by Liz Schulte
She nodded, wiping the coins on her shirt before bending down and placing them in his pants pocket. “What does he do with the rest of the blood?” Frost asked.
“He keeps it along with a few organs, puts it through his wine press, then drinks it to gain his victim’s power.” I looked at the body one more time. Through his open shirt there was obviously a large chunk of skin missing. “I don’t know what he does with the skin.”
She nodded. “So we’re thinking that if he’s here, there’s definitely a gate to hell nearby, right?”
I put down the leg. It was possible, but why were humans trying to get through the gate? The gate had to be hard to find, or this would have been a problem much sooner. It seemed unlikely if there was a tunnel that it was new. Surely someone would have noticed a shift like that much sooner. Also, why the constant and sudden stream of victims? I was willing to bet Shezmu was here because of something else, and this had nothing to do with hell. He was a pretty major demon or deity to put on guard duty. It didn’t make sense. Something must have changed recently. Something set this ball in motion. “That’s the assumption we’re operating under, but there’s no guarantee. We just need to find him and kill him. I don’t really care what he’s doing here.”
Frost snorted. “I hope you know how to kill a god, because I sure don’t.”
I shook my head. “There isn’t a way to kill a god, at least not for people like us. I’m hoping he’s more demon than god. I can definitely kill a demon.”
“Okay, but let’s say we can’t kill him. Then what? How do we stop him from killing someone else? Someone like the two of us?” She shifted her legs, glancing back at the body then back to me. “Please tell me you have a plan.”
“Of course I have a plan. If he is more god than demon, we only have one choice. We send him back to hell and you earn your keep. Please tell me you have a spell for that. And hopefully one to keep him there.”
“In my bag. Sending him back is easy enough; binding him to the location is trickier. And once we send him back, what’s to keep him from coming back and this time coming after us? Are we going to close the tunnel? I really think we should. I don’t want to make a new enemy, especially one I can’t defeat.”
That would be the smarter thing to do. Shezmu’s shit list wasn’t a place I wanted to be. At least not until I figured out how to kill him. And there would be a way. Everything could die. The council, though, hadn’t stipulated. They just wanted me to send him away. No one ever mentioned the tunnel. “Hey, what do I know? I just work here. No one said anything about closing the tunnel.” I rolled my eyes. If the council hadn’t sent her to spy on me (or maybe even if they did), she was coming into this blind. “What did Sy tell you about this case?”
“That humans were being killed in the catacombs in Paris and we needed to stop it because it was drawing too much attention. That’s it. Why, is there more?”
I nodded. I hated the company line and the fact that Sy kept toeing it—and now I was toeing it too, which was even worse. If Frost was going to risk her life, didn’t she have a right to know who she was risking it for? If she didn’t know about the council, telling her now wasn’t going to do her any favors. All it would do is put her and the coven even more on the council’s radar, and they didn’t play fair. The coven was better off only being a vague interest for the council that would hopefully someday fade into nothing. “Our job is to stop Shezmu, whatever that takes. If we can’t kill him, we send him away. I agree that shutting down the tunnel would be smart, but he’d only find another one, and it isn’t as easy as it sounds.”
Frost stood back up. “Have you done it before?”
“Once. If you have a couple ancient souls you’re willing to sacrifice, it’s a breeze. But you know, that’s the one thing I forgot to pack.” The last one I’d helped close required the sacrifice of two of my friends. I wasn’t doing that again. “Anyway, we don’t need to worry about it until the damn tunnel with a ‘this way to hell’ sign is standing right in front of us. For all we know, it doesn’t even exist. Now beam your light back down here.”
I used the end of my flashlight to turn the flattened head with bulging eyes to the side, just in case it turned into my father again. The most dangerous bounty-hunting cases were the ones that looked cut and dry. It was easy to get cocky and overconfident. People missed clues that could cost their life. Add in emotions and we were as good as dead.
Now I was fairly certain the council was right about Shezmu being the killer, but we were still missing the why. Shezmu rarely involved himself in the human world. If he was here now, there had to be a reason. He was known as the killer of the gods because he wanted their strength. He couldn’t have gotten that much strength from killing a few humans. Even if it were as innocent as the humans stumbling onto the tunnel and he thought, Why the hell not? It’s been a while since I murdered someone, that didn’t explain why he was leaving the bodies where they could be found. And more importantly, why had all these people suddenly stumbled across his lair after what had to be decades and decades of existence? It was fishy. Either something was leading them there or Shezmu had just come. Either way, bigger wheels were turning.
I started patting down the body. Maybe there was a clue as to why or how the humans found him. Frost kicked me with her combat boot. “What are you doing?”
“Looking for clues. You know, what bounty hunters are supposed to do. You should try it sometime. Maybe you wouldn’t have to bring in all of your bounties dead.”
Frost sucked in a breath.
Okay, maybe that wasn’t completely fair. She couldn’t necessarily control if they touched her in a fight. “We need to know how this guy found Shezmu. Also, he might have supplies we could use.”
“I think he’s been through enough. Haven’t you heard of respect for the dead? I’m not robbing him. He’s been through enough. What’s wrong with you?”
What kind of necromancer was squeamish around a body? I was being practical. We had limited supplies as it was. Collecting what we could along the way was a must. “He doesn’t need it and we’re on a mission to avenge him. I think he’d understand. I know I would.”
She sighed, but didn’t comment further.
The poor guy didn’t have a single useful thing on him, although a helmet with a headlamp lay next to him, relatively unharmed. I flipped the switch and the light came on bright and strong. “You want this?”
Her face scrunched up. “Damn it. Yes, actually, I do.” She took it from me and wiped the blood away with her sleeve before she plopped it on her head.
His slightly damp clothes kept me from smiling at the fact she looked like a kid playing dress-up with the too-big helmet. “Can you swim?”
“Yeah, I guess. It isn’t like I do it often. The whole touching thing makes being uncovered really uncomfortable. Why?”
“Just checking. I don’t…so…” If I needed to be rescued, it was up to her. Then again, being rescued by a necromancer might actually ensure the fact I wasn’t going to die. “Can you do a spell that would surround a person in a bubble of air, so they can just float through water, breathing and dry?”
Her upper lip curled and her black eyebrows pulled together. “No. You should have asked before we came. Maybe the coven could have come up with a way to help.”
It was worth a shot. “The coven should really look into that. I bet there’d be a big market among non-swimmers for that sort of useful magic.” Who would want a love potion when you could breathe underwater?
Frost shook her head. “Why is all of this happening now? Isn’t it weird that it went from no deaths to fifteen?” Frost echoed my earlier thoughts. “Someone doesn’t just start offing people and displaying the bodies for no reason. There had to be a trigger. Something either pissed him off or…”
Dollars to donuts that trigger was none other than the council. I pulled an energy bar out of my bag and took a bite, chewing slowly as we followed the twisty, rough tunnels deeper into th
e earth and further away from the catacombs. “Best I can come up with is something is putting the humans in his path.”
She shook her head. “Why?”
The council wanted a reason to get rid of Shezmu. In some way, he wasn’t following their plan or playing their game, and now they were going to snuff him out, using me. But why me? Why not just do it themselves? They were all stronger than I was. They were probably capable of taking on a god.
“What aren’t you telling me? I don’t like feeling you know a lot more about this than you’re saying.”
I shot her a glance out of the corner of my eye. Her shoulders were hunched forward, her hands jammed into her pockets. The tunnels were cavelike. The damp, moldy smells and cool temperatures made them feel alien and not like part of our world at all. They weren’t freezing, but weren’t warm either. It was actually perfect for me, but Frost looked miserable—something that would only intensify if we got soaked. “You want to survive this mission, just remember whatever you think you know probably isn’t right. That’s been my experience with missions like this. Trust your gut. If something feels off, it probably is.”
“I know that.” She threw her arms up. “You do realize I’m a bounty hunter just like you? I’ve brought in at least a hundred bounties. I know how to investigate. Stop treating me like I don’t and tell me what the hell is happening.”
“We’re stopping a murderer. That’s what happening. Treat it like any other case.”
“Thanks for nothing,” Frost grumbled, marking an X on the wall.
A high-pitched scream came from down the tunnel and we both took off, running toward it.
Chapter 5
“It didn’t sound this far away,” Frost said, slowing down.
It was hard to tell how far anything was down here with all the stone and echoing. Any noise sounded both on top of you and miles away. The darkness only added to the disorientation. But she was right that we had gone a long way. “Could it have come from the other direction? Maybe someone else found the body.”
“That’s possible.”
“This place.” I shook my head. I hadn’t felt right since I was given this assignment. Everything was off, but I couldn’t say what. All of my feelings were so much closer to the surface than they should have been. It was like my internal balance was somehow askew.
“It feels weird, doesn’t it? The sensation has a magic base, but not a magic I can place. Maybe it’s Shezmu.”
I considered what she said. As a witch, she was better at recognizing magic than I was. Could it be as simple as a spell? If so, then what else was the spell going to do? “I don’t know. I just want this case to be over. I have a bad feeling about it.”
We walked in silence a few more feet, then the voices were back. The exact same ones I heard earlier. “Light,” I whispered.
Frost clicked off her helmet.
I stopped completely and squatted down, focusing on the sound. I closed my eyes and slowed my breath. Two voices, at least, still muffled and far enough away I couldn’t tell if they were coming or going. “Do you hear them?” I whispered to Frost.
“I’m not deaf,” she replied in the same tone.
If a human ear could hear them, they were closer than I thought. “Stay close. Don’t use the light.”
“But I can’t see anything,” she said.
I couldn’t see any better than she could, but my other senses would kick in. I reached back and grabbed her sleeve. I didn’t have a single piece of clothing loose enough for her to hold on to, which was the point. When you didn’t know what you’d be up against, the last thing you needed was loose clothing that could be grabbed or snagged against something. Movable, protective comfort was always the goal.
“Let go of me,” Frost said, trying to pull away.
“You have two choices. You can hold my hand and we can find out who else is here, or I’ll leave you here in the darkness alone.”
She didn’t answer, but slapped her leather-gloved hand into mine. I went slowly. With no natural light at all, the tunnel was impenetrable. The darkness felt vast, though logically I knew it was the same as before. One foot in front of the other, we moved forward. I closed my eyes because struggling to see was useless and dulling my other senses.
With my eyes closed, my hearing sharpened. A growl to my left made my ear twitch, and my heart sped up. It wasn’t possible. I had only ever heard a growl like that once in my life. It wasn’t a dog or a wolf. It was the distinct sound of a loup garou. The growl was more guttural and desperate than that of an animal. It was a cry for help, fueled by the rage of knowing no one could save you. The image of its snarling face hovering over mine, teeth gnashing, played on repeat in my head. Just like New Orleans.
Frost didn’t react, though. She was still behind me. Darkness was a bitch like that. It seeped into your brain and made you see and feel things that weren’t there. It breathed life into your worst fears and awoke nightmares. It was a manipulator.
Years of careful practice allowed me to tamp down the fear that was born of survival instinct until I hardly even noticed it on most missions. However, as we moved through the darkness, it was trying to claw to life inside of me. Logic was the only defense. I forced my legs forward, steady and smooth. My mother had taught me that. Right after my father died, I had horrible night terrors where Shezmu was tearing me apart and chasing me around a maze. She worked with me every night until we finally bested them. It was the first and last time I remember her ever being more than our leader. Logic eventually beat the nightmares. When I didn’t give in to the fear, it passed all on its own. It had been more years than I cared to count since I had felt like that. In fact, I had nearly forgotten I ever felt that—until now. Now it was back worse than ever.
The murmuring voices were still in the distance, so I picked up our pace, dragging Frost along. At least, I was pretty sure I was headed toward them.
“Femi,” a voice whispered in my ear. And then from the other side. “Femi.”
A feathery touch grazed my arm, making my skin ripple. I let go of the wall and brushed it off. Putting my arm in front of me, I moved it left and right, feeling for people. The same touch went down the back of my neck then across my lower back. Ignore it. Just ignore it, I chanted mentally as I went. Nothing was there. Only Frost was behind me, and she wouldn’t touch me. I pressed forward, completely blind, trying to focus on the sound of my steps for changes.
Visions of the loup garou were replaced with something infinitely more horrifying. In these new imaginings, each step was taking me closer to a ledge I couldn’t see, where I would step over and fall into a deep pool and drown. Phantom hands poked and prodded and pushed us along. Urging me to go over that edge. The body had been damp. My chest tightened. Each new step became its own suffocating challenge to move forward. I started tapping the heel of my boot on the limestone floor in front of me before every step, just to be sure the ground was solid.
Frost didn’t utter a word, but I could tell she was going through her own struggle. Her hand tightened periodically around my fingers as she jerked and flinched her way forward. Silent as death.
We walked for what felt like hours, but the voices never got closer or further away. They always sounded exactly the same distance away. Water dumped over me in a chilling wave. It cascaded from my head to my feet like I had been hit with a wave. I sputtered, unable to breathe, blinking away the wetness from my eyes. Another wave hit me as I tried to take a breath. I let go of Frost and shielded my face as I flipped on the flashlight, shaking the darkness from my skin. My breathing was fast and shallow as I made tiny gasps for air.
I ran my hand over my arms and clothes. I wasn’t wet and neither was the tunnel. There was no water at all. Frost had her eyes closed as she pressed into the wall, and her shoulders heaved up and down. I turned in a circle with the flashlight, looking for something, anything that was attacking us. Nothing was there. Everything looked the same as it had before. Exactly the same.
“Frost, open your eyes. It’s over.”
She pried one eye then the other open, looking around her, even paler than normal. I pointed at the wall. She glanced up at the X. “How is that…” Frost shook her head and touched the wall. “Did we go in a circle?”
I shook my head. There had been no turns, at least not that I could tell. We hadn’t moved. Every step we took was an illusion. This entire place was a mindfuck, but to what end? Would it drive us to Shezmu, or did Shezmu know we were here and was trying to get rid of us? “The voices aren’t moving either, but they come and go, always too far away to be heard clearly. Something is messing with us.”
“Maybe Shezmu is trapped in here too. Maybe this is a web and he’s the spider. That could be what changed.”
“Now that’s interesting. So how large would this web be? How far does it extend?” This theory would explain the general magical feeling of the tunnels. It would also be a reason why Shezmu was here and targeting humans: he didn’t have another choice. But who trapped him here and why?
She shook her head. “I don’t know. It could be as big as the person who made it wanted it to be.”
“Can you break it?”
Frost slipped off her backpack. “Actually, I think I can. At least I’ll try.”
“Good. Prepare your spell. I want to try something.” I flattened myself against the stone wall, then sucked in a deep breath and pushed off, running as hard and fast as I could forward. The tunnel bobbed up and down in front of me, my hair blew back, and those damn hands returned, scraping over me. But nothing ever changed and I never made it past the X on the wall. Finally I stopped, winded. I couldn’t break through whatever it was.
Frost barely looked up from the circle she was carefully drawing with her chalk.
“What would the web do?” I asked. “Like, what’s the point of it?”
She glanced up. “To trap. Someone wanders into your web then they can’t get out. It could stick them in one place until the spider comes, or it could lead them to wherever the person who made it wants people to go.”