Mangled Read online

  I sighed.

  “Can you see them?” I asked, gesturing to the forest around me.

  He nodded, eyes sliding over the area, spine straightening, his body taking on that loose alertness I had learned to associate with a warrior getting ready to defend themselves. “There are so many.”

  I turned, gesturing for him to follow me deeper into the woods. He paced along beside and slightly behind me, taking my hand when he stumbled over a fallen log and almost face-planted. Okay, so that answered the question about the night vision. Stronger than a human’s but not so strong as mine.

  I led him toward the pungent smell of skunk.

  To his credit, he let me lead him. He didn’t bitch and moan about the smell, or the dark, or my lack of sanity. It was refreshing, really.

  We stopped, and I squeezed his hand before letting go, warning him to stay still and not do something stupid. I hoped he listened better than his idiot brother in these situations. Cal stayed put while I walked forward to meet my aniwye. The skunk monster nuzzled its soft muzzle against my chest and made a little wuffling happy noise.

  “Is--" Cal’s voice cracked and he paused to clear his throat. “Is that killer skunk wagging its tail?”

  The killer skunk in question looked at him with glowing green eyes, bared its sharp teeth, and growled.

  I frowned. “Oh, hush,” I told it, scratching between its ears. It quieted and followed along behind us like a big, happy dog while I showed Cal my secret world.

  He saw them all. The big scary ones like the aniwye, the shy winged deer, the tiny ones that hid under leaves and rocks. The beautiful ones like something out of a fairy story. The hideous ones like something from a nightmare. All of them calmed by my presence.

  “I don’t know what is going on out there,” I said, feeling like a reclusive mountain man who’d lost touch with the world. “But there are more beings depending on me than just one ghoul.” Not that I knew what the hell to do for them.

  Cal was quiet, in that still way that indicated a sharp mind turning over a thousand questions, conclusions and possible actions.

  “Do the hunters know they are here?”

  I shrugged. “At least one of them does. I expected her to come back and try to kill us all. But…I honestly don’t know what she has up her sleeve. So far she’s only killed a few nasty ones—things I wouldn’t have been able to allow to live here with the others.”

  Cal sighed. “There are rumors,” he said, giving me a sideways glance. “Do you watch the news?” At my negative reply, he looked even more grim. “Natural disasters are on the rise. There have been more wildfires, earthquakes, killer storms…some people in the magical community think this is because of the creatures. There is something upsetting them, making them act out.”

  I tilted my head. His heartbeat had sped up. The big, bad witch was worried. “But look at them,” I said softly. “They all—even the more supposedly dangerous ones—came here scared. They came here for sanctuary, Cal.”

  When he was silent, I whispered, “What have the hunters done?”

  He laughed and ran a hand through his hair. “Or, what have you done, wendigo? Are you calling them here to you? Gathering them for a reason?”

  I pushed my wild hair back around my horns, recalling how the hunters had asked the same question. “I’ve only ever tried to live out the rest of my miserable life alone.”

  He took my hand again. I was tempted to rip his arm off. I stared at him pointedly. He tugged me back toward the cabin and then let go. “We need to figure out what is going on out there. In the world you are ignoring. Maybe whatever it is has caused the monsters to come here. Maybe with your connection to them you can figure out why they are going crazy and destroying the planet.”

  I trailed after him, my mind whirling. I was pretty sure I already knew what caused the monsters to come here and cozy up next to the half-monster, half-human death chick.

  Fucking hunters.

  *****

  When we got back to the cabin, my ghoul was there. He gave his brother a strange look when he trailed in the door behind me. “Look what I found in the woods,” I said, taking a seat at my desk and starting up my laptop. I needed to check out these so-called disasters.

  Cal came to stand behind my chair. “Where have you been?” He asked Tommy. “I went to the house to see you, but you were gone. I just figured you’d be here.”

  Tommy kicked back on the couch and put his booted feet on the coffee table, arms crossed, closed off. “None of your business where I go or what I do.”

  I sighed. “He was probably with his human girlfriend,” I said helpfully. Let his brother help him sort it out. Maybe then I wouldn’t have to talk about love and feelings with my ghoul.

  “Tess!” Tommy exclaimed, as if I had just betrayed him.

  “Oh, fucking suck it up,” I said, typing “wildfire” into the search bar.

  Cal put a hand on the back of my chair and leaned forward, sending a whiff of herbs and magic to drift over me. “Start with California,” he suggested. “For some reason, it’s bad there.”

  I clicked a link and frowned at the screen, the article there helping me to ignore the little flare of hunger that Cal caused. He smelled too human.

  “What are you doing?’ Tommy asked, coming to stand on my other side. He joined his brother in reading over my shoulder and I started to feel claustrophobic.

  California was on fire. Seventeen large fires were reported, spanning over one-hundred miles. Thousands of homes and businesses had been destroyed, and the death toll was currently at fifty and rising. Dozens more wildfires were reportedly raging across the western united states.

  “Hurricanes,” Cal prompted.

  I searched.

  The deadliest hurricane season to date.

  Tommy hissed. “The earthquakes.”

  I shot him a glare. How did he know more about what was going on in the news than me? I mean, granted, he hadn’t been spending his spare time battling the wendigo madness, but he sure spent a lot of time making sure I didn’t eat the locals.

  I typed away.

  There had been five earth quakes magnitude three or higher in the U.S. just in the past day. I had no idea if that was normal or not, but none of this sounded good.

  And all of the articles and reports indicated that these natural disasters were on the rise. This year had been the worst across the board.

  “You think the creatures are causing this?” I asked, spinning my chair to face Cal. He stepped away to pace the length of my living room. “Not just me. The magic community—all the covens—have been watching the trends. The creatures are getting more and more aggressive. There’s even been a push for the hunters to increase their numbers so they can take care of the threat.”

  Tommy scoffed. “Fucking hunters.”

  My sentiments exactly.

  “There has to be more to it than that. Why would the creatures suddenly decide to cause mayhem?”

  Cal raised an eyebrow at me, pausing for a moment to stare. “Why not? The things are monsters.”

  I stared him down, ignoring how Tommy puffed up at that statement. “Really? And yet, you just had the grand tour of monster kind and you are still alive and well. Not even a scratch or a bit of drool on you.”

  He had the grace to look guilty. “I know. I’m sorry. It’s just that everything I’ve been taught….”

  “Maybe you need new teachers,” Tommy snarked.

  Cal went all cold and angry in a flash, his golden-brown skin flushing an enthralling dusky color. “I had the best teachers in the world,” he said softly. “They taught me how to control and manipulate my magic. How to be stronger so that the people around me weren’t in danger.” His voice dropped to a harsh whisper. “They kept me from having to be executed or put in a magically induced coma for the rest of my life. And they showed me what the unseen things in this world are capable of and how to protect against them.”

  I rolled my eyes.


  “Careful,” I said, showing fang. “You’re starting to sound like a religious fanatic. Or a hunter.”

  The anger disappeared in a blink and I watched him put his mask back on. Apparently, Cal’s time away had not been sunshine and rainbows. Maybe Tommy really did get the better end of the deal.

  “So…” I said, feeling the stupid need to give Cal a break for the time being. And also because no way did I want to try to think about what was going on out there. “Tommy, how’s Suzie? Are you giving her the undead pork sword?”

  Cal made a choked sound. Tommy glared.

  “Cute, Tess,” he said dryly. But I noticed he didn’t answer the question. He ran his hands through his hair and plopped back down on the couch. “I know I should leave her alone, but…I just can’t.”

  Cal went to poke around the bookshelf that stood on the opposite wall, running graceful fingers over the spines of my books. “Sounds like you’re a stalker,” he said helpfully.

  Tommy ignored him and turned his mournful white eyes on me. “I’m not good enough for her. You know that.”

  I sighed. “I’m sorry things have turned out like this for you,” I said. And I was most certainly not going to cry, damn it. I blinked rapidly. “If it weren’t for me, you would be living a normal life.”

  Tommy shrugged. “Normal is boring. Normal was killing me long before you ever did.”

  “What’s this girl like?” Cal asked, picking up a skull figurine one of my few fanatic fans had sent me when I released my last novel.

  “Too good for me,” Tommy said, looking like a dejected teenager as he slumped on the couch. The world was going to hell around us, but he was more worried about his love life.

  “She’s a nerdy hippie who works at the library and studies history. She’s a fluffy, latte-drinking loon,” I said. “But she’s not perfect, Tommy. She’s just another freaking human being.”

  He gave me a murderous look. Maybe because I refused to put the little cream-puff on a pedestal.

  “Besides,” I said, while Cal continued to move around, touching my stuff. “Why the hell would you even want some kind of meaningful relationship? Fuck her all you want. Just don’t come crying to me when you can’t have kids, or she’s aging and you’re not, or she decides she’d rather have a live boyfriend.” God love was awful.

  Cal turned to face us both. He spoke to Tommy, but he kept darting glances at me. “I’m pretty sure that when the world is falling apart, love is the only thing that matters. And being different doesn’t mean you can’t be together. You just need to learn how you fit.”

  He turned back to the bookshelf, took out one of the books I’d written, and flipped to the first page.

  I stood and went to the kitchen to find a raw steak. Fucking love. Fucking feelings. What the hell would the pretty witch know about how badly that shit could damage you.

  I leaned against the kitchen counter and pressed my head against the cabinet, claws curling down into the countertop, leaving gouges in the cheap fake tile. Love was what made the world fall apart in the first place. And being different…well, once I had thought that didn’t matter. That one of the good guys could fall in love with one of the bad guys. Or at least accept her enough to make some sort of relationship work.

  “Missed the mark on that one, didn’t you?” I whispered.

  I straightened and refused to go look in the drawer under the table by the door. I had stared at the monster-killing axe too much as it was already, drawn to it as if the damned thing could tell me what Cloud was thinking. I told myself I didn’t want to see it again until I was able to bury it in a hunter.

  Chapter 11

  The days stretched on and I struggled under the strain of the sense of uneasy anticipation that I felt from the creatures in the woods.

  I also noticed a steady, insidious increase in my hunger. The wendigo was surging forward again, and I had the sinking feeling that this was a battle I was going to lose.

  I ran the perimeter of the areas of the national forest closest to my home. There were no signs of hunters. But every now and then I swore I smelled the scent of leather and incense. I was losing my mind. I scrambled over fallen trees and under tree branches and bushes. I dashed through cold water and drank in the delicious open air. I howled at the moon. I wondered why I had ever wanted to be human in the first place.

  Near dawn, I stumbled back to the cabin, blood crusted in my claws and wildness still beating at my heart. But I was exhausted, thanks to the growing press of the sun hovering just beyond the horizon. A tingle of magic caught my awareness and I turned, my heart leaping despite my fatigue. Cloud. Was this where she killed me? Or maybe she would ask for forgiveness and tell me how stupid she had been. I would agree with her on that. And then tell her to fuck right off.

  I let out a gusty sigh. The dogman stepped out of the shadows, ambling a few steps on all fours, then stretching to stand up like the hairy man-thing he was. “Hey, Doggy,” I said, leaning against a porch rail. I was too tired to try the steps just yet.

  The dogman huffed. He turned his head and regarded me. Probably with pity. On his bizarre face it was hard to tell if he felt sorry for me or wanted to eat me. He made one of his hideous garbled sounds.

  Ahanu cawed and fluttered down to land on the dogman’s shoulder. His birdy eyes were judging me. “Not you too,” I said, trying not to pant. Hunger was warring with fatigue, and my mind was so foggy. I needed to sleep. I needed to devour every living thing within five miles of here. My fangs ached.

  I blinked, trying to clear my mind. Backyard. I was in my backyard leaning against the railing. Sitting against it now, my ass in the dirt and my back against the post. When had that happened? Shit, I was falling apart faster than I had realized.

  Magic rolled over me in tingling waves and I hissed. Cal was there, standing next to the dogman. They were having some sort of odd exchange and my ghost boy was translating. Wait. Not my ghost boy. Traitor spirit.

  “Where did you come from?” I asked Cal.

  He stopped speaking and turned to me. “Hey there, wendigo girl,” his voice was soft, and his sharp blue eyes bright against his golden skin. Goddamn it, I didn’t need pity from some asshole who got to be in charge of his freaky powers.

  “Fuck--” I meant to say more. To tell him to get lost. To ask the dog to either fix me or put me out of my misery. But my burning throat closed off. So damned hungry. I lifted my arm and sank my fangs into it, biting deep. The pain seemed to wake me up a bit. And the blood…well, it was like giving a starving person a glass of water and telling them it would make them feel full…but it was better than nothing. I chewed on my forearm a bit, not feeling the pain.

  “Damn it, Tess!” Tommy was there. He must have felt me not feeling so well. Or something.

  He surged forward, but Cal caught him by the arm. The taller man pushed past his brother and came to squat down near me, smelling of warm human blood and tingly magic. I lunged, but strong arms caught me and held me still. Damned idiot Tommy. “Tess,” my ghoul shouted, holding my arms so tight I was surprised he didn’t break a bone.

  Cal didn’t flinch in the face of my attempt to eat him. “The old guy here says he tried to suppress the wendigo madness, but his powers aren’t what they used to be since his…accident,” he said, gesturing over his shoulder at the dogman.

  I growled.

  “I’m going to try and see if I can help,” Cal whispered, voice low and soothing.

  “Try?” Tommy said, his voice tired but full of warning. “You better damned well not try something on Tess. If you make her worse, I swear to God I will do something a whole lot worse than fuck your high school sweetheart.”

  I snorted. “You tell him, moron.”

  Tommy seemed to lower his guard when I made jokes. Good. I jerked at his hands and flung myself at the human snack tray.

  I hit a wall and slammed back against the porch railing, knocking my head and banging my elbow. “Fuck.”

  One corner of
Cal’s mouth lifted in a wry smile. “I’m not as human as you seem to think,” he said, still holding up the hand he had used to make some sort of magical shield. It even blocked some of his delicious smell.

  I gripped my head in my hands and rocked forward, moaning. My head felt like it was going to crack open. My whole body burned. I started shaking.

  Eat him.

  I ignored Death as he whispered in my head. If the God was trying to comfort me now, he was far, far too late.

  Magic danced over my skin, tingling and foreign, as Cal started to chant in a low, rough voice. At first, I fought it. It felt wrong. Tight and confining. But the deeper it sank into my skin, the more numb I became, as if I was being injected with some sort of painkiller. I leaned my head back and closed my eyes, panting as I tried to get more air into my suddenly constricted lungs.

  This was nothing like the nearly negligible power I had felt from the dogman. This power dominated and suffocated. It crushed. And I welcomed it. I stopped fighting and let it crush all but the tiniest sliver of my will. There was something human under it all. And suddenly I realized that I craved that humanity so deeply it hurt.

  The dogman was right. I needed something to anchor me to my humanity or I was going to disappear under the beast.

  Cal dropped his hand. There were lines around his mouth, but he didn’t show any strain otherwise. How powerful was this witch?

  Tommy let go of me. “Okay, Tess?” He glanced at Cal. “That felt like some powerful whammy. He didn’t hurt you, did he?”

  When I didn’t respond, Tommy shook me. “Shit, Tess. Tell me he didn’t damage that last remaining brain cell or some shit.”

  I slapped his hands away. “Shut up.”

  He stood and went to talk to the dogman.

  Cal still crouched in front of me. He studied me with sharp blue eyes. “It would be even more effective if you gave over that last little bit of will I feel you clinging to,” he whispered.