All Hail the Shifter King
Title: Lords of Kensington, Part 8
Word Count: 2308
They drove in silence the rest of the way to the place Anya had given them directions to, which turned out to be a small truckstop and diner that just appeared on the side of the highway, not a town or exit in sight. Katrina bit her lip - still somewhat sore and swollen from the holes she'd managed to punch in it earlier - as she steered into the cramped parking lot, finally locating an empty spot between two hulking semis. Ryder, who had dozed off during the short drive, slowly opened his eyes and winced as he eased himself out of his seatbelt - Katrina watched him, pursing her lips.
"Are you okay?" she asked, watching how he hugged his injured arm to his chest as he slid out of the vehicle.
"Yeah, I'm fine," he replied quickly, his voice sounding oddly distracted, and closed the door before she could ask him anything else.
They left Thaddeus and Crispin in the SUV, nestled in a pile of sweaters and other clothing to keep them cosy, and walked together to the front of the diner. A handful of men and women were standing just a few feet from the door, smoking and talking to each other in low tones, and turned as a pack to stare at Katrina and Ryder as they approached. It made her halt in her tracks, muscles tensing, and when one of the men ambled toward her - tall and muscular, he probably weighed more than the two of them combined - she flinched back a step and prepared herself to bolt for the SUV.
"You two Anya's people?" he asked, scratching at the greying beard that sprouted, bushy and unkempt, from various spots on his face. He didn't wait for a reply - sizing them up, he stepped back and gestured toward the door. "Get inside before you freeze," he told them. "Get something warm in your belly." He caught Ryder's arm as he tried to pass, scrutinizing him carefully. "You need a doctor, Brother?" he asked.
"No, thank you," Ryder told him.
"Don't look fine, you look -"
"I'm fine," Ryder hissed, and jerked his arm away. Katrina watched him, feeling her face cloud and not entirely sure what was bothering her about his behavior - it was like a ghost pain, something she couldn't put her finger on.
Anya was sitting on a cracked leather stool at one end of the counter, scribbling in a notebook and sipping from a tall, steaming mug. She glanced up at them when the bell above the door rang and her guarded expression melted to one of visible relief as she slid off the stool and walked to join them.
"Holy shit," she said, shaking her head. "I didn't think you guys would show up."
"I considered it," Katrina lied. Judging by Ryder's snort of amusement, it wasn't a convincing one, either.
"Guess I couldn't really blame you," the woman conceded, and nodded toward a booth across from where she'd been sitting. "Come on. Let Jasper get some food in you. You must be starving."
"I'd rather know what this is about," Ryder said, his eyes flicking across the dozen or so patrons in the small restaurant. "How you knew where to find us. Who those people were."
"Trust me, I'll explain everything," Anya said. "I just..." She paused, biting her lip as she thought, then shook her head. "No, we need to start from the beginning here. Come on."
The truth was simple and complicated in equal measures, she told them after they'd settled into the booth and she'd convinced them to order the brunch special (which Katrina noted was suspiciously marked with no indication of what was actually in the brunch special - Anya assured her it was best she didn't know). The clans of Kensington had been at war for as long as she could remember ("Which is close to three hundred years," she added) and her own clan, the sekai, were losing. It wasn't a matter of strength in numbers - they outnumbered the rival clan almost six to one - and it wasn't because they were on unfamiliar ground. Most of them had lived in Kensington, or what had passed for the city centuries ago, from birth. What was tipping the scales in the other clans favor was their tenacious obsession with hunting the sekai magic users - the shamans, mystics, and most importantly the healers who tended to the others.
"They've cleared out at least twenty in the last month," Anya said quietly, thoughtfully stirring the dark tea in her mug, the sweet aroma of peaches floating in the air. Katrina's stomach had been twisted in knots but the scent actually made it growl hungrily - she caught their server the next time she came around to refill Ryder's water and requested one of her own. "And that's just the ones we know about. Our clan is spread up and down the coast, holding down safe houses and pack halls... sometimes people get caught up in trouble, get roughed up, don't check in for a few weeks. They could be dead and we don't even know yet."
"So why not a full assault?" Ryder asked, tapping his fingers on the tabletop. "If you have numbers -"
"Yeah, see, that would work if it were a fair fight at all," she said. "It's been so long, though, that Kaius has a fucking collection going." She sighed and slumped back on the padded bench, crossing her arms over her chest and staring angrily out the window. "We had our chance," she mused, "but we lost it."
"So, what, they want Ryder because he's different?" Katrina asked. A small part of her mind chuckled quietly, amused at how surreal this conversation would have seemed eight months ago and how completely normal it felt now.
"Nah, it's not that," Anya told her. "We get junglekin up here all the time. Refugees, whatever. They hang out a bit and then head southeast to warmer climates." She paused, then laughed humorlessly. "The ones Kaius doesn't catch, of course." Leaning over the table, she tapped her finger against the soft light of Ryder's coin. "He just wants it because... because he wants it. Because he's Kaius, and that's what he does." She looked up at their server as the older woman returned with three heaping plates of food and smiled, a genuine smile that lit her narrow face. "Gods Above, I'm famished," she remarked, digging into her salad. Katrina stared at her plate, trying to make sense of what was on it - at best guess, it was some sort of hash, with an odd-colored meat and what looked like mutated mushrooms. Ryder ignored his food entirely, though happily accepted a coffee from the woman, who patted his cheek with a matronly smile before she walked away. "And let's be clear," Anya said after she'd shoved a few forkfuls of greens into her mouth, "he doesn't give a shit about you." She pointed at Ryder when she said it - he stared back blankly. "I mean, I'm assuming he'd have to kill you to get that thing so -"
"He's not getting it," he interrupted. "Either way."
"You say that, but -"
"There's no but," he said firmly. Anya stared at him, squinting a little, then glanced over at Katrina.
"He always this certain of himself?" she asked.
"And then some," Katrina confirmed, jabbing her fork at her plate and freezing when she was almost certain something moved beneath the hashbrowns.
"If you're headed to Kensington then we can keep an eye on you, keep you safe until..." Anya paused, looked out the window again, and laughed softly. "Until he loses interest. I don't know. There's not much of a plan after that. But there's enough kin in the city that we could post guards, lookouts, maybe -"
"No," Ryder said suddenly, startling both women. He was staring at his coffee, tapping his nails against the mug. "We don't need your protection. And we definitely don't need your people tailing us."
"I'm not sure you understand," Anya countered. "Nobody comes into Kensington without pledging allegiance to one clan or the other. Those are the rules."
"Are they now," he said evenly.
"I get that it doesn't necessarily rub the right way, but if you're coming into the city and Kaius has his sights set on you, then it's just so we can try and mitigate the collateral damage." She held his gaze when she spoke, with an unwavering glare that Katrina actually found admirable. "So I'm sorry if that inconveniences you, but you're a guest in our home, not the other way around."
"Then I suppose it's fortunate that I'm not interested in your hospitality," he said. "Won't have to put you out, then."
Anya stared at him, stunned, and with each second that passed a shadow seemed to fall across her pixie-like features, a cool darkness that radiated from the hammered ring on her strange necklace, the metal turning a glowing blue-white, like a too-hot flame.
"Perhaps I haven't made myself clear," she said, speaking slowly as if to a petulant child. "Atticus doesn't -"
"It's Atticus who makes these rules, is it?" Ryder asked, sipping his coffee with the sort of nonchalance one would have discussing the weather. "Then I supposed I'll take it up with him."
"You're serious?" Anya asked, and laughed with genuine amusement. "I mean, sure, if you want." She made a sweeping gesture at Ryder. "If you think some fractured junglekin can challenge Kensington's Patriarch, then by all means, just -"
Her body jerked over the table, her wrist twisted awkwardly in Ryder's grip, to the point that she was on her stomach on the tabletop with her face just inches from his own. But just as quickly her free hand came up and a shimmering spike emerged from the palm of her hand, nearly six inches long and floating inches off her skin, hovering in mid-air like a coalesced slice of light. The tip of it just skimmed the corner of Ryder's eye, drawing a thin scratch on the delicate skin.
"You want to do this here?" she asked, her voice low. "You won't make it out the door."
"I want you to listen to me," he growled in response.
"Oh, I'm listening. But if you don't let me go I'll do a lot more than that." The tip of the "blade" drew a bead of blood just beneath his eyelashes. "Would be a shame to carve up that pretty face."
"Ryder..." Katrina said nervously. "Can we please -"
"Here's what will happen," he told Anya, ignoring Katrina's pleas completely. "I'm going to have a chat with this Atticus of yours -"
"It's not like a fucking doctor's office, you can't just make an appointment and -"
"- and he's going to tell me where I can find Kaius." He smiled at her, so sweet and genuine that it send chills down Katrina's spine. "And then I'm going to kill him."
"By yourself?" Anya scoffed. "Good luck with that."
"No. I'll borrow some of your people. And you."
"So you're one of those insane junglekin, then?" she asked, smirking.
"You have no idea."
"The last one got skinned and left outside City Hall."
"They don't have what I have."
"Oh Gods Above," Anya snorted, laughing despite her awkward position. "Some special secret magics or something? No, wait, I got it, you're the Chosen One."
"Nope." He slid his hand along her ribs - the light-blade scraped a long scratch across his face - and fished her cell phone out of her pocket. "A girlfriend who's great at killing kin." He released her, then, and Anya shoved herself back across the table to settle in her seat, tugging her jacket back into place. Katrina merely stared, open-mouthed, her face burning. "This is where we'll be," Ryder said, punching Katrina's address into the phone. "Call me when you get back to the city."
"It won't be until tomorrow," Anya warned.
"I'm sure we'll manage until then." He handed the phone back and turned to Katrina, flashing her a smile. "Come on," he said, and slid out of the booth. "We need to go."
"But..." she started, but he was already heading toward the door. Sighing, she braced her hand against the cushioned back of the bench and started to shuffle her way out, grimacing as her fingers slid through a tacky wetness on the faux leather - she pulled her hand back only to find spots of blood on her fingertips, and peered around the edge of the booth just as Ryder vanished outside.
She caught up with him at the SUV, where he'd let the keesin out to stretch their legs before they hit the road again, and when he saw her approaching he extended his good arm to her.
"Keys," he said. "I'll drive. You need the break."
"You're bleeding," she said, holding up her hand as proof. "Why are you -"
"Keys," he repeated, not even looking at her hand.
"Look, okay, I get that whatever went on back there was like the shifter version of flirting or whatever but..." She crossed her arms over her chest and shivered as a gust of wind blew snow in her face. "But you're freaking me out right now."
The chill in his eyes faded, and for a moment she thought she might have gotten through to him - that maybe he understood her confusion, that she didn't quite understand his strange world and how disaster seemed to follow in his shadow - but then he smiled and scrubbed his hand through his hair.
"Pretty wild, isn't it?" he said, watching the keesin frolic with a pair of truckers who seemed entirely entranced by the strange beasts. "This is going to be amazing."
Word Count: 2308
They drove in silence the rest of the way to the place Anya had given them directions to, which turned out to be a small truckstop and diner that just appeared on the side of the highway, not a town or exit in sight. Katrina bit her lip - still somewhat sore and swollen from the holes she'd managed to punch in it earlier - as she steered into the cramped parking lot, finally locating an empty spot between two hulking semis. Ryder, who had dozed off during the short drive, slowly opened his eyes and winced as he eased himself out of his seatbelt - Katrina watched him, pursing her lips.
"Are you okay?" she asked, watching how he hugged his injured arm to his chest as he slid out of the vehicle.
"Yeah, I'm fine," he replied quickly, his voice sounding oddly distracted, and closed the door before she could ask him anything else.
They left Thaddeus and Crispin in the SUV, nestled in a pile of sweaters and other clothing to keep them cosy, and walked together to the front of the diner. A handful of men and women were standing just a few feet from the door, smoking and talking to each other in low tones, and turned as a pack to stare at Katrina and Ryder as they approached. It made her halt in her tracks, muscles tensing, and when one of the men ambled toward her - tall and muscular, he probably weighed more than the two of them combined - she flinched back a step and prepared herself to bolt for the SUV.
"You two Anya's people?" he asked, scratching at the greying beard that sprouted, bushy and unkempt, from various spots on his face. He didn't wait for a reply - sizing them up, he stepped back and gestured toward the door. "Get inside before you freeze," he told them. "Get something warm in your belly." He caught Ryder's arm as he tried to pass, scrutinizing him carefully. "You need a doctor, Brother?" he asked.
"No, thank you," Ryder told him.
"Don't look fine, you look -"
"I'm fine," Ryder hissed, and jerked his arm away. Katrina watched him, feeling her face cloud and not entirely sure what was bothering her about his behavior - it was like a ghost pain, something she couldn't put her finger on.
Anya was sitting on a cracked leather stool at one end of the counter, scribbling in a notebook and sipping from a tall, steaming mug. She glanced up at them when the bell above the door rang and her guarded expression melted to one of visible relief as she slid off the stool and walked to join them.
"Holy shit," she said, shaking her head. "I didn't think you guys would show up."
"I considered it," Katrina lied. Judging by Ryder's snort of amusement, it wasn't a convincing one, either.
"Guess I couldn't really blame you," the woman conceded, and nodded toward a booth across from where she'd been sitting. "Come on. Let Jasper get some food in you. You must be starving."
"I'd rather know what this is about," Ryder said, his eyes flicking across the dozen or so patrons in the small restaurant. "How you knew where to find us. Who those people were."
"Trust me, I'll explain everything," Anya said. "I just..." She paused, biting her lip as she thought, then shook her head. "No, we need to start from the beginning here. Come on."
The truth was simple and complicated in equal measures, she told them after they'd settled into the booth and she'd convinced them to order the brunch special (which Katrina noted was suspiciously marked with no indication of what was actually in the brunch special - Anya assured her it was best she didn't know). The clans of Kensington had been at war for as long as she could remember ("Which is close to three hundred years," she added) and her own clan, the sekai, were losing. It wasn't a matter of strength in numbers - they outnumbered the rival clan almost six to one - and it wasn't because they were on unfamiliar ground. Most of them had lived in Kensington, or what had passed for the city centuries ago, from birth. What was tipping the scales in the other clans favor was their tenacious obsession with hunting the sekai magic users - the shamans, mystics, and most importantly the healers who tended to the others.
"They've cleared out at least twenty in the last month," Anya said quietly, thoughtfully stirring the dark tea in her mug, the sweet aroma of peaches floating in the air. Katrina's stomach had been twisted in knots but the scent actually made it growl hungrily - she caught their server the next time she came around to refill Ryder's water and requested one of her own. "And that's just the ones we know about. Our clan is spread up and down the coast, holding down safe houses and pack halls... sometimes people get caught up in trouble, get roughed up, don't check in for a few weeks. They could be dead and we don't even know yet."
"So why not a full assault?" Ryder asked, tapping his fingers on the tabletop. "If you have numbers -"
"Yeah, see, that would work if it were a fair fight at all," she said. "It's been so long, though, that Kaius has a fucking collection going." She sighed and slumped back on the padded bench, crossing her arms over her chest and staring angrily out the window. "We had our chance," she mused, "but we lost it."
"So, what, they want Ryder because he's different?" Katrina asked. A small part of her mind chuckled quietly, amused at how surreal this conversation would have seemed eight months ago and how completely normal it felt now.
"Nah, it's not that," Anya told her. "We get junglekin up here all the time. Refugees, whatever. They hang out a bit and then head southeast to warmer climates." She paused, then laughed humorlessly. "The ones Kaius doesn't catch, of course." Leaning over the table, she tapped her finger against the soft light of Ryder's coin. "He just wants it because... because he wants it. Because he's Kaius, and that's what he does." She looked up at their server as the older woman returned with three heaping plates of food and smiled, a genuine smile that lit her narrow face. "Gods Above, I'm famished," she remarked, digging into her salad. Katrina stared at her plate, trying to make sense of what was on it - at best guess, it was some sort of hash, with an odd-colored meat and what looked like mutated mushrooms. Ryder ignored his food entirely, though happily accepted a coffee from the woman, who patted his cheek with a matronly smile before she walked away. "And let's be clear," Anya said after she'd shoved a few forkfuls of greens into her mouth, "he doesn't give a shit about you." She pointed at Ryder when she said it - he stared back blankly. "I mean, I'm assuming he'd have to kill you to get that thing so -"
"He's not getting it," he interrupted. "Either way."
"You say that, but -"
"There's no but," he said firmly. Anya stared at him, squinting a little, then glanced over at Katrina.
"He always this certain of himself?" she asked.
"And then some," Katrina confirmed, jabbing her fork at her plate and freezing when she was almost certain something moved beneath the hashbrowns.
"If you're headed to Kensington then we can keep an eye on you, keep you safe until..." Anya paused, looked out the window again, and laughed softly. "Until he loses interest. I don't know. There's not much of a plan after that. But there's enough kin in the city that we could post guards, lookouts, maybe -"
"No," Ryder said suddenly, startling both women. He was staring at his coffee, tapping his nails against the mug. "We don't need your protection. And we definitely don't need your people tailing us."
"I'm not sure you understand," Anya countered. "Nobody comes into Kensington without pledging allegiance to one clan or the other. Those are the rules."
"Are they now," he said evenly.
"I get that it doesn't necessarily rub the right way, but if you're coming into the city and Kaius has his sights set on you, then it's just so we can try and mitigate the collateral damage." She held his gaze when she spoke, with an unwavering glare that Katrina actually found admirable. "So I'm sorry if that inconveniences you, but you're a guest in our home, not the other way around."
"Then I suppose it's fortunate that I'm not interested in your hospitality," he said. "Won't have to put you out, then."
Anya stared at him, stunned, and with each second that passed a shadow seemed to fall across her pixie-like features, a cool darkness that radiated from the hammered ring on her strange necklace, the metal turning a glowing blue-white, like a too-hot flame.
"Perhaps I haven't made myself clear," she said, speaking slowly as if to a petulant child. "Atticus doesn't -"
"It's Atticus who makes these rules, is it?" Ryder asked, sipping his coffee with the sort of nonchalance one would have discussing the weather. "Then I supposed I'll take it up with him."
"You're serious?" Anya asked, and laughed with genuine amusement. "I mean, sure, if you want." She made a sweeping gesture at Ryder. "If you think some fractured junglekin can challenge Kensington's Patriarch, then by all means, just -"
Her body jerked over the table, her wrist twisted awkwardly in Ryder's grip, to the point that she was on her stomach on the tabletop with her face just inches from his own. But just as quickly her free hand came up and a shimmering spike emerged from the palm of her hand, nearly six inches long and floating inches off her skin, hovering in mid-air like a coalesced slice of light. The tip of it just skimmed the corner of Ryder's eye, drawing a thin scratch on the delicate skin.
"You want to do this here?" she asked, her voice low. "You won't make it out the door."
"I want you to listen to me," he growled in response.
"Oh, I'm listening. But if you don't let me go I'll do a lot more than that." The tip of the "blade" drew a bead of blood just beneath his eyelashes. "Would be a shame to carve up that pretty face."
"Ryder..." Katrina said nervously. "Can we please -"
"Here's what will happen," he told Anya, ignoring Katrina's pleas completely. "I'm going to have a chat with this Atticus of yours -"
"It's not like a fucking doctor's office, you can't just make an appointment and -"
"- and he's going to tell me where I can find Kaius." He smiled at her, so sweet and genuine that it send chills down Katrina's spine. "And then I'm going to kill him."
"By yourself?" Anya scoffed. "Good luck with that."
"No. I'll borrow some of your people. And you."
"So you're one of those insane junglekin, then?" she asked, smirking.
"You have no idea."
"The last one got skinned and left outside City Hall."
"They don't have what I have."
"Oh Gods Above," Anya snorted, laughing despite her awkward position. "Some special secret magics or something? No, wait, I got it, you're the Chosen One."
"Nope." He slid his hand along her ribs - the light-blade scraped a long scratch across his face - and fished her cell phone out of her pocket. "A girlfriend who's great at killing kin." He released her, then, and Anya shoved herself back across the table to settle in her seat, tugging her jacket back into place. Katrina merely stared, open-mouthed, her face burning. "This is where we'll be," Ryder said, punching Katrina's address into the phone. "Call me when you get back to the city."
"It won't be until tomorrow," Anya warned.
"I'm sure we'll manage until then." He handed the phone back and turned to Katrina, flashing her a smile. "Come on," he said, and slid out of the booth. "We need to go."
"But..." she started, but he was already heading toward the door. Sighing, she braced her hand against the cushioned back of the bench and started to shuffle her way out, grimacing as her fingers slid through a tacky wetness on the faux leather - she pulled her hand back only to find spots of blood on her fingertips, and peered around the edge of the booth just as Ryder vanished outside.
She caught up with him at the SUV, where he'd let the keesin out to stretch their legs before they hit the road again, and when he saw her approaching he extended his good arm to her.
"Keys," he said. "I'll drive. You need the break."
"You're bleeding," she said, holding up her hand as proof. "Why are you -"
"Keys," he repeated, not even looking at her hand.
"Look, okay, I get that whatever went on back there was like the shifter version of flirting or whatever but..." She crossed her arms over her chest and shivered as a gust of wind blew snow in her face. "But you're freaking me out right now."
The chill in his eyes faded, and for a moment she thought she might have gotten through to him - that maybe he understood her confusion, that she didn't quite understand his strange world and how disaster seemed to follow in his shadow - but then he smiled and scrubbed his hand through his hair.
"Pretty wild, isn't it?" he said, watching the keesin frolic with a pair of truckers who seemed entirely entranced by the strange beasts. "This is going to be amazing."