Frustration welled up in him as the power he sensed skidded away like a skittish animal. He made an effort to just reach down and grab it, only to have it swell up suddenly and nearly overwhelm him. Desperate to discharge it before he hurt himself, he flung it at the nearest wall.
When the dust cleared he’d been knocked flat on his ass and a hole had been blasted through the thick rock wall, enough that he could see a few pencil-thin lines of sunlight leaking in through the cracks. He looked up automatically at the ceiling but it seemed steady; there were no groaning or cracking noises, no real noises at all except for the faint sound of bird song drifting in from the jungle outside the cave system. Taking a deep breath, he picked himself up from the ground and dusted off his pants, deciding to leave it at that for the day. When Shiki returned from his search for Jones’s daughter, hopefully they could work on it further.
He hiked out of the cave and paused at the entrance, turning his face into the slight breeze. It lifted his hair off his forehead and cooled the sweat on his body, though once it died the sticky heat would only bring the sweat back again. Shielding his eyes against the glare, he looked up at the sky and judged that Jones would probably be back from his run soon, if he wasn’t back already. After a quick glance back into the cave to make sure it wasn’t on the verge of collapsing, he headed back towards the cabins.
The shower was running when he let himself into the cabin and when he went into the bedroom he saw Jones’s discarded clothes tossed on the floor where he always threw them. Smiling a little, Andraeon picked them up and dropped them in the laundry basket out of the way. The action was so mundane that it made his smile widen and he laughed at himself.
“What are you giggling about, all alone in here?” Jones asked from the bathroom doorway, making Andraeon jump and give him a guilty smile.
“Just thinking something stupid.” He sat on the end of the bed, watching Jones towel-dry his hair. The twice-daily running and proper meals had been doing Jones good; he’d begun to fill out and lose the half-starved look, and he’d picked up enough of a tan that his skin was nearly the same colour as Andraeon’s.
“Drae, pay attention.” Jones snapped his fingers in front of Andraeon’s face, and Andraeon realized he’d been staring.
“Sorry,” he said, feeling his cheeks go hot. “I got distracted. What did you say?”
“I asked if Shiki knows you’re going off alone to do whatever it is you do while you’re ‘training’.” The quotation marks were clearly audible in his tone.
“No, but I don’t do a lot. Just practice what he’s shown me.”
“Stop it.” Jones took hold of his chin and tilted his head up. “You don’t do any of that until Shiki gets back. The last thing I need is you blowing yourself up.”
“I’m not going to blow myself up.”
“Yeah? You’ve got dust all over you and scratches on your face, and I’m pretty sure the ground didn’t shake fifteen minutes ago because of an earthquake. So whatever you’re doing, stop and wait for Shiki.”
Andraeon sighed. “All right. But I can’t rely on Shiki forever.”
“I know. You’ll be able to take care of yourself soon, and probably the rest of us too.” Jones released his chin and briefly stroked a thumb over his jaw, then straightened up. “Go jump in the shower.”
“I’ll still need you,” Andraeon said, getting up and kissing the corner of Jones’s mouth. “I’ll always need you.”
Jones gave him a twisted sort of smile, one that was a little sad and a little amused and a little angry. “Go on, before you get dust over everything.”
Confused and wondering if he’d done something wrong, Andraeon went. He showered quickly and dried off in the bathroom before padding back out into the bedroom. Jones was sprawled out on the bed, his eyes closed and his chest rising and falling in the even rhythm of sleep. Andraeon watched him for a few moments, then carefully crawled onto his side of the bed and cuddled up to Jones’s side. He heard Jones mutter something in his sleep, but it was too low and too garbled to make out.
Too awake to nap, Andraeon just lay there, feeling the gentle rise and fall of Jones’s breathing. His thoughts spun around inside his head and he began to feel restless, though he was reluctant to get up and leave. He carefully stretched his legs out to see if that would help, then rolled over onto his back so just his bare shoulder was touching Jones’s. His skin felt itchy and too warm, and all his muscles remained tense no matter how hard he tried to relax. Snorting out a breath through his nose in frustration, he turned back onto his side and draped an arm over Jones’s stomach.
“I’m going to kick you out of the bed in a second,” Jones growled, though sleep still slurred his words together. “Lie still.”
“Sorry. I’ll go walk it off.” Andraeon got up and leaned over to kiss his forehead, but Jones had already slipped back into sleep. Musing on how they seemed to be having this conversation a lot lately, Andraeon pulled on his shorts and wandered out into the living room.
He could feel the heat of the day beating against the windows but walking around the living room didn’t do much to help him work off his sudden restless energy. Thinking a swim might help he went outside, quietly closing the door behind him, and headed along the path to the river. He passed a few of the group’s children coming back from their own swim, judging by their wet hair and towels. They greeted him cheerfully and he raised a hand in return but didn’t stop, looking forward to jumping into the water and avoiding the heat that seemed to suck all the air out of the day.
The pool was empty when he got there, though he saw a few half-dried footprints on the rocks surrounding it. It was a relief to wade into the cool blue water and he spent a few minutes swimming laps from one side to the other until he felt relaxed enough to turn onto his back and float. He closed his eyes and let himself drift, feeling the warmth of the sun on his front and the coolness of the water beneath his back.
The sound of birds shrieking in alarm startled him out of a semi-doze and he sat up suddenly, forgetting that he was floating in water. He sank almost immediately and had to flounder back up to the surface, coughing out water. The day seemed suddenly cold despite the clear blue sky and he swam to the banks, shivering as he pulled himself out. Something rushed past in the undergrowth, tearing the vegetation apart as it passed, and he felt something else brush against his bare leg from ankle to hip; it was so cold his leg went momentarily numb and he almost fell, awkwardly catching himself. He looked along the path, trying to see what it was, but he only caught a brief glimpse of what looked like a heat shimmer before it disappeared.
He realized it was heading for the cabins and started running before he even thought about the movement, despite his half-numb leg. It almost buckled beneath him but he stiffened his knee and kept going, panting with the exertion. He was running as fast as he could but even so it seemed as though he were running through molasses, as though time had slowed down in a bubble just around him, while up ahead time had sped up just to keep him from getting there before... before what? He didn’t even know, but terror had replaced all his blood with ice and he knew if he didn’t get there now it wouldn’t matter if he got there at all.
The ground lurched beneath him and he tripped, automatically throwing his hands out to break his fall. The impact sent pain up both arms to his shoulders and he stared dumbly at the wooden flooring that had replaced the beaten dirt path beneath his hands. A gunshot snapped him out of it and he scrambled up, dimly noticing that the front door had been slammed inwards so hard it hung drunkenly from one hinge. There were scratch marks on the floor, as though something had clawed it—or had been going so fast it had skidded and caught itself.
He saw all this in the blink of an eye, even as he was bolting for the bedroom, where the gunshot had sounded. He skidded himself as he reached the doorway and had to stop, catching himself on the frame. Jones was pinned in the corner, holding his gun with his left hand and holding his torn right arm to his chest. Blood had stained his skin scarlet from fingertips to biceps, and more had splattered like paint across his bare torso. He was panting for breath, his eyes fixed on the empty floor in front of him—but it wasn’t exactly empty, Andraeon could see two distinct shimmers there if he didn’t look directly at them. A third shimmer was more visible beneath the window and even as he watched it became an incredibly ugly dog-like beast, slowly twitching and dying in a pool of its own black blood.
“Hey!” Andraeon yelled without thinking, his body taking over. When he reached for the power inside this time, it was right there, as though waiting. Taking a great handful of it, he threw it like a noose around the shimmers in the middle of the room, dragging them back and away from Jones—he couldn’t let that power touch Jones, it would kill him—and out into the hallway. The shimmers snarled at him and made a somehow fearsome grunting noise that made him think uncomfortably of pitch-black nights in an ancient forest. Unconsciously he slackened his grip in fear, and felt them lunge at him like rabid dogs slipping loose of their chains.
He hit them as he’d hit the wall in the caves earlier that morning, the same way he’d struck out at Shasta and sent him flying; but this was a killing stroke. The beasts, whatever they were, were dead in an instant, before their bodies realized it. One of them crashed into his legs and knocked him down, instantly turning his skin as cold as ice, and the other snagged its teeth in the skin over his ribs, tearing a series of shallow gashes before it went down on its nose and lay still.
Hardly aware that he was almost sobbing for breath, he shoved the heavy corpses away from him and got to his knees, shivering helplessly. He tried to use the wall to get himself back on his feet, then someone slung an arm around his waist and helped him up. He leaned gratefully on them and saw it was Elsa, her lips pressed together in a thin line. When she saw him looking at her she mustered half a smile and herded him towards the living room, but he broke free and stumbled into the bedroom.
Shiki sat on the floor with Jones’s head in his lap, hands pressed gently to either side of Jones’s face. Jones’s eyes were closed and he breathed in shallow little gasps, his face now streaked with blood to match his chest; his outflung arm was a mangled mess of meat and the dull gleam of bone peeped through in half a dozen places.
Andraeon must have made some sort of noise because Shiki looked up sharply and ordered Elsa to get him out. Elsa did, forcing Andraeon to go into the living room this time and pushing him down on the couch. He looked towards the bedroom but didn’t move when Elsa left to get something to clean his torn side with; his eyes remained fixed on the bedroom doorway even when Elsa cleaned and disinfected his side with something that stung and bubbled. With everything he had, Andraeon watched and waited, willing Jones to come out on his own two feet.
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