It was a delightful conundrum. It was the possibility of a battle, and battle was not his usual desire. Perhaps he was more prepared for the fight for Europe than he had thought.
He settled into the gait of the mare beneath him. She was smooth and easy and perfect. It had been many years since he sat a horse, and he loved Genevieve. Loved her fire and her spirit and her desire to please her rider, even without compulsion. Despite the time of year—midwinter—the night was warm, and the mare beneath him was excited, full of piss and vinegar, which was a term Bronco had used. It fit.
Edmund determined to adopt it. Jane Yellowrock was full of piss and vinegar too. Perhaps he would use the term on her when she was human-shaped again. He could almost see her expression as he said the words. It would be wonderful. Perhaps even... fun.
Even as he thought that, the mare snorted and sidestepped, her hooves skipping and darting. He kept his seat. By a hair. He caught the scent of Jane on the air. Or, rather, the scent of her Cat. No wonder the mare was salty. A cougar on the night wind and a vampire on her back. It was a near miracle she hadn’t bolted.
He sent another wave of compulsion through to the mare. She settled.
Genevieve was warmed up and Ed took the lead, putting her through her paces. He hadn’t known that only a few Appaloosas were gaited horses, but he was in luck with Genevieve. The lovely, dappled mare slid into a slow pace that was smooth as silk, like riding the clouds. She hadn’t been trained to jump or race, being used solely as Ivers’s personal mount and bred for a foal for her excellent bloodline. She was mature but with a lot of sass. Ed was deeply in love.
Beast
Beast watched Edmund and three riders. Four in all, one for each toe pad. Edmund and horse danced. Beast loved Ed. Would like to eat horse. But Beast thought Ed would say no. Beast chuffed with disgust and padded into night. Beast was learning land. Claiming land. Had found scat of bobcat, of fox. Dry scent of rattlesnake. Had left scat and spray in many places.
Beast stopped. Smelled something new.
Tilted nose to wind, sniffed. Pulled in air over tongue and roof of mouth, flehmen response, to smell smells. Was... cow with trees on head. What Eli called long-horn-cattle!
Long-horn bulls. Together. Should not be together. Long-horn bulls were stupid. Were angry. Beast raced and raced and stopped fast. Saw long-horns. Two bulls inside fences, but... too close. Fences were stupid. Bulls had smelled each other on strange wind. They raced at one another, even in the night.
They knocked down fences.
Hit! Horns locked. Bulls snorting, angry. Smell of testosterone was hot on air. They hit and hit again. A third bull joined fight. Gored the bigger bull. Smell of blood rose.
Beast tail twitched with excitement.
Was fight!
Was fun!
Beast quivered with hunting joy.
Bison in far field caught scent and snorted and rammed and called.
Beast heard sound of horses on air, sound of men shouting. Smelled Eli and Edmund. Beast chuffed. Watched as two humans who put bulls too close in stupid fences tried to stop fight. Was funny. Beast chuffed and chuffed. Eli and Edmund laughter reached Beast on night air. Loved Eli and Edmund.
Then air swirled and Beast smelled new thing.
Beast sniffed and sniffed, pulling in scent over tongue and over scent sacs in top of mouth. Used new gift had stolen from ugly-dog-good-nose.
Scent was not there in part of brain Beast had taken from dog. Scent was new thing. New kind of bull.
Ed had said new word. Wil-de-beast. Beast had thought Ed was talking about Beast, but... but maybe Ed was giving Beast a gift.
Moving into wind, Beast trotted, followed scent. Scent of new bull grew strong. Belly-crawled over low flat hill.
Beast saw many, many-more-than-five big black cows with curled trees on head.Wil-de-beasts.Beast began to circle, learning new cows’ hunting grounds. Learning where bull was. Learning where fences were. Where road was. Learning high ground and low ground. Wil-de-beasts!
Edmund
The sun was a bruised purpled red on the western horizon, the sky to the east that dark blue of twilight. Ed remembered the first time he had woken so early, able to see, for the first time in decades, the last vestiges of daylight that had been denied him when he was turned. The sight had left him with an elation so great he had wept, and when the light had been stolen by night, that joy had been followed by an utter devastation that lasted for another decade. The depression had been so dark and deep that it made King David’s biblical miry pit sound like an afternoon frolic.
Many vampires did not last through the melancholy of sun-loss. Many walked into the sun and burned to a crisp, for the opportunity to see it one last time. Ed had survived, and now he stared at the plum and amethyst clouds, watching as the night crept in and killed the sky’s brilliance. Ed took a breath he didn’t need and walked to the Hummer.
Bronco Sam stood beside the big vehicle, his hat in his hand, his jaw working on a wad of chewing tobacco. “Thank you for this nighttime hunt,” Ed said, catching the man’s eyes and holding his gaze. He wrapped the cattle hand’s mind, tying him in the silken threads of power. Most vampires, both Mithran and Naturaleza, could thoroughly bind a human for only a few moments, the gift useful for obtaining a first meal. For most of his kind, a full binding required blood meals and vampire saliva in thedonor’s blood. Better, the vampire’s blood as an exchange. Ed could bind much more easily, with just his eyes and his power and his smile. His master had changed him and then later cursed him for that smile. Ed had simply learned how to use it.
“Do you remember the acreage where we found the wild, ‘mean-as-snakes-on-fire’ longhorn bulls?” he asked.
