House Immortal (7 page)

I slathered the jelly against his wound carefully but firmly enough that it would hold to his skin and sink in between the stitches.

He pushed back and up out of that chair like I'd set him on fire. Took three steps away and pressed one wide palm over the stitches.

“What is that?”

“Jelly,” I said, slow enough for a three-year-old.

I held up the jar again, and the scent of licorice and lemon that masked the heavy antiseptic tang wafted through the air.

“I felt it.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Right. I told you it would sting.”

He looked over at Neds. “I
felt
it,” he repeated.

“Maybe if you didn't have a breezeway open to your spine, you wouldn't,” Left Ned said.

“You do not understand.” He took those same three steps back to me.

I stood up from the stool because I wasn't the kind of gal who took a direct confrontation sitting down.

“Galvanized don't feel pain or pleasure.”

He pressed his thumb down to the last knuckle into his wound until blood oozed out. He didn't wince, his pupils didn't dilate, his breathing didn't change. He was either a very good actor or he really didn't feel that wound.

“Stop that.” I slapped his hands away from the cut. He sucked in a quick breath. “You're wasting jelly and making the cut worse.”

He caught at my hand, held it as if my touch was infecting him with sensation. “What are you doing?” This time he sounded genuinely spooked. “What are you doing to me? How are you doing this to me?”

“I am trying to bandage your injury. And you are the worst patient I've ever tended.”

Neds snorted.

“So how about you hold still for a straight sixty and stop getting in my way?”

“What are you?” he asked.

Funny; not too long ago, he'd been pretty certain what I was.

“Irritated,” I said, “so hush and let me work.”

He hushed and stood still.

I finished with the jelly while he stayed on his feet, then tied the wraps back in place, doing my best not to actually come in contact with his skin. Every time I did, he flinched and his breathing changed. It was worrisome.

“You still haven't told me who started this,” I said, giving the cloth one last tug. “Who told you my father was alive?”

The sound of engines seared across the sky.

It had been years since a drone flew over, and just today I'd heard two.

Also worrisome.

Abraham's cinnamon gaze shifted across the smooth white of the ceiling as if he could track the aircraft through it.

“Devil rut 'em,” Right Ned whispered. “Tilly, you and I should talk.”

“Are those drones looking for my home?” I asked calmly as I screwed the lid back on the jar. My heart was beating too hard. “Are they looking for my father?”

“Yes.” He drew his eyes down from the ceiling and
held my gaze. Not panicked—he was waiting for me to make a decision.

“Did you send the drones here? Did you do this to me and mine?”

“I came to warn your father. To take him to shelter and safety. If you come with me, I will offer you and yours the same.”

“And if I don't?”

“First passes are surveyor drones to lock onto me and gauge your level of technology and defenses. The next drones will be equipped with codes to break whatever blockers you have. They'll look for people, animals, legal and illegal possessions and resources. They will send out ground troops.

“If any of the other Houses have drones in the area, this activity will be noticed. And if they find you unclaimed or your papers out of order, they will not offer you shelter. They will sell you and your land to the highest bidder. And your grandmother . . .”

He spread his hands wide. He didn't have to finish that sentence. I knew what they'd do to an old lady who had marbles clacking in her brain. They'd lock her up in the wards, where they'd look after her until they decided to put her out of her misery.

I pressed my lips together, thinking fast. I needed to keep Grandma safe. I needed to keep the beasts on the property safe and the network for House Brown clear and away from other House influence, from other House claims.

Quinten had made me promise to stay hidden.

I'd tried. But hiding wouldn't keep anyone safe this time.

“Son of a sin hole,” I said quietly. “All right. Can you call the drones off?”

“I can.”

“I need a week to set things in order.”

“I can't give you a week.”

“I have responsibilities, Abraham. It will take me a week to settle everything enough to come with you.”

“What?” Left Ned said. “Matilda, we can run on our own. We don't have to make a deal with a stitch just because he got here before the other Houses that wanted to claim you. You don't know nearly enough about him to just take his word as truth.”

Abraham didn't argue with that. He waited like a man who was used to being judged. Like a man who knew his own sins and had come to peace with them.

“Who told you my father was alive?” I asked him quietly again. “I need to know that, at the very least.”

He didn't look away, didn't pay attention to Neds, who were cussing up a storm now.

I expected him to tell me it was my brother, Quinten, who had somehow sent him out this way. I expected him to tell me my brother was in trouble and I needed to go bail him out of it.

That was not what he said.

“Your mother,” he said softly, “Edith Case. She told us to look for your father here. She told us you would be here too.”

With a startling, unexpected comet burning in the sky, Alveré Case triggered the Wings of Mercury. A great bell rang out across the land. And death answered the call.—1910

—from the journal of L.U.C.

M
y mother was dead. I'd seen her killed, seen her and my father hauled off, taken away. I'd been young, but I knew they hadn't been breathing, hadn't been moving at all. I'd seen the blood the men in black hosed away.

“How long?” I finally asked.

Abraham frowned. “Since what?”

“How long can you keep the drones away from my property?”

I couldn't deal with the question of my mother. Not yet. There was too much pain around the idea of it.

“Two days at the longest,” he said, maybe surprised that I hadn't asked about my mom. “We will be able to do more if we return to my House. House Gray has some clout over the transfer and claim of the population. If you are officially claimed by us, by Gray, we can hold this land under our protection. It should keep the other Houses away from it.”

“Medical and Defense too?” I asked. “Does Gray
have clout enough to keep both of those Houses away from here?”

He nodded. “We should.”

“Since when does Gray let a
thing
like a galvanized speak for it?” Left Ned asked.

Abraham didn't look over at Neds. He just opened and closed his hands, like he was imagining a neck—or two—there to wring.

“Galvanized are given the right to speak for a House at the House's discretion,” he said calmly. “Would you like to challenge my authority, Mr. Harris?”

“Matilda,” Right Ned said. “You do not have to go with him. You do not have to sell yourself to a House. We can find somewhere else to hold out until this blows over.”

“I don't even know what
this
is,” I said. “The Houses are looking for my father, who is dead. They think my mother told them he's alive, but she's dead too.

“And now, somehow, I'm property that's going to go to the highest bidder? I don't think so. Let me settle things here, Abraham. Then I'll travel to the city and meet you there.”

“No. That's not how it's going to happen,” he said.

“No? I'm sorry. You might speak for House Gray, but you do not speak for me.”

“I'm not leaving without you.”

He advanced on me.

I advanced right back. “I'm not leaving
with
you.”

He looked like he was going to yell, but clenched his teeth. “Rent me a room.”

“What?”

“I want a room. For two days while you get your affairs in order. How much?”

“I said I'd patch you up, not open a boarding house.”

“How. Much?”

Neds stood just out of the man's line of vision. Right Ned shook his head while Left Ned drew a finger across his throat in the “kill him” gesture.

“You couldn't afford it,” I said.

“You don't know what I'm willing to pay.”

There was a fire in his eyes. Some of it was anger, yes. But there was a glint of something else. Amusement. He was getting a kick out of arguing with me, of trying to make me bend to his authority.

Not going to happen.

If he wanted to pay, he'd have to pay big.

“Are you carrying gold?” I asked sweetly.

He frowned.

“No? Silver? Lead? Copper?” I made big, innocent eyes at him. “A girl out in the brush doesn't need credit chits, Mr. House Gray. What do you have in your pockets that's worth my hospitality?”

One of the Neds coughed, and I realized that could have been taken in a very different manner.

Abraham flashed me a wicked smile.

“Don't flatter yourself,” I said before he opened his mouth, even though a rush of heat stung my cheeks.

He didn't say anything for a long moment. He didn't have to. We'd searched his pockets. They were empty. But his eyes still burned with delight. He thought he had something I'd want. Something that would make me let him stay here.

“Information,” he said.

“I don't need information, Mr. House Gray.”

“Abraham,” he corrected. “Are you sure about that? I have access to more information than you could glean from ten lifetimes out here, Dumpster-diving data off hacked lines.”

“Dumpster-diving?” Left Ned started.

“What kind of information?” I asked.

Here it was, his chance to give me something that would help House Brown, since he must have assumed I was lying about being part of House Green.

It was also my chance to see how he had sized me up. What sort of woman did he think I was? What did he think was important to me?

His eyes wandered over my body slowly, from feet all the way up to my eyes. I resisted the urge to fold my arms, turn around, scowl. I didn't like being seen—had spent a life working very hard to stay hidden.

And this man was in the middle of my living room, uncovering every detail of me.

“I don't suppose fashion would interest you?”

Really? I gave him a chance to tell me what he thinks of me, and he takes a dig at my choice of clothing?

I strode over to the door. “No,” I said. “It wouldn't. Call off the drones. I'll see you in a couple weeks. Good-bye.”

“You heard the lady,” Left Ned said. “Get moving.”

“Your brother,” Abraham said. “Quinten.”

Nothing could still me faster.

“I know where he is. Where he was last seen.”

“Is he alive?” I asked before I could stop myself.

Dammit. He'd seen right through me. Probably knew all along that I had a brother. Knew that he'd been missing and I'd been worrying.

He nodded. “I will tell you where he has been. I will tell you what we know of your mother's message. I will tell you . . . I will answer
anything
you ask of me. For two days. Then you come with me to House Gray, where we will settle your House claim and the claim on your land before someone comes out here and offers you no choice.”

“You call this a choice?” Left Ned said. “How about we pick up our weapons and give you a choice of dying here or walking off our property and dying there?”

“You said my father's enemies wanted to find me,” I said, ignoring Neds. “Do you know that for sure? Do you know who they are?”

“Your mother's message was unclear. I'll tell you what I know if you come with me now, or if you let me stay and come with me in two days.”

It meant he'd be underfoot. Two days on the farm, getting in my way, getting in my business, uncovering the
secrets I'd spent a lifetime hiding. The Lizard, for example. There was no way to hide that stitched monster.

But I couldn't just run off with him blind and leave Grandma and Neds behind to try to deal with House Brown—or, worse, to be harmed if House Gray did not keep their word and this land was seized and burned.

If I was going to negotiate with House Gray for my land, my family, and my House, then two days of grilling him for information might give me something I could use for leverage.

“You'll call off the drones,” I said.

“Yes.”

“You'll answer anything I ask, truthfully.”

“Yes.”

“And you'll stay out of my way.”

“If you wish.”

Not quite a yes, but close enough.

“All right. Two days. You can have the room down the hall. I'll give you a change of sheets and you're welcome to a portion of the meals. Don't bother my grandmother, and otherwise keep your hands to yourself. Neds and I carry weapons, and we aren't shy about using them. Agreed?”

I strolled over, held out my hand.

He wrapped his huge hand around mine, warm and callused, his eyes widening for just a moment at our contact before he nodded.

“Agreed,” he said.

“Neds,” I said, “please help Grandma settle in for her nap.”

“And where are you going to be?” Right Ned asked.

“Watching our guest hold up his end of the bargain.”

Neds got moving and shepherded an already-drowsing Grandma down the opposite hall to her room, the little sheep trotting behind them.

Left Ned threw me a couple pointed looks that made it clear he thought I'd gone insane.

Maybe he was right. Maybe I had.

“Do you need something to call off the drones?” I walked past Abraham and headed into the kitchen. There was still a pool of blood that needed to be cleaned up.

“Satellite link? Data bounce? Smoke signals?”

His boots fell in muffled thuds as he followed me.

“Just an open sky.”

“Right that way,” I pointed at the kitchen door where he'd first arrived. “Watch the mess on the floor.”

I turned the water on the sink, pulled a couple of heavy rags out of the drawer, and tossed them under the faucet. Cleaning up blood was best done with a lot of hot water and soap.

“Let me help you with that,” Abraham said. He hadn't even walked into the room yet. I couldn't tell if that look on his face was guilt or worry.

“Just call off the drones. You aren't the first man to bleed on my floor.” I offered up a smile and that seemed enough to get him on his way and out the door.

I wrung out the rags and watched him out the side window. He held up his left palm and jabbed at it, like he was punching in a code.

Huh. Maybe that was why he didn't have anything in his pockets. He was coded into the network with flesh and bone.

He let his hand drop and tipped his head up to search the sky.

Yes, I was staring. He inhaled, his shoulders shifting a little, and closed his eyes. The afternoon sunlight poured over him, glowing up his skin while bringing those life stitches into stark contrast.

The wind pushed his hair around a bit, giving me a good, long look at him.

His face in semiprofile was god-awful handsome: strong nose and cheekbones, square jaw and mouth that relaxed into a slight frown. The lines around his eyes eased a bit as he took another deep breath, absorbing
the warmth of the day. I wondered if it was pain that had put the lines at his eyes and across his forehead.

I'd seen the fighter's muscles covered by the bandages wrapped around his middle and his heavy gray coat. But the way he was standing now turned my mind away from how dangerous he might be. If he'd wanted to, I supposed he could have overpowered Neds, maybe even overpowered me. But he'd talked to get his point across, and though he was annoyed by it, he'd done what I wanted and given me some time to settle things here.

It was . . . well, nicer than I'd been treated by anyone in House before.

Galvanized. I'd heard a lot about them, but had never met one. So far he had caught my full attention.

He took a third deep breath, and this time I inhaled with him and exhaled, letting that breath take away the fear that knotted like a fist in my chest. Fear that I had made the wrong choice bringing him into my house. Fear that I shouldn't have agreed to let him stay. Fear that my brother was hurt, or, worse, and that I'd just sealed a deal that would take away my land and fail the people of House Brown.

For just that one breath, I didn't worry about all the things I should be taking care of.

I just watched him.

He opened his eyes, then turned to look at me.

Crap.

I quickly looked away and poured some soap into the sink, agitating it to get the bubbles to rise.

Had he seen me staring at him?

Probably.

The real question was: why did I feel so embarrassed about it? It wasn't like he knew what I was thinking about him.

Right?

I squared my shoulders and pretended like I couldn't
feel his gaze on me. Pretended that I didn't know he was laughing at me.

By the time he strolled back into the kitchen, I was on my knees, halfway through cleaning up the blood.

“Drones are called off. You got your two days,” he said.

“All right, then. Clean sheets are in the hall closet. Put the soiled ones on the floor in your room and I'll take care of them.” I stood and carried the two rags sopping with soap and blood over to the empty side of the big sink.

“I could lend a hand,” he said.

“No need.” I wrung out the rags, then sloshed them in the hot-water side of the sink, soap almost up to my elbows.

A little bell set in the corner of the ceiling rang out like a chime stirred by a hard wind. Out in the barn, another, deeper bell rang, and I knew there was another bell even farther out on the edge of the property that gave one low knell.

Someone in House Brown was calling. Someone needed my help.

“What's that?” Abraham asked.

I turned, the two rags in my hands. “On second thought, I could use your help.” I deposited the soapy rags in his hands. “Wipe up as much blood as you can. There's a box of sodium peroxide powder here.” I plucked the box out from beneath the sink. “After the blood's up, sprinkle this over the stain, but don't inhale the dust.”

“I know how to clean up blood.”

“Good!” I gave him a wide smile. “I'll leave you to it.”

I wiped my hands on a towel and strode out of the kitchen, through the living room, down past Grandma's room and my room, to the narrow door that led to the basement.

It was locked, keyed to open for my fingerprints and for Neds', Quinten's, and Grandma's.

I glanced down the hall before opening the door. Abraham stood at the end of the hall, watching me.

“Better get on it,” I said. “Terrible mess, that floor.” I tugged open the door and shut it firmly behind me. Waited there, listening for his boots, but I didn't hear him come down the hall, didn't hear him put his hand on the door latch.

Good enough.

Stairs led me down to the communication hub for House Brown.

When I was young, the basement was a wonderland to me. Filled with copper, wood, and brass mingled with slick plastic and shining silver and glass. The room glittered with a dizzying display of dials, levers, buttons, screens, and wires. I had dedicated three months to learning what every toggle, gauge, and system could do.