by R. L. Naquin
We chewed in time with our own thoughts.
I set my fork down and wiped my mouth with my napkin. “Okay, then.”
He raised one eyebrow. “What?”
“We’ve tried everything short of breaking into his apartment to look in his desk. We need a new tactic.”
“What do you propose?” Lucas set down his fork.
“I think we should just ask him.”
His eyebrows rose in disbelief and he chuckled. “Just...ask him. What, walk in there and ask if he’s stolen a soul stone that he got from a dead reaper he may or may not have killed? Ask him if he’s using homeless folks to kill the food truck competition across the street? You think he’ll, what, slap his leg and say, ‘Ah, you got me. My bad.’ Then let us lock him up?”
“Wow. Your sarcasm skills are on point.”
He took a breath. “Sorry. But you have to admit, that’s a ridiculous plan.”
“Maybe, but it’s all we’ve got right now. Unless you’ve got something better?”
His expression was thoughtful. “Well, no. I guess I don’t have a better plan. We’ve got to do something. And he did put something in a small box in his apartment last night. Did you see that?”
I nodded. “If it was the stone, that means he’s got it on him when he goes out. So, breaking in and stealing it while he’s at work won’t work. So. The only question is, do we do this ourselves or ask the OGREs to back us up?”
Before he could answer, there was a knock on the door, followed by the doorbell.
We both looked at the clock on the microwave and frowned.
“Neighbors?” I put my napkin next to my plate and stood, moving toward the kitchen window. It was too dark to see anything.
“Maybe. But it’s after nine, and I don’t know my neighbors.” He moved through the kitchen, pausing to grab a walking stick propped against the wall in the hallway.
Neither of us had any reason to be on the alert so quickly, yet every muscle in my body told me something was wrong. I followed Lucas into the living room and searched my jacket pocket, pulling out my police baton. Lucas put his hand on the doorknob, and I flicked my wrist, expanding my club.
The lights went out, leaving us in total darkness. Every muscle in my body tensed, expecting anything from gunshots to the ceiling opening up and swallowing us. I held still and tried to keep from allowing the adrenaline racing through my veins to give away how afraid I was. I took a breath and tried to appear collected.
“Crap.” I heard a noise coming from inside the house, and I turned in the dark to face whatever was coming.
The door swung open without Lucas’s help, and he grunted. Instinctively, we backed up against each other so we’d have a little protection. As my eyes adjusted and the open door brought in some light from the street, a shadow rushed me.
I swung my baton as hard as I could, conscious at the same time of Lucas swinging his walking stick at someone coming in the front door. My baton made contact. The reverberation jarred my arm up to the shoulder. The baton snapped in two, and the longest part of it fell to the floor.
My attacker hadn’t even grunted.
“Piece of crap.” I flung the useless rubber grip that was all I had left. That was what I got for shopping in the As Seen on TV aisle.
Behind me, Lucas yelled, and his stick went flying. Somewhere in the living room, glass shattered where it must have fallen. I detected movement from the dark shadow in front of me and ducked. The blow skimmed my cheekbone, doing little damage. The form in front of me bobbed and weaved like a boxer, but it was smaller than me. I lunged forward and tackled it, throwing my full weight into the figure and bringing it to the floor with a thud.
The body beneath me felt even smaller than I’d expected. Softer. It struggled, and I pinned its arms to the sides and used the rest of my body to keep it still. Something thudded behind me as my attacker’s face was illuminated for a brief few seconds by the headlights of a passing car shining through the open door.
My eyes grew wide in shock, and my grip lessened for fear of hurting her. “Bonnie?”
Something hit me from behind, and the lights went out completely.
Chapter Twenty
When I woke up, it was still dark. I was sitting in a chair with my arms tied behind me and my ankles tied to the chair. I was pretty sure I’d drooled down the front of my shirt, but I couldn’t see it.
My head, already sporting a decent knot from the last fight, shot white-hot pain from my neck into my left eyeball and all down the left side of my spine. Whatever I’d been hit with had been huge. The skin on the left side of my face felt tight, and when I wrinkled my forehead, a crust of something—probably my own blood—bunched together and flaked off.
“Kam?” Luke’s voice came as a whisper in the darkness.
“Lucas?” As much pain as I was in, and as uncomfortable as it was being tied to a chair in an unknown, dark place, I felt a little better knowing I wasn’t alone and that Lucas hadn’t been left at his house, dead. “You tied up, too?”
“Yeah. The ropes won’t budge.”
I tested my bindings. “Me, too.” Off to the right, a small amount of light leaked through a window, but it didn’t reveal much. “Do you know where we are?”
“Not a clue. When I went down, you were still fighting. I only woke up a few minutes ago. Your breathing changed, so I knew you were awake. You all right?”
“Head hurts like crazy. You?”
“I feel like I lost a fight.”
I chuckled, then winced at the pain it caused. “You did.”
At some point, we’d given up on whispering. There didn’t seem to be much point. Either there was someone in the room with us, listening, or we were alone. Whispering wasn’t going to help in either instance.
The dim light grew brighter as I sat there, helpless, getting stiffer with every inch of sun that rose on the horizon. After a while, I was able to make out the room we were in, and the fact that we were seated at a table, facing each other.
My mouth felt like I’d spent all night licking stamps and envelopes for a furniture store mailer. I’d made that mistake only once, a long time ago, before I’d found out they made sponges for that so you didn’t have to use your own tongue.
The good news was that, once the sun came up, I was able to see the pitcher of water and two glasses in the center of the table. Too bad there was no one around to pour or hold the glass to my mouth so I could drink.
“This is terrible customer service.” I stared at the silver pitcher, licking my dry lips.
Lucas snorted. “We should write a bad review.”
“Scathing.”
“They can’t leave us here forever, can they?”
I shrugged. “They who? The people who attacked us would have their souls back by now and won’t even know we’re here. I don’t know if he’ll have anybody besides himself at this point.” I winced, thinking about Bonnie. I hoped with all my heart that she wasn’t hurt. That I hadn’t hurt her.
Lucas shifted in his seat. “That’s a good point.”
The size of the room was hard to determine. The space we were in wasn’t much bigger than a living room, but the floor was concrete, and the walls around us were actually metal storage racks packed full of boxes. It felt like the room was a lot bigger than what we could see. This was proved to be true when a door slammed, and distant footsteps took some time to get louder and reach us.
To no one’s real surprise, Merle appeared from around the boxes. He eyed us both with a solemn expression, then snagged a wheeled chair and swung it around to face us several feet away from the table. He sat with his legs apart, forearms resting on his thighs and hands dangling between. He stared at the floor, as if gathering his thoughts to speak.
Finally, he lifted his head and
looked me in the eye. “Do you think I’m stupid?” I didn’t answer, and Merle shifted his attention to Lucas. “Did you think I didn’t know who you both were?”
A chill made me shudder. Did he mean he knew I was a chaser? A djinn? I sat up straighter, ignoring the way the ropes cut into my wrists. “Excuse me?”
The slow movement of his head was disconcerting, like a zombie who’d gotten a whiff of my brains. “I’m an executive-level chef. I trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris.”
I smiled, trying to humor him. “I’m not surprised. Your food is delicious.”
He slammed his hand on the table, palm down. “You sell toast! You flash your breasts and parade around in the parking lot selling toast. And I’m sitting in my restaurant with no customers. I’m being outsold by a toast-whore!” This time, the hand came down in a fist.
The pitcher and glasses rattled.
“Hey.” Lucas leaned forward as much as the ropes would allow, his face red. “Don’t talk to her like that.”
Merle let out a dry chuckle. “Or what? You’re going to hit me with a flying burrito?” He nodded. “Yeah. I know who you both are. And I saw you in my alley trying to spy on me, too.”
Lucas and I exchanged a look. Oops.
Merle stood up and kicked the chair away. “You know what the worst part is? I expected better out of this new world. All those food truck people are Hidden. You’d think, after all I’d been through, the Hidden, at least, would cut me a break.” He peered at Lucas, then at me, his eyes squinting. “Except you two.” He nodded at me. “You, I just haven’t identified yet.” He turned to Lucas. “But you. You’re human. What the hell? It’s a Hidden enclave. You don’t make any damn sense.”
I cleared my throat. “Merle?”
He pivoted and stepped toward me faster than I’d expected. “What are you?”
“I’m a djinn. Jeez. Didn’t you check the bracelet?”
His face paled. “Djinn?”
Could I bluff my way out of this? If he thought I had enough magic to take him out, maybe he’d run for it or even beg for forgiveness.
He shook his head. “I don’t sense any power in you. I think you’re bluffing.” He turned back to Lucas. “And you?”
Lucas glanced at me, and I shrugged. What could it hurt? “I’m an Aegis,” he said. “I’m here to watch out for this group.”
Merle’s lip curled up in disgust. “Then you’re terrible at your job. You should have been watching out for me, too. Don’t I count?” He picked up one of the glasses and threw it across the room, where it shattered against the wall. “Don’t I matter?” He dropped into his chair and covered his face with his hands. Pete’s ring twinkled on his middle finger.
“Merle?” I kept my voice gentle. “I can’t tell what you are, either. I see the shadow of gills, but that’s it. How could you be Hidden and run the restaurant all those years? Why weren’t you on Lucas’s list when he came here?”
A sob escaped from between Merle’s hands. His shoulders shook, but then stopped as he straightened up. “Love makes us do crazy things.”
Lucas frowned. “Your wife. She was human.”
Merle nodded. “I gave up my tail to live on land as far from the sea as we could get.”
My throat clenched and tears welled in my eyes. I knew a little about running away and giving up my heritage. “She’s been gone for years, though, hasn’t she? Why didn’t you go back?”
He shook his head. “I didn’t have anything to go back for. Elise and I never had kids. We couldn’t. All we had was the café.” He took in a shaky breath. “But then you and your food truck people ruined it.”
From what I’d seen, lack of advertising, a poor location and bad parking may have had more to do with it.
“Look.” I licked my lips, wishing we could get this all over with so I could drink a bucket of water. “I don’t think you understand what that ring is. There are souls in it that need to be released. You’re trapping them in there.”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “What? Are you another reaper?”
I pretended to be surprised at the question. “Absolutely not. But I do know that ring isn’t yours, and we’ve got to empty it before it’s too late.”
He shook his head. “Why would I care about the souls of dead people I don’t know? Nobody gives a damn about me.”
“I care.” Lucas stared at Merle with unfocused eyes. “I care very much.” His gaze flicked to me, before moving back to Merle. “You’re broken. I can see it. That’s my gift. Your heart...it’s not good. It’s not even beating enough to keep you alive.”
Merle gave him a snide smile. “How about that, huh?”
Lucas dropped his voice low enough I could barely hear him. “What happened to the reaper? He came for you, didn’t he?”
Merle looked out the window, his gaze unfocused. “It was an accident. The guy shouldn’t have been lurking in my alley.” He gave me a pointed look. “I was taking out a bag of trash. My chest felt like it exploded, and I tripped and fell. The guy was in the way. Bashed his head open against the wall by the Dumpsters.”
I sucked in a breath. I’d been right. The splashes on the bank’s wall hadn’t been chocolate milk. “What happened to the reaper, Merle?” Tied up as I was, I couldn’t reach out and touch his shoulder or reassure him in any way other than with my voice.
“I tried to get off of him and call for help, but his soul...” Merle’s eyes lost focus. “I saw it leave and go into the stone in his ring.” He shook his head of the memory. “Once I realized I’d taken out my own reaper, I knew I could live forever. And I had his ring as a bonus.”
My face grew hot. “So, having accidentally killed once and acquired something like eternal life, you decided to go on a killing spree?” My skin was feverish, and I felt the flames dancing in my vision. “You killed some really nice people. What would Elise have thought about that?” I squirmed at my ropes, but they only grew tighter. If I could have gotten loose, Merle would have been in for one righteous ass kicking. As it was, I was losing circulation in my left hand.
Merle’s eyes flashed. “Don’t you talk about her. Don’t you ever talk about my wife.”
Lucas was chill, his tone soothing. “Why don’t we all calm down? If you untie us, we can work out this whole mess. No one else needs to get hurt.”
His calm was messing with my anger. I didn’t want to calm down. I wanted to be furious. If I reached a high enough level of pissed off, maybe my skin would grow hot enough to burn through the ropes that bound my hands. I’d never been that pissed before, though. I was one of the most mellow djinn out there. The best I’d ever done was get furious enough to reheat a tuna casserole. The kind with peas and curly macaroni. And maybe some chopped-up bacon. Definitely loaded with cheese.
Merle leaned back in his chair, eyeing Lucas. “I’ll untie you in a minute, burrito man. Don’t you worry.” He made a face of disgust. “Truck food.” He glanced over his shoulder at me and gave me a huge, cavernous smile that held my death in it, then shook his head. “Toast.” He spat on the floor.
My immediate response was to giggle at that, though I managed to shove it down before he saw my reaction. Seriously. Who did that whole spitting-on-the-floor-in-disgust thing? Had they taught him that at Le Cordon Bleu?
Merle approached Lucas and kneeled beside him. “I tried to take a Hidden soul, but they just drop dead when I do that. I had to find a new waitress to replace her. But humans.” He nodded vigorously. “Yeah. Humans are useful as hell. So, my human Bandito, I’m going to just borrow your soul for a little while and send your body across the table to take out the toast-whore.” He grabbed Lucas’s jaw.
Lucas tried to pull away. “No. Come on. Wouldn’t you rather handle this another way? Maybe over lunch? We could have a meeting. I bet the trucks would all be willing to change locat
ions.”
I was frozen in horror. “Man. I did not see this coming.” I struggled harder against my ropes.
A soft touch on my shoulder made me stop moving. The whisper was so faint, I barely caught it. “Hold still. I don’t want to cut you.”
There was pressure against my ropes, drawing them tighter, then miraculously, I was free. Moments later, each of my ankles were free, too. I turned around in time to see Ash duck behind a pile of boxes while Merle’s attention was still on Lucas.
My soul stone jumped beneath my shirt as Merle pulled at Lucas’s soul with Pete’s ring. I yanked my pendant free.
“Hey, Merle. I think you’d better look at this.” I waited as he turned to face me, an expression of annoyance on his face. I held up my beautiful scarab made of soul stone.
His expression changed to astonishment. “You said you weren’t a reaper.”
I smiled. “I’m not. I’m a chaser. And it’s time for you to stop running, because I’m damn tired.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Merle held his ring in my direction and focused an intense glare at me. Apparently, seeing my stone made him change his plans to have someone else kill me.
I shook my head. “Not going to work, dude.”
He clearly thought he could suck out my soul and kill me, since I was a Hidden. Number one, djinn weren’t technically Hidden. We weren’t humans, of course, but since we came from another world, we weren’t Hidden, either—the same applied to other portal visitors, like demons, were-folk, vampires and zombies. Number two, I was a soul chaser. I had a stone, and more important, I had the training to use it that he lacked. My soul wasn’t going anywhere.
It took him two seconds to figure that out. In my dream scenario, he’d toss me the ring, apologize and maybe we’d all hug. My dreams weren’t often realistic.
Merle turned his attention back to Lucas. This time, there was no hesitation. Before I could react, Merle held the ring toward Lucas and in one fluid movement, pulled backward. A silver, glistening, fluid-like substance escaped from Lucas’s mouth, flowed toward the ring and disappeared into it.