Act 4-5 (Bitter Ashes Book 2) (5 page)

“What if that's all true?” I asked. “We could very well be doing exactly what he wants us to do.”

Alaric's expression turned somber. “We must continue on regardless, and hope that we can defeat Estus when the time comes.”

I let out a huff of breath. “I'm not doing it to defeat Estus. I'm doing it in an attempt to join Aislin's clan.”

“And why would you want that?” Alaric countered quickly, like he'd been wanting to ask for a while. “You're out here, free. You could just move somewhere far away and live your life.”

“And have to look over my shoulder forever?” I replied.

Alaric shook his head. “That's not why you're doing it.”

“What is it that you want me to admit, exactly?” I snapped.

I wasn't sure why I was getting angry, I just knew that I didn't like being pressed on things I didn't want to talk about . . . even if I didn't know why I didn't want to talk about them.

Alaric shrugged. “Nothing at all. I'd only like you to consider the fact that not having a clan does not automatically mean you will be alone.”

That was it. He'd hit the nail on the head with the word
alone
. I looked ahead again to see how far James had gone. He was barely visible in the distant trees ahead of us, but I lowered my voice none-the-less. “What exactly are you proposing?” I asked.

Alaric moved closer to me so that we were walking shoulder to shoulder, except even at 5'9”, my shoulder was quite a few inches lower than his.

“I propose that we destroy the charm,” Alaric whispered. “Our people are not meant to be ruled.”

“Just a few days ago you were all,
Estus is Doyen, he asks and I obey
,” I argued, shocked at what Alaric was suggesting.

“He pushed too far,” Alaric said simply.

“Really?” I said sarcastically. “Was it the assigned kidnapping, the maiming of your sister's girlfriend, or the maiming of your own girlfriend that caused you to finally draw the line?”

“My
girlfriend
?” he asked with a lascivious smile, ignoring everything else I'd said.

I rolled my eyes. “You know what I mean. What finally changed your mind?”

“My mind was changed as soon as you and Sophie decided to leave the Salr, as I no longer had much reason to stay,” he began, “and that decision was solidified as soon as James harmed you. I will not again put myself in the position of obeying one leader blindly.”

I couldn't argue with him. He was right to assume that I'd give the charm to Aislin just so I wouldn't have to be alone again. I didn't trust myself around humans, and any Vaettir I might associate with would belong to one of the warring clans. The only option I saw was to join a clan . . . unless others would forgo being part of a clan with me . . .

“Please tell me what you're thinking,” Alaric said after I'd been silent for a while.

I glanced up at James again. “I'm thinking that this could very well be the biggest decision of my life.”

“You're young,” Alaric stated. “My sister and I have been part of many clans, and we have been on our own as well. The centuries change things. Eventually big decisions become inconsequential.”

“Well that's depressing,” I replied somberly.

“It is something you'll learn to deal with, in time,” Alaric said with a small smile.

I laughed bitterly. “Barring the fact that I'll probably be killed off any day here, I doubt I'll live anywhere as long as you have.”

“Why would you say that?” Alaric asked. “You are Vaettir, just like the rest of us.”

“James explained about the more powerful Vaettir aging slowly,” I answered. “I imagine I'll be aging rather quickly.”

“It is not as simple as that,” Alaric replied. “My sister and I are long-lived not because of our power level, but because we are Bastet. We are descended from the goddess after whom we are named.”

“So you're like, part god?” I asked incredulously.

Alaric shook his head. “I am Vaettir. We come from the earth, just as the gods and goddesses of old.”

“Then where do I come from?” I asked, perplexed.

“My dear,” Alaric replied, “you are a denizen of death. You do not descended from anyone. You simply exist.”

“And what about my pesky penchant for empathy?” I asked, not liking the idea of coming from nothing.

Alaric shrugged. “Now that, I have no explanation for, and it was clear that Estus did not expect you to come with such interesting gifts.”

“Okay,” I began, reverting back to our original line of conversation. “If I am a denizen of death, and other Vaettir like Sivi identify with the elements, what exactly do you, as a Bastet, embody?”

“War,” Alaric replied simply.

“Well that's comforting,” I mumbled.

Alaric laughed and pushed against my arm playfully. “Since when is death intimidated by a little bit of war?”

My legs were beginning to tire from all of the walking, and my brain was tired enough that I didn't quite know how to answer him. Sure, death was a part of war, but death wasn't supposed to feel the pain and emotions of those who were to be claimed.

I took a deep breath, and gave Alaric the only answer I could think of.

“Since death grew a heart.”

I
felt like my feet were about to fall off by the time I first heard sounds of traffic. The sun was making its slow decent past the trees, robbing us of the last of its warmth. James had eventually fallen back to walk with us, though he'd remained silent by my side.

I unbuttoned Alaric's shirt, not looking forward to baring my arms to the chilly air. He took the shirt absentmindedly and began putting it on as he sniffed the air, reminding me of a lion, or some other large cat.

“Anything?” James asked as he eyed our surroundings.

Alaric shook his head. “I know a few places she would go. We might have to search for a while.”

“We don't have much time,” James replied sternly. “That we're yet to see any sign of pursuit from Estus' people is shocking, to say the least.”

“There's probably time for food though, right?” I chimed in.

My stomach was cramping terribly from the lack of food over the last few days. Alaric and James didn't seem affected by it, but they didn't seem affected by a lot of things. Me, I needed food and a nice warm coat.

Alaric pulled me toward him and wrapped an arm around me. My first instinct was to fight, but I was freezing, tired, and hungry. I simply didn't have any fight left, and his body heat was one small comfort I wasn't willing to refuse.

James gave us an irritated look, but didn't comment. Instead we all began walking again, following the sounds of traffic.

Soon we started seeing houses here and there, and our footing transitioned from dirt and pine needles to sidewalk and asphalt.

I didn't recognize where we were, but Spokane is a large city, and there was no way for me to be familiar with all of the suburbs.

As darkness fully fell, we reached a small strip mall. The smell of cooking food wafted out of a few restaurants, but the few clothing stores had already closed.

“Get her something to eat,” James instructed as he looked at Alaric. “I'll find her a coat.”

I raised a finger in the air. “And some socks . . . if you don't mind.”

James sighed loudly, then disappeared into the darkness, presumably to steal me a coat. Alaric ushered me forward toward the nearest restaurant, a small pasta/pizza place.

“It's like we're going on our first date,” Alaric intoned happily as he practically skipped along.

I glared up at him as he gently urged me toward the restaurant. “The first date usually occurs before the breakup, and it definitely occurs before the . . . ” I trailed off, not wanting to say what I had originally intended.

“The sex?” Alaric finished for me. “So we like to do things backward,” he went on, “it's part of our charm.”

“There is no
we
or
our
,” I corrected, “and this is
not
a date.”

“No roses, no wine,” Alaric joked. “Got it.”

“Wonderful,” I grumbled.

Alaric held the door for me as we went inside the small restaurant. Nervous, I pulled my hair forward to cover my face as much as possible. The chances that someone would recognize me as a missing person were slim, but it was still a possibility that I'd rather avoid.

I received a few odd glances at my tattered dress, though the glances were probably more because of the small amount of fabric I was wearing in the cold weather than the state of my clothing. Grunge was in again, or so I'd heard.

It was a seat-yourself restaurant, so Alaric quickly led us to a corner table where we could have our backs to the wall in case anyone tried to sneak up on us.

I glanced around the room nervously as we sat. “I feel like maybe we should have just gotten fast food,” I whispered.

Alaric sat in a slouched position like he hadn't a care in the world. “I don't eat fast food,” he replied. “That stuff will kill you.”

I laughed quietly. “If five-hundred years of living among the Vaettir doesn't kill you, the fast food surely will.”

Alaric smiled and raised an eyebrow at my joke, then turned as a young waitress came to the table to take our drink orders. Her eyes lingered on Alaric for longer than was polite, and she looked a little confused as she took in my disheveled, frizz-haired appearance.

I ordered an iced tea and gave the waitress an uncomfortable amount of eye-contact. Alaric ordered a glass of red wine and gave the waitress a cheerful wink, completely undermining the hopefully intimidating stare I had going on.

“I thought you said no wine,” I grumbled as the waitress walked away with a smile on her face.

“I lied,” he said simply. “I'm supposed to be a liar, remember?”

“And here I'd thought you'd changed,” I said sarcastically.

Alaric feigned a hurt expression. “Well at least you're talking to me now.”

I opened my mouth to argue that I was only talking to him since he was the only company present, but the waitress came back and placed our drinks in front of us. I hadn't had time to look at the menu, but it would have been a moot point as Alaric started ordering for us: Fettuccine, spinach lasagna, mozzarella sticks, fried mushrooms, a pizza, and three different deserts.

I looked at him in astonishment as the waitress walked away. “Are we expecting guests?” I asked incredulously.

He winked one dark brown eye at me. “Who knows when our next meal will be? We should enjoy ourselves, for tomorrow we might be dead.”

I stared dejectedly at my iced tea in terms of Alaric's thinking. Suddenly I wished that I'd gotten something more extravagant like a strawberry daiquiri or a milkshake. If I was going to die sometime soon, I really didn't want to waste my time with bland iced tea.

Alaric took in my expression, then used his index finger to slowly scoot his glass of red wine in front of me. Not needing any more of an invitation, I wrapped my fingers around the stem of the glass. Alaric smiled as I took a long sip, then offered the glass back to him.

He reached out for the glass, brushing his fingertips across mine as he took it. His expression had lost its playfulness to be replaced by heat. The look in his eyes made me gulp, and I quickly turned my gaze back to my iced tea.

My attention was drawn to the door as James charged through and I let out a sigh of relief. I didn't know how to deal with the heat in Alaric's eyes, and James was a welcome distraction. He approached our table and handed me a knee-length black coat with a fur-lined hood that I sincerely hoped was faux.

“Put it on and keep your face covered,” he said quickly. “We need to go.”

Alaric stood immediately, taking James' mood seriously. I stood and wrapped the coat around me, wanting to cry at the fact that I was going to miss another meal.

“Socks are in the pocket,” James said to me, “but you'll have to put them on later. Now move.”

He grabbed my arm and pulled me forward so that I was walking in front of him. Our waitress watched us leave with what looked like our appetizers in her hands. In fact, the whole restaurant watched us leave.

So much for not making a scene.

“We were tracked,” James said as we spilled out into the parking lot. “Marcus confronted me. He's dead, but there will be more.”

I looked around the parking lot nervously as we walked, but everything in the night was still. Who the hell was Marcus?

“If Marcus was here, then Siobhan won't be far behind,” Alaric said.

Since I didn't know who the people were that they were talking about, I kept my mouth shut and allowed myself to be led down the dark sidewalk and past more closed or closing businesses. We turned and went into the parking lot of a large, abandoned warehouse. The yard was strewn with refuse, and didn't look like it had been used in many years. Whatever suburb we were in, the place had definitely seen better days to leave such a space right in the middle of town.

“Give up the girl,” a female voice said from behind us.

The three of us turned in unison to see a man and a woman standing under the illumination of a streetlight. The woman's long, white coat made her strawberry blonde hair stand out vibrantly in the light. The man looked out of place beside her in his casual street clothes and knit winter cap.

“I don't want to hurt you, Siobhan,” Alaric replied, “but the girl you cannot have.”

As the girl in question, I didn't like being talked about like I wasn't there, but I'd complain later. The mismatched pair left the sidewalk and began to approach us slowly, then everything exploded in chaotic movement.

The next thing I knew, James was shoving me out of the way as the man rushed us, and Alaric had already collided with Siobhan.

As I watched, James' hands seemed to melt through his attacker's chest, and I clutched at my own chest as searing agony hit my skin. At first I couldn't quite make sense of what was happening, especially with my own pain making things confusing, then the smell hit me, and I realized that the man's chest wasn't melting, it was burning.   The man stumbled away into a crouch, then lunged at James as if he didn't have two palm-shaped, scorched craters in his chest. I panted in pain as the pair tumbled to the ground, but the scuffle was short lived as James lifted the man up by his neck. I didn't have much time to contemplate James' apparently super-human strength as his hands burned through the man's neck, cutting off the sound just as he tried to scream. I was glad that it was a quick death, because the moment of pain I'd felt in my throat was almost unbearable. I felt a little rush of energy as the man died, then James cast him aside like a rag doll.