Bare Bones (34 page)
Grandmother tilted her head and looked intently at the boy. “So Becca stole the keys and you slipped me a little something in my late-night tea. I’m ashamed of you Lawton. To so easily come under the influence of someone like Gary… I’m so ashamed.”
He reddened. “I’m sorry Grandmother. You were right. We shouldn’t have lived. I’m ready to accept my fate. I just want to die at home. I miss home.”
The woman sighed and turned to me. “Have you ever taken a life, Knight Ainsworth. One of your own kind, not in the heat of battle or while defending yourself. Have you coldly judged another a threat to your people and a danger to all and played God with their life?”
It was as if every one of her words punched me in the gut. I didn’t reply, but I knew she read the answer in my eyes.
She nodded in a quick sharp motion. “It’s even harder to make that decision about a child. For hundreds of years I have culled those Boo Hag children who, in my judgement, might be a danger to us, whose personality might put us all at risk of extermination. Might. It’s never a clear decision and each time I took a child’s life that action took a piece of my soul.”
“Isn’t there some way…some kind of rehabilitation or institution you could keep them in? A way of separating them from the human world?” My conscience was guilty enough, I couldn’t imagine how
she
must feel. I thought of my nephews, of Jet, and knew I could never make that call. Never. I’d reconciled myself to killing teenagers, but babies? No.
Grandmother shook her head. “We’re only fifty, give or take. We have no way of securing the wayward and dangerous ones, as you’ve just witnessed. Centuries of taking the lives of babies… I’d decided to try something different. Instead of killing these three, I spared them. I’d hoped I could change them, that in time they’d come around. And now many have died and we are exposed. I fear the day may have come where we will be hunted and put down like monsters.”
“We have no desire to hunt you down as long as you can live peaceably with the humans.” I told her. Sean had said they avoided killing unless there was no other alternative, or in cases of self-defense. We did the same. There was no reason to annihilate the entire Boo Hag race just because of identity theft and the actions of two disturbed teens.
I wasn’t exactly good at judging who were and weren’t the monsters, but at least I could give her this reassurance that neither Tremelay nor I would target the Boo Hag. Gary had paid for his crimes with his life. Marsielle was insane and likely to die either by starvation or at Grandmother’s hands. Lawton…well, I saw a glimmer of salvation in Lawton. And it was Lawton’s life I wanted to leverage in this situation.
“I have a request though.” I pointed at Lawton, the boy staring at us wide-eyed. “Give him a chance. He saved my life, risking his own to defy Gary’s order to kill me. He saved a human hostage and help us take down Gary just now. He’s injured. He’s scared. But I think he might be okay.”
Grandmother narrowed fierce dark eyes at the young Boo Hag. Lawton trembled, but I hid a smile, seeing the glimmer of relief in their depths. She didn’t want to kill Lawton either. She hadn’t wanted to kill him as a baby, and she didn’t want to kill him now. “You hear that boy? I’m gonna grant her request, but that means that your life is hers. Shape up, because you know I do not give second chances like this, ever.”
He nodded vigorously and the elder woman turned to me. “He escapes again and kills anyone, that’s on you. I don’t want any backlash for us, but you do what you gotta if he starts running wild. I’ll take him home with me, but he’s your boy from now on.”
Great. I had a Boo Hag teenage boy. I wondered if I could fit him on the shelf with the figurine collection Gran had been sending me. What should I expect from the kid? Cards at major holidays? Did I need to send him birthday gifts?
“It will be okay, Lawton,” I told him instead. “It’s going to be okay.”
“I know.” He smiled. “I’m going home. Whatever happens now doesn’t matter because I’m going home.”
T
HE SETTING SUN
was warm on my back as I leaned forward to put the paper boat at the edge of the Patapsco River. It bobbed in a muck of sludge and oil, a rusted soda can and a plastic grocery store bag by its side. I lit the note I’d written, placing it in the boat and sending the whole fiery mess farther into the water.
The Boo Hag who’d wanted to be a vampire had died, starved to death according to Sean. I wasn’t sure whether to address her as Marsielle or Becca, so I wrote both names on the prayer I sent to heaven on the wings of smoke. Sean didn’t have any news for me on Lawton. I wondered whether the Boo Hag grandmother had kept her word to let him live, or had delivered a merciful death as soon as they’d returned to South Carolina. Would I ever know? Hopefully I would receive a Christmas card that told me he was okay and safe at the Boo Hag sanctuary. Sill I launched another boat, this one with a prayer for Lawton’s future, whether it be in this world or the next.
The whole thing had been blamed on Gary Jarvett who had died at the scene and had evidently killed his partner, Bradley Lewis. All the others were being labeled victims. Lawton King and Becca Campbell were merely other hitchhikers, briefly traveling with Gary, Becca lucky to have escaped him alive. She was still missing, listed as a runaway teen even though she’d been reported missing ten years ago by her parents.
And how sick those parents must feel, to know their child had surfaced after ten years only to vanish in the wind again. They’d never realize Becca had truly died ten years ago, and the teen sighted thumbing a ride up to Baltimore wasn’t her at all.
I watched the boats burn to the waterline, feeling a chill as the bulk of the sun dipped below the city skyline behind me. Prayers were all I could give Lawton and Becca right now. I had to prepare for a Halloween ritual to remove this demon mark, for my visit with Chuck at the prison next week, and for my nightly dinner with Dario.
I stood and stretched, turning to see the golden sky fade to salmon and violet, the skyline black in silhouette against the sunset. My city. My Pilgrims. And I was walking the path right along beside them.
Book 4 in the Templar Series, Famine’s Feast, will be released at the end of 2016. Make sure you’re signed up to receive New Release Alerts at
http://debradunbar.com/subscribe-to-release-announcements/
After majoring in English with a concentration in Medieval Literature and Folklore studies, Debra promptly sold out to the corporate world. By day, she designs compensation programs, after dark she feverishly writes her novels.
Debra lives in a little house in the woods of Maryland with her sons and a slobbery bloodhound. On a good day, she jogs and horseback rides, hopefully managing to keep the horse between herself and the ground. Her only known super power is 'Identify Roadkill'.
Connect with Debra Dunbar on
Facebook
, on Twitter @Debra_Dunbar, or at her
website.
Sign up for
New Release Alerts.
Feeling impish? Join
Debra's Demons
, get cool swag, inside info, and special excerpts. I promise not to get you killed fighting a war against the elves.
Thank you for your purchase of this book. If you enjoyed it, please leave a review on Goodreads, or at the e-retailer site from which you purchased it. Readers and authors both rely on fair and honest reviews.
The Imp Series
A DEMON BOUND
(Book 1)
SATAN'S SWORD
(Book 2)
ELVEN BLOOD
(Book 3)
DEVIL’S PAW
(Book 4)
IMP FORSAKEN
(Book 5)
ANGEL OF CHAOS
(Book 6)
IMP
(Imp Series, prequel novella)
KINGDOM OF LIES
(Book 7) Fall, 2015 Release
Books in the
Imp World
Half-Breed Series
.
DEMONS OF DESIRE
(
Book 1)
SINS OF THE FLESH
(Book 2)
UNHOLY PLEASURES
(Book 3) Spring 2016 Release
Templar Series
