Doomsday Can Wait (Phoenix Chronicles, #2)(60)

"Magic."

Duh.

"He has information on the woman of smoke?"

"Not her in particular but the Naye'i in general. His doctoral thesis was on Navajo witchcraft."

Sawyer's head jerked up. I glanced that way, one hand on the hilt of my knife, the other reaching for the gun at the small of my back. Despite their uselessness with most things I'd met, I still liked having them nearby whenever possible.

However, Sawyer wasn't looking out the door; he was looking at Carla.

"No one talks about witchcraft," he murmured. "No one."

"How'd you manage that?" I asked.

His lips tightened and he didn't answer. "

The Navajo believe that anyone who discusses witchcraft knows too much and might therefore be a witch," Carla explained. "They also believe that if a person discusses it, the witch might come after them."

"Would you?" I asked Sawyer.

He stared at me stoically. We both knew that he would.

Which probably accounted for the many attempts his people had made on his life. They wanted to get him before he got them. Always a good plan when dealing with supernatural creatures.

"Dr. Whitelaw recently began to write an article on the Naye'i" Carla continued. "Because it's taboo for the Navajo to speak of such things, legends are rarely shared. However, Dr. Whitelaw managed to piece together a good bit of information from several different sources. If there's a way to kill a Naye'i, Whitelaw knows it."

"Then why don't you?" I asked. "

He's just begun to piece together his research."

"I'm going to have to go to him," I said. "Pick his brain."

"Yes."

"Fine." I strode past Sawyer and out of the house, shutting the door behind me. I was halfway down the steps when it banged open. I kept walking.

At the car I turned. "You don't have to come with me. You can stay here."

Confusion washed over Sawyer's face. "Why would I stay here?"

"I don't know. Why?" I glanced at Carla's place, figuring she'd be standing in the doorway watching us. But the door was closed, not a curtain moved at the windows.

"Sometimes, Phoenix, you make no sense at all," Sawyer said.

"That makes two of us."

He reached for the door, and I put a hand on his arm. For an instant the desert wind stirred the sand beneath all eight of my black legs, and the sun beat hot upon my back as I scurried along searching for prey.

I snatched my palm away from the inked image of the tarantula. In theory, I needed to open myself to the change. In fact, sometimes when I wasn't thinking hard enough about not shifting, the shifting sneaked up on me.

Sawyer turned his head, his gray eyes startling in his bronze face. He searched my gaze as if trying to see into my brain. I stared back, wishing I could see into his, but he'd always been able to block me.

"What's wrong with you?" he asked.

He was behaving as if he hadn't slept with Carla, then come immediately to me and done the same thing. To him, the two incidents were probably no more momentous than having first juice then coffee with his breakfast this morning. Both pleasant, but hardly necessary, or meaningful, or even memorable.

Sawyer wasn't like regular people. Perhaps that was because he wasn't people. He was other. No one seemed to know what that meant. But I was starting to.

He'd never be quite right; he'd never be quite human. And most of all, he could never, ever be trusted.

"Nothing's wrong," I lied. "I just want you to know that you don't have to come with me."

"You think I'd leave you alone for her to kill?"

"I have this." I lifted the turquoise.

"As long as you don't take it off, leave it somewhere, and then forget to put it back on."

Yeah, that had been dumb, but—

"I learned my lesson."

He straightened, letting his hand fall away from the car. "Obviously you've learned nothing if you think I'm going to let you go anywhere without me."

"Why do you care?" I asked. "You have no allegiance. You only train DKs and seers for the money."

"If it was only about the money, don't you think that the Nephilim would have me on their side by now? They've had eons to pad their bank accounts."

True. "Then why are you helping us?"

"You think I want her in charge? I've turned her down a thousand times. She didn't take it well. If she rules the world—"

"You'll die."

"I'll definitely want to long before she lets me."

I shivered despite the heat of the summer sun.

"Fine," I said. "Get in."

His lips curved. That was what he'd planned all along; I'd never had a prayer of stopping him.

I got behind the wheel. "Do you know how to drive?" The road to southern Indiana was a long one. I figured it would take us eight hours not including stops.

Sawyer shook his head. "Never learned. Didn't need to."

Since he could get anywhere in the blink of an eye as one of his beasts, and he couldn't leave the Dinetah as a man until he'd banged a benandanti, I could understand his lack of the skill. But it certainly would have come in handy right now.