Over My Head (Wildlings) (32 page)

"Okay," Chaingang says. "Now I get it." He jerks a thumb in Tomás's direction. "L.A.'s here because he's hoping to grab your territory."

Tomás bristles. "Don't presume to—"

Auntie Min holds up a hand to stop him.

"You're partly right," she tells Chaingang. "But Tomás is here at my request. He is younger and stronger than me. If I should fail before a replacement can be found, he will have to step in. The connection he has to Los Angeles will also embrace Santa Feliz."

Marina is shaking her head, maybe having the same thoughts as me about giving up on the band, school, hanging out at the skatepark and stuff.

"You thought Josh was your
replacement
?" Marina asks.

"I didn't think so at first. At first I thought he was to be the bridge between our worlds: that of the cousins and the humans. Then, when I sensed his affinity to the land under my care, I realized perhaps the Thunders had sent him to take my place. To be my apprentice."

"Do you still think that?" Chaingang asks.

Auntie Min shakes her head. "I'm not sure. I only know the Thunders sent him to us, and that they have a purpose. Just as all of you children becoming cousins has a purpose."

"So someone's been waking up the Wildlings in us," Chaingang says, "until they got Josh."

"Or someone like him. Someone from the old clans."

"I've been saying that all along," Cory puts in.

It's weird listening to them talk about me as though I'm not even here, but I don't want to participate in this conversation anyway. I just want my old life back.

"Okay," Chaingang says, "so then maybe you can tell us this: why does Vincenzo want Josh dead?"

"I don't know," Cory says.

Auntie Min shakes her head as well.

"Maybe
los tíos
can tell us," Tomás says. "They seem to have been watching Josh for a while."

This could go on all night.

"Look," I say. "I appreciate everybody putting in their two cents, but I don't know any more now than I did before I arrived. Nobody actually
knows
anything. But we've got a lot to think about—which is what I'm going to do after I get a good night's sleep. I'll tell you this much. I'm not going to be anybody's leader. I've got enough crap going on in my life without taking on responsibilities that I don't even understand."

"But if the Thunders have a plan for you …" Cory begins.

"Then they're going to have to spell it out for me," I tell him. "And then I'll decide what I'm going to do."

Cory's shaking his head. "Sometimes you just have to step up and learn as you go. You don't get to make the choice—the choice picks you."

"I'm only here because I promised you I'd come, after you did me that favour by dealing with Erik."

"Favour?" Auntie Min says. "The little cousins won't stop gossiping about it. He did you no favour dealing with that boy the way he did. Everything is sacred in the eyes of the Thunders—even the humans."

"The kid got what he deserved," Chaingang says. "He's lucky it was Cory who paid him a visit instead of me."

"I just want to know, what
did
you do to him?" Des asks.

"He dropped him off in the otherworld," Marina says before Cory can answer. "On top of some mountain. I saw Erik just before school was over and he was a total mess." She waits a beat before adding, "But he was humble."

"Otherworld, huh? You'd better watch your ass," Chaingang tells Cory. "If Vincenzo finds out, he'll be gunning for you like he did with Donalita's sister."

"Perhaps the boy was humbled," Auntie Min says, "but was it still such a wise thing to do?"

"You didn't see Josh's face," Chaingang says.

"There are secrets we cannot share with the five-fingered beings."

Yeah, I think. Like that whole other pristine world, ready to be plundered.

"If the boy talks about his experience …" Auntie Min goes on.

"Erik thinks he was drugged," Marina says.

"And if anyone digs a little," Chaingang adds, "they'll find that his squeaky-clean Purity Club image is just a mask to hide one more dumb-ass doper. Nobody's going to believe a thing he says."

Tomás gives Cory a warning look. "So maybe we got lucky, but this is still exactly the kind of thing that could blow up in our faces."

"As I was saying," I say, and this time I stand up, "I'm heading home. The Thunders or anybody else wants to find me, that's where I'll be."

But before I can leave, the GPS in my head goes haywire. I'm looking right at a spot between where Auntie Min is sitting and the drop to the rocks below. I don't see anything, but the GPS tells me that there's a big-time cousin standing there.

Then he steps through out of nowhere—that same tall, dark-skinned guy I saw in the barrio. The one Chaingang says wants to see me dead.

"Oh, fuck," Chaingang says.

Chaingang

I'm on my feet before Vincenzo has stepped all the way through. He's moving fast, but not fast enough to stop me from getting a glimpse of the otherworld. Then it's gone and he's standing there, cocky and tall, with the cliff behind him, like he owns the world.

I'm so pissed off at myself.

I
knew
this was a trap. I
knew
we were being played.

Why did I have to be right? I don't know which of them set us up—Auntie Min, Cory or Tomás—but at least one of them did.

And why the hell didn't I bring a gun? Vincenzo might be fast, but no one outruns a bullet. One shot to the head and he wouldn't be playing Josh's resurrection trick. You'd need a brain to pull off the switch from human to animal shape and back again.

But all I'm carrying is my tire iron and he's got us all dead to rights.

Maybe he thinks that means I'm going to roll over. Someone should have told him that's not going to happen. When I go down, I'll go fighting.

I'm on my feet and standing between him and Marina without even having to think about it.

Vincenzo shakes his head. "I see that family ties don't mean so much to you after all."

"If you lay so much as a hand on my—"

He talks right over me. "Too late. As soon as we're finished here, the old woman dies next."

I know he's just pushing my buttons. I know I've got to be smart about this. But knowing doesn't help. Soon as he threatens Grandma, I see red and charge him.

The only thing I've got going for me is that Cory and Tomás are also coming at him.

Okay. Maybe I've got a chance. Maybe
we've
got a chance.

I lift the tire iron, moving as fast as I can. Anybody human seeing this, I'd be just a blur. But it's not enough.

He hits me with a backhand and it's like I got clipped by a speeding car. It rocks my head and I literally see stars. The force of the blow actually sends me airborne.

But I'm already planning my next move. Tuck in and hit the grass, then roll back to my feet and throw the tire iron as hard and fast as I can. With any luck he'll be too busy with Cory and Tomás to even see it coming.

Except I don't hit the grass.

I land on my back on the edge of the outcrop and I hear something go
crack
. Then my head hits the stone right after. The tire iron drops from my suddenly limp fingers. I try to get up but nothing seems to work. I can't move my arms or legs. I can't even lift my head. I—

Fuck me. I think he broke my back.

Then everything goes black.

Josh

Vincenzo's sudden appearance catches me completely off guard. I don't even have a chance to react before Chaingang is already down. Then Cory and Tomás are on the guy. I know how fast and strong Wildlings are. Tough as Vincenzo is, they still should have been able to take him. I mean—come on. It's two to one. But Vincenzo plucks Cory from the air like he's nothing more than a child's toy and flings him over the edge of the headland to fall on the rocks below. Then he grabs Tomás by the head, a hand on either side of his face. One twist and he snaps Tomás's neck.

Only seconds have passed. I'm just starting to lunge forward when Vincenzo heaves Tomás's body at me. It knocks me to the ground, but I'm only down for a moment. I push the body off and jump to my feet.

I see Marina running for where Chaingang's lying so still. Cory's gone. Auntie Min's staring in shock. I feel Des moving beside me.

"Don't," I tell him. "This guy's mine."

But before I can attack, Vincenzo says one word that stops me in my tracks:

"Elzie."

He smiles at my hesitation.

"I thought that might get your attention," he says. "She's such a free spirit, don't you think? Or at least she was."

"What have you done to her?"

"Nothing—at least not yet. I have a little task for you. Do a good job and she goes free. Fail and you'll get to watch everyone you love die before I kill you."

"Why are you
doing
this?"

"
We
don't believe in messiahs."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

His gaze is locked on me. Without looking, he points a finger at Auntie Min as she comes to her feet.

"Don't make me kill you, old woman," he says. "L.A. can stand to lose its caretaker—the city's been a lost cause for years—but Santa Feliz needs you. Once these children are gone, the spirits of the land will be in turmoil. You will have much mending to do."

"When the other elders—"

"The elders will do nothing," Vincenzo says. "I insult the honour of no clan. All I have in mind is to rid the world of these five-fingered children pretending to be cousins."

"You interfere with the will of the Thunders."

Vincenzo shakes his head. "I doubt that. Do you really think they want our existence revealed so that the five-fingered beings can hunt us down for their pleasure? That we give up the secret of the otherworld so it can be pillaged the way this world has been? If I am offending the Thunders, they will deal with me, but I think you will have to wait a long time for that to come about.

"Now, boy," he adds, turning back to me. "There is a rally protesting the existence of you Wildlings this weekend. You will go to the rally. You will work yourself close to the stage. You will leap up onto it and change in front of all the people and their cameras. Then you will kill Clayton Householder."

"How's that supposed to stop people from knowing about Wildlings?" I say. "You're just making it worse for us—and yourselves."

"Everyone has already heard about Wildlings. They aren't my concern. The cousins are. I want them to see you as dangerous, so that when your bodies start showing up they will be relieved that the problem has been solved for them. Let the five-fingered beings have your bodies to cut up in their laboratories. They won't find anything because their parameters could never envision the existence of the Thunders. But we will not allow our own people to be further compromised by you pretenders. We must clean up the mess you've made.

"And don't make the mistake of thinking I'm alone in this. We're not all content to live on the fringes of your poisoning cities, begging for scraps."

"'We'?" Auntie Min says. "Who makes up this 'we'? Give me their names."

"Old woman, be still." His dark eyes fix on me. "Well, boy. Does your Elzie and everyone you care for die, or will you do this little thing for me?"

"You'll just kill us all anyway."

"That's true. But your deaths will be quick and I promise not to harm any of the five-fingered beings in your life."

"There'll be Secret Service there. They'll shoot me down before I ever get close to the Congressman."

"Then you'll have to be quicker than them, won't you?"

"I don't get it. Why kill Householder?"

"He annoys me. He's a public figure. But more to the point, he's far too tenacious. When the pretenders are all dead, he'll still be out there looking for more, and it won't be long before he stumbles over the cousins."

"This is madness," Auntie Min says. "Householder's death will have the exact opposite result. All you will accomplish is to turn him into a martyr and the five-fingered beings will never stop hunting us."

"No, with Householder and the pretenders gone it will all dissipate. Humans would rather not believe in our existence."

"They've got hours of video," I say. "It's not going away."

His dark gaze settles on me again.

"Just do what I tell you," he says. "Let me worry about what comes after."

"Because I won't be here to see it."

"But your girlfriend and your friends and family will be. You won't see me again unless you fail. If that happens, we'll meet again with the bodies of all you love scattered around us."

Except Chaingang's already down. Marina's on his target list. And no matter what he says, Elzie will die, too, because she's a Wildling. She might already be dead. I have no way of knowing what is a lie and what's not.

And then there are all the Wildling kids I don't know. None of us asked for this. We shouldn't have to die just because we're an inconvenience to Vincenzo and his friends.

I'm not going to let that happen.

I need to end this before anybody else dies or gets hurt.

And I'm not going to make the mistake everybody else has of taking him on in my human form. Not when I've got the advantage of the sheer ferocity, speed and strength that the mountain lion can bring to a fight.

Vincenzo turns away, stepping back into the passageway that will take him away to otherworld. Auntie Min looks stunned. Tomás is dead. Cory went over the cliff. He's probably dead, too. Marina's on her knees beside Chaingang, trying to bring him around. Des is crouched beside her, but he's white as a sheet and looking at me. He starts to shake his head as I change into the mountain lion.

Vincenzo is almost all the way to the other side.

Before the passageway between the worlds can close, I leap through it after him.

Marina

Theo is limp and unresponsive no matter how many times I've stroked his face and called his name. Des is over here trying to help, but suddenly he jerks his head toward where the others are. I follow Des's stare just in time to see Vincenzo disappear and Josh switch to his mountain lion form, then leap after Vincenzo into the otherworld.