Boots (11 page)

Seven feet tall, this ogre was not one of the obese ones. Reminiscent of cartoon versions of death, he was gaunt and hollow eyed, with long white hair caught at the nape of the neck, slicked down with some noxious-smelling hair product. He settled in one of the red leather armchairs, showing rows of sharp, yellow teeth when he smiled.

"Come out, little pretty. Let's see you." The ogre leaned back, hands folded over his stomach. "If you were human, I would have called the police. Breaking and entering. Trespassing. Tsk. What would your master think?"

Unable to think of a reason not to, Kasha crept out from under the sofa and took a seat on the opposite armchair. The leather felt cheap. He curled his tail up into his lap in distaste.

"Such a pretty kasha," the ogre crooned. "I might be tempted to fuck you before I eat you. Of course, I'll have to slice off your adorable little cock and balls first. Nothing better than kasha penis for weather spells."

The casual, urbane civility was much more frightening than a roaring, drooling monster. Kasha shifted uncomfortably, wanting very much to remain attached to his private parts.

"Did you think you could take me unawares?" The ogre's smile widened, showing a disturbing number of jagged teeth. "I sensed a kasha in residence the moment I moved here. I felt your power return to you when you were claimed. Poor little kasha. All that magic and it's merely at the beck and call of some idiot human. What does your master want with me? Does he think I have a hoard of gold in the basement?"

Kasha brushed a paw over his tail, trying to appear as calm as his host and jailer. "Actually, no. It's the house that interests him. Apparently you've stolen it from a friend of his."

"Stolen? Please be careful with such words. They could be considered libelous." He flicked his fingers and a folded sheaf of paper appeared in his hand. "I have the legal deed to this property, free and clear, from the bank which held the remainder of the mortgage. Would you like to glance through it to satisfy your, no doubt, overactive feline curiosity?"

Kasha took the papers gingerly from dubiously clean hands ending in black talons. He had his doubts if a bank could truly grant such property rights prior to seizing land in a foreclosure, but the documents certainly were impressive and would no doubt cause a tangled legal mess in civil court. He had to suppress a snicker at the grantee named in the deed, a Mr. Ignacious M. Ogre, Esq.
Does no one possess the imagination for good names any longer?

He folded the deed and placed it beside him on the chair. "It certainly looks in order. I must congratulate you on your foresight and your considerable intellectual prowess." The ogre preened under the praise and the seed of a plan sprouted in Kasha's mind. He heaved a tragic sigh. "I suppose I've made the effort for my master in vain. I've been outflanked, and will neither gain him what he sought, nor be able to return to him."

"That is a shame. You will make a satisfying meal, if it's any consolation."

Kasha tipped his head in acknowledgment. "Somewhat gratifying, under the circumstances. Ah, well. I've had a long life. Even the mountains crumble eventually."

"Well said."

"I can't help a few nagging bits of curiosity, though... "

"Oh?"

He slid off the chair and set his hat on the seat. The ogre's eyes narrowed, so Kasha explained, "I'd rather you didn't eat the hat, if it's all the same to you. It was a gift and not part of my claiming."

"Of course. I understand." The ogre waved his claws for him to continue.

"I've known a number of ogres throughout the centuries, though certainly none as accomplished and powerful as you. I've heard that"--he nearly said older ogres, but caught himself in time--"more experienced ogres are able to change form. Is this true?"

The ghastly smile grew indulgent as the monster steepled his fingers. "Quite true, little pretty. I suppose you'd like to see?"

"If it's not too much trouble."

The ogre's chair squealed in protest as he rose. He slipped out of his jacket and stepped to the middle of the room where he presumably had more space. The air around him shivered, as if the chilly room had developed a sudden heat shimmer. He raised his arms, the lines of his body blurring. A moment later, a black lion the size of a grizzly bear stood where the ogre had been.

The floorboards trembled when the lion roared, and Kasha let out a convincing squeak of fear as he leapt to the top of the black lacquer buffet.

The lion chuckled, a horrid, choking sound. "Poor little kasha. You're not as brave as you pretend, are you?"

Kasha made a show of shaking down his fluffed-up fur and cleaning his paws as if he were annoyed with his skittish reaction. "I was simply surprised. Of course, it's easy to shift to something so big. It's a simple thing to pull mass and magic to you to enlarge your shape. A lion. Naturally, a lion would be easy. I'm sure it's much harder to change form to something smaller, like a rat. Where do you put all the extra mass? How do you hold onto the disparate components until you take your own form back?"

His irritated commentary earned him another chuckle. "It's not so hard once you've reached a certain level of expertise," the lion growled. "A rat? Don't insult me. I can do far better than that."

Again, the air shimmered, the lines of the lion's body growing indistinct. Kasha kept his gaze glued to the shifting form, waiting, every muscle tense. When a shrew finally sat on the carpet where the lion had stood, he discarded all attempts at conversation. With a low growl, he pounced, landed directly on the shrew, and broke its back. While this didn't kill the ogre, it certainly slowed him down, giving Kasha time to devour him.

The shrew squeaked, trying to wriggle out from under his paw despite the broken spine. Kasha had to tamp down hard on his natural inclination to play with his food. Any delay would give the ogre a chance to heal and shift again. He bent his head and took the tiny, squirming body into his mouth.

Great Raiju, ogres taste worse than they smell.

He crunched through the skull and swallowed the body whole.

"And that, I suppose, is that," he said to the now-empty room, quite pleased with himself.

He turned, thinking he should open a few windows to let in some fresh air. A sharp pain lanced through his stomach.
I guess ogre doesn't agree with me.

Though he tried to ignore it, the pain increased as he walked toward the window. On his third step, he collapsed to his knees, gasping, clawing at his midsection with both paws. It felt as if a heated stone were expanding inside him. The ogre... the ogre was trying to regain his form while inside him.

Desperately, he pulled threads of magic to him to build a cage, gray threads from steel I-beams, dark brown from the hardwood flooring, white from the heat-resistant ceramics in the kitchen, weaving a bright sphere of magic inside his own body to contain his assailant. Something ripped inside. Ribs creaked and then snapped. Blood ran from his nose and mouth.

Trembling, he shifted to his human form to give his body more room as he fought to enclose the ogre, who now felt the size of a watermelon inside him. The sphere closed tight just as he felt the expansion pressing on his heart. He struggled to breathe, concentrating on shrinking the enclosure. Little by little, he gained ground, a little more breathing space, a little less white-hot agony with every millimeter the ogre lost.

Perhaps it was only in his imagination, but he thought he heard the monster shrieking as he forced it down to the size of a mouse, then a pea, then a dust mite. His promises allowed this attempt at extermination, most likely since self-preservation did not fall under willful harm. At last, he felt the ogre's magic extinguish, its oppressive presence erased from the world. The scurrilous property deed, still lying on the chair, vanished in a puff of sulfurous flame.

Kasha lay on the floor, bleeding, his breaths heaving in and out in rattling gurgles. Victorious one last time, he had paid a heavy price.
I do hope Willem comes soon. It would be good to see him once more.

Willem wrapped the blanket close around him, staggering from the van before it rolled to a complete stop in the blue house's drive.

"Wait!" Natt called after him. "Teddy, stop him!"

Strong arms closed around him, holding him up as much as keeping him from moving forward.

"You said he's in danger! I have to find him!"

Natt hobbled up, shaking her head. "You can't just go haring off into an ogre's house, dear. Your death won't help him much."

She stood still, eyes closed. A spark of light caught Willem's eye and he glanced down to see the top of her cane glowing.

"What's she doing?" he whispered to the younger Englestads.

"Gram's looking. Seeing what's happening inside," Morgen whispered back.

"Don't worry." Teddy gave his shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "Nothing gets by Gram."

"I don't know about that, dear. I still can't find your amplifier cable." Natt's eyes flew open. "But the ogre's gone."

"He... left? Ran away?" Willem took an unsteady step forward. Since Teddy allowed it, he kept moving toward the house.

"No, gone. He no longer exists."

"That's got to be good, right?"

Natt walked beside him, forehead creased in a frown. "I certainly hope so."

The front door opened for them when Ettie muttered a few words over the lock. The stench that rolled out was appalling.

"Kash?" Willem's stomach did a hard roll. Something terrible had happened. He could feel it.

They made their way through the rooms in a tight knot, like children in one of those haunted houses set up at Halloween. Kasha wasn't in the front hall, the dining room, or the kitchen. He didn't answer Willem's increasingly anxious calls for him, ratcheting up the worry factor into the red zone.

When they did find him, curled in a ball on the ugly, purple living room rug, Willem let out an anguished cry and flung himself to his knees beside Kasha.

"God... oh, shit, he's bleeding!" Willem slid an arm under his head and shoulders and rolled him gently onto his back. Unconcerned for his own modesty, he pulled the blanket from around his shoulders and wrapped Kasha in it. "Kash? Sweetheart? Can you hear me?"

Kasha's eyes fluttered open, those beautiful green orbs dazed and clouded with pain. He smiled and rubbed his cheek against Willem's arm. "You did come. I hoped you would."

"What happened? What can I do?"

"I ate... " Kasha stopped to cough. More blood flecked his lips. "I ate the ogre. Wasn't the best thing for my insides."

"You'll be okay, right? I mean, demons don't... you're not... "

Kasha slid a hand out from under the blankets to cover the one Willem had resting on his chest. "My dear Willem, I'm dying."

"No! You can't!" Willem cast back desperately through everything he knew, everything Kasha had told him. "You're still mine. I won't let you. I forbid it!"

"There's no wriggling out of it. Not this time. You could hold me here a bit longer by force of will. But it hurts, Willem. So terribly. I want to stay with you. But I'm no longer whole."

The lump in Willem's throat threatened to choke him. "No... Kash... I love you. Please don't leave me."

A strangled chuckle caught in Kasha's chest. "Ah, now he says it. You should have my real name for such sentiments, Willem. Kasha demon is what I am. My name is Yorukaze, the night wind. Take off the boots, my dear. Let me go."

"I can't lose you now, not now!"

"I'm sure these nice ladies will help you. Let you stay here to live safely, to create your beautiful works of art. And I think Teddy likes y--"

Willem wrapped both arms around him and pulled him close. "I don't want Teddy. I want you. Kash... Yorukaze. Just you."

"I'm so sorry." The little body in his arms shuddered. "To die by your side, the pleasure, the privilege is mine."

Seriously? Lyrics from The Smiths? Now?
"I know that one, too, hon," he whispered into his kasha's hair.

"I thought you would."

He gazed down into those feline eyes, the threat of tears stinging his own. So much agony there... He wiped the little trail of blood away from the corner of Yorukaze's mouth. "I can't keep you in pain like this. I wish there was something--"

"Take the boots back, Willem. Do that last thing for me."

His hands shook so badly, his vision blurring, it took some time for him to work the boots off without jostling Yorukaze too badly. "Do I have to say something?"

Eyes drifting shut, Yorukaze whispered. "Tell me you release me. Tell me again you love me."

"You need that second part for the spell or something?"

"I just want to hear it again."

Willem crushed him close with a strangled sound, half sob, half tortured laugh. "My kasha, my Yorukaze. I love you. I release you."

A gentle hand touched his face, catching the tear that fell. "I love you, too, Willem. I'm sorry."

The hand fell away and Yorukaze let out a soft sigh as his body went lax in Willem's arms. His heart shattered on that last breath, all shame forgotten as he sobbed, kneeling naked on the world's ugliest carpet, with his dead beloved in his arms.

Yorukaze watched from far above his body. It hurt to see Willem so heartbroken, those powerful shoulders trembling with anguish. He wished he could offer some comfort, but he was too far removed now. Death was supposed to be the end of pain, wasn't it? Why did he still ache for his darling Willem?

"You have changed, my Yorukaze."

"My lady?"

Amaterasu approached, her golden kimono floating around her cloud slippers. "You have learned to see through eyes other than your own."

"Ah. I think I understand you. I suppose I am free now, though I've never known who guides the soul guide when he dies. I am lost, my lady. I know not where to go."

"You linger out of attachment. Your love for your last
heki-sama
keeps you here."

"I would it were otherwise. Better to watch over Willem as a ghost, though, than be separated from him."