Soul Whisperer (20 page)

A
fter drinking all the water Tuff carried in the cooler in his pickup, he was strong enough to stand, though Tuff still hunched toward the side where Cesar had been shot.

“Only take a day or two and I'll be right as summer rain,” he said.

Bess kissed him and Cesar offered his hand, not wanting to hug a man in so much pain.

“You shouldn't drive,” he said.

Tuff gave Cesar a look. “Got to.”

“Then let me drive you. It's the least I can do.”

Tuff glanced at the path leading into the forest. “Nope. You still have business here with the twins and I have to call in the ranger's death, plus get rid of those three ghosts.”

Bess looked into the bed of his pickup where a blue rain tarp covered three wriggling captives. “You are sure you can find the owl?”

Tuff shrugged and then winced. “Have to. Those people are prisoners until I do.”

“It's
my
job to care for them,” said Cesar, who was the Spirit Child and protector of mankind.

Bess looked from one to the other. They both looked pale and weak and she had never felt this exhausted from a journey.

Cesar moved in an odd, stiff way, as if his limbs would not quite respond to him yet. She worried that the effects of being dead so long might do him permanent harm, but Tuff had assured her that he had taken all Cesar's injuries, including those caused by the organs shutting down. How could she ever repay him for what he had done?

“I'll find an owl Skinwalker. You two see to that little critter lurking upwind,” said Tuff, pointing to their left. “Waiting for me to clear out.”

“What about the ranger?” Bess asked Cesar.

His expression was grim. “Tuff will call it in and then later I'll use my memory gift to close the case. I'll have to notify District Council that I've killed a human. They'll call an inquest.”

Bess cast him a worried look. Cesar would tell the truth to his council and he would be banished. She was certain.

Tuff reached for the door handle and winced.

“Where's the ranger's gun?” asked Cesar.

In answer, Tuff lifted his shirt, revealing the handle of the pistol pressed by the waistband of his jeans to his flat stomach.

Cesar nodded and held the door for Tuff, waiting until he climbed slowly behind the wheel before slamming it shut for him.

“Thanks,” he whispered, then gave Cesar an odd look.

“What?”

Tuff's voice was barely a whisper. “Is it true you can walk in memories?”

Cesar nodded.

Tuff glanced at Bess, who stood back a few steps, hands clasped before her. She looked tall and elegant in a black sheath dress that flattered her curves.

“Can you, is it possible to make me forget her?”

Cesar shook his head. “Love is not a memory. I am sorry, my friend, after all you have done for me, I can do nothing for you.”

Tuff gave a heavy sigh, nodded and then thumped his hand on the outside of the driver's side door. “Okay then.”

Cesar stepped back. Tuff clasped the steering wheel and gave Bess one more long look. She smiled and waved.

“Thank you for my life, brother,” said Cesar. “I won't forget it. If you ever need me, I am there for you.”

Tuff slipped the clutch into gear. “Take care of her.”

 

The pickup was barely out of sight when a familiar growling came from the bunch of ferns to their left. Cesar pushed her behind him, placing himself between her and danger.

She thought to shift and escape but she could not leave him. There was a yapping bark and then one of the two twins tumbled out.

Cesar waited, hand on his service revolver as the male twin emerged first from the foliage. He dragged the female behind him. She snarled and snapped but she walked behind him as he advanced purposefully.

“What do they want?” Bess asked.

Cesar glanced her way and then returned his focus to the twins. “Parents, I think.”

“What?” She could think of nothing else to say, but she looked more carefully and noted the submissive approach of the male, shoulders hunched, his eyes darting to Cesar's and then away.

“I'm the first one they ever saw.”

The two ashy creatures stood before them, staring up with huge owlish yellow eyes and fangs that they could not quite contain inside their mouths.

In the silence that stretched between them came a low rumbling growl from their empty bellies.

“They're hungry,” said Cesar.

“The other ones ate an entire moose,” Bess said warily. She wanted to help them, but hungry animals were dangerous animals and these two were voracious as bears emerging from their dens.

“Yet they didn't attack the dead ranger,” said Cesar. “We have to feed them.”

Bess wondered where he'd get enough meat and suddenly thought Tuff's departure was very well timed.

If Cesar wanted to feed these infants, she would help him and she knew exactly where they could go.

“My lodge is close. I have a freezer full. Just bought a half a cow from a farmer.”

“Which half?”

Bess flapped her arms. “They don't just slice the cow in half and leave it hanging in your garage. I have packages of hamburger and several packs of long ribs and eight flank steaks and a bunch of porterhouse cuts, roasts, the works. It's three hundred pounds in total.”

“That will do to start. How far?”

“Twenty minutes in a car. Five as the crow flies.”

He gave her a smile at her joke.

“Do you think I can get them both into the car?”

“I don't know.”

He released his pistol and extended his hand. The female tried to back away, but the male held on to her. He hunched, shifting uncertain eyes. Cesar motioned with his fingers. The male made a sudden hopping advance. Bess held her breath.

It grasped Cesar's hand.

“It's hot,” he said, and placed his thumb over the male's small fingers. Then he turned and slowly led them to his car, holding open the passenger side. The little ashy infants tumbled into the footwell on the passenger side of his car. Bess looked through the open window at them.

“Do you want me to follow you or would you like to ride along?” he asked.

“I'm not leaving you alone with them.” Her uncertainty roiled within her. They needed help, but they still frightened her.

“Get in.” He held the rear door and she slipped behind the driver's seat.

The male hissed at her and he narrowed his eyes. But the female twisted his ear until he yowled.

The female's thoughts came to her clearly.
Mother. Mother. Mother.

“Cesar? She thinks I'm her mother.”

“She could do worse.”

Bess didn't know what shocked her more, the infant's thoughts or Cesar's confidence in her. She knew nothing about these twins or how to raise them.

“It's all right, little ghostling,” she cooed, feeling awkward.

The female closed its gaping mouth and stared up at her with wide eyes as if fascinated.

Cesar started the engine. “After we get them fed, maybe we should head away from people. I have a ranch in the Cascades. I think that might be a good place for them. It's secluded and there is lots of game.”

He pulled out. The female began to whimper and the male held her. The two babies reminded Bess of orphaned monkeys, clinging to each other for protection.

“What about the other newborns?”

“We'll start with these two and later try to gather them. Perhaps these can help us find them.”

Bess directed him toward her place.

The two passengers were jabbering together now, side by side on the floor mat.

“The way they are going, they'll be full grown in a week.”

Cesar drew a breath and then exhaled his troubles. “But we don't know how big they'll grow or what they will turn into as adults.”

Bess thought of her own change, which had come at puberty, and wondered what the future would be for these two. If they stayed like this, they could never be seen by men. One look would reveal them for what they were. What kind of life could they lead as outcasts?

She glanced to Cesar and understood suddenly why he felt a need to care for them. They faced what he had. Only he had managed to blend with humans.

Bess wanted to touch him so she could feel his emotions, but she didn't want to disturb him with hers. She was confused about the twins and about her role in bringing Cesar back without his consent. And she still needed to tell him that she was all wrong about him.

“Bess?”

She met his gaze in the rearview mirror.

“We'll have time to talk soon. I know you're upset. I can sense it without touching you. But hang on a little longer.”

He was comforting her? Bess couldn't keep the anguish from choking her. She pressed her eyes closed against her shame and held on. She didn't touch Cesar, but she rested a hand on his seat, just beyond his shoulder.

The female made a sound that seemed an exclamation and hopped up beside Cesar, staring at her from between the bucket seats. Could the little Halfling read the chaos of her emotions?

The ghostling laid her hand on Bess's and gave her a pat, looking up into Bess's eyes with her wide, unnatural ones. Then she leaped back down to the floor mats to hold her brother.

“Burning up,” she whispered. “Her skin is so hot. A fever or is that normal?”

Cesar glanced at the two. “They don't look ill.”

An inappropriate laugh erupted from her. “He doesn't? He's gray, with burning skin and eyes as yellow as egg yolks.”

“Good point.”

“Turn here.”

They ascended the private driveway and Bess punched in the code for the fence. In another moment she was entering in the code to open the garage. She swept inside and opened the chest freezer, transferring packets to a large cooler. Cesar waited outside as she wheeled the offering to the driveway.

The female charged her, knocking the cooler from her hands and diving into the neatly wrapped plastic.
The male hesitated, gave her a look she could swear was apologetic and then joined his sister.

Cesar stood beside her watching the two swallowing chunks of frozen meat, bone and wrapping together.

“We're going to need the other half,” he said.

“That plastic will make them sick,” she whispered.

“I don't think so.”

Cesar and Bess spent the rest of the evening obtaining a butchered cow and two slaughtered pigs. The truck delivered them to the barn and somehow Cesar kept the twins in the garage until the truck pulled out.

Bess opened the barn door and she and Cesar stood back as the twins gorged themselves, then curled into the hay and fell asleep.

“That is going to give me nightmares,” said Bess.

Cesar laughed. “I wouldn't blame you.”

“Doesn't bother you?”

He gave her a sad look. “I've seen worse.”

Of course he had. He'd seen the very worst things one human could do to another. Perhaps that was why he needed to help them. He was impervious to their appetites, dauntless about their care and unaffected by their appearance.

She felt humbled, wanting to help him, join him in doing whatever he thought best. She longed to touch him, to know his thoughts.

Instead she used conventional methods.

“What now?” she asked.

He used his knuckles to scratch the stubble of his jaw as he considered the sleeping twins. “We've discovered what they are and that they are not killers. We have done what we set out to do. They will affect The Balance but I do not believe they will destroy it.”

Hihankara had said much the same.

“I was wrong about them,” she admitted. “Very wrong.”

He looked surprised. “Well, they attacked you.”

“Still, I'll not be so quick to judge again. I've learned my lesson.”

“Lessons can be costly.”

His smile of approval was a balm to her tired soul.

“I'm thinking I will try to bring the others together.”

Bess knew that felt right, but had to raise the obvious concern. “Nagi may come for them.”

“They are his children. He has the right.”

“Even if he plans to make them into a private army?”

Cesar's jaw tightened. “That I would not allow.”

She did not ask how he would stop a Spirit from doing exactly what it chose to do.

Bess nodded, taking up Cesar's cause as her own. “We'll face him when the time comes, then.”

“You'll help me?”

They stared at the twins, nearly buried in the loose hay and snoring softly, clinging to each other as they slept. She had been mentored by a great swan after her change came, so she understood a family that was not of blood. She could think of none better than the two of them to help these creatures find their way.

“Of course.”

His shoulders dropped a little, as if he had been bracing for her refusal. He didn't know yet that she'd do anything he asked.

“What will they grow into, I wonder?” she asked.

“I only know some part of them will be like their father. I pray they will also serve the living.”

“Should we leave them to sleep or watch over them?” she asked.

“They can kill anything that is stupid enough to
threaten them. I say we leave them to sleep and go in the house.”

“What if they wake up and can't find us?”

“They can track and kill game, they'll be able to find us in the house,” he assured.

She took her eyes off the twins and met Cesar's worried gaze. Instantly she felt a dread. The look in his eyes was so troubled, she braced for what he would say.

“Bess? We need to talk.”

“The porch then, it's private, but we can still see the barn.”

She led the way across the yard, leaving the circle of light cast by the single electric light in the barn. Cesar followed a few steps behind as the silence between them stretched to eternity. Bess gazed up at the stars winking and, just beyond, the Way of Souls. She recalled Hihankara asking her if she was saving Cesar because it was best for him or for her. She told herself she had brought him back out of love, but was that true? He had not wanted to come back to her. What would happen when he remembered that?