He smiled back and puffed out a small laugh. “I wish there was more I could tell yah.”
I turned to jump down from the ambulance but paused. “Did the panther happen to say anything?”
He frowned, and his eyes cleared. “Cats don’t talk, dude.”
“Of course.” It had been worth a shot.
I jumped down from the ambulance and strolled back to my bike, keeping my head down and collar up. I knew the address he’d mentioned, pier fifteen. The converted ironwork factory had once housed low-income families. Now it was marked for demolition to make way for a new waterside “village.” Pier fifteen was the regular site of muggings, shootings, and all the other wonderful crimes that seeped into areas that had been cut out of New York and left to rot.
Shu was waiting beside my bike, shades back on, and lips pressed into a grim line.
“The witness was suffering from memory lapses,” I said. “His pupils were dilated and he was exhibiting slight delirium. Symptoms of shock.”
“Godstruck,” she replied, echoing my thoughts exactly. “You think this is Osiris’s doing?” She hissed out his name like the taste of it burned her tongue.
“I think it’s a possibility and one we need to consider before we go any further. The attack here, it was different. I saw paw prints large enough to be Bast’s, but no sign of the jackals. The jackals are search and destroy. This was…this was someone who’s run out of patience.”
“I’ll get Alysdair.” Shu marched away and disappeared around the street corner.
She wouldn’t like what I was about to tell her. If this was Osiris’s doing, she couldn’t get involved, and there was nothing Shu hated more (besides me) than being sidelined.
I started the bike, rode around to where she’d parked her car, and pulled up beside her. She was leaning against the hood. I cut the engine.
“We can’t stop him,” she said, her sunglasses hiding her eyes.
I planted my feet on either side of the bike and straightened. “We can’t.”
Her cheek twitched. “I’m not sitting this out.”
She wanted to bloody her daggers with Osiris’s insides as much as I did. “There’s no point in him making us both dance. If he gets us together, he’ll screw with us, like always.”
We shared the same memories of past performances, courtesy of Osiris. I’d turned to Vodka after the last time. Shu had other means of forgetting, but what they were she hadn’t shared with me.
The growl that sounded in her throat was a sound not belonging to this world. Something of the Shukra from old lurked in that threat. “There’s nothing left to hurt us with.”
She was so sure of that. I wasn’t. “Keep your cell on and go to my apartment. As long as we’re apart, Osiris can’t screw our souls down even harder than he already has.”
“I’d like to see him try.” That was a lie driven by fear. She wouldn’t and neither would I. Being shackled to the soul of your worst enemy was just one of the many painful and inventive methods Osiris used as torture. He’d had a few millennia to think up new and exciting ways of doing far worse. “I’ll claw out his eyes and feed them to his bitch wife.”
She may have once been powerful enough to do it too. Before the curse, before Osiris had dragged her into my punishment.
“If this is Osiris, I’ll deal with it,” I said. “We can’t be together around him. It has to stay that way.”
“Fine, but next time, I go alone and stick my daggers in him.”
If only it were that simple. “I tried that, remember?”
She looked away, sending her gaze down the street. She was the first to find me after Isis had finished punishing me for my assassination attempt on her husband. In every image and statue, Osiris was depicted as holding a flail for a reason.
“I don’t like this,” she said, her words no less angry because of their calm undertone. “I don’t like not knowing. I don’t like being put on the bench. I don’t like you.” She reached in through the open car window, retrieved Alysdair from inside, and with a snarl, threw the sword at me.
I snatched it out of the air before the weighty sword could smack me in the face.
Her top lip rippled. “And I don’t like that damn sword.”
“Noted.” I pushed Alysdair home inside its sheath. Shrugging the substantial weight into place against my back, I felt lighter for having the sword where it belonged.
“Don’t get dead,” Shu grunted and climbed into her car.
I started the bike and launched away from Shu. She wouldn’t follow. In everything else, I had no sway over her. She’d fight, argue, and go against my wishes every step of the way, but when it came to Osiris, she heeded me.
Chapter 14
The quiet was back, as thick as soup, as heavy as the night that had fallen, and entirely unnatural. I rocked my bike onto its stand and peered through the fence at the converted apartment block. Across the ink-black river behind me, New York buzzed. A helicopter beat the air somewhere, horns blared, and sirens wailed. But ahead, silence devoured the sound as greedily as I devoured souls.
My darkness-adjusted eyes picked out a few glowing windows in the abandoned building. Up on the fifth floor, where scaffolding hugged the façade, someone was home.
I trudged across a churned-up wasteland of mud and grass and up the nearest stairwell. The apartments had been gutted months ago, most now open to the elements. Any signs of their former owners were long gone or buried under weeds.
Orange lantern light illuminated the first den and a few nervous eyes peered out of the gloom. My heart constricted when I thought of Chuck living like this, huddled in the dark alone. I moved on, purposely making my steps heavy and my presence known.
A few dens in, I found the first body. Fresh blood had crept from the corpse and shone like oil in the dark. Careful to keep one eye on the shadows surrounding me, I crouched down and pushed the body over: male, late forties, and his throat had been cut. His arms and hands were cut up too—defensive wounds.
The hairs on the back of my neck stirred. Something was watching me. Not a god—but someone with magic at their disposal.
Hands out, showing I was unarmed, I straightened and slowly turned.
The girl stood with her back to a window. Milky moonlight washed in from between the broken pane, casting her in silhouette. Her features were difficult to make out, but her eyes weren’t. They captured every tiny sliver of light and sparked alive. I felt it then, the tug, the trap I could fall into. My soul hungered for hers, and hers hungry for mine.
She looked away at the same time I did.
“There are more bodies down the hall,” Chuck said.
Bast had said Chuck was frightened, but if Chuck was afraid now, she hid all signs of it. She stood in the moonlight as rigid and cool as stone.
“I want to help you,” I said.
“Help me?” Her teeth flashed in what could have been a smile or a sneer. “No one can help me.”
“Who did this?”
I heard her swallow. “They came for me, the dogs, and then…someone did this, but I can’t… I can’t remember. I hid…and then here you are.”
I deserved her mistrust. I wouldn’t trust me either. “You don’t have any reason to believe anything I say, but I’m the best chance you have at staying alive.”
“You and that woman. You know what’s going on, don’t you?” With her chilling tone and her still body, I couldn’t tell if she was angry, about to run, or too terrified to move. “You know everything?” she asked.
Bast would bring a whole world of pain down on me if she found out I’d told Chuck anything without her. I could lie, but something told me Chuck wouldn’t fall for any more bullshit.
“Tell me the truth, and I’ll go with you.”
The truth? That Egyptian gods were real, most of them walked among normal people, and she was potentially one of them? The chances of that conversation going well were slim.
“I will, I’ll tell you everything, but not here.�
� I moved forward, just a step.
She backed up toward the window, hands spread and ready to lash out. Light fell across her face, washing all color from her skin. The glimmer in her eyes brightened. She looked too young to be here and to have death stalking her.
“I won’t hurt you,” I said.
“It’s not you. It’s me. What if…what if I did that?” Her last words came out in a whisper, and I understood what she was really afraid of. Not the jackals, not the unknown chasing her down, and not me. She was afraid of herself.
“You didn’t kill him.”
“I might h-have.” She took another step back. “I… I do things. I see things.”
“I know.” I held out my hand, reaching for her. “Please, come with me.”
She looked at my hand, at my face, and then finally at my eyes. If she looked deep enough, she’d see what I was truly made of, or maybe she’d see the fear—a fear just like hers.
Her face betrayed her emotions and thoughts so openly. First I saw confusion, and then I watched as she recognized that maybe she was looking into a distorted mirror and seeing more than just a man. Her eyes widened. Maybe she knew me. Maybe she’d always known me.
A jackal shot out of the darkness and slammed into her chest, throwing her off her feet and into the windowpane. Glass shattered. Chuck cried out. I grabbed for her ankle, but I was a second too late. Chuck and the jackal tumbled out the window.
I vaulted over the sill, expecting to fall several stories fast, but I abruptly landed on the scaffolding. Boards swayed under my feet. I grabbed the top rail to steady myself, but it snapped under my grip and fell into the darkness below. A few seconds later, the pole clanged against the ground. The wind howled and moaned, rocking the platform.
“Ace!”
Chuck was running down the boards, the jackal snapping at her heels. I bolted after them. Something vital twanged inside the framework, and the scaffold frame shuddered. Chuck slipped and went down. She reached to grab a hold of a rail. The sounds of boards cracking ricocheted into the night, and the board beneath her gave way.
She jumped—pale arms out—the jackal disappeared, and then something like a sledgehammer hit me in the shoulder. My breath whipped out of me, my hip hit a rail, and the weight of the thing almost shoved me over.
Teeth clamped into my upper arm and pain burst up my shoulder. Then the top rail I’d been pinned against snapped.
Air.
Weightlessness.
My heart lodged in my throat.
And then an abrupt tug yanked on my side, halting my fall. Ripping snarls rumbled around me—snarls from the jackal clamped on my arm and from where my coat had snagged on a rusted pole.
“Ace! Help!” The wind tossed Chuck’s screams at me.
If she could shout, she was fine, unlike me, dangling over what was a fast fall to a painful impact.
The jackal growled and gurgled around the muscles in my shoulder, its teeth sinking deeper with every tug. Pain and anger bloomed, smothering any cohesive thought.
I reached around my front and clamped my hand around the jackal’s muzzle. It snarled a warning. I dug my fingers into its mouth, sinking them around its sharp teeth, and heaved its jaw open. More snarls. The beast bucked, kicking its back legs against mine, apparently intent on making us both plummet several floors. It would tear my arm off at any second. Prying its jaws wasn’t working. The jackal’s eyes glowed, and deep inside, it was laughing.
My coat seams ripped, dropping me an inch. “Screw this.”
“Ace!”
“Busy!” I curled my hand into a fist and punched the jackal in the jaw, once, twice, and then something cracked—its teeth or my knuckles. Again, I punched, giving it all I had and finally its grip released me. This time, when I got my hand around its muzzle, I yanked its jaw wide and kicked the jackal into the dark. A few seconds later, it landed with a heavy thwump below.
The scaffolding shuddered, and somewhere inside the structure, something else twanged. This is a bad place to be.
Hooking my good right arm around the lower guardrail, I heaved myself onto the boards in time to see the dark warehouse windows spewing packs of jackals onto the scaffolding, one after another, more and more. Some split my way, and others ran for Chuck.
“Sekhmet’s ass.” My left arm was damn near useless, and somewhere distantly, between the throbbing and the agony, my body was telling to go lay down.
Leave the girl, my doubts said. If she survived this, she’d be hunted to the ends of the earth. What was the point?
Chuck had crawled onto a lone scaffolding tower. The structure swayed away from the wall, tugged by the wind. The jackals dashed right for her, and they’d clear the gap. The weight of one would be enough to topple the whole tower, and Chuck had five incoming.
None of this is her fault, I growled at that doubting voice inside my head.
“The window,” I yelled, but the wind tore my shout away.
The window was her only escape, but she only had eyes for the jackals.
The first wave of jackals bore down on me, eyes ablaze, paws beating the boards, and claws scraping. I braced myself, brought my right shoulder down, and dug in when the first jackal hit hard. Using its own momentum, I shoved it upward and threw it over my back, hoping the damn thing would fall off the scaffold.
As I rose, I clamped my hand around Alysdair and swung the sword free, bringing it down in an arc and cutting through the flank of another jackal just as the demon sprang for the kill. They kept coming, and I kept slicing and slashing, Alysdair seeking flesh. The blade sang, aglow and hungry.
Chuck’s scream pierced the howling wind. I lifted my head in time to see the scaffold lean out too far. She scrabbled to the higher side, balancing her weight against the fall, and then the first jackal leaped. It landed half dangling off the side. She kicked it in the jaw again and again, but the added weight was already pushing the scaffolding over.
She couldn’t die. Not here and not like this. She’d survived on her own against everything out to get her. This wasn’t how it ended for her. She deserved more.
I flung out my numb left hand, clenched my teeth against the agony burning up my shoulder, and spat the word, “Hurzd!”
Magic snapped out of me and hooked into the tower. The scaffold snagged in the air, mid-fall. A power ricochet slammed into me, snapping the magic taut, threatening to break my hold.
Chuck kicked at the jackal again, but the other demons were almost on her. She didn’t see the next one coming until it skidded across the boards in front of her.
“The window!” I yelled.
Magic throbbed, and with every beat, it fed off my soul, and the blinding pain started gnawing on my strength.
Hold, damn it. Hold just a little longer. The tower jolted, but I had it. A few more seconds.
“The window, Chuck! I can’t hold it.”
I don’t know if she heard me. I couldn’t look, couldn’t think of anything but holding the frame frozen in the air. The magic pulsed harder, over and over, draining me with every wave.
A jackal slammed into my back, throwing me off my feet. My cheek hit the wall, then the boards, and the world ripped and shattered. The spell snapped and lashed back, slicing soul deep. A cry shot from my throat, and in its wake, I heard the chiming clangs of Chuck’s tower collapsing.
Capable of more than darkness, Bast’s words mocked.
A jackal landed on my back. I got my hands under me and pushed up, but hot pain flared brightly in my shoulder, almost robbing me of the dregs of the strength I had left. Alysdair strummed in my hand. I gripped the sword tighter, listening to her sing.
The jackal’s low growl trembled through my back. Its hot, stinking breath pushed against my neck. Drool slid down my cheek.
A high-pitched whistle sounded, and the jackal’s weight lifted.
“Hey!” Chuck called.
The weight vanished.
I twisted and saw Chuck at the other end of the platform, cr
ouched low. Her golden eyes shone in the darkness, undeniable and hungry. The jackal started toward her, but didn’t sprint like it had before. It managed a nervous trot and then sank onto its belly. Chuck stood, and with a stride too confident, she closed the distance between them. Those golden eyes glowed. Shit, she had the demon enthralled.
She stopped and looked the beast in its eyes.
Through the haze of pain and exhaustion, I finally realized what she was doing. “Don’t,” I growled. “Don’t!”
Her eyes brightened. She drew back her lips in a smile I’d seen too many times in the mirror.
I got my feet under me, dragged Alysdair at my side, and staggered. I might be too late, like I’d been too late for everything, but I wouldn’t let her damage her soul over this pathetic demon.
I plunged Alysdair into the beast’s side, owning its death. “Tra k-dae amcru-kak sra ksork, kosec amcru-kak esk kassrakamsk, omd kae kuir amcru-kak aeuirk.”
Chuck gasped and fell back, her connection with the demon severed. Her glittering, envy-filled eyes fell to Alysdair, the steel aglow.
When the soul was gone, I said, “Daquir.”
The carcass fizzled to ash and embers. The others, sensing a Soul Eater among them, had vanished.
Chuck lifted her chin. Her bottom lip trembled and her skinny shoulders shook, but a new fierceness burned in her Soul Eater’s eyes.
I had a lot of explaining to do.
Chapter 15
Chuck stepped into my dark apartment and stopped dead. Yellow eyes shone in the gloom.
I flicked on the lights. “Hey, Shu.”
My business partner was sitting poised in the chair by my desk, giving her a direct line of sight to the door. She still wore her sophisticated pantsuit, but her demeanor was of a coiled snake about to strike, until she saw Chuck and the flicker of rage fizzled to curiosity.
“Bit young for your tastes, Acehole?”
The throbbing pain in my shoulder and the battering my body had taken had drained the fight right out of me. “Chuck, meet Shukra. Shu, meet Chuck.”
Chuck stood rigid and was probably considering running. She’d likely sensed something was off about Shu, but given she had no idea what the hell was going on, she couldn’t know Shu had once been a demon.
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