The Burning Bush (31 page)

“You didn’t see her so you figure she got out, right?”

“No,” Zulu said with a cold finality that sliced through my soul. He wouldn’t look at me, not even for a second.

I just hung onto him and whispered, “What do you mean no?”

“I saw her beast. The tiger was looking for Cassie’s body. I tried to help her find it . . . but we never found her body . . . and then I just held her beast . . . until she floated away.”

“No.” I shook my head. “We can search again.”

“It’s too late.” His body went hard. He didn’t look at me as we landed in the middle of the chaos.

“What are you doing?”

“She’s gone.” Zulu’s feet hit the ground, and I bounced in his arms.

He released me, and I stumbled back, watching him fall down to his knees. His face turned up to the habitat’s ceiling, framed within the midnight sky. Tears fell from his eyes.

Although Zulu was in Prime form, the Supes around had yet to notice. They were too busy screaming and running from the damage and death around them. Panic and hysteria had broken out.

I kneeled down in front of Zulu, rubbing his shoulders as his wings closed behind him. Tears stung the corners of my eyes, but I battled to keep them in. He needed me to be strong for him, not break down like I wanted to do. His body quaked under my hands as he whispered, “I’m sorry.”

I understood his apology and knew what would happen seconds before it began. The gold that blended with Zulu’s dark-blue irises circled and covered his eyeballs as if his eyes were being swallowed. Zulu, the man, went into himself, into his core’s darkness and gave his Prime complete control of his body.

“I love you, baby.” The tears fell from my eyes while I kissed his X brand and then his forehead. “Come back when you can. I’ll take care of everything.”

And I would.

When MeShack had lost his mom, he’d given his beast control of his body for several weeks, although he’d come back once and returned to his core. For those weeks, I had done my best to take care of his beast while MeShack mentally healed. It was how Shifters coped in extremely stressful situations. They just went into autopilot and dealt with the pain on their own terms.

I gazed at the Prime, giving him time to get settled. I’d never met the Prime. I got the feeling that Zulu didn’t have the same bonded connection with his beast as MeShack had with his. The Prime’s huge wings expanded. The beast stared back at me with solid gold eyes. Tears glazed over them.

“Can you speak?” I said slowly, but not in a way to suggest that he was stupid.

The Prime’s deep voice cracked as he asked, “She’s gone?”

Nodding, I decided to give the Prime another minute or so to acquaint himself with the environment and being in control of his shared body, before I would have him fly us out of here. Cassie’s face flashed in my mind. I blinked her image away, not ready to deal with the sorrow. I wished I were a Shifter that could just crawl inside my body and escape the terror around me. The screams of children blended in with the emergency trucks’ sirens. I breathed through my mouth. My nose was clogged with ash and smoke.

“What is that?” a woman said to me, wearing a ragged bathrobe and pointing at Zulu’s Prime. “Am I imagining that?”

Black dust stuck to her quivering lips.

“There’s nothing there,” I told her. “Go to where it’s safe.”

“Have you seen my daughter? She has ponytails.” The woman stumbled in a circle around me. Her eyes went from side to side, never focusing on me or anything else. “Ponytails.”

“No, I didn’t see her, but I—”

“Tina!” The woman ran off shouting before I could offer to help her.

Someone grabbed me from behind.

“Lanore, you’re okay!” Angel tightened her arms around me. “The news is all over Santeria. Something about Mixies bombing Yemaya, but I knew that had to be wrong. We got here as soon as we could.”

RonRica stood next to us, her attention focused on the Prime. Her Vamp bites gleamed in the moonlight. Her phone shook in her hand. “I was driving Angel to MFE, and the bomb hit. Angel was terrified you were here.”

“You’re alive, and Zulu is okay. It doesn’t even matter that they blamed the Mixies because everybody is okay.” Angel continued talking and wouldn’t let me go as she wiped her face. Her words came out fast. “I was so worried. I saw everything just go boom. I kept thinking about Zulu and you. We can fix the news about the Mixies causing this later and maybe help out or—”

“Cassie’s dead,” I whispered.

“What?” Angel jerked back. Anger creased her face. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

I shook my head. Angel began hyperventilating. She sank down for a minute, hugging her knees to her chest and hiding her face in her hands. She rocked back and forth.

“Is that Zulu?” RonRica pointed to a now standing Prime. The beast towered over us looking like death coiled within darkened muscle.

“Yes.” I monitored Angel as she slowly stood up. “RonRica you have to get Angel out of here.”

“Why?” Angel looked at me. Her eyes glowed orange, and her pupils filled with fire. “Why do I have to leave now?”

“What are you doing?” I walked toward her, but the Prime seized my waist.

“Dante did this? Didn’t he?” Angel’s fiery eyes pierced mine, and she began to pace in front of me.

“I think so. The bomb was in Zulu’s condo.”

“They’re blaming us. Mixies are scared. The radio said habbies are lining up Mixie suspects in Shango District. They’re beating and handcuffing them for no reason!” She shook her head, sneering at people that walked by, and yelled, “We didn’t do this shit! The Vamps did!”

“Shh, I know. We’ll just have to go to Shango and talk to Rivera and sort everything out.” I wiped my eyes. “First calm down, okay? We can all meet at MFE and then—”

“Cassie was a kid!” Angel’s eyelashes lit up with tiny flames. Her eyes burned.

She was just a kid.
Tears brimmed under my eyelids.
She was supposed to go to college and fall in love and . . .
I shook away those thoughts and directed my attention back to Angel. “We can’t think about this now. One thing at a time, calm down and meet me back at MFE.”

“No.”

“Go back to MFE, Angel.” I pushed the Prime away, but he wouldn’t let me go.

“Mixies did this, right?” Angel shrugged, nodding her head over and over. “Let these Pureblood bastards think we did it then.”

“What?” I asked.

“Maybe it’s time Supes start fearing us.” Angel spat at a Pureblood running by us.

“Calm down!” I yelled.

Sparks burst around her skin, and flames flickered around her legs.

“Stop it!” I yelled. “You’re losing it, Angel! What the fuck are you doing?”

“I want to show them what Mixies are really capable of,” Angel hissed. Fire wrapped around her like a flaming cloak. At that moment, the bottom half of the condo building collapsed. Dust rippled and spread through the air, coating my mouth and nose. I couldn’t see anything but Angel’s flaming body racing toward habbie sirens.

“Stop, Angel!” I called to the fire on her body, sucking it in as the Prime maintained his grip around my waist. Angel materialized in front of me with a speed I didn’t know she possessed. My breath caught in my throat.

“Don’t take the fire from me,” she snarled.

“Then extinguish it. You’re going to get yourself killed. Or worse,” I warned her. “And damn it, I’m probably being selfish right now, but I can’t lose you too. So just stop it.”

We focused on each other.

“You know Kilo was telling the truth.” Angel smothered the flames with a twirl of her hand and hugged me. “He did walk in on Santero Diaz and me. I was just a kid, and I didn’t know what else to do. So I just did what I was told.”

“Don’t think about that now.” I held her closer. “We have to get out of here, Angel. Maybe Zulu’s Prime could carry us both.”

“You don’t get it. You never were a true Mixie. You’ve never been weak and scared like us. Plus, you always had MeShack protecting you if you couldn’t defend yourself with your fire.” She gave me a weak grin and embraced me as if for the last time.

“You’re not making any sense, Angel.”

“I’ve always had to take it. No matter what they did to me, I always kept my mouth shut and took it,” she whispered in my ear and kissed my cheek, pulling out of my grip. “But now . . . Now, I’m not going to take this shit anymore!”

In a blur, she raced away from me while I screamed her name. Flames trailed in her path. I scanned the area for RonRica, hoping maybe she could help stop Angel, but RonRica was gone.
When did RonRica leave?

The Prime flapped his massive wings, raising me from the ground and pushing the dust away from us. From our height, I could now see Angel clearer. She resembled a walking bonfire. Flames touched her whole body. She shot hundreds of fireballs toward a line of habbies that had gathered near Yemaya Shopping Center.

She’s going to get herself killed!

I extended my hands and reached out for as many fireballs as I could grab, but it was impossible. Angel’s power always magnified my fire abilities well beyond what I was capable of. Flaming balls hit the habbies like someone was shooting a semi-automatic fireball gun.

I just couldn’t keep up. “Take me closer to Angel.”

“No.” The Prime dragged me through the air as he flew. His wings flapped furiously, slamming wind around.
Didn’t he hear me?
I twisted to face him and wrapped my arms around his neck. “Take us back down.”

“No.”

A blazing habbie car flipped up in the air and crashed into the ground where I’d just been standing before the Prime took flight. I searched for Angel as the Prime and I flew away.

There she is!
Angel’s hair floated in flames above her head like some sort of goddess of fire. People ran from her. Fire Witches chased her, throwing amber spheres from their hands. I didn’t recognize the spells they were using, but it appeared that the spheres absorbed Angel’s flames as she stomped through Yemaya, terrorizing the habbies. And then I could no longer see her or anything else but smoke as we soared higher into the sky near the habitat’s ceiling and toward MFE.

We landed in my office. MeShack stood in the center. Tears streamed down his face.

“I’m okay,” I told him. “I’m alright, MeShee.”

He exhaled, rubbing his face with both hands. “La La, some woman named RonRica called MFE saying you were okay, but I didn’t know for sure.”

The Prime placed me by my desk, jumped back in the air, attached his clawed feet to the now closed ceiling, and hung upside down. His massive, black body remained suspended like some nightmarish bat/Human hybrid.

MeShack studied the Prime’s movements and slowly prowled toward him, sniffing the air. “Why is Zulu’s beast in control?”

“Cassie is dead.” I was already tired of saying those three words. The phrase burned my tongue and made me sick. Each time I spoke them, I wanted to dry-heave.

“She was so young. This whole situation is messed up.” MeShack continued walking toward the Prime, halting an inch from the beast’s upside-down face. I froze, wondering what MeShack was going to do.

“La La, they think Zulu is dead. The news reported it.” MeShack brought his hands up to the Prime and petted the beast’s black face.

“Don’t touch him.”

“Don’t worry. I’m just soothing his beast. You need to turn on the TV. Mixies started rioting as soon as they discovered Zulu was dead.”

“What?” I rushed to my remote control on my desk and turned on my old television. A photo of Zulu filled the screen. I turned the volume up.

A weird buzzing sound rose from the Prime’s chest as the black beast closed his eyes and allowed MeShack to pet him.

“The leader of Mixbreeds for Equality was announced dead when body parts were found in his apartment,” an Earth Witch reported. “Although the DNA test was not conclusive as to the body parts being Mr. Zulu, authorities believe the DNA is similar enough to—”

I muted the TV and faced MeShack. “I don’t know if this is a good or bad thing. Maybe we should let everybody think he’s dead.”