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

by P. S. Newman

  Johnson nodded. "Net gun and extinguishers coming right up."

  "Have your men hold their fire. Shooting it will only make it more mad."

  "Already done."

  "And keep trying to reach Taylor.”

  "Will do. Good luck."

  "Thanks." I was going to need it.

  Johnson disappeared inside. I moved to the left, keeping to the shadows inside the cloister, trying to come up with a plan. On the other side of the courtyard, the beast lowered its massive snout and sniffed Dionysos' bronze head. A blue bolt zapped from its nose to the statue's raised index finger with a sharp snap. The surface of the water around the pedestal rippled. The chimera bared its teeth, nose twitching as it shook off the tingles. If I was lucky, its surroundings would keep the beast occupied until I could sneak past and lure it back onto the bluff.

  How had it gotten up here in the first place without raising the alarm? The only way to the museum was through residential areas. Even though it was late, someone would have noticed a monster this big shouldering its way through the neighborhood.

  From somewhere in the main building, a door rattled. Electro-Hound's head jerked up, ears pricked. It stepped around the fountain and stalked up the left side of the courtyard. Its nostrils flared, eyes and ears fixed on whatever had caught its attention. I craned my neck to follow its line of sight past the pillars but couldn't see anybody on either the balcony or the roof above. Until a mop of dark curls rose over the banister of the balcony, followed by frightened dark eyes, catching a glimpse of the approaching chimera. A shrill scream pierced the air, cut short when another dark head appeared and two hands were clapped over the screamer’s open mouth. I stifled a sound of my own when I realized who it was. Bella and Sean.

  The hound answered Bella’s scream with a triumphant howl. Bella and Sean scrambled back, disappearing behind the banister. They reappeared moments later by the door leading into the building. Sean turned the knob, but the door didn’t budge. He jiggled and shook it, repeating the rattle that had caught the hound's attention in the first place. The door didn't open. They were locked out.

  I gave up my cover and ran after the beast, pulling a flash grenade from my belt. Bella saw me. Her eyes went wide with relief. "Get down," I yelled. She grabbed Sean by his arms and tugged him down with her. They disappeared behind the banister. I pulled the pin and lobbed the grenade at the chimera's head, then dove for cover behind the low wall of the fountain. Light fried my retinas, even through closed eyelids. The blast followed a heartbeat later, barely muffled through the hands clamped over my ears. My brain ricocheted around my skull. I had to lean against the wall so I wouldn't crumble to the gravel.

  When the happy lights stopped dancing in front of my eyes, I shook off the disorientation and rose to my knees to peek above the edge of the fountain. Electro-Hound stood on unsteady legs, shaking its head as if to clear it. Now would have been a good time to train all water and extinguishers on it. Where the hell was Johnson?

  The chimera blinked one last time. Its ears pricked back up - in the direction of the balcony. I splashed my hands through the water, trying to catch its attention.

  "Stay hidden," I yelled, hoping Bella and Sean would understand across the distance after being hit by a flash grenade. The giant head swiveled towards my voice. "That's it, focus on me.” I splashed water in the chimera's direction. It looked at me from above with the same disdain with which Goliath must have regarded David. I splashed again. "Here, puppy puppy."

  A current of electricity sizzled over the hound's body from tail to nose. The bolt zapped through the air in a jagged line, hitting the water where my hand had just been. I jerked back just in time, but the charge in the air was enough to raise the hairs on my arm.

  The chimera turned back to the balcony, ignoring me. This single-mindedness was different from the one at the factory. I was running out of options. If I cut it with a sword, I ran the risk of being electrocuted. Shooting it didn't do anything but make it mad. Flash grenades only slowed it down for a few seconds. I needed those fire extinguishers.

  The chimera was strolling up to the balcony on which Bella and Sean were hiding. Thirty seconds and it would reach them. I had to act now.

  I had one option left. One power. Mine.

  I ran alongside the fountain, on the opposite side as the chimera. For every one of its leisurely strides, I had to take five. I scanned the rooftops above and the cloisters surrounding me. Empty, as far as I could tell.

  The chimera reached the end of the fountain. Three more strides and all it would have to do was rise on hind legs and pluck Bella and Sean off the balcony. I pulled a smoke grenade from my belt and rounded the fountain, tossing the grenade in front of the chimera's paws. Smoke poured from it, thick and white. The beast's torso and head disappeared in the billowing cloud. An angry roar shook the courtyard.

  I ran into the cover of the cloud. Smoke stung my eyes, burned up my nose. I suppressed a cough and felt for the chimera's leg. It had to be here somewhere. All I had to do was touch it, preferably at a moment when no electricity zapped over that part of its body. All I needed was a second for my powers to work.

  Encased in billowing smoke, I didn't see the chimera until I almost smacked into its nose. It had lowered its head, fully aware of my position within the clouds of smoke. I froze, inches away from gleaming white fangs as long as my hands. The fist-sized black nose twitched, catching my scent. Red eyes blazed at me. We stared at each other, the hound from hell and I. Static sizzled in the short, fuzzy fur that covered the beast like black satin. No way was I touching it while its proximity made my skin prickle. I'd been hoping to catch it just after another discharge.

  Only the spittle leaking from the chimera's bared teeth moved. I couldn't fathom why it didn't just zap me or bite my head off. Maybe I, the person who’d dreamed it into being, held some unknown sway over it. But if that was the case, I had no idea how I was doing it. Maybe it recognized me as its creator and knew that if it killed me, it would die, too. Either way, it surely wouldn’t stand still for much longer.

  I stepped backward, into the cloud, hoping to throw the chimera off my scent for just a few seconds. I drew the dagger from its sheath on my thigh and tossed it at the beast's legs, blade first, just as two rows of gleaming white fangs snapped shut inches from my face. I jerked back and stumbled out of the cloud of smoke, which was quickly dispersing. The grenade had emptied itself.

  I caught a glimpse of my dagger as it dropped. The blade landed on the hound's paw, while the hilt hit the gravel, grounding the beast. A flash of light pierced the cloud, followed by a crack of static as the electricity coursing through its body discharged. If my observations were correct, it would take a few moments before the next charge ran over the hound's body. It was now or never.

  I ran towards the beast, left hand outstretched, gathering my power. The chimera saw me through the smoke and sidled away as if guessing my plan. Its move came too late - I had the element of surprise on my side. My fingers were a hair's breadth from the black fur.

  A jet of water arched through the air above, hitting the chimera between the eyes.

  "Maybrey!" Taylor's voice boomed across the courtyard. “What the fuck are you doing? Get down!"

  I snatched my hand back before touching the beast and hit the dirt. Holy shizzle! Had he seen me charging the shade with my bare hand? I grabbed the wakizashi from my back, hoping he’d believe I'd been attacking the chimera with it in a suicidal attempt to save Bella. I scrambled to the fountain wall for cover and turned to see what was happening. Taylor stood between two pillars beneath Bella's balcony, holding the nozzle of a big hose. He opened and closed the nozzle, ejecting short streams of water at the chimera. This tactic of interruption prevented the electricity from traveling down a constant stream of water and electrocuting Taylor, while at the same time blasting the beast over and over with the water it hated.

  A roar flayed the air, ending in a deep, resounding growl. The giganti
c hound reared up on its hind legs, shaking steaming drops from its massive head. But Taylor's aim was true. The water kept hitting the beast, eliciting snapping discharges. The chimera jerked with every strike, the water acting as a conduit that reversed the shade's deadly power back on itself.

  The chimera didn't take the abuse for long. With a flare of white spiderweb lightning covering its hide, it ducked underneath Taylor's arc of perspiration, snaking towards him like a striking cobra. Taylor water-blasted the chimera between the eyes as he leaped behind a pillar. The spiderweb lightning shot from the chimera’s body across the stream of water. It packed enough punch to bridge the shortened gap between the H2O and the metal nozzle of the hose. A crack of electricity rang through the air, followed by a muffled gasp and the thud of a body hitting the ground. Taylor rolled into view behind the pillar. His body shook with spasms.

  Electro-Hound licked red-glowing lips. Lava-drenched spittle dripped from needle-sharp fangs in long threads. They sizzled where they hit the ground, not ten feet from Taylor’s prone form. I leaped to my feet and ducked beneath the chimera's belly - not that I had to duck much. But the crouch gave me the extra thrust I needed to drive the wakizashi deep into the flesh, where front leg met torso. If this creation of mine had a heart, it would most likely be located there.

  The chimera's belly-hide offered little resistance to the blade. It disappeared in the beast's armpit before I pulled it back out. A few fissures of lightning tingled up my hands, but as I’d hoped, the recent discharge that had taken down Taylor had left the chimera without its main defense for at least a few seconds. It howled and shied to the side, away from the sting. I almost got beaned by a flailing foreleg as I rushed for the cover of the pillars and picked up the hose Taylor had dropped. The chimera ran circles around itself, trying to reach the wound. Bright orange-red blood that sizzled and snapped with electricity flowed down the beast's front leg. I aimed the nozzle at the hellhound and copied Taylor's method of interrupted blasts.

  The first jet of water hit the shoulder. Electro-Hound buckled with a yelp, which turned into galvanized screams of pain when the water ran into the wound in its armpit. Steam rose as electrified blood and water mixed. The beast twisted, trying to escape the pain-- and knocked its forelegs on the low fountain wall, pulling its paws out from under it. The chimera landed headfirst in the shallow water with a tremendous splash.

  A crack followed, loud and sharp like a whip. The courtyard lit up in a blue-white blaze. The chimera's hide burst into flames and the muscles beneath boiled. The giant body seized and twitched, sliding further into the fountain, which was hardly deeper than a puddle compared to the chimera's giant form. Yet it was enough to bring down this beast of lightning. And to shrink it.

  When the last twitches escaped the hellhound's limbs and it finally lay still, the once Honda-Civic sized head had withered so much as to be submerged fully in the water. The body had followed suit; what was now draped over the fountain's wall, half in and half out of the water was still big, but large-dog big, no longer semi-truck-big. I walked up to the chimera and poked it with a finger. Nothing happened. Not even a tiny spark. I dragged it out of the fountain by its hind legs. It flopped to the ground, harmless and small. I stared down at it. My heart thundered in my chest. I’d created this creature. I’d made it evil, had imbued it with lightning and set it free in this world that would reject it out of hand. Now I’d killed it.

  I touched a hand to its still flank and reached for its essence with my power. My emotions rose to meet me: loneliness, sadness, and fear had called it forth into my dream and continued to course through it, loud and clear. I reached deeper, stretching my shade sense further. A tiny spark of life still thrummed in the chimera’s chest, it’s fiery core not quite extinguished. It was so dim that I almost missed the foul smear of an intruding essence entangled with mine: anger, jealousy, and a sense of betrayal mixed with a dash of self-importance - Sean’s essence. Or rather, his doppelgänger’s.

  I reached deeper, trying to feel where the chimera’s fire ended and the doppelgänger’s began, but they were tightly intertwined. Somehow, the doppelgänger had linked his essence to the hellhound’s through fire, their shared element. It wound around mine, feeding off it like a parasite, a cancer. I had no idea a shade could be hijacked like this. It felt foul, unnatural. The need to unravel this link, this foreign essence, was overwhelming.

  "Is it dead?" a voice squeaked behind me. I almost jumped out of my torn and bloodied dress. I somehow managed to convert my jerk into a graceless turn, snatching my sword from my back in reflexive defense. A man with a large camera on his shoulder and a woman with bright red lips and a microphone in her hand stood on the other side of the fountain. She looked familiar. Her eyes turned into owl-like orbs at the sight of my sword.

  The man wasn't intimidated enough to switch off his camera. Maybe he was used to aiming it at things that scared him. Those made for the best footage, after all. I suppressed the urge to snatch the camera from him and smash it. Instead, I quenched the pity and guilt that lurked in my heart and looked down at the hellhound.

  "Sorry about this," I said to my dead shade. Then I cut off its head.

  Belated fear at another close call turned my knees to pudding. Taylor had almost seen me eliminate a shade by laying my bare hands on it. Now it turned out that the whole thing would have been caught on camera. And if the reporters hadn’t made themselves known a few seconds ago, I would have phazed the chimera my way once I was done exploring its essence. It was such an intrinsic way of how I dealt with shades and I was so creeped out by the doppelgänger’s essence in the hellhound that I hadn’t even checked to make sure Taylor was out cold. Speaking of which... Taylor!

  Ignoring the reporters, I rushed over to my partner. He was lying on his back between two pillars, arms and legs outstretched, eyes closed. I dropped beside him, not sure whether it was a good idea to touch him or not.

  "Taylor?"

  He opened his eyes. "Just resting a bit. That charge packed one hell of a punch."

  "It allowed me to cut the beast without getting shocked myself, so thanks," I said. "You're a hero."

  That made him smile in a dopey way. "Been a while."

  "Just don’t let it go to your head,” I said, hiding a smile. “Let me see your hands."

  He flopped his right one into my lap with a groan. It was hot to the touch and white blisters ran across his palm and up his arm. I kept my face neutral, even though I didn't like the look of those pustules one bit, much less the befuddled grin on his face.

  "What's the diagnosis, doctor?" he said.

  "You're trying to be funny. Must be dire.” I pulled my phone out of my pocket and dialed 911. Taylor watched me explain the situation with feverish eyes.

  "Thanks for the save," he said when I hung up.

  "Right back at you."

  "Even if it was more luck than skill."

  He had me there. If that fountain hadn't tripped up the hellhound and turned its greatest weapon back on it, the battle could have gone in its favor fast. And Taylor had been watching. Thank God the reporter had spoken up when she did. She’d saved me from myself in more ways than one.

  I patted Taylor’s shoulder. "Enjoy your trophy. I need to check on Bella."

  When I got to my feet, the reporters were standing right behind me.

  "Miss Maybrey, that was incredible," the woman said. She took my sword-free left hand and pumped hard. Color rode on her cheeks and I could feel her pulse jumping against my palm. She'd been scared half to death and was probably still riding the adrenaline high, or she never would have dared to continue speaking to me. Or maybe my scary glare was losing its touch. "Could we ask you a few questions?"

  "I don't have time for an interview, sorry," I said, not feeling apologetic at all. "You shouldn't even be here - evacuations apply to reporters, too."

  "We know, but we got trapped at the back of the courtyard when the shade entered.”

  I'd been ab
out to turn away, but her words made me stop. "The main event was happening inside. What were you two doing out here?"

  The woman's face blanked. "We have another team covering everything inside. We were assigned to this courtyard to capture everybody's entry. Not our fault an uninvited guest crashed the party on our watch."

  Not their fault or precisely staged? "Who assigned you to the courtyard?"

  "Our boss," she said. Bella could have learned a lot from the woman's poker face. But the cameraman's wandering eyes gave them away. He was looking anywhere but at me.

  "My best friend is one of the best detectives at the LAPD," I said. "You don't want her questioning you about this. She can read you like a book. Either you tell me who tipped you off that something was going to happen here or she'll squeeze it out of you down at the precinct." I held up my phone. "I was about to call her, anyway."

  The reporters exchanged a glance. The cameraman gave a small nod. The woman sighed. "You have to understand, we get anonymous tips all the time," she said. "Most of them don't pan out, so we don't inform the cops; they'd be doing nothing but following dead-end leads. They don't want us calling them about every tiny possibility."

  "I don't care about your motives," I told her. "What happened?"

  "He called from a payphone and told me there'd be a secret special guest at the gala tonight. Someone who'd cause a... commotion. The caller never gave me his name."

  Of course he hadn't. "Right now I'm more interested in yours," I told her, still blanking on where I'd seen her before.

  "Regina March," she said, "with KCW."

  The name finally triggered my memory. This was the reporter who'd showed up at David's house two nights ago. "Thank you, Miss March," I said, not letting on that I knew her. "I would appreciate you notifying me if this man ever calls you again."