The Arrivals

Chapter 29

Jack steadfastly walked back to the Gulch House to gather his gear before heading out to meet Garuda. As he’d stood in the street with his sister, he’d considered throwing everything away—over a woman he’d only met a couple of days ago. It was completely illogical. There were rules, ones that had been in place for over two decades, ones that Jack couldn’t violate without throwing safety so far out of reach that there would be no return. Ajani wouldn’t meddle with the Arrivals if they sided with Jack, and if they went with Ajani, Jack wouldn’t interfere. He and Ajani had agreed not to use force or coercion. In truth, those rules aided Jack more than Ajani. If not for the gentleman’s agreement they’d made, Ajani could attempt to take Katherine by force. Even with the rules in place, Jack and Edgar still did everything they could to keep Katherine from being out and about on her own.

And Jack had just left her standing in the street when he’d turned back toward the Gulch House. He glanced over his shoulder and, with no small amount of relief, saw Katherine walking toward him.

“I’m fine,” he lied when she caught up with him.

She smiled, but she still looked worried. “I know. It’s just a lot to deal with lately. We’ll figure it out. Francis will be fine, and we can do the job with one less person anyhow.” When he didn’t respond, she added, “Chloe might not even choose Ajani, Jack. Let it go.”

“I know you trust Daniel, but he’s not our friend.” Jack didn’t quite understand how his sister managed to hold on to her tenderness for Daniel, but he wasn’t having a great deal of luck understanding his own emotions just then. It wasn’t that he loved Chloe; he didn’t even know her well enough to like her all that much. All he could say was that he felt a spark, and after so many years of thinking he wasn’t even capable of such a thing, he was eager to find out what could come of it.

“Daniel’s not evil,” Katherine said quietly. “I’m not saying he’s good, or even that he meant anything other than to take Chloe to Ajani. I’m just suggesting you be a little patient.”

“I know, but Chloe was out there alone because I fucked up. First the Verrot, then the . . . what we almost did when we were in the desert.” Jack didn’t want to meet his sister’s eyes, so he resumed walking. “And then after we were about to . . . finish what we started in the desert, I called her another woman’s name. What reason did she have to stay?”

“In the desert and here? I know you were upset over losing Mary, but . . .” Katherine’s words faded, and she shook her head at him.

They walked silently for a minute before Jack said, “I didn’t love Mary. I wanted to. Hell, she wanted me to, but I didn’t. Whatever Chloe is, she isn’t a replacement for Mary.”

“So tell her that when you see her even if she’s in his house,” Katherine suggested. “That’s not breaking the rules. Daniel does it; Ajani does it. They both tell me to join them all the damn time. You just have to be willing to swallow your pride and say your piece in front of whoever’s there.”

“They’d love that, wouldn’t they?” he said bitterly.

“It’s either that or accept that she’s in Ajani’s house now, and as long as she’s there, if she warms anyone’s bed, it can’t be yours.”

The thought of Chloe in Ajani’s or Daniel’s bed was enough to make Jack stop midstep. He didn’t turn back, but the thought of shooting Daniel was powerful enough that his hand dropped to where his gun typically would be—and he realized that he’d actually gone outside without a weapon. When he’d heard that Chloe was gone, he’d walked out unarmed.

Katherine, who fortunately was armed, stepped in front of him. “If she stays, she’s as dead as Mary to us right now.”

“Like Daniel?” Jack said, regretting the words the moment they were said.

“Exactly like Daniel.” Katherine looked pointedly at his empty hand. Even when he’d been falling-down drunk, he didn’t go outside without a gun. Worry over a woman had made him do so. “Either way, you can’t do anything about it tonight, and we don’t have time for you to be off your game. Not now. I’m going to get the Verrot and meet Garuda. Get your gear, or I’ll tell Edgar he’s going with me while you stay here and babysit Francis.”

Jack walked in silence the rest of the way to the tavern. She was right: they couldn’t violate every safety precaution they’d put in place over the years; there was no way he would endanger his sister like that—but no amount of logic quashed his furious urge to knock down Ajani’s door and carry Chloe out of that house. He’d lived half of his life focused on the mission, on the good of the team, on doing the right thing. Wanting something—wanting someone—for himself was new.

A little while later, when they were not quite halfway between Gallows and the camp, Jack and Katherine found Garuda standing calmly in the Gallows Desert. As was typical in meetings with the bloedzuiger, an escort was with him. In this case, only one of his pack stood waiting for the customary greeting. It was an odd tradition, but many years ago, Garuda had explained it as a ritual of respect. The conflict between one of his representatives and his guest established power dynamics, but Jack was well aware that Garuda adjusted the fights for his own reasons. The old bloedzuiger had been known to use the tradition to remove a troublesome newborn or to establish his authority over the guest, so Jack had expected to find a young newborn that could be quickly dispatched before they moved on to business.

When he realized that the accompanying bloedzuiger appeared to be one of Garuda’s older, more articulate ones, he looked around for another one to fight. There were no others in sight and no cover behind which they could hide.

“You want me to fight him?” Jack asked.

“No,” Garuda said.

Jack held his hands out to the sides in a questioning gesture. “I’m not in the mood for games today.”

“Traditions are not games, Jackson,” Garuda chastised softly, and then his gaze went to Katherine. “Katherine.”

She stepped past Jack. “I’m ready.”

Clarity hit him then: they’d been speaking when he couldn’t hear them, and his sister was apparently intending to fight one of the oldest bloedzuigers Jack had met.

“What in the hell are you two playing at?” Jack reached out to grab his sister’s arm, but she moved out of reach in a blurringly quick move.

“Stand aside, Jack,” Garuda all but hissed. “Katherine summoned me here, so she will attend to the pleasantries.”

“If you think I’m letting my sister—”

“Shut it, Jack,” Katherine interrupted. Slowly, looking like she was warming to the idea, she smiled at Garuda and then said, “And, you, don’t talk while I’m fighting.”

Garuda lifted his shoulder in a shrug, and then gestured to the bloedzuiger, which promptly launched itself at Katherine.

She dodged almost as quickly as it had sprung, and Jack gasped at the sight of his sister moving at such a speed. He’d thought that he was long done with being surprised by the things she could do, but as she kicked and punched the creature in front of her, he found himself amending his beliefs.

“She didn’t fight that way in Gallows,” he murmured to Garuda.

The bloedzuiger only nodded. His attention was fixed on the fight in front of them. Abruptly, he tossed a blade toward the fighters, and Katherine snatched it out of the air without even looking.

She frowned as she glanced at the knife and then snapped, “Are you trying to kill me?”

“No. It was a test,” Garuda said bluntly. “You can read him, Katherine. Through me, you can anticipate his movements.” He stepped closer to the fight and ordered the bloedzuiger, “Faster.”

“I’m not here for tests,” Katherine growled. At the same time, she’d stabbed the knife through one of its wrists, grabbed the other arm, pulled it over, and stabbed it too, pinning the bloedzuiger’s arms together.

It tried to strike her with its pinned hands, but Katherine caught them and forced them upward and then back, bending the bloedzuiger’s body into an arc. She continued propelling its arms until it was forced to fall onto its back, and then she slammed her boot-clad foot into the bloedzuiger’s jaw, forcing its head to the side and holding it to the ground.

“Call it,” she ordered.

“The needs of etiquette are met,” Garuda said softly.

Katherine took a step toward him, and for a moment Jack wondered if he’d need to intervene. His sister looked like she might turn her attention from the creature she’d just incapacitated to the bloedzuiger who controlled it.

“I’ve never known another creature capable of doing what you do.” Garuda’s tongue snaked out to lick his lips in what Jack hoped was an absentminded motion. If not, the bloedzuiger was trying to provoke Katherine.

“I’m human,” she objected.

“You’re more and more like one of my own,” Garuda added, seemingly goading her in word even as his tone stayed even.

Katherine narrowed her gaze at him. “Just because I react peculiarly to your blood doesn’t mean I’m a monster.”

Garuda sighed. “I am not a monster, Katherine.”

“In my world—”

“You aren’t in another world,” Garuda chided. “You’re in this world, and your body acts more and more like one of us. Your proximity to me when you’ve had Verrot, and your acceptance of our connection, make it even more so. You are one of only two in this world who can do such things.”

“Two?” Jack interjected. “Who is the other?”

Garuda met Jack’s gaze. “Ajani.”

Katherine’s eyes flashed. “Ajani?” She raised her hand and pointed at Garuda. “He reacts to Verrot like this, and you didn’t think to tell me before now? Or at least to tell Jack?”

As she reached out to shove her finger at Garuda’s chest, he caught her hand. “Being like my kind does make you kin to my pack, but it doesn’t mean I accept insults, Katherine.” Keeping her hand in his with no apparent effort, even as she struggled, Garuda added, “There is a protocol that must be observed. I could not tell you until such time as it was necessary.”

He glanced at Jack then. “You are both temperamental beings, and had you known, I’m not sure what the consequences would have been.”

“Ajani is why you forbade your pack and your associates to provide Verrot, isn’t he?” Jack asked. When Garuda nodded, Jack continued, “No other being in the Wasteland responds to Verrot like Katherine and Ajani do. Has anyone done so before now?”

“No.” Garuda stared at Jack, although he did not volunteer any more information. The bloedzuiger followed the rules of his kind even now. That didn’t mean, however, that he wasn’t staring at Jack as if he would will the very thoughts into his mind if he could.

He didn’t need to, though; Jack saw the answer. “You don’t think Ajani is from this world.”

“That would be my belief,” Garuda said evenly. “I’ve thought as much for some time, but until Katherine revealed her secret to you, there was no proper way to provoke that thought in your mind. There are rules. He might not understand them, but you do, Jackson.”

Katherine’s gaze darted between them. “I might have some of your traits, but I better not be going to develop that one. Speak plainly. How go’damned hard is that?”

Garuda stiffened visibly. “For my kind, I speak as plainly as I can without violating etiquette.”

“Kather—”

“You’re right,” she interrupted Jack. “I’m sorry.”

The bloedzuiger Katherine had fought walked over at that point and held out a bottle of Verrot to Katherine. “We brought this to you. For your packmate.”

Garuda beamed at them, his unpleasantly red lips curved in one of the most joyous smiles Jack had seen on the bloedzuiger. Garuda looked from his fellow bloedzuiger to Katherine with an expression of almost paternal pride before saying, “The medicine and the Verrot will heal your Francis. There was doubt as to your worthiness, but you’ve proven yourself.” He glanced at the other bloedzuiger. “And you’ve earned the right to the desert territory, Styrr.”

The creature, Styrr, bowed. “I will protect her and the territory with my life.” As it straightened, its gaze was fastened on Katherine. “I hope you do not die in the coming fight.”

Jack waited for his sister to say something inflammatory, but she merely bowed in return and murmured, “Me too.”