He smiled sadly.
My baby brother was an Elder of The People. Though I was technically older, I had spent around 170 years in Big-Cat form. By comparison, and considering my lost years, I was a child. I needed to remember that and, according to the old ways, ask his counsel. I drew on the formality of vamps and said, “Little brother, Gramma can shift to an owl and fly away. She has amulets and spells you don’t know about. How do you catch a spirit in the night?”
“Mmmm. Perhaps we will need a plan B.”
“You think?”
He smiled a full, real smile.
“Did you both fly in?” Because if she flew in, she had to deposit mass on a stone somewhere to become so small.
“No. She was here when I arrived. I came over the mountain aswahya—black wolf—and I carried enough beef jerky and snack bars to tide me over.”
“So she deposited mass somewhere. If we could find that place and wait for her, we could take her while she was starving and weak.”Or we could destroy the missing mass before she shifted back, a small voice in the back of my mind suggested,and she would likely die.I didn’t say that.
Aya nodded. “It is unlikely that she deposited her mass nearby.”
I tilted the hand he still held and extended my claws, catlike. “But not impossible.” I stepped away, lifted the pitcher, and poured water onto the fire. It sizzled and smoked and spat as it went out. Aya followed me into the afternoon sun and watched as I stepped into the small alcove with the shower and the bins of clothes, where I wiped my claws on a washcloth. I pocketed the rank blood. There were spells that could track people by their blood, and my BFF was a witch. I put Gramma’s shift into a bin and sealed it, washed my claw under the icy water, and stepped back and away, indicating my hospitality. “As my guest, please use the facilities first.”
I walked toward the creek behind the sweathouse. The shower came on, and I heard him take a shocked breath as the cold water hit him. I left him there to dress, and, wearing my sweaty gown, the washrag with my grandmother’s rancid blood in my pocket, I walked to the creek. It was fallyet not cold. With climate change it was often warm-ish into early November.
It had rained briefly while we were communing, and my odd, square-looking paw-feet squished in the mud. Ahead, I saw the rounded tops of stone, nothing that was broken or shattered. No indications the stones had been used to give her human form mass, and then that mass deposited back as more broken stone when she returned toBubo bubo. Aya was probably right that Grandmother flew in and was flying back to pick up the original mass she had left hidden and far away. She had deposited and retaken mass from a long distance, which suggested the old woman had power and magic way beyond what I had. She had probably tied herself to a stone as I did with my gold nugget. I reached up and touched the nugget at my neck, hanging on double strands of gold chain. I seldom noticed or thought about the piece of gold that tied me to the rock of my first shift into Jane. It was as much a part of me as my hands or my teeth. Not noticed until they were gone.
Leaves had begun to fall, golden, red, dull brown. I made no attempt at stealth. This was my land, my home, as much as any place was. In my sweaty shift, I stood looking down at the creek more than ten feet below. It was sluggish and chuckling, not full and roaring as it had been in winter and spring with snowmelt and heavy rain. The trees were still taking in rainwater, and there was little runoff. All sorts of animal tracks were pressed into the sand on the beach across the way. When Beast hunted, she often started here at the closest watering hole. Above me, the sun peeked through the clouds, reflecting in raindrops on leaves and branches, casting shadows. The world smelled alive and clean. Part of me almost thought I could hear bells in the distance. I put the Glob in my empty pocket, waiting.
A moment later, I was joined by a huge black wolf. He wore a gobag strapped around his neck, and his breath smelled of beef jerky. He looked up at me, his eyes glistening, and made a soft chuffing sound.
“Is that dog for ‘See you later’?”
He chuffed again, nose-bopped my hand, and turned upstream. I watched my brother trotting along the creekaway from me. His shape-shift had been fast, not as fast as Grandmother’s had been, but less than my usual long minutes. I was jealous. And then I remembered I had shifted into half-form in two seconds or less. Beast had mad gifts.Thanks, I thought to her.
Beast is best hunter. Jane is hunted.
I kept my breathing slow and steady.Oh? Like right now?
Light dragon is watching. Above Jane in trees.
“I do not understand what is happening,” a musical yet petulant voice said. “Why are so many of the walkers in one place?” The voice came from my right and about twenty feet overhead. It was Storm, arguably my responsibility, her presence gifted to me by the head arcenciel, Soul.
I didn’t look up or indicate surprise, but then, arcenciels might be able to read heart rates and a spike in blood chemistries, for all I knew. The gold corona around my head was warming.Le breloquewas also calledlacorona, and it had some importance to the rainbow beings. I didn’t know if it was reacting to the presence of Storm or just planning to burn my head off. With one finger, I pushed at the gold laurel leaf crown. It remained firmly attached and didn’t get hot enough to scald me, so that was good.Le breloquewas different since I went through the rift and back. It was either less powerful or biding its time.
“Are you listening to me?” she demanded.
“I heard you. We’re... The walkers are... family.” One of whom I might need to kill. My stomach suddenly felt acidic and empty. I had shifted and eaten nothing. Adrenaline had kept me going, but now I needed to eat.
“Family is an earth concept where human women carry young in their bellies. Eggs are much more efficient.”
“Yeah. I happen to agree. Childbirth can be messy.”
Kitssss,Beast thought at me.
“I have asked many questions about you,” Storm said. “The elder ones say you are the Giver of the Rift. They say the corona is yours for now. I have registered my complaint that awalkershould possess the corona.”
“Registered with who?”
“With She Who Claims the Rift.”
She Who Claims the Rift was Soul. “Yeah. Aren’t you sweet.” I wondered if Storm had been on earth long enough to understand sarcasm.
