by Ken Lange
It was well after noon by the time I hobbled down the stairs to find Heather waiting for me in the dining room.
She shut the doors for privacy and sat at the table. “You okay?”
Offering her a warm smile, I said, “You’re stealing my lines.”
She frowned. “Huh?”
When I gestured at the ceiling, I couldn’t stop myself from wincing. “It’s your grandfather who’s suddenly shown up. It’s sort of my job to ask if you’re okay.”
Frowning, she pointed at a chair. “Sit and let me give you a once-over. I’d ask Mom to do it, but I don’t want to worry her.”
I held out my hand. “I’m fine—”
She stepped toward me and jabbed her finger into my chest. “Really?”
I stumbled back into the chair and landed hard on my ass. “Damn. All right. I’m sitting.”
She shook her head. “Goddamn, you’re stubborn. You can barely stand and you’re going to argue with me.”
She wasn’t wrong about how I was feeling. Ever since my encounter with the primordial fires, I was having some difficulty getting around.
Heather leaned over to check my eyes. “Where’s it hurt?”
“Everywhere, but I’m okay…really. It’s just being hit with so much power. It’s not something I’m accustomed to.”
Standing up straight, she folded her arms. “Thank you for being honest.” She set a glass of water in front of me. “Drink that.”
I blinked. “Okay…sure.”
A refreshing sensation swept over me as the cool liquid passed over my dry lips and down my throat. I tilted the glass up and downed it in a swallow. When I set the glass down, there was another in its place. After the fourth, I stopped counting…but I was feeling much better.
“Thank you.”
She smiled. “You’re welcome, but don’t ever try to pull that shit with me again. I’m always in your corner, and there’s never a reason to sugarcoat anything between us. Just so you know, you’re not protecting me with that type of BS, you’re just pissing me off.”
I nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”
She grinned and patted my knee. “Now that we have that out of the way, we’ve got something important to talk about.”
I gestured for her to continue. “Such as?”
Her voice dropped to a near whisper. “Well, this is Henri’s house, and I’m more than a little creeped out by the place sucking up blood like a sponge.”
I laughed. “What you’re trying to say is, you’d like to move ASAP, right?”
She nodded. “Yep.”
There probably wouldn’t be a better chance to get out of Satan’s scrotum. “How do you feel about moving out of town? Like, way out of town. You know…north out of town.”
She giggled. “You really don’t like it down here, do you?”
No idea how I managed it, but I was able to keep the duh out of my voice. “It’s not that I hate it here, it’s just so freaking hot and humid. Whenever you go outside during the summer, it’s like hitting a wall of ick.”
Silent laugher racked her. “This is where I work, but maybe we can compromise if there’s a gate nearby wherever it is you want to move.”
Before I could answer, my phone rang. I smiled at her. “We’ll talk more later, but for now, duty calls.” Swiping the answer button, I said, “Hello.”
Vasile’s tone was casual but hard. “I heard about last night. Everything all right?”
I walked into the kitchen and picked up a bowl of stew. “Yeah, things got weird for a bit, but we’re sorting it out. How are you?”
“Not bad. I’ve still got that godawful headache, but that’s about the worst of it.” He cleared his throat. “But onto business, I suppose.”
“All right, what do you have for me?”
Annoyance crept into his voice. “Not as much as I’d like. Apparently, the two guards from Montana were local members of the Gotteskinder. The only names they had were the other guards and Darius.”
Swallowing a bite of food, I asked, “What about him? He know anything?”
With a derisive snort, he said, “You’d think, but it turns out he only knew Alfred and George personally. He said he spoke with a woman, but he never asked her name, nor did she care to give it.”
I set the bowl on the counter. “Both men are dead, and without a name or a contact, we’re sort of up a creek with the woman.”
“My thoughts exactly. I have a couple of guys combing through Darius’s home as we speak. Maybe something will pop there.”
Pushing my bowl to the side, I grumbled. “I guess that means you’re heading back?”
Vasile sniffed. “Yeah. We’ve got a location in Montana where they met.”
I cracked my knuckles. “Let’s hope something turns up. At the moment, I’m short on leads.”
Something brushed against the mic. “Sorry about that. I’ll be going through the gate in a few hours. Is there anything I can do before I go?”
I shook my head. “No, but thank you. Let me know what you find when you get there. I’m curious what their secret lair’s like. The one down here was in the basement of a church filled with things to be sold off.”
He laughed. “I’ll send photos. Be in touch soon.”
I was washing dishes when my phone rang again; this time it was Andrew.
“Hello.”
He sounded tired. “Afternoon. I wanted to let you know that Cole’s awake and wants to see you.”
I turned off the water and nodded. “Sure. Where is he?”
Andrew yawned. “In your old room. They released him from the hospital this morning.”
“Okay, I’ll be there soon.”
He made an uh-huh sound. “Let yourself in. I’m going to take a nap. It’s been a long twenty-four hours.”
Absently nodding, I said, “Get some rest, and I’ll do my best not to disturb you.”
He chuckled. “You being here will ensure I sleep like a baby.”
I’d forgotten that my abilities muted his telepathy. “Oh, yeah.”
“Talk soon.”
I opened the dining room door to find Heather at the table. “I’m on my way to Andrew’s to speak with Cole. Want to go talk to your mom?”
Heather shook her head. “Not really. When she gets like this, it’s best to leave her alone. Good luck with Cole though.”
I grinned. “Thanks. Maybe he’ll have something remotely helpful.”
She got up and kissed me. “Maybe, but after last night, I could use some downtime.”
I took in a long breath. “Sorry, but with the way things have been going lately, I doubt that’s going to happen.”
She patted me on the ass. “I figured as much. Now go see what Cole wants and try to be home at a decent hour.”
I pointed at the ceiling. “Are you going to talk with Henri some more?”
She beamed. “Yeah, we’ve got a lot of catching up to do.”
“Have fun. I’ll call a little later to check in.”
I made my way out back to the Tucker. It took about ten minutes to get to my uncle’s place, and an all-too-familiar sight: someone was standing in front of the gates waiting for me. The last time this had happened, someone tried to shoot me. This time, Duncan was standing there, and while he probably didn’t have a gun, he was no less likely to try to kill me. After getting out of the car, I let gravity close the door behind me as I moved across the street.
Duncan smirked. “We need to quit meeting like this.”
I stopped walking about ten feet away. “Good to see you. I’ve been worried.” Gesturing at the street, I asked, “What brings you by today, Eblis?”
His eyes narrowed. “Where did you hear that name?”
I shrugged. “Does it matter?”
He cracked his knuckles. “Not really, but I do find it surprising that you’d know my true name.”
Impatience made it into my voice. “Why are you here?”
He grimaced. “I want to go home.”
Duncan frowned. “So, it’s true. You don’t have it.”
That was a curious way to put it. “Nope. But if I may ask, who’ve you been talking to?”
He shook his head. “A woman contacted me telling me she had the lantern, but I didn’t want to believe her.”
I shrugged. “Hey, if you want to give me her number, I’ll happily go get it.”
He snarled. “Funny, she made me a simpler offer.”
“What’s that?”
Shrugging, he pointed at me. “If I kill you, she promised to give me the lantern in payment.”
Well, that sort of sucked. “I’m liking my idea better. Or you could go and take it from her yourself.”
He gave me a look that spoke of the monumental amount of stupidity coming out of my mouth. “If that were possible, I’d already have done it. The glyphs they’ve carved into this body prevent me from harming anyone who possesses the infernal thing.”
He stepped toward me, and I held out a hand to stop him. “Think about what you just said. If they give it to you, they’re giving up their insurance policy. Let me recover it for you, and I’ll actually try to help.”
They were playing on Duncan’s desperation, and there wasn’t anything I could do about it if he wouldn’t let me.
His eyes glowed red. “You’ve had your chance. Now I’m going to do it their way.”
Long whips of fire snaked down his arm to scorch the sidewalk. He flipped one and it snapped out at me as if it were alive.
My ice armor formed around me, blue flames swimming just beneath the surface. I snatched the whip out of the air, pulled him close, and slammed my fist into his face, shattering his nose and sending him tumbling to the ground. He let the one whip die as he lashed out with the second. It wrapped around my ankle, and he yanked my leg out from under me.
Duncan rolled on top of me, raining down blow after blow on my head and chest. I smashed my elbow into his ribs, knocking him off me. I staggered to my feet then pounded my boot into the boy’s midsection, making him skid several feet down the sidewalk.
He coughed up blood but made it upright just in time for me to ram my shoulder into his gut. I lifted him off the ground and hurled him into the cement hard enough to crack it.
Flames coated him as he slowly got up. Raising my hand, I sent a massive wall of wind and ice hurtling his way. The air around him hissed as it turned to an impenetrable fog, hiding him. Even so, there was the dull thud of him hitting the ground.
I stepped back as the dense mist edged closer. A half second later, he screamed as he lunged out of the haze with a sword made of flame. A thick layer of frost coated my arm as I lifted it to block the blow. The heat burned through my armor as fast as it repaired itself. Duncan jerked the weapon back, exposing his midsection. Taking full advantage, I hammered my boot into his gut.
The blow lifted him off his feet and dumped him onto his ass.
He rolled to his feet, clutching the sword in both hands. “I’m going to kill you.”
He hurled three balls of fire in my direction. The first one pushed me back several inches. The next two crashed into me with enough force that I thought they’d shatter my bones. I stumbled to my knees and screamed as my body did its best to absorb the power. Eventually, the crimson flames died out—which was more than I could say about the pain.
Duncan was on me in a second. His knee came up fast, catching me in the eye. Blood flowed freely, making it nearly impossible to see out of it. The back of my head exploded in agony when his fist connected with my skull, and I hit the concrete hard enough to make me see stars. He kicked me in the mouth, snapping my neck back so fast I wasn’t sure if he’d broken it.
Straddling me, he lifted his flaming sword and drove it into my chest. My lungs seized, my heart fluttered, and then the world exploded, sending Duncan flying out of sight.
Nausea coursed through me, and I trembled. I couldn’t breathe. My vision narrowed as a cold sensation crept up from my toes to wrap around my torso. In that moment, I thought death had come for me. An instant later, ice covered my face, forcing its way down my throat.
Then it was gone.
My world steadied, and I rolled over onto all fours. Sweat poured down my back as I tried to push myself up onto my knees. Wobbling on the spot, I reached out to steady myself. Blue flames from my hand elongated into something thick and solid before slamming into the pavement, turning it to dust. The top part continued to grow and expand until it was a massive blue scythe.
Gripping the scythe, I pulled myself to my feet.
Duncan flung another crimson sphere of death my way, and I lifted the weapon to block it. The impact knocked me back several steps. As I grasped the sickle tighter, it, along with the flames under the ice, changed to a deep indigo then settled into a blue so dark it was nearly purple.
Ignoring the agony coursing through my veins, I forced a smile onto my lips. “That’s the best you got?”
Terror flowed across his face as he stumbled back. “What are you?”
Grasping the scythe in both hands, I said, “I’m death.”
I hefted the weapon and drove it through the boy’s skull. While I’d expected it to make a clean swipe through his body, it got stuck about midway into his chest. Duncan twitched, and swirls of black smoke surrounded him.
Lightning and fire flashed through the storm surrounding the boy. There was a loud crack, and the scythe pulled free of the convulsing body as it hit the ground. Allowing the weapon to dissipate, I knelt beside Duncan and held him in place until he stopped moving.
He still had a pulse, which, to be honest, was pretty impressive. Taking a deep breath, I picked him up, walked over to the car, and placed him in the backseat.
I pulled out my phone and called Kimberly.
She picked up on the first ring. “Hello.”
“Hey there, sorry to bother you, but could you call Keto and have him meet me at the church? Oh, and tell Cole I’ll talk to him in a little while. I’ve got a bit of a situation downstairs.”
Kimberly’s tone instantly grew concerned. “What’s going on? Are you okay?”
I wiped the blood off my face and grimaced. “I’m fine, but Duncan isn’t.”
She sounded confused. “What are you going to do with him?”
Eyeing the boy, I closed the door. “He needs to be locked up for everyone’s safety, and the best place to do that is the church. At least until we can find something more suitable.”
Her voice tightened. “I’ll phone Keto. Call when you’re done so I know you’re all right.”
I smiled. “Yes, ma’am.”
It took me about two hours to get him strapped into the bed in the basement of the church. Dean posted a guard on him until I could make it back. With that completed, I made the call to Kimberly to check in before driving back to my uncle’s.
Chapter 24
May 8th
It was still dark out when I opened my eyes, and the clock told me it was a quarter to five in the morning. That meant I’d actually gotten eight hours of sleep without anyone trying to kill me. Granted, most people wouldn’t consider that a big deal. I, on the other hand, thought it was pretty damn impressive given the last few days. Who knew, I might even get through breakfast without anything traumatic occurring… Yeah, I wasn’t holding my breath either.
That was the good news. The bad: my bones burned, my blood boiled under my skin, and the weak moonlight was more than likely going to cause permanent blindness if I kept staring directly at it. Heather had opted to sleep on the murphy bed down the hall since she’d burned herself on the bare skin of my forearm.
What I needed right now was a shower. I’d been too exhausted to take one when I got in last night. I pushed myself upright and shuffled down the hall to the gues
t bath. I was ever so grateful to find a clean set of clothes on the vanity because getting them myself wasn’t going to happen. Hell, I wasn’t completely sure this shower thing was in the cards.
I reached for the light switch then quickly decided that the nightlight would be more than adequate. After turning on the faucet, I peeled off my clothes and stepped into the lukewarm water. The coolness felt good against my flesh, and I took my first deep breath since my encounter with Duncan. While my ribs still ached, they didn’t hurt nearly as much as they had. Steam rose from my skin, and I turned off the hot water entirely. Even so, thick billowing clouds of mist swamped the air. Apparently, the primordial flames of Muspelheim were really taking a toll on me.
Kur assured me that the five mini-supernovae I’d absorbed were actually helping me in the long term, even if it was uncomfortable now. My previous encounters with magic had only given me a temporary jolt of energy. This was something entirely different. More like a permanent upgrade, so to speak.
When it finished settling in, I’d be several times stronger and my healing factor would be off the charts, along with many other tidbits he didn’t wish to delve into at the moment. The most important part of this puzzle was that it had supercharged Kur, and with that came other benefits. While he was a single entity, he was made up of hundreds of thousands of nanites. With this new power source at his disposal, he’d be able to replicate his cells and strengthen our connection and that of the other vigiles. None of this would happen overnight, but over the years to come, we’d bond in a way he hadn’t thought possible until this moment.
Once the water stopped steaming and began to run cool, I picked up the bar of soap. I washed my face and made my way down to my chest where my fingers got caught on my scars—which normally didn’t happen. I rinsed my eyes and glanced down to find that they’d changed. The spot where Lewis had hit me with blood magic had always resembled a tree—if you squinted and let your eyes lose focus slightly. But now, it was nearly impossible to miss. It reminded me of an ancient drawing my grandfather had shown me of the tree of life. Then again, maybe I was just seeing what I wanted to see.