“Shas. Wake up, Shasta.” Someone shook his shoulder, bringing him out of a restless sleep full of dark shadows and snakes rasping past his bare skin. He sat up and rubbed at his eyes, offering Shiki half a sleepy smile.
“What’s up?”
“You said to wake you up by dusk.” Shiki nodded to the window, where the last few pale shafts of sunlight were turning red and fading away. “It’s dusk. Sleep well?”
“Like crap.” Shasta pushed himself up and stretched gingerly, working his shoulder back and forth to get some of the stiffness out of it. “Sometimes I think I’ll never sleep well again.”
“You will.” Shiki kissed his cheek. “So the plan is to sic Drae on Aloria?”
“Uh... Yes. In essence. Find her, point, and tell Drae to get her. Though...” Shasta chewed on his bottom lip. “I want to give her a chance to take it all back. I mean, I know she can’t, exactly, but she’s my aunt. Only family I’ve got left.”
“You have us.”
“Yeah, but you don’t count,” Shasta said, and winced. “That came out wrong. I love you guys and you are my family.”
“We’re just not blood. Not Lockwoods.” Shiki smiled. “I get it, mostly. The Lockwood name is a big deal.”
“Besides, I’m too young to carry on the name. Maybe in ten years. Or twenty.” He stretched his shoulder again, wiggling his fingers, and pulled on some jeans over his boxers, then found a clean shirt to put on. “Okay, somewhat presentable. Where’s Drae?”
“Still with Jones, I think. Maybe sleeping too. Want to go check? I’m going to put some coffee on.” Shiki gave him a hug and left the room to head downstairs.
Shasta blew a kiss at his retreating back and headed to the other bedroom, knocking lightly on the closed door then opening it when Andraeon’s voice called for him to come in. “Hey, Drae, ready to—” He stopped dead when he saw Jones sitting up on the edge of the bed, watching him with an inscrutable expression. Andraeon was standing by the closet, shrugging into a clean shirt, his eyes downcast. “Jonesy. You’re awake.”
“Figure that out all by yourself?” Jones asked, his tone sharp.
“And you woke up on the wrong side of the bed, that’s great. How about you take off the cranky pants and stop snapping at me?”
Jones glared at him for a moment then ducked his head. “Point taken.”
“Good. How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine.” Shasta waited expectantly for him to continue but the silence just stretched out.
“Okay,” he said finally. “Glad to see you’re as communicative as ever. If you’re okay with getting up, Shiki’s putting coffee on and we need to talk about some things, like Aloria.”
“We don’t need to talk,” Andraeon said. “We’re still going and Jones is staying here.”
Shasta raised an eyebrow slightly and looked between them, trying to figure out why they both looked upset. “So... Jones is okay with that?”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea but I don’t think I’ll be able to help with any of it. So good luck.” Jones got stiffly to his feet and limped towards the door.
Shasta looked after him, puzzled, then gave Andraeon a ‘wait here’ signal and jogged after Jones, catching up to him and taking his arm before he went into Emily’s room. “Hold on a second.”
“What do you want?”
“To know what crawled up your ass and died, first of all, and what’s going on with you and Drae, though I get the feeling it’ll be the same answer to both. You two seemed all sunshine and roses before.”
“Things change.” Jones shifted his weight back onto his heels. “Are you done with the interrogation? I need to check on my daughter.”
“Oh grow the fuck up. You’re acting like a spoiled child and trust me, I’d know. Whatever happened with you and Drae, maybe it’s none of my business, but I really don’t need you sulking around here and being a total shithead to me when I’ve done absolutely nothing wrong. Get over yourself and either make up with Drae, or learn how to act like a goddamn civil human being. Or I will personally kick your ass so hard your mother will feel it.” Shasta took a deep breath, surprised at the extent of his own anger. “Got it?”
“Got it,” Jones said stiffly, but the anger had faded from his face. “I’m sorry.”
“You’re just stressed, right? I can get that.” Shasta stood up on tiptoe to kiss Jones’s cheek and without thinking brushed another kiss across Jones’s mouth. He only realized what he was doing when Jones pulled back, giving him a puzzled and suddenly wary look, and felt his cheeks go red. “Shit, sorry. Habit. I’m going to go...” He jerked a thumb towards the stairs and headed that way, wondering when exactly he’d turned into a tongue-tied moron.
Andraeon met him at the top of the stairs and followed him down. Feeling absurdly guilty, Shasta just nodded to him, then suddenly remembered the dog tag he was still carrying in his pocket, the twin to the one he was wearing around his neck. Fumbling it out, he turned before the bottom step and held it out to Andraeon.
“Elle said to give you this. She said it was important you wear it, though I’ll be fucked if I know why.”
Andraeon gave him an odd look, then reached out and took the tag, letting the chain fall through his fingers. His expression changed almost to a wince when he saw the name stamped on the metal and he pulled it in close to his chest. “Thanks. Just the one?”
“Yeah, just that one,” Shasta replied, deciding on the spur of the moment not to mention the one he himself was wearing underneath his shirt. “She might just be messing around with us.”
“Maybe,” Andraeon said, but he slipped the chain over his head anyway, tucking the tag beneath his own shirt. He passed by Shasta on the way down the rest of the stairs, and this time Shasta followed him into the kitchen.
Shiki served them coffee and took a seat at the table with his own mug, listening quietly as Shasta gave a truncated version of finding Jones awake and cranky. He nodded when Shasta said Jones had agreed to let them go alone, though an expression of concern flashed across his face; but he didn’t say anything and the conversation turned to how they would find Aloria.
“The old farm,” Shasta said after a few suggestions. “I bet if we can find her anywhere, it’s there. And I bet she’ll be waiting for us.”
“I can handle her,” Andraeon said quietly. “Let’s go.”
“I don’t know if now is the best time,” Shiki started, but Shasta stopped him with an upraised hand.
“I want to get it over with too.” He drained the last of his coffee. “The more I stop to think about it, the more I just want to go and hide. So yeah, let’s go.”
Shiki looked between them then shrugged. “All right. Let me just go tell Mom.”
He got up and left the room, leaving Shasta and Andraeon to sit in an awkward silence, until it was broken by someone clearing their throat, making them both jump.
“I know what you did, Shasta,” Elle said in a sing-song voice. “Want me to tell?”
“Not unless you want a coffee cup thrown at your head. Come here to talk more nonsense disguised as advice?”
“No, I came to give Drae these.” Elle held up Jones’s gunbelt, with both guns snug in their holsters. “I take it Jonesy isn’t going with you.”
“It’s safer if he doesn’t.” Andraeon got up and went to take the gunbelt from her hands. “Why are you giving these to me, and not back to him?”
“Because you need to take them with you. Even dreamwalkers are mortal and you never know when your magic will fail. Or you can give them back to Jones, I don’t care much. Either way things are coming to a head.”
“How do you know that?” Shasta demanded, but he was talking to empty air; Elle had vanished. “Shit, she annoys me.”
Andraeon smiled a little, looking down at the guns. He traced a line across the butt of one, then buckled the gun awkwardly around his hips. “These are heavier than they look.”
“Please just don’t shoot yourself in the foot,” Shasta said. “I really don’t know what Elle’s thinking, giving them to you. No offense.”
Andraeon shrugged. “I guess she has her reasons.”
“I’ll bet,” Shasta muttered, getting to his feet when Shiki came back into the room. “Elle gave Drae Jonesy’s guns, so don’t get too close.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Shiki started, eyeing the guns.
“I don’t care,” Andraeon snapped. “I want to go now.”
Shasta felt the hair on the back of his neck start to stand on end and exchanged a glance with Shiki. Shiki nodded and took both their hands, taking them straight to the front porch of the old farmhouse Shasta had been born in. Shasta gave Shiki’s hand a squeeze then went up to the front door and laid his palm flat against the lock, which disengaged under his hand. The door swung open to allow them into the dark empty hallway, with its cloth-draped furnishings and thin layer of dust over everything.
Stepping up beside him, Shiki called up a small circular flash to light their way and together they stepped into the hall, Andraeon trailing along behind them. The house was silent and smelled a little musty, but not as much as Shasta had expected, considering he hadn’t been here for at least ten years. It was supposed to have been closed up, but of course Aloria would have been able to get in as easily as Shasta just had; and it was technically her house as the current head of the Lockwoods.
The front door slammed shut behind them, startling Shasta into a quickly muffled yelp. All three of them froze, their breathing very loud in the silence, and Shasta felt something cold pass by his leg. Swearing under his breath he lunged away from Shiki so they wouldn’t present such a tempting target, squinting to see the kimla in the darkness. He sensed Shiki moving to the other side of the hallway and felt the static electricity sensation that said Andraeon was pulling his power. An instant later he caught the shimmer of the kimla’s shielding and kicked out at it as hard as he could, catching it in the jaw with his heel. It reared back and Shiki hit it with a neat killing blow, sending it crashing into the wall.
The second kimla hit Shasta in the back, knocking him to the floor. The impact jolted his shoulder and he yelped in pain, struggling to free himself. He felt Andraeon unleash power but the kimla remained on his back, snuffling at the back of his neck. Expecting to feel its teeth sink into his spine at any moment, he threw himself to the side, freeing himself just enough to roll over and kick the kimla off.
He scrambled to his feet, throwing himself back again to avoid another lunge from the kimla. Down the hall Andraeon stood over Shiki’s limp form, holding off what sounded like an entire pack. Shasta ran for them and threw himself down across Shiki to protect him as Andraeon lashed out in a wide circle around them. The kimla hit the walls in a series of dull thumps and cracks, and all but two slumped down to the floor and stayed there. Those two only staggered in drunken circles until Andraeon killed them with a single sharp blow.
“Take care of Shiki,” he said, already moving down the hall towards the kitchen and living room.
“Wait, Drae, we need to stick together!” Shasta yelled after him. “I can’t protect Shiki and fight kimla at the same time, damn you.”
Andraeon glanced back, then flicked a hand almost negligently. A circle of white light appeared on the floor around Shasta and Shiki and flared up into a shield that stretched from floor to ceiling. When Shasta reached out a hand to touch it, it gave him a mild shock, like static electricity. Helpless to do anything to get out, he watched Andraeon turn into the kitchen and disappear from view.
Silence settled over them and Shasta knelt down to check on Shiki, relieved to see that he was still breathing, though blood had sheeted over half of his face from a nasty gash across his temple. His heartbeat was steady and even as Shasta sat down to cradle his head, he started to stir. Shasta stroked his hair, then froze as from the direction of the kitchen he heard two gunshots in quick succession, followed by a heavy silence.
Around them Andraeon’s shield fizzled and went out.
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