by Kat Cotton
It didn’t matter. Nuno and Lilly came into the bedroom.
“Oh, what’s going on here?” Lilly asked.
“Don’t be silly,” I said. “Duke was distressed and I was just comforting him.”
“Right. ‘Comforting’ him.” But she laughed.
Duke was obviously in no condition for anything else even if it had been on my mind. Which it hadn’t.
“Did you find anything?” I asked. My stomach gnawed at the question. It’d be totally unlikely that anyone from that circus remembered me or would mention that to Lilly and Nuno but that didn’t stop the worry.
“Nothing useful but those people have secrets. We’ll need to keep a close eye on them,” Lilly said. “Duke had that flier for a reason and there are some very suspicious types there. We’ll get to the bottom of this eventually.”
I didn’t like the sound of that. I wanted to stay far away from them.
With the others back, I took the chance to return to my room. As I lay in my bed, it seemed awfully empty without Duke beside me. That was for the best, I told myself. Empty is good. Empty is safe.
Chapter 14
WHEN I WOKE UP THE next morning, Duke was in the kitchen, eating breakfast. That was a good sign. I wasn’t sure if he’d gotten himself out of bed and had fixed himself something or if Nuno had helped him. Nuno wasn’t around and Duke could manage to eat his cereal on his own which was a lot more than he’d been capable of the day before.
“Good morning,” I said.
He nodded in return.
Lilly was still sleeping and Earnest had probably taken the dogs out. I made myself some breakfast and sat down with Duke. I felt a lot more comfortable with Earnest out of the place.
After little while, Nuno returned. He had a shopping bag that he held out to Duke. Duke nodded his thanks. Clothes, I assumed. Then Earnest returned with his dogs on the lead. They looked pretty happy with themselves.
“Been for a walk around the neighborhood,” he said. “These guys have been making friends.”
Then he chuckled.
A chill went through me. Even when Earnest said the most inane things, they seemed loaded with menace. I wanted to return to my room to get away from him but I had my breakfast half-eaten in front of me so was stuck.
“All ready for the show tonight?” Earnest asked.
I nodded.
Duke mumbled something, his words not comprehensible. He took in a deep breath then tried again.
“I’ll come,” he said.
“To the show?” I asked him then looked to Earnest. I wasn’t sure if Duke would be up to it.
“That’s not possible,” Earnest said. “We’ll be performing, it’s not like we can take time out of the act to play nursemaid.”
I didn’t like the way Earnest directed that at me and not Duke.
“But he’s a lot better. I’m pretty sure he can sit in the audience without causing us any trouble.”
“We’ll see how he pulls up later in the day,” Earnest said.
I checked my watch. “I’d better get out of here,” I said.
“Oh, where are you going?” Earnest asked.
I’d planned to check out that school but I had a cover story.
“I’m heading for the gym,” I said. “I need to get a workout in.”
“I might join you,” Earnest said. “I’m starting to stack on a bit of weight. I don’t get the chance to burn calories on stage like you do. And, at my age, I have to be careful.”
Of course, he chuckled.
Shit. I hadn’t considered that. If Earnest came with me, I couldn’t go near that school. And I’d have to go to the gym with him.
“The place I found is a women’s only gym,” I said, trying to screw up my face with regret.
Earnest chuckled.
“Well take it easy,” he said. “No point getting all worn out training and not being able to do your act.”
Like I couldn’t manage my own fitness. I didn’t reply though. I’d rather not have Earnest’s attention on me.
I had to get a bus across town to the school since I didn’t have any transport of my own and I couldn’t very well ask Nuno for a loan of the van. I wasn’t sure what I expected to find at the school but it’d help to have an image of the place in my head. I’d contacted Larry and the local police had been alerted. If Earnest started creeping around the place, they’d have an eye out for him.
The school was in a pretty shady area. Abandoned warehouses filled the area to the north. To be honest, the buildings didn’t look that different from the place where we were performing but this was real abandonment, not a hipster area made to look that way. The graffiti was a whole lot less arty and a whole lot more pornographic. The litter strewn into the streets had built up to huge clumps.
In the distance, you could hear the kids yelling in the playground. I wondered if Earnest had set himself in one of those abandoned warehouses to keep watch on them. As I walked, I kept my eye out for traces of recent activity.
When I got closer to the school, it seemed pretty much like a regular school. Red brick buildings, an asphalt area out front and playgrounds behind. The entryway curved around at the front.
There were a few portable classrooms at the side of the main building. Everything looked so normal.
I stayed behind the wire fence, not wanting to go on the actual school grounds.
I guess that was it. There wasn’t much more I could do now I’d seen the school. I just had to trust that the local police would handle anything untoward.
I walked back through the abandoned buildings to the bus stop. After a little while, I got the feeling that someone followed me.
Slowing my steps, I listened out. I couldn’t hear anyone walking, just a scrapping on the cobblestone street.
I rounded a corner and flattened myself against the side of a building. I couldn’t risk being followed but maybe it was just my imagination playing tricks on me. This area was creepy even in full daylight.
The scraping sound came closer and closer. My instincts were right. Someone had been following.
My heart beat faster as the noise approached. Soon they’d turn the corner and then I could pounce. At best, it’d be some vagrant wanting to roll my wallet. At worst, well, I didn’t want to think about that.
I hadn’t brought any weapons with me, just my gym bag. I patted the side of it to check if I had anything in there I could use in a fight. Nope. Nothing. I let the bag drop quietly to the ground. If it was a vagrant, they’d take it and run. If it wasn’t, I didn’t need to be hampered in my fight.
I held my breath, not wanting to announce my presence.
Then the thing came around the corner.
Thing. Demon. Whatever. It was ugly and it was after me.
I inhaled and tried to channel my powers. Out here in the open, the best thing to do would be annihilate this monster as fast as possible before any civilians saw it. I hated using my power but it was the most expedient thing.
The demon rushed at me as I focused my energy. The beast was small, hunched over like an animal with its razor-sharp teeth bared at me. Most demons I’d fought before were slimy and reptilian but this one had hard armor like an armadillo. No armadillo had teeth like that, though.
As it barreled at me, I dodged. The creature’s head slammed into the brick wall with a thud so hard, I thought it’d brain itself. Dust rained from the wall where he’d impacted it. For a moment, I thought he’d bring the whole wall down.
By now, I should’ve been well on the way to expelling the beast from this earth. A cold sweat took over me when I realized that wasn’t happening. The tingling, the weakness, all the signs of my power welling within me, where the hell were they?
Before I’d began training, my powers had been mercurial only working sometimes but I’d done everything I could to control them. They should work. They had to work. Because that rotten great armadillo beast had me in his sights and came powering at me again.
&nbs
p; Chapter 15
DAMN, I FELT JUST AS human as I ever had. I could run. I looked behind me. The alleyway stretched on all the way down to the bus stop. If I ran, I’d be taking the beast out among the general population. Assuming I could outrun it.
I had no time to think. I hurled myself through the doorway in that brick wall and closed the door behind me. It wouldn’t hold that beast for long but it gave me a little space to think.
No powers. No weapons. I ran across the dusty warehouse floor, looking for something I could use to destroy it.
The beast slammed into the door, smashing it to splinters. It wouldn’t take long for it to run me to ground. Then I looked up. The rafters. That’d be the safest place for me. Only, up there, I wouldn’t be able to fight back.
Damn. I jumped up anyway, the rough wood leaving splinters in my hands. Then I swung my body onto the beam.
The beast raced around the room trying to find me. It didn’t seem very smart and seemed to rely on scent rather than sight. If it thought I was down there, it’d spend all day searching for me. I grabbed a rope tied onto one of the beams and tried to unknot it. That knot held fast though, hardened with years of wear. I inched over, looking for some way of untying it. Instead, I found some wires, long disconnected from any power source.
I took off my jacket, removing my phone from the pocket, and tied one end of the wire around the sleeve. I held onto the other end, lowering it to the ground. At first the beast ignored my lure but soon he got my smell and came charging at the jacket, thinking it was me.
Score.
I crawled along the beam, trailing my jacket as I moved. The beast stalked it then moved back, preparing to charge. I raised the jacket until I got into position with my back against the sloping roof to brace myself.
I lowered the jacket again, fluttering to get the beast’s attention. The beast gave a snorfle then charged. I pulled up my jacket just before he attacked it. Just as I intended, he barreled himself headfirst into the brick wall of the warehouse. Smashed so hard even the beam I sat on trembled.
Again, it didn’t seem to hurt him but I figured if he bashed into the wall enough times, eventually he’d wear himself out.
I dangled the jacket down again, sinking low on the beam so the impact wouldn’t unbalance me. The beast raised up dust on the warehouse floor, growling as he walked. He’d get angrier and angrier before he quit. I’d have to stay up here for a long time. A long, long time. I still needed to get back to the town house to change and get to the performance space. I wasn’t sure if I could outwait it but I had no other choice.
If I messaged someone, they could help me. But who could I call? I wasn’t sure Lilly and Nuno could do much and if I called them, they’d know I’d been snooping around here. That information could get back to Earnest. How much could I trust them?
The only other person I knew in this city was Akira and I couldn’t get him to help with something like this.
If that demon didn’t have such a bone head, I’d be out of here much quicker. I tried channeling my power again and got a weak flash of strength through me. Not enough to even consider vanquishing that guy. Just a surge like when your battery is almost flat but not completely, and you know using it would drain it completely.
The beast slammed into the wall again causing the mortar to fall out from between the bricks. That wall didn’t seem all that strong. If the wall gave out before the demon did, I’d be totally screwed.
I raised up my jacket and held it tight as I swung across the beams. My hands got even more roughed up on the wood and I’d struggle in tonight’s show, but then I had to make it there first.
I got to the end of the room where the wall looked stronger and lowered my jacket, hoping it still had enough of my scent to lure the beast. Otherwise, I’d have to remove my t-shirt.
The beast sniffed around the room and finally caught the scent. As he charged, a creaking sound filled the empty warehouse. Someone was coming in the door.
As they hit the light, I yelled out. “Be careful.”
Akira.
He should not be here. That demon would fuck his shit up. The only chance for him would be if he ran.
He looked around him, perplexed.
“Hell beast,” I called.
His gaze locked on it.
“Shit!”
“Run. I’ll distract it,” I called.
Akira didn’t run though. Akira got out his gun.
“You can’t shoot it.” The armor on that thing would repel bullets. “Run.”
Akira didn’t listen. He aimed at the beast. I kept waving my jacket, trying to get the demon away from Akira.
“Raise that up,” he called.
“Huh?” But I did what he said.
The beast reared up on its back feet, batting at my jacket like a kitten with a play toy. Akira crept closer then fired a round of bullets into the beast’s tender belly. The beast roared.
“The rope,” I screamed. “Get up here.”
The rope dangled down in the middle of the room. The beast was injured but not dead and it had Akira in its sights. If it charged, Akira would be dead.
Akira sprinted across the room, throwing himself at the rope. Totally inappropriate but the way he shimmied up that rope was totally hot, all bulging muscles. ‘
When he made it onto the beam, I swung across to him.
“You’re like a cat up here,” he said.
That’s when I noticed his hands clenched, white-knuckled on the beam. Akira obviously wasn’t great with heights.
“Yeah well that’s why I got this assignment, remember.”
He smiled. “What do we do about that guy?”
The demon had lost a lot of blood. It trailed across the warehouse floor.
“Hopefully, it’ll bleed out and we can escape.”
The beast gave a cry of pain as though proving me right. It seemed mean to kill it like this but we had no other alternative. It was it or us.
“What are you doing here anyway?” I asked Akira. “Apart from being a knight in shining armor.”
“Larry told me the information you’d passed on about the school and I came to check it out then heard an almighty crash coming from this building.”
“I’m worried,” I told him. “That information was a creepy thing for anyone to have.”
“You haven’t heard?” he asked. He removed his hand from the beam for a moment, then trembled and put it back. “About the murder?”
Shit. I shook my head. Murder didn’t sound good.
“One of the kids at the school. Yesterday afternoon. They only found his body this morning. The kid was a mess. Gored. Much like that guy would do.”
Yesterday afternoon. No. That was when Earnest and Nuno had been out of the town house. Was that a coincidence? It didn’t seem like it. Not with those papers in Earnest’s room.
I could believe it of Earnest but Nuno? He’d been with Earnest. He’d been involved. He’d had the bruise on his arm. And they’d been so furtive about their whereabouts.
“Sorry, I shouldn’t have blurted it out like that,” Akira said.
Before I could answer, the beast gave a loud grunt then fell on its side. Was it dead?
We waited just in case it was faking. When it hadn’t moved for about ten minutes, I figured it was safe to get down.
“Be careful on that rope,” I told Akira, as I jumped to the floor.
Now we’d defeated that demon, I had to work out what I’d do about Nuno and Earnest.
Chapter 16
I GOT AKIRA TO DROP me off a few blocks from the town house so we wouldn’t be seen together. The others were loading up the van when I got there. Duke was with them so somehow, he must’ve won that argument with Earnest.
“About time you arrived,” Earnest said. “We were about to leave without you.”
“Sorry,” I said but I didn’t look at him. I couldn’t look at him.
At the venue, another worry hit me. Nuno did the rigging for my
performance. He literally had my life in his hands. A performer and her rigger worked together as a team. When I was up on that hoop, he controlled everything. I looked up. At least with the lower clearance in this place, if I hurled to the floor below, it wasn’t that much of a drop. I probably would only be injured, not killed.
Then I shook myself. I’d worked with Nuno up until now and he’d been the perfect rigger. He’d been a killer last night too, I just hadn’t known it. I had to trust Nuno or I’d never be able to get up there and perform. If I kept my knowledge to myself, I’d be safe.
Nuno walked past me with a big smile. That smiled seemed true and solid. The smile of someone with nothing to hide. Maybe he wasn’t a killer. He’d left the town house with Earnest but that didn’t mean he was an accessory. Maybe Earnest had told him to wait in the van and Nuno had been completely in the dark about everything. He’d only driven the getaway car.
I wanted to believe that. I really wanted to believe it.
I changed quickly and without letting anyone see, bandaged my hands. It was a risky thing to do for my act. I needed to be able to feel the hoop and the bandaging dulled that. But the skin had been so roughed up in that warehouse today that I couldn’t perform with my bare hands. All I could do was slap a plaster over the worst of the damage. I couldn’t wear a thick bandage and perform safely.
Once that was done, I looked for Duke.
He still had a bit of difficult walking in but that seemed to be the only physical damage. In the van on the way here, Lilly had asked Nuno about that and, as far as I could tell, Duke’s legs would be fine in a day or two. The memory loss and confusion Nuno couldn’t help with. But he could talk, sometimes more coherently than others.
“We’ll send him home then,” Earnest said. “He’ll be fine to fly.”
“His brain’s still addled,” Lilly said. “That’s more important than the other stuff.”