by Stec, Susan
I was real proud of Marcus and Dorius; they didn't even flinch when the wendigo stepped beside them. He had walked to the back end of the alley when Karl and Dorius moved up beside the dumpster. I had put him out of my mind, thinking it was a guy thing, like when Dad pissed in the bushes around the side of the house instead of using the bathroom inside.
"I think we should go down the back alley," Gaire said, "and around the building to cross the street on the other side of the road. We should hit the warehouse from the back and side doors where there are no windows. I'll even up the odds and follow the vampires."
Karl nodded, his eyes glittered gold, jaw so tight I could hear his teeth grind, but the look of respect on his face was very discernable behind the gruff exterior.
I cleared my throat, and all heads turned back to us. I could see the objection in Marcus's expression and beat him to it. "I'll stand down with my partner, but—"
"Hell, you say," Christopher said. When he stood beside me, our eyes were level only because I was still squatting behind the dumpster.
I stood and looked down at him. "I don't know why the fuck I'm still squatting. Jesus, the frigging dumpster is inches taller than me."
He smiled up at me. "We're going in, right?"
"Wrong," I said. "Someone has to stay out here with you and Gracie until we hear from Nan or your mate. And the way I figure it, that's me. I always hang with you, for better or worse." The corner of my mouth wiggled to rise.
"I can see what Lily's doing, and you know it. She's just not answering me."
"Bullshit."
"What the hell?"
"You haven't been able to reach her since they met with the elders, have you? Can you even say for sure that the red glow Jeni is seeing is Lily?"
Christopher kicked a KitKat wrapper and glared at me. "It's making me crazy!"
Dorius smiled at me. I smiled back, and immediately, my cheeks heated up. Since when did I give a shit what Dorius thought?
Antoinette broke the tension. "I know I'm going in. Jane is expecting me." She chuckled. "Either of you have an objection to that?"
"I'm going, too," my mother said. "I can make the doppelganger shed Jane from twenty feet."
"Can she?" Karl asked.
"Yes," Dorius said.
I swear he was puffing up like a peacock; so was Mom. I wondered how she knew what it took to make a doppelganger shed a host. I was going to ask Luna the minute she opened her eyes.
Dorius slapped Marcus's back. "We have our team. No one gets near the doppelganger. We spread out, circle it, and I do the talking." He looked straight at my mother. "You stand down and wait for orders."
Mom's nod looked reluctant.
The four immortals, four wolves, and a wendigo walked past us on their way to the back alley.
* * *
"Luna?" I asked.
"Nothing yet," she answered.
"Jeni is talking to us through these. Put one in." I handed her an earbud. "She just told us that something came through a drain on the other side of the wall behind the main showroom. She said it was either a doppelganger or Lily. But I doubt it's Lily. She'd've contacted Christopher."
"I'm not worried for Nan," Luna said. She looked so different in Gracie's body. Talking to her like this was so much easier. "I'm more worried for Gracie Jean. She's probably still in the sewer. I'd know if she were dead; my double would start to age as quickly as any corpse. But still..."
I remembered my mother's comment to Dorius. "What makes a doppelganger shed its host?"
"Attacking it," Luna said. "Anything that would kill a human would destroy a double."
I nodded my head at Luna about the same time Jane crashed through the front window of the storeroom, and my mother let loose with a war whoop inside.
We all jumped a good foot in the air as the doppelganger rolled and bounced to Jane's feet. She didn't even look our way.
"Eh, bitch!" she shouted, arm swinging at the window. "You do that shit again, I drop the hooker an' youse guys get to see the real me. That beam of push will go right though the real me, bitch. You want a piece of me? You really wanna see what I'm made of?"
Jane reached down and pulled something from her boot. "I'm comin' back in, and I'm bringin' the twins. Let me introduce them." Small rapid puffs filled the air. I could hear bullets ping off shit inside the room. Jane was shooting something with a silencer attached. She pulled the clip and inserted another. "That there's, Smith and Wesson. Any questions? If not, back the fuck off!"
"Party time!" Christopher said as Jane hurtled the window frame back into the silent showroom.
As everyone ran toward the building, I took a second to listen for sirens—nothing yet. I sprinted after them.
Christopher ducked and darted when a sofa, two chairs, and a loveseat hit the street from the end of Mom's telekinetic beam of light.
"Hang on, it looks like my mother is clearing the fighting ring." I pulled Luna away from the window as another chair, three tables, and a bookshelf were added to the mess in the street.
"Boy, we are gonna have some mind manipulating to do tomorrow," I told Christopher, as I once again scanned the street. "We need to get out of sight. Are there street camera's around here?"
Christopher snorted. "This is Lake County. Like they so have a budget for that kind of shit."
"Well, I didn't know," I said, as the three of us slinked down the alley beside the warehouse.
There were a few fleeting shadows along the street. I wasn't really worried about them calling the police. Hell, half of them probably had a rap sheet three miles long.
"I can't tell you how happy I am that you guys are back to normal. I'd hate to do cleanup on my own."
When we entered the back room and made our way through the actual warehouse area behind the showroom, nothing jumped out at us. I was thinking about Jeni and the thing floating through the drain.
I put out my hand to slow Christopher and Luna, covered my earbud with my hand, and whispered, "Jeni, do you still have a copy on the red thing that oozed out the storm drain back here?"
"Nope; it disappeared as fast as it appeared, and I haven't seen it since. Weird, because it looked solid and then dispensed to nothingness, almost making me think I'd imagined it."
"I don't think you imagined it," the doppelganger wearing Gracie said. "It could have been one of my kind, but I have no idea which one would come alone."
"Any news from your Nanna?" Jeni asked.
"No," Luna answered. "Can you lock onto Gracie anywhere around here? She looks like me, only human. She was following your friends who are inside."
"Yeah," Jeni told us through the earbuds, "she's out in the alley behind the building. The wendigo told her to stay there."
Luna grabbed my arm. "I'm going out to protect my host's human. I may also be able to find out why she hasn't communicated with her nanna. There has to be a reason."
I nodded and watched her trot toward the back wall.
"What's going on inside, Jen?" Christopher asked.
"The team is in an arc around Jane. She keeps turning slow half-circles while inching backward to get closer to the east wall behind her. Their lips are moving, but I don't have sound inside because Jane made them take the earbuds out and toss them on the floor. She crushed them with her boots."
"Crap," I heard Christopher say. "That was going to be my next question."
I hand flagged Christopher to follow and we made our way to a door, which probably led to the showroom.
"Can you hear anything now?" I whispered into my microphone.
"I can only hear mumbles," Christopher said. "I doubt Jeni can-"
"You're right, little man. I can't hear anything."
"We need an advantage," I said.
"You forget," Christopher said, "Lily can see and hear us even if she's freezing me out. She's got our backs. They can't kill her. She could drop her shield at any moment to contact me."
"Hey, Jeni," I softly asked. "Where are Sonny,
Zaire, and Resi?"
"Critter round up with the Alphas."
Christopher's eyes narrowed. "Where's JoAnn?"
Silence.
"Jeni?" I asked.
"She's in her coffin, stoned, talking to Raphael. I am not going in there again."
Her words brought back the buzz of a dildo and an image I really didn't want to revisit.
"Okey, dokey," I said. "We're going in."
"I say we stay out of Jane's vision," Christopher said. "At least we can keep Jeni in the loop. No doubt, when we open this door, she'll be able—"
"We're not opening the door." I grinned. My partner frowned. I pointed up. "You and I are going to do some duct crawling."
"Great idea, Mom," Jeni said through the earbuds.
*
"Can you see them?"
"Yes," I told Christopher. "Wiggle up here by the air vent."
My first thought was, oh my God, the wolves are beautiful. The black one was the biggest, that had to be Randy. Absolutely jet, head to paws, and that included big black eyes. Karl stood out with striking blue eyes, a lanky, long body, thin, muscular legs, and tawny fur. Razzo was thick and squatty with a dark gray coat. His chest was twice as bulky as the other two wolves. Paul was still in human form, but I knew the wolf under the mortal was a brute with blue-gray eyes and black fur—the same color as his human hair—and a white diamond-shaped tuft on his chest.
The room was large, old pine flooring, and maybe forty-by-forty feet. Half empty, the furniture was piled in the middle of the street out front of the building. I could hear scavengers outside doing cleanup for us.
Betty, still in her hawk form, swooped; her claws extended and brushed Jane's hair with a small tug.
"Eh, what the fuck?" Jane's arms swung wild. "I grab your ass, I'll pluck you bald!" Shaking a fist at the hawk now in the rafters above, Jane pumped a fist. "You shit on me again, you're gonna be somebody's dinner."
The hawk bobbed its tail. Jane jumped to one side, avoiding nothing but squawks from above.
"Oh, come off it," my mother was saying. "We all know you're working with Raphael. You really shouldn't settle for Antoinette, because she won't pacify the demon. And demons know how to build loopholes. You'll be in a corked bottle like that I Dream of Jeannie chick or something. He wants Erzsebet back, right?"
"How the hell did my mother know that?" I asked Christopher
Jane tossed her right arm up in the air. "Who told youse that shit? Eh? You don't know what the hell you're talkin' about." Jane blinked rapidly, and then seemed to compose herself.
"My granddaughter—Raphael's kid—told me," my mother said. "She's been talking to me all night." Mom thumped her index finger to her temple. "Right in here.
My mouth fell open. The look on Christopher's face was priceless.
"It doesn't matter. What do you think you will gain from this information?" Jane spoke in an entirely different voice. "I will not dicker with you. My intention is to shed this crass woman and make a double of Antoinette." Jane turned to Antoinette. "I will not kill you. You can remain here if you like, although I wish you would join me in Hell. It would be less of a chore. The demon did not specify I bring the original in our contract." Jane was glaring at my mother. "You see, I am aware of the term loophole. Raphael merely said I was to bring him Antoinette and I would receive sanctioned refuge in his abyssal kingdom. Once there, the contract fulfilled, I will shed Antoinette's double and flee from the demon. He is no match for my cunning nature. And he cannot destroy me, no more than I can destroy him."
"You're as smart as a skid-mark on the inside of Puck's undies." Gibbie darted around Jane, making abrupt stops here and there like a dragonfly. "If Chick can hear Lily, I'm betting the demon just heard your self-ejaculated rant. You know Lily has a direct line to her father, right? You still feeling like the powerful and cunning OZZ on the other side of your quickly fading rainbow?"
~~~
Twenty-six
~~~
Jake stood behind Marcus. "None of what you are saying is going to happen. We're all here to see to that. Why are you stalling?"
"Eh, dragon-breathe, read my lips. I ain't stallin'." The doppelganger's risqué side was back. "Youse guys are stallin'." Jane thumbed her chest. "This bitch wants to know why. You expectin' someone important?" Jane looked around. "I don't see no one special 'round here."
Karl crouched. The growl that emanated from deep inside his throat held back by a set of really impressive K9s, was extremely threatening—with feral gold eyes, even more so.
When the other two wolves padded up beside their leader and took the same ready to leap stance, Dorius and Marcus cut hard and fast to the left. The wendigo pounced and was nose to nose with Jane in a human heartbeat. Gibbie rode Jake's shoulder as the shifter shot a flame that ignited the sales desk behind the Jane.
"I have an idea," I said to Christopher. "Jane is right underneath this air vent. I'd slide right down the doppelganger's body, pull my shield, and trap the bastard."
"That's fucking butt-ass stupid. What are you gonna do; bitch-fight Jane into shedding, and then let the doppelganger double up on you?"
"You could come with." I smiled at him. Damn, he was right. "We need to trap him inside with a demon."
"If Lily were—"
"Yeah, something important is coming," Mom said. "Hell's fire! That's what's coming!" She raised her hand.
"Aw, crap!" I shouldered the vent screen.
"Jesus!" Christopher said, a smidgen too loud as it popped open.
The three wolves became airborne. Paul and Dorius moved to stop them.
"Everyone get the fuck back!" I yelled as I tumbled from the ceiling above them. "Fast!"
"Fall back!" Dorius ordered in a voice that left no room for insolence.
Paul, Marcus, Antoinette, a dragon, a fairy, and my mother froze. Three wolves skidded sideways on the shiny, waxed, pine floors, paws scraping, bodies twisting; Paul and Marcus dove and blocked their paths to the doppelganger. My mother stood alongside Dorius, inches from the wendigo. I hit the floor yelling, "Get the fuck out of the way, Gaire." The wendigo sprang into the air and landed on top of the wolf pile. I rolled, pulled power from the lines beneath me, and up went my shield to form a neat tight six by six feet sphere around Jane.
The doppelganger had not moved an inch the whole time. A baritone laugh fell heavy from Jane's lips and rocked the bubble.
"Screw you, you fucking asshole! Just fuck you!" I screamed, adrenaline pumping through my body. "Now, what are you going to do? Huh? Come on, dickhead!" I pressed my face against the bubble as Christopher fell from the ceiling and bounced off the dome and onto the pine floor beside me."
I looked over at him in time to see the wolves going through the last phase of shifting back to humans, and Paul spraying the fire in the sales area with an extinguisher.
"You look like a gerbil in a plastic ball," my mother told Jane as she stepped up beside me and gave me a hand up.
I slapped it.
Marcus's arms folded around my waist and chest.
"Either you give me Antoinette, or I am going to exit this place right now," Jane said with a voice that was totally not appropriate to her stature. "I have forever to taunt you. And a burning desire to watch you wait, knowing I will be back." He turned to Paul and his fire extinguisher and laughed before glaring at me. "And each time I will take someone from each of you. Someone you will grieve for as much as the Wolf laments his only son."
Karl walked up to the sphere, pushed his face into it, fingers scraping its surface. "I will see you dead first."
Jane spit at the shield. Karl did not move as her saliva dripped in front of his face.
Dorius stood next to the pack leader, hand on his shoulder.
Jane touched the shield with the tips of her fingers and smudged her spit over the wolf's face. She pushed the translucent skin. It moved Karl's head, but the wolf only smiled.
I put my hands on my hips. "Having fun? I think y
ou could do better than that." I pulled Karl from the shield. "Give it a try, big bad doppelganger. No one has made it out, asshole. You're as helpless as everyone else."
Jane roundhouse kicked the bubble, head-butted it, and punched it like a seasoned street fighter during heavy bag training at the YMCA.
I was impressed with her roundhouse combos. But she was bouncing off the bubble like a fly on the inside of a glass window. I smiled big.
Paul and the shifters were laughing. Dorius stood silent, arms crossed on his chest.
A scream of anger erupted from Jane. She pulled Smith & Wesson from a pair of really cool, leather, hip-boots and rapid-fired rounds at the sphere. We watched rounds ping off the shield in every direction. Several hit Jane and she sprinkled down the doppelganger like glitter trying to hang onto an Elmer's Glue art project until nothing remained but a black cloud with red circles for eyes and a mouth full of needle-sharp teeth.
"How long do you expect to keep me here?" The doppelganger slithered around the inside surface, spreading like a shadow on the street, constantly moving with the light of oncoming traffic.
"What will stop me from taking any one of you I choose when you release me?" It rose and separated like bubbles in a lava lamp until half of the dense cloud was hanging at the top of the sphere. "You cannot keep me in this trap forever—the sun is rising." The top section plopped like an oversized raindrop into a larger puddle of smoke on the floor.
"In a matter of minutes, this game will be over." The smoke started to swell. "I will leave, and come back over and over to slice and dice each of you until you bleed death." It was getting larger, more transparent. "Have you ever taunted a woman with pain, listened to her scream for her life? Have you, Marcus? Dorius? Because your mates will be first—I no longer have a use for your sister. I will be sure you are there, in her mind, Marcus, when I stake the organ that would render Susan truly dead."
The thin, billowy creature spread to fill the bubble, condensing in small areas and rubbing against the bubble as it roiled inside.