Maker

Chapter: 12-3

At some point, I did fall asleep.

* * *

I didn’t wake up until long after the water ran cold. I finally washed and shut off the shower. I didn’t know how long it’d been. More than an hour, less than a week. I didn’t remember any dreams, but that meant little. I would be having nightmares for the rest of my life. I had made peace with that a long time ago.

I got up and stepped out of the tub. I was bleeding again, but nowhere near as much. I had three bandages left in my pack and I used all of them. The most serious wounds were deep. Zora had gone to my place, gotten my ace bandage and left it on the sink, so I wrapped up my chest. It was still harder to breathe than it should be.

She also left me a towel and folded my clothes for me. My socks and boots were sitting there also. They’d had all night to clean and repair themselves.

It was just past noon the next day when I stepped out of the bathroom, and she was sitting there on the bed with her sword across her lap and my AK beside her. She opened her eyes as I came out. The place was in order again. Everything had been wiped down, and all the trash was gone.

Zora’s hair had been combed through and rebraided, and she’d found a place to shower and change into a non-ripped up set of clothes.

“I’m out of bandages, or I’d give them up,” she said. I only nodded. It occurred to me that if she were out, she’d had some trouble of her own. “Where we going?” She had a grim look to her, like Blackstar had taken as much from her as he had from me. Must’ve been a lot of trouble. I shook my head to clear it. My thoughts were still slow, and I felt even weaker if that were possible.

“We’re back to square one.” It had been a rough few days. Even if I didn’t remember most of it, my body did, and it was not going to let me off easy. “Can’t raid if we don’t know where they are.”

“Why not lay traps wherever you just were?” She asked.

“That’s a really good idea, actually. Wish I thought of it before I trashed the place.” No one was stupid enough to use the same hideout. I killed Hawknose, and there was no way to hide the fact that I was no longer there. If I escaped and I knew about the place, Blackstar wouldn’t go back there. I’d left blood everywhere on my way out and they’d track me down or kill me with it in an instant. That’s why I caved it in. Well, that and I was mad enough to spit nails at the time.

“Well, while you were slacking off, I got a lead on where they might show up.”

“Oh really,” I said. “Share then please, oh industrious one.”

“First there’s someone you should meet.” She got up, casually tossing me my rifle, which I didn’t catch or even see coming in time. It smacked me in the head and I gave her a dirty look as I bent to pick it up. A wave of dizziness and nausea told me that wasn’t a good idea and I went down to one knee breathing hard.

“This sucks,” I said. Zora didn’t say anything or offer to help. I grabbed the rifle and got to my feet. Recovery was going to take a while.

She waited until I nodded and led me out of her apartment and into the one across the hall. There was nothing inside, save the standard furnishings that Miles provides. Refrigerator, stove, couch, bed, small wooden table, two chairs, and an air conditioner. I couldn’t see the bedroom from here, but I knew there would be a bed in it.

Sitting on the floor was a young, impossibly muscular man. He rose as Zora and I walked in. He was pretty big. I looked straight ahead into his shoulder and I wasn’t half as wide. He had shoulder-length black hair in tiny braids tied behind his head and harsh green eyes the color of new grass. His skin was reddish. Obviously American Indian descent. He had on a white shirt and a pair of blue jeans. They were tight around legs that were nearly twice the size of mine.

“Maker this is Neka.” The big man put a hand out. I took it and it buried mine in a solid grip.

“I am also called Dakota by some, Ohanko by others. Indiana. Nava. Ohanzee. Whichever you prefer.” I was a little sore about all the names. Only a little—I promise.

“It’s nice to meet you. I wasn’t sure you’d wake up after we pulled you out.”

“Yes, I owe you a great debt,” he said.

“He’s been helping me look for you. He’s mildly reliable.” Zora smiled. Neka made a show of rolling his eyes but smiled at the praise.

I shook my head to dispel the image of Firehag cutting open my arm. “Don’t sweat it,” I said. “Why were you there?” We all sat down. Zora and I on the couch; Neka on the floor where he had been.

“They wanted my blood. I do not know why.” I knew why.

“You’re a shapeshifter, right?” He hesitated a moment, then nodded. “They were making their cult members into shapeshifters with it. I saw them inject a woman and she started growing fur or feathers or something. I couldn’t tell.” He nodded again.

“I have never heard of that,” he said, “but I suppose it’s possible. If that is the case, I am more certain than ever they must be stopped.” They must be dismembered was more what I had in mind, but I sent my anger back into its cage. Neka was looking at Zora, she was looking at me with a dumb grin, and I was looking at the floor—banishing more thoughts of torture.

“I’ll buy it. I killed a were-salmon at your western lab two days ago.” Zora said.

“Were-salmon?!” I said, incredulously.

“No one was more surprised than me.” Zora laughed. “They don’t seem to have control over what they turn into. It’s like theriomorph roulette. They get excited and become animals. There was a bear there too. We ended up running.”

“Ok,” I sighed. “Start at the beginning.” Zora poked me and I looked at her in confusion.

“You’re back; it’s hard to believe. I’m just gonna poke you every once in a while for the next few days, make sure you’re really here.” She grinned and I sighed.

“Story time please,” I said.

“Well,” she said after another poke. “I went to Grace’s looking for you when you didn’t come back. Jayne said you’d stopped by and left. I asked around, and some kid said he saw you getting pummeled and thrown in the back of a van. Whoever took you had a day head start at that point, so I didn’t bother asking around about the nondescript white van. I called Rollo and told him you were missing and to ask around quietly. No leads, so I headed back to Durham that night. The place was a ruin, and there was no one there. The circle had been trashed completely. The fire wiped out even a trace of it.” That was a positive at least. Redrawing it would take them time. How much time was the question.

“On the way back to Raleigh I stopped by Vermillion Falls. I didn’t know who took you, but since it was daylight, I was betting against the vamps. I caught one heading off to feed and spent the night downtown politely asking it where you were. Took all night, but I was finally satisfied that it didn’t know anything. After that, it was lots of patrols and hoping to get lucky. Did that for two nights before Neka woke up.”

“Wait. Two nights? How long was I gone?”

“Grace’s was ten days ago,” she said. Blackstar and crew had held me for nine days. NINE! DAYS! I must’ve pulled a face because Neka looked at me funny. Zora wasn’t fazed.

“What happened after?” I asked, once again shutting down my anger—though I failed to keep it from my voice.

“I came back here and found Neka awake,” she said, gesturing to the man.

“I woke up and my wounds were dressed so I knew I was not being held by… umm Blackstar, you said?” We both nodded. “I was waiting all day before she came back.” He shut his eyes and went back to meditating. I guessed that’s what he was doing anyway.

“It was another night by then and I spent it getting caught up on my Neka history. It was nice. It’s rare I have a man tied to my bed all fifty shades style. I did weird, twisted, kinky things to him for a few hours. He’ll deny it, of course.” Actually, he just looked confused, turning his head to the side and blinking.

“Can we please stay on topic?” I sighed.

“Right! So after fun time with Neka I headed out to the northern lab on a hunch. The guy that came to pick up the soup reported ‘something weird.’ When I got there the wards were down, and three traps had been sprung. I went in looking for a fight and found two bodies instead. There had obviously been more people in there.”

Blackstar’s flunkies had gotten those locations out of me. I was angry again that it put Zora in danger, and once again, this was not the time or place for my anger. I was starting to get angry with my anger. Ha!

“Neka turned into a giant dog,”

“Wolf.” He said, without opening his eyes.

“Right! So giant dog. We didn’t find where the rest had gone that night, but I reset the traps and left the bodies just in case. The next night we checked out each lab. Got a hit on the east shelter about 0300.

“There were five of them and they were being a lot more careful about the traps. Still killed one of them though. Whatever they were looking for, they didn’t find it, and we followed them back to a little house in Garner. I peeped in the windows and didn’t see you; just a whole bunch of them laid out and not looking well. Stayed there watching it for a day and no one came or left. On the second day, I was getting restless and was going to go in and knock some heads around. Still hadn’t seen any of the heavy hitters so I was pretty sure I could get it done.”

“I stopped her. She doesn’t seem to understand the virtue of patience,” Neka said, closing his eyes again.

“I would tend to agree,” I said

“Who’s telling the damn story?” Zora said. Neka flinched like he’d been slapped. “I was about to go in when most of them left again. I left Neka there to watch the house and followed. They went to the central lab this time, and two more of them died. I helped,” she grinned. “They went in looking for traps this time. Disarmed them all before they started rooting around. I was on the roof. I sent vibes down through the building to rearm the traps manually. Never knew what hit them,” she laughed.

“Anything happen on your end?” I said to Neka.

“Nothing out of the ordinary for the two days we were there. They occasionally woke up and moved around the house. No one came or left that I saw.”

“Hmm… weird. What next?” I asked.

“Well since I had ghosted two more, I was feeling pretty good about myself. I rearmed all the traps and followed them. I was getting excited when the car they were in got on I-440, but they just took the long way around the beltline to get back to Garner, and I burned a lot of juice keeping up. I left Neka there and came back to update Miles and eat. When I got back to relieve Neka, all I found was a big flying mouse.”