Wolves and the River of Stone (26 page)

“Mmm,
yet.”

We both laughed and relaxed on the couch until we heard footsteps in the kitchen fifteen minutes later. I heard the fridge open and close and the quiet crack of a pan on the glass stovetop.

“Who’s up?”

I shrugged and stood. “Let’s find out.” I saw Zola first, she was staring into the kitchen with wide eyes and a small smile. She glanced at me and then pointed into the kitchen.

When I stepped around the corner I found Ashley bedecked in flannel duck pajamas. Her mass of strawberry blonde hair was pulled back with a duck hair clip and she was cracking eggs into a yellow mixing bowl.

“Ashley?” Sam said.

The priestess glanced over her shoulder and smiled. “Hi. I thought I’d make breakfast so maybe I could talk everyone into helping me clean up the ... the ... front room.” Her eyes closed and she put both hands on the sandstone countertop. I could see a tremor run through her body as she bowed her head.

Sam moved forward and put her arm around Ashley’s shoulders. “There’s no need, honey. It’s all cleaned up.”

Ashley’s head snapped up. “What do you mean? It was ... my home is wrecked!”

“You might want to go look,” I said.

Ashley sped by and I noticed she was wearing duck-themed slippers. I smiled as she came to a halt at the entryway into the front room.

Her hands came up and covered her mouth. “But how?” she said, slightly muffled. She turned back to us. “How?”

“Edgar,” Zola said as she shifted on her recliner.

Ashley’s eyes were wide as she shuffled back into the kitchen. “I need to thank him. That’s just ... how did he do that? My home was utterly wrecked.”

A half asleep fairy bobbed and weaved into the kitchen and crashed onto the counter in front of Ashley. “Yeah?” Foster said. “If you don’t start cooking that bacon, maybe it’ll get wrecked again.”

Zola snorted a laugh from the other room.

“You’re so considerate,” Sam said as she sat down at the back of the kitchen table.

Ashley cracked another egg into the mixing bowl along with a weak smile.

I recognized the look Sam gave Ashley. Her eyebrows were pulled together and she looked mad, but she was really just worried.

I heard the bathroom door close in the back hallway.

“Sounds like Nixie’s awake,” Zola said. She righted the recliner she was in, walked across the floor in her dirty socks, and took a seat at the kitchen table a moment later. “How are you, priestess?”

A small smile etched itself onto Ashley’s face. “Thanks to you all, I’m alive. And that’s more than I expected.” She stared at Foster while he rubbed his eyes. “Thank you.”

He waved his hand in a dismissive gesture. “You’d do the same for me.” He paused and moved his eyes to the ceiling for a moment. “Well, maybe not
exactly
the same, but you know what I mean.”

Ashley nodded as she pulled a wire whisk out of the drawer beside the refrigerator. I heard Aideen and Cara talking before they landed on either of Ashley’s shoulders.

“How are you?” Cara said.

“Better, thank you.” Ashley didn’t even twitch when the fairies landed on her, but when Aideen stepped to the side, Ashley winced.

“Are you hurt?” Aideen asked.

“My shoulder, where I was stabbed.”

Aideen pulled the edge of Ashley’s collar back. “It’s not bleeding, but it looks a little rough. Foster must have missed it.” A small glow of white light flashed from Aideen’s hands before she let the collar go and glided down to Foster. She settled in beside him.

I thought I heard him say, “Bacon.” At that point, I was pretty sure he’d made a full recovery.

Zola moved around Ashley and started laying the bacon in the skillet.

“Tell us what happened,” I said.

“Thank you for that,” Ashley said as she rubbed her shoulder. She didn’t stop whisking the eggs while she talked. “The necromancers came here.” Her eyes locked on the swirl of yellow in the mixing bowl. “They broke the door down. Cara and Aideen and Nixie attacked them. When they ran, the fairies followed. Nixie was right behind them.”

“I drowned the first one in the front yard.” I glanced up to find Nixie with the most fantastic bed head I’d ever imagined, like the spray of Niagara Falls modeled in hair. I was admiring her jeans and t-shirt when what she’d said registered.

“You drowned one?” I said.

“With the water in the frog fountain, yes.” She pulled out the chair between me and Sam and sat down.

“That fountain isn’t even big enough to fit a head in,” I said.

“I used the water. I didn’t say how.” She leaned over and kissed my cheek. “Let Ashley finish her story.”

I shook my head and looked back to Ashley. “Sorry, go on.”

She picked up like we hadn’t interrupted her. “As soon as they were gone, another man appeared at the front door. He wasn’t very tall, I just remember thinking he had a round head and it was weird how his forehead kept his eyes in shadows all the time. I don’t remember much else about him.”

“You don’t need to,” Zola said. “It was Philip.” She slapped the last two strips of bacon into the skillet with a vicious flick of her wrist. The room started to smell fantastic as the meat sizzled and popped.

Ashley glanced at Zola and went back to her whisking. “Okay, well, while I was talking to Philip, someone else grabbed me from behind. I never saw him. I don’t know how he got in the house. I just felt my shoulder burn. I didn’t realize I’d been stabbed at first. They wanted the soulstones.” Ashley made a hollow sound I almost didn’t recognize as a laugh. “I didn’t even
know
they were soulstones. The guy I didn’t see hit me again and I saw him. His right arm was a mass of red scars, like he’d been glued together. Then two more came in ... and then my leg.” She started to shake. “They got the smaller stone.”

Zola took the mixing bowl out of Ashley’s hands and set it to the side. She patted Ashley on the back. “Sit down, girl. There’s no reason for you to cook for us. Sit down.”

Ashley sat as she wiped tears out of her eyes. “The other soulstone is hidden. We have an old witch who keeps some of the older traditions alive. She lights a protection candle for the stone every day and whispers something else from her book of shadows. I don’t think she knows it’s a soulstone, but she knows it’s special.”

“A curse of keeping,” Zola said. “You have to have a very pure soul to cast such a spell over a soulstone. Not even a dark necromancer would be able to sense it.”

Ashley nodded. “I was barely conscious when Maggie showed up. I just remember thinking, ‘Is that a werewolf?
Really?’”

“I know that feeling,” I said.

“Maggie saved me. You all saved me, but she tore the last two guys to pieces. I remember a rush in my tummy, like a rollercoaster. I was so happy to see them die before I had to die. Then another wolf came in.”

“Ah think that was Haka,” Zola said. She dumped the eggs into another pan. I saw her toss some spices in, but I couldn’t tell what they were.

Ashley nodded. “He got his hands on Philip. I saw him wrestle the bastard through the door. The other necromancer followed Haka and Philip. Maggie chased them both outside. She came back a little later with her arm all mangled. I couldn’t really breathe then. I heard crackling sounds in my chest and it felt like sucking air through a straw. And then you were here. And Foster saved me.” Tears ran down her cheeks. “Thank you, again. I can’t say it enough.”

“Yes, you can,” Foster said. “You already did.”

Ashley laughed and wiped her eyes.

“Where’re your plates, Ash?” Sam said.

“Up here.” She stood up and opened one of the arched cabinets to reveal an unnaturally large selection of Fiesta ware.

Sam pulled down six plates and set them around the table. She opened the pantry in the corner and grabbed a loaf of bread, some peanut butter, and napkins. Ashley dug around in the fridge for some jelly, shredded cheese, orange juice, and a huge bottle of Crystal Hot Sauce.

Zola saw her pull the hot sauce out of the fridge and her eyes widened. “Oh, bless you girl. Bless you.”

Sam laughed as she set glasses out for everyone.

Zola grabbed a large plate and slid the bacon onto it, grease and all. The eggs came off next. A hint of cloves and paprika hit me as she put a huge bowl on the table along with the bacon. Sam slid back into her chair as Zola sat down. Ashley finished filling the glasses with orange juice before she joined us.

“Baconbaconbacon!” Foster clapped his hands together when Sam pulled a strip of thick-sliced bacon over to a small plate for the fairies.

“Damian, be a dear and pass us a small piece of potato bread, would you?” Cara said.

“Mmmph,” I said through a mouthful of buttered bread and put a piece beside the bacon for them.

Zola dropped her bread into the bacon grease before she built a sandwich on it. She scooped up some eggs and dropped them into a bowl.

“Here comes the soup,” I said.

Sam started to laugh and almost sprayed a mouthful of orange juice across the table as Zola picked up the bottle of Crystal Hot Sauce and proceeded to drown her eggs with it.

“I want to try that,” Nixie said as she piled her hair behind her back.

Ashley just stared as Zola held the bowl out to Nixie and Nixie scooped up a spoonful of eggs and hot sauce. I never really thought Crystal sauce was hot, but my nose curled up at the sheer volume of it in Zola’s bowl.

Nixie apparently had no issue with it. She closed her eyes and practically moaned as she devoured the soupy eggs.

Sam laughed and slapped the table. The wood groaned. She gave Ashley an apologetic look as she said, “Wow, that reminds me of our mom and chocolate.”

The vision of Nixie moaning was suddenly replaced by our mother and I twitched. “Oh, dammit, Sam! Never, never,
never
compare anything my girlfriend does to Mom. That’s just
wrong.”
I shivered and grimaced.

Everyone laughed. Aideen was hiccupping in hysterics. I didn’t realize why until I looked at Nixie. Her eyebrows were stretching for the sky. “Girlfriend?”

“Ah ... that is ... I ...” A blush warmed my face and I hunched down over my eggs and bacon. “Gee, Ashley, these sure are good eggs.”

Everyone laughed at me again.

“I have a question, Zola,” Sam said as she bobbed her fork up and down between her fingers. “Why did the Watchers fix up Ashley’s house so well?”

“Ah can only guess that was Edgar. He has trouble admitting he’s wrong, but usually makes up for it in interesting ways.”

“You think he fixed my house out of guilt?” Ashley said.

“Perhaps. Edgar is hard to know. Ah never would have suspected him of trying to kill Philip. Edgar is the Watcher that decided to let Philip and I live, despite our pasts. He gave us a second chance, and Ah will always give Edgar the benefit of the doubt, as he did for me.”

“Why is he so hard to read?” I said.

“He is very old. His full name is Edgar Amon.” Zola smiled. “He was worshipped as a god in ancient Egypt.” Zola’s smile turned into a laugh before I could even say anything. “Before you ask, no, he is not a god, but an immortal mage.”

“Immortal?” I said.

“Well, so far, yes. He stopped aging on his fortieth birthday. No one knows why. There are a few immortals Ah have known, but none as long lived as Ed.” She shrugged. “It’s possible he’ll age again one day, but it hasn’t happened in three millennia.”

I patted a stream of bacon grease off my chin and said, “Damn, and I thought
you
were old.”

Zola frowned and smacked me with the back of her hand as she leaned against the back of her chair. “You’ll be old one day too, boy, if you’re lucky.” Her lips curled into a thin smile.

“No, I’m pretty sure one of us will kill him well before he’s old,” Sam said.

Foster cackled like a witch out of a cliché, and then proceeded to choke on a piece of bacon. Aideen slapped him on the back.

“See, you laugh at me and you choke to death. That’s not so funny, is it?”

“Yeah, actually it is,” Foster said. He coughed a couple times and then took down another mouthful of bacon.

Cara rolled her eyes and took a bite of the small sandwich she’d made for herself.

“What are we going to do now?” I said.

“Oh, that’s easy,” Foster said. “We’re going to find the guy that molested and murdered Vicky and cut his fucking balls off.”

Ashley’s fork clattered against her plate and she stared at Foster.

The fairy continued to take bite after bite out of the bacon slice that was bigger than he was. Perfectly normal breakfast conversation.

“Okay, and after, um, that little task?” I said.

“Then we go to Stones River, full chisel and loaded with forty dead men,” Zola said. “We go ready for war.”

“Forty dead men?” Ashley said.

“That’s Zola-speak for armed to the teeth,” Sam said.

“War?” I’d never heard her use the term about any of the battles we’d been in.