G.
I had to get into the damn city.
* * *
The smoking guy was right. After about ten minutes, I came to another bridge. This one was concrete, had stairs on either side. No visible cracks.
I called up Bob and Rose—my metaphysical babies and extensions of my senses. I wasn’t sure if they’d work here, seeing as I had no idea of the rules of the land, and hadn’t been in the right frame of mind to check until now—head being full of sorrow and fear and a shed load of panic. But there they were, orange eyes ablaze. I rubbed both their heads, running my hands through their gray fur.
“Hiya,” I said. “Good babies.”
I crouched, letting them lick and nuzzle me, and hugged them both tight. To anyone watching, I’d be hugging air. Their warmth, them being here with me, was my connection to life. Kind of made me embrace the whole ‘death is but a dream’ stuff more.
But I wouldn’t be happy until I found G.
Bob and Rose could do it.
“Find G. He’s somewhere in that city.”
They were off, charging through the air, vanishing through the houses.
There was more to the city than these buildings. I’d seen them from the top of the slope I’d arrived here on, way behind me now. The city stretched for miles and miles, a grid of lights, and towers too. Couldn’t be sure, but it looked like there was woodland surrounding it, along with a mountain range.
A living city in a dead place.
Was one of those mountains Mount Tate? Get through the city to the mountain—was that the trial?
Nah. Wouldn’t be that simple, would it?
I walked up the steps of the stone bridge, every step careful.
Luckily for me, I didn’t get dunked in the soup. I reached the other side of the river incident free.
Now if only shit could be that easy all the time.
Chapter Two
A street ran across the front side of the houses. On the other side of the road was another row of buildings—shops, cafes, houses, even a gym. One of the cafes was open, a couple of peeps sitting outside with a cuppa in their hands.
What was the time? I didn’t have my phone anymore, or a watch. Could go and ask them two but they didn’t look friendly. I mean, they were throwing me evils, so maybe not.
I was guessing it was morning in the city, or that those two with their cuppas were last orders in a late-night café. But it was hard to tell. I’d lost all sense of time.
Clock, anyone? The lack of sunlight didn’t help.
A car went past, burping out fumes—a real rattling banger covered in dirt.
“Someone’s in serious need of a mechanic,” I muttered to myself.
Directly opposite me was an alleyway. It was creepy, complete with flickering lights warning me not to go in. If I was watching myself in a horror film, I’d be screaming at the TV for me not to be a prick and to find a safer route. ‘Don’t go in there!’ and ‘Oh, you deserve that ax in your face, bruv!’ while sitting on the edge of my armchair, stuffing my mouth with chocolate raisins.
Man, I missed chocolate raisins.
But this wasn’t a film, and at the end of the alley was a neon sign. Walnut Tavern, it flashed. A bar. With possible hot water in the men’s loos for me to get some of this crap off me, maybe even find some friendlier faces.
There was a weird tingling on my hands from the mud and gunk. Yeah, I so needed a scrubbing break ASAP.
On top of the river stink, the city smelled like rain and dust. Bob and Rose’s journey was relaying the scents back to me stronger than my nose working on its own could. They were still searching for G.
Nothing yet.
Breaking down in panic and tears wasn’t gonna help me, neither was shitting myself. Everything about this city was wrong, setting alarm bells ringing. Tenshi knew what was lurking around every corner. Those mud monsters had been the beginning, a little taste of what’s to come. It was enough to tear me apart on top of my anguish over G.
But I had to be strong.
Fuck the creepy alley. I’d been down plenty of them in my life—one of them a drunken situation I’d like to forget.
I hurried across the road, dodging a skeleton rat, not stopping to think about it. Course there’d be a skeleton rat. Why not?
Didn’t stop the shudders.
The alleyway didn’t have a killer clown hiding behind the bins, and I made it to the street on the other side without an ax in my skull. This street was a more cramped spot, all the buildings hunched up together in various sizes, painted different colors—a proper hodgepodge of a grubby pastel rainbow. I’d never seen red, pink, yellow, and green look so drab.
No one was on the street with me. Pretty quiet. A closed, red-painted strip club was on the left of the green Walnut Inn, which kinda looked like it was subsiding a bit. Another alleyway ran along the tavern’s right side. I headed for the main door.
Did I go in now or walk the streets some more to see if I could find G? My babies were on the case, and I needed more info. I could walk the streets for hours and not find him. What would be the point of that?
Shit. I didn’t know what to do, and that tingling in my hands was spreading up my arms.
“Akira?”
That voice.
I turned to face him.
“Holy shit! Paul?”
“It’s me.”
Paul. SCU agent. Sort-of antagonist. Things had got weird between us after a drunken incident in a back alley—the alley moment I’d just tried blocking out. He’d been killed right before me, by a silver arrow to the head from Mama Rita or one of her crew. Never actually saw the rooftop killer.
“You’re…here?” I said.
He was a tall blond guy, fair-skinned, athletic. What happened between us should’ve never happened and him being cut down like that…damn. It sucked. Now he was thinner, looked so knackered. His hair was longer, messier than it used to be, and brittle.
Paul’s hands were stuffed into the pockets of his blue jeans. He had on a brown T-shirt. Yeah, defo was T-shirt weather in this city.
“Didn’t think we’d ever see each other here,” he said.
“No? It was bound to happen, eh?”
“The way you carried on? I guess so.” He smiled weakly. “Pretty rubbish, though.”
“This place? Yeah. So weird. It’s a city. An actual city with cars and shops and stuff. Right? We’re seeing the same things?”
He nodded. “A massive city.”
Did I tell him G was here? I could just say we were both dead and separated.
Yeah.
I had to.
“Hey, you haven’t seen Gabriel, have you?”
He was surprised by that. “Gabriel? He’s here too?”
I nodded. “We both just got here, got taken out at the same time. But I can’t find him.”
“The beta’s dead?”
“He is, bruv.”
“He could be anywhere.”
“Yeah, I gathered that. Shit.”
Still nothing from Bob and Rose. Through them, I could sense the size of the place. It was so much bigger than it’d looked from my point of view on the slope—bigger than my brain could comprehend.
Where the fuck was G?
“I’m sorry you died, Akira.”
Paul did look sad about it. He used to have a cocky swagger to him, like me, now gone. We’d argued loads about the fact I thought he was suppressing his need to fuck me. Not that he wanted to bang all the dudes, ‘cos he slept with a lot of women, but he was into me in that angry way—big old denial I couldn’t help but prod and poke like the antagonistic prick I was. The pair of us had been idiots. Kissed at the werewolf nightclub, Lunar, then I’d…blown him down that alleyway while loaded up with booze.
We’d never had a chance to fix the mess we’d made.
“Sorry you did, too,” I added.
“If I’d known…” He sighed. “Doesn’t matter.”
“What?”
&nb
sp; The tingling had reached my scalp and my feet. What the hell was this? I scratched at my head, then up my arms.
“Are you okay?” Paul asked.
“Yeah, fine.” The tingle was turning itchier.
He pushed a hand through his hair. “They say to live your life when you have it. Should’ve done that. But I was a complete dick. I did like you, Akira. More curiosity than anything else. It wasn’t some big romantic thing, but there’s a reason I kissed you in Lunar that night. I was…intrigued. Guess gender didn’t matter to me so much, but I wasn’t having it. Pushed it right down, and then it came up the way it did.”
This was so not the time for this. Worst timing ever. I was practically hopping from foot to foot on the inside, my head screaming at me every which way, body feeling like it was covered in an army of fleas.
“It doesn’t matter now,” I answered. “I shouldn’t have got in your face about it.”
I extended one hand, taking the chance to put something right, scratching the back of my right leg with the other. “Don’t shake it ‘cos of all the gunk but pretend to.” I had to wash this shite off me.
He stared at my hand. “I was meaning to ask what you’ve been up to.” He wriggled his nose.
“I’m sorry about all of it, Paul. Wish I could change it, but what’s done is done. How about a reboot? We have that chance now, and it’s so weird, and my head is gonna explode.”
He nodded. “You’re right. Maybe we can be friends on this side.”
Ah, that was surprisingly sad. “That’d be good.”
We pretended to shake. “Friends, then?” I asked.
“Friends.”
“Defo not bangable right now, eh?”
He scrunched his nose. “Were you playing in the river or something?”
“You could say that. I need to hose down, but I’m worried about G. I really need to find him.”
“I know someone you can talk to inside.” He nodded to the tavern.
“What…whoa.” My legs wobbled, blood rushing to my head.
“Akira?”
I steadied myself, back to scratching everywhere. “Sorry, dizzy spell.”
“We should get you inside to wash that off. That’s not right.”
“But G…fuck…” A real mega wave of dizziness hit me. I staggered forward, Paul catching me.
“Careful,” he said.
“I… Head feels funny…”
The dizzy swirling wasn’t letting up. Spin, spin, spin, blurry vision, and everywhere itching so badly. Not enough hands to scratch, not enough feet to hold me up, and that smell, that rotten smell of river mud and mud monster guts all over and spin, spin, spin, scratch, scratch, scratch…
“G… I need to find… Where is G…”
There. Under the stink, cutting through the spinning and the itchy fire was his scent. They’d found him. Where was he? Outside somewhere... River…
“He’s by the river…”
“Gabriel?”
“Paul?” A woman’s voice. American. Just like G, but not Texan. Californian? Ah, I didn’t know.
“Who’s…that… Oh, shit…” My legs went from under me. Caught by Paul again.
“Paul? Who is that?” the woman asked.
“We need to get him inside, Becky.”
Footsteps. “I can’t…see… I can’t… It burns… It burns…”
Spin, spin, spin…
Scratch, scratch, scratch…
“G…”
Dragged… Carried…
“Be careful,” the woman said. “It’s all over you too.”
“Hey, Janet,” Paul called.
We were inside. Everything was proper fuzzy like a bad TV signal, but worse than that. Swirly colors and stinking me.
“I stink…”
The more my head swam in an icky soup, the more I felt like I’d done too many tequila shots. I’m talking the worst tequila that’s been sitting in the back of the cupboard for years and years.
Yep, there went the spew, all over Paul.
“Oh no,” a woman said. Not the woman Paul had been talking to, but a new one. She had a French accent.
I was in the tavern, right?
“I can’t…feel…my legs…”
“Come on,” the new woman said, “let’s get him upstairs.”
“I can…smell him,” I said. “I need to…find…him.”
G. My babies were still with G. Through the dizzy and the itchy, he was there. Their warmth for him came down their connection to me. His Christmassy scent cut through the stink to remind me he was out there. They’d found him.
But where the fuck was he?
* * *
I was dumped in a bathtub, water blasting me from a showerhead.
“Get it all off him,” the new woman said.
No. It was the other woman. Nope. Paul. Was it Paul? One voice blended into another.
Shit.
The water felt so good. Hot and clean and awesome. Good for what itches ya. Was that soap I smelled? Nice. Strawberry? I liked strawberry.
Stupid mud and guts!
“G…” Moving. Was he moving this way? Had he felt my babies for the first time? They’d done it to Zach once—led my brother and his girlfriend to save me and G from Violet Cross’s planned torture and murder attempt number one.
Second attempt had been the charm. Well, not really.
Ha ha! Up yours, Violet!
But all that stuff with my babies was ‘cos Zach was my brother. My blood. G was…my buddy, my…companion. Bob and Rose loved him, but could they make themselves known to him? Didn’t feel like they could. There’d been a pull that time with Zach, all magnetic and shit. That’d never work again, what with Zach’s elf and wolf power gone.
Stolen to curse the moon.
G, G, G…
“He is your companion, the beta werewolf, a gift by your side.” That’s what I’d been told. My G. I wanted to see my G!
Shit. It hurt to think about everything. But I couldn’t stop thinking about my spinning head, the water raining down on me, G, Zach, Mama Rita and her new crew and the way G had been brutalized, the mad laughter of Mama Rita, the screams of the banshees, the way we couldn’t fight back, how I’d watched him die and couldn’t do a fucking thing about it, how Mama Rita had won, and it was over, but then it wasn’t, and this was a dreaming death and—
I screamed. It exploded out of me. I clawed at the sides of the bathtub, needing out, needing G, and to scream and scream and scream.
“Gabriel!” The words blazed on their way out.
“Akira! Shit! Hold him!”
Struggling, so much struggling and screaming the house down until I collapsed into a pit of crying.
Here I was, yet again, sobbing under a fucking shower.
Chapter Three
The dead city had coffee. Blessed bastard coffee.
Man, it was so good. One sugar, cream, nice and hot, some soothing brown shit right there in the pink and blue striped mug.
I let the curls of steam waft across my face, my lips permanently resting on the rim of the mug, my hands trembling a little.
The mud was gone, my clothes burning in an incinerator beneath the bar—Paul told me. I was wrapped in a soft, white terrycloth dressing gown, damp hair combed back. My skin was red and sore from the mud, but the itching was gone. Thank the tenshi.
And I was naked underneath. Ugh. They’d seen my balls.
Bigger picture!
Yeah. No more mud, no more itching or going crackers.
G was moving, Bob and Rose following him through a street not far from the river. He wasn’t at the same part of the river near here, but some other stretch in the city. At least, I thought so. I was still pretty shagged out from the mud episode and the crying and itching and having some sort of mental break down. Plus, well, alien streets and all that. G wasn’t running, and he didn’t feel in any kind of danger. Yet. Cool. It gave me time to get my body together.
I was trying to be as strong
as I could, but he still wasn’t with me, and I had no idea what I was supposed to do.
Mega fun times.
Not.
Paul sat with me on the bed in the small bedroom belonging to the French woman called Janet. Apparently, she owned Walnut Tavern, and she liked flowers. Pink and yellow-flowered wallpaper, a carpet that matched along with the bedspread, and glass flower ornaments of all kinds sitting on the bedside table and the chest of drawers over by the door.
With me and Paul was Becky—a fair-skinned redhead with blue ribbons in her hair. She was Paul’s girlfriend, and she was telling me about how they met.
“It was so scary,” she said. “I was wandering around outside some office building just east of here, pleading for help, but there was no one around. The office building was empty, the windows broken. It was looking like I was going to have to be brave and go inside to take shelter. I didn’t like the feel of the streets.”
“I get that,” I said. “Bad vibes.”
Paul put an arm around her as she nodded.
“But along came this one,” she said, rubbing his chest. “He helped me out, took me home, and took care of me. It didn’t take long for us to fall in love.” They kissed.
“That’s sweet.”
G was still walking the streets. A sign? Nope. Couldn’t make it out no matter how long Bob and Rose stared at it. Gah! But I wasn’t gonna call them back yet. That’d be giving up.
“Stay on him,” I whispered.
Their stalking of him was the only thing I had to hold onto right now.
“We should tell him, Paul,” Becky said. “It’s important.”
“I know, but now?” Paul answered.
“Tell me what”? I sipped some more coffee.
Paul sighed. “It’s grim news.”
“My favorite.”
He cleared his throat. “The streets are dangerous, as you’ve gathered, but they’re even more dangerous right now at this time of day.”
Oh, yeah. I’d never actually asked what the time was. “What time is it?”
Four Moons: The Complete Collection: (Books 1 - 4) Page 42