On our way back to the library, AJ suddenly got quiet.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“We should probably hurry up,” AJ said, eyes unfocused. “There’s some people coming this way. They don’t look friendly.”
We hurried our pace and once we were back at the library, we began preparing to leave immediately. Coming down to the first floor, I found Flux and Deft accompanying AJ’s mom. Her long black hair was matted from lack of self-care and she was skinny to the point of malnutrition.
Flux was speaking reassuringly to her as she sat shaking, a sheen of sweat on her skin. She was still in the throes of alcohol withdrawal. That was going to make this difficult, but waiting was probably worse. She needed medical attention as soon as possible.
“Mom,” AJ said, going to her side.
She looked up at him with a dazed expression. “AJ, why are you still here? It’s not safe. Your father…” she trailed off and shivered, looking confused.
“He’s not here,” AJ explained gently. “You’re seeing things.”
“Oh… beautiful child. You can’t. You can’t stay. After everything I’ve done.”
“We aren’t staying. We’re leaving, together,” AJ said firmly.
“No. No, you can’t…”
AJ ignored her and with Flux’s help got her to her feet. AJ’s mom swayed but remained upright, shaking her head. She held an expression of fear and doubt that I’d seen before on AJ’s face. But now, AJ’s expression was brave, his chin set in determination.
“Let’s go,” he said.
Deft leapt atop the large bookcase that had been braced against the front door. His tail swished as he balanced, then he set his feet and shoved against the wall above the door. The bookcase teetered for a second, Deft’s tail waving madly from atop, and then it came crashing down. Deft rode it down with ease then turned back to the door to unlock it.
“I would say ladies first but I think the unencumbered would be best leading the charge,” he said, poking his head out to check on the street.
We exited the library and made our way back the way I had come into the city. The progress was slow, AJ’s mom was weak and twice we had to pause as she collapsed to vomit onto the pavement. I scanned our surroundings anxiously as we waited the second time.
“Take a detour to the right,” AJ called out from the back. “There’s some more people up ahead.”
“Vultures?” Zola asked with a tremor in his voice. He had opted to keep the Heartseeker at hand instead of hiding it within his stomach.
“Maybe.”
We took the side route. Deft hummed as we walked through a section of the city where the street had been blackened by fire. A few wisps of smoke curling into the sun told me that the fire hadn’t quite finished and an unlucky gust of wind could spread hot embers to fresh kindling.
“You look a little jumpy, wey. You good?” Deft asked Zola.
Zola looked at him for a moment, then took a deep breath before replying, “I’m good. Too much time in my own head. The walk is helping.”
AJ spoke up, “They’re moving to intercept us. We should-” he was cut short as his mother tried to pull away from him.
“Leave me!” she wailed. “I’m no good. No good…”
“Ay,” Deft muttered. “Flux, let’s get ready to rumble, yeah? Might need some thunder.”
“Can’t when I’m touching someone else. The electricity will cycle through her too,” she grunted, trying to hold on to AJ’s mom, who was starting to flail and cry.
I Shaped into my armour as Zola ran over to take over for Flux.
“Wish I had a gun,” Flux said. “I’m not gonna have much juice in time.”
“How does your Shape work?” I asked.
“I build it up in myself or others I can see. Then touch me or metal and zap. You know how it feels.”
Deft had produced a hidden knife and was tossing it between his hand and tail. “It’s fine. We’ll have a nice, friendly chat and be on our way,” he said lightly. “It was the drone, by the way.” He pointed the knife at the sky. I spotted the hovering drone, just a speck above our heads. “That’s how they’re tracking us.”
AJ swore. “I wasn’t watching that.” He clung to his mother, trying to calm her thrashing.
“I still don’t really get why you guys are helping us,” I said as a group of people emerged from behind the movie theatre that sat at the corner of the street.
“Too much time on our hands and my phone doesn’t have any games on it,” Flux said.
“I’m still upset that you fried my phone trying to charge it,” Deft said morosely.
“You asked me to and I said it wouldn’t work.”
“Still upset.”
The group drew close and spread out to cover the width of the street. Eight women and men with nasty looks in their eyes, a special flavor of dissociation. We weren’t people to them, we were their next score. Each held a weapon: crowbars, machetes, baseball bats. A few were maybe packing heat judging by the bulges in their coats.
A man walked a few steps ahead of the rest, his neck covered in tattoos. A H.E.S.P. grenade handled from a chain on his black jeans.
“Well, I’ll be,” he drawled. “The Wickerman in the flesh.”
“We’re not looking for trouble,” I said coldly. “Your personal vendetta will have to wait.”
“Vendetta? No no. It’s quite the opposite. We have you to thank for this shift in the status quo. It’s been highly profitable. The Rings weren’t the ideal business partners, too focused on their internal politics to see the benefit of outsourcing their revenue. Now they’ve been crushed and we’re free to do as we please. So thanks.”
I clenched my fists, now wishing dearly that Nell had decided to come.
AJ’s mom was still fighting against her helpers.
“Mom! Stop it!” AJ shouted desperately.
“Let us through,” I told the Vultures.
“Leave me! Leave me!” AJ’s mom wailed.
“Sounds like she doesn’t want to go,” the man said mockingly. “Why not leave her with us? Looks to be a nasty case of withdrawal. I’m sure we could procure her poison of choice, make her nice and comfortable again.”
AJ gave me a look. Then a voice echoed across the street, “So you’ve heard the stories about the Wickerman?”
Each thug looked at each other, wondering who had spoken.
“Bullets don’t work.”
My heart beat quickly. I watched the Vultures carefully. “What else?” I asked.
“Bones break and fear bleeds out.”
The Vultures looked unsettled now, hearing the voice coming from various different positions in their ranks.
“So let us pass,” I said.
“He makes you remember things that never happened.”
Their leader’s eyes darted back and forth, trying to make a decision. Finally he stepped to one side, holding out an arm to clear us a path. The other Vultures lowered their weapons and parted.
“We’ll let you go just this once, as a token of our appreciation,” the man growled, trying to save face. “Don’t come back.”
I let Zola and AJ walk in front, carrying AJ’s mom between them, while I kept my eyes on the human traffickers.
Then one of the Vulture’s eyes widened as she saw Zola up close. “Hey!” she bellowed. “That’s the fucker that killed Phillip and Chris!”
“Bitch!” another shouted and tackled Zola, sending AJ and his mom sprawling.
Everyone sprung into action at once. Deft immediately flicked a knife with his tail into the nearest thug’s leg while drawing two more knives from his boots and leaping into the fray. Flux body checked a woman and she fell into the fire hydrant behind her. On contact with the hydrant, she arched her back, teeth clenching and muscles seizing from a shock.
I dashed to Zola’s aid but two Vultures blocked me. My armour weathered their attacks and I injected them with fear memories, making their faces twist into grimaces, weapons falling to the street in a clatter.
“Nick!” AJ shouted warningly.
I turned to see the leader pointing a pistol straight at my head. At the last second, something invisible bumped into his arm, knocking his aim off course, the gun firing and missing. Flux seized the barrel of the gun and the man tensed up, then collapsed, writhing in pain.
I moved to AJ’s side, beating back a Vulture who wielded a crowbar. AJ’s face screwed up in effort as he lifted his mother onto his back. She hung onto him limply, crying into the back of his hoodie.
“Why, AJ?” she sobbed. “Why save your no good mother?”
I grabbed another Vulture and hauled him away from AJ’s path.
AJ gritted his teeth, taking a single heavy step forward. “Because I’m a hero!” he shouted, tears in his eyes.
Deft whooped and jumped onto the shoulders of a Vulture, the weight bringing them to the ground. Deft was the only one who landed gracefully.
AJ walked through the brawl with dogged determination.
Zola fought against a man twice his size who rained blows down on his head. Zola grabbed his waist, pulling the man close so he couldn’t punch him. The man chuckled sadistically. “You thought you were clever, huh, killing my brothers. You think you made a difference? Stopped something you thought was wrong? Welcome to the real world, kid,” he punctuated this with a double-fisted slam on Zola’s back. “All you did was make my cut of the spoils bigger! Money is the only thing that matters. And weak people like you are just here to fatten my wallet.”
Zola pulled away, battered and bruised. He held the man’s wallet, which he let fall open, cards and money spilling out. His eyes fell on an I.D.
“You can keep it,” Zola spat. “It won’t make a difference, Michael Baker,” he said the name to the Heartseeker. It flitted out of his hand in a blur and the man’s face went pale before he sagged and collapsed.
I hauled Zola up and pushed him towards AJ. “Go!”
Then someone shoved me from behind, sending me stumbling in the same direction. I turned to see Deft waving me on. “We’ll clean up the riff-raff,” he said. “Working with those stiffs at H.E.S.P. isn’t my style.”
“I didn’t offer,” I said.
“You would’ve. You’re that kinda guy, caballero blanco,” Deft said with a wink.
“Oi, monkey!” Flux shouted from where she was wrestling a man for control of a knife. “Come help!”
Deft let loose a screech and leapt over to tackle the man.
“Get going, Nick,” Flux said, dusting herself off. “Make sure his mom drinks lots of fluids and she’ll be just fine.”
“What will you do?” I asked.
She shrugged. “We’ll find something else to do. Sillwood feels a lot bigger now that we have to walk everywhere. Take care of that kid, Nick. He’s one of the good ones.”
I nodded and rejoined AJ and Zola.
AJ was talking to his mother, who had now grown quiet, letting herself be carried.
“And there was this dragon! And Nick said it was my job to lead the dragon to the tower. So I found him. He was big and red and fiery. I was scared, but not like before, I could still do something. So I talked to the dragon and this is what I said…”