Hardboiled: Not Your Average Detective Story (The Lillim Callina Chronicles Book 5)

by J. A. Cipriano

  I brought my left hand up, the bangle that housed Apep wreathing itself in black smoke. Manaka caught my wrist before I’d barely moved an inch, stopping me with no more effort than it would take to swat at a fly. He twisted. My wrist snapped, the sound of it echoing on the empty platform. He released me as I cried out in pain, my bangle slipping off and hitting the ground in pieces that skittered off into the darkness.

  “You are no match for me, Lillim. I won’t tell you not to struggle,” he said, sheathing Haijiku and flicking my bottom rib with his index finger. My bone shattered. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t even remember how, drowning me in an ocean of pain that left me unable to even think. “It’s pointless, but honestly, I want you to do it. That would be more fun.”

  I reached out toward his sheathed weapon with my right hand, and he swatted it away. My hand hit the railing and went numb. “I know what you did to Masataka Mawara, how you pretended right up until you slit his throat and spilled his hot blood down the front of you. Did you like that? The feel of his mouth on yours as he realized what you had done to him?”

  Tears filled my eyes as the memory burbled just below the surface of my thoughts. He was right, after all. I had done that. I hadn’t enjoyed it… but I’d still done it. It was one of a handful of moments that reminded me I was a bad person.

  “What is it about you, Lillim? What is it that makes your enemies crave the touch of your lips?” His tongue shot out, and he licked my cheek, leaving a trail of saliva along my flesh. “You taste like roses, caramel, and something else…” he said a moment later, pulling back just a fraction of an inch so that his breath was hot on my cheek. “But what is that…” He trailed off, his eyes growing wide with… fear.

  “No… no it cannot be,” he said, taking a step back from me so that his body was no longer pressed against mine. He gripped the hilt of Haijiku so hard that I could see his muscles straining beneath his black jumpsuit. “How could you do this? You made it so I’m stuck in Hades, forever. You made it so my plan to take over the Dioscuri failed.” He shook his head, turning away from me as a single tear slipped down his cheek. “You have made it so we’re all doomed.”

  “What?” I asked, confusion welling up inside me as I slumped to the floor, my ribs throbbing and my wrist pulsing with white hot bursts of agony.

  “You think I’m just evil, and maybe I am. Maybe I’ve become the villain, but what you don’t realize is that Nanashi is back.” Which was true. I had no idea who that was. Was he a Dioscuri? Some kind of monster? Why was it so bad that he was back?

  “He has been back for a while now,” Manaka continued. “And everything, everything I have done to prepare for his return has been undone by my death. In my final moments, I hoped that our sacrifice had locked him away for good…”

  Worry crisscrossed his features as despair swept over him, his shoulders slumping in defeat. His abrupt ‘about face’ through me for a loop. Hadn’t he been all vengeance and murder a second ago? What had changed?

  “When I tasted you, I tasted your power, Lillim. I tasted the wild hunt. I tasted Isis and Set, their warring bodies still locked within you. I tasted the darkness of Apep, pushed to the forefront by necessity.” He turned to face me and drew Haijiku from its sheath and held the blade in front of himself. “Unfortunately, I tasted him, too. Now the Emissary is telling me to forgive you, prattling in my brain like an angry old biddy.” He shook his head. “And I’m dead, trapped here for eternity, and you… you’ve lost your swords.” He screamed, a low guttural sound that made my blood turn to ice water.

  “What the hell are you talking about, Manaka?” I asked as Manaka glared at his own weapon. It looked like they were having some kind of mental conversation.

  “Are you sure?” he asked the weapon, and it pulsed in the torchlight like a living thing. He shut his eyes for a long time. When he opened them, unshed tears glistened around the edges.

  Without another word, he jerked the sheath free from his belt and held it and the sword out, offering them to me. “Take Haijiku once more, Lillim. The Emissary and I have come to an agreement, and he will assist you. You will need him to defeat Nanashi. I had forgotten my purpose, so caught up in rage and anger that my purpose, my true purpose became distorted, but right now, I am finally seeing clearly. I made a deal with a devil, and it got me trapped inside Hades for all eternity, doomed to wander the fields of battle, trying to fight my way out of a hole I created for myself. Through my own actions, I have imprisoned myself.” He shook his head, a tear dripping down his cheek. “I can no longer stop Nanashi from rising.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t know who Nanashi is,” I said, looking from the Haijiku to him and back again. “I need to get out of here and do about a bazillion things. I don’t have time to go on a wild goose chase for no one.”

  “I know that.” Manaka gritted his teeth. “I know you have a lot to do, Lillim. I know your boyfriend has been taken, and along with him, my friend the Blue Prince. I know you feel like you need to go after Lang and Polyphemus. I know that you’re worried about Thes. I know all this, and still I ask you to listen to me. You must kill Nanashi before he comes into his full power, or we are all doomed.”

  “You just broke my arm and my ribs. You shattered one of my bangles. You licked me, and come on, who does that?” I shook my head as anger surged inside me. “You did all of that right now. Right now and then ask me to trust you?”

  “Yes,” Manaka said. “Take Haijiku from this place. Find Nanashi and destroy him. Rout him from this earth so completely that he can never come back, can never lay a hand on any of us again.” Manaka sighed, an exasperated, desperate sound that made my heart sink. “You aren’t listening to me.”

  “Of course not,” I snapped. “The only thing I am thinking about is grabbing Haijiku and stabbing you with it.”

  “Very well,” Manaka replied, leaning back on his haunches and exposing his chest to me. “Do your worst.”

  “Don’t think I won’t!” I screamed, snatching the blade to do just that. The moment I touched Haijiku, an electric current exploded through my mind. The feeling of a giant field of crows settled over the back of my mind, waiting for the chance to take to the air, to burst into a flurry of pecking and chaos. It was so strong, I couldn’t even think past it.

  Manaka smiled at me as I stood there, Haijiku shaking in my right hand. Light pulsed out of it, a little spark of blue that carried itself over my body, and just like that, I didn’t hurt any more. Hell, I wasn’t even tired. I stared down at my left wrist in awe as the bones writhed and moved beneath my flesh until they were back to normal.

  “Lillim, you must stop Nanashi. You must stop him. Fine, you don’t believe me, Lillim. But I know you’ll believe Warthor Ein. Tell him what I have told you. Tell him Nanashi has returned. He will vouch for me. He will know what to do. He can help you.”

  “Warthor Ein is gone.”

  “Not gone. Trapped in Fairy, maybe. But not gone.”

  “What do you mean by that? While what you say is technically true, Warthor has taken my place among the Wild Hunt. He is so far beyond my reach, it’d be easier to find him if he was dead.” I gestured at Manaka to prove my point.

  He laughed, and the sound of it was strangely… sane. He stood and pushed past me as he moved down the steps into the darkness. “Then you’ll just have to trust me.” He bent down, kneeling on the steps for a moment before rising and tossing something at me. “Catch.”

  My bangle, the one he had broken before, skittered across the floor and came to a rest beside the door. Only now it wasn’t broken anymore. I stared at it for a long time before picking it up. As I slipped it around my wrist, I said, “Why are you helping me?”

  “Because the Emissary says that you are my only hope. And that is very, very sad.” He was gone then, disappearing into the depths of Hades, and like a crazy person, I had the sudden urge to go after him. I wanted to make him explain himself, to make him tell me wha
t the hell he was talking about. Unfortunately, I was not about to chase him down into Hades to do that.

  Manaka was the most powerful Dioscuri who had ever lived, and he was scared of someone called Nanashi. Even dead and beyond reach, he was still scared. As I stood before the door of death one last time, Haijiku’s familiar weight in my hand, a frown crossed my lips. This day was going to get a lot worse before it got better.

  Still, I had to wonder, who was he, and how did I find him. I knew Warthor could help me with that, but I wasn’t sure I could find him. Then again, my dad would be back home soon. He had known Manaka and Warthor. Chances were good he at least knew who Nanashi was. I swallowed, hopefully Nanashi would keep a low profile until my dad got back home from wherever he had gone.

  Chapter 17

  Connor was still lying unconscious on the grass when I opened the door. He hadn’t moved, though a brown, tiger-striped cat was sitting on his chest snoozing. That seemed a little odd. Normally, wild cats didn’t do that. When I began to approach, the cat turned and hissed at me before scampering away. I watched as it disappeared under a nearby bush.

  “Well that was odd,” I said, shaking my head. I had Haijiku on a sling over my back because I was still wearing my blue party dress, though I’d long since lost my sandals. Thankfully, the weapon had covered itself in glamor the moment I’d sheathed it, so that now it just looked like I was wearing a panda-shaped book bag on my back. Why it had decided to look like a panda bear backpack was beyond me. Still, it was better than walking around a park in broad daylight with a black as the depths of hell katana strapped to my back.

  “Anyway, it’s time to get you home,” I said, kneeling down next to Connor and wondered, not for the first time, if I could stuff him in my spirit pouch. I mean okay yeah, it was a bit of the magical nether that I’d formed into a mystical storage closet. While I wasn’t quite sure where it actually existed, I’d hidden a baby werewolf in there before, and he’d been fine, right? Okay maybe it had been on accident, and it had only been for a very brief period of time. Even though I hadn’t exactly checked in on the kid since it’d happened, but I was reasonably sure he was fine. If he wasn’t, I’m sure his father would have paid me a visit a long time ago.

  I looked around, trying to figure out a better way to help Connor. If I tried to carry him, I was pretty sure someone was going to question me before I got him home. And, to be honest, I had no idea where we were. For all I knew, we were in Finland. I stood, about to go look for some kind of signage that identified my location when, of all things, my phone began to ring. I’d totally forgotten I’d even had it. Man, this phone had the greatest battery life ever.

  I fished it out of my pocket as the Superman theme song blared, and glanced at the screen. Caller unknown. Swell.

  “Um… hello?” I said into the phone.

  “Hello yourself, Lillim. Where are you, and what have you done with my brother? I’ve been trying to get ahold of you for two days. This is the first time it did more than go straight to voicemail.” I pulled the phone away and stared at it, but the screen hadn’t changed.

  “Um… who is this?” I asked, and the other end of the phone got quiet for a moment.

  “This is Custody Mercer. Thes’ sister. You know, the girl you threw into her own pool in the middle of a party? Now tell me where you are. If you don’t…. I’ll find you anyway. I’m not the tracker that Thes is, but I’m still a werewolf. I will find you, no matter where you go, I will find you.”

  “Oh,” I said, ignoring her threat because, honestly, I didn’t really have time to play games. “I didn’t recognize the voice. And I don’t know where I am.”

  “You don’t know where you are? Give the phone to Thes. He always knows where he is.”

  “That isn’t… possible…” I said, trying to decide how to answer the question that was sure to come next.

  “Where is Thes?”

  “In Ancient Egypt,” I sighed, deciding to go with the truth because why the hell not? She was a werewolf after all, what good would lying do? It wasn’t like I was trying to hide the mystical nature of our world from her. She was the mystical nature of our world.

  “Lillim, I’m being serious. My Alpha wants to talk to him. I need to know where he is. And I can’t keep covering with Connor’s parents either. You need to stop with your Dioscuri nonsense and bring them home.” She went quiet for a long moment. “They aren’t trained for things like this. Thes likes to pretend he’s brave… but…” she trailed off, and I could hear her swallowing a whimper.

  “Well Connor is with me, but he’s unconscious, and I’m trying to figure out how to move him. Once I do, I’ll bring him home, first thing.”

  “Lillim, figure out where you are, and I’ll come get you.”

  I glanced around for a sign and found one on the side of the restroom. “Not in Finland,” I said.

  “Great, where ‘not in Finland’ are you?”

  “This sign says Lake Park. Do you know where that is?” I asked, hoping that she did.

  “Yes, I’ll be there soon.” She hung up, leaving me listening to the dead silence of the phone.

  A few minutes later, a blood red Jetta screeched to a stop in the parking lot a few meters away from where I sat on the grass next to Connor’s unconscious body. Before it had even stopped moving completely, the driver’s door flew open and Custody leapt out. She was clad in tight black leather pants and a black shirt that barely qualified as cover. She glanced around, head cocked to the air, sniffing, before turning toward us.

  “Hello,” I called, waving at her, since she was already on her way over to us. Evidently, she could smell me.

  “Lillim,” she said, brushing some stray hair from her angular faces. “Let’s get Connor in the car and get out of here.”

  “Why are you in such a hurry?” I asked as we slung Connor between us, one arm over each of our shoulders.

  “Um… because I don’t want people to see us drag an unconscious person into my car?” she offered, glancing around nervously.

  “I don’t think that’s it,” I replied.

  “It’s fine, Lillim.” She threw open the back door of her Jetta, and without waiting, tossed Connor into a heap on the seat.

  “Hey,” I said as she shut the door, leaving me standing there dumbfounded.

  “He’ll be fine,” she said waving off my look and sliding into the car. “Now get in.”

  I’d barely sat down in the seat when we rocketed forward. I had to yank my foot off the ground before it got torn off because she actually started moving before I was totally in the car. I reached back, grabbing my seatbelt, when we jerked to a stop that threw me face first into the dashboard. I threw my hands out, barely stopping myself before I ate a mouthful of car.

  “Hey!” I said for the second time in as many minutes.

  Beside me, Custody was gripping the steering wheel so hard that her knuckles had turned white as snow. I slowly followed her gaze to see a man in a black leather trench coat standing not three inches in front of the car. He was in his mid-twenties and had thick, black stubble covering his face in patches. A long black braid fell down his back.

  “Custody Mercer,” the man said and his voice was like broken glass, all sharp edges and danger. “Get out of the car, now.”

  Custody swallowed so hard that I was pretty sure I could have heard it in Nevada. She looked from the man to me and panic seized her features. “I have to do what he says,” she said before opening her door and stepping outside.

  It happened so fast, I didn’t even realize what had happened. One moment, she was opening the door, the next she was skidding across the grass in a cloud of dirt and debris. The man spared her one last glance before getting into the car and shutting the door.

  “Hello, Lillim,” he said, voice low and menacing. “Do you know who I am?” Power thrummed off his words, prickling along my skin and bringing with it visions of riven flesh.

  “Um… no?” I said as my hair on the b
ack of my neck stood up straight.

  “I am Halcyon,” he replied, raising one arm so that the trench coat fell back to reveal a wicked curved knife where his hand should have been. “Perhaps you have heard of me?”

  A shudder shook me so violently that my teeth chattered. I had heard of Halcyon Hookhand before. Remember a while back when I said Caleb had fought a werewolf on accident when trying to stop some vampires? That werewolf had been Halcyon, only he hadn’t been Hookhand back then. No, Caleb had been the one to give him that nickname…

  It was said that every single time he swung that hand in combat, someone died.

  “I can tell by your face that you know who I am,” he said, a terse smile spreading across his ruddy face. “Good. That makes things easier. Tell me where my pack mate is.”

  “Ancient Egypt,” I replied, swallowing my fear as my hand edged backward toward Haijiku. His eyes followed my movement, and he shook his head just the barest touch. I stopped moving, my heart pounding. If this guy was like Gib, I didn’t want any trouble, and unfortunately, from what I’d heard, he was way worse than Gib.

  “Your face says you are not lying, but I do not see how that is possible. Explain yourself.”

  I shuddered again. “I’m not sure I can explain, sir. We got trapped in a tomb filled with mummies, and there was an explosion. When I spoke to Hades after, he said Thes was trapped in Ancient Egypt. That it was his destiny…”

  Halcyon’s eyes widened the barest millimeter at that. “So Thes is the Dunewalker? Interesting.” A smile crossed his lips before he shook it away. “Why were you in the tomb to begin with? How did you meet Hades?”

  I glanced back at Connor and Halcyon followed my gaze. “Kronos told us that his soul is trapped in Ancient Egypt. Thes and I were trying to figure out a way to bring him back when it happened.” I was about to say more when Halcyon sighed.