Part Five

Maple wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and it came away slick with blood. She licked the red streak before the air blasting from the limo’s heating vents could dry it.

Osprey was driving and she was sitting shotgun. Riding in the front of the limo with the privacy blind closed behind her felt strange, like sneaking backstage. The moon was barely visible through the heavily tinted windows.

Osprey had been blunt when she asked if she could come along. "I feed off hookers," he said simply. She said, "I’ve got a twenty, is that enough?"

He shrugged and they left. His actions had been as simple as his words, all business, no chatter. They snuggled the hookers out in an alley afterward, buried in warm, decomposing trash. It was an old trick to keep meals from freezing to death during winter.

The blood had soothed Maple. As she sat in the limo’s front seat, fiddling with the safety belt but never wearing it, she asked Osprey, "Who’s your family?"

"Worray."

Worray? The name sounded oddly familiar, but she couldn’t remember when she had heard it. "Where are they from?"

He glanced at her quickly. "Cluj."

Physically, he never moved, but Maple felt all the air sucked out of the cabin. The car slowed as they approached a stop sign.

"Did you know her?" Maple asked, her voice dropping. She didn’t think she had a chance if Osprey turned out to be an enemy.

"No," he said. "My mother might have."

No anger in his voice, but a detachment that kept her from asking any further questions. They rode silently the rest of the way to the house. She was just relieved he wasn’t going to kill her.

Thursy and Coalise were watching television in Coalise’s bedroom on a small portable set that showed every scene through a blizzard of snow. When Maple left they had been eyeing each other a little uncertainly but now they were chattering like sisters.

Maple winced and wished back that thought.

Thursy smiled when Maple and Osprey walked in. She had, Maple had to admit, the world’s warmest smile, and though Maple didn’t return it, she tried to stop scowling as she sat down in an armchair.

"Hi," Coalise said brightly. She reminded Maple of a parakeet in the way she turned her head so quickly, trying to look at everything at once. "There’s a bed set up for you in Addison’s room, Osprey, Mom said he and Greco could stay with her and Dave tonight."

"Thank you," Osprey said tonelessly. He was really the most unhappy person Maple had ever met, once you looked past the rabid black eyes and hunter-fluidity.

He hovered uncertainly and then Thursy said, "I’ll show you. Come on."

She jumped off the bed, wearing a pair of Coalise’s too-small sweat pants and a green turtle-neck that – also too small – showed off her fine figure. She surprised Osprey by taking his hand as she led him out into the hallway.

Coalise looked at Maple with a particular combination of interest and fear. Maple looked down quickly.

"Scotch is staying in Greco’s room," Coalise said. "Yared’s up in the attic."

Maple shrugged.

Coalise sighed. Unexpectedly, she reached out and put her hand on Maple’s arm. Maple almost jumped out of her seat.

"Look, I don’t know you," Coalise said.

Putting as much steel as possible into her voice, Maple cut in, "That’s right, you don’t."

Amazingly, Coalise ignored her and went on, "But we’re in this together, and if you need help, I’m here."

Maple was speechless. She made an incomprehensible sound, to which Coalise nodded. She took her hand away and sat back on the bed. "I know, you’re thinking, What can a stupid human girl do for me? Especially one whose shoulder still isn’t all the way back in its joint? I’m just saying I’d try."

I don’t deserve… This girl had no idea what she was talking about.

"Maybe I’m being too sentimental," Coalise admitted. "After all, I’m just your soulmate’s sister’s ex-boyfriend’s soulmate. At the moment I’m all swept up in the romance of the pack. But it means something to me."

"Yared and I aren’t…"

Coalise lifted her eyebrows.

"We’d never make it," Maple finished, which wasn’t what she had meant to say at all. Then there were tears in her eyes – tears! – and she was standing up and trying to walk away while Coalise grabbed onto the back of her sweater.

She could have pulled out of the grip easily but she didn’t. She covered her face with both hands and drew everything in, froze herself up inside.

Coalise got up from the bed and put her free arm around Maple.

She felt herself trembling. Don’t, she shouted at herself. Don’t you dare fall apart now.

But she let her head fall onto Coalise’s shoulder. The girl was short, nearly as short as Amber had been, and Maple tried to crush the memory of what it had been like to hold Amber but it reverberated in her head like church bells until she had to release a ragged breath.

"It’s okay," Coalise told her.

Then Maple jerked away, because she knew Coalise meant it, and she meant the hug, and she meant it when she said she would help.

And Maple didn’t know what to do with help.

Coalise started to reach out again and Maple said quickly, "Did you figure out what happened to your shoulder?"

It wasn’t a challenge, just a quick change of subject. Coalise saw how deliberate it was and let her hand drop. "No."

"After Galdwyn killed Kiria, we went to Thursy’s house with the body. You and Thursy were both there. She said you had just walked in out of the blue a moment before. Galdwyn knocked her unconscious and then he bit you in the shoulder when you tried to fight Tish. After that he stuck you in the basement and I wiped your memory of the last eight hours with a potion."

She was surprised when Coalise said only, "I tried to fight Tish? What kind of idiot heroism was that?"

Maple shrugged. This canary didn’t sing any Wagner, did she? She was too sweet, and too kind, and too forgiving, and she didn’t understand that Maple was in no shape to be forgiven.

"I’ve going to go upstairs," she said, backing toward the door.

Coalise shrugged lightly. "Good luck. I’ve got blankets to make you a bed on the loveseat when you want to get some sleep."

Maple nodded and escaped into the hall.

The attic door wasn’t hard to find. Unfortunately, it was only two feet tall and led to a shaft that went almost straight up. Maple’s boots lodged precariously on each of the rungs nailed to the wall as she climbed.

Yared was sitting on the floor, waiting for her to appear. The attic itself was standard, a peaked roof, a few circular windows, lots of boxes and unsafe furniture. Maple stood on the hardwood floor and dusted off the knees of her jeans.

Yared’s legs were covered with a frumpy comforter; he must have woken up when Maple began climbing the shaft. Even blinking sleepily, he didn’t look happy to see her.

"What?" he asked, but he didn’t sound angry. Just sad and tired, and maybe a little disappointed that she was there.

"Hi," she heard herself say.

He narrowed his eyes. "What do you want?" he asked again.

She walked closer until Yared climbed to his feet in a quick, defensive motion. She stopped. Their eyes met and she had to look away.

"I just wanted to tell you a few things about Galdwyn," she said.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him relax ever so slightly. "What things?"

"First of all, he sent me here to kill you." Before he could ‘shift and pounce on her, she added, "I told him you’re dead. He thinks I killed you early this morning. Second, if you need another witness, I’m willing to tell the other members of your pack what really happened to Kiria. And Thursy. And Coalise, even. I can fill in all the holes in your story, except why Coalise was in Thursy’s house. That I don’t know."

"How generous of you," Yared said tightly.

"Also…" Oh, he was making this so hard… "I’m sorry about what happened to your friend. I’m sorry for the role I played."

Instantly, he began to make a wicked comeback. Maple winced instinctively and he stopped before the words ever made it out of his mouth. She took two steps back and tried to look at him.

There was a long silence. Maple began to gather herself for the coming attack but her strength had turned liquid and kept running through her fingers.

"Why didn’t you kill me when you had the chance?" Yared asked.

Couldn’t he just accept her apology? Did he absolutely have to humiliate her?

"I don’t know," she said, anger rising in her chest. "I guess I wasn’t thinking."

He almost smiled. She was playing on his level again, this safe level where they couldn’t really touch each other.

"You’d get off on that, wouldn’t you?"

"More than I got off on watching your girlfriend’s lights go out-"

He had been looking for an excuse, and there it was. Maple wondered, as he rushed her, if she hadn’t been looking for an excuse herself.

She let him knock her to the ground. Her scull cracked against the dusty floorboards and he landed on top of her. His hands pinned her arms over her head with the sleeves of her sweater between their skins.

They weren’t touching but his thoughts played in her head like a radio in the next room. "Tell me," she taunted, "weren’t you the least bit glad to see Kiria go?"

If this was how she was going to go out, fine. She wouldn't even fight back. But she wasn't going to leave him smiling.

"Weren’t you relieved to know that she wouldn’t be able to tell everyone that you were sleeping with her but had no intention of making-"

"Shut up," Yared growled. And then, suddenly, "I never touched Kiria."

For a moment Maple didn’t comprehend. Not just the sentence, but why he was defending himself. "Galdwyn-"

"Forget whatever Galdwyn told you."

"What about the note?"

His face was strangely defeated. "Kiria gave that to me a year ago. I didn’t respond. I never said anything to her, I just pretended like I had never read it."

"But I thought you two were always together-"

"With Scotch and Thursy. We were the only four teenagers in the village, of course we were always together. But I never touched her, I never slept with her, and I never made her any promises."

He looked away from her face. His grip on her wrists loosened.

"I never slept with Galdwyn," Maple said, which was true, even if she had spent every hour in bed fighting to keep from going to him. "I…" Oh, Demeter on a dune, was she really going to blurt this out to him? For this one moment neither one of them were posing, but it could fall apart any second. "Galdwyn had my little sister," she said in a rush. "He told me he would torture her if I didn’t do whatever he said. She’s only-"

Dawning realization filled his face and he briefly shut his eyes as he spoke.

"Amber," he said on a breath. "Your sister is Amber."

He climbed off her and stood up. "I remember now. Just before Galdwyn killed Kiria, you tried to back out of it and he said he would hurt her if you did."

He turned away and ran a hand through his hair. "Oh, shit," he murmured.

Maple sat up slowly, disbelieving.

"Where is she now?" Yared asked.

She hadn’t said it out loud yet. The words felt like cactuses she was trying to wrap her tongue around. "Galdwyn killed her last night."

For the first time, Yared looked at her with compassion. If Galdwyn had been holding Thursy, she thought, he would have done the same thing.

"What happened?"

"I don’t know. Sometime last night I wiped my memory clear with the same potion I used on Thursy and Coalise. I wrote myself a note saying Amber was dead."

"Why didn’t you tell me before?"

She could almost see him kicking himself. "It doesn’t matter. If I had been smarter, I never would have gotten involved with Galdwyn in the first place."

She stood up and dusted off her jeans again. "I know I can’t fix anything," she said. "I can’t make up for what happened to Kiria. But I can keep Galdwyn busy while you talk to the pack and I can tell them what really happened. That much I can do."

She started to walk back to the shaft and Yared grabbed her hand without thinking. Thoughts flew like crosscurrents between them.

Yared let go. Maple opened her eyes, feeling a canyon grow between them again.

His hand touched her sweater sleeve. He didn’t look at her, she didn’t look at him, they both pretended they weren’t doing this when they pulled each other close. Yared brought his arms tight around her waist like a seatbelt and she hugged his shoulders. Everywhere they touched there was a barrier of clothing.

Then his finger slipped.

Just one finger, sliding over the collar of her sweater and falling against her skin like a gravel hitting a table. She slid into an excruciatingly slow faint.

-oh shit-

-he’s going to pull away any second now-

-but I don’t want to-

-yeah you do-

-if I wanted to, I would have by now-

-going to regret this tomorrow-

-but right now-

-right now who gives a damn-

-about anything besides this-

And she remembered the first time she’d made him laugh.

She, no, wait, he, had been standing beneath the eves of the barn, back pressed up against the damp wood. She was standing besides him with her giant eyes turned out toward the night and one hand clamped around his arm.

In his free hand he was holding a chicken upside down by the feet. They were both waiting with baited breath for the sound of—

"God’s teeth!" Miguel shouted inside the barn. He ran up to the slot window just above their heads. "You think you can just come in here and steal one of my chickens! I’ll have your guts as a saddlebag for this!"

And he whispered to her, while her hand tightened around his arm, "Then your chicken will be with me always, sir."

They were both so terrified that the joke was hilarious. She let go of him to put her hand over her mouth and he began laughing so hard the chicken bounced like it was trying to fly upside down. Miguel kicked something inside the barn and the other chickens clucked and flapped.

Maple felt tears come to her eyes. When she opened them she saw Yared’s shoulder and felt his chin resting on the top of her head.

They both shoved each other away at the same moment. Maple scrambled toward the shaft, wiping angrily at the wetness on her face.

"I’ll talk to the pack tomorrow," Yared said, tossing out words as if trying to fill the minutes of silence that had just passed between them. "If you back me up…"

There was no promise at the end of his sentence. He wouldn’t swear that he could forgive her or protect her.

"Maybe," he said. He hesitated and then finished, "Maybe we’ll talk."

Maple nodded, still not facing him. She jumped down the shaft without looking back and crawled into the hallway.

The lights in Coalise’s bedroom were out, but she and Thursy were lying in the captain’s bed talking. "He’s a nice guy," Coalise was saying, "but he would make such a terrible boyfriend. I just don’t think I could stand getting more than one dose of him a week."

"See," Thursy told her. "That’s one of the nice things about Scotch. He’s so easy-going that you can see him all the time and he won’t get on your nerves."

Maple sighed and walked to the loveseat. Coalise had spread the blankets out in a little bed for her.

"Hi," Thursy said.

Maple nodded.

"We’re having girl talk," Coalise told her.

Girl talk, insipid Isis. Funny how much the little memories hurt; another thing she had only ever done with Amber.

"Thursy was saying how weird it is that she and Yared and Scotch all met their soulmates in a two-day period, and I was explaining that it’s my fault. I have that sort of luck."

"Luck?" Maple repeated. She slipped her boots off and stretched out on the loveseat. Ordinarily she slept during the day, but tonight she was exhausted.

"Do you believe in luck?"

"No."

"Then how do you explain meeting Yared?" Coalise asked.

Maple pulled the comforter over her shoulder. "You’re taking statistics, you figure it out."

And suddenly, like a bomb going off, she burst into tears. She wasn’t really such a smart-mouth. She never wanted to say these things, but they were her only defense and now she didn’t know how to stop herself.

"Oh, no," Coalise said, and she and Thursy scrambled out of bed to flank Maple on either side of the loveseat.

"You poor thing," Thursy said.

Maple started laughing and sobbing – it was hard to breathe – and said, "Blast and wretch. No, I’m fine. Nothing wrong."

"Bullshit," Coalise told her.

"Really, I just need to…" She slapped herself, drawing a stunned silence from the other two girls, and found to her dismay that she still couldn’t stop the tears.

"Oh my god," Thursy said. "What are you doing?"

"Trying to stop crying," Maple told her, as if stating the obvious.

"Don’t stop," Coalise suggested, "not if it means having to slap yourself."

"What happened?" Thursy asked.

Maple rubbed at her eyes until they felt rug-burned. "Nothing. I’m really fine, I just got over-tired and I haven’t fed."

"You fed like an hour ago," Thursy pointed out.

"Well..." Terrific, she couldn’t even think of a decent lie. Her chest was shaking with sobs that rocked her like waves in the ocean.

"Is it Yared?" Thursy ran her hand over Maple’s hair. "He doesn’t mean to be as cold as he is sometimes. It’s just that when he’s hurt, he doesn’t want anybody trying to take care of him. It’s half macho and half just dumb, but it isn’t you."

"But I was there when Galdwyn," her voice hitched, "killed Kiria. He’s right. I should have done something, gotten a gun or yelled for help or..."

Coalise had taken one of Maple’s tear-dampened hands and was stroking it gently, probably preparing to hang onto it if Maple tried to hit herself again.

"But he kept saying he would hurt my little sister," she went on, wondering Why am I still talking? even as the words rushed out. "And she was so little, I couldn’t..."

Thursy made a soft sound of sympathy as she began to understand. "Oh, honey," she said. "Tell us the whole story. Coalise, do you have some Kleenex?"

And then Maple found herself going back, not just to Amber’s kidnapping but before, years before when she had lost one parent and then the other, and traveled up through all the years when she had tried to take care of Amber and had to drop out of high school. She had never told anyone the story before, not out of buried pain but simply because no one had ever asked. But Thursy and Coalise listened so sweetly, and only spoke when they felt she needed encouragement, and for the first time Maple heard someone else say, "That’s a real bitch of a deal you got, Maple. You didn’t deserve it and it is gross how you’ve been treated, and let us hold you while you mourn."

When half the box of tissues was gone and all three of them had been crying, Thursy insisted that Maple get into the bed with her and Coalise. They tucked her in the middle so that she was warm on either side and brushed her hair out of her eyes.

She’d never had friends before. Just Amber, who had been so young and so needy in her own way.

"I’m going to feel like a dolt in the morning," Maple said. She wanted to hear someone reassure her.

Someone did. "I like dolts," Coalise told her.

"I don’t even know that a dolt is," Thursy admitted, and then all three of them were laughing and Maple closed her eyes.