Not happening.
Window came down. “Com’ere,” Eli said.
We leaped to ground and raised up, putting front paws on SUV, shoving head inside where warm air scented of Eli and home. He reached out and secured gobag around our neck. “I got food, a gallon thermos of coffee, newreading material, and a few new weapons. I’ll put out laser monitors and cameras on the bumpers once you’re out of the area. I have a signal”—he waggled his cell at me—“and if you start wavering in and out of range, I’ll send you a ping on your cell.”
I/we lifted a paw to gobag next to gold-nugget-and-cougar-tooth necklace we never took off, and peered at seat beside him. Fanned out on it were slippery papers called magazines.
Jane read:Guns & Ammo,Handguns,RifleShooter, and one titledGarden & Gun.That’s for the highbrow, überwealthy, übersnooty, übershooty types.
On top of papers was Eli newest toy, called tech bow.
I/we chuffed at it and Eli said, “PSE Archery Carbon Air ECS 32 Compound Bow, in black. Fifteen hundred dollars. Modified to fire handmade arrows constructed of carbon fiber reinforced with ash wood and plastic with silver tips.” He patted deadly toy. “I’ll be here. Take as long as you need.”
I/we leaned in and swiped at his neck and ear with tongue. He tasted of Eli. We snorted into his ear.
“Stop that,” he said, laughter hidden in tone. “Go do whatever it is you need to do.”
I/we dropped to ground and trotted into snow, leaping and dodging rocks and fallen trees. It was midafternoon.
Jane thought,I’ll give us three hours or until the snow starts again, whichever comes first. The storm front isn’t stuck over us, but it’s a narrow band, several thousand miles long, and it originated in the north pole. It’s riding along the ridges of the Appalachians. We’ll have more snow or sleet or freezing rain soon.
Hate sleet.
***
Beast jumped into the nearest tree and clawed her way up. We paused there and she sniffed for male big-cat. She got no hint of cat, but did smell bear and squirrel and owl and maybe a hint of magic, though it vanished as fast as it came. She leaped to the next tree. And then the next. Covering ground fast. I let her run, chasing whatever she wanted, while I thought.
Molly and I once had a conversation about my soul home. The gist was that Molly wanted to know if it was a real place. I was pretty sure it was. At the time I had believed the limestone cave was located near the white quartz boulder where I found my Beast shape, near Horseshoe Mountain. But now I had other thoughts. Now I thought it might be located near the Nantahala River gorge, near the spot where my father had told me I was expected to care for my baby brother. In the memory, I had looked down at my feet, and they had been small next to my father’s. My mother had been pregnant. I must have been just past my first shift. The gorge was a sacred place for The People. So all that made sense. But I was more than a hundred miles from the Nante—the Nantahala River—and nearly that from Horseshoe Mountain, via rough terrain on foot. I had to make time to go search for the cave, in case Moll had been right about the importance of the physical cave itself to my well-being. Soon. As soon as I killed some more fangheads.
Beast came to a stop. We were perched over a narrow cleft of gorge. From deep below came the shushing of fast-moving water, falling through boulders.Beast remembers cave,she thought at me.Door? Opening to cave?
The entrance?I thought back.Like a dark place in the face of the earth?
Tsalagi covered it, likePuma concolorcovers kits to keep them safe?She sent me a vision of a tiny black space at the base of a small ravine. Water plunged down not far away. The woods smelled deep and green and alive in her memory, so it was before the hunger times. Or long after.Was good hunting. But door was too small for Beast to enter. Beast will take Jane there when Jane kills enemies and kit killers and bloodsucker vampires.
Holy crap. You know where my soul home is.
Beast did not leave scat at cave. Did not mark territory.
That’s not what holy cr—Never mind. Can you find it again?
Beast does not know if opening was cave of Jane’s memories. But sound of faraway falling water was likethis. Smell of forest in winter was like this. Sun was over ridge from place of setting. Tall mountain was to place of sun rising.
Beast brought up the smell/sound/taste/look/directional sense of the memory. The all-in-one sensation made me vaguely nauseous.
Jane inWe-saform hunted withEdoda. There was much small prey there, rabbits, fun to chase.Beast looked up at the cloudy sky, found the sun in the west.Was not here. But Beast can find place of small door into blackness.
Soon,I thought at my other half.
Soon. Will hunt rabbits near cave whereEdodataughtWe-sato hunt?
Yeah. I’d like that. Next time we go searching new stuff. Meantime, I have no idea where we are. Are we heading in the general direction of the lights you saw when you landed in the stream?
Beast snorted, insulted.Jane likes to play at being cat. Beast always knows where Beast is. Jane is human. Jane is always lost.
No argument. The sun’s setting soon. Let’s get on it.
***
