The Path of Razors

by Green, Chris Marie

Damn Eva for doing this, she thought, allowing her anger to gather. Damn vampires for making me scared that she’s not safe out here. Damn—

  She blasted out with her mind, but the door only suffered something like a lame kick.

  Good God.

  So she pictured Jonah, and the door blew open with a splintered crack.

  While rushing in, Dawn trained her silver-bullet-loaded revolver around the room, where the heavy curtains huddled like bulky shapes in the moonlight and the dark wood seemed to mask something ready to spring at her.

  Knowing her mind was on overdrive, she targeted the rest of the room, with all the modern paintings on the walls, then the huge bed in the corner, just in case something was under it.

  But that was stupid, she thought, finally hitting the lights. Eva had run away. It wasn’t like something had swooped in and forced her out of headquarters just to bring her to her own apartment.

  All the same, Dawn inspected every corner, every possible hiding place before returning to the door. It didn’t really close right, even though it shut most of the way, so she lugged over a heavy oak chair and jammed it under the knob to take the place of the lock she’d blown out.

  “She’s not here, Frank,” she said, accessing the earpiece and holstering her weapon.

  He sighed.

  Then everything hit Dawn at the same time—the dizziness from Jonah’s nip, the aftermath of an adrenaline rush that’d sapped her even more.

  Legs quivering, she made it to the small kitchen, leaned against a counter, then yanked open the fridge door and grabbed the first food she could find.

  Baked chicken.

  As Frank spoke, Dawn ripped the plastic covering off and bit into a leg like an animal, sinking to the floor as she thought about where to go for Eva next.

  Normally, she would’ve consulted Costin. But with his absence, she’d been left in charge once again, and she didn’t know what to do.

  How about think?

  Frank didn’t help by interrupting. “Dawn? When you find Eva, tell her not to worry. We’ll talk it out when she gets back. We just want her behind safe walls again.”

  If she found Eva.

  But Dawn wasn’t giving up so easily. They’d find her.

  There was a disturbance on Frank’s end, and it sounded like Breisi’s ethereal protests.

  Then he came back on. “Okay, I want her behind safe walls again.” When he continued, it was obvious that he was talking to Breisi. “Is that better?”

  Another ghostylike sound in the background—one that resembled a yes.

  Dawn finished swallowing the chicken. “You gonna tell me about what happened or do I have to guess why no Friends were available to escort Eva or find her right now?”

  As she rummaged in the fridge for a bottle of water, she could almost see Frank running his hand over his face.

  “I don’t rightly know what happened,” he said. “One second, she was at my bedroom door, and I thought she was just popping in to say hi. The next, I smelled her blood, and I ...”

  Oh, God.

  The water bottle only made it halfway to Dawn’s mouth. “Tell me she didn’t. Tell me you didn’t.”

  “I started to.” If his tone had been remorseful before, it was worse now. “I couldn’t think. I just smelled ... saw ... needed her blood. It was right there. The next thing I knew, I was going at her palm, where she was bleeding, and Breisi woke up and kicked Eva out of the room.”

  “And that’s why Breisi put the big no on any Friends going after Mom. And the spirits will side with her out of loyalty.”

  Jesus, Frank. But more importantly, what had Eva been thinking?

  It had obviously been the last straw for Breisi. And why not? Her and Frank’s relationship—a spirit and a vampire—was tough enough in the first place; add a former wife who still had the hots for Frank and you got a brew that’d been set to blow from the start.

  Dawn wanted to sit both her parents down and give them a good...

  What?

  Gah, she didn’t know what. But her mom was out there somewhere, and so were the vampires, who might or might not have identified the fogged camera and figured out where the Limpets were housed. They might’ve even seen Eva come out of headquarters on that camera.

  “Frank,” she said, “talk to Breisi. I know she’s mad, but if Eva gets hurt and a Friend isn’t there to help ...”

  “I know it.”

  There was another muddled Breisi-like exclamation, and to Dawn, it sounded like the spirit said, “You reap what you sow.”

  Shit. Like any other hunter Costin had ever recruited, Breisi had a firm sense of justice—that’s what The Voice had always depended on to operate—and Eva had thrown all Breisi’s goodwill back in her face tonight.

  “So where do you think she went?” Dawn asked, closing this conversation up so she could get moving. “This is a big city and without Friends to canvass it for Eva—”

  “Hampstead Village?” he asked. “She talks about how much she likes that part of London.”

  Oh, super, a location on the opposite side of town.

  “Or,” Frank added, “she could be anywhere.”

  “Thanks, that’ll narrow it down.” Dawn controlled her temper. Frank had only been obeying his natural instincts when Eva had marched into his room, bleeding, but Dawn was pissed that he hadn’t controlled himself. Pissed at Eva for making him that way.

  But ... Calm, cool, collected.

  Deep breath. Another one.

  Okay.

  “Maybe,” Dawn said, “a Friend who’s already on patrol will see her somewhere around the city. I’m assuming Breisi hasn’t been outside to get ahold of any of them yet, so they wouldn’t know that they should be giving Eva the cold shoulder.”

  “Wrong.” Now Frank’s tone was tense, as if he were staring in Breisi’s general direction. “Seems as if my girlfriend decided to be as efficient as always and send a Friend out to spread the word from one to the other.”

  Enough was enough.

  “Breisi?” Dawn said. “Listen to me. I know you can hear me.”

  Silence on the other end.

  “Breisi, Eva’s my mom. Sure, it sounds like she made a stupid choice, and she should account for it. But not like this.” She rested her head against a cabinet, suddenly feeling like she was always trooping through thick, heavy muck. “Not like this.”

  An instant passed where Dawn actually had enough energy to imagine her Friend relenting, but then Frank intruded.

  “Breisi left the room, and I doubt it’s because she’s gonna tell the others to find Eva.”

  Dawn banged her head against that cabinet. Like they didn’t have enough to deal with. Now this.

  Breathe.

  “Just keep me in the loop,” she said. “I should probably grab a hat and different clothes from Eva’s closet for some kind of pathetic disguise so I can move around in front of those cameras. After that, I’ll aim toward Hampstead since I have no other idea what to do. But while I’m floundering, work on your woman, would you?”

  “This is as much my bad as Eva‘s,” he said. “I’ll work on Breisi all night if I have to.”

  Frank signed off, and Dawn wrapped up the rest of the chicken, shoving it back into the fridge after one last drink of water.

  Then she rested, just until the thought of standing up didn’t seem like such a big deal.

  Meanwhile, she reviewed the plan: hop the tube to Hampstead, because she sure as hell wasn’t going to sit in headquarters twiddling her thumbs and waiting to hear something on a local news-cast about a middle-aged blonde going missing or ...

  Dawn didn’t want to think it, but she did.

  ... or going dead.

  She shut out the possibility. Drank more water. Wiped the grease off her hands on a fleur-de-lis dish towel.

  Then, just as Dawn felt strong enough to get up, her cell vibrated.

  She answered before it went off a second time. “Hello?”

  “Hi,
Dawn.” Eva’s exhausted voice.

  Thank God, thank God ... “I know the story, Eva, so you don’t have to explain. Just tell me where you are.”

  “Don’t worry—I’m in a public place. A nice wine bar in the area of the London Bridge tube station.” It sounded like she was holding the phone away from her and confirming with someone else that this really was the right location. Then she came back on. “After running out, I just ended up in here. It looked like a safe place.”

  “But you left your phone—”

  “I’ve borrowed the barman’s because I thought you might be...”

  “Jumping around like the devil’s been poking hot arrowheads in my ass? Yeah, I was.”

  Relief was inching through Dawn, and she actually pressed a hand over her thudding heart like some maudlin soap queen. But this was her mom. She’d lost her once, almost twenty-five years ago when she’d just been a baby, and she’d had to grow up without her. The thought of losing Eva again hurt more than Dawn would admit if anyone else were in the room.

  Her mom hadn’t responded yet, so Dawn tried to smooth out the dead air.

  “Dad says that you should come back so you can talk it out.”

  “I don’t think that would make Breisi very happy.”

  Damn it. “And having you traipse around the dark streets of London as vamp bait is a much better option.”

  Dawn quelled her temper again. It was just that this episode was so minor in the scheme of things. Why couldn’t it just be over?

  Vaguely, though, she realized that maybe Eva was fighting to find her own way, just like Costin was.

  It’s just that Costin’s way needed to come first. Always.

  “I’m really sorry this happened,” Eva said.

  Her shame was obvious, just like the loneliness Dawn also heard in her tone.

  “Mom.” She hoped the word said everything: how scared she’d been, how her mother dying for real this time would beat Dawn back down to the confused, aimless girl she’d been before getting Eva back.

  But her mother seemed to get it.

  Or at least she sounded happy that Dawn cared enough to be angry.

  “Do you want me to stay here, with all these people around, just until ... ?” Eva asked.

  “Until I come to get you? Yeah.” Dawn reached up and used the counter to get to her feet. “What’s the name of this place?”

  “Just a minute.”

  She heard Eva asking someone, then she came back on line with the name and directions.

  But, even though Dawn heard all of it, something else had captured her attention.

  A soft thud on the ceiling.

  She took out her revolver and meandered in the direction of the window, thinking that, of course, if there was something on the roof, it’d be a great time to be wearing this pain-in-the-ass skirt.

  She hiked it up, trying to get it out of the way, but it only slipped back down.

  Whatever.

  Whispering, Dawn said, “I’ll be there as soon as I can, Eva. No matter how long it takes, just stay there.”

  Not waiting for an answer, she folded the phone with one hand and stowed it in a jacket pocket. Then she doused the lights and glanced out the window.

  Nothing outside except a wanderer or two—businesspeople on their way home.

  She waited until they passed. Then, not hearing anything else, she accessed her earpiece.

  “Were you listening to Eva, too?” Dawn quietly said to whoever was on the other end: Frank, Natalia, or, God help her, even Jonah.

  But it turned out to be Natalia, probably because Frank was talking to Breisi. Jonah was probably trying on bitchin’ clothes or something, and Kiko was likely sleeping, lulled by a Friend.

  “I heard everything and noted it,” the new girl said.

  Good, dependable Natalia. “Where’s Jonah?”

  “He was getting ready to run out after you.”

  Aw, how devoted. Yeesh. “Tell him not to even think about taking unnecessary chances.”

  “He discovered that on his own after hearing you with Eva. So he turned his attention to Frank and Breisi. He’s mediating, you could say.”

  Dawn didn’t know how to react to that. It was actually a pretty constructive thing for Jonah to be doing.

  She decided to get going, but first it’d be smart to report the thump on the roof. Sometimes it was the little details that counted the most in hindsight.

  “Natalia, just FYI, I heard something on—”

  Dawn started backward as a thing with red eyes and a black-masked face appeared in the window, hanging upside down.

  With a spurt of adrenaline, she took aim with her revolver, hardly caring if a blast from the illegal firearm would draw the attention of the entire neighborhood.

  But the thing—the shadow, the twin of the dead boy the team was keeping in the lab freezer—disappeared from view.

  Dawn’s limbs were frozen as her mind took a second to race with possibilities: what she should do, what she shouldn’t do, what needed to be done.

  Vampires.

  Save Costin....

  But before she geared into motion, the glass shattered, and the dark thing crashed through the window, kicking the revolver out of Dawn’s hand, then grasping her wrist to flip her to the floor.

  The oxygen slammed out of Dawn, and the communication device flew out of her ear. As the shadow thing got into an intimidating hunch, its boot crunched down on the earpiece.

  Even out of breath, Dawn had just enough clarity to grab a silver-bladed knife from her jacket, and she back-stabbed toward the shadow thing.

  It arched backward, out of the way, and Dawn used that split second to bound to a crouch.

  As they faced off, reality set in: the red night-vision eyes right here in front of her, the figure suited in black from head to toe. It was about Dawn’s height, just like that dead boy in the freezer, but Dawn could already tell the shadow thing was quick and strong.

  One heartbeat passed ... another ...

  Neither of them moved as the shadow thing just stared, like it was getting some kind of read.

  Dawn’s pulse kicked, hammering away at rational thought.

  “What the hell are you?” she found herself asking on an escaped breath.

  The shadow thing looked sidelong at her, as if amused by the question, and that bought Dawn just enough time to come to her senses and reach for her pocket-bound mini flamethrower.

  Yet as she brought it out, she raised her finger off the trigger when she saw that the shadow thing had a flash grenade in its own hand.

  Prickles gnawed their way up Dawn’s skin at the sight of the box. The shadow boy from Billiter Street had been carrying one, too, and the team had analyzed it after his death.

  But could the device do more than temporarily blind an opponent? Had Breisi and Frank found out everything they could about it?

  The stare down continued as Dawn wondered if she could fire at the shadow thing—or even chuck the knife in her other hand at it—before the intruder activated the blinding box then darted out of the flames’ way to come behind Dawn and inflict some major hurt.

  Maybe some defense-lowering bullshit wouldn’t be amiss right now ... ?

  “Listen,” Dawn said. “I’m not out to piss your kind off. Whatever you are. I’m just looking for someone I know here in this flat.”

  The shadow thing hunched a little lower.

  Then it talked, its voice electronically mangled, and in all the temple-pounding confusion, Dawn could only think of the sound of snakes slithering out of Medusa’s head.

  “Attacker,” it said.

  “No, not at all.” Dawn clutched her flamethrower. “I didn’t attack you. You came here.”

  “Last night. Queenshill.”

  Dawn tried not to change expression, because the moonlight was going to show any cracks in her poker face.

  Even so? Fuck.

  Had all the clouded cameras from Billiter to Queenshill to Southwark f
inally led this thing here, near headquarters, and it’d been watching the area before picking up the sight of Dawn running around in the streets?

  She’d have to divert this intruder from headquarters, have to make it think that she didn’t want anything to do with hurting vampires at all and that it should just go on its merry way.

  The shadow thing started to circle her, but Dawn didn’t allow that. She stalked it, too, still face-to-face.

  And with every step, she prepared a different weapon—accessing her inner darkness, feeding it with thoughts of Jonah, Costin ... everything that was wrong with this world that she couldn’t set right.

  The anger rolled, gathered.

  “I have a few questions for you,” the shadow said in that eerie voice as it stopped circling.

  British accent, Dawn thought while the thing’s finger moved, as if to activate the box in its hand.

  With a desperate push, she blasted out with everything she had, her power licking around the thing’s wrist and yanking it.

  The untripped flash grenade flew into the air, and the shadow figure jumped backward, trying to get away from whatever Dawn was wielding.

  But she wasn’t done throwing down just yet.

  Dawn gave as good as she’d gotten earlier, pushing with her mind, connecting, then flipping the shadow thing over and slam ming it to the floor.

  Yet what it did next broke her concentration, broke her mental hold altogether.

  It ... laughed.

  Laughed.

  By the time Dawn processed that, the shadow thing had levered itself off of the floor and sprung to its feet, ready to grapple.

  Fight? Dawn thought. You want a fight?

  The dark spot in Dawn expanded, folding outward into a different shape that boxed her and squeezed her temples, warping her judgment and causing her to raise the flamethrower.

  She didn’t care what kind of damage the weapon would do to Eva’s place or even to this thing that might be a decent prize to capture alive for questioning.

  Dead, was the only thought she had. Gone.

  Kill them all.

  Just as she was about to pull the trigger, the figure kicked out at her, a dark streak, and the weapon spun out of Dawn’s hand, leaving her fingers numbed. Then, in the next heartbeat, the shadow thing swept Dawn’s legs out from under her and she crashed to the ground with a chest-punching grunt.