by Kelly Gay
“I’m awake,” she said as though it was one step above a No, I’m not okay. “I don’t like the fact that every other day I have to take a small, regulated amount of ash to keep my system from shutting down. And if you want to know the truth, I feel like a fucking drug addict.”
I winced. Bryn never cussed like that. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.” She shrugged. “I’d do it again in a heartbeat.” An air of depression settled around her, and for a long moment she didn’t speak. “Rex is good with Em,” she finally said, changing the subject. “I don’t think you need to worry about him. But there is one other thing … He, um, sort of rescued a pet. It’s living in your backyard.”
“Why do I have a feeling this is not going to be good?”
“It’s the hellhound. Brimstone. Once he found out Animal Control was going to euthanize it, he had a fit. He and Aaron broke into the pound and stole him.”
I closed my eyes and breathed deeply.
“He bought him a reinforced kennel and is working with him, training him.”
I nodded. Great. Just great. Now I had an illegal hellhound living in my backyard. “That hound gets anywhere near my kid and I’ll shoot it.”
“Yeah, I told him. So did Hank. But you should see it, Charlie. Anytime Emma goes out to visit him in the kennel, he becomes completely docile. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
This was the first time since I woke that she sounded like the old Bryn. “Thank you,” I said, knowing our fight had cost her far more than she’d ever admit. “For what you did. Do you want to talk about it?”
“Not really.”
An ache blossomed in my chest. Bryn always wanted to talk about things. That was—had been—part of her personality. Now she was different. Changed. Like me. Like Hank. Like Will. Tears stung my eyes, but I blinked them back before Bryn could see. But it didn’t really matter. When I looked over, she had fallen asleep.
Waking up to two giant forms hovering over me wasn’t exactly the best way to start the morning. I gasped and sat up as one of the forms reached over and hit the lamp switch.
The chief and Hank stood on either side of the bed. Hank with his hands shoved deeply into his front pockets, in dire need of a shave and haircut, and the chief, folding his big, leather-clad arms over his chest. I suddenly felt very small and very under-dressed.
“What is this? ITF’s version of a wake-up call?” I asked, voice groggy and scooting up. I went to adjust the bed’s angle with the control, but the loud burst of sound made me stop; I didn’t want to wake Bryn.
But then I noticed she wasn’t exactly in the room. Her bed was made. Her table cleared off. I continued to raise the bed.
“Where is Bryn?” I asked.
“She was released about three hours ago,” Hank said. “Aaron picked her up. She didn’t wake you?”
What the hell? She left without saying good-bye, just snuck out without a word? Granted, I knew she was seriously troubled and still physically suffering from her ordeal, but to just leave like that … “Guess not,” I said, feeling confused and hurt and a whole lot concerned. Maybe she was worse off than I thought.
The chief cleared his throat, obviously seeing my mind wandering. I focused on him. The last time I’d seen the chief, I’d shot him with a stun gun, and I still didn’t feel bad about it. “How’s your leg?”
“It hurt like hell, Madigan,” he barked and then shook his head. “But it worked. No one blamed your little escape on me, except Otorius, but that was no surprise. Listen,” he began more quietly and a hell of a lot more uncomfortably, “about that … I just want to say … well, I’m sorry for keeping that whole DNA thing a secret. Titus had a chance to save you, and I don’t regret giving him the go-ahead.”
I absorbed his words, knowing that, in a roundabout way, I owed him my life. But I still wasn’t ready to let him off the hook for keeping the details from me. I dipped my head slightly and changed the subject. “So, one of you going to tell me where we stand?”
“We’ve got Interpol looking into Cass’s whereabouts. We’ve been cleaning and processing the lab. Your friend Carreg has dropped out of sight. And if there was a connection between Mynogan bringing ash to the city and his plan to call the darkness, hell if we can figure it out.”
“And Tennin?”
The chief’s dark face went blustery. “Well, let’s see,” he said growing more perturbed by the minute. “That string I pulled at Deer Isle for you ended up getting Lamek Kraw killed by his visitor. Murder-suicide. Yeah. It was a hit. Feeling a little used yet?”
My lungs deflated. Shit. “What else?” I knew there was more.
“Oh, it gets better, Madigan. I went and raided the Lion’s Den. And you know what? Didn’t find a goddamn thing! Held that bastard in cold cell for three days while we searched! And you know what all it’s gotten me?”
I was afraid to ask. But I didn’t have to.
“Fired! That’s what it got me!”
Hank and I winced at the same time.
“So what about us? The department knows now that I was attacked, that Mynogan was behind the kidnapping.”
A sharp laugh jiggled the chief’s angry cheeks. “You’re not off the hook! Neither one of you is. You can’t just go renegade and run around the city killing off-worlders, even if they are bad. What you both did should land you in jail.”
“Should?”
The chief’s indignation diffused somewhat, and he relaxed into the chair by the bed. “I’ve been offered a new job.”
“What?” Hank and I said in unison.
“Yeah, and you two nutcases are coming with me.”
A quick glance at Hank told me he was as stunned as I was. And we were both hesitant to ask where.
“All right, I’ll ask,” Hank finally said. “Going where?”
“The fifth floor.” At our confused faces, he laughed. “Yeah, I know. There is no name for where we’re going. Just a floor. The fifth in ITF Building One.”
“But the fifth floor is the clerical floor. There’s nothing up there but accountants, bookkeepers, and records clerks.” What the hell was the chief talking about?
“Have you ever been up there, either of you?” We both shook our heads. “Well, there you go. Look, we’ve been given a chance by the higher-ups to keep our heads above water after this fiasco. We answer to no one but them, and as far as the ITF is concerned, they’re on a need-to-know basis.”
“So, what, we’re classified now?” A laugh escaped me.
“To the rest of the world, pretty much. To the assholes and criminals on the street, we’re gonna be their worst nightmare.”
A slow grin split Hank’s face. “I’m liking the sound of this.”
I liked it, too, but then my sane voice interrupted. I couldn’t do this anymore. I’d almost died twice in one year. There was my daughter to consider here. I shook my head and let out a deep sigh. “I can’t do it, Chief. I can’t.”
The chief’s pupils dilated to hard points. “You don’t have a choice, Madigan. It’s either prison or this. You tell me which one is better for your kid.” I felt as if the breath had been kicked out of me. “Look, I know how you’re feeling right now. I know why you don’t want to do this anymore. But damn it, Charlie, the higher-ups aren’t doing this to be nice. They want you and Hank, and they’ll use any leverage they’ve got. Look at it this way,” he said, sitting back. “You can heal yourself now. You got more protection than any off-worlder I know. You bled out almost entirely. Hell, you didn’t even need a transfusion when you got to the hospital.”
That shocked me. “I didn’t?” A creepy sensation crawled up my spine, and all I could see was blood in my vision and the taste of it in my mouth.
I’d kept Mynogan’s blood. Oh, God, I was going to be sick.
Hank was beside me, hand on my back. “Breathe through it,” he said gently. “Deep breaths.”
I put my head toward my knees as waves of nausea rolled through me.
It sounded like a theory to me, not fact, but I had to give props to Hank for trying. “So what kind of job are we talking?” I asked, easing back onto the pillows and not wanting to think about blood.
“Well, let’s just say the ITF has cases that need to be handled outside the normal confines of the law. That’s where we come in. You answer to me. I answer to a contact in Washington. And you two have already proven you’ll go above and beyond. The head honchos have been looking for a new team to work Atlanta for months. I know it’s not fair, Charlie, but it’s all we got, and I wouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”
The chief stood, signaling the end of this little meeting. “As soon as you’re recovered, we’ll get to work. The CPP may be disbanded, but Mynogan had a loyal following. And we still have a lot of unanswered questions when it comes to ash and Tennin’s involvement. It’s not over.” He opened the door and sighed. “And apparently we have an escaped Adonai serial killer on the loose.”
For some reason that didn’t surprise me. Just add it to the other things on the list: nailing Grigori Tennin, getting Will’s soul back, fixing Hank’s voice-mod problem, ridding myself of this power inside of me, having a heart-to-heart with my daughter because there was no way I could keep lying to her … And now Llyran had escaped.
Just a day in the life, I thought ruefully.
After the chief left, Hank sat on the edge of the hospital bed and, like me, took a long moment to ponder the chief’s words. Finally he straightened his back, dragged his fingers through his hair, and turned his gaze to me. “So, are we doing this, then?”
What choice did we have?
Going off the grid, having no one to answer to but the chief, being the worst nightmare to criminals who deserved it … I gave him a shrug, feeling a small smile tug the corners of my mouth. “What the hell.”
It was fitting that my first view of the darkness I’d brought to Atlanta would be seen with Hank at my side. I’d kept the hospital curtains drawn, hadn’t asked about it, and had basically avoided the issue until the last possible minute. And now it couldn’t be avoided; I had to leave the hospital. Of course, leaving in a wheelchair wasn’t exactly my style, but I cooperated because, quite frankly, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to stand once I saw the damage I’d done.
Maybe sitting down was the best thing for everybody.
“Aaron said it won’t last,” Hank said quietly as he pushed me through the elevator door and into the hallway that led to the main lobby. “You made it out of the circle before your last drop was spilled and your life force gone. He’s not sure how long, but the League seems to think the darkness shouldn’t spread too far or last forever.” He paused, and I heard a small sigh. “I won’t lie to you, Charlie, it’s been hell trying to calm the fear and panic once it reached the city. The ITF has managed to keep your name out of the media so far, but you should know … some people in the department blame you. Others think you’re a hero.”
Joy. “And you?”
“I think you’re out of your mind, as usual.”
I laughed even though my hands clenched and unclenched the armrests. “Thanks.” And then he turned the corner.
My heart hammered quick and hard against my rib cage.
I could see it through the main lobby’s wall of glass. My mouth went dry, too dry even to swallow. The front doors slid open, and we glided past a florist, through another set of glass doors, and then we were out.
Outside. In the dark. At 11A.M.
The blue sky and sunlight had been replaced by an undulating, churning mass of gray. It was not the complete darkness of night, more like the darkness of a total eclipse or a very nasty thunderstorm with the darkest damn thunderclouds you ever saw. Occasionally a bright flash, similar to heat lightning, would illuminate the darkness, but it was the only light from above. It moved and seethed like a living entity, an entity built on my blood. My gut twisted.
“Excuse me,” a voice interrupted my horror. I glanced over my shoulder as the florist we’d passed approached. “The lady at the front pointed you out,” he said to both of us and then switched his gaze to me. “You’re Charlie Madigan, right?”
“Yeah?”
“These are for you.”
He stuck them out, but Hank snagged the flowers with an unamused glare that made the guy dip his head and then hurry to his van.
Once he was driving away, Hank handed me the flowers. They were lilies. Bloodred. I secured the vase between my thighs and picked out the note card, feeling a sudden pang of apprehension.
Charlie,
I like what you’ve done with the place.
My vision distorted. Hank’s voice drifted away as he asked me who the flowers were from, but I couldn’t answer because I couldn’t breathe.
Panic blasted through me like an arctic wind, then doubled back to blanket me. It was the panic of the trapped, of that precise moment when you realize that you can’t move, can’t breathe, can’t do anything physical at all. You can only think and feel the drumming of your heart and the intense surge of adrenaline as it races through your system.
Then, just as suddenly as the feeling came, it was gone.
The world blinked back into focus—sharp, gray, slithering focus that lay like a living shroud over the city. A dark city. Electric goose bumps snaked down my arms and thighs. A Charbydon paradise. Hell on Earth.
There’s more than one monster in this city. The last words Otorius had spoken to me echoed through my mind.
I knew who had engineered me and made me call the darkness, and that monster was dead. But why the hell did I get the feeling this was only the beginning, like I’d just been played big time, like I’d fallen into something way bigger and far more complex than darkness and ash?
As I sat there in the wheelchair, hospital traffic going by, people walking in and out, the earthy scent of lilies invading the air, I knew one thing. Grigori Tennin might like what I’ve done with the place, but I had created the darkness. It was my blood that had called it, and it was my blood that would fix things. I was the lone wolf, the only one of my kind in existence, and I had the power inside me to change everything.
Grigori Tennin was about to learn a valuable lesson: there was one thing more dangerous than making a deal with the devil, and that thing was me.
FB2 document info
Document ID: acd2164d-ac5d-4f29-b5ba-e47ae508f911
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Document creation date: 01 December 2009
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