"Get up, Graves," he murmured and there wasn't any panic in his voice. Just deadpan resolution.
"Don't bother with me," I muttered. "The kid."
"Don't worry about the kid," he said. "There's no need."
No need. My heart jolted at the words. I didn't dare look because I knew, just knew that we'd failed and the creature had killed the boy. Saul too, probably. Although I had a hard time mustering sorrow over him for the moment.
Despair quelled my muscles. I stopped fighting and let Scott's do what mine couldn't despite working like a devil to get up. When I was on my knees, hanging there trying to get the rest of the way up, I finally remembered the golem.
"Is it gone?" I hated the strain of emotion in my voice, the hope that it was gone, the despair that it wasn't.
"Not exactly," he said.
I did manage to find the strength then, and with his aid, I found solid footing. My injured arm hung at my side, aching. I felt like a bird with a broken wing.
"Look," he said.
The golem was holding the boy in one arm the way a child might hold a baby doll. It was awkward but oddly comforting. In its other arm, it held Saul, pressed face first into its chest.
Saul was limp. Lifeless.
"Sweet baby Jesus," I said.
"Yeah."
"It was the kid," I murmured. "All along, it was the kid."
"Looks like."
Scott still held me as though he thought I would try to intervene.
"He made it."
I felt Scott shrug. "If he didn't make it, he certainly commands it."
He finally let me go and I took a step away from him so my arm wouldn't bump into him. I lifted it gingerly and held it against my chest.
"He's a sorcerer," the words came with the realization. "He must have spelled it. Same as we did. He used a spell to animate it, not a shem."
It was the only thing that made sense. The golem wasn't hurting the kid. Just holding him. It had killed Saul, however, so it was clear that Danny was its maker.
But what did that make Danny? A sociopath intent on killing or a kid who had lost control of its creation? Either way, the golem couldn't remain animated.
"What should we do?" Scott said.
"I'll tell you what we do," I said. "We kill the damned thing."
I took a gentle step toward the golem, hands raised.
"Danny," I said, loud enough that he could hear. I thought I saw him peek over the creature's arm. Encouraged, I spoke again.
"Danny, we need to stop your creature."
He didn't protest or try to flee. More importantly, the golem made no move to attack him or me, and so I took another step and another. I felt Scott at my side, ready to swarm the thing should it suddenly decide we were a threat. I wasn't sure how we were going to bring it down, but we had to do something. Maybe I could convince the kid to help.
"Have him put you down, Danny," I said, and then remembered the limp form being held in its other arm. "And Saul too. Have it put you both down."
Scott panned out sideways, herding toward the golem's other side.
For a moment, I thought Danny would do as I asked. He looked up at the golem and said something. The creature dropped Saul with a thud to the grass. He looked like a rag doll that had been discarded and my stomach rolled over on itself at the crook in his neck.
I thought it would ease Danny down next, assuming it wouldn't want to hurt the boy. I was even prepared for it to just drop the kid the way it had Saul. I was ready to rush him and scoop him out of harm's way as Scott took on the creature alone until I could help.
I wasn't prepared for the golem's free hand to lift toward me, for magic to gather in its palm.
And I most definitely wasn't prepared for the jolt that came screaming my way.
It was instinct and years of trained reflex that saved me from the blast. I ducked sideways and might have fallen except the momentum of my sprint hurtled me forward and righted me at the same time. I kept my eye on the golem's movements, ignoring the boy.
In that one action from the creature, I had my answer.
The boy was a dark sorcerer.
And he planned to kill us both.
Chapter Eleven
Even as I rushed them, another blast sailed through the air, this time with a small sound from the boy. Scott grunted in pain. I didn't need to look to know he'd been hit. But I couldn't risk worrying about Scott right then. I kept my eye trained on the creature. I kept my peripherals sharp in case of unexpected attack.
Everything tunneled down into that small part of the universe. My skin was electric as the exposed hairs met the air and shivered with the cold. My wrist stopped hurting. I wasn't even aware of it as I collided shoulders first into the giant's trunk.
The boy fell, and his cry told me he'd struck the ground hard. There was a sharp intake of breath and then silence from him.
The golem roared at me with a force of air so heavy, it blasted my hair back. His breath smelled of murk and old swamp. Before I could do one thing more, his arm swept me from my feet and pain lanced across my ribs. I fell sideways, several feet away from both the giant and the kid.
I heard Annie and the Hulk behind me. I thought they were calling to me. Scott was struggling to get to his feet. He had his blade in his hand. We both carried a knife, stake, and gun most times, but shooting a non-living thing was ludicrous. Staking it would have no effect.
The only thing I could think of was to hack away at it with my knife the way Scott had tried to do before, chopping appendages so it couldn't stand or fight.
But hell. It was going to take a lot of work to saw through just one wrist.
And neither of us could get close to it.
"The boy," I said just loud enough that I realized I'd spoke at all. "Scott. The boy."
Danny was the key. The monster had rescued him from Saul. If one of us could distract it by grabbing hold of Danny, then maybe the other could work at stopping it.
But then I realized the golem was way ahead of both of us. Once it had removed me as a threat, it lumbered toward Danny and was already stooping to pick him up. The boy splayed across the thick forearms, his head dangling over the arm closest to me.
He looked as lifeless and crooked as Saul did. My heart lurched, and not just because I thought he was dead. Because if he was, and the golem was still moving, I didn't know how to drain it of power.
The creature moaned as it looked down at the boy. It shook him so that the little head bobbed against his arm. It shook the boy again, this time a little harder and when Danny didn't respond, the creature howled.
It was grieving. It shouldn't be grieving. It wasn't alive. It had no sentience.
I must have made a sound because the golem lifted its gaze and leveled it right at me. I was astounded at seeing it so close in such good light. It had a remarkable face. The boy was a brilliant craftsman, a sorcerer, who if trained and mentored might be able to do wonderful things with his power.
I had no idea how the boy had managed to craft a creature out of mud and muck and leaves that could warp its deadpan features into something so mournful. So human. So...
Familiar.
But it was not alive. I had to tell myself that. It was a thing. An automaton borne of dark and twisted sorcery.
It had to be stopped.
But how could I? How could I when that thing was so obviously aching with grief. It didn't feel right.
"Scott?" I said as I edged sideways out of the golem's reach. "I can't do it. I can't try to hurt it unless it attacks. I just can't."
The golem seemed content to let me move, or it was so distracted by its own pain that it didn't bother with me. Instead, it moaned and swayed Danny back and forth in its arms.
"No shit," Scott said.
He'd gained his footing and was staring dumbfounded at the same thing I was. "I can't do it either. There's something wrong about it all."
I felt Annie come up beside me.
"Is Dann
y alright?" she said, her voice filled with dread. She no longer seemed afraid. Just as shocked as we were.
"I don't know," I whispered, but I knew I was lying. "Maybe you and your brother should go home now."
"I thought his Uncle Remi died," she said, refusing to budge.
Her words stopped me short.
"What?" I pulled my arm close against my chest and looked at her more intently. I wasn't sure I heard her correctly.
"His Uncle Remi." She advanced on me, pointing at the golem. "I thought he died. Danny was all shook up about it. Didn't tell anyone but us because he was scared." She lifted her chin in the direction of Saul's form as it lay on the grass. "He was glad when Saul ran off. He was a weirdo. Kept asking us if we were witches or something."
Remi. The golem had been in Remi's car garage. Remi hadn't been heard from in weeks.
I swiveled on my feet and stared at the golem as I called softly to my partner, not taking my eyes from the creature and the awful act of mourning happening a couple yards away.
"Scott?" I said and he moved up close to me. I felt his arm brush mine.
"Are we thinking the same thing?" he said.
"Is it possible?" I said. "Is that thing our Remi?"
"I didn't think he had any family."
"Maybe he just didn't talk about them to keep them safe." I said.
Scott crept closer. The golem lifted its head and glared at Scott. It pulled Danny closer against its chest.
"It looks almost human," he said. "And then it doesn't. One minute, it has perfect expression, and the next all the features are all askew."
"But it would explain the golem's interest in Danny," I said.
He inched toward the golem, moving slowly so he didn't set it off. "But not why it would attack innocent kids or why it would attack you."
"Not me," I said as the realization struck. "It was there for Saul."
I replayed the scene from Saul's test hunt in my head. He had been losing against our golem. Remi wouldn't know that. Maybe Danny was nearby testing the animation or maybe he'd sent it out to hunt down Saul. Then I'd attacked it because I thought it was a threat.
"He was defending himself," I said and my fingers tightened around me wrist in response. "And then he was defending Danny."
While there was no way that our Remi was fully aware inside that thing, there were undoubtedly remnants of a person, someone who understood that a hunter meant danger and threat to a creature of supernatural origins. And although there might be a vestige of Remi within, there couldn't be enough sophistication of thought or dexterity to protect without harming.
But it didn't explain how Remi came to be inside a golem in the first place. Or why we couldn't de-animate him.
I was still throttling the problem in my mind when a small whimper came from the vicinity of the golem. I saw the boy's head roll to the side.
The golem leapt with exuberant surprise as it noticed the movement. It crouched then, easing Danny's body down onto the grass. It hung over the boy, its arms out sideways until the boy moaned. A gasp sounded from the golem's chest.
Annie started to run for her friend, but Scott held her back.
"Not yet," he said.
Not yet because, even if she didn't realize it, the threat was still in the air. Things could go south in a heartbeat.
I watched as Danny rolled over and sat up, rubbing his eyes with the heels of his hands. He moved slowly, achingly, but he got onto his hands and knees. The golem crouched lower, tilting its head as though it was trying to look at the boy's face.
Danny sent one look up at the golem and then at us and started to cry. Wretched, awful, ugly-type crying.
The golem threw its head back and howled with him. The sound lifted the hairs on the back of my neck. It nudged the boy a little too hard, and Danny stumbled backward onto his palms. He looked so small next to the creature. Frail. Vulnerable. My heart clenched in my chest as I realized how much smaller he was even than his playmates
"Danny," Scott said in a soothing tone from ahead of me. He had advanced silently, just enough that he was within reach of the boy. "It's alright. We're here to help. He's not your uncle. Not really. He hurt Saul."
"I don't care if he hurt Saul," the boy said but I could tell by the way his voice sounded strangled, that he did care. In a few days when the shock wore off, he was going to care a lot. He might not recover from the whole event. Not without the right kind of therapy.
I was glad it was Scott who was sitting there next to him. Not because the golem had noticed him and was giving him the stink eye, but because I was terrible at kids. He didn't need me to go mucking up whatever part of his brain was still unaffected by trauma.
"Danny?" Scott said softly, his eye on the golem who had started to lean ever closer to Scott, its clay face looking wary. "Danny, we can't risk him hurting anyone else. You need to turn him off."
Turn him off. The language a kid would use. I wish I'd thought of it.
The kid jutted his chin out and a fierce look of defensiveness crossed his face. I know Scott saw it if I did from my distance. It could go very sour in the next moment. I held my breath, but my every muscle was tense and ready.
"Danny?" Scott said. "Do you want him to hurt your friends?"
At first, Danny didn't respond, but when Scott tried again, the boy lifted his gaze and met Scott's. It took one more bit of coaxing, but eventually the boy crawled over to the golem. He climbed into its lap and the golem scooped him closer, using its palm to hoist him higher. I heard Danny whisper to the creature but I couldn't make out what he said. Then, the little fingers dug up the thing's nose.
When his hand came away, it was clutching a wad of paper clutched between his fingers. He lifted it in the air, waggling it at Scott who eased forward and pulled his lighter from his pocket.
With a click, it flamed to life and the paper incinerated.
With that, the golem went dead.
And the boy disintegrated into tears again.
Chapter Twelve
It took me several moments to find the nerve to make my way to the boy, and by the time I did, Scott was already disentangling his arms from the golem's very still ones. He was still sobbing when Annie bypassed me at a run to attend to her friend. The Hulk hovered nearby, looking very unsure about everything.
"Danny?" she said as I edged closer. "It's going to be okay."
"No it isn't," he said. "No it's not."
He sent a fresh wail skyward. The noise was beginning to attract attention. The kids who had run earlier, had begun to edge back into the playground.
"Scott," I murmured. "We need to get Danny out of here."
I wasn't sure what we were going to do with him, or how we were going to even figure out how to manage him, but I knew we couldn't hang around here with the inert golem any longer.
I pulled my phone from my pocket and sighed in relief when I saw it hadn't broken. I ran my thumb over the screen and hit Joy's contact number.
When she answered, it was to tell me help was already enroute. But to the hospital where we'd told her to send it earlier.
"Pull them in," I said. "We have a situation with a child here." I shot a look at the boy who wasn't calming down under Scott's capable care. I had the feeling the bereft way he was crying was a pretty good indicator that he wasn't going to stop any time soon.
"Should we send an ambulance?" Joy asked, reading between the lines.
I pulled the phone away from my ear and held it in front of me, panning out onto the grass to make sure Saul was still lying there.
"Yes," I said. "Although I'm not sure how we're going to explain him." I snapped a pic and sent it along.
"How did he die?"
To her credit, Joy didn't ask lots of questions, just took what information I gave.
I brought to mind the way the golem had held Saul against his chest.
"Suffocation, I think."
"Then we'll send Laird," she said. "He'll know what to do."
Annie and the Hulk both hovered nearby. Scott had let her close at first, but Danny just wailed harder and she inched away, not sure what to do.
I rubbed her shoulder to get her attention.
"You should go home now. The police are coming to help him."
"But he didn't do anything," she said.
"He isn't getting arrested. He's getting help."
I cocked my head as I looked down at her. The way she was fidgeting was pretty telling. She knew something she didn't want to confess and for me, it just confirmed my suspicions. Still, I had to ask.
"He doesn't have a mom, does he?"
Her gaze went to her feet. "Sort of. She's in rehab," she said. "Saul was looking after him when she went in but then he ran off." She glared in Saul's direction. "That's when his uncle Remi came. I liked him."
"Well, we're going to help Danny until she gets out," I said. "He won't have to be afraid."
"No police?" she said. "He's scared of them ever since they came with a woman to try to take him away."
I tried to smile but it felt wooden. No doubt when the mother went into rehab a social worker was dispatched along with the police to apprehend the kid. No wonder he was so bereft.
"Promise," she said, poking me in the stomach.
From ahead of me, Danny had stopped sobbing but he was making that hitching sound that meant his body had begun to quake from the adrenaline spike. I stole a look at Scott who was still trying to wrangle the kid from the golem's arms.
The girl pinched me and I yelped.
"Hey," I said and rubbed at my stomach with the hand that didn't hurt.
She drilled me with a fierce glare. "You didn't promise."
"Promise what?"
"We weren't supposed to tell," she said. "Promise no cops, otherwise he'll know."
I pushed my phone into my back pocket, assuming what the boy didn't want anyone to know was that his Uncle Remi was dead because that would mean the social workers would indeed come for him. I didn't think I could do anything about that.
A Cursed All Hallows' Eve Page 141