Auntie Min likes to pretend the cousins don’t have bosses, but who are we kidding? When she says jump, pretty much everybody asks how high.
The dog twins give quick nods, then hang their heads.
Me, I’m sorry she stopped the bastard. I would have loved to take him and his bitch sister.
Matteson lets his hand fall away from the butt of his gun as the moth vanishes back into Auntie Min.
“What the hell was that?” he asks.
“La Mariposa de la Muerte,” Solana says in a soft voice.
Tío Benardo laughs. “There’s no such thing.”
Solana turns to him. “But—”
“You saw her cousin aspect—formidable, to be sure, but nothing more.”
Either los tíos have cojones bigger than anybody here, or Benardo knows something the rest of us don’t.
Auntie Min ignores him. Her hard gaze is now on me. “And you, little mouse,” she says. “You’re as much to blame as these dogs. Stop this juvenile behaviour or go.”
“Sure, happy to,” I tell her. “Just show me how to cross over so that I can look for Marina myself.”
She sighs. “I told you. Have patience. You have no idea what it’s like. You’d get so lost so quickly that even Cory might not be able to find you.”
“Maybe that’s the chance I need to take.”
“Wait one more day,” she says. “Help us with this rally and I swear we’ll find her. If Cory doesn’t track her down, I’ll take you over myself.”
I don’t say anything for a long moment. I glance at the dog twins, then look back at Auntie Min. What do I care about that jerk-off congressman or even the other cousins? I owe Auntie Min for helping me out when I first changed, but how much do I owe? When is the slate wiped clean?
“Are we in or out of this dog-and-pony show?” J-Dog asks me.
I raise a hand to shut him up.
“As soon as the rally’s over and the congressman is safe,” I say to Auntie Min, “then you’ll show me how to cross over?”
“As I said, I’ll take you myself,” she says.
“If I don’t take care of you first,” Jimmy says.
J-Dog stiffens beside me, but I put my hand out to remind him to cool it. I’d love to put this dog bastard down, but it’s not going to happen now.
“Maybe you’ve got a solid beef with me,” I say to Jimmy, “and maybe you don’t. But you get in my way before I can find Marina and I’ll cut you down. And then I’ll make it my personal business to get rid of every mongrel cousin in a fifty-mile radius, just to drive the point home.”
Jimmy makes another move toward me, but stops when J-Dog pulls that big handgun of his from out of his belt. The muzzle points right at the dog boy’s head and doesn’t waver.
“Theo,” Auntie Min begins.
“I’m not starting anything,” I tell her. “But I’m not taking crap from anybody, either.” I motion for J-Dog to put away his gun.
“So we’re back on board?” he says.
“I was never not on board,” I tell him. “But if Auntie Min would’ve shown me how to get to where Marina is, I’d leave this part to the rest of you.”
I turn to Matteson and Solana. “What about you guys?” “Look, no offence,” Matteson begins, but he breaks off when J-Dog laughs. “Something funny?”
J-Dog nods. “Every time somebody says that, they’re just setting up to diss you.”
“Yeah, well—”
Solana turns to Matteson. “We have to do this,” he says. And just like that old married couple that I imagined them to be a while ago, they look at each other and have this silent conversation. Finally, Matteson nods and looks Auntie Min in the eye.
“Okay,” he says. “We’ll keep an eye out for problems on our side. But we’re not passing along intel, and if it looks like it’s going to impact national security, we’ll have no choice but to bring the chief in on it.”
Lalo the crow man nods, then pulls out a roll of paper and opens it up to show a hand-drawn map of the park and the neighbouring blocks.
“Let me show you where our people will be,” he says.
“Josh?” Elzie says when she recognizes me, a big grin spreading across her face.
“You’re the boss?” I say, hoping against hope that I’m wrong.
Her smile gets wider as she gazes up at me. “Yeah. Cool, huh? We’re working on a plan for cleaning up the earth. I’m so happy to see you.”
Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised. When I was going out with her, we had a lot of talks about the state of the world and the environment, and the reactions of people to Wildlings and cousins. I agreed with her on some points, but never on her extreme ideas about how to solve the world’s problems.
Like killing people who happen to get in the way.
I still don’t know how that’s supposed to solve anything. Or why she’d align herself with someone like Vincenzo, who hates Wildlings probably even more than he does humans.
She’s dyed her short hair blond, with about a quarter inch of dark auburn roots showing. As always, she looks effortlessly gorgeous.
Elzie laughs. “But I’m not the big boss,” she says. “I’m just doing my bit to make our world a better place. The guy that runs this camp is named Sandino, but he’s off with Nanuq at the moment. God, it’s so good to see you.” She looks at me like she wants to eat me up. If you catch my drift.
I don’t say anything in reply. I still can barely believe that she actually sided with these creeps.
The pause grows longer and more awkward until I guess she sees something in my face.
Her face softens, and she motions to the lush woods all around us. “Look around you, Josh. Our world was like this before humans put their destructive stamp on it. Nanuq says it’s still not too late to make things better.”
“By killing people.”
She clenches her fists in frustration. “Why do you always have to go there?” she asks. “Nobody’s deliberately planning to kill anybody. Sure, some people might get hurt if they get in the way of the process, but nobody’s making them put their lives at risk.”
“How does murdering Congressman Householder fall under your plan of not killing anybody? Or how about a bunch of kids who, through no fault of their own, became Wildlings? Or what about Vincenzo killing Tomás? And Chaingang? And threatening to kill my mom and everyone I care for—including you?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
She turns to one of the dog cousins who first showed up when I was caught. “Would somebody cut him down? I’m getting a crick in my neck talking to him like this.”
“Don’t bother,” I say.
I stand up in the netting, rip a hole in it, then drop to the ground. I land lightly on my feet right in front of Elzie. She doesn’t flinch, but the dog cousins do, then pretend nothing ever happened.
I look Elzie directly in the eye. I can’t believe I was so stupid as to think she needed to be rescued.
“Why are you staring at me like that?” she says. Her expression softens and she puts an index finger under my chin. I swat her hand away.
“Like what? Like I’m looking at somebody I thought I knew, but it turns out she can cold-bloodedly murder God knows how many people?”
She grabs my shirt. “How many times do I have to tell you that nobody’s planning to—”
“Shut up,” I tell her, swatting her hand away again.
“Hey,” one of the dog cousins says. “Don’t talk to her like that.”
I turn in his direction and he takes a step back. Then he realizes what he’s doing.
“Don’t get smart, kid,” he says. “We outnumber you, in case you haven’t noticed.”
“Well, you’d better go get yourselves some reinforcements,” I tell him before turning back to Elzie. “Where’s this Nanoo guy?”
“Nanuq,” she corrects me. “Why are you being like this? Why are you even here? Vincenzo said you were going to help get the first phase of the rev
olution into motion.”
“Vincenzo figured that wrong. I wouldn’t be his puppet, like you.”
She bristles. “Where is he, anyway?”
“After he killed Tomás and Chaingang, he had a fatal accident.”
“What?”
I’m studying her. Except for the hair, she looks the same, but I can’t believe she’s all caught up with these people.
“He’s dead,” I say. “Killed by a Wildling he was threatening. He picked the wrong side to be standing on. Just like all of you.”
“No way,” one of the dog cousins says. “Vincenzo could take down a hundred Wildlings.”
“Who’s Tomás?” Elzie asks.
“An elder from L.A. One of the elders who doesn’t have a hate-on for Wildlings.”
“Nobody has a hate-on for Wildlings except for humans.”
“Keep telling yourself that while you take me to Nanuq.”
“He’s not here.”
“Then take me to where he is.”
“Listen, Josh,” she says. “You can’t just waltz in here and start insulting me and ordering me around.”
“Try me,” I tell her.
Part of me really hurts that I was so taken in by her. The other part wants to drive her in the face. I’m not proud of that. But here’s the thing: it turns out that no matter how fast or strong you are, or what kind of superpowers you get, you still can’t make somebody else be the person you want them to be.
She glares at me. “What the hell’s the matter with you?”
I want to say, you betrayed me, but she didn’t. She’s exactly who she’s always been. Same beliefs, just ramped up a notch. I’m the one who had the movie running in his head that she needed to be rescued.
And maybe she does. She might be naive enough to think of Vincenzo as some kind of golden boy, but the truth is, he was planning to get rid of all the Wildlings, so her head was on the chopping block, too. But there’s nothing I can do about it. I know how stubborn she is, and nothing I say is going to change her mind.
She’s picked her side. She’ll just have to live or die by her choice.
I realize she’s waiting for me to say something, so I just say, “Where’d you get the hair dye?”
She lifts a hand and ruffles her hair. “I had somebody pick it up back in our old world.” I can see her start to relax a little. She cocks a hip, posing. “You like?”
“And you don’t see a problem with introducing pollutants into this perfect world of yours?”
Her eyes flash. “Oh, for God’s sake.”
I sigh. “Yeah, I didn’t think so. Just bring me to this Nanuq guy.”
“I don’t know where he is,” she says. “You can wait for him at the camp.”
I’m trying to make smart choices instead of letting my temper take over. What my gut wants is to wait for Nanuq and somehow demobilize him and this crazy plan. But if Nanuq is Vincenzo’s boss, he’s probably even meaner and tougher than the condor cousin. Plus there’s Vincenzo’s brothers to take into account, and who knows how many dog cousins. I can’t take them all on by myself, and though I can still sense Tío Goyo floating in the sky above, he’s not going to drop down to help me. Not unless Nanuq’s hosting an evil spirit.
Just before coming here, I told myself to avoid these guys. The only reason I came was to save Elzie, and now it turns out she’s one of them. It’s all so crazy. The smart thing is to go back to Auntie Min and Cory with what I know, and then plan how to deal with this.
“Yeah, not happening,” I tell her.
“I thought you wanted to meet Nanuq.”
“I changed my mind.”
She shakes her head. “It doesn’t work that way, Josh. You’re here now. You know where we are. So you’re coming back to the camp with us. Nanuq will decide what happens next.”
She’s just as cute as ever, but any attraction I once felt is completely gone. It’s ironic. Here I am thinking about how misguided and naive she is, yet the signs that she was headed in this direction were all there and I chose to ignore them.
“And if I refuse?” I ask.
“Don’t be stupid. Like Lil’ Toro said, we’ve got you outnumbered. Don’t make this go hard on yourself.”
“I never really knew you, did I?” I say.
She shrugs and doesn’t respond.
“But you don’t really know me, either.”
She frowns. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Well, you’d think you’d be a little smarter before making threats to the guy who dealt with your big scary Vincenzo. Do you really think there are enough of you to make me do anything I don’t want to do?”
“Liar!” one of the dog cousins says. “There’s no way a little twerp like you could take him on and still be standing.”
The others are nodding.
But Elzie’s giving me a careful study. “Is this true?” she says.
“You really went up against him and came out without even a bruise?”
“Man,” Lil’ Toro says. “Vincenzo hears that bullshit and he’s going to hunt you down and cut you up into so many little pieces, ain’t nobody going to know what you once looked like.”
“Funny thing,” I say. “That’s exactly what happened to Vincenzo.”
I think it’s starting to sink in that I’m telling the truth, because their body language has gone from swaggering to wary.
“But don’t worry,” I say, turning back to Elzie. “Unlike you and your little gang of terrorists—”
She stamps her foot. “We’re not terrorists!”
I shake my head. “You only get to say that if you win, and are the ones in charge of lying to the history book. But right now that’s exactly what you are.”
“So you’re going to do what?” she says. “Try to take us all down?”
“Oh, I’m taking the high road. I’m going after the one who’s in charge—not you pissy little drones.”
I know Tío Goyo’s going to be mad, but I don’t really care. I let my body fall away and rise up above them in my spirit form. They stare up at me with open mouths.
“—the fuck?” Lil’ Toro says, turning to Elzie. “He’s supposed to be Mountain Lion Clan.”
“He is,” she murmurs.
“Then why am I seeing a freaking hawk?”
“I … I don’t know …”
I’d laugh, except nothing about any of this is funny. Not Elzie and her wannabe revolutionaries below. Not Tío Goyo above me, who’s probably totally ticked off about what I’ve just done.
I am so fed up with this. Sick of fanatics, and racists, and all these people that I can’t trust but who still try to tell me what I’m supposed to do. Humans, cousins, hawk uncles—they’re all the same.
What I need is to be with people I can trust.
Des. Marina.
I don’t have to work to call up a little pulsing spark to represent either of them. They’re always alive in my head. I take the one of Marina and drop it into the book of maps in my head. When the pages flip by until the light stops on a map, I will myself to where she is.
“Tell me you’ve got a plan,” I say to Cory as the dogs come charging down the street toward us.
“The plan is, we wait to see what they want,” he says.
“And if they want to eat us?”
“Don’t be stupid. They’ll no more want to eat you than you would them.”
“But if they do attack?” I ask.
“They won’t. We’ll talk this out. I won’t raise my hand against my brothers.”
I don’t have his faith. I take a few steps to the side of the road and pick up a couple of good-sized stones. When I glance at Donalita, she flashes her teeth and nods her approval.
“Don’t worry,” she tells me. “They come at us and I’ll hurt them.”
“Nobody does anything until I say so,” Cory warns us.
“Yeah?” I say. “Who died and made you God?”
But now the dogs are here circling arou
nd us, shoulders hunched, hackles up and tails raised. They look like the kind you see in the barrio—lean and tough, with a lot of pit bull and Rottweiler in the mix. Six of them, each a little more hard-eyed than the next. They’ve all got the lightning brand.
Three of them change into humans and their brands become tattoos. Cory nods and smiles at the one that appears to be the leader.
“Que pedo, wey?”
“Don’t try to make nice with me, pup,” the dog man responds.
“You’re not my buddy and you’ve just walked yourself into a situation that you can’t bullshit your way out of.”
The other two dog men laugh. Maybe the dogs do too, but it’s not something I could ever tell.
Cory stiffens and stands a little straighter. I don’t know what’s made him more mad: the leader’s rude dismissal of his friendly overture, or the pack’s mocking laughter.
“Do you know who I am?” he asks.
The leader nods. “You’re one of Coyote’s pissant little whelps. Oh, wait. That’s what you call us. Let’s call you a little Coyote wannabe.”
Cory’s eyes narrow. “Don’t make me change my mind.”
“What the hell’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means,” Donalita says, “that he’s letting me off the leash.”
The leader looks even more confused.
“Maybe you’d like to start over,” Cory says. “And this time show us a little respect.”
The dog man spits in response. Before the gob hits the pavement, Donalita’s in motion. She moves so fast that I don’t really see how she does it, but between one breath and the next she has the dog man down on the ground, his cheek on the gob and the blade of a knife pressed against his throat. She’s applying enough pressure to make the skin pucker and I half expect to see a gusher of blood any second now.
Where’d she get that knife?
“Make a move,” Donalita says to the rest of the pack, “and he’s dead. I’ll get at least one more of you, and Cory’s good for two. Who dies next after this one?” She smiles. “La-la-la. The ones that are the bravest, of course.”
The dogs growl. Their human counterparts glare. But not one makes a move.
Cory sits on his haunches beside Donalita.