The man pulled a gun. He fired. Straight down.
Occam fell.
My heart crumpled. I tried to rise, but my legs were asleep. I fell over.
The ground erupted and snarled around the shooter. Pulled him down. Mud grunted, working with Soulwood’s power. “Son of a bitch,” my baby sister muttered. “Got you.”
“I got your’un man,” Esther called from the porch, her bare feet on the cold wood. “He won’t die. I promise. But there’s more humans on the land, still. You’un stop ’em.”
I had to trust her. I had to. I closed my eyes, searching Soulwood. I found three more humans, armed. The land and I wrapped them in thorn baskets, piercing their flesh, the land tasting, neither of us caring if the invaders suffered. Their blood tasted of vampires. Blood-servants of Torquemada and his fangy goons.
Do not eat them,I instructed the Green Knight and Soulwood.They are mine.
I pulled back to Occam and dove into him, seeing the fine and perfect stitches my contrary sister had placed in the flesh of the man I loved more than my own life. His heartbeat was fluttery and weak, his breathing too fast.
I pushed life and healing and power into him.You’un die and I’m’a kill you deader, cat-man,I thought to him.
Ain’t my plan, Nell, sugar. Dying ain’t my plan.
TWENTY-TWO
Asperity in her mental tone, Esther said,So that’s how you’un do it. I got him.
My sister, who had feared magic for as long as she had lived, shoved healing into Occam. The ground beneath him erupted into blooms and leaves.
He began to shift.
I nearly sobbed with relief. It would take him longer than usual to shift into his spotted leopard. He was injured. But he was going to make it.
Naked as a jaybird, Margot prowled around the house, keeping Esther and the twins safe. Protecting Occam while he shifted and healed. Rettell was dressed now in thin pants and a sweatshirt, but barefoot, walking the perimeter. Rick was human, fighting to breathe. Through the land, I said to him,You got sexing on the brain so much, you ain’t got nothing left?
Rick waved the finger of one hand at me, telling me to go away.
“Stupid man,” I said aloud.
Lucky man,he whispered through the land.Luckiest man on earth.
I shook my head at him and found my sister. In reality Esther was sitting on the porch, guarding the twins. Spiritually, she was beneath the earth, helping Occam.
I opened my eyes and tried to stand. Didn’t make it upright by myself.
T. Laine caught me on my shoulder and shoved me back down, steadying me. “At least you’re still alive,” she said. “But you better pull out of the earth real fast, plant-woman, or you may not come back.”
“Why?” I managed.
“You’re going all tree on us again. And while I have some arborist training, it isn’t enough to bring you back to flesh.”
I looked down at myself. My fingers were sticklike and my hands were woody. I was having trouble breathing deeply, as if my lungs weren’t working right. Mud was holding my hand, and hers was completely human looking. I held up her hand. “How?” I asked.
“I just told my brain to not let my body change. We been learning about matter and energy and vibrations in school, and how’s they all the same thing. You know. In science class.”
“Told. Your brain,” I gasped, breathing too shallowly.
“It’s our brains is what’s letting us see in all these places, sister mine. It’s our brains interpreting energy and affecting matter. Or we’uns crazy as a bunch a drunk raccoons. One or t’other.”
It was very much like what Tandy had said. I’d think about it all later. I closed my eyes and looked at the Green Knight. I thought at him,You ready to put Operation Contain a Demon into practice?
He gave me that regal nod.
