Honeyed Words (33 page)

Then there was the Black Briar crew, who I’d made a point of distancing myself from after the fiasco in the spring. So many dead and wounded because of my hubris, my mistakes. I know the dragons weren’t my fault, and the bastard Jean-Paul sure didn’t play fair, but Jimmy was so angry and hurt, and I just couldn’t face him.

I still dreamed of Susan and Maggie dying, Susan a broken doll under the claws of the dragon and Maggie riding toward him, a flaming comet on her dying horse, Dusk. I could see her crawling toward Susan, her body engulfed in dragon fire, reaching out to her one true love.

Katie moved, and I let my hand slide off her side. I loved her, I had no doubt, but did I love her like that? I’d gone after her, fought the dragon, but did I have it in me to crawl to her as my skin melted?

So, I avoided them all, avoided the land and the people. I realized I was a runner. Not a pattern I was proud of.

Time to step up, though. Going out to Black Briar would be good. Painful but good. Confronting Jimmy after five months of silence would be hard, but I faced a dragon. I’d let his sister get captured, let his wife get hurt. Jimmy was a pussycat compared to Jean-Paul Duchamp, or even Frederick Sawyer, but I dreaded his disappointment and his wrath.

That reminded me of the real danger in the world: Qindra, Nidhogg, giants, and trolls. How had we ever built a civilization like this and never noticed all that going on right under our noses? And what of this King of Vancouver? Picking up the pieces of a city once ruined by a dragon. He was a brave one, taking that on. I can’t imagine what the dragons will do with that power vacuum.

I’d like to meet him, figure out his angle. I just hope he wasn’t worse than the dragons. They were nasty, but they stayed to themselves mostly.

Of course, if they were right under our noses, we’d have less luck with technology. Magic screwed up tech, that much I was understanding. Basic tools worked just fine, however. I would be trying Anezka’s shotgun, if it came to that, but in the end, I trusted my hammers and Gram.

Gram.

Like a lover, that sword called to me. Just thinking of her sent a chill through me. There was a buzzing in the back of my brain. She slept, the black sword of mine, but her slumber was restless. She dreamed of battle. Tomorrow, I would find out what Jimmy did with Gram. There were too many secrets on that front.

And Bub. Now that I’d spent some time with him, I was growing to like the little flamer. I was fairly sure that it would be difficult to crush his head again, if he got out of line.

I glanced over to where my jeans lay crumpled by my tennis shoes. Inside was the amulet. I got out of bed, padded across the floor, and squatted down, fishing in the jeans for the amulet. The room was chilly, and I broke out in goose flesh. The light from the street lamps crept in around the blinds over Katie’s windows, but it gave me enough light to see by.

I dangled the amulet by its chain, watching the gold and steel gleam in the dim light. After a moment, I realized that squatting in the middle of the bedroom floor, naked, fondling an ancient, runic artifact was too damn strange, even for me. I wrapped the amulet in a sock, stuffed it down into my shoe, and crawled back into bed.

Katie rolled over onto her side, pushing her backside against me. I snuggled close, throwing one arm over her, cupping a breast in my hand, and closed my eyes.

With the warmth radiating from her, and the smell of her, I was able to finally sleep.

Forty-seven

By the time we’d gotten coffee for me and Katie and burritos for Bub, it was nearly nine. We drove out to Black Briar in Katie’s new Miata. Bub rode in the trunk again, content to gnaw his wax-paper-wrapped tortillas, beef, cheese, and jalapeños. “Just don’t make a mess in my new car,” Katie had admonished me as I was dropping the bag o’ food into the trunk.

“You heard the lady,” I said

“Yes, boss,” he agreed, bobbing his head and eyeing the bag. “If those taste like they smell, I may love them more than cheeseburgers.”

“Let me know later,” I said and shut the trunk.

They wouldn’t last long enough for us to get out onto the main road.

Katie and I talked about Anezka, the new movie I’d be working on, her classroom’s antics, and a few other things of no real consequence—anything to avoid answering any questions about Jimmy and the rest of Black Briar.

Obviously this meeting was going to be serious. She even adopted her best schoolmarm voice at one point when I was getting too persnickety.

By the time we pulled up the long drive toward Black Briar, a caravan of vehicles was parked all around the house.

Like I wanted a freaking audience. It
was
all about me … right?

I noticed a whole gaggle of people in armor out by the new barn as we got out of the car. Jimmy stood on the deck off the back of the house with his arms folded across his chest, and his best
don’t fuck with me
look perched on his face. Katie bounded around the car and took my arm, guiding me to the house, like there was a chance I’d make a run for it.

It’s happened before.

Gunther and Stuart were standing near the old ruined barn, on the opposite side of the yard from where we’d parked. It reminded me of a shattered rib cage—the image of a heart being ripped out of the farm was fresh in my mind. I must have started to stiffen because Katie squeezed my arm gently.

“It’s okay,” she said. “No ghosts here.”

“Not yet,” I offered. “We should double-check on Halloween.”

That drew a laugh out of her, and I felt a little less tense.

Then someone screamed.

I looked around. Bub had appeared on top of Katie’s car, carrying the shotgun. Okay, good to note. He teleported out of the trunk, carrying the gun with him. He had not brought the blanket.

I let go of Katie and held up my hands. “Hang on folks; he’s with me.” I cast a look at Gunther, who shrugged.

“You working with demons now, Beauhall?” It was the first thing Jimmy had said to me since the barn raising—the night Deidre had gotten out of the hospital. Not a stupendous moment.

“Why are there so many people here?” I asked.

“Drills,” Katie said. “Gunther and Stuart are building a regular army.”

That explained why we had such a broad audience. There in the crowd, I saw some of the survivors from the battle in the spring. Many wore swords at their hips, and I noticed a line of pikes leaning against the back of the house. I also saw a couple of hammers in the crowd, backup weapons by the rigging, but it did my heart good to see them. Learn from the enemy’s weakness; survive to fight another battle. Ogres and their rocky hides wouldn’t surprise them a second time.

I took a deep breath, steadying myself for what I had to do. These folks deserved to hear from me, deserved more than they’d gotten in the last five months. I walked toward the stairs, looking up at Jimmy. I didn’t wait for him to act, just climbed the stairs and turned to face the silent crowd of people.

“I think it’s time we cleared the air about a few things,” I said, feeling the tightness in my chest.

I glanced at Jimmy out of the corner of my eye. He raised his eyebrows but didn’t open his mouth. Neither did he uncross his arms. I scanned the faces of the Black Briar crew.

“I haven’t been here for a few months—”

“No shit,” someone called from the milling crowd.

I nodded, and continued. “Things have been broken here, since the spring.” I tapped my chest twice, then my forehead. “Here, inside me—where the fear dwells and the anger makes its home.” People stepped forward, moving closer to the porch. Bub crept up the stairs to stand behind me, holding the shotgun at parade rest. He was almost cute.

“I’m sorry,” I said to the crowd. “Through my actions, people here died.”

Jimmy scowled, and Katie started to protest, but I held up my hands to forestall them. “I don’t take the blame for their deaths, but I know if I hadn’t found the sword, if I hadn’t reforged it, we may have never been bothered by the dragon and his army.”

“Likely more would have died,” a woman called from the crowd.

I looked at her, recognition dawning. Trisha. She’d been injured at the same time Gunther had. He’d saved her life just before I saved his. Her hair was cut really short, and she had a hard look to her. Not like the bouncy clerk I knew from before the battle. She’d have some wicked scars under her armor.

“We’ll be ready for them next time,” Trisha called from the crowd. “We ain’t babies no more.”

Stuart called out—“Hoo-rah,” and half the crowd answered in kind. Gunther sang out as well, and what had to be his squad answered. For a full minute they called back and forth.

“Red Squad!”

“Blue Squad!”

Until Jimmy held up a hand.

They fell silent immediately.

I glanced down at Katie. “You were going to tell me this, when?”

She grinned. “When you managed to drag your cute but sorry ass back out here.”

The crowd broke into chatter, several people wolf-whistled, and Gunther roared with laughter.

“I’m serious,” I said, holding my arms in the air.

They fell silent once again.

I had tears in my eyes, and the crowd blurred. “Too many good people lost their lives here, and I need to make amends.”

I heard a whirring sound, then the slamming of a screen door. I turned to see … holy god, Deidre. When did she get out of the nursing home? She rolled out of the house in a souped-up wheelchair—looked like a cross between a Harley and a Segway. “That’s bullshit!” she bellowed, stopping long enough to snatch the shotgun out of Bub’s hands. He looked surprised and backed away several steps, but he didn’t react, didn’t disappear.

“Those bastards took our kith and kin,” she bellowed, cruising to the edge of the deck and pointing at Katie. Her voice carried over the crowd, which mumbled agreement. “We just did what we had to do to get them back.”

She turned to me, her face stern, the anger obvious on it. “So, you can just cut the crap, Beauhall. No lingering guilt, no woulda-coulda-shoulda.” Her face softened, and a smile broke over it like a rainbow. “You’re a god-damned hero; suck it up and start acting like it.”

I felt my heart leap into my throat. I stepped to her, bending over and hugging her, despite the shotgun. “I’m so sorry,” I said into her shoulder.

She patted me on the head and made shushing noises as I cried.

“Oh, Deidre came home yesterday,” Jimmy said, his voice thick with emotion.

“Thanks for telling me,” I mumbled into Deidre’s shoulder.

She squeezed me and laughed. “He’s such a man.”

After a minute, I straightened and faced Jimmy, rubbing the tears from my eyes. Okay, time to face this. “How’s it hanging, Jim?”

Deidre laughed, and a little ice fell away from his face.

“You stirring up trouble again?” he asked frankly. “Gunther was just telling us about Anezka’s place when Katie called us about a fight and blood and an air ambulance.”

I looked around. “Been a crazy few weeks,” I said. “Anezka ain’t the half of it.”

Jimmy glanced over at Bub. “Always good to see something…,” he hesitated a second, “… or someone new.” He nodded at Bub, who nodded back.

“Bub promises to play nice.” I looked at him steadily. “Right?”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said with a little bow.

I jogged my head to the side, giving Bub the permission to escape Jimmy’s gaze. He bowed a second time and wandered to the back of the deck and sat down against the house under a large window.

“And if that isn’t enough,” he said, “you’ve gone and lost your damn mind?”

“Huh?” That was a non sequitur.

“Gunther brought the bike here,” Jimmy said. “Good-looking piece of equipment. You’ll look pretty damn hot as they scrape you off the pavement.”

Deidre waved her hand. “He’s just flirting.”

The crowd laughed and began to disperse out into smaller groups, now that it appeared Jimmy was not going to strangle me.

Relief washed over me. I needed to explain all this, but I didn’t want to do it in front of the greater crowd.

“Just saying it’s a nice bike,” Jimmy said, flustered. That was something we didn’t see too often.

I smiled. “Not gonna be mine if we don’t get Anezka settled,” I said. “She needs some serious looking after.”

“If she’s a friend, Black Briar can step in,” he offered. “But we’ll need the whole story, including the skinny on him.” He pointed over my shoulder to where Bub sat on the deck, carving something into the wood with his claws.

“Bub, stop that,” I barked.

He looked up, startled. “Sorry.”

Like a four-year-old, I decided. Just a baby in most ways. I really needed to get a handle on all this.

“Can we talk, someplace quiet?” I asked Jimmy. “I don’t mind a few folks, but it feels personal, especially where Anezka’s concerned.”

“I think we can arrange that,” he said. He strode to the edge of the deck, squatted down, and spoke quickly to Gunther and Stuart. They both nodded and turned to the crowd.