Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
W ald straightened as I stomped down the driveway toward him.
“Hold right there, virago,” he said, holding up a leather-gloved hand.
“Virago? What the hell is a virago?” I was going to have to look it up, but whatever it was, it was name calling, and I’d already eased off on Tails.
I launched myself at him, intent on getting the keys but happily clawing at any part of him that my fingers found. I went for the damned glasses and got them off one ear. His eyes glowed yellow, and his long pink tongue whipped out and dragged up my cheek.
“Oh my God,” I gasped before dropping to the ground boneless. How could his eyes glow?
“Easy there.” Wald knelt beside me. “I didn’t want you to see that.
Sorry.” His voice cracked a little, and the scent of animal and blood was cloying in his closeness, but he didn’t touch me.
Still, I felt mortality in those seconds.
Immobile and knowing the power of him. That he could kill me like one of those non-human people.
He wasn’t human either. I’d known that for a while but hadn’t wanted to believe it.
What kind of monster was he?
When I could finally move, I wrapped my arms around my knees, my eyes locked on him. We stayed like that for a minute, and then he got up, walked around me, and thumped away.
What was I doing here, and what was I going to do now? I was shaking so hard, I couldn’t move. If I ran, he’d catch me.
Metal whined as it scraped across metal.
Somehow, Wald had gotten his severely dented car trunk open.
The back of the SUV whooshed up, followed by the clang of a big metal thing hitting a solid surface.
Then the beep-beep signal of the door closing followed that.
The hood of the SUV opened, and in a few minutes, thudded closed again. What was he doing?
He was coming back again. I settled into a half crouch that I could spring up from but would protect me until I was ready to move.
Where to, I had no idea. My heart pounded to the rhythm of his boots crunching the gravel as he got closer.
His movements were controlled like a predator.
Werewolf or were-thing? I’d never really been into movie monsters, but the moon wasn’t full. Maybe that didn’t matter?
Wald jingled a key in front of my nose. “Come on, Tails, I’ll take you home since you want to go there so badly.”
I ripped the key out of his hand. Jumping up, I darted around him and ran to the SUV.
My lungs burned by the time I got to the open driver’s door.
I folded myself into the seat. The driver must have been tiny.
I wondered how he’d died and chanted, “Brain don’t go there, brain don’t go there,” while the engine purred to life.
Throwing the car into reverse, I careened out the driveway.
In the split second of moving from reverse to drive, Wald appeared in the passenger seat, jerking the steering wheel to the left as my jaw dropped.
We narrowly missed the ditch, and I had to focus to keep us on the road.
I slowed down and pulled to the side, putting the car into park. I unlocked the door.
“Get out. Now.” I pointed, avoiding looking at his face.
“No,” he said, crossing his arms. “You can ask me questions as you drive. You like questions.”
“What I’d like is to go home and pretend this didn’t happen.” I glanced at him. His face was blood splattered. My stomach lurched, and I glued my eyes to the road.
“But it did, and now they will hunt you as well. So having me around is probably a better idea.”
My skin chilled as his words sank in.
“Hunt? Me? Why?” I turned to him. The words were wrong on my tongue. “Who are these people? What have you done to me?” I rasped. He was right, though, I needed answers. “Bastard,” I muttered as I maneuvered the car back onto the road.
Wald leaned back in the seat as I headed to the highway, like he was settling in.
“Start talking. Who’s after me? I mean, you?”
“Us,” he said. “They are after us now. They knew you had the ring, and now you’ve been seen with me. They will use you to get to me and to get to the ring.”
“Who is after us, and what do they want? Who does this vehicle belong to? And who just died in there?”
His jacket creaked as he crossed his arms. “You want that name, but it will mean nothing. The Grigores are the hunters of the giants. Their hunt for our kind is ancient but recently renewed. ”
My brain twisted. “Giants? I mean you’re tall but not that tall, and why are they hunting me? I’m not a giant.”
“They are looking for family artifacts. If they gather them all, they would get control of our kind and change the order of things.”
“What the hell does that have to do with me? I need you to tell me the whole story—and don’t leave anything out. But first, are your eyes yellow and glowy?” I gritted my teeth saying the words, but I was rambling.
“They are looking for the ring right now because you wore it, and I prefer golden,” he said, taking off his sunglasses. He looked at me with his glowing yellow eyes and grabbed the steering wheel as I swerved across lanes.
“Holy crap, then I didn’t imagine it. Your eyes literally glow. Why do your eyes glow?”
“Because I can’t change them now. Call it a curse.” He winced.
“So, you’re some kind of were-thing?” I asked as if were-things were a box you checked on a government form.
“Not a were-thing. You should listen more closely to the answers when you ask questions.” He gave me that maddening half smile.
“Stop stalling.”
“Keep your eyes on the road then, and I’ll tell you a story .” He pointed at the windshield.
I pinned my attention to the line and gripped the steering wheel as if it could save me.
His voice was honey smooth and soothing. “Long before recorded history, stories were passed down by word of mouth. In ours, a great race was set upon the world from the heavens.”
“Oh my God, you’re an angel?” I braked to cut the speed. My heart racing had made the car go faster, or my foot leaden, whichever way you wanted to look at it.
“No, not of the sort of thing you are thinking, no wings or feathers. An old race, older than humans. The Eim. My ancestors came from another place and time.”
“You’re an alien?” My heart pounded, and I swerved out of the lane.
“You promised,” he taunted, waving at the windshield.
“Fine. But keep talking.” I slowed down a little and glued my attention to the road.
“Eim is the old word for the race we all descended from. The humans called them giants, but they were really more like what you called angels, or fallen angels, depending on your perspective. They were what created the giant race that we are descended from.”
“And what? Eims mated with the humans to blend?”
His low chuckle bristled over me. I liked it as much as it infuriated me. Basically, he was telling me he wasn’t human. That wasn’t possible. He totally looked human, even if he was tall and super pale and had glowing eyes. Okay so maybe not human.
“As I already said, our people originated before your recorded time. When humans evolved and became more prominent, we were forced to interact with them to keep hidden. That experiment was a failure. We were seen by other tribes of that time as evil, and by then, the Grigores had found us.”
It was hard to focus on the road while I was using the steering wheel as a tether to sanity. “What the fuck is a Grigores?”
“They too are from the Eim, but they walked a different path. Their interactions with humans are more limited. They are still very focused on returning to the plane they were expelled from and will do anything it takes to get there.
“Okay, so ruthless non-humans wanting what exactly?”
“Artifacts which will let them buy their way back into the planes we came from. Like the ring you found.”
My brain caught up. “Holy fuck. The ring is an artifact. They want the ring. The same artifact that Gentry demanded in the letter.” Gentry was dead because of the damned ring.
“I believe I said that before. And they will do whatever it takes to get it.”
“Yeah, but it didn’t mean what it means now.
Thanks for the gory context.” Jeezus, now that’s all I could think about.
I changed lanes again and slowed down. “So this ancient family of yours who have artifacts, why aren’t you buying their way back to wherever?
Or are you?” I glanced at him, but his sunglasses obscured his eyes again, and he, unlike me, had his eyes on the road.
“No. We’re content in this world. Our tribe settled in the North land.
Now you call it Norway. The forests there sheltered us, and our brethren adapted.
We were different from the humans, but some of my ancestors bred with your kind, and we made a legacy for ourselves.
We protect the artifacts as part of that tradition. ”
“And what if the other people get the artifacts?”
“They would change the path of our history. We don’t want that.
We’ve evolved into something better than we were when we arrived here.
Time has strengthened our kind. Our gifts have evolved.
” The leather of his jacket creaked as he crossed his arms. He didn’t look that strong, but I knew he was.
He could pick me up with almost no effort.
“Exactly how evolved are you?” I was hearing my own voice as if it were detached.
“You’ve seen some. The gun wounds are not affecting me because I can heal from them.
My senses are elevated, scent especially.
I can move faster than you can track me.
The strength I have far exceeds what I should have for my size.
My form is cloaked with an illusion. The only part I cannot hide that way currently are my eyes. ”
I took a breath and held it. Did I really want to know? I did. I had to. “What do you mean by your form is cloaked?”
“My human form that you see is maintained to blend in.”
“Human form?” Keep the eyes on the road, Harlan. Keep your eyes on the road.
“My true form is larger and has a more protective layer.”
“What the hell does that mean?” The word echoed in my head. He shifted in a creak of leather. He was going to answer. Oh, here we go.
“My skin is covered in my true form.”
“Like fur?” Oh, my God, please say no.
“No. Not an animal, no. I descend from an older form of human where hair was added protection.”
My brain struggled to form a picture. Wald was more classic smooth marble movie-vampire than Neanderthal, giant-angel, or whatever he was describing. I twisted the wheel to the right and screeched to a halt on the shoulder.
“Take the goddamned sunglasses off and show me.”
He didn’t say anything. He just took the glasses off and stared at me with honey-golden glowing eyes. Then his face began to change, and I heard myself scream.