by Liz Schulte
Olivia pressed her lips together. “Can you imagine Holden allowing anyone to vet him? Never going to happen. They knew what they were getting with him. Holden doesn’t pretend to be anything other than what he is. Sy’s a little trickier. Sometimes it’s hard to tell what’s going on with him, don’t you think? Even I have trouble reading him.”
I shrugged. “Maybe his new girlfriend could tell you.”
Olivia raised an eyebrow. “And how do you feel about that?”
She didn’t have to say I told you so. She’d been telling me forever to give him a chance before he moved on. Now that we were at that point, she wasn’t the sort to gloat—not that it bothered me or anything. I didn’t need Sy. “I’m fine.”
Olivia rolled her eyes. “Don’t give me that crap. You like him. I know it, Holden knows, Sy probably knows it. You are the only one who doesn’t know it. You like him and you always have. I’m going to tell you what you would tell me. Stop being a chicken shit and tell him how you feel.”
“I don’t know how I feel.” All of this was too complicated. I just wanted everything to be simple.
She sighed. “I can’t make you see it, Femi, if you don’t want to.”
I looked at my well-meaning angel friend. Knowing she did have my best interests at heart, it was hard to stay irritated with her. “I’ll think about it. New topic: do you think the demon-killing knife would work on Shezmu?”
“I don’t see why not if he’s a demon. However, if he’s a deity, it would probably just piss him off,” she said. “I’d still try it.”
I nodded. “Can I borrow it?”
“Sure, just a sec.” She disappeared and a few moments later she was back with the knife.
She shoulder-bumped me as she handed me the blade. “I’ll let you know if I find anything. Be careful down there. You really have no idea what you’ll come across, and if you do discover the gate to hell, don’t enter it. Getting out isn’t the same as getting in. They’ll try to tempt you or scare you to the other side. You have to be strong.” Worry filled her eyes and she caught her bottom lip between her teeth. Just being around Olivia made everything feel like it was going to be okay. She had that effect on people, but I also knew it was an illusion. Just because it felt like we were going to win, didn’t mean it was true. Maybe it was better that she wasn’t coming along. I needed my senses sharp for this mission.
“I wouldn’t know how to be anything else.” I flashed a grin.
****
I was putting the dead man’s hand (the hand of a dead thief that was enchanted to unlock any door) in my bag when my phone rang. Expecting Sy, I answered without looking.
“When are you coming home?”
I sighed. “Dendera, I’m getting ready to leave. I don’t have time for a guilt trip at the moment. You will have to catch me when I get home, or better yet, just don’t give me a guilt trip at all. Wouldn’t that make all of us happier?”
“She’s worse, Femi—and the priestesses can’t help her. Your people need you. I need you. Come home.”
“We have nine lives. I’m sure she has more of them. She doesn’t need or want me there to watch her come back.”
“Are you? You know how long she’s been alive. Do the math. She has to be coming near the end.”
My mother was old, but not permanent-death old. “Fine, I’ll do the math. Considering she has lived the most boring life known to man with a stick shoved up her ass, I assume she can live to be 1800 years old. She’s not even close to that. She has lots of time ahead of her. But she’ll know better than me; ask her.”
“You are the oldest. It is your duty to be here with her now. You’ve had your fun, but now it’s time to accept your responsibility.”
There was a knock at the door just as the clock chimed eight. Sy. I waved him in, while Dendera went on and on and on about my responsibility to the family and about how it wasn’t fair she had to step in when I was the oldest. The whole argument was designed to appeal to a side of me that had died long ago. The one that cared what my people’s expectations of me were. When I left them, I left for good. I never intended go home again.
“Okay, well, you’ve given me a lot to think about. I’m about to leave on a mission. It’ll be hard to reach me for a few days at least. Take care.” I hung up before she could start ranting. “Ugh. Family.”
Sy laughed. My bag was packed, sitting next to me on the couch. I didn’t bother bringing clean clothes, wanting maximum room for food, supplies, and weapons. Sy took one look at me and shook his head. “Leather might not be the best idea.”
I looked down at myself. Leather pants, a supportive shirt that was tight enough not to get snagged on anything, and my black leather boots with spike heels—it was basically my uniform. “Why does everyone have a problem with my clothes all of a sudden? I won’t even see a human this time around.”
“Parts of those tunnels are flooded. Do you want to be stuck in wet leather pants?”
“How flooded?” Bones, dead bodies, extreme cold, infernal heat…none of that bothered me. Swimming I didn’t do. “Are we talking ankle deep or do I need to take a life vest?”
He raised an eyebrow and shook his head. “Wear jeans. You’ll be fine.”
Easy for him to say. That wasn’t an answer at all, but I went back to my room and changed. I returned in jeans, a lot less excited about the mission. “Seriously, how much water? You know I don’t swim. If I can’t walk through it, I’m not going in it.”
“I haven’t been there, but…” He shrugged. “You might have to.”
Shit. I grabbed some sealable plastic bags, shoved them into my backpack, then took his hand. I couldn’t worry about it now. Maybe I could find a way around any flooded tunnels or maybe I wouldn’t encounter any. Either way, I’d deal with the water problem when I got to it. “Let’s do this.”
An instant later, we definitely weren’t in Paris. At least, it didn’t look like Paris. We were standing in the dated living room of some old farmhouse that looked like the set from a hillbilly horror movie. This had to be a joke.
“Frost,” Sy said.
“Yeah, coming. I’m ready,” Frost called from upstairs.
“Why are we visiting the Queen of the Damned?” I asked. “And when did she leave Chicago? She doesn’t actually live here, does she?”
Frost was a fellow bounty hunter—and a human necromancer. Basically, that meant she dealt mostly in death magic. There weren’t a ton of female bounty hunters, but that didn’t make us friends. Frost was about as approachable as a pit viper—though that didn’t matter in the bounty-hunting world. It might even be an asset. She did her job, even if she did bring in all of her bounties dead. Apparently she didn’t believe in trials, but the Abyss had room for all of us. We didn’t have to like each other, or our methods, so long as we stayed out of one another’s way—which Frost and I had successfully done since we first met. We had hardly even spoken more than a passing hello, and that was the way I wanted it to stay.
Sy shifted a little away from me. “Don’t be mad.” Just him saying the words set me on edge. No one said “don’t be mad” unless they damn well knew what they were doing was going to piss you off. “She’s coming with you. It makes more sense than you doing this alone. I can’t get away from the Office long enough to go with you. Plus, Frost is the more natural choice.”
I had been a bounty hunter for years and taken thousands of cases, and not once had I ever been assigned a partner. Sure, I picked one up every now and then along the way, but that was my choice. Being ordered to take someone with me wasn’t going to happen, not now, not ever. This had the damn council written all over it, spying on me again—just like Amos. If I couldn’t talk Sy out of it, I’d ditch her in the catacombs. No way a human could keep up with me. This mission was about two things for me: stopping Shezmu from killing anyone else and building my case against the council. Frost wasn’t going to stand in the way of that. “Council’s orders?”
“Actual
ly, no.” Sy met my challenge with a relaxed smile. “My orders. None of us knows or can predict what you’ll find down there. Your cell phone isn’t going to work. You’ll be completely disconnected from the rest of the world and on your own. You need backup in case something goes wrong. What if Olivia can’t get there in time? It would be stupid to go alone. You refused to pick a partner, so I chose one for you.” His stance and smile might have been all ease, but his eyes were hard and unyielding as they stared at me. “Besides, Frost can swim.”
My imaginary hackles stood on end. Sy wasn’t my boss. He was the middleman between me and jobs, sure, but I made my own decisions. He didn’t get to assign me a partner. “Since when do you tell me what to do? She isn’t coming with me,” I said as Frost came into the room, a backpack slung over one shoulder. I looked down at her. She was nearly a foot shorter than me, with stark white hair in a long braid down her back. Her small size made her look younger than she probably was. Mostly, though, she looked human and fragile—two things that would be a liability underground. “She’ll slow me down.”
I didn’t have a problem with humans. I even liked some of them. The coven of witches Frost had weaseled her way into was nice, but that didn’t mean I trusted Frost. She wasn’t like the rest of them. She had a reputation for not playing well with others, which was fine when you worked alone. Out of every bounty hunter available, surely a human wasn’t the best Sy could do. And honestly, did Sy actually know her well? Did anyone? If he was going to assign me a partner, at least it could be someone fun and not someone I was going to have to babysit.
Frost pursed her lips in my general direction. “Femi.”
“You aren’t coming.”
Frost dropped her backpack to the ground and slipped a hoodie over her long-sleeved black shirt and gloves. “Yeah, I wouldn’t have chosen you as a partner either, but I am going. If you want to bail, that’s fine. I’ve got this. I’ve always wanted to see the catacombs. Really, you are pretty unnecessary to my mission.”
Right, seeing the catacombs. There was a good reason to challenge a deity. She was deranged. I shook my head, rolling my eyes. I wasn’t buying any of this. The council sent her. No one in their right mind would want to meet Shezmu unless they absolutely had to—no matter what the destination was. This was my chance to get dirt on the council, completely alone and without prying eyes, and they were trying to stop me.
I had already anticipated what Sy said. I would be completely cut off down there—except for maybe Olivia—but I could handle it. I was ready. A drop of doubt fell through me and spread. I squashed it down. Fear was my enemy. Frost wasn’t going to ruin my plan. “Over my dead body.”
She shrugged. “Fine with me.”
Sy snapped his fingers between us. “Last I checked, I was in charge of the bounty hunters. Granted, I let you guys do it your own way and play to your strengths, but this time you’re going to do it my way. I want both of you on this case.” Sy looked back and forth between us. “This isn’t about egos. It’s about people dying and a problem that needs to be taken care of. Frost brings expertise to this that you don’t have, Femi.”
“A shitty attitude?”
“Pretty sure you’ve got that covered,” she said, crossing her arms.
“You’re headed into a world of the dead that may or may not lead to hell. Having a necromancer with you is an advantage most people would kill to have.” He winked at Frost. “No pun intended.”
“I’m not babysitting her. If she can’t keep up, I’ll leave her behind. Both of you should know that upfront.”
Frost snorted. “I can take care of myself.”
Sy’s jaw set to that stubborn angle it took when he was about to dig in and not give an inch. Obviously he wasn’t going to let this go, and he was my ride there. I’d have to make do. At least Frost would keep me on edge and I wouldn’t get too comfortable with my surroundings. I didn’t trust her and that wasn’t going to change. I held up my hands in surrender. “Fine. If she keeps up, she can come with me. But I am not slowing down for her. I want to be in and out of the catacombs as fast as possible.”
He looked at Frost. “And Femi has experience and knowledge that you don’t have, especially with Shezmu. You can learn from her. She’s one of the best instinctual bounty hunters I’ve ever worked with. Listen to her and trust her instincts.”
Frost rolled her eyes. “Whatever.” She slipped on her backpack. “If I can tolerate the coven, I can tolerate anyone, including her.”
Water and Frost. Fantastic. I couldn’t wait to see what was next. Maybe my mother would show up and complete this handbasket to hell.
Chapter 3
“Which entrance do you want to go to?” Sy asked.
“Can you take us here?” I tapped the X on the map where the first body was found.
He shook his head. “I doubt that map’s to scale. I’ve never been in the catacombs. We could end up in a wall or something. I have to be fairly familiar to make transporting work. We need something near the surface and a larger area.”
Option B it was. I pointed at the access point I decided to try. It was nearest to the area where most of the bodies were discovered. The condition of the passage was impossible to tell based on the map alone, but if we could make it through, this would be the second best location. We’d have to enter through an abandoned metro tunnel, which should be big enough for Sy to safely transport to.
Getting in was more complicated now that I had a human with me. Olivia said the patrols had increased, and I had no reason to think they wouldn’t be in the metro station if they knew about the entrance. We’d have to be fast and silent or I’d lose Frost a lot sooner than I expected. “We should go now. The later we wait, the more likely it is she will be seen. I really don’t want human police chasing us.” I put the map back in the plastic bag and then into my satchel.
Sy put his hand on each of our shoulders, and moments later we were in the arched metro tunnel. A set of tracks ran down the center, and the tile walls were discolored with age and graffiti. Phantom noises came from all around, popping and clanks and rumbling groans. Spooky if you couldn’t focus on their locations. Some of the sounds carried from the street, while others came from the tunnels themselves. Frost clicked on a small flashlight that wouldn’t draw much attention unless the people were on top of us.
“How long do you want me to wait before I send in a search party?” Sy asked.
Considering how many miles of tunnel there were to cover—and the human slowing me down, not to mention rough terrain and possible water hazards—it could take a while. I had enough food for maybe a week if I practically starved myself, but I hadn’t anticipated a partner. Frost was small, though. Maybe she wouldn’t eat a lot. And surely there were rats or something down there that we could eat if worse came to worst. “What’s in your backpack?” I asked Frost.
“None of your damn business,” she said.
“It is if you’re coming with me. I didn’t know I was bringing a partner.” I glared at Sy. “I only packed provisions for myself.”
“Flashlight, batteries, rope, matches, rags, blanket, supplies for a couple spells that might be useful, water, and protein bars. Happy?”
I nodded. “Okay, good. Nothing too wasteful.”
“This isn’t my first mission,” she said under her breath, as she glanced around the abandoned metro station. “This place is cool.”
“Give us a week,” I said. “We don’t have supplies for longer than that.”
He nodded, his handsome face etched with worry. “Watch each other’s backs.” He pointed at me. “Don’t leave her.”
I nodded, already looking down the tunnel. “Yeah, whatever. Let’s do this.”
“Lead the way,” she said.
“I expect food when I get back. Lots of food.” I waved at Sy and took off, heading deeper into the darkness at a good pace.
“Will do. Be careful.”
I could feel him watching us go. Did Sy get this
emotionally involved with all of his bounty hunters? I used to think I was special, but… I dismissed the thought. Where had all this self-doubt come from? None of it mattered. We had a mission and no time to waste worrying about things out of my control. I had let too many voices get into my head. Too many connections; too many emotions. It was dulling my edge.
Frost did a decent job keeping up with me, despite her small stature. Her footsteps lightly echoed through the tunnel, but were nothing a human should notice. She was actually surprisingly light-footed. Two bright lights popped up a little ahead of us. A man and a woman’s voices carried as they carried on a casual conversation in French. Frost had already flipped off her light and pulled her sweater’s black hood up, covering her white-blonde braid. She pressed herself against the wall by a small section that jutted out a little further than the rest.
I went to the other side of the tunnel and leaned against the cement, watching the patrol head toward us. It would take a special sort of person to be able to see me, and even if they could, they probably knew better than to challenge me, especially in front of a human. Frost, on the other hand, could be seen by anyone.
The lights came closer and closer. As far as hiding places went, Frost’s wasn’t good. I had no trouble spotting her, but maybe two distracted guards wouldn’t be so observant. But that was also a big maybe. If she was spotted, I’d either have to leave her or the mission would have to be postponed. Obviously, leaving her was the better of the two options, but it would tick off Sy. Hopefully, though, with a little interference, we could avoid the problem completely.
I took long, light steps back down the tunnel until I was a good fifty yards away. I pulled a glowstick out of my pack. I hated to waste it, but it was worth it if it meant we wouldn’t have humans chasing us. I broke the stick in several places, dropped it on the ground, then jogged back to where I’d been. The guards were practically on top of us. One of the flashlights hit the wall, not five feet from where Frost stood. I squatted down and grabbed an old beer can. Just as the light was coming her way, I threw the can as hard as I could, making it crash further down the tunnel where the glow of the light just barely reached.