Nightmare City: Book 1 Of The Nightmare City Series (Urban Fantasy)

by P. S. Newman

  I didn't argue. My skin tingled. I wasn't sure whether it came from the fumes or the fact that this place creeped me out. "Let's split up," I suggested, "look for clues around the perimeter." I couldn’t feel Sean's signature; if the doppelgänger had ever been here, his essence was drowned out by that of the Pit's creator. But the doppelgänger’s reason for coming here might have been on the other side of the Pit. If I caught no whiff of the doppelgänger’s essence on my side, I'd just have to come up with a reason to go back to the gate on the other.

  "I'm still hazy on the kind of clues you expect us to find," Taylor said.

  "I don't expect anything in particular. There might be nothing. Or we might find his secret lair. For a shade that wields fire, this would seem like an obvious place to hole up.”

  "Not anymore or we would have spotted him by now. But fine. Let's be quick. This place is spooky.”

  Right there with you, buddy.

  We split up; Taylor headed right, I left. About twenty steps along, an outcrop of rock formed a ledge several feet below the top edge. I crouched down above it, curling my fingers around the brink. If Taylor wanted to know what I was doing, I could tell him I was checking out the ledge below.

  I reached out with my shade sense and connected with the Pit. Fear blasted me, followed by a strong sense of righteousness and devotion. Someone deeply religious had dreamed of this Pit. And yet, strong as these emotions were, I wasn’t touching the actual shade. That lay deeper, far deeper, beneath the lava. There, evil crouched and watched in malicious satisfaction while tortured souls screamed, unheard, their cries of pain and pleas for mercy howling through my head like banshees. Vertigo caught me in a dizzying sense of free-fall, and I felt myself pitching forwards, towards the agonized screams—

  “Eden!” Aunt Vy’s bark drowned out the screams. I jerked backward and released the edge that seemed to have tilted towards the abyss. I fell on my butt and crab-crawled away, shaking and sweating. I’d never been hit so hard by a shade’s essence. I’d never looked Hell in the face.

  “Feels like Hell,” Aunt Vy mirrored my thoughts. She sounded shaken. She must have felt it through me; the sixth sense that let her experience the world around her sometimes worked that way. And the feeling had shaken her up enough to bury her silent sulking for the moment.

  “It does,” I agreed. “The dreamer envisioned the plane of torture and punishment far below the surface of the earth right in this spot. It must have destabilized the ground as it manifested, forming a hole that caused the rock above to split and tumble. The lava bubbled out of that crack, forming a portal to the afterlife.”

  “An actual portal to Hell?”

  “That’s what it feels like.”

  “The Brotherhood of Saint Mary’s Obliterators would have a field day with this,” Aunt Vy said dryly.

  “They’ll never know,” I said, with more certainty than I felt. The Obliterators lived by a religious codex more fanatical towards the extermination of shades than even Vaughn Taylor. To them, shades were demons sent to Earth by the Devil to expose people’s true natures. Primes like Bella were seen as just as evil as the shades they created. It didn’t matter that she’d been in her early teens and traumatized by her mother’s death when she’d been classified as such.

  At least I could be sure that Taylor, as anti-shade as he was, wasn’t an Obliterator. For one, Taylor’s reaction to my confession of having dreamed up Greyson and the hellhounds would have been very different. And second, Ganner no longer employed Obliterators as hunters. But if the Obliterators ever found out that the Pit was a shade portal to a shade hell, the Captain would have a war on her hands. “There’s no way they could ever find out.” Thankfully.

  “Let’s hope so.” Aunt Vy sounded about as convinced as I felt. “Could you phaze it? It’s gigantic.”

  “Given enough time, yes. I might not even have to touch it directly; the portal’s essence is incredibly strong.” Being connected via the crater walls would be enough if the tingle in my fingertips was any indication. I would just have to make sure not to dive in quite so deep with my shade sense or I’d be overwhelmed by the pain and terror again.

  I looked for Taylor; he was walking around the edge at a slow pace, his eyes scanning every inch of ground and edge. If I climbed down to the ledge below me, it would be about five minutes until he came around far enough to spot me there. Five minutes were plenty of time for me to phaze Hell.

  My phone rang before I could climb down. A blocked number. Apprehension curled in my stomach.

  “Deja-vu.” Aunt Vy was having the same thought. ”Maybe you can get him to meet you somewhere.”

  “This is Eden Maybrey,” I answered, trying to figure out where best to hold the phone against the gas mask so I would hear the caller.

  “Well, you sound perky,” a familiar voice rang over the line. “I guess you’ve recovered from our little encounter in the garage. This is Sean 2.0 by the way, just in case you thought it was the original version calling to chat you up.”

  I spun and waved at Taylor, who had his back to me. I muted my phone so the doppelgänger wouldn’t hear any sounds from my end and called over to Taylor. “Taylor, get back here! It’s the doppelgänger!”

  He came running around the edge.

  “Can you guess why I’m calling you, dear Eden?” the doppelgänger asked. I was about to put the phone on speaker so Taylor could listen in once he got here when the doppelgänger added, “or would you prefer to be called Elysia?”

  Okay, no speakerphone. I just unmuted instead. “Eden is fine. Where are you?”

  “Ah, wouldn’t you like to know. It’s a payphone and I’ll tell you the exact location in a minute, promise. Just as soon as you promise me something in return.”

  I hit the mute button again and looked at Taylor, who’d just stopped beside me. “He’s on a payphone somewhere. Call Detective Cecelia Perez at the LAPD, see if she can trace the call.”

  Taylor’s jaw set and he nodded, pulling his phone out of his pocket.

  I unmuted the phone and focused on the doppelgänger again. “Promise what?”

  “I want you to back off from hunting me.”

  “You know that’s not going to happen.”

  “Oh, I believe it will. See, if you don’t back off, I’ll tell your newly minted partner your explosive little secret.”

  I turned away from Taylor so he wouldn’t hear my next words. “There’s no point in blackmailing me, tickhead,” I hissed. “You’re trying to kill David. You think I care about being exposed over keeping my friend safe?”

  “You can’t keep him safe if the entire Order is coming down on you.” The doppelgänger was so smug, he was almost singing. “But I’ll give you time to think about it.”

  I turned back to Taylor, gave him a questioning look. He gave me a thumbs-up, then motioned for me to keep the doppelgänger talking.

  “Why do you want to kill David?” I asked, even though it was obvious after hearing about Sean's dream.

  The doppelgänger laughed long and loud. “It’s in my nature. Just like protecting Bella and apparently the whole world, is in yours. But I’m sure you’ve figured that out by now. And you can quit stalling for time to get a tracking on this phone because I’ll tell you where I am. But don’t forget my deal. I’ll give you a day to think about it. Or maybe an hour, I haven’t decided. Either way, I’m at a payphone on the corner of Melrose and North Western Avenue.”

  That was only four blocks away.

  “Yes, that’s just around the corner from your current location,” Sean 2.0 said as if he could read my mind. “I can smell the brimstone, I’m so close. Come and get me; for old times’ sake, hm?”

  The line clicked and went dead.

  “He’s at the corner of Melrose and Northwestern,” I said, just as Taylor tore off his mask and said, “it’s at the corner of Northwestern and Melrose.”

  We frowned at each other for using what each of us felt was the wrong pronoun, but t
his wasn’t the time to get into our differences.

  “Let’s go.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  We took Taylor’s ride to the corner of Melrose and North Western Avenue. It was after curfew, so the streets were empty, but we’d never make it in time to see the doppelgänger disappear around a corner. He wouldn’t have told me his location if he couldn’t slip away in time.

  We screeched to a halt in front of the phone booth not five minutes after Sean 2.0 had hung up on me. As expected, the booth was empty.

  Taylor hit the steering wheel. “Damn it.”

  I opened my door, swung my legs out. “Let’s canvas the area. Maybe a pedestrian saw him.”

  “It,” Taylor said through gritted teeth, “is long gone.”

  “Fine, then you just sit pretty while I ask around. This is a busy road. Someone must have seen him.”

  “It.”

  “Whatever.”

  But he was right; nobody had noticed the doppelgänger in the booth, not even the vendor in the kiosk on the opposite corner of the intersection. I returned to the van fifteen minutes later to find Taylor standing in front of the booth, holding a yellow sticky-note in his hand.

  “What’s that?” I asked, coming up behind him.

  He spun and pushed the note into my hand. “You tell me.”

  Remember my proposition, it said in Sean's handwriting, which had probably translated into Sean 2.0’s handwriting as well.

  “Where did you find this?”

  “It was stuck next to the number pad. What does it mean?”

  “He wanted Taylor to see it,” Aunt Vy warned.

  “I know.” And Taylor was reacting exactly how the doppelgänger intended: with suspicion towards me. Time for an evasive maneuver. “It’s Sean's doppelgänger,” I said, trying to think this through before I said the wrong thing.

  “So?”

  “Sean has a… thing. For me.”

  “I take it that means his doppelgänger has a thing for you, too.” He made it sound like the most absurd idea in the universe. Tickhead.

  “If he does, his agenda isn’t for himself. His proposition was that if I give in to the real Sean's… desires, he would turn himself in.”

  Taylor blinked. “Who will what now? See, this is why you use the proper pronouns.”

  “The doppelgänger will turn himself in if I have sex with Sean,” I spelled my lie out for him.

  To Taylor’s credit, he didn’t suggest I take the doppelgänger up on that offer. In fact, he appeared angry. “Just wait till I get my hands on him.”

  “I appreciate the sentiment,” I said, not sure what to make of this unexpected outrage on my behalf. I’d pegged him for the kind of hater for whom blackmailing his partner into some hanky-panky with a popular rich guy wasn’t a hardship if it secured a shade’s capture. Might have to reassess that particular peg. “But if you breathe a word of this to either of the Baptiste brothers, you’ll be walking with a limp.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “You think you can take me?”

  Was he being serious or was that his rare sense of humor poking its head out of a deep, dark hole?

  “I can take you in my sleep, Taylor,” I said, “in my sleep.”

  Yes, it had been a spark of humor. I was sure when said spark died in his eyes at my words. My curiosity wanted to know what I’d said that had triggered it, but my survival instinct cautioned me. That grim look on his face promised an explosion should I dig deeper. It felt safest to focus on more immediate and important issues. “Got any idea how to deal with our favorite doppelgänger?”

  “We figure out what its main purpose is and go from there.”

  “I think his main purpose is to kill David.”

  “How do you figure?”

  I ticked the reasons off on my fingers. “He broke into David's house yesterday, tried to kill him today, and just told me it was ‘in his nature to do so’ on the phone.”

  “Doesn’t it strike you as strange that you were present and involved in all those incidents?”

  “Yes,” Aunt Vy agreed immediately.

  “You think he’s after something else?”

  “I think it might have a deeper agenda, yes,” Taylor said. “You said yourself that Sean Baptiste has a thing for you. It isn’t unreasonable to suspect his doppelgänger does, too. Maybe this is its way of showing affection.”

  “By trying to kill me? He almost succeeded yesterday,” I reminded him.

  “That thing is twisted. Maybe it’s trying to attract your attention.”

  “When he’s already gotten it?”

  “Hell, I don’t know.” He threw up his hands in frustration. “Maybe you really were in the wrong place at the wrong time. What do you propose?”

  “I think David's our best bet. The doppelgänger is trying to get to him - so we stick to him.”

  “Let it come to us?”

  “I don’t see any other way. I’m out of places to look. Unless you have any other ideas?”

  “No. I was hoping we could avoid bodyguard duty.”

  “You and me both, partner.”

  David wouldn’t be thrilled, either. As a local celebrity, he valued his privacy more than most. We were friends and met at Cecelia's place often, but round-the-clock surveillance was another kettle of shade entirely.

  “Where’s Baptiste now?” Taylor asked. “We should warn him that the doppelgänger’s still on the loose.”

  I dialed David's number as we got back into the van.

  “Eden?” David's voice came over the line as Taylor was threading the car back into traffic. “Cecelia said you had a lead. Did you catch the doppelgänger?”

  “I’m afraid not. He’s like David Copperfield on steroids. There one moment, pouf, gone the next. We’ve decided to let him come to us.”

  There was a pause. One of the most brilliant businessmen of our time wasn’t born yesterday. “Meaning?”

  “We’re on our way to you. I’m afraid you’re going to have company until this doppelgänger is caught.”

  “You mean babysitters.”

  “Bodyguards. Me and Vaughn Taylor.”

  “Damn it, Eden. I have capable bodyguards.”

  “I know you don’t like it, David. But this shade is twisted and it looks like Sean. Your bodyguards might react that millisecond too late, thinking it’s your brother. I—“ can feel it’s not him, I almost said out loud, but managed to cut myself off with a somewhat strangled sound. I covered it with a cough. “… won’t make that mistake.”

  “I won’t, either, but I second Eden’s motion,” a familiar voice came through the line.

  “Lia?” She sounded pissed.

  “David just told me about what happened earlier at PharmaZeusics. After I found out about the attack on TV. I can’t believe you didn’t tell me when we talked on the phone.”

  Guilt pricked my heart. “I’m sorry,” I said. “But you would have rushed right on over and then Sean would have had another listener for his full story, which he was already embarrassed to tell.”

  “I would have gotten the truth out of him in the first place. This is part of my investigation, after all.”

  Ouch.

  “Okay, babe, time to retract those claws,” David interrupted. “Eden is doing her best to help.”

  Cecelia's sigh was heavy over the phone. “I know. Lo siento. I’m sorry. I just… if your Greyson hadn’t been there…”

  He was the last person I wanted to talk about with Vaughn Taylor sitting next to me. “Don’t worry, I get it. So you’re on board with this plan?”

  “How about we meet at my place?” David said.

  Cecelia didn’t like that idea. “You can stay here.”

  “If the doppelgänger is really after me, I’m not staying so you or Bella can get caught in the crosshairs,” David said. “I will, however, leave one of my bodyguards with you. Just in case it shows up and gets silly ideas.”

  “Don’t you dare brush me off, David Baptiste,”
Cecelia snapped. “I can take care of myself.”

  “So can I,” he said. “But from what I understand, Eden wants to use me as bait. Meaning you shouldn’t be anywhere near me right now, cop or not. That doppelgänger is evil.”

  Cecelia's silence held more disapproval than a thousand words.

  “David, stay where you are,” I said. “I’ll come get you while Taylor goes to scout out your house. I’ll give him the entrance codes. Just to make sure you don’t walk into a trap there.”

  “I’ll be at Cecelia’s house,” David said.

  “See you in a few.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  A black sedan was parked in front of Cecelia's house when I arrived. Two men in suits sat inside, watching the place - David's bodyguards. I parked the van behind the sedan and grabbed a silent Aunt Vy. We hadn’t spoken since our discovery of the Pit’s true nature. She was still mad at me for my threat to dump her in the basement and forget her there. I didn’t blame her. I’d have to apologize to her as soon as we got some time to ourselves.

  I waved to the bodyguards as I passed them on my way to Cecelia's electrified gate. They waved back; they were the two who had joined us in the garage after the attack.

  I rang the bell. Bella's face popped up in the kitchen window, wearing her brave smile, the one she used when she tried to hide that she was upset. She waved and the buzzer sounded. She opened the front door for me and stepped into my hug as I crossed the threshold.

  "What's up, big girl?" I asked, holding her tight, Aunt Vy against her back. “Why aren’t you in bed, yet?” It was a little after eleven o’clock at night.

  "You'll be gone," she said, her voice muffled against my shirt. "I don't want you to be so far away."

  "David's place is only a forty-five-minute car ride during curfew. You can call me anytime. If something is threatening you, I'll come running."

  "I know," she said. "But it'll take you too long to get here at night." At night when she dreamed. She’d gotten used to the fact that I wasn’t right next door while I hunted shades, but my official territory didn’t stretch further than a twenty-minute car ride during curfew. My not being close would leave her more scared of her dreams, which in turn would fuel the nightmares. For a split second, I thought about proposing that Taylor and I guard in shifts, but this wasn't just about protecting David. It was about catching the doppelgänger, who had proved more than a match for me and Taylor on our own. We had to face him together or the whole plan would be useless.