My hand flared bright white, and nothing happened to the atrum. Niko glanced my way, and I quickly clasped my hands together behind my back and willed the lux lucis to redistribute, all the while trying to look innocent. Niko’s lips twitched.
He selected Tim’s old stool, casually brushing his hand across the surface first, like he was dusting crumbs away. Again, lux lucis washed across the plastic top and down the metal leg, burning away atrum and neutralizing the vicinity. He did the same with the counter of the bar in front of him, creating an oasis around himself.
The blonde had already turned to engage him in conversation. Niko turned his full smile on her, and I thought I was about to witness my first-ever swoon. Niko placed one hand on the bar and gathered lux lucis into it, letting it grow brighter and brighter, like a florescent bulb warming up. In seconds, it was bright enough to be difficult to look at, reminding me of Kyle’s sun-god trick. Just as the imps in Starbucks had been unable to resist Kyle’s beacon of light, the imps on the blonde were unable to resist the call of a brighter soul. Like moths to a flame, they leapt for Niko, and one at a time, he extinguished them wherever they landed on his body.
It’s a bit like watching a lux lucis vacuum, I thought, fascinated. It wasn’t until Niko waved his other hand behind his back at me that I remembered my mission. I did a quick check for imps, thankful to see none had crept up on me while I’d been mesmerized, and made a beeline for the door.
Stepping outside into the cool night air felt like an escape. I took a few deep breaths and surveyed the parking lot. Nothing hinted at the evil housed inside The Golden Goose. Most of the businesses had closed while I’d been inside, and the parking lot was slowly emptying as workers trickled out.
I eyed the BMW and considered grabbing the net first, but one more glance at my dimmed soul had me turning toward the back of the building. I thought it was a bit ironic that aside from the Dumpsters and scattered storage piles stacked near the back exits of the businesses, the alley behind the strip mall was more attractive than the front. Large pine trees marched between the back of the strip mall and the back of a Walmart it butted up against, making a natural fence. The Walmart side had an additional row of hedges and a few large-leafed flowering plants.
The alley and Walmart’s loading dock were quiet. I trotted over to the nearest tree and pressed my palm to its rough bark. Lux lucis jumped from the tree to me, and I effortlessly removed the lingering stains of atrum from my hands and arms. Feeling like I’d had a shot of caffeine, I stepped away from the tree.
A low growl brought me up short. I swiveled to my right. Bared teeth, raised hackles, fur composed of spiky atrum. Yep, the hound had found me.
13
Have You Hugged Your Dog Today?
The hound snarled, scrunching its nose to expose sharp teeth half parted. A long string of drool slid from a bared canine. Tension tightened its muscles until I could trace the tendons beneath its skin with my eyes.
I eased back a step, then another. A quick blink confirmed that the hound was a mutt. In fact, it looked identical to the one I’d encountered at the construction site, over five miles away. It was in pretty bad shape—scrawny enough to count its ribs and vertebrae, with grungy fur liberally pockmarked with fresh and old cuts. I wasn’t fooled by its appearance, though. A starved wild dog was more than enough to make me leery. Add in the fact that it was a creature of pure evil, and I was its natural enemy, and I wouldn’t have trusted the hound if it were a Chihuahua.
I blinked back to Primordium and debated my options. One, I could run—and probably be tackled from behind by the much faster hound. Two, I could stay there—and be tackled by the hound. Three, I could slowly move around the side of the building, then run to the BMW, call in a miracle or two, and grab the net out of the trunk—and be tackled by the hound, who would then take gleeful chunks out of my flesh and soul.
None of the options sounded good, and two of them involved leading the hound to a more populated area, which was out of the question. Aside from how bad I’d feel if other people got bitten due to my incompetence, Mr. Pitt would fire me, and Niko would be disappointed. All three outcomes made me cringe.
The hound growled. The hairs on my arms stood on end.
“You don’t want to mess with me,” I warned it.
It snarled, giving me a spectacular view of its glistening fangs. It could tell a lie when it heard it.
I scavenged through my purse, cursing myself for having ever let go of my pet wood, especially after Niko’s admonishment. The moment I took my eyes off the hound, it started for me.
“Hold on, doggie,” I pleaded. I clutched the pet wood and yanked it free of my purse, extending it with a flick of my wrist. “Good doggie. Stay.”
It charged.
I slammed lux lucis into the pet wood and brandished it like a sword. The hound swerved at the last minute, whimpering and growling. We circled each other in the alley.
“Okay, Dice. You wanted to do something. Now’s your chance.” I gathered more lux lucis, this time in my left hand. Now just grab the slobbering attack dog of evil, I urged myself. Maniacal laughter echoed in my skull. Niko’s lack of faith in a pet wood’s effectiveness against a hound replayed in my head. Yet, even face-to-face with a homicidal hound, I still didn’t wish my pet wood were a knife.
The hound lunged for my throat. Sheer self-preservation brought my arm up in time to knock its head aside before its body slammed into mine and I stumbled to the side.
Now!
I slapped my hand into the off-balance hound, flipping it on its side. It snapped for me and its mouth closed around the pet wood. Lux lucis sank into the hound as if into a void. For the briefest second, the hound froze, and I jumped to straddle it, grabbing it by the scruff and abandoning the drained pet wood to its jaws. With a yelp, it dropped the stick and writhed in my grasp, trying simultaneously to escape and to bite me. I hung on, shoving its head into the pavement, and pushed lux lucis into it through my hands the way I would an imp.
Nothing happened. No puff of glitter. No flare of lux lucis in my hands. It was like I was feeding lux lucis to the air for all the effect it had.
The hound bucked beneath me, almost latching its teeth around my ankle, unfazed by the lux lucis I poured into its throat.
I was trapped. I couldn’t let go of the hound and get away unscathed, and the lux lucis wasn’t working.
I considered, for one irrational moment, attempting to call Doris or Niko, but my purse was several yards away and it would have been impossible to get Medusa out and hold on to the hound anyway.
It lunged for my left leg, teeth snapping on a flap of my jeans before I tore free and wrestled for control again. The foul stench of its breath accompanied the next growl. I suppressed hysterical laughter. I’d begged all day for the go-ahead to fight evil, and now I wished I were anywhere but here.
Desperate, I thrust lux lucis from me, aiming for the pavement beneath the hound. It arced from my hands into the overwhelming atrum of the hound. The slick black taint didn’t so much as flicker. Lux lucis that would have disintegrated a hundred imps disappeared into the hound without a trace.
My arms quivered and my muscles grew heavy with fatigue, but I didn’t have a choice. I poured a steady flood of my energy into the hound, hanging on to his fur with cramping hands.
Something in the hound popped. One moment, it was a dark void sucking the lux lucis from me, the next the fur under my palms glowed white. I jerked and nearly lost my hold before shoving more lux lucis into the hound. In moments, the hound’s shoulders were white, then its back, until the atrum drained from its fur, from its soul, like someone had pulled a plug in its paws. The dark substance pooled beneath our bodies, eddying outward.
The fight went out of the hound with the last of the atrum, and it lay still beneath me. I continued to pump lux lucis through it, watching the white energy slide out the paws, chasing the atrum across the asphalt until we were sur
rounded by an evil corona. The area beneath us was clean, though, and that was good enough for me. I broke our connection and fell back on my butt. The hound and I panted in rhythm.
No. The hound was gone. Left behind was a normal malnourished, neglected mutt. Pride rushed through my veins in a fizz of euphoria. This was what I was meant to do—I was meant to fight evil. I was made to fight evil. And I had done it! I was an illuminant enforcer by nature and now, officially, by deed.
Nothing else I’d ever done had felt so right.
The dog lifted his head to look at me, and his eyes glowed a normal, animal glow. I gave him a tentative pat and his tail thumped against my legs. He closed his eyes and leaned back against my thigh.
I blinked and examined the dog with normal sight. The sun had fully set, and the only illumination came from the yellow lamps above the back doors of the building, but even in the indistinct lighting, I could tell he was the most pathetic mongrel I’d ever seen. The pads of his feed were raw, and along with the cuts I’d noticed earlier, I could now see that he had eaten away his own fur around his hips. The rest of him was matted gray and grimy.
The dog pricked his ears and I followed his gaze. Niko stood propped against the corner of the building, arms crossed, watching us.
“He was a hound,” I explained and pointed stupidly at the dog. My breathing was almost back to normal. The dog seemed as content as I was to remain seated on the dirty asphalt.
“I know.” He pushed away from the wall and retrieved my pet wood and purse. The pet wood was coated with slobber; when he handed it to me, I held it delicately between my thumb and forefinger. Niko crouched beside the dog, only to have the mutt cower and try to hide behind me. I scratched behind his ear, and his eyes partially closed in bliss. When I looked up, Niko had cleared away the atrum circling us.
“That was a pretty stupid stunt,” Niko said.
I gave him an unfriendly look before turning my attention back to the dog. “What would have had me do? Trap it and kill it? Even if I’d had the net, I wouldn’t have done that. My way worked fine.”
“No one said anything about killing. The net is to hold it captive until it can be safely drained of atrum. Hounds, like wild dogs, usually run in packs.”
“Oh.” Charming. I’d jumped to the worst conclusion. But wait; Niko wasn’t done making me feel bad.
“You got lucky with this one. He made a pathetic hound. A bigger one could have drained you until you were too weak to fight back.”
I blinked and examined my soul. I could see Niko doing the same thing. I looked worse than I had after I’d gone training with Doris and then nearly killed Mr. Bond.
“Why didn’t you come get me?” Niko asked. “The hound clearly didn’t intend to attack until you threatened it.”
“You’ve been watching since the beginning!” I blinked to normal vision so I could properly stare at him in indignation. He didn’t look the least bit remorseful. Finally, I said, “I didn’t want the hound getting any ideas. I was the only person back here, but there are a lot more people out front.”
Niko smiled at me, a real smile, not the charming flirty one he’d turned on the blonde inside. It warmed me to my toes. I looked away so I didn’t do anything foolish.
The dog had a collar, and I read the tag. It was tarnished silver in the shape of a pit bull’s head, and it said Max. There was no address or phone number to contact.
“What now?” I asked, beginning to feel foolish sitting on the ground in the middle of the grungy alley.
“We’ve got some work left to do inside. That bar has seen something pretty bad recently, or else it’s quite the hangout for the people from the convention. You need to recharge. Again.”
I selected a different tree. I didn’t know how much lux lucis a tree could give before it grew weak, and after watching the plants die under my fingertips, I didn’t want to take chances with one of these large trees. Max glued himself to my side like we were tethered together. I wondered how many fleas were jumping onto me, but I couldn’t bring myself to push the dog away.
Niko waited while I recharged, and his gaze roamed up and down the alley, ever vigilant. I wondered if he expected more trouble. If so, he was welcome to handle it all on his own.
We stopped by the BMW next. I thought that Niko might want to leave Max inside, but instead he pulled a leash out of the trunk and snapped it onto Max’s collar before the dog could shy away from him. Niko pointed out the net while the trunk was open. It looked like a normal net, made of a twisted rope material, with small, finger-size openings. It wasn’t holding any lux lucis, but Niko had me feed a little into it to feel what it was like. The net absorbed lux lucis like Max had, seeming to soak it right from my fingertips, and the white light raced down the network of paths, glowing brighter at evenly spaced intervals where disks of leather reinforced the netting.
The net wasn’t the only item in the trunk, either. The sides and back of the trunk had been fitted with customized heavy-weave open-top storage bins that neatly divided everything into its own place. The center of the trunk was empty. My guns and holsters were packed in a side cubby on top of a blanket roll. That side also had a row of small loops holding a flashlight, two knives, and several oversize pet wood–like objects. On the other side was a first aid kit and an ice chest that looked to be the perfect size for a six pack. I tried to picture Niko at a grocery store picking out some Corona and a small bag of ice, but the image didn’t fit with the obsessively organized trunk.
The trunk was abnormally shallow, and I didn’t ask Niko what the false bottom concealed.
Niko handed me Max’s leash, and I tied him to a handicapped signpost near the door to The Golden Goose. Max whined when I walked away, but he wouldn’t be allowed inside the bar. Feeling like a jerk, I left him cowering against the bumper of a minivan.
A few more people had straggled inside while I’d been out back, and the band had finished setting up, though they weren’t playing yet. I didn’t see any imps or vervet, but atrum slime still coated most of the surfaces. The blonde was gone, too, which was the most impressive change. I figured nothing short of a crowbar would pry her from Niko’s side after he’d sat down next to her. I was about to ask Niko how he’d done it, but he’d gone into instructor mode, and I decided it wasn’t the right time.
“Let’s sit in the corner while you figure this out,” Niko said, gesturing to seating at the side of the stage. He swept the atrum from the table and our chairs as I’d seen him clean the stool earlier.
“Did you get rid of all the imps that quickly?” I asked. I’d hardly been outside five minutes before he’d come to watch me tackle the hound. Even though I knew he was a thousand times more competent than me, I was still amazed.
“For now.”
I remembered the imps and vervet bubbling out of the atrum in the inky black hallway at the convention, and pretended to adjust my seat across from Niko to disguise my shutter.
“With the atrum to soak into the furniture and floor like this means some strong evil was here, and it’ll likely be back.”
“So you don’t think this was the ner—ah, guys from the convention?” With no arcade games, scantily dressed women, or free Wi-Fi, I would have guessed this bar to be safe from a geek invasion.
“This wasn’t humans,” Niko confirmed. “People, whether good or evil or anywhere in between, don’t leave a residue like this. At least not in a public place. For humans to generate this much atrum, they would have to have done some horrific things here, and since the cops haven’t busted any human trafficking or shooting sprees here, it’s a safe bet that we’re dealing with an evil creature. Or the hosts who brought the evil with them.”
“Hosts?”
“Regular humans carrying evil. Like Samantha was.”
I gave him a blank look.
“The lady at the bar. If she’d left here with all those imps attached to her, she’d have been a host, and she would have ta
inted wherever she went with atrum.”
“On this scale?”
“No, but she’s just one person tainted by visiting here.”
“So you mean all those people at the convention…?”
Niko nodded. “Hosts.”
Damn Mr. Pitt and his look-but-don’t-touch orders. All those hosts. Walking through my region. Making atrum pits of evil to spawn imps and vervet and who knew what else. I stared at the inky interior of the bar and swallowed down my rising despair. Illuminant enforcers did this all the time. I wasn’t the first to have an evil creature taint her region. In fact, my job was based on evil creatures popping up and making a mess of normal humans’ lives.
I tried to think proactively, but the first question that came out sounded like a whine. “Lux lucis doesn’t stick around like this, so why isn’t the atrum dissipating?”
“Usually it will, but there’s so much here, it’s like it’s breeding itself stronger. Left unattended, there’s enough atrum for imps to spawn from it. And if people with tainted energy come in during that time, they could easily help spawn a couple more vervet, too. It’s a perpetuating cycle. Evil begets evil.”
“Good begets good?” I asked hopefully.
Niko nodded.
“Then how do evil creatures feed on lux lucis? Shouldn’t they eat atrum? I mean, I use lux lucis to kill imps, but that seems to be their favorite food source, too.” This paradox had been a nagging question at the back of my mind, but I hadn’t had a moment to ask anyone until now.
“System overload,” Niko said. “Creatures like imps grow stronger by turning lux lucis to atrum. In essence, they cycle lux lucis to atrum the way you or I, well, turn oxygen into carbon dioxide.”
“There’s some atrum in lux lucis?” I asked, confused.
“You mean like there’s carbon dioxide in the air we breathe? Maybe that was a bad analogy. I was trying for something PC, but . . . here’s how it was explained to me: imps eat lux lucis and shi—poop atrum. Only they don’t ‘eat’ and ‘poop’ as much as inhale and exhale.”
A Fistful of Evil: An Urban Fantasy Novel (Madison Fox, Illuminant Enforcer Book 1) Page 18