Wildfire Gospel (Habitat) (27 page)

I turned around. He lay down on his back, his chest rising and falling at a fast pace. I crawled over to him. “I don’t like when you hide stuff from me.”

“Some things need to be hidden.”

“Why?”

“Because … sometimes people make mistakes that they don’t want … others to know about.”

“That’s Were-bullcrap. This sounds like a big secret.”

“Sometimes it’s okay to keep secrets.”

“Not from me.” I lay my head on his chest. “Just tell me.”

“I won’t tell you if I don’t have to.”

“What the fuck?” I raised my head and glared at him. “Now you need to tell me.”

Light exploded in the room. Zulu jumped up with extended claws and a roar to signal to whatever coming in that it would be a bad idea. That horrid frankincense aroma saturated the space.
Angel?
I rushed to Zulu. “Baby, wait!”

A boom sounded. A ball of light zipped to the center of the area, expanded into a globe of gleaming color, and then burst into a massive blowup of so much light, I had to shield my eyes.

“For fuck’s sake!” Angel materialized with a lump body dripping blood in one arm and with her other arm she batted at some invisible thing. “Get away from me blood suckers! Sons of mixed bitches!”

She dropped to the floor with the battered person falling right on top of her.

“Angel!” I began to climb out of the nest, slipped on the slippery edge, and fell onto the bed. “You got out of there!”

“No thanks to you.” She panted and sat up, squinting every now and then. “Where’s the lights? I got to make sure the Palero is okay.”

“That’s the Palero?” I yanked the nearest blanket and wrapped it around me. “What happened to both of you?”

The lights came on. Zulu was next to the switch with his jeans on, but still open a little. He rushed to button and zip them up as I hurried over to both of them.

“Yes. Dante had the Palero the whole time. That’s why I left you two during the Feeding. I was hoping to get the Palero and then get us all out there.” Angel’s hair had returned as well as her teeth and eyebrows. She took off a ripped gray jacket and wrapped it around the winkled up frame on the floor.

It was definitely the Palero. I never knew if the creature was a male or female. It’s voice came out in both tones. When others saw it, they envisioned different things—pretty woman, muscle-bound man, maybe even a little child. It possessed wrinkled brown skin with no teeth, hair, or even more peculiar, no forehead brand. It stunk of frankincense. The few times the creature opened its legs to reveal what lay between, I spotted nothing but smooth skin, not even a hole or slit for the thing to go to the bathroom. The Palero represented a magic that was unknown to me and probably most in the habitat. If something was wrong with it, I had no idea how to save the being.

“What should we do?” I asked.

Angel pulled more blankets off of the bed and put them over her. “Since the Palero broke me out of jail and transferred some of her essence over to me, I’ve been healing pretty easily, not fast, but good enough to appreciate it. I’m thinking it will heal to.”

I touched the creature’s skin. The hot flesh seared mine and made me wrench my hand back. “Ouch. I don’t usually get burned.”

Zulu walked over to us. “What do you mean it transferred its essence to you?”

“I don’t know what it did. That’s the only way I could describe it.” She frowned. “And why the fuck would you two leave without me? What kind of shit is that?”

“I thought we needed to act quick while Dante was down from his feeding, and you weren’t there.” Guilt sank in my chest.

“I told you why I wasn’t there.”

“Now you tell me. You could have said that shit in my head earlier.”

“No fucking way.” Angel rolled her eyes. “You were already on this path of killing Dante and the world. Blah blah blah. I didn’t need to further rile you up.”

“Well maybe you should let me know what’s going on.”

“And maybe you should wait.”

“Wait?” I touched my chest. “I didn’t need to wait. You did that thingy. Spirited. Yes. You spirited out of there.”

“That shit is not something I should be doing all the damn time.” As if right on cue, blood leaked from her nose. “You know how long I’m going to be out for that crap? I didn’t even know if you would be in here or not! And then you’re in here. Lounging like everything is just so awesome.”

“We weren’t lounging. I was going to search for you tomorrow. I’d tried to, but Zulu made me stay in bed.”

She sniffed the air. “Oh yeah. I can smell how Zulu got you to stay in bed.”

I blushed.

“Ladies.” Zulu grabbed his shirt off the floor. “Should I put this Palero in one of the rooms?”

“Yes. I guess.” Angel rose to a standing position.

“I could have Harmony look at
it
.” Zulu lowered and took his time picking the creature up.

“No.” Angel shook her head. “I don’t want anyone messing with the Palero. At least not until we give it time to heal on its own.”

Zulu carried the Palero out of the room.

Angel tossed me a skeptical look and sucked her teeth.

“What?” I asked.

“You left me.”

“I’m sorry. I knew you could get out.”
Kind of
. “If you couldn’t, then you know I would’ve been back. I didn’t let you sit in that freaking habitat police jail for too long. I found a way that time. I would’ve found a way again.”

“Sure you would have found a way. But not until after your hot sex in a …” She quirked her eyebrows, “nest?”

I bowed my head to hide my embarrassment. “Yes. A nest.”

“Do I even want to know why a nest is in here?”

“The Prime built it when Zulu went into himself. You should meet the Prime. He’s awesome.”

“So were you having sex in the nest with the Prime then?”

“No. That’s Zulu’s beast. I wouldn’t with his beast.”

“Sure. You wouldn’t.” She laughed. “Damn, Lanore. You bumped uglies in a nest with Zulu’s winged beast. You’ve gotten even freakier since I’ve been gone.”

“Oh be quiet.”

MeShack

Damn if Graham wasn’t right.

Skin made everything better. It was like a drug hit to the head, strong with no chaser or time to breath in a little and come down from the climbing high. Like being intoxicated, everything seemed to make total sense. Sure I wasn’t completely me anymore, no longer a true Were-cheetah, but I breathed in and out like a regular supernatural. No heart beat in my chest, yet I walked just like any normal person, placing my foot in front of the other as Graham and I followed XO to my now dead killer’s locker.

“I hope he kept the money in his locker. The person who hired him’s smell should be stuck on the bills.” I flexed my fingers on my right hand and watched how the skin didn’t dangle or wrinkle. It appeared just like regular flesh.

“Remember. Search with your nose, not your eyes.” Graham made a dramatic gesture of pointing to his nose as if I couldn’t understand that simple statement.

“I got it.”

“You sure? Before, you thought the guy was a Vampire.”

“That was before.”

“Before when you had an even better nose as a Were-cheetah.” Graham snorted. “These caged supes aren’t like the ones in the pre-habitat years.”

“They’re all dumb and lazy.” XO glanced over his shoulder.

“And none of them know anything about magic, not like in the old days,” Graham added.

“You know I read this magazine that theorized that the humans put some type of stupid gas into the bars and that it seeps out into the air little by little making everybody morons. That’s why these post-habitat supes are so dense.”

I raised one eyebrow. “But if that is true then wouldn’t you be stupid too?”

“No. That would be impossible.” XO waved my question away and provided no further analysis or evidence.

Well then I guess that’s settled. My new boss is a narcissistic moron.

We rounded a corner down the dark hallway. The rank smell of sweat, fear, and blood flooded the space. Roars and stomping sounded above us. The ceiling lights flickered. The new round of fights had begun. XO had explained to me that fighting ensued all night long and well into the morning with a four hour break from eight am to twelve pm, where a Mixbreed staff cleaned up all the blood, carcasses, fluids, and whatever else needed to be taken care of in the ring and bleachers.

“What time is it?” I asked.

“Three in the morning.” XO displayed a platinum watch probably more for show than to prove that it was the actual time. “Graham, what was that organization you said little Lanore was with?”

“Mixbreeds for Earth Relations.”

“Oh Okay. Then never mind.”

“Wait.” I waved my hand. “No. It’s not Mixbreeds for Earth Relations. What would that even be about? That doesn’t even make any sense. La La is with Mixbreeds for Equality.”

XO paused in the hallway. “They’ve been in the news all night. Everyone in the bleachers talking about them too. Lot of fighting has been going on up on the edge of Shango District near Terrace and Broad. If it wasn’t for this big storm coming, it probably would be the only news.”

“That’s where their headquarters are.” Anxiety seized my chest. “What happened?”

“News said something about gang related violence in that area caused several dead. Most of them were Shifters and around four injured Witches.”

So much for Graham being able to sense La La’s distress.

“Witches?” I asked. “That’s weird. MFE usually doesn’t have Witches. Mixbreeds, sure, but not Witches.”

Graham rubbed his beard. “Are you sure it isn’t Mixbreeds for Earth Relations?”

I ignored Graham and remained focused on XO. “Did they say anything about La La?”

“Witch Council is looking for her. They had her picture on the news—”

“My daughter?” Graham’s eyes changed to bright red. “They flashed my daughter’s face on the TV?”

“Yes. It was real quick.”

“I don’t like messing with Witches, but I’ll kill the ones that made the order to put my little girl’s face on TV.”

“In their defense they probably don’t know she’s half Demon. If they knew, then they wouldn’t have done it.” XO looked at me. “Demons are very particular about their picture being taken. It scares them. I think they think their souls or something are captured in the equipment.”

“Cameras just aren’t right. They rub me the wrong way, and it doesn’t matter to me whether the Witches knew or not. They disrespected my family by doing it.”

XO laughed. “Then that clown Kegan Burrows did some sort of announcement that he’s the leader of MFE now.”

I scrunched my face up in confusion. “He’s the leader? No way. He’ll be sorry he did that once La La and Zulu hear.”

XO formed his lips into a huge smile. “You would know Zulu, huh? I barely call him that. Down here we called him Ziggy. He had some long Z name that made me want to just kill somebody every time I had to say it so I just went with what sounded close to him. After he became a big shot down here he had everyone calling him Zulu. Well, that’s the other thing buzzing around the arena tonight. They’re whispering that Zulu is alive. That he’s not dead.”

Graham and I exchanged looks. Of course we knew he wasn’t dead. The fact others were realizing was either a good or bad thing. Good because he’s killed many people in public, thus increasing the changes that La La was fine or bad because … I couldn’t think of anything, but with Zulu any situation could be turned to bad.

“Who’s saying Zulu is alive?” Graham asked.

“Couple beat up Rebels came in here talking about Zulu swooping down in his Prime form and scaring the magic out of everybody. They knew it was him cause of his scent, sandalwood and death. Then of course he did that damn freaky roar. Nobody can mimic his smell or that racket he likes to make when he’s mad. They’re all saying he rose from the grave.”

I laughed. “Rose from the grave?”

“That’s it. Lots of Rebels scared tonight. Which is good business for me.” XO returned to walking. “Anybody want to hide in the habitat then they come to me as their last chance. These blocks are as underground as you can get without being a Vampire. I got a few hiding places here and there that people pay to stay in.”

“So no further news about MFE or La La?” I asked.

“Nothing else.” He opened the door. “Besides the big storm. Humans think it’s a hurricane maybe. Most businesses hate them. I love me a good tropical storm and natural disaster. It gets people out of work and in my bleachers gambling.”

We all walked into a large room with big black lockers. Five big Trolls sat in the room smoking cigars and playing cards. One raised his head and nodded at XO. “Hey, boss. Anything I can do for you?”

“No. Fray is dead. I’ve come to clean out his locker.”

“Can I get his stuff?” The Troll asked.

“No. This one made the kill. This one keeps his stuff.” He pointed to me. “And this one is also going to be starting soon. He’ll have his own locker, probably Fray’s old one. When he comes in here don’t give him any crap.”

The Troll sized me up with his gaze. “As long as he don’t give me any, then we’re good.”

“I’ll try to remember that.” I opened my mouth and displayed my burning fangs. Steam left my lips. A crackled followed. All the Trolls leaned away in their chairs and gave my mouth quizzical stares. I closed it.

Cheetah stirred inside of me.

Good,
he growled.
We’re hot.

Yes we are,
I replied.
Although we’ve always been hot, now we’re literally hot.

Cheetah didn’t respond, probably not getting the joke. He hadn’t been saying much since he first woke up. Every now and then he moved or turned over. He felt bigger than usual as he twisted and rolled over exploring our new form and insides. I didn’t know if I could shift into him or not. I didn’t focus on that part either. I was just too happy to have him back. I couldn’t deal with any harsh reality. I just wanted to relish in the good for now.

XO stopped at the first black locker on the left. “All of you leave the room.”

The Trolls jumped up with no question and gathered their playing cards and other belongings.

Graham turned to me. “You sure it’s not Mixbreeds for Earth Relations?”

“No man.” I shook my head. “What would they even be fighting for, better relationships with aliens?”

“Well,” he shrugged, “she is part Fairy. That made sense to me at the time.”

“What does her being an alien have to do with being a Fairy?”

He gave me an odd look. “Fairies are aliens, boy. Sure they have another realm like Demons, but they also lived on another planet before they came to Earth. Of course those fruity smelling creatures messed that planet up, then went to another one too, got kicked off of it by bigger beings. Finally, they ended up here, swooped down from the sky like idiots, hundreds of years ago.”

“Fairies?” I had always considered it one of the coolest theories on them, but never though Graham believed it.

Graham shook his head. “You poor post-habitat supes. Granted, not many know that. So I’ll give you a break. Lily told me a lot of the history. She was part of the first landing. That’s what they called it. Fairies came down then and start messing with things on Earth, grabbing human eggs, slicing, and merging them with animal ones. They made you Shifters, that’s probably the only good thing they’ve done—”

“Fairies didn’t make Shifters.” I cut him off right there. “Oya formed us. She took a rib from her bone while she was in water buffalo form, poured blood over it, and breathed life into it. That was how the first Shifter was made.”

“Goddess blood and one damn bone? That’s what you Santeria Shifters really came up with? That’s it?” He laughed. “At least the Christian Shifters think that they were born from a lion that was set into a massive den where Jesus was forced to sit before he was crucified. The lion saw that this guy was supposedly the Son of God.”

“Which god?”

“Christians only have one. Anyway, the lion recognized he was the Son of God and didn’t touch him, so Jesus gave him some of his blood and it turned him into a man.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know the intricate particulars,” Graham said as all four of the Trolls shuffled out. “I just try and keep up to date with all the different religions. It’s especially important for a Demon or any creature from the realm. Some of those religions will kill someone like you or me on sight. According to some Christians I’m a fallen Angel. I’ve seen fallen Angels. They don’t look as pretty as me. Then other Christians think I’m helpers for some crazy devil in hell which is basically this place where bad Christians go.”

XO opened the locker. “You both going to stand over there and delve into theology or you going to clean out this locker? The longer I’m away from the fights the longer I’m not counting my money and I love to count my money, so hurry it up.”

“Okay. So you’re saying that whatever Christians think are Angels exist?” I walked over to XO eager to see what was in this locker.

“Yeah. Lily and I have fought over this topic so I won’t go too deep into it. Lily says Angels are just flawed Shifters. She claims fairies tried to merge eagles with humans and only got a bunch of creatures with wings.”

XO got out of the way and let me look into the packed locker.

Graham continued, “I don’t believe it. I’ve seen many of these Angels. They have their own type of magic and when they fly high, they go deep into the clouds and this weird light bursts around them. Usually they don’t return. It’s like they’ve gone somewhere else.”

“Oh here we go. Graham and his Angels. He must be in good form this evening. Usually it takes several drinks to hear this story,” XO said.

The locker was huge and must’ve held a spacing charm. A car could have fit into it. Shelves outlined the sides. If Fray did want to put a car inside, he could have still parked one in, even with the shelves. I sniffed the contents in the locker. There were tons of things in there, odd stuff. It seemed Fray was a pack rat of sorts or maybe even one could consider him a collector. He had a thing for shoes. Every type of shoe known to man rested on many shelves and they all seemed to be brand new with price tags hanging from them. Ladies high heels sparkled. Men’s polished loafers sat next to new sneakers. Little pink sandals leaned on bulky brown boots. Flip flops stacked near fuzzy slippers. Each pair had a gold nametag with little gems formed into the names. First and last names. Even crazier, the gold smelled real.

“What in Shango’s name is this?”

“He liked shoes, gave each pair names, and treated the shoes like family.” XO looked embarrassed as if employing a fighter with a shoe fetish was something to feel bad about versus his whole business was based off of people dying every night.

“Ignore the shoes and look for what we came for, boy.” Graham’s voice boomed with venom.

XO and I turned to Graham.

“What?” he grumbled.

“Do shoes upset you or something?” I raised my eyebrows at him. “You seem a little annoyed.”

“He didn’t get to finish telling you about the Angels,” XO joked. “That always pissed him off.”

“That’s not what made me mad.” Graham frowned. “They are beautiful little creatures that neither one of you would appreciate. I just know my son over here. He’s already prancing around in the mirror and dolling himself up whenever he can. I just don’t want him to screech with glee and start trying on all of the high heels.”