It struck him in the ear and for a moment, I thought I'd wasted the spell. He turned toward me, his hand already submerged beneath the waters where bubbles were breaking the surface. I decided Saul wouldn't have time for me to wait to see if the spell would take.
I launched myself at the golem, fully expecting that blast of magic to erupt from his free hand at me.
But by the time I splashed over and gripped him by the waist, he was already paralyzed.
And Saul was still stuck beneath the water under its weight.
I sucked in a breath of air and followed the golem's arm down to where Saul was held by the neck. The creature's fingers were wrapped around the boy's supple throat and Saul was still beneath the grip. He'd given up fighting or gone unconscious.
I had only a few seconds to free him and de-animate the golem. But Saul's life was far more important and right now he wasn't doing so well. I struggled to knock the heavy arm away and I lost a good deal of the air in my lungs in the process.
But I did it and I managed to break the water with Saul beneath my arm.
I held him in a swimmer's grip as I reached for the bottom with the soles of my feet. I discovered we weren't in too deep. Maybe about waist high.
"Come on, boy," I said, slapping his cheeks as he lay prone over my elbow. "Don't make me give you mouth to mouth."
He lay limp in the water, floating over my arm.
"Crap," I said and lowered my mouth to his. With several short, rhythmic breaths, I coddled his lungs till they heaved and he gagged.
I got my mouth off his just in time before a load of revolting water spewed forth.
"You're gonna need a tetanus shot," I said, grimacing at the taste in my mouth. No doubt I would need one too. Or a tremendous bolt of whiskey to sanitize my throat. I grieved my hot date in that moment, knowing no amount of mouthwash would be sufficient to clean the stink of sewer away.
Saul sputtered like a dying engine and splashed backwards as he tried to find footing in the brackish water.
"Vicki?" he said.
"I usually get dinner first," I said. "And I don't usually French the trainees."
"Sure, sure," he said. "But the golem—"
Right. The golem. I wasn't sure how much time we had, but it had to be coming down to zero.
I let go him in order to swing around. If the spell was still in play, it had to be down to mere seconds by now. Sure enough, the golem was still frozen in place. With breath held that the spell would hold on a few more seconds, I sloshed over toward the golem. I had to climb its paralyzed limbs and trunk to get high enough to reach for its forehead.
The shem would be right between the eyes. I only had to dig into it with my nails.
I felt a subtle shifting beneath my knees as I clung with my legs wrapped around the golem's midriff. The damn thing was coming to and I could just barely reach.
I had to shimmy higher.
"Push me up, will you?" I said to Saul.
"Saul?" I said as the subtle undulations of clay coming to animation burbled beneath my thighs. I strained for its forehead. "Saul, come on I need help."
I craned to look over my shoulder only to see that Saul was gone. How he'd managed to take off without me hearing or seeing him, I had no idea but the little devil had indeed snuck off and left me here with—
Just then, the faint movements became violent and I grabbed for the nearest purchase; the golem's shoulders. Which put me eye level. Which meant I could see deep into the depths of the beast's skull.
I saw my death there.
"Oh fuck me," I said and in the next instant, I was plucked by my foot as the monster snagged behind his back to grab me. It held me upside down. My phone splashed into the water and the cascade sprayed up into my eyes. Blood rushed to my face.
More than a tetanus shot now. I'd need a battery of antibiotics. If I lived through it that is.
The golem took to shaking me as it held me by the ankle. I gathered I was too close for it to blast with magic and had decided to shake me until my brain turned to mush. I swore my stomach would go first and figured I was at least in a good place for it.
If I could grab its waist though, I might be able to stop the world from spinning long enough to fight back. If I could hold on long enough, I might be able to kick my way free.
It took at least three, frustrating tries before I managed to get a good grip on its hips. It yanked at me, thinking it had merely caught its toy in something and in that brief moment when it tried to reason what was happening, I pulled back one knee and thrust it upward as hard as I could.
My kneecap connected with something. Its chin, I thought. I knew because it hurt like the devil and I hissed a lanced boil in response.
I kicked again.
"Not today you fucker," I said. "I do not die in a bog of shit and piss."
The third kick broke something off. I heard it fall to the water and it staggered. Whatever grip it held me by, it let go and I fell headlong into the brackish water.
I just had enough time to suck in a breath and hold it before I plunged beneath the surface. Blind because I'd closed my eyes, I struck out, trying to find my footing and equilibrium. My lungs burned long before I gathered my feet beneath me.
I wasn't graceful about coming to the surface, but who cares about graceful when you're about to drown in septic. I thrashed about and managed to stand. My hair clung to my skull and obliterated my eyesight. It took several desperate swipes before I could see, and when I could, it was obvious the golem was gone.
"Coward," I said, gasping for clean air.
"What's that?"
I looked up at the sound of the voice. A man hung down over the opening in the pavement created by the golem's blast. The streetlights haloed his blond hair and cut shadows into his cheeks. Everything in my body sagged as I recognized Chase.
"Good God, Vicki," he said. "If that's how you shower for a hot date, I renege."
"Funny," I said. "Get me the hell out of here."
"Where's Saul?" he said, twisting left and right in an effort to see better into the sewer around me.
"I hope the golem got him," I said.
"You don't know where he is?"
I dropped my head back on my neck. "More rescue, less interrogation," I said.
"Just find the ladder."
The ladder. Right. Manholes existed so city workmen could check on things down here, so it stood to reason they didn't just fall in. They needed a way to get up and down. I dropped my gaze from Chase's shadowed face to pan left and right. I found the manhole several yards away. Yup. There it was. A rusted set of rungs caked with dirt.
But my phone. I wasn't going anywhere without it. I dug beneath the water and winced each time my fingers met something that didn't feel like a hard shell of plastic. I had a waterproof case, and I'd found it useful a good number of times.
I was relieved when I felt the telltale touch and shape and hauled it from the water. I'd clean it later. For now, I stuffed it in my back pocket and swashed over to the concrete lip that funneled the sewage and water downstream.
"No one's been down here for a while," I said a little too loud.
Chase hung his hand down. "Hurry up," he said. "The stink is vile. I'll heft you to the street."
He disappeared from view and I climbed high enough to grab his hand when he stuck it down through the manhole.
"Gross," he said when my palm met his. "I hope you were planning to shower before touching your date's muscled belly."
I grunted with the effort of heaving myself upward. His other hand reached down to grab beneath my armpit and he hoisted with an equal grunt of effort until I was scrambling on my belly to pull my legs to the street.
I rolled over to face the sky and breathed in fresher air, flinging my arms out to my sides. I was never so happy to smell exhaust fumes and burnt bread. I inhaled the city's aroma and held it in my lungs for a long moment.
"I'm guessing it didn't go well," Chase said from beside me.
The sound of metal grinding against asphalt indicated he was replacing the manhole cover.
"Really?" I muttered with an exhausted breath. "What was your first clue?"
"When I found myself sitting at the bar alone and no text from you to explain why you were late."
I tried to sit up and realized I felt way better lying flat on my back.
"Saul is not hunter material," I said. "Let's just leave it at that."
"Well, best tell Joy sooner than later," he said, lying down next to me. I felt his shoulder butt up next to mine and the smell of shaving cream and butterscotch swept over me. I loved that about him, that clean wholesome smell when he was the type of guy who could teach a sailor a few choice words.
"This is what you had in mind when you conjured that second golem?" I said, turning to look at his profile. It was shadowed on my side but the streetlamp lit his nose and cheek like a halo.
"Me?" he said. "I barely managed to spell the first one. Did you not see that poor excuse for a penis?" He sucked in his teeth. "I got all serious about making something you'd find funny and really botched up the placement."
"So it was you who shaped it," I mused with a chuckle. Then with a start, I realized what he'd just admitted.
"You didn't make the second golem?" I said and jackknifed to a sitting position.
I looked down at his face and waited for realization to hit him too. When he didn't seem flustered, I tapped him twice on the cheek. "You didn't make another golem," I repeated. "I just fought a huge mother of a golem in the sewer."
"Second golem?" His brow furrowed and he propped himself onto his elbows. "You had to fight two of them?"
I nodded. "You think I'd jump into a sewer for a monster I could carry beneath my arm?"
"Oh shit," he said.
"Yeah. Shit."
"Not my idea of a hot date," he said with a twisted expression. I couldn't tell if it was excitement or regret that rode his features, just that it was unreadable. I decided to go with disappointment.
"Play your cards right and you can be taking a hot shower with a hot babe in a couple hours."
His face lit up. "Really? You know a hot babe?"
"Hot enough for you to come looking for her on a dark Devil's night," I said and pushed myself onto my feet. I struck a pose for him, running my palm over my hips in what I thought was a seductive motion.
His reaction was to wave at me with mock revulsion. "Please," he said. "Don't try to be coy. It doesn't suit you."
I laid a palm against my chest. Indignant. "Then why in the hell did you agree to meet me if you didn't think I was sexy as hell?"
It had been a strange few months. After our trip to hunt down a banshee and a witch, and in doing so found my long-lost brother, I couldn't stop thinking about Chase. Or Scott, for that matter. Both partners had begun to eat up far too much of my mindset lately. I was afraid letting down my guard with them had cracked a facade I wouldn't be able to repair. I hated feeling vulnerable, but both of them had given me a soft place to land when I'd lost that brother again to magic.
But it wasn't love or anything akin to it that had me fantasizing in the wee hours. Something in me had decided it had enough of lonely celibacy with only chasing and killing baddies for excitement. I knew I could never have a relationship with a regular person. That would be unnecessarily dishonest and risky for the poor man I devoted myself to. And to be honest, a relationship wasn't what I wanted.
But I did need some intimacy. Some sense of connection. After losing my twin, Chris, again, I felt terribly bereft. I'd suffered sleepless nights and a sense of unease and emptiness that I couldn't shake.
Both Chase and Scott made no bones about wanting me—at least sexually—and I knew I wasn't in the market for anything long term.
The Internet by way of social and hookup apps informed that me fuck buddies were perfectly normal and natural. I shyly mentioned it to Chase who at first couldn't believe I wasn't already using it.
"How do you think I get all my banging in?" he'd said. "I don't have time to woo someone at the supermarket over a bale of oranges."
But while casual dates for Chase by way of social apps was fine for him, I knew I couldn't go that route. I wasn't worried about meeting a nefarious minded beau who might try to take advantage of me. I was more worried that we'd meet up with a baddie and I'd have to kick some butt then explain myself later.
Which was why either Chase or Scott was perfect. No need to introduce myself, explain myself, or even worry about a baddie getting in the way.
But Chase was preferable to Scott. Scott had a longing in his expression when he looked at me that Chase didn't have. With Chase, it was just lust, pure and simple.
Plus, his penchant for casual hookups of both the hetero and pansexual types, meant he'd agree to toss in the sack and leave it at that.
I could sate my desire for human contact and we could go right back to business. I had no illusions about having to maintain the relationship afterward.
"Hello?" he said. "Because you're fierce, Vick. You got fight in you." He waggled his eyebrows up and down. "I dig that the way foot fetish guys dig stinky shoes."
"Way to make a gal feel sexy," I said and he shrugged.
"Hard to think of you that way when you're covered in shit."
I had no answer to that. I felt pretty shitty, all things considered. Since the date was ruined anyway, it was best we head back to Slow Smoke and inform Joy and the hunters that there was a golem on the loose that none of us had created for the joy of training a new hunter.
I was brushing off my jeans and making a big deal of not looking at him when he grabbed my arm.
"What?" I said, irritated now that he'd rebuffed me. "Change your mind so quick."
"No," he rasped. "You think all I think about is sex? God, Vicki."
"Then what's the trouble," I said as he shoved me sideways so hard I nearly fell again.
And then I saw it.
Three feet of forearm and hand scrabbling along the pavement as though it were an insect scuttling toward its lair.
Chapter Four
"OK, that's just creepy," Chase said.
He reached out for my hand without looking at me; I felt his fingers searching for mine and I met him palm for palm. I bucked backwards and yanked him to his feet. We stood side by side, facing the chunk of arm, broken off at the elbow, scuttling away from us like the monster from Alien.
"I'm thinking it's heading for home."
"Of course it is," Chase said. "Let's hope it doesn't order take out on the way or we're in trouble."
He was already striding to catch up with it and I fell in step with him. My jeans were chafing my inner thighs and I'd started to shiver, but if that thing was searching out its body, we had a good chance of finding the golem before it did any harm to anyone. Maybe the night wouldn't be a complete wash.
"I already tried to take the big guy out," I said as we closed in on it. "There was no shem on his forehead."
The appendage paused when it reached the mouth of the street and raised its pinky in the air.
I coughed and brought up a gob of mucus. At least, I told myself it was mucus. My cheeks convulsed around the ball and I hawked it sideways with a shudder.
Chase looked sideways at me, panning me from foot to face.
"You alright?" he said.
I waved my hand in front of my face as I gathered control of my heaving. "Just a tickle. I'll be alright."
"You're shivering."
"So give me your jacket."
He inched away from me. "Hell no. I'll never get the stink out."
The words might have seemed callous but there was concern in his voice and I knew his joke was half-hearted at best. One thing I'd figured out about Chase was that he was the most sarcastic when he was the most worried.
"Maybe you should go back to Rio Grande and get a shower. Sleep the night off. I'll take care of the golem and let Joy know what's going on with Saul."
The arm w
as on the move again and he started to follow along, but paused when he saw me following.
"I said I'd handle it."
I shook my head. "I saw that thing, remember?" I pulled my arms in, conserving whatever heat I could. "It's big, Chase. And it's tough. Maybe both of us can make shorter work of it."
I thought he would disagree but the arm disappeared around a corner and he didn't have time to argue. It was a good thing it was late and the streets were relatively empty. We'd selected the industrial part of the borough on purpose. All the better to test Saul without putting regular folk in danger. The golem, which I was already naming bachelor number 2 in my head, would have to lumber along for ten minutes before it found people.
If we didn't waste time hunting it down, that was.
"I don't hear anyone screaming yet," I said hopefully.
He held up his hand as we turned the corner. I clamped my mouth closed and peered into the darkness, trying to assess what had alerted him.
"It's going into that warehouse," he whispered.
"I know that warehouse," I said. "It's Remi's"
"Remi, the bat shit crazy hunter?"
"He's not any crazier than the rest of us. He just doesn't like you," I said. "But yeah, that Remi. He keeps his old cars there."
"And you know this how?"
I stepped onto the street and followed the line of buildings to the open warehouse door.
"I know this because I talk to people," I said.
"And I'm Mr. Antisocial?"
I rolled my eyes at the comment. Chase could never be considered anti-social. It was entirely the opposite. He was always social. Some guys, like Remi, needed to be let be every now and then, and sometimes, they liked quiet conversation. I understood that like Chase didn't because it was my own M.O.
"I had him fix my Chevy once. He's cheaper than a pro and can do just about anything with wheels."
I didn't want to admit that I found it strange that the garage door to the warehouse was up. While Remi wasn't completely off his nut like Chase suggested, he was a bit peculiar. Hunting can work the mind if you weren't careful, which was why Terry Sharp had started Rio Grande. It was one of three bars he owned but while two of them were regular enterprises, the Rio Grande housed a second floor for hunters and a basement with a library. The library stored all the lore we'd gathered over the years and it was hermetically sealed in case anything happened to the bar itself.
A Cursed All Hallows' Eve Page 136