“No,” I said, before Occam could answer. “I mean yes. Sorta.” Occam knew. So did Tandy and Rick. But we hadn’t put that into a report. And I was now aware that I probably should have. “I can’t prove it. It might not even be true. My body’s changing, so my brain is probably changing too. I might be learning to think in a different way, with my evolving, mutating brain. Or I might jist be insane. Or hallucinating.”
“When were you going to report this?”
Never?I thought. “I pretty much only figured all this stuff out in the last few days.” A few weeks ago, maybe a few months ago, but I wasn’t offering that unless he cornered me.
“The little tree you have carried around is more than simply a container of Soulwood soil that allows you to commune with your land?” he asked, his tone colder. “Have you endangered the unit and the integrity of the mission with astuntthat uses wild magic?”
I got my eyes open again to see the big boss towering over me, one hand on the car door, the other on the car roof. Something heated and pure flared in me, some part of me that had survived the church, its menfolk, its followers, its traditions. “You want to tell ushow,” I said, dragging out the last word. I slid away from the warm blanket. Swung my legs over and got to my feet. FireWind didn’t move so I straight-armed him away from me. He didn’t stumble back, but his braid flew, so it had been a good shove. I lowered my voice into a growl that might have come from Occam and started over. “You gonna tell us all about being a skinwalker dog and how you get stuck in nose-suck? How you get lost in the tracking and the chase? Is that inyourpersonnel files? Might that cause problems withthis case?”
The flesh at the corners of FireWind’s yellow eyes tightened.
“Yeah. I figured not,” I said, taking a step closer to him, feeling fresh green leaves twitch at the back of my hairline. “Tell you what, boss. You report how being in the skin and the brain of an animal affects your brain and I’ll do the same with my tree being self-aware. Until then, this is need-to-know and that means you and me and Occam. Now get outta my way before I feed you to the land.”
“Feed me to—”
I interrupted him because if he thought about that sentence he might figure out that I had just threatened his life. “I dropped the damn tree and I need to see what it’s doing.” Steady on my feet, the spike of adrenaline giving me energy I hadn’t had a moment past, I walked away.
“She cursed,” FireWind said softly, shock in his tone.
“I heard.” There was laughter in Occam’s voice and he jogged after me.
Someone had moved the car up to the shed when they put me into it, which was a good thing because my legs were not going to make it far. I reached the shed and the adrenaline gave out. I grabbed the wood corner of the shed as I rounded the back and I stopped, breathing hard, though how much was fury and how much was fatigue I didn’t know. I stared at the scene behind the outbuilding.
“Well, dagnabbit,” I cursed more appropriately.
The vampire tree was a good two feet high, but all the leaves on the lower branches were turning brown. Thedeath and decaywas stronger than the small bit of Soulwood soil that had spilled from the pot to the dead land. Or... Or thedeath and decaywas enough to kill the tree. Maybe all the tree, everywhere, even on church land. If I could reproduce the dark magics.
Shock went through me that I would even think of usingdeath and decay.
“Nell?” Occam asked.
“Thedeath and decayis killing it. Which I’ve never seen happen before. And which is probably a good thing because otherwise it might take over the property and then we’d never learn—” I stopped abruptly and said instead, “Did you open the kettle?”
“Yes. Nothing in it but a thick, foul-smelling, tan liquid. Not soap, which is what FireWind was expecting, by the smell.”
I breathed out slowly, thinking about thedeath and decaythat had grabbed me and tried to pull me under. I took up where I’d left off. “If the vampire tree took over, we might never learn how many people were killed, dissolved, and dumped out here. Because there’s a body in that kettle, or there was originally.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, but I can’t prove it. That military paranormal woman might be able to, though.”
“She and her team will be here shortly. Do you want me to cut down the tree?”
I crossed my arms over my middle and closed my eyes. “You’un better,” I said, fatigue driving the church-speak into my words. “You’un know what it can do and you’un’ll stay far enough away from it to keep from getting hurt.” I chuckled, the sound and the words sour and rough. “It might eat them crime scene techs, jist to stay alive.” I opened my eyes to see Occam studying me to see if I was serious. “It wasn’t a joke. The tree might really do that,” I whispered.
“I got an ax in my car. Hang on.” He trotted away. I leaned against the shed and watched leaves flutter to the ground as the little tree fought to stay alive and failed and continued to grow and die. A butterfly fluttered near and landed on the top of the tree. A vine whipped out and snared it, the yellow wings broken and quaking.
We were a mile from Holy Bear’s house, but Occam was were-creature-fast. He reappeared, an ax over his shoulder. Heapproached the small, hungry tree. Car and van engines sounded from out front as the rest of the law enforcement personnel arrived. We didn’t have much time.
“Be careful. It’s hungry,” I said, “and so is thedeath and decayunder the ground.”
Occam made a cat chuff and ground his work boots into the dead earth for a firm stance. He took a two-handed grip and reared back with the ax. He swung. The blade bit deep into the narrow trunk and Occam wrenched it out. In the deeps of my mind I heard the beginnings of a scream. Occam swung again, and again. The trunk separated. The top two feet of the tree fell onto the dead earth. Its leaves shriveled and turned brown. Occam stepped away from it, the ax over his shoulder. With the top gone, the small roots that had tried to find life in the dead earth shriveled and died. The faint scream grew feeble and vanished.
“Your shoes?” I asked.
Occam came close and lifted a foot to me.
I touched the shoe and felt only leather, nodeath and decay. “Nothing,” I whispered. “I got a feeling that were-creatures can’t get it.”
