Dog Days of Summer (Damned of the 2/19th Book Four) - Finished

Ghostly Crush

Matron Tauth de Aine's Glade
Logging Roads
Thurston County
United States of America
12 August, 1986
0630

The sun was starting to rise, and mist was forming in the trees around Matron Aine's glade. I could barely see the truck as I sat on the mossy log, staring but not really seeing anything. In front of me Matron Aine, Bomber, and Nancy were all tangled together in their sleep. They were all a mess, exhaustion finally stopping them, although Bomber had continued to use Aine even after she had fallen asleep from exhaustion and was boneless and limp in hands as he continued to drive into her mindlessly. Her smile the entire time had told me that she was enjoying the fruits of her mayhem and machinations, so it was all on her.

She'd poisoned them, she could deal with the consequences.

To my right was a pile of rocks. A cairn for Lonnie. I'd piled the rocks on him myself, watched by wolves, a few rabbits, and a fox as I lifted and carried each stone to cover the dead man with.

He'd gone back for her. Tried to do the right thing.

But for all his swaggering, all his bravado, all his tough-guy cruelty when we were growing up, when someone had needed him, he'd ran away.

He could have told me when I'd first encountered him. Could have told me everything. If he had, there would be a lot of girls who's beds wouldn't have been empty last night. I could have cut right to the heart of everything.

The threats of violence in Niamh's kitchen had been nothing more than to cover his shame and cowardice.

It didn't matter, things had gone too far. He'd known I was going to kill him.

And if I didn't, Matron Regina would have.

He'd been a weak link, and Regina would have known it. That's who he'd been running from. Not me, not any vengeance I might wreak on him, but Regina.

I'd done it faster and cleaner than she would have.

Nancy shifted slightly, her hand seeking and finding one of Aine's breasts and gently squeezing it before relaxing. I looked away, staring at my booted feet as I thought about things. I needed to get my cousins away, or at least make sure that they were beyond the reach of the Matrons. I had only a few people I knew that had left the military that might be able to help.

Nothing I could think of would help.

"Why didn't you let him live?" Westlin asked, sitting on the log next to me. She put her arm around me, pulling me close. "You could have, you know that, right?"

I rested my head on her shoulder, unwilling to consider how she was so solid when I knew for a fact she was dead.

...in this glade the petty concerns of the mortal world will fade away...

"I couldn't. Niamh had needed him, and he ran away," I said.

"We're not all like you, Ant. We're human. We feel fear," She said. She turned slightly and pulled me against her. Her skin was warm beneath her AC/DC shirt and her breasts were soft as she hugged me to her. "Poor Ant, do you remember the last time you felt fear?"

"Tandy," I said.

"He doesn't count. He causes fear. Do you remember the last time something of this world scared you, really scared you?" She asked me.

"When you got shot," I told her. "I was afraid for you."

"Since the guy with the axe?" She asked.

Frowning, I thought about it for a long moment before answering. "No. Not really. I mean, my reflexes kick in. I guess it's fear."

She shook her head. "No, Ant, it isn't. At least I know you can love."