Keepers & Killers (The Alchemy Series)

by Augustine, Donna

  We both turned as we heard people entering the penthouse and Dodd looked at me and gave me a silent shake of his head. Cormac was already entering the room with a stranger, or I would have told Dodd not to sweat it; I'd never been fond of delivering bad news. Having an abundance of it to deliver hadn't changed my enthusiasm any.

  "Dodd, Jo, this is Dark," Cormac said as he introduced the straggliest kid I'd ever seen. He looked like a cross between a skateboarder and a heroin addict; greasy light brown hair obscured half his face, hanging past his shoulders.

  He flipped his hair and smiled with beautiful straight white teeth; he had the nicest skin I'd ever seen. "Hi. Sorry if my hair is a mess. I was in the middle of a deep conditioning treatment when I got the call."

  "What's with the clothes?" Dodd asked, lacking tact as usual.

  "Dude, I'm blending."

  "With who? Meth heads?"

  His face sank and I couldn't help but feel for the kid. "Really?" Dark asked not masking his disappointment at all. He looked at me and Cormac, clearly hoping for a more approving second opinion.

  "It's not that bad," I told him, mostly out of pity.

  Dodd patted him on the back. "Don't worry about it kid. I'll help you out."

  Cormac cleared his throat, commanding attention. "Later. Right now I need you to translate this book for us."

  "This one, dude?"

  "Yes, and it's Cormac."

  The kid shrugged, letting the correction roll off his back. He grabbed the book with no problems, and sat down on the couch with it in his lap.

  "How come you can touch it and we can't?" I asked.

  "Just the way our stuff works. I don't know how, though."

  Cormac, Dodd and I sat across from him on the couch, staring at him like he was the bearded woman at a side show freak exhibit.

  I tried to be patient as we sat there but Cormac was tense, I could literally feel his agitation. Dodd was fidgeting like the energizer bunny, and I knew why, which added to my tension. The kid? Calm as a cucumber. Oh to be young and stupid again. I felt like I'd aged fifty years in these last months.

  "Well?" I finally said, after watching him for about ten minutes. "Do you know what it says?"

  "Of course. It's my language."

  "What's it say?"

  "A lot. It's going to take me a while to read it all but it seems to be a partial history, of a sort, about your kind."

  "Sort of?"

  "Yeah, the intro says it's written by one of my kind that was around during some heavy shit that happened with your kind."

  Dodd finally exploded from his seat like the ticking time bomb he was becoming. "What does it say on the page that has an x type shape with two things that look like sixes near them?"

  The kid flipped to the page Dodd asked about and I saw it on his face the moment he read the passage. Dodd was right.

  "What is it?" Cormac asked, the only one left out of the loop.

  "Okay, I'm going to read it but don't shoot the messenger, okay?"

  "I'll shoot you if you don't read it right now."

  "Fine," the kid said sulkily, but not showing any real fear. "The author writes that The Keepers created a beast of magnificent power. He knows that their intentions were good but that they were warned by many of his kind and the Fae folk to not dabble in these arts. That the great prophesier had seen our doom in it. That with this creation, they were sowing the inevitable death and destruction of both of our worlds."

  "Did it say anything about indestructible?" I asked.

  The kid scanned the page. "Oh, yeah. Sorry. I missed that part."

  I leaned back, deflated. "I bet this is why the older Keepers destroyed their history. They weren't paranoid. They were scared." I resisted the urge to start biting my fingernails. It wasn't a habit I'd ever had before, but I understood it now. "Dodd, what page was the prophecy on? I want to know what the two extra lines are."

  Dodd walked over to him and Dark flipped through until Dodd found it. "There," he said as he pointed. "What are those lines saying?"

  "For when the golden child is finally grown, she will help the beast claim his throne," Dark read.

  No one said anything until the kid broke the silence. "Who's the kid? Do you know? Maybe you should take them out?"

  "Shut up," Cormac said

  "It's wrong." I didn't care if the first part of the omen was correct. The ending wasn't.

  Cormac stood as well now. I had a feeling he was fighting off the same urge I had before. It was hard to look like a big bad tough guy though if you ran screaming around the room. Not to mention it would have freaked me out that much more, so I appreciated the restraint.

  Cormac walked over and hovered next to the kid, making him appear even smaller and lankier than he was, and tried to read over his shoulder. He sighed and I recognized the frustration in his voice. I felt it myself. It came from feeling helpless. Inadequate.

  He walked from the room but came right back and handed the kid a laptop. "Everything. Every word, period and comma if you guys have them. I want them all translated into a file in here."

  "Nice hardware!" Dark exclaimed taking the computer from Cormac.

  "Get it done quickly and it's yours."

  "Awesome!"

  "Dodd, hang out here with the kid. I'll be in my office if you need me." Then he looked at me. It was clearly a look that said stay out of trouble.

  I rolled my eyes. Yeah, yeah.

  As soon as he left, I got up and went to get into some trouble. Sometimes these things were inevitable.

  Chapter Ten

  I couldn't do anything about Cormac, Dodd or any of the other Keepers. Their fate was tied to mine, but I could do something about one person.

  I grabbed my phone from the table, started to dial...and stopped. An image of the contract I'd signed jammed full force into my brain. Some pain or watching another person die for me? I'd choose the physical pain, that payback of a variety I could handle.

  "Where've you been? I never got to hear about your date." Lacey wasn't an hello person, but she was a fragile human that would be one of the easiest targets around me.

  "I don't have time to tell you about it now. Can you meet me in Cormac's garage?"

  "At your trailer?"

  "My trailer isn't there but it doesn't matter. I'll explain when you get here. I just need you to come now."

  "I have a mani pedi appointment but I'll come after that."

  "No, you've got to come now."

  "Can't. My nails are chipped and I've got a shift tonight. I refuse to be seen like this."

  "Call out of your shift for tonight. I'll give you the money. You've got to come now."

  "Where are you going to get the money? How much is that new position paying?"

  "Lacey, please!"

  "Okay! I'm coming now. I'll cancel work but I'm telling them it's your fault. I don't know how, exactly, but I'll think of something. Arnold is already pissed at me for calling out last week."

  "I'll take the heat. Just come." I hung up before she could think of another reason and headed to the garage before she got there.

  Looking around the garage, I saw a new mustang where my trailer used to be. With everything going on, it was amazing he still found time to shop.

  True to her word, Lacey was in the garage five minutes later. Her manicurist was located in The Lacard mall, so it wasn't that impressive.

  "What are you all weird about?" She huffed as she strolled in, clearly put out about her still chipped polish.

  "You should probably sit down for this."

  "Where? I'm standing in a garage. You are acting so odd lately," she said, then leaned against a vintage Rolls Royce, crossed her ankles and made an ugly face as she eyed her toe nails.

  "I want you to take this, pack up your family, and get out of Nevada." I handed her a large manila envelope that was bursting at the seams with my island down payment. Bye bye palm trees and cool tropical breezes, margaritas on the deck overlooking the ocean.r />
  She looked at me skeptically. I knew she thought I was crazed by now.

  "You've cracked completely. You've always been an odd bird, but you've totally lost it."

  She took the envelope from my hand and opened it.

  "Now I know you've lost it. You don't have this kind of money. I can't believe you're making me lose a shift for a joke. What are these, fake bills? You know it's illegal to make fake money."

  "It's real. Take it to a bank, they'll confirm it. My life would be so much easier if you could just take my word on this. It's not safe here anymore."

  "Why isn't it safe?"

  I'd known this was too outlandish for any sane human to believe without some sort of proof, which meant I was screwed. I hoped there were some prescription drugs around here to take the edge off whatever was going to be heading my way. I didn't think ibuprofen was going to cut it.

  "I'm going to tell you, but I don't know how much time I'll have after I do. No matter what happens, don't worry about me, I'll be fine. You just need to leave afterward. Agreed?"

  "If it's really a problem and you aren't crazy, then yes, I'll leave."

  "Cormac has a wormhole in the basement of this casino that I help to operate, using the power to convert the physics of normal matter into exotic matter. Aliens, that you would know as Werewolves and Fae, come in and out of this wormhole. There is another creature that is making people shoot themselves and possibly wants to take over the world. I don't know why, but he doesn't like me at all. He's killing people close to me. Also, there are strange werewolves showing up and they aren't friendly. The town is going down and it might start going down fast."

  Her eyes were wide open and her jaw slack. Finally, she uttered a single "Huh?"

  "I know you are going to want to see physical proof." I looked around for the first thing I could find and it was a random stone probably dragged in from a tire. I wrapped my hand around it for a minute and when I released it, it shot up toward the ceiling making a dent and stayed there.

  "How did you do that?"

  "I told you."

  A shimmer glistened in the air like someone had taken a super fine sparkling dust and released it into a cyclone.

  "What is that? Are you doing that too?" Lacey asked now in near hysteria.

  "No, but I think you should get going." I didn't add that a whole lot of hurt was about to hit. I didn't know how these things worked and I didn't want to get her entangled. This was coming for me and I'd take it on my own.

  "What did you do?" Cormac asked from the entrance. It was a rhetorical question. I could see from his face he already knew. Dodd was behind him as he strode into the large garage, and just shook his head while muttering something about god dam stupid girl and death wish.

  "Get her out of here," Cormac said to Dodd as he pointed toward Lacey. "Make sure you tie up the loose ends."

  Dodd grabbed Lacey by the arm and I went to lunge for the two of them but Cormac blocked me.

  "What are you doing?" I screamed.

  "Getting her out of here before she sees anything else and it goes beyond where I can fix things."

  "How? By killing her?" I took a swing at him knowing it was a long shot but desperately trying to get past him to Lacey.

  "No, the contract is already voided," he said as he blocked the punch. "I'm not going to kill her, but I might kill you." I watched him pull his phone out and dial. I didn't know who he was talking to but he relayed what had just happened without me telling him a thing. He grabbed me by the arm and pushed me into the Ferrari as he was still talking.

  "I'm going to be in a whole lotta pain soon. I'm not sure this is the time for an outing." I started to get out of the seat but he pushed me back in.

  "Stay."

  "I'm not a dog."

  I leaned back in the seat anyway deciding to let this play out if he was going to be so crazy about it.

  He gripped the steering wheel so tight I was surprised it didn't break in two as we skidded out of the garage, cutting off traffic as we went.

  "Once the pain starts, it might be a good idea to head back." I wasn't sure if he was paying attention or not but I figured it couldn't hurt to give him a warning that this might be a short trip.

  "You are going to be a whole lot of nothing soon if I don't get you some help."

  "What exactly do you mean by nothing?"

  "Dead. That's what I mean." He turned and threw me a look that iced the blood in my veins.

  "Dead, like final death kinda dead?"

  "What didn't you not understand about DON'T. TELL. HUMANS?"

  "I had to."

  "When have you ever had to do anything?"

  The tires screeched as we pulled into the alley near Burrom's just as his words hit home. I've done some stupid things, I'd even went to confront the senator alone, when I knew he was a monster, but every other time I'd always had a fighting chance. What would this be like? I didn't even know what would come for me. And on a side note, was he really going to make me die here, at Burrom's? The place was stinky and dirty. That's just not right.

  He grabbed my hand and pulled me after him when I hesitated by the door.

  I tugged back. "I'm not dying in there. I'd rather kick it in the alley, if need be."

  "You're not dying anywhere. Come on, we don't have a lot of time."

  "You just told me I was? Am I dying or not?" I screamed at his back as we moved through the packed room playing Nine Inch Nails so loud I could barely hear.

  "Not if I have anything to do with it," he said as he kept moving forward. He released my hand and stepped up on the top of the stage in the back of the room. He made a hand gesture and the music immediately stopped. "I need every Fae here to follow me to the roof. If you want to live on my planet even one more day you'll do what I'm saying." He jumped off the stage and walked toward a staircase in the back where Burrom waited.

  Cormac paused and looked at the room full of Fae that were still seated. "NOW," he said in a voice that echoed through the bar room, shattering glasses and a couple of the mirrors hanging.

  "Hurry, we don't have much time," Burrom said as he eyed me up and down.

  I heard the feet shuffling of the Fae as they all opted to do what Cormac asked before he showed them any more tricks he had.

  In the dim light, I realized the strange shimmering was hovering around me. It had followed me from Cormac's garage. Hello, Death, I silently greeted it. At least now you have a face. Yep, that didn't make me feel much better at all.

  I climbed the stairs with a mass of thirty Fae at my back, Cormac at my side and Burrom leading the way. My legs felt numb from panic and I wondered how I moved forward.

  And just like that, it hit me. I'd always thought I would be cool with death. When it's your time, you go. Now that it was truly here, I realized I'd been an utter fool. I didn't want to go silently into the night, I wanted to kick the doors down and go out screaming and raging, clinging to every last breath.

  "So, what are my odds? Do I have a shot?" I asked Cormac as we still had a half a flight to go.

  "Finally," he replied, "took you long enough."

  "Not helping."

  "You aren't going anywhere." There was steel in his voice when he said it and I hoped he was right.

  "Put her in the center. Quickly!" Burrom said as the Fae circled around me.

  Cormac, still standing next to me, grabbed me by the back of my hair and tilted my head back. His lips covered mine. 'No' didn't even enter my head. I didn't care about the past right now, I was a dying woman having a final moment, and oh what a moment it was. There had always been a lot of tension between us and it manifested itself there a thousand fold.

  "Cormac, we don't have time!" It was Burrom's voice again and I just remembered we were standing in a circle of Fae, all witnessing this moment.

  "Don't fucking die," Cormac said as he pulled back.

  "God, you are such a romantic," I replied. He smiled but it was bittersweet and we both knew it. />
  Burrom looked to me. "We are going to try to buffer the force. The more we can absorb the better chance you have."

  I nodded like I knew what he meant. Looking up, the shimmering had started to intensify. No, I don't say hello to you. You can go fuck yourself, you shimmering shit! I didn't say it aloud. If I was going to die, I preferred 'shimmering shit' not to be my last words.

  The Fae chanted sounds I'd never heard as I stared at an enemy I could never have imagined. I'd come a hell of a long way in my life to die now. Abandoned to a foster care system, to living on the streets and mugging people to get by and some shimmering shit was going to take me out because I told a friend a couple of things to protect her. Was there even a God? Why hadn't I been killed when I'd robbed and stolen from innocents? I turned my life around and tried to do the right thing and now I'm going to die? What kind of bullshit rules were these?

  The shimmering just intensified. So much so, I started to wonder if they weren't doing more harm than good. Maybe the Fae were trying to actually take me out. I eyed them with suspicion, now. No, Cormac wouldn't have brought me here if he thought there was even a chance they'd screw me. As strange as it seemed, I trusted Cormac. Never thought I would, but life is sometimes stranger than fiction. Looking at the sparkling reaper above my head proved it. I'd never imagine Death to look all sparkly, like a fifteen year old's eye shadow.

  And then it began its slow creep toward me. And only me. From the way it was winding down, I'd say their chants were doing didley squat.

  "Okay fairy dust, let's see what you've got. I've got a couple of tricks up my sleeve too."

  The pain didn't come immediately. In a weird way, I almost felt as if it were playing with me. It was a slight tingle here and there. The kind you would get from a low charge battery. But it didn't stay that way for long. Soon, it began to feel like cigarette burns; I looked down as one touched my arm but it didn't leave a mark. Then it felt like cigar sized burns and those didn't come and go as quickly.

  I felt the eyes of Cormac and the Fae on me and I tried to keep my dignity but with each moment I felt closer to the edge. By time it got to about fifty burns at once, all staying in place for almost a minute, I had to bite my cheek to keep from crying out.