Relic: Spear

by Ben Zackheim

  He screamed in pain. He was pissed. Now he felt obliged to establish his dominance with someone new.

  Cassidy looked past me. He roared at Ronin.

  I don’t think she understood the deep shit she was in. She stood, defiant and took aim at the beast.

  “Bullets won’t stop him!” I yelled. I reached for the portal for the fourth time. Cassidy’s footsteps sounded like pile drivers. I’m not sure what he smacked me with, but it sent me flying down the hall. I hit the marble with a cracking jolt and slid along the marble surface.

  Toward the library.

  I shoved the pain down. I swallowed the cry of agony and turned it into, “REBEL!”

  She turned and spotted me.

  She nodded.

  What a team.

  Without needing to say a word, she backed off of her fight with Rose and flew backwards toward me. She shot off a few fireballs from her hip, swooped low, grabbed her sister by the hair, and dragged her toward me.

  Ronin screeched the whole way.

  Great.

  If we made it out of this mess alive, I knew I’d be playing peacekeeper again.

  Rose and Cassidy gathered themselves. They were clearly coordinating something.

  “Getting the spear out of the safe is going to take time,” I said to the sisters. “We have to finish this fight first.”

  I’m sure she did everything she could to stay on her feet, but Rebel ran out of juice and fell to her knees. Ronin dropped her grudge for the moment and dragged her toward the library.

  Cassidy and Rose rushed at us.

  I pulled my Glock and fired twice. I hit both of them square between the eyes. They didn’t even slow down.

  But the floor suddenly cracking open under their feet? That slowed them down.

  And the chandelier crashing into the hole they’d fallen into. That slowed them down, too.

  I watched the entire ceiling over the hole in the floor crumble and drop. The stairwell curled up on itself like a snake and slid into the opening, too.

  I could hear Cassidy roar in pain somewhere below us.

  “You’d better rebuild me, asshole,” House said weakly.

  “You did that, House?” I asked, dimly.

  “It wasn’t the ghost of King Arthur, genius.”

  “Thank you,” I said, winded. I helped Ronin drag her now unconscious sister into the library. We pulled her onto her favorite chair, which sat across from mine. Rebel and I had enjoyed a lot of conversations in those chairs. Okay, lots of arguments, but still…

  I closed the library doors. They’d be no protection if the twins somehow managed to get out of the mess House had made for them. But the closed doors gave me a sense of security.

  I was in my favorite place in the world, doing what I did best, with the person I cared about most.

  If I was going to die that day, it was a good way to die.

  Chapter 51

  “Where’s the fucking safe?” Ronin asked with her usual tact.

  I pointed to the floor. “You’re standing on it.”

  “This here?” She eyed the tiny line in the wood floor. She followed it around the stone fireplace that sat in the middle of the room. “Wow, it’s huge. And spare me the dick joke, please.”

  “Your loss.”

  “Open it. What the hell are you waiting for?”

  “I told you, Rebel and I need to do this together. It’s a spell. We need her to wake up first.”

  “So the two of you need to be together to open it, and yet she somehow got a huge spear in there without you knowing?”

  I’d thought the same thing. Rebel had already stolen the Holy Grail from my Vault Portal when she’d been trapped in there. She’d led me on a wild goose chase around the world with it. I crossed Merlin because of that little trick she’d pulled. He could have been a powerful ally.

  Now she’d done it again.

  She’d kept the spear a secret from me.

  Then again, I shot her in the head, so…

  We were the best of partners, we were the worst of partners.

  I knelt beside her chair and put my hand on hers. We’d have it out later, if we survived. But I was just too happy to see her to stay mad.

  Her head shifted slightly and her red hair dropped over her face. I moved her bangs out of her eyes.

  And I saw the wound.

  It was hard to look at. It had clearly been healed by a talented Healer, but the dent in her temple was a half-inch deep. It ran from the back of her temple to the top of her ear.

  Rebel’s eyes snapped open and she grabbed my wrist. “Where’s the spear? Merlin wants the spear. We have to keep it from him!” Her eyes floated a bit, unable to focus. I knelt in front of her so she could see me.

  “Merlin’s not here, Rebel. We’re in the library. We can get the spear from the library safe if you’re up to it.”

  She focused her eyes and nodded. “Yeah. Okay. Hurry.”

  “I’m going with you,” Ronin said.

  “Fine. Stand there.” I pointed to a spot inside the wide circle on the floor. Ronin stood still and waited. I helped Rebel to the fireplace where the fire needed a little poke. I got it burning bright again and leaned close to my partner.

  “You ready?” I asked.

  She nodded.

  We placed our hands over the flame. The sting became a burn and the smell of flesh filled my nostrils. We both cringed and gritted our teeth as the pain grew and grew.

  “Really?” Ronin asked. “You couldn’t just use a fucking combination lock?”

  There was a loud clang as the lock slid loose below us. The floor started to shift and the room transformed.

  But not quite in the way Ronin had expected.

  She’d thought the circle on the floor was the outline of a platform that would sink down into the ground. But the platform Ronin stood on actually rose up.

  Rebel and I watched her discombobulated sister rise up toward the ceiling. She didn’t know what was going on at first, until she was trapped in the bullet-proof glass container that dropped down from the ceiling above.

  She was trapped in my glass donut, as Rebel and I liked to call it.

  We’d designed it this way so that anyone who might have us by the balls would make the same assumptions Ronin had.

  Rebel took my hand in hers and the stinging pain from the burn dispersed.

  Ronin pounded her fist on the bulletproof glass and yelled something at us.

  “What the hell did you bring her for?” Rebel asked.

  “She helped us find you. She knew you’d lead us to the spear.”

  Rebel nodded, impressed, and gave her sister the thumbs up.

  Ronin replied with a middle finger. Then she pulled out her Ruger. Rebel and I swung our arms around to get her attention as she aimed at the glass. She spotted us, ignored us, and fired. The bullet lodged in the glass.

  “She still shoots first,” Rebel said.

  “And she doesn’t bother asking questions later.”

  Rebel gave me an exhausted smile, and we turned to examine the safe’s contents. The raised donut platform surrounded both us and the fireplace. Four hydraulic lifts gleamed silver inside the platform, sharing the space with shelves of bagged and tagged items. The relics circled us. I’d never stored anything powerful there for very long, but there was one small object I wanted to bring along, besides the spear.

  I spotted it in a small dish and slipped it into my pocket.

  I noticed Rebel scanning the highest shelves above our heads. I followed her gaze.

  About 20 feet above us, a long, thin object poked out over the edge of the shelf.

  “There it is,” Rebel said. “Odin’s fucking spear.”

  Chapter 52

  “I see you didn’t bag it,” I said. I thought it would come out as a joke. Instead, it came out as passive-aggressive bullshit.

  She rolled her eyes and sat down next to the fire. We heard a soft thud from above us. Ronin had moved on to shooting
at the small crack in the glass. Rebel hid her face in her hands, exasperated. “Can we just get this out of the way, Kane?”

  I steeled myself. The reckoning had come. We had to talk about the whole shooting-my-partner-in-the-head thing.

  Rebel sighed. “After we found Excalibur, and you decided to include this safe in the renovation, I stole the spear from the house where I grew up.”

  “Yeah, thanks for telling me you grew up there, by the way. It was fun to find out from your sister who enjoys any signs of our partnership being weak.” I regretted saying it the moment I closed my mouth. Not because of the frown Rebel shot me. I could handle her. It was because I was getting on her case for keeping a secret from a guy who shot her in the head.

  I felt like a tool.

  Her frown faded. She looked me in the eyes and waited for me to hold her stare. Then she said, “I’m sorry, Kane.”

  I realized something in that moment. It was a realization that filled me with the glee of a kid who got away with egging the neighbor’s house. At the same time, it filled me with the anxiety of being an adult, and the drive to do the right thing, and to be honest.

  I realized Rebel didn’t know I’d shot her.

  I’d been so caught up in worrying about telling her why I’d shot her. I was not ready to be the one to break the news to her that I’d pulled the fucking trigger.

  I looked away. “I’m fine.”

  “You have to understand,” she said. “Well, you don’t have to, but I hope you do. When we found Excalibur, you may have noticed I was… excited.”

  “Finding Excalibur is kind of a big fucking deal, Ronin.” My gut froze. I’d just called Rebel by her sister’s name. Where the hell did that come from? “Sorry, Rebel. I’ve been yelling at your sister for so long, it’s habit.” Rebel smiled. Good save. I smiled back.

  “Excalibur is a big deal, yeah. I agree, Kane. But I knew finding it meant something even more than a big win against the vampires. It was an elevation. It was a sign of a bigger battle coming. I had to get the spear out of there.”

  “But why? It wasn’t safe there?”

  “Not with the vampires back in the picture. The Excalibur job was an eye-opener for me. It kind of blew my mind, honestly. It opened up a bunch of possibilities. I mean, if Excalibur was real, then couldn’t Mjölnir be real? The Holy Grail? And that’s exactly what happened! All the relics of myth started to open up to us. I knew the spear would be on our list eventually, and I knew my parents would fight like crazy to keep it out of your hands. I had nightmares about it being taken from us. From you and me. I couldn’t handle it.”

  “So you stole it from your family home and stored it here.” She nodded. She seemed tired. “How did you store it without me knowing?”

  “When we cataloged Excalibur, I brought the spear with me.”

  “You hid the spear from me with a spell.” Rebel nodded again. I did a sanity check on my feelings. I was surprised by what I found sitting there in my gut. It was peace. I nodded. “Good work, partner.”

  She glanced up at me. “You serious? You’re fucking with me, right?”

  “I mean you could have told me. You didn’t have to hide it, but I know how you are with your family. I mean you told me how easily I’d fall victim to your father’s endless conspiracy theories.” I smiled. She smiled, too. “But yeah, Rebel, thank you. Don’t fucking do it again, but thank you for keeping the spear safe.”

  Above us, Ronin shot the cracked glass a third time, and danced around to avoid the ricochet.

  “We’d better get that spear down before Ronin busts out and kicks your ass,” I said.

  “Hm. I don’t know. I think she’s mad at you, partner.”

  “Doubt it. She has it in for you, lady.”

  Rebel hopped up in the air and floated toward the spear. “Yeah, but she has a thing for you.” I’m pretty sure she winked at me. It took me a moment to get what she was saying before I felt my inner teenager say, “Ugh. No way!”

  Rebel grabbed the spear and brought it down to me. She handed it over for inspection.

  It was beautiful.

  The wood was smooth and rich, filled with earth tones ranging from brown to orange to red to green. The tip was black iron.

  I ran my fingertip over the deep runes carved into the metal.

  When I’d first held the sceptre it felt like it was beckoning to me. It wanted me to hold it. It wanted me for its own.

  The spear felt the opposite, but not in a bad way. The spear felt like it belonged with me, yes. But it also felt distant — as if it didn’t want me to hold on too tight. As if it didn’t believe we could work as a team.

  As if it didn’t trust me.

  I needed to tell her about Odin. About how I was him. Or a part of him. I didn’t believe it. Not yet. But she needed to know what Alix had told me.

  I turned to Rebel.

  “Rebel, I…”

  The world went black.

  Chapter 53

  Rebel touched my hand.

  Its warmth ran from my fingers, up my arm, and settled on my chest. I forgot to breathe. She smiled, so I guess my reaction showed all over my face. But her face gave up some secrets too. She was happy to see me. Our touch meant something to her. I saw a hint of her rare smile. The smile that was calm, soft. The one I’d only seen one night in Egypt when, with the end of the world barreling down on us, we let our guard down around each other for the first time ever.

  Our eyes were not going to move off of each other anytime soon.

  It was time.

  I reached my hand up to the nape of her neck and wove my fingers into her hair.

  I woke up to a familiar sound

  Rebel was filing her nails.

  I turned my aching head to locate her. She sat on her favorite lounge chair, elbows on her knees, inspecting her dagger-sharp middle finger. She noticed I was awake, and offered me a firm smile. This was the snarky smirk. The one that usually meant trouble. She kept the middle finger stretched in my general direction.

  I sat up and rubbed my jaw. “What happened?” I knew the answer, but I had a hard time believing it.

  “I knocked you out,” she said with too much delight. “Right there,” she said, pointing to the nerve spot above the cheek where a haymaker will take anyone down every time.

  “Good shot,” I said.

  She moved her bangs aside to show the bullet wound in her forehead. “You too. That was for shooting me in the head.”

  “You remember.”

  “No thanks to you.”

  “I was going to tell you.” I glanced up at Ronin in her prison cell high above me. She sat cross-legged, watching Rebel and I talk as if we were a boxing match. Ronin waved and pretended to pop some popcorn in her mouth.

  “I’m sorry, Rebel.”

  “I know you are. But it’s going to take some deep fucking discussion to help me understand what happened.”

  “The world is dangling by one finger over an endless precipice of doom and agony, but now’s as good a time as any.”

  “Agreed.” She wiped the fingernail dust from her pants and stared at me, waiting.

  “Remember how I told you I was having those blackouts?”

  She slapped her hands on the leather chair. “I knew you’d use that as an excuse!”

  “It’s not an excuse, Rebel. It’s the truth. I had a hunger for that mask in Japan that I’d never felt before. I felt a rage that wasn’t mine. I didn’t recognize anyone. You, the twins, no one. I saw you going for the scroll piece, but I didn’t know it was you. You were a stranger to me.”

  She seemed to study my face. I waited for some sign from her, but none came. I started to fidget and used the long silence to ease into my favorite chair, directly across from her.

  I got ready to tell her all about Odin. I didn’t know if my blackouts were related to Alix’s revelation. But maybe Rebel could give me some insight.

  I didn’t get the chance to tell her anything, though. “Tell m
e about Tabitha,” Rebel said, breaking the long silence.

  I didn’t expect that. “Uh, what do you want to know?”

  “I want to know everything.”

  “Why?”

  “Humor me.”

  I couldn’t tell what she was up to. But a bullet in the head from my gun was more than enough to buy her as much leeway as she wanted.

  “I don’t know what to tell you, Rebel. I drank her blood and that linked us.”

  “Yeah, I know all of that, Kane. How linked did you get?”

  The gist of her question was made clear by the slight smirk on her face.

  “Seriously?” I asked. Her smirk didn’t pass, but she managed to add a frown to the mix. I leaned forward and tried to play her game. “Not linked enough.”

  “Good.” She let that hang there for me to interpret.

  “Good,” I repeated.

  “Do you feel your connection now?”

  It was a good question. I took a moment to think about it. Did I feel the Queen of Vampires in the pit of my chest? Her face flowed into my thoughts. Her scent followed. I closed my eyes, enjoying the feeling and fighting it at the same time. “Yeah. Yeah, I do.”

  “There’s your problem. It’s probably her taking you over. What are you going to do about it, Kane?”

  I hadn’t thought about that. When you drink a vampire’s blood they gain a level of control over you. But could that explain the visions I’d been having? Could it explain feeling the rage that didn’t belong to me?

  “She used our blood bond to stop me from moving once,” I said. “But I still had my identity. You heard what she said about her fate, Rebel. She thinks you and I are destined to kill her. She’s looking forward to it. You and I are both part of her game.”

  “So that did happen,” she muttered. I could tell she regretted saying it the second she finished speaking.

  “You thought it was a dream?” I asked. “Wait. Are you having blackout issues, too?”

  “No, you traumatized my brain, genius. I’m trying to put a lot of pieces together. But there’s…” She stopped herself from saying something. I didn’t need to pry. Our eyes met and she knew it was her turn to let me know what was going on. “Sometimes… sometimes my coma was a nightmare. I don’t remember much except the terror, the sense of being lost. She was the only one who made any sense.”