His jump brought him over the top of her, giving him position to lick her right between the ears before he gently cuffed her with a big front paw. Despite the fact that he was careful, his boot sent her spinning. His this-rocks! grin, an expression I’ve yet to see on another dog, dropped off his muzzle when Astral flipped sideways, snarled in a metallic, my-gears-have-stuck sort of way…
And her head blew off.
It hurtled straight toward Bergman. Vayl dove for him, barely shoving him clear before it rocketed into the side of the building, ricocheted into the fence, and bounced onto the lawn like a renegade croquet ball.
“Holy sh—!” I stopped myself just in time to spare the kids, who’d turned to witness the carnage.
“Cool!” said Laal. “It’s a robot!”
“And it blew up!” yelled Pajo. He tugged on his mother’s skirt. “Do it again! Do it again!” Moment of stunned silence while we watched Astral’s legs jerk and Vayl made a coughing-up-chicken-bones noise that only I knew was his version of barely repressed mirth. I didn’t dare look at him for fear I’d start laughing, and then Bergman, standing beside Vayl, holding on to the crown of his hat with both hands, would never forgive me.
I checked Jack to make sure his yelp had purely been one of surprise. He seemed to know he’d done something bad, because his tail remained between his legs even after I’d reassured him he was okay.
I picked up the body, which stayed stiff as one of those lifelike planters with the hole drilled in the belly for a bunch of geraniums. I risked a glance at Bergman. I couldn’t tell if the deep furrow between his eyes meant he was holding back tears or he wanted to kick some kittybot-killing ass.
Always long on wisdom, Vayl decided to move away from Bergman so he wouldn’t notice the shaking of my boss’s shoulders. He walked toward the Wheezer, and had almost made it to the car when he stopped and said, “The head is over here.”
We joined him, only some of us to gawk. Astral’s head lay on the ground. While smoke still spiraled from the ears and clear fluid leaked from the neck, I didn’t see much in the way of dangling parts.
Jack gave it a sniff and slumped into his I’ve-been-bad position, lying with his tail tucked under his butt, blinking soulfully up at us as if to apologize for our inconvenience.
“Look at him,” I said. “He feels terrible.”
“Aww.” Laal and Pajo knelt by Jack and began rubbing him down, telling him it was okay. Tabitha kept glancing from them to the car and rocking from one foot to the other like she really wanted to make a break for it now that the coast was clear, but she knew it would be rude to run while her rescuers were mourning.
I said, “I’m sorry, Miles. Jack was just playing. He didn’t mean to hurt her.” I retrieved Astral’s head, silently thanking Raoul’s boss that her eyelids had shut.
“I’m really sorry, Miles,” I repeated. Should I try to stick the head back on the body? Would some kind of internal magnet at least pull it back together for the burial? Such wishful thinking. “He was just trying to make friends.”
When my dog started to get up I gave him my don’t-even-go-there glare and he sank back down, dropping his head to his paws. Laal and Pajo began the scratchfest all over again. I said, “I’ll cover the damages, of course.” Though, considering what it must’ve cost to put Astral together, by the time I’d even halved the payment we’d probably both have forgotten about my debt, along with each other’s names and where we’d left our teeth the night before.
“I don’t understand,” said Bergman, shaking his head. “Jack must’ve triggered her self-destruct mechanism. But how? I mean, he didn’t even try to bite her.” He came to stand in front of me, took a pen out of the collection he always kept in his pocket, and started poking around the neck.
“Uh, Bergman?” I said, catching the look on Tabitha’s face. “That’s kinda gross.”
“It’s just a machine,” he said impatiently.
“But it looks like a cat. That you’re doing a primitive autopsy on.” I cleared my throat to get his attention, which I then turned toward the kids. Who were riveted.
“Oh. Sorry.” He frowned at the remains. “This is a mess.”
“You can fix it,” Vayl said.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
He nodded. “It is what you do, and you are superb at your job.” Bergman considered Astral’s innards with new interest as Tabitha rechecked her watch. “Shouldn’t we be going? That door can’t hold forever. And Ruvin will be so worried.” Both true. But watching her futz with her dress and hair, I sensed ulterior motives. Still, we jumped straight into the Wheezer, which now felt like one of those maximum-capacity clothes dryers.
I started the car and said, “Whoever has their foot in the back of my head better not have stepped in anything disgusting recently.”
The offender moved the shoe and I beat it back to the rental house before anything else exploded, fired on us, or (God forbid) needed a ride.
CHAPTERFIFTEEN
The family reunion began just as you’d expect. Ruvin drove up in that glorious Jeep expecting to spend a few miserable hours driving us around while he pretended not to be freaked about his family. Tabitha and the boys ran out of the house. He’d just walked around to the front of the Patriot when he saw them. The surprise and relief sent him staggering back into the bull bar.
Hugs. Tears. More hugs and kisses. Then Tabitha grabbed Ruvin by the hand and said to me, “Look after the boys for a few, will you?” and dragged him inside.
Uh. What just happened?
I stared at Laal and Pajo, who gazed right back at me. When I looked to Vayl for ideas, he shrugged.
Bergman remained just as silent, his attention still focused on Astral’s repair job.
I said, “I have a niece.”
What, are you trying to impress them with your babysitting qualifications?
“Where did Mummy and Daddy go?” asked Pajo, his lower lip beginning to tremble.
I looked desperately at my teammates. “Does anyone have candy?” Vayl knelt down beside the boys, his demeanor so nonthreatening that a bystander wouldn’t have been surprised to hear he made his living breeding and selling bunnies. “You know parents,” he said. “They just need to have a talk and then they will be right back. I wonder, while we wait for them, should we go into the backyard and play a game? Hide-and-seek might be fun. I believe I saw several places boys your size could tuck into the last time I was there.”
My jaw dropped. I’d been certain Vayl had forgotten how to play games somewhere near the turn of the nineteenth century. And he didn’t actually participate in the hiding or the seeking. But he did laugh out loud when Jack gave the game away by running straight to Laal and Pajo’s spots before Bergman and I could even get started. They didn’t seem to mind, because when he stuck his nose in their faces, they giggled too.
This is your window into Vayl’s past. Look carefully. It may never open again, Granny May told me. This is what got lost when his boys died. And who knows? Maybe this is what he’s searching for just as much as the actual reincarnated souls of Hanzi and Badu. A chance to pull a little bit of himself from the jaws of the predator he’s become.
Hard to fault that, especially when I remembered who I’d been before Matt had died. If I could retrieve the part of me that hoped , would I?
I realized the inside of my arm had begun to hurt. When I focused on it, I found I’d been scratching at it long enough to raise welts. A couple of them were even bleeding lightly. This is my life now. Rashing out due to an untimely possession. And if I don’t do something about it soon—
Give yourself to me, Brude whispered, his voice itself like a lesion, searing bits of my brain as it crackled past them. Fulfill the prophecy. Become my queen and together we will rule the Thin.