Fists of Iron: An Urban Fantasy Novel (Clans of Shadow Book 3)

by J. A. Cipriano

  “You shall wait until God calls you into His presence, Franklin Butcher,” Cop Dog said with some sympathy. “I apologize that this is necessary, yet fret not. You shall be in familiar company.”

  Considering how my luck tended to run, the waiting room was probably filled with starved, man-eating sabretooth tigers.

  “Lovely.” I shrugged. “Sure, whatever you say. I’ll play along as long as I get to see the Big Man.” As neither puppy moved to open the door, I stepped up and pushed it open myself. It opened easily and freely without a sound, and as I stepped through, the angel dog released me from the catch pole.

  The room was a communal quarters of sorts, with sumptuous looking beds lining the walls. Polished teakwood chests sat at the foot of each bed while the center of the room was filled with some low tables, cushions, and pillows. It was pretty cozy but what was more important was who was already here.

  Krishna in all his blue glory was crashed out in a bed, his leather jacket hung on a bedpost. I could tell he was alive, but he had gotten worked over good. Dark blue-black bruises dotted his chiseled frame, but he looked to be breathing easily. As for his gold mace, that was nowhere to be seen. Still, it was a relief to see Big Blue still kicking, even if he was in the hoosegow with me.

  Though what really perked me up was the pair sitting across from each other at a small table, talking and holding hands. No, it wasn’t Molly and Tyrone. Who knew where those crazy kids were at this point, assuming they had survived the crash at all?

  No, it was Gabriela and Max. Gabby looked a little worse for wear, her lab coat acquiring a few more patches and stitches, but she was radiant all the same. You could see the happiness in her eyes, her smile. Even if things might be bleak overall, she’d found her child, alive and well, and that looked to be enough for her, at least for now.

  As for Max, Rabbi Joe hadn’t been lying when he said he was doing fine. Honestly, I’d only seen Max better for that short period after we had stopped the Enders what felt like a lifetime ago. The teenager had his mother’s sharp green eyes, his father’s strong chin and cheekbones, and wavy black hair, with clothes that fit the native Heaven standard of simple, well-made tunics and sandals. Max was in no strange daze, no paralysis, no walking sleep. He was totally and completely himself.

  I didn’t even care when the door closed shut behind me as they both looked over at me and cried my name in relief.

  “Spirits above, we thought you were dead,” Gabby added, her eyes watery as she ran over to me, Max right behind her. She didn’t hesitate to throw her arms around me, something I reciprocated immediately. “When we woke up, you were gone and before we could look anywhere, the angels descended.”

  “Trust me, I thought I was dead too for a bit there.” I was so happy to see her, it was sad, making me feel guilty, I closed my eyes and leaned against her, taking comfort in her presence. “But I’m okay. You’re okay, and the kid’s okay. That’s all that matters.”

  Max’s hand fell on my shoulder. “Yeah and the ‘kid’ is glad to see you too. Mom’s been trying to catch me up on everything, but all I know is I owe you, like, tons. Like I can’t even conceive of how much I owe you.”

  I opened my eyes and pulled back a bit from the doc, but I sure as hell didn’t let go. I know I should have, but I just wanted a few more seconds of contact, okay?

  “Don’t worry about it, Max. You’re a good kid, you don’t deserve all this crap.” Yes, I do try to tone down the cursing when a kid’s around. I do have some principles. “Besides, your mom deserves at least half the credit, if not more.”

  The kid laughed and hooked his thumbs in the tunic’s belt. “Trust me, I don’t think she’ll let me forget it.” Gabriela gave him a mock-reproachful look. “Mom, c’mon. You know I don’t mean that.”

  She laughed, a lighter, freer laugh than I’d heard from her for some time. “I know, I know.” Slowly, reluctantly she pulled away from me. “Well, I don’t know if you know how we got here–”

  I scratched the back of my head, feeling a hint embarrassed. “Yeah, I do. It’s amazing how gossipy people in Heaven are.” I took another glance around the room, hoping maybe Molly and Tyrone actually were here hiding in a corner or under some blankets. No luck there. “How’s Kris doing?”

  “Kris is doing just fine, thank you,” the god groaned from the bed. “These bruises are simply for show. What is it you mortals in the West say? ‘Chicks dig scars’?” He sat up with a wince.

  Gabby rolled her eyes. “Please don’t infect my son with that kind of machismo. Though the truth is that Krishna will be fine. He is a major deity after all with plenty of faith energy.” She walked over and poked him in the forehead. “Assuming he goes back to resting, that is.”

  Max shook his head. “Don’t worry, Mom. I made it this far with a Peacekeeper dad so if I’m not a hard case by now, it’s not happening.”

  Though she had her back to us, I could see Gabriela deflate just a hair. I figured I’d better break the potential bad news right then. “Speaking of John, he’s here in Heaven. Tabitha’s still with him too.” That got her attention, Krishna’s too.

  “How did he manage that?” Krishna asked, curiosity filling his voice.

  Gabriela was frowning as she turned back to me. “Abner?”

  “Good guess and I think the right one.” I found a pile of cushions to flop onto. Might as well rest the dogs while I could. “From what he inferred, Tabitha put a whammy on Big Red and made him take them here and disguise them to look like the dead souls here. Our little crash separated them, so maybe Abner’s free and on the loose.” I shrugged. “No clue. Any news about Molly or Tyrone?”

  Max grabbed a cushion beside me while Krishna frowned sadly. “Unfortunately not. They weren’t strapped down and were blown out of Garuda. I can only pray they still live. If they are alive, then they are still free or else the One would have reunited us.”

  The kid put his chin in his hands as he leaned against his knees. “I can’t believe Dad’s alive, but I also can’t believe a lot of what’s been going on.” He shook his head.

  The doc walked back over to her son and put her hands on his shoulders. “Don’t worry. We’ll figure this out.”

  “Yeah, well, I’ve already figured out what we have to do,” I said in my best confident voice despite the sense of hopelessness threatening to overtake me. Still, we had to try, right? Besides, in my experience, it was always best to sound confident when you’re about to lay out a lame-brained scheme.

  Again, that got everyone’s attention. No one asked, they just looked at me expectantly.

  “Look, it’s obvious we’ve only got one shot to save everything.” I pointed at Krishna. “You pretty much spelled it out for us. You said the Hindu gods can’t stop this by themselves and the One or God or whatever can’t do it Himself either. The Great Old Ones are the best of the best, the biggest single group of gods.”

  “Well, yes, Frank, we all know that,” Gabriela sighed. She was about to snark some more, but she stopped short. “Are you going to say the obvious thing?”

  “Probably,” I chuckled. “So let me go ahead and say it. We need as many gods as we can, like all the gods. The Oldies might be better than one or two pantheons, but not all of them. Look, it was in the prophecy and Joe hinted at it too.”

  Max made a face, like he’d sucked down some curdled milk. “That sounds easy, but I don’t know how you’d do that.” As soon as he said it, he looked a bit surprised and embarrassed, as if he’d slipped up in spite of knowing he was supposed to be quiet while the adults were talking.

  Krishna had slid to the edge of his bed, dangling his legs over the end. “Why do you say that, young one? Once, long ago, there was a great alliance of deities, all to enforce the natural order and keep creation intact from the depredations of the Old Ones. Could it not happen again?”

  Max looked a bit mortified as he looked around the room at us and we all looked back on him. He cleared his throat, his voice crackin
g a bit, “Uh, well, Lord Krishna, I don’t think you all have met the One since you got here, and I don’t know how long it’s been since you last met him before this, but … well, He seems a bit stuck-up. Like He’s supremely confident that everything is A-OK, even with all the bad guys chewing on the front door.”

  I rubbed my chin. “That sucks.” I glanced over at Krishna. “This sound right to you?”

  Krishna made an effort to stand up, thought better of it, and laid back down. “I can’t say it is an impossible thing to have occurred. As the One grew in power over the past thousand years, He has grown ever more distant, cutting off ties and reneging on treaties with the other divinities. Perhaps it is possible, even in His great wisdom and foresight, to have grown so proud from the praise of His many, many worshippers that He believes He has sufficient power to stand alone.”

  We sat there in silence, letting that rattle around inside our heads.

  Finally, I slapped my thighs and stood up. “Well, fuck it. I’m still going to try to talk sense to Him and Joe. It’s our only chance, so we have to try, right?”

  Gabriela chewed her lip a moment before nodding. “Yes, I’m with you.”

  “Me too!” Max added in. “You said I had all these super special threads in me, Frank, so they had better be good for something. Why can’t it be getting a spirit to listen to reason?”

  Krishna laughed merrily. “See, this is why I love you mortals so much! No matter what, you keep fighting, keep striving, no matter the odds.” He turned his head on his pillow. “You have my aid as well. I simply hope you have an idea on how to convince Him.”

  “Sure, I’ve got a plan,” I said, painting my patented Frank Butcher smile on my face.

  I hoped I sounded convincing because, between you and me, at that point, I had no goddamned plan at all.

  20

  I don’t know why I was certain God would talk to us. Call it faith, I guess. More likely, it was the fact Krishna was with us, and he seemed pretty confident things would happen. Maybe there’s some rules for when gods capture gods, like nobles of old and shit like that. Anyway, it wasn’t long before the Cop Dogs came back for us.

  This time they didn’t feel a need to use their catch poles, something I think would have prompted an impromptu rebellion. They were unfailingly polite, which wasn’t anything new, but they went so far as to kneel before Krishna and Max. I quirked an eyebrow at Gabriela while the dog boys were kneeling, but she only had a look of concern and confusion for me.

  We moved through God’s Garden, seeming to take our sweet time meandering through labyrinthine corridors and galleries. It was hard to keep track of our path, but I swear we backtracked multiple times like a coiling snake. All I could think of was we were being stalled or (the more likely to me) God was showing off his nice stuff.

  There were fantastic mosaics, life-like paintings, golden statues, and shelves full of ancient scrolls and books. All of this art depicted scenes of holy books, some of which I could easily identify and the rest were just assumptions. The Garden was less a temple or a house and more like a combination museum, library, and statuary for God’s possessions. Well, if they were possessions. It’s entirely possible this was all created by God’s will or by our beliefs in Him or what not. Who was to say and, at the end of the day, who cared?

  Whatever the reason for this runaround, I couldn’t muster the desire to argue. It was awe-inspiring to see it all laid out, so the gawker in me was happy with the trip. No one else was complaining either, all of us but Krishna craning our heads in a vain effort to see everything we could see.

  Eventually, we wound up being led through a rather mundane wooden door, well-made but slightly disappointing compared to the other wildly fantastic architecture. The two angels took positions on either side of the door.

  “Our Lord waits within,” one of them said. “Please enter freely.”

  I shook off the last bits of lingering awe from the art show. “You guys aren’t coming for dinner?”

  The other dog’s eyes dropped slightly. “We are not of the right choir to go further, but thank you for your generous offer.” He glanced at the door. “Do not linger. He waits for you.”

  Gabriela took the lead, slipping past Krishna and I to push open the door. “Come on. I want to see this through.”

  What lay beyond was stark and simple, even more so than the door into the room had been. You could even call it cozy after a fashion. It was just big enough to accommodate a large, rectangular oak table in the center of it with chairs set around it. The ones at the head and the foot were a bit larger and more ornate than the others, but they weren’t covered in gold or crusted with jewels or anything. It all looked like something a skilled carpenter might put together, functional and useful above all.

  Naturally, there were already people waiting for us, including some familiar faces. John and Tabitha had already been seated along one side. They were still dressed in Heavenly garb but appeared far more solid than the last time I had seen them. To be totally honest, I wasn’t too surprised to see them. I doubted the hounds of Heaven were that easy to shake, even if you did blend in with the locals. Needless to say, neither of them looked happy to be here, with John doing the grim, jaw-set thing while Tabby looked like she had made the biggest mistake of her life.

  Sitting opposite Magic Cop was Rabbi Krakowski. His dress was fancier than it had been on Olympus, pristine formal robes with gold trim with a silken prayer shawl inscribed with Hebrew script. In contrast to the other two mortals, Little Joe looked a little smug, not quite to a full-on shit-eating grin, but getting there.

  The guy I didn’t know was sitting at the head of the table. For a moment, his form seemed indistinct, his entire body cloaked like the faces of the Pythia’s hosioi. Quickly enough, before we’d taken two steps in, it settled down into the appearance of a man in his mid-thirties, right around my own age, with a relatively plain appearance. He looked to me like the ultimate ethnic mutt with facial elements of every ethnicity I could think of and a few I couldn’t. His dress was equally mundane: modern workman’s clothes, like he’d just stepped off of a construction worksite.

  The aura he put off was far from mundane though. If you rated Zeus’s impression of power as, like, a six and Krishna as an eight, this guy was all the way to eleven. I swallowed hard. I was standing before God. Holy fuck.

  “Welcome to My table,” He said, spreading his arms wide. “I’m sorry your arrival here may have been rough or inconvenient, but I assure you the rest of your time in Paradise will be as pleasant as I can manage.”

  It was an internal war for me. Yes, this could all very well be a trap like most everything else was, but other than the obvious moments, everyone in Heaven was awfully damned polite. Plus if He had wanted something bad to happen to us, He’d have already done it.

  Krishna beat me to the punch though, no real surprise, striding straight up to the foot of the table. “Yes, our last meeting was certainly on nicer terms.” He sat down like he belonged there as the rest of us began to follow. “I trust you’re at least keeping Garuda well and tending to his wounds for me?”

  “Of course, Lord Krishna,” God nodded. “Despite all the disagreements over treaties and responsibilities these past thousand years, I would have been glad to have let you through if you had merely asked.” As Gabriela and Max were about to sit, He smiled and waved to Max specifically. “Please, My child, sit next to Me.” He gestured to the empty seat beside Him on the rabbi’s side.

  Max looked confused, glancing at his mother. Gabriela nodded, smartly deciding not to insult the request of the Big Guy Upstairs, and they took seats next to each other on the rabbi’s side, with Gabby making sure to keep herself between her son and Joe. Me, I wound up leaning against the table corner near the doc and Krishna. It would have been rude to pace around God's table, but I still thought better on my feet. This was the best compromise I could come up with.

  “If you hadn’t noticed, your worshipfulness, the
re isn’t anything coming through the front gates,” I pointed out. Maybe it was the exposure to the other divinities so far that made me able to accept that I was having a chat with Our Lord and Savior. Knowing He wasn’t the actual Alpha and Omega helped to contextualize the situation. “We couldn’t exactly come up and knock, not without letting the Oldies in the front door.”

  John glanced over at Gabby and Max and I could see the bit of relief in his eyes, despite that constant twitch and clenched jaw. That relief was shared to some extent by the doc, while Max looked a little lost, a little unsure of things. Couldn’t blame the kid. Last he knew, his old man was dead and had been that way for some time.

  Joseph replied to my obvious statement. “Yahweh knows, don’t worry, Frank. Soon, the forces of Paradise will wipe the schmutz off the doormat and pave the way for Our Lord to push the Old Ones back to their home planes. They’ll have just enough influence to keep the natural order and that’s it.”

  The Peacekeeper had been about to say something to his wife and son, but he snapped at the rabbi’s words. “Everything was under control and safe before you manipulated events, Krakowski. After you fled the scene of the crime, I was told exactly what you did and how you pulled it off.” John pointed at Joe from across the table. “Trust me, I’m going to put you behind bars. It’s just a matter of time.”

  The rabbi replied with only a quizzical look, as if John were an annoying math problem instead of a threat while Tabitha shook her head. “I’m sorry, Gabriela. While I was more than willing to do my duty in accordance to our laws, since Olympus, John’s been growing more obsessed. I tried to convince him to at least try negotiating with the rabbi but.”

  Gabby’s brow screwed up in frustration. “You certainly picked a bad time to start thinking things through, Tabitha. You know how John can get and you know how important Max is…”