Skinwalker

Kendal’s voice is what wakes me; it bounces from one side of my head to the other, assaulting the headache that’s raging. While I’m not certain what she’s saying, I am sure she isn’t addressing me. Why is she yelling and from so far away?

All at once my body comes to life and it screams of aching pain causing me to uncontrollably cry out. Someone picked me up, collects me in their arms, takes several steps holding me like a child, and then places me on a different surface. It’s softer than what I was previously on, more forgiving too. It adjusts under my weight allowing me a bit of comfort.

A new voice begins talking to Kendal but I’m not able to pay enough attention to recognize it or make out what they’re saying. Maybe the other voice is male? My face hurts.

When I finally do open my eyes, I’m staring up at a blank textured surface that’s painted off white. A light glows against the paint in sepia. After some thought, I recognize I’m looking at someone’s ceiling.

“I need a bowl and tweezers.” Kendal says softly.

I lift my head to look at the rest of the room.

The apartment is a disaster; Kendal would never let it look like this especially with company. I must have been taking a nap because of the headache that quakes down into my jaw.

This isn’t right.

The color scheme isn’t right for this to be our apartment. It’s too dark in here. The furniture is various shades of grey and oversized for the room, the windows have no curtains over the ugly vertical blinds and our house plants are missing. Recognition that this isn’t the apartment I live in comes too slowly.

This is Levi’s home and it’s in shambles.

“What are you doing here?” I grumble.

Kendal’s head pops out from behind a cupboard door in the kitchen. “You’re awake,” she sighs in relief. “Where’s a bowl?”

“In the bottom corner cabinet.”

There’s a crash of dishes when she pulls the bowl from its nesting place. “You called me,” she answers my previous question.

Closing my eyes I say, “Can you be a little quieter?”

It seems impossible that she’s crossed the apartment so quickly, but she has, and I know it because she grabs my jaw. “Open your eyes,” she orders. “I don’t want you falling asleep.”

“Jesus, Kendal,” I try to smack her hand away. “That hurts!”

“Keep your eyes open and don’t fall asleep.”

More nurse like than she’s ever acted before, she covers my left eye, examines the right with the flashlight from her phone, and then switches to do the same to the other eyes.“You could have a concussion.”

“I’m fine.” I shove her arms away from me.

“Do you remember what happened?”

“Where’s Levi?” The other voice asks from the direction of the bedroom.

Noah is standing in the doorway to the bedroom holding a mag flashlight in his hands; it has dried blood on it.

The pit of my stomach twists and my cheeks turn sour. “I’m going to be sick.” Immediately, I lean over and retch everything from my stomach.

“Oh, fuck, c’mon, Piper!” Kendal shouts, shoving the bowl that’s in her hands under my mouth.

When I’m finished, I leave my head hanging. Tears pour down my cheeks. Kendal takes the bowl away, extending it in Noah’s direction who takes it without an argument, and then she says, “Can I get a towel, please?”

Kendal puts her arms around me and helps me sit upright before she sits in the space next to me. My hair is pulled away from my face gently before a damp washcloth is used to wipe away my tears and clean my face.

After the tears stop, my caregiver transfers me to Noah.

“Don’t let her fall asleep,” Kendal instructs.

“Go change.” Noah’s voice is calm. I don’t hear her protest, but I imagine she is in some manner because he adds, “You’ll thank me when your clothes turn sour.”

The only sound in the apartment comes from the bedroom where Kendal looks for something to change into. I have clothes she could wear in the bottom drawer of the dresser, but I don’t feel like telling her that; I don’t want her to come back in here and start taking care of me again. Next to me, Noah sits calm and quiet, soothing the chaos.

“I don’t understand,” I say into the void.

“Understand what?”

“Why they took him.”

“Someone took Levi?” Noah clarifies.

“Genetics Incorporated.”

Why would they take Levi? He’s a mage. His species is endangered and nearing extinction. Why cure something that’s already doing the work for them?

“How do you know they took him?”

Kendal reappears from the bedroom; she must have finally found my clothes drawer because she’s changed into something I brought over just the other day. In her hands are a pair of tweezers, a washcloth, and a bar of soap. She’s heading for the kitchen.

“The queen sent a messenger after me.”

The sound of running water filling a bowl comes from the kitchen.

“The queen? Queen Scarlet?” Noah clarifies.

I nod.

“You’re going to have to elaborate.”

So, I do exactly that, just like I did with Levi. Except this time, I add the manila envelope project to the tale.At some point during the story Kendal begins tending the wounds that need to be cleaned, pulling shards of broken dishes from my feet and cleaning caked on blood from scrapes. Some things hurt more than others, occasionally causing me to squirm, but she remains patient and diligent as she listens.

Despite the discomfort, I get through the story and finally explain what happened here tonight to the best of my ability. I tell them about the missing subhumans, leaving out who and what they are. I can’t tell them I know where Tala is because it could put them in danger, too. I have to keep them safe and that means keeping this secret. I can’t let them get involved.

Noah asks appropriate questions along the way while Kendal says nothing. At the end of my dialog, Noah excuses himself from the apartment to make a phone call. I assume it must be to his alpha. The pack needs to know there is more danger than they previously believed.

Kendal drops the bloody washcloth in the bowl of debris pulled from my body when she’s finished and then sits on her butt, on the floor, with her arms wresting on her knees. Her brown eyes stay averted, but her facial expression makes it clear that she wants to say something.

When she’s made up her mind, she nods her head. “I deserved better than this.” Then begins collecting the items she used to clean me up.

She’s right. We’re supposed to be best friends and while she’s opened up to me over our time living together, I continued to hide important information. My fear over what I am was a bullshit excuse not to be honest with her. She risked her status as a tail more than once by explaining things about pack life to me. I should have taken more risks.

“In the last two years I’ve confided in you,” she vocalizes my sentiment. “You know things about my life that could literally get me banished from my pack! I’ve trusted you with the most personal parts of who I am and what I am, and this is what I get in return? I’m supposed to be your best friend!”

“Kendal…”

“Just, shut up.”

She throws everything into the sink then wipes her eyes on the sleeves of the shirt she is wearing. It seems like a long time passes before she breaks the silence with, “What are you going to do now?”

“I have to help.”

She holds back a frown. “I don’t think you should.”

I climb to my feet, hobble painfully across the floor, and around the breakfast bar. When I finally get to her, I pull her into a tight hug. It’s the only way I know how to comfort her and apologize at the same time. At first, she does nothing except stand in my arms but her need for this embrace is greater than her resolve to be angry with me. She wraps her arms around me and buries her nose in my hair.

“I’m going to be okay.” I’m not sure I truly believe that, but I say it for her benefit. “Queen Scarlet won’t let anything happen to me.”

While I want to believe that’s true, I also know that I’m not more valuable to her than Catherine is. If it ever came down to choosing between us, the princess would win every time.

Noah steps through the front door with a sour expression on his face. “Are you expecting someone?”

Letting go of me, Kendal sniffs the air. “There’s a vampire coming.”

“No,” I say and then recall I hadn’t expected Kendal and Noah either.

The front door is left ajar behind Noah and all the sudden, and without a noise, a woman fills the space. She’s barely taller than I am, with short black hair that has been curled by an iron. Her eyes are brown like mud, her aura is generic, and the color of her skin is like a light brown sugar, even in tone and completely flawless.

Of all the dead people in the world, I’m grateful to see the one standing in the doorway.

“Leona.”

The vampire moves through the front door without an invitation, across the living room, and to me. Kendal backs away, keeping a considerable amount of space between herself and my unexpected guest. There’s a great deal of tension surrounding my best friend, but Leona ignores it. Despite Kendal’s behavior, the vampire is welcomed by me, which is what allows her to pass over the threshold of Levi’s apartment.

Despite the serious and expressionless demeanor vampires are rumored to have, there are many who still remember what it’s like to be human and do their best to mimic life. She’s one of them.

Leona grabs ahold of me, pulling me into her arms. “You had me worried sick.”

She’s one of the few people on earth who knows my whole story without any gaps. She was there from the day I was abandoned by my family to the day I fled the capital. She was my mentor; the person responsible for teaching me everything I know about subhumans, our history, the government, and our law. I spent more time with her than with anyone. She became my family when everyone else abandoned me.

“What are you doing here?”

Cold hands cup my face. “You called.”

“I did?”

She nods and then her eyes begin to examine me.

“How did you know where I was?”

“You think the queen hasn’t been keeping tabs on you?” Her Italian accent isn’t thick but it’s still there.

I sigh. “No.” Cassandra proved that.

Turning my head to the side, she says, “Your jaw is fractured.”

No wonder it hurts so bad. “It’ll heal.” For humans it would take about eight weeks. For most subhuman species it’d take a week or two at most. For vampires, maybe an hour.

She frowns. “What happened here?”

“They took Levi.”

“Ah.” She understands that with this new circumstance, my indecision has changed to resolve. “I’ll wait for you to pack some things.”

“What?” Kendal asks surprised. “Pack?” Then she grabs my arm, stopping me before I begin to move. “You can’t go with her.”

I try to free my limb but it’s difficult, her grasp is strong. “Kendal.”

“No! Absolutely not! This is insane. You’re going to get yourself caught.”

“Let go.”

We struggle as I try to get free, and she tries to keep ahold of me.

“She has to go,” Noah says.

He hadn’t spoken in so long that we all must have forgotten he was here. Kendal and I look at him and my heart sinks because he’s spent the time he’s been ignored poking around the carnage. He’s found the manila envelope project and all the data sheets.

“You have to tell her to stay here!” Under normal circumstances that behavior wouldn’t be tolerated. “She can’t do this!”

I manage to jerk my arm free and move out of reach.

“I have no control over her.” I’m not a part of the pack and the beta has no dominion over me.

“I don’t care! This is danger…”

He holds out my messy pile of papers and hands them to Kendal, effectively halting her protest. “She has to go.”

Her eyes almost immediately well up with tears. “No.”

Noah pulls her close and places his forehead against hers. “She has to go,” he whispers. “She can do something about this.”

Kendal begins sobbing.

She understands that Genetics Incorporated has Tala, that this is why her alpha and pack sister has gone missing. Even though she doesn’t want to admit he’s right, she understands he is. I have to go. I need to do something about this because I’m the only person who actually can. Sending a skinwalker after her is far less risky than sending the pack.

I leave them to pack the few things I have at Levi’s apartment. Borrowing his backpack that’s still by the front door, I go into the bedroom to empty my clothes drawer.

From in here, I can hear Kendal and Noah whispering to one another regarding the situation. Even though she knows better, Kendal is pleading to Noah to keep me here, to keep me safe, claiming this is a suicide mission. There must be another way. Her fear is obvious to me from in here. She’s terrified of losing her alpha and her best friend to the same people.

Noah doesn’t argue with her, he’s quiet as she begs, allowing her to process this reality in her own way. He’s made his decision. There’s no altering his choice and despite her pleas, they both know he won’t waiver.

The apartment falls silent when I walk back into the living room dressed in fresh clothes, holding an almost empty backpack at my side. I grab a coat from the rack next to the front door.

Kendal’s damp wet face and puffy eyes look at me. I offer a weak, sympathetic smile, but I can’t say goodbye to her. I can’t leave here with her believing I won’t return. Maybe I won’t. I just can’t say goodbye.

“I think it’s best that she finds somewhere else to live until I come home,” I say to Noah about Kendal.

He nods his head in agreement and I leave with Leona.