“ Are you done yet?” Black yelled at them from outside.
“ Do we sound done?” Kane hollered back.
“ You sound like an idiot,” Black responded.
“ Thanks, Dani,” Cole muttered. “That helps.”
Cross suppressed a laugh as he hauled a bag of first aid supplies out to the ship. They’d landed and parked it near the pumps, as if they'd pulled up for some Premium gas.
That's how it used to work, right? Everyone had a vehicle, a truck or something, and they could drive wherever they wanted, and when they ran out of fuel they just stopped at one of these places and bought some more for a few coins? They didn't have to position people on watch or scour for food. They didn't have to wonder what was coming over the ridge and whether or not it was going to try and eat them.
Cross could barely conceive of such a place.
Black gave him a wicked look as he ran by. The land was dead and dark in every direction, all rough gravel and soil interrupted only by the silhouettes of low and distant hills or rock formations. The sticky wind blew clouds that were the color of fresh wounds across the sky.
“ You guys need to hurry the hell up in there,” Black said. She cast her eyes out to the distance, watching, waiting for something to appear.
Cross chose not to say anything. He stepped into the vampire vessel and stacked the medical supplies with the other goods they'd already brought on board.
The child lay fast asleep beneath some wool blankets. The lad was far too thin, and unquestionably malnourished. His cheeks were shallow and his eyes were dark with fatigue. He still hadn’t spoken a word to anyone; in fact, he’d only been conscious for all of ten minutes ever since they’d rescued him.
Ekko was at the console, where she knelt down and looked into an opened panel of circuits and wiring. She had a grim and determined look on her face. Cross sensed and felt her frustration, just as he felt her struggle against her own instincts. She was Turning, slowly, and if she did so completely her mind would join the vampire collective consciousness. There would be no thoughts she'd be able to keep to herself, even if she wanted to.
Of course, if she Turns, she likely won’t want to. She’ll be too busy trying to eat us.
Under different circumstances, it would have made no sense to keep her alive. No matter who she was, or who she had been, once she Turned she belonged to the Ebon Cities. But this, without question, was an unusual circumstance. Something kept her from changing, at least at the moment…Cross was fairly certain the Turning should have already happened by now. Maybe, he reasoned, it was the shard of Lucan Keth's ancient and primal spirit that lay embedded in her soul. Maybe it was the bond she'd formed with Cross and his spirit, even though he’d felt that connection weaken ever since he’d lost the battle against Danica Black.
Whatever the reason, Cross felt reasonably certain they had nothing to fear from her just yet.
But what about later, if Keth's spirit leaves us? What then?
Sensing his presence, Ekko sat up and looked at him. Her coal black eyes seemed to suck the light out of the room. Her short blonde hair was now darker than her skin, which had gone the color of milk. Strangely, she smiled, and she nodded at Cross. He nodded back, and left her to her work.
What a fucked up world, he thought.
The sky grew darker, and yet the temperature rose. Cross started to sweat beneath the old black shirt he'd found in the safe house, a dirty and old piece of fabric that looked like it had been used to clean the grease out of an old engine, and yet it was still nowhere near as filthy as the soiled rags he'd worn in Krul.
Black shot another angry look at him as he passed her by. He felt their spirits tangle in an air suddenly turned electric, sharp and bloody. Hate welled in him, and he felt his spirit feed off of it, just as she lent it fuel.
“ You killed him, you know,” Black said.
Cross stopped.
Ramsey had given him an arcane gauntlet, one of several he'd stashed away there. Cross smelled its circuits, and he felt the portable battery buzz where it was strapped to his upper arm beneath his shirt. His spirit swirled around him like a ghostly snake. He also had an HK45 at his side, but that wasn't what he'd use if anything happened.
He slowly turned around. Black's face was set with anger.
“ You picked me to fight,” Cross said coldly. “You wanted him dead for shooting down your waste of a brother.”
Black smiled incredulously.
“ Is that what you think?” she snapped. “You think it's really as simple as all that?”
“ You want to tell me different?”
“ You want to do me a favor or go stick your head in the engine when we take off?” she said. “Screw you, Cross. You had me in that fight. You could've taken me…but you didn't.”
Cross bit back his anger.
“ Understand something,” he said quietly. “I needed you and Cole alive so that you could fulfill your end of the bargain and show me where to find the Woman in the Ice. And that's it. There's a lot more at stake here than you or me getting revenge.” He saw Dillon, saw him hanging there, but he pushed the memory away. “I weighed his life against thousands. It’s as simple as that. There was never really a choice.” He took a breath. It felt cold, and it slid down his chest like a piece of ice. “Faced with the same decision, he'd have done the same thing in my place.”
Cross turned away. He only then was aware of the tears in his eyes.
“ Is that what you're going to tell yourself?” Black asked him. Her words were suddenly quiet, barely audible over the rising musk wind. “Is that thought going to help you sleep at night?”
“ Nothing is going to help me sleep at night,” he said quietly. “Not ever.” He turned back around. “What helps you sleep at night, Black? What drowns out the screams of all of those inmates that you used to watch die every day?”
Black looked past him, into the darkness of the cold stone hills. It would be full dark soon, and they still had a long way to go.
“ I got her out,” she said. There was an unmistakably bitter note to her voice. “I saved her. I saved Cole.” She looked at Cross. Her smile was bleak as a warm blast of wind lifted her blood red hair. “And for the record…she would not have done the same for me.”
She turned away. Cross watched her for a moment, and then he went back into the station.
“ So, what, you just concentrate and…it changes?” Kane asked.
“ Let me show you,” Ramsey said.
Ramsey, Kane and Cross carried the last of the needed supplies out of the safe house and towards the airship. All in all, they had several days’ worth of food and water, enough weapons to tackle a small army, and enough fuel to get the airship to the Reach and back, provided Ekko had made any headway with the power issue.
Kane had a box of water bottles hoisted on his shoulders, but he set them down long enough to watch Tega pull back the sleeve of his red cloak and show a pale and fleshy arm with a dark rune inscribed on the skin. The rune bore the likeness of a bladed letter “C”.
“ That’s the sign of House Rane…Drake’s house.” Ramsey stared at it, muttered a couple of obscure and unintelligible words, and touched it. The sigil ran like ink down his arm, and then quickly reformed into a twisted serpent that gripped a sword. “House Karn.” Again. This time the mark expanded, then shrank into the shape of a skull with horns at its jaw. “House Mora.”