-David-

  We had a beer after dinner, but pretty soon I was yawning. "C’mon, let’s get you to bed. You two have had a busy couple of days," said Kristen.

  "Yes, it’s been a couple of long days, and I figure I really only have one more shot with Ellen." I shook my head, and Takara gave me a look.

  "I’ve got you both in the spare room. There’s a foldout couch in there as well, if you’d like me to set that up. Or if the one bed is fine?"

  I wasn't sure how to respond to this. I mean, we had spoken about… things on the way up, but, well…"

  "One is fine, if you’re okay with that," said Takara.

  Kristen smiled. "Oh, I’m perfectly fine with it. I’m just happy to see David with someone again."

  “Well, someone’s got to keep him out of trouble," Takara said.

  I just snorted.

  *

  I woke to a sense of coolness. The covers on Takara’s side of the bed had been flipped back, and her clothes still lay on the floor. I listened, thinking that she might have gone to the bathroom, but realized in an instant that she wouldn’t go trotting about the house naked. The window was closed but unlatched. I swore. I didn’t know what she was up to, but I knew she was headed to the Napiers, and Babe.

  Interlude

  The pennons of his lieutenants fly. All have returned and, for the moment, he is content. But I see it will not last. They consult, but the gate does not grow or yield to their will.

  It is what it is.

  But it is still here, and the Court visits more often. More discomfited with every visit. It has been time out of memory since a gate this stable has existed.

  None know what it means.

  I only know that it means that my brothers have died and that blood-thirsty bitch enjoyed spreading their guts in pretty patterns. I startle awake at night, fear for my brothers keeping me from sleep, should she return.

  But Bregon scarce registers my concerns. Rather, he is surprised that I voice them at all.

  Disaster

  - Ellen -

  My sleep was restless, dreams of feral rage and a blood-soaked vixen sitting in the midst of gore muttering to herself, "No gate without a key, no door without a frame." I started to wakefulness, realizing that I wasn’t simply dreaming of a fox, but that one had intruded upon our land, hunting.

  As I scrambled into my clothes, I heard the crunch of gravel in the drive - I guessed David had also realized that a fox had gone hunting. My anger flared. David, causing problems, again. Shigeto mumbled behind me as I rushed downstairs, determined to set matters straight, once and for all. Hustling into coat and boots in the still dark kitchen, I caught a flash of movement through the window at the back of the house, moving towards the barn.

  I emerged, just in time to hear David exit his car, calling, "Takara, where are you?" in that useless shout-whisper, a metaphor for his overarching uselessness.

  I headed to the back of the house, towards the barn, knowing that this was where Takara would be heading, her mind set on slaughter. Sure enough, she’d already moved past the house, moving through the decorative bushes that framed the small courtyard separating the back of our house from the barn.

  "Far enough," I thought, and yelled, "Stop!" pulling on the land’s power, freezing her in place just as David came around the corner of the house, only a few steps behind me.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  He must have noticed something about Takara’s stance, or mine, because his first words were a slightly panicked, "Ellen, wait."

  But then, of course, the barn door opened, Babe framed in the doorway, light spilling into the yard, as he peered, night-blind, into the darkness, obviously curious about the commotion. "Babe," I said, trying to keep my voice calm, "Just go inside dear. I need to clear some things up."

  But it was too late. He’d seen David, though not Takara, partially hidden in shadow, and before I could consider how foolish my words and tone had been, given Takara’s presence, he made matters worse. Assuming it was just the two of us, he spoke, "Hey guys, what’s going on? Did I miss a party or are you guys having another one of your tiffs? You know that it’s getting a bit tiring, right?"

  I felt a shock of power, then, from where I had thought Takara trapped. But she had simply allowed the command to touch her, no more. Her power was not like mine; hers was a flame - changeable, elusive and all but impossible to contain. It could only be extinguished and right now, I was inclined to do just that.

  Then she changed, and my grip fell away. Takara stood before us, her black hair shot with gold, her brown iris’ gold rimmed and she glowed, naked as a goddess, and spoke, "I’m just here for Babe," she said, "I don’t want to hurt him, but Grandmother needs to see him, now."

  "Takara, baby, we can just talk," and he took a step forward.

  I felt fury envelop me. Here was Babe, exposed again. I didn’t trust Takara. She just wanted him dead. Another sacrifice, and I would not let that happen. All because David led this bitch to my Babe. I needed him out of the way, so that I could concentrate, I needed to silence his incessant buzzing, so I pinned him to the ground with a shaft of power, like an insect pinned to a board, and I turned my attention to Takara, the real threat.

  Her eyes went wide when she saw David trapped, and her face feral. Her human mouth was full of carnivore’s teeth and she came at me, moving through the ward I threw in her path like it was tissue paper.

  "No," cried Babe, and he bolted forward, intercepting her just before she reached me. She leapt into the air to dodge, shifting to fox in mid-air, a suddenly smaller target, but one horn still managed to gore her back leg. I froze at the transformation. I knew she was something, but, well, that was more than a small shock. She sprang free, limping and bleeding in the snow, still remarkably agile, though wounded. Growling, she gave a half screech. She lunged then for Babe’s back leg, looking to hamstring him, but instinct worked to his advantage, and he aimed a kick at her head. He’d avoided getting crippled, but she was an experienced hunter and still managed to get a bite in. I felt my breath catch at the sight of Babe’s blood, bright red against his white hide.

  The sudden splash of gore seemed to shake me from my paralysis. I readied a spell, seeking her presence on the land. Whether she was just taking a new tactic, or she had sensed my magical probe, I never knew. She thwarted me by leaping onto Babe’s back, managing, again, to stain his hide with his own blood. Babe gave a roar of pain, bucked, and flung her against the wall of the house. There was a flat ‘smack.’ Takara lay there, stunned, then rose, shaky on her feet, watching Babe, who was watching her, but not advancing; a statue, bloodied but seemingly worried rather than angry. I knew then that his na?veté would forever be his weakness, that he would want to make friends, that he would be willing to forgive and overlook her power, her wildness, and her compulsion.

  Before she could recover, herself to renew her attack, David could not stop his buzzing, even while pinned to the ground, "Takara, wait." And she did, hesitating.

  I knew that I had my moment, that I could not let her squirm her way out of this situation. I readied the spell. My focus now split, my grip on David lessened, and his hand, that changed hand, touched the earth. There was a dissonance, a strange energy that grated against me, like nails on a blackboard. While my control faltered, David’s resolve did not. He swore softly. I felt him in the spell’s web and I knew he could sense its intent. Then, with a sudden motion, he plunged his hand with that bestial finger into the earth, and tore my power from me.

  I gasped and collapsed. Babe looked to me, then Takara, ignoring David, who was now behind him, and cried out in rage. His hoof struck the ground, making it peal like thunder. "Why are you doing this?" he bellowed at Takara, and he charged. His speed was stunning. I was sure that he would crush her against the side of the house.

  I struggled to take my power back, but it was like trying to grab red hot barbed wire. In a fury, I grabbed at it. David’s desperation burst in an inarticulate scream which carried a shocking power, far beyond what should have been possible. He hurled this stolen power at Babe and Takara just before they hit the wall of the house. They both blazed incandescent; one white, the other red-gold.

  They froze there, suspended in time, the light growing brighter; brighter than the sun. When the last trickle of power left David, I could feel him crumple to the ground behind me. Then the brilliance collapsed in on itself, like a star imploding, until there was an empty pinprick of blackness, sucking, pulling everything towards it.

  I opened my mouth in a silent scream, clutching at the land with my awareness – searching for power, trying to stop the flow into that eye-achingly, perfectly small blackness, but it sucked me dry, compressing infinitely small. The whirlwind of earth and snow flying into that darkness stopped only when my power was drained. Then, in that suddenly silent moment, the darkness shuddered.

  It exploded, throwing me back a dozen yards.

  

  

  

  By the time my eyes and ears cleared from the explosion, there was nothing left but a crater and a hole in the wall of my house.

  A brick fell, and then another.

  His hand still anchored David in the land, still smoking with the power he’d used, buried to his wrist in the dirt. I struggled to my feet, swaying, nose and ears bloody. I looked, disbelieving, at the house, seeing Shigeto through the gap where our wall used to be. He had been rushing downstairs to see what was going on, to intervene, but too late. I stared at him, filled with horror, then staggered, fell to my knees, and wept.