Nine Souls

by Shayne Silvers

  We were in Raego’s yard. Back from… wherever the hell we had just been.

  Callie was panting. “What – the fuck – was that?”

  Tory tugged me to my feet, warily eyeing a few of the statues as if they might hide a Candy Skull. I did the same before helping Callie to her feet.

  “I have no idea. I’ve never seen a… place when Shadow Walking. I’ve always just appeared where I intended. I didn’t even know there was a place between!”

  Callie glared at me, studying my face. “What aren’t you saying?”

  I swallowed, and then let out a sigh. “I’ve seen those Candy Skulls before. Maybe not those exact two, but when I was fighting Castor Queen a few months ago, I saw them watching me. But that was near the Arch. Not in… whatever that place was.”

  “Do you know what they are?” Tory asked me, finally letting out a breath.

  I explained the little I knew about the Calaveras and the Day of the Dead festival. “But I didn’t find anything that said they were actually living… beings. Just the skulls.” I shrugged. Living or not, they were obviously creatures of some sort. “Did you sense anything?” I asked Tory, having a sudden thought. She was a Beast Master, able to control shifters at will.

  Anything with a beastly nature.

  She shivered, shaking her head. “I tried…” she said softly. “There was nothing inside their heads. Nothing. Not even anger when they attacked.”

  Callie was shaking her head in disbelief. “Well, they sure weren’t friendly. I think it’s safe to say Shadow Walking is off the table until we figure out what they are.”

  I nodded. “Agreed.”

  “What about Gateways?” she asked, frowning thoughtfully. “Roland and I used one to get to the wedding from Kansas City. Think they’re still safe?”

  I thought about it for a second and finally nodded. “I used one yesterday and it was fine. At least you can see where you’re going with a Gateway.” I scratched my chin thoughtfully. “I don’t think I’ve Shadow Walked since I saw those Candy Skulls in the first place. Months ago.”

  Callie seemed to be recalling her own experiences, but finally shrugged. “I think it’s the same for me. I don’t remember the last time I Shadow Walked.” She met my eyes. “Maybe we should figure out exactly what Shadow Walking is.”

  My face reddened. I’d first learned to Shadow Walk from the Justices – the wizard police – and hadn’t really considered any dangers. Masks… The Justices wore silver masks. Maybe wearing a mask kept you safe from the Calaveras. I realized they were both staring at me.

  “Right.” I let out a breath, noticing a silhouette in one of the windows in the mansion above us. The curtain shifted and the silhouette disappeared. “We should probably go knock. We’ll figure out the other stuff later. Take a deep breath and put your game faces on. Feel the badass. Be the badass.” Tory rolled her eyes at my pep talk. “We’re not afraid of flower-masked creeps.”

  We picked our way through the lawn, skirting around the various statues – some human and some not. It felt like a cemetery with us walking between headstones. Actually, that was pretty accurate, because each one of these statues had been a person once. Before they pissed off the black dragon, King Raego. The Obsidian Son.

  We made it to the base of the steps at the front of the mansion and began to climb.

  Two dragons I didn’t recognize opened the front door before we reached the top step. They were of Asian descent and wore crisp slacks and freshly-ironed dress shirts despite the late hour. Their suit jackets looked expensive and were perfectly tailored – not the typical folded collar I would find here in the States, but the Chinese style that looked almost like a very short, popped collar, or no collar at all. I’d heard a dozen different names for the style, but didn’t know the particulars of each variation since I hadn’t worn one before. Almost like a Kung Fu suit.

  Their pupils were horizontal slits across their vibrantly blue irises – one slightly darker blue than the other – and they looked of similar genes, perhaps brothers. Blue dragons usually meant water or ice. Maybe lightning. They didn’t smile and they didn’t frown. They just held the doors.

  I grunted as I walked past them, not bothering to be polite. Not if they weren’t going to at least say hello. I felt the energy around them change and I slowed, turning to face the one on my right. “Did you have something on your mind, dear?” I asked him.

  His blue eyes darkened and his pupil contracted slightly, but I didn’t back down. Neither did he, but his pal at the other door audibly cleared his throat in warning. As if delaying to respond to his pal’s warning somehow proved to me how dangerous he was, he finally broke eye contact with me. If the snort he let escape his nose had been even a smidge more obvious, I would have thrown him from the landing into the garden of statues.

  Maybe my satchel had pissed him off, although I hadn’t seen either of them look at it.

  We entered the foyer of the sprawling mansion. The blue Asian dragons closed the doors behind us and waited, pointedly not looking at us. I spotted figures lurking just out of sight in the shadows of several halls, distant rooms, and upper balconies. The steady murmur and crackling of radios confirmed their presence. Raego wasn’t taking any chances of an attacker breaking in and harming his people. It also made me reconsider yelling at the scaly bastard.

  “Wait here,” a bronze-skinned man with thick dark hair said in a clipped but courteous tone from the base of the stairs. He’d obviously been waiting for us. He wore slacks with a white dress shirt, and reminded me of an Egyptian man that used to work at my father’s company. Not the same guy, but they shared similar features – a wide nose and stubble from cheek to neck that obviously grew back ten seconds after he shaved. He turned and calmly climbed the steps. I patiently turned to assess the dragons I could see, taking stock of the various eye colors.

  Each unique color signified a different type of dragon – red eyes meant fire, blue could mean ice or water, and I had even seen silver eyes that represented chrome. Gunnar hadn’t been too fond of that one. Silver and werewolves got along about as well as a tornado and a trailer park.

  Their lineage also impacted how their dragon form would look. I idly wondered if the Asian dudes would look like Chinese dragons, complete with those long catfish-like whiskers. I almost asked, but then I spotted the handle of the dagger strapped to his chest, tucked under his coat.

  Tory and Callie studied the house itself more than its occupants. Callie wasn’t very familiar with dragons, but I didn’t catch even the slightest indication of fear from her. She looked… bored. Well, bored with the people. But she did look interested in the artwork and décor.

  Was that a psychological ploy to lower the guards’ suspicion or did she genuinely like the décor? One never knew with Callie. It was fun to watch her at work, but even more fun to watch her victims when they realized they’d been mind-fucked.

  I didn’t like the fact that I hadn’t recognized a single dragon yet. The number of armed guards in the shadows wasn’t helping my mood either. Maybe I was just being paranoid. Perhaps these new dragons just had horrible teeth. And overcompensated by standing in the dark with guns.

  The same Egyptian-looking dragon reappeared at the top of the stairs, dipping his head slightly. “The Obsidian Son will see you, now. If you will follow me.” Had his gaze lingered on Tory? Raego knew she was a Beast Master – that she could shut down every dragon in the mansion with a single thought. He had to have warned all these new faces.

  Was that why everyone was being so unfriendly? In fear of the tiny Beast Master beside me?

  Maybe this guy just recognized Tory as the Reds’ adopted mom.

  Whatever the reason, they were justified in keeping an eye on Tory.

  I just needed to find a way to use it to my advantage.

  Chapter 9

  We followed our guide up the stairs. He led us down a hall, his tan eyes glinting in the warm lighting cast by the sconces on the walls. His eyes
looked like molten sand, or… maybe I was just jumping at stereotypes. Egyptian – sand. As I studied them further, I decided they were actually more like aged ivory. That felt right. I wondered what kind of magic that signified.

  We reached a large set of white doors, taller than necessary, and our guide opened them for us, announcing our names – even though we hadn’t given them. Even Callie.

  I entered the large office, not waiting for our guide to finish speaking. It wasn’t that I had a problem with the guy, but I did have a problem with his boss.

  Raego Slate sat in a thickly-padded leather chair behind a wide chrome desk. He had both elbows propped on the surface to support his chin resting on his interwoven fingers – like he was posing for a high school glamour shot. Even though he was flashing us an impish smirk, I sensed that he was tired. Exhausted, even. His eyes took in Callie with an appreciative study before moving on to Tory. His smile stretched just a bit wider at her, and he dipped his chin. What was that all about? His minions had been nervous around her, but Raego was… eager?

  He finally turned to me, sighed regretfully, and then lowered his hands to wave at the open seats before him. “Team Temple, please, take a seat. To what do I owe this pleasure?”

  I bit my tongue, sensing the ivory-eyed dragon still standing behind us and not wanting to give him a reason to call for backup. Raego was openly toying with my obvious anger. Someone should have told him that wasn’t a healthy hobby. I set my satchel beside a chair and sat down.

  “What the hell is going on lately, Raego?” I said with false cheer. Almost as if to an old friend. Almost.

  He was nodding absently to himself as if making an inner decision unrelated to us. Then he seemed to remember I was there. He blinked those black eyes of his – iris and pupil practically indistinguishable. “Oh, you know. This. That. Things.” His eyes flickered past me. “Thank you, Ivory. That will be all.”

  “I knew it!” I hissed under my breath. My triumph at correctly guessing the dragon’s color overrode my annoyance at Raego’s crap answer. I heard the door close behind us, signaling Ivory’s departure and our privacy. Callie furrowed her brows at me for a moment as if debating whether or not she wanted to know what I had been talking about. Then she shook her head and resumed her study of Raego’s office. I didn’t sense anyone else in the room, but that didn’t mean much. I glanced at Tory to see her letting out a relaxed breath. She didn’t sense anyone either, or she wouldn’t have relaxed.

  Raego chuckled and then pressed a button on his watch. I heard a faint chime from several spots around the room. “Someone’s always watching, but now we are private.” He indicated a point near the ceiling with a slight gesture and I turned to see a security camera tucked into the crown molding. He had obviously just turned it off with his watch, because I could see a hinged metal cap covering the lens. The others I had spotted in the halls on the way up here hadn’t had the cap.

  Bookshelves took up an entire wall of the massive office, and three expensive leather divans formed an arc around a fireplace in the corner – which was crackling loudly. I smelled liquor in the air, but saw no glasses on the desk or tables. Interesting developments for a man who said he’d been out of town. Of course, that was over an hour ago, so he might not be lying.

  I waited for more of an answer to my earlier question, but when it was obvious nothing else was coming, I leaned back into my chair and kicked my feet up onto his desk. I accidentally knocked down a glass figurine and it shattered upon striking the marble floor. I shifted my feet as I turned to look down at it and knocked a wooden box of pens over. “Whoops,” I said, frowning.

  Raego held out a hand as Callie instinctively made as if to scoop up the mess. I shot her a scowl as well, but she didn’t notice. He then turned to me with a patient look, not upset, but not amused. “Is something on your mind or are you just here to annoy me?” he asked tiredly.

  “Just clumsy. But now that you mention it, I do have a few things on my mind…”

  He waved a hand for me to continue, but halfway through the gesture one of the fingers on that hand stretched into an inky black dragon claw. He focused his attention on using the tip of the claw to clean one of his human fingernails on the other hand. It wasn’t a casual threat. It was literally just Raego’s personality. Have a dirty fingernail – use my powerful dragon claw rather than wasting my time tracking down some nail clippers.

  “The anticipation is killing me…” he said, not looking up.

  “Gunnar got married. And you told me you would be there for it.”

  “I doubt Gunnar even noticed my absence. It was just a wedding. Statistically, he’ll probably have another.” Tory’s fingers suddenly gripped the desk, denting it as she leaned forward. Raego blinked as if suddenly recalling his words. He waved his human hand, vaguely apologetic, but it felt more like he regretted that we had taken offense rather than him taking back the statement.

  Raego had always been bad at recognizing even widely-accepted social behaviors.

  “I can’t be bothered with every social event that happens in this town,” he muttered. I stared at him in disbelief, even glancing back at Tory, who was staring at him as if he were a stranger. He didn’t sound angry, just utterly fed up. Exhausted. As if he gave no shits about no things.

  He sensed the silence and finally looked up, his hand shifting back into its human form. “Politics are eating away my soul,” he finally admitted with a yawn.

  I blinked at him. “You’re the Dragon King. Execute the politicians and stop being a dick.”

  He waggled a finger as if my point had been redundant. “Heavy is the crown.”

  I decided to change the topic, sensing Callie and Tory both watching me. “Strange things are going down in our city. Rogue shifters. A lot of… old people are moving into St. Louis…” I said, emphasizing old in hopes he would understand I was referring to Gods and monsters.

  He nodded, but his eyes suddenly latched onto a letter opener on the desk. He lifted it with a frown, as if realizing he could have used that for his nails rather than his claw. He grunted and tossed it back, turning to look up at me. “I’m sorry, did you ask me something?”

  I let out a very patient breath. I hadn’t spent a whole lot of time around Raego lately – only during life or death situations where all we needed to do was go kill things. But when I had first met him, I’d had my doubts about his mental stability. He shared tendencies with autistic savants. He could be brilliantly quick-witted if properly motivated, but without that motivation he was easily distracted and distant. Or maybe he could only function well when full of adrenaline. Conversations with no immediate benefit were the literal bane of his existence.

  I briefly thought of those ancient kings who were almost legendary in their conquests but then lost it all during times of peace. I really hoped that wasn’t the case with Raego.

  I needed to motivate him, find the right trigger to engage him. Give him a purpose.

  I leaned forward, almost pleading. “Can you help me keep an eye on our city? I think some bad things are coming our way, and we’ll need to work together to get through it.”

  “I can’t. I have my own shit to deal with.”

  I grunted. “Wow. I’m so glad I helped you earn your crown. It’s the residual appreciation that I love the most. How you always repay the favor. This is your city, too, you know.”

  He sneered at that. “I can no longer help you. As you just pointed out, too many dragons remember that you helped me earn my crown.” He met my eyes, the black depths of his irises seeming to ripple like hot oil, letting me know he was on the edge – dangerously close to shifting into his black dragon form – one of the rarest types possible. “I appreciate all that you’ve done to help me get here, Nate. We are friends, but it is time for us to go our separate ways. There are too many new faces in town, but I need to look after my own interests – my dragons.”

  “Well, three of those dragons are mine,” I said through my teeth. Tor
y shifted beside me, silently reminding me that the Reds were technically hers. “That wasn’t a question, so I’m glad you didn’t comment,” I added towards Raego.

  Raego rolled his eyes and turned to Tory, letting me know he was well aware who was in charge of the teenagers. “The Reds can go where they wish. But you will not keep them from me if they wish to return here. And I will not try to take them from you. Fair?” he asked her.

  She thought about it for a moment. “Yahn as well.” He nodded, looking amused. “Agreed,” she finally said.

  He continued to study Tory thoughtfully, and I could tell by the look in those black eyes that he was considering involving her in some scheme. Tory didn’t need my help to stand up against Raego. She could have him eating out of the palm of her hand if she wanted to and he knew it. The only way to get to Tory was… through the Reds. Even though Raego had just assured her they were off limits, I suddenly began to have doubts, sensing loopholes in his promise. I opened my mouth to tell him to back off.

  But Callie abruptly stood, cutting me off. I’d almost forgotten she was here. She scooped up my satchel and hefted it over a shoulder. “I left my lipstick inside,” she said, patting the satchel. “Maybe Tory and I can go sit by the fire while you two catch up. It’s rather chilly in here.” Tory stood, rubbing her arms in agreement. I glanced down at the bag that was now in full view. I’d almost forgotten about it, but if Raego had seen it earlier he would have said something.

  Clever, Callie… I thought to myself.

  I turned back to see Raego’s eyes pass over the satchel to instead watch the women walk away. Then he froze and did a double-take, his fingers suddenly gripping the table as they noticed the chain strap. I followed his gaze to see Callie sit down beside Tory as she reached inside the satchel with an empty hand, speaking softly to Tory. She withdrew her lipstick from the satchel and I managed to hide my surprise. I knew for a fact that her lipstick had never been in my satchel. She had deft fingers to pull off a sleight of hand that easily.