Markings (11 page)

Tom jammed the brakes, making my visions of Aaron disappear. The jeep spun out, throwing everyone sideways in the vehicle. Nate grabbed onto the back of Alison’s shirt, stopping her from falling off his lap. Trinity gasped, grabbing at her boyfriend.

I clung to the seatbelt, but Aaron’s arm clamped around my waist. His iron grip stopped me from sliding.

The jeep stopped.

A large herd of mule deer came galloping out of the scrub. Their white-backed tails stuck straight up as they bounced gracefully, yet lightning-quick just inches in front of the car. As fast as they came, they disappeared, darting through the bushes across the way.

“That was too close for comfort,” Aaron stated, watching the last of the deer leap out of view. “That was a big herd. I’ve never seen that many at one time. Have you guys?”

“Not me,” Trinity said.

I glanced down at my side, Aaron’s hand still holding tight.

Nate and Alison whipped off their seatbelt. Trinity straightened up in her seat, sniffing the air. Everyone followed her example.

Even I gave the air a whiff, and to my surprise I could
smell
them. I could smell the deer, the dirt and pine on their coats, the warm skin beneath. There was something else, too. Something mucky, like swamp water combined with the scent of dog fur . . .

And the salty, unappetizing aroma of blood.

Chapter 12: Lotus

I
t doesn’t smell friendly, Aaron,” Tom warned, wrinkling his nose.

Aaron’s nose twitched. “I can tell.”

He undid the seatbelt and slid out, leaving me in the seat. Out of the jeep, he scanned the grove of pine and junipers, observing, sniffing. Tom was quick to join him.

I looked back at where the deer had come from. A prickly, cold sensation settled inside my chest.
Déjà vu
? I thought. No, not quite. Déjà vu doesn’t urge you to get out of the car, does it? This was more like that other thing I was getting a lot of lately: premonition.

Something was still here—and it wasn’t deer.

Trinity shivered, wrapping her arms around herself. I did a double-take at the white fur sprouting out of her hands. It crept a little ways up her arms then suddenly disappeared altogether. “I have a really bad feeling, guys,” she said.

“Don’t worry, babe.” Tom waved a hand at her. “It’s probably just coyotes. We’ll scare ’em off.”

I narrowed my eyes.
She feels it, too
. Aaron looked back at me, then at his sister. “Leave the jeep,” he ordered. “If it’s what I think it is, we need to investigate, and I don’t want us splitting up.”

Trinity nodded, but neither she nor Alison was quick to move. I slipped out next, unable to take my eyes off the bushes. I started forward, hoping they would follow.

“Lina,” Aaron called. “Hey—what the—where do you think you’re going?”

I didn’t answer. I followed my nose towards the blood scent that overtook the wild dog odor. Through the bushes, the ground curved downwards, the trees growing with a slant in their trunks. I was descending the hill when a major headache attacked. It came fast and hard, right between the eyebrows. I stopped walking, leaning against the side of a lotus tree for support.

Wait a second.

Lotus
tree?

I jerked my head up.

Branches reached into the air over my head. They looked like the branches of an apple tree, only lighter in color, and instead of bearing fruit they bared dozens of flower buds. The buds grew and opened right before my eyes, revealing the sharp petals of white lotuses.

“A rarity among your kind.”

I jumped as a whispery voice entered my ears. Faint but familiar, it repeated itself, overlapping its words until they slurred together. I looked every which way, trying to find the speaker, but only the pine, cedar, and this one strange lotus tree met my gaze. Aaron and the gang hadn’t followed. I stood alone.

I tensed.
The body-less voice
. The voice of the clearing in my dream, the voice of a woman I could not see.

Something plopped down on my shoulder. A quarter-sized drop soaked into my sweater, leaving a dark red stain.

Lifting my head, my stomach lurched.

The lotuses were turning color. From white to pink, pink to magenta, darkening until each one was an intense shade of red. They were wilting, as if time had sped up. As their petals wilted and crumpled, they fell from the tree, morphing into droplets. Red droplets. I knew where the blood smell was coming from.

“Child of the Shiftless.” The whispery voice grew louder. “A flower among pine: you have what he before you did not, and those against you no longer have. A beacon of light, set on you are the eyes of both right and wrong.”

A gust of wind whipped through the lotus tree. Dying blooms lifted and separated midair, their petals turning into a storm of scarlet rain. I flattened against the tree, shuddering, trying to avoid further splatter. I called for Aaron, but no one answered.

“Yours will suffer should the rebellion prevail, blood to the cursed and ill-willed. Thin are the strands carrying the half-humans. Chained to the clock are many lives.”

Red droplets covered the ground. As the last one fell, they changed color again, stretching out. The ruby color grew even darker, all the way to black. The droplets sunk into the dirt, leaving behind shadows.

“Until a mortal sheds thy human skin.”

I gasped for breath. The shadows consumed everything: the ground, the trees, the air. Slowly, they crept towards the lotus tree, towards where my feet had braced against the trunk. I tried to scream, call for the group again, but nothing came out of my mouth.

The darkness swallowed me.

•   •   •

My eyes shot open, but nothing came into focus at first. I saw a sheet of white.
Too much light
, I thought. A blurry figure leaned over me.

“Lina!” A voice filled my ears. “Lina, hey. Can you hear me?”

I groaned, closing my eyes. A firm, hot arm rested under my back, a hand supporting my neck. The ground beneath my legs was hard, uneven. I struggled to remember where I was.

“Aaron?” I whispered.

“Of course,” he said. “Are you in there? Hello?”

He gave me a gentle shake. I opened my eyes again. With a few blinks, the blurriness cleared up like a passing fog. I stared up at the sky, at the tops of the pine and cedar trees . . . and into Aaron’s wide eyes.

He sat back and sighed. “You know, we’re out of the car barely a minute and you black out on me. You’re lucky I have fast reflexes—you keeled over like an uprooted tree.”

“Fantastic,” I mumbled. My headache was still here and spreading, severe enough that I couldn’t remember how to be embarrassed.

“Does this happen often?” He leaned back over me, one eye narrowed. “Are there some kind of meds you’re supposed to be on, or—or drugs you should be telling me about?”

“I’m not on drugs or meds, Aaron,” I said, offended. “And no . . . this has never happened before.”

He gnawed on the inside of his cheek, giving me this what-do-I-do-with-you-now look. A rustle in the back bushes made him tilt his head up, just in time to see Trinity come racing down.

“Aaron!” she cried, eyes honing in on me. “Oh my gosh—what happened?”

I grunted as he pushed me up into a sitting position. My legs tingled when I tried to bend my knees. How much circulation did I lose and why?

“One minute she’s walking down the hill,” Aaron explained. “Next thing I know she’s out cold. Freaked the crap out of me. I thought something hit her, or shot her.”

He’s freaked
. I rubbed my hands over my head.
That’s so cute. He’s concerned for me
. Then again, I couldn’t blame him.
I
was concerned for me. Never once could I recall passing out like this before. Sure, I’d come close once or twice in PE, a few times while giving a speech, but those were legit reasons. There had been no reason this time. Besides the headache, I’d felt perfectly fine.

Aaron was right; it was like something had just come along and hit me.

Trinity kneeled on the ground now, one hand on her brother’s arm. “Aaron, she’s covered in goose bumps. We should get her back to the jeep.”

“Not without checking out the commotion. Deer don’t take off like that for no reason. I know you smelled—”

“There’s nothing.” Trinity frowned, shaking her head and making her blonde bun sway. “We looked already. There’s not even paw prints or a scent trail. The smell just dies the further out we travel.”

Aaron’s eyebrows furrowed. “That’s bizarre.”

They went on talking while I regained the rest of my mind and body. I curled and uncurled my numb fingers, taking in Aaron’s warmth. Below my thin t-shirt, I could feel the goose bumps across my chest and stomach. It wasn’t even that cold out—sixty degrees and rising, yet I had to suppress shivers.

I sniffed the air. The blood smell had gone. I turned to the side. We sat near the trunk of an old juniper tree. Its short branches grew close together, its needles ranging in shades of green. Glancing around, I knew instantly that was where the lotus tree had stood. I touched my fingers to the bark. It was dark brown, its bark sharp as broken glass.

Trinity and Aaron had gone quiet, both hawk-eyeing me. “Whatcha doing?” Trinity asked, admiring the tree.

“There isn’t—” I paused. It was going to sound ridiculous, but I had to know. “There isn’t such thing as a lotus tree in Eastern Oregon . . . is there?”

“Uh.” Aaron’s eyebrows shot up. “I don’t think there’s such thing as a lotus tree period, Lina.”

“And the blood . . . you didn’t smell the blood?” I was positive the blood scent had been real.

Nobody answered. Aaron muttered something under his breath that sounded like
I smell a crack head
.

“Can you stand, Lina?” Trinity wrapped a hand around my wrist. “You don’t need to go to the hospital, do you? Can you feel your toes?”

“Don’t need a hospital,” I assured them, folding my fingers around her hand as they helped me to my feet. My headache seemed to roll off as I stood, leaving me with a minor head-rush. When they let me go, I swayed a minute. It must’ve looked like I was going down, because Aaron’s hand shot up around my waist and stayed there until I could walk a straight line.

“Come on. We need to get back to the jeep. We’re already late,” he said.

At the top of the hill, I gave one last look over my shoulder. The voice, the lotus tree . . . they’d felt so real. It didn’t feel like a dream, more like something that had happened long ago—like a lost memory.

We piled back into the jeep, this time Aaron snagging the wheel with me in the passenger seat. I sunk down in my seat, not wanting to explain myself to the others.

We continued deep into the pinelands, leaving the dusty fields and moving into some unsightly terrain. We came out on a plain of land, trees surrounding three sides. It felt out of place, mostly because the grass here was a lush green—not yellow or brown—and perfectly square. Sprinklers waved off the sides, shooting misty lines back and forth.

“What is this place?” I asked.

“The training field,” Trinity said, leaning over my seat. “This is where young clan members come to perfect their agility, speed, and shifting . . . but it’s also a comfy place for meetings.”

I squinted through the windshield. A pair of lanky shapes moved in the middle of the field. Big as bears, only longer, they walked on four legs and had sweeping tails.

Aaron parked at the edge of the field and we all piled out. As we approached, I saw the first creature had pointy ears and a white muzzle. Its coat had a soft ocher color that faded to white under the belly, and from head to tail it was covered in black spots.

It’s a jaguar
.

I inhaled sharply, resisting the urge to stop. I thought back to the night I’d been getting the mail, how hard it had been to not run or scream when I got cornered by that cougar in the yard. We are mentally wired to run from predators, after all. I took a deep breath.
It’s a Shifter, Lina
, I reminded myself.
A calm, human-like Shifter—not a hungry, wild beast
.

The feline beside the jaguar lifted its head. This cat had a square face and a coat blacker than a starless night. The color made its green eyes twice as vibrant, the gold edges around them more defined.

As we came to a stop before them, we got blinded by an instant, intense flash of light. I rubbed my eyes, ridding the after-spots. When I opened them again the jaguar and panther were gone.

“What’s up, cats?” The boy sitting in the jaguar’s spot called. He flashed a smile, making his tan cheeks stretch. Underneath the rolling bands of muscle, he was small-boned, not very tall.

“Joey!” Tom threw his arms up, overdoing the enthusiasm. “What’s up, my man?”

“You guys know you’re late, right? We’ve been here for nearly a half hour.” Joey jumped up, puffing up his bare chest as he smacked his knuckles against Tom’s. As Trinity skipped to his side he went all formal, gently taking her hand and kissing the back of it. She laughed, rolling her eyes.

The other boy, the panther, still sat in his spot on the grass. Like Joey, he wore nothing but a pair of draw-string shorts. His tan arms rested on his knees, the wind ruffling his jet-black curls. He was pretty to look at.

But I didn’t like the way he looked at me.

His eyes honed in on me like wasps. A shiver went up my back.
Uh oh
. Aaron could throw a cold look when he wanted to, but nothing compared to this boy.
One wrong move
, he looked to be thinking,
and I’ll pounce then eat you alive
. I shifted closer to Trinity, who stood nearby. Maybe I spoke too soon about them being humanlike; perhaps these Shifters
did
have a beastly side. I felt unwelcome.

Joey was finishing introductions when he took notice of me. “Hey, hey.” He grinned and eyed me head to toe like free steak. “What do we have here, Aaron? A kitten?”

Aaron came up beside me. “Well, Joe. I wouldn’t call her a kitten if I were you. In fact, we already have a much better, more
special
name.” One side of Aaron’s mouth twitched, forming a half-smile as he said my least favorite word again. “But let’s see if you can figure it out for yourself.”

Joey’s eyebrows quirked. “I’m supposed to guess her name?” He snorted. “Right. We’ll be here all month if you start me on that one.”

“Just trust me.” Aaron smiled on, gesturing to me.

Joey muttered something under his breath then sauntered forward. He invaded my space, standing just inches in front of me. I flinched as his breath hit my cheek. He smelled like salmon and river water. His eyes wandered around my face.

“Hey.” He sniffed at me. “She . . . wait a second, she smells like—”

He leapt back like he’d been zapped by an electric fence. His curious expression was wiped off, replaced by wide eyes and his mouth hanging open. Jerking his head towards Aaron, he jabbed a finger at me. “
Dude
. Do you know what she—”

Aaron nodded.

Joey’s hand came over his mouth. “Holy smoke,” he breathed. “She’s—she’s the next
heir
? This girl, this is what we’ve been looking for the last six months?”

“Joey, this is Celina Bayberry.” Trinity slung an arm around me. “And yes, we have reason to believe she is the one. She will be the Alpha of the Western Clan.”

My stomach turned. As everyone glanced at me, I forced a smile.
Aren’t I just the luckiest girl in the world
, I wanted to say.

“You mean she
might
be.” Mr. Grumpy Cat joined the conversation, leaving his spot in the grass and loping towards us. “If she can actually shift before the Keftey plan a full-tilt invasion.”

An inhuman growl echoed in Aaron’s throat. “She
will
, Jace,” he assured. “It’s Bastet’s job to provide us with a rightful Alpha. Especially in times like these, when one is needed the most.”

“Of course.” Jace shrugged. “But it isn’t her job to make that Alpha shift in time. And until that happens, the clan remains weak and dying, like a tree without water.” A spiteful smile crossed his face. “Or an army of soldiers without a real general.”

All of a sudden Aaron swung a fist up and smacked him in the jaw. The boy stumbled to the ground, making Trinity and I leap sideways. Jace bared his teeth, releasing a snarl as he sprang to his feet. He came at Aaron with both hands, shoving him back.

“Hey, hey, time out!” Tom shouted, waving his arms.

“Jace, stop!” Joey yelled.

Aaron’s arm locked around the boy’s throat. He rolled Jace back to the ground. Just before they hit the grass that bright flash returned, morphing the battle from school yard fist-fight into a one-on-one wildcat war.

I let out a yelp as they rolled near our feet, snarling and clawing and sinking their teeth into each other. Trinity yanked me away. I wanted to run, but I knew the cougar was Aaron and I couldn’t look away.

“All right!” Tom kicked his shoes off. “Y’all brought this on yourselves.”