“You’ll both stay out here and that’s final.”
Brazen crossed his arms back. “Nope.”
“Sorry, Piper,” Kix agreed. “We just can’t do that.”
There was no time to fight with these two over this. I had no idea what Gallien was planning in there, but my assumption was that it couldn’t be good.
We had to move.
Now.
“Fine,” I replied with heat, “but if you get yourselves killed, it’s on you, not me.”
“We’ll remember that,” Brazen said.
I shook my head at him.
“Asshole.”
Chapter 28
I got up into the rafters with a bit of help and then started crawling along.
“Remember, Reap,” I instructed, directly at him through the connector, “let them think I’m dead.”
“Right.”
“If you can shield Brazen and Kix at any point, do it.” I then added, “If you have to choose one, I’d say—”
“Don’t go there, Piper,” he cut me off. “We’re walking in.”
I stuck to the beam that was running along the ceiling so I wouldn’t make any sound to the room below. The goal was to drop in on them, which wouldn’t be possible if I gave myself away.
“All right, Gallien,” I heard Reaper say, his voice sounding pretty weak, “by order of the Netherworld Retrievers, I, Reaper Payne, and my crew here, place you under arrest, and we shall transport you back to the Netherworld and present you before the Tribunal for sentencing.”
I heard the sound of a golf clap.
“Bravo,” said Gallien. “Honestly, I’m impressed at the fact that you three made it through my vampire zombies.”
I grunted at that.
“I see that Officer Shaw is not with you though,” he said in mock sadness. “Such a shame. She was a joy to run from.”
“Are you going to come willingly,” Reaper started, ignoring Gallien’s teasing, “or do we have to kill you?”
“You’ll most definitely have to kill me,” Gallien replied seriously. “I do think you’ll find that a bit challenging, though. Again, there is a shield up and your pathetic bullets just can’t penetrate it. Honestly, you guys are just terrible at this game.”
“Look for a rune board,” I instructed.
“I can’t see runes, remember?” Reaper responded.
Damn it.
“Okay, look for any board that seems to be out of place.”
“Got it,” he said. “It’s on the right wall as you walk in the room, about halfway between us and them.”
“Good.”
I continued forward and saw a bit of light peeking up through one of the tiles. With careful movement, I lowered myself and peered through.
Directly beneath me was Jax and his wife. Standing before them were the combined front of Gallien, Haley, and Phillip. Haley was holding up an Empiric.
“She has an—”
“An Empiric,” I interrupted Reaper. “I know. I see it. Stall them for another second.”
“Right.” Reaper then spoke aloud. “Okay, okay,” he said. “We’ll put down our weapons.”
“We’ll what?” said Brazen.
“Do it, Officer Brazen,” Reaper commanded. “You too, Kix.”
I could only see my crew’s legs from my vantage point, but pretty soon there were three guns on the floor by their feet.
“There,” Reaper said. “Now there’s no reason to throw that Empiric. We can’t harm you.”
Gallien laughed. “You couldn’t harm us before, you idiot.”
He had a point.
“Why are you doing this?” asked Brazen. “Are you just some ball hair whose mother didn’t give him enough love and whose daddy wouldn’t take him to a baseball game or something?”
The air fell still.
“Excuse me?” Gallien replied with coldness in his voice.
“I’m just wondering why you turned out to be such a sweaty pube. Had to be shitty parenting or an uncle who touched you inappropriately, maybe?”
I got back to my feet and glanced down at the tiles. None of them could contain my weight, so if I jumped on one, I should fall straight through and land in the expanse between Jax and Gallien. Of course, I could also just fire Death Nails down at them, right?
If the shield only covered their front, that would work great. If not, my cover would be blown.
No, I was going to have to jump. I holstered my gun, snapped two Death Nails out of a mag, palmed them, and got ready.
“Let me tell you something, you insignificant worm,” Gallien began. “I never met my parents because—”
“Ah,” interrupted Brazen. “You were an orphan. Makes sense why you’re such a curly hair, then.”
What was with him and pubic hairs?
“Enough of this,” Gallien seethed. “Haley—”
That was all he got out as I crashed through the ceiling and landed behind them.
They spun, but I drove the Nails into Gallien and Phillip with one swift move.
Both of them screamed and fell over.
So much for that full commission.
Haley launched the Empiric at my crew just as I tackled her. The squelched explosion told me that Reaper had taken yet another one for the team. Honestly, I was starting to think he enjoyed the pain.
I punched the living shit out of Haley, knocking out teeth and bloodying her up until she passed out. If she was still alive after my savage beating, I’d be surprised.
Finally, I stood up and walked over to the rune board and kicked it, breaking it in two.
“Did you kill Gallien?” Reaper groaned through the connector. “Tell me you didn’t kill Gallien.”
“Uh…” I cleared my throat. “Let’s just say I’ll lend you whatever you need to pay your rent.”
He groaned again.
“Well, Jax,” I said as I approached the little man and his wife. “Looks like this is over for you.”
“I don’t know how to thank you,” he said with elation on his face.
“It wasn’t just me,” I said, turning back to my crew as Kix and Brazen did their best to get Reaper back to his feet. “These guys did—”
A shot was fired.
It struck me right in the middle of my back, throwing me forward and leaving me flat on my face in agony.
For the second time that night, the world faded from view.
Chapter 29
Don’t let anyone fool you, being immortal kind of sucks, because every time you pass out from being injured, you wake back up during the healing process and get to feel the entire thing. And it doesn’t matter how grievous the injury is, either. Getting shot right in the goddamn spine, for example.
I couldn’t move yet, but my ears were working fine.
“I can’t believe how stupid you all are,” said the voice of Jax. “Falling for the my-wife-is-in-their-clutches-and-they’re-going-to-kill-her bit? Seriously. You’re a bunch of idiots.”
Damn it.
“So this entire thing was a setup to kill us?” asked Kix.
“Don’t flatter yourself,” Jax replied with a laugh. “You four aren’t worth that. This was all done so I could build my army.”
“What about Gallien?”
Jax grunted.
“He was my second in command, but I had to let him run the show once I decided to play you fools. I couldn’t risk you finding out beforehand.”
“Let me ask you something,” said Brazen with an edge, “did your parents not love you as a child or something?”
Good lord. Did he only have one trick?
“I’m not going for that game,” Jax said an instant before the popping of a gun being fired sounded.
There was a thump and then the thud of a body falling.
I knew the sound of that bullet. It was a Knockblast shell. They didn’t blow a hole through you so much as they did inside you, and they hit with enough force to knock out a camel.
I lifted my ey
es while keeping completely still. Sure enough, Brazen was on his back.
“Brazen,” Kix yelled right before the gun sounded again, followed by another thump and a thud.
The only two left were me and Reaper. Jax might have been curious about how Reaper had the funky eyes, and could have thought him immortal, but unless he had some pretty deep intel on me, he had to have assumed me dead.
Hopefully.
I gritted my teeth as I felt the disc in my back rebuilding itself. It was all I could do not to scream in pain. But I held it together.
“Now you are a bit of an anomaly,” Jax said, walking toward Reaper. “Your glowing eyes caught me off guard when we met at the restaurant, but I overheard Gallien speaking with Haley. You’re a reaper, right?”
Reaper did not reply. He was either too weak, or he wasn’t about to humor the little knob.
Jax leaned down and knocked Reaper’s hat off before grabbing him by his hair and lifting his head up.
“I asked you a question,” Jax fumed.
“Screw you,” whispered Reaper in response.
Jax let go, stood back up, and then swung a fierce kick against Reaper’s jaw, knocking him out again.
“I wonder how immortal a headless reaper would be?” Jax asked as he walked back in my direction.
I closed my eyes and began to feel rage building up inside me.
“What would you think, Azura?”
“This is no time for games, Jax,” answered the woman who was supposedly his wife. “Keller will be waiting.”
Keller?
My mind fully engaged at that. I’d heard that name before, but I couldn’t place it. Something in the back of my brain was screaming at me about it, though. Was it a case I’d worked on or studied? Damn, it actually hurt my head to think about it.
“He’ll wait another moment,” Jax argued.
I then heard the sound of steel. Like a blade was being pulled from a scabbard.
He stepped past me again.
Sure enough, he was holding a sword. I didn’t know where he got it, but he sure as hell had it.
There was a sizzling feeling that made me wince something fierce. It was the completion of my healing. I was ready to move, and I wasn’t about to wait.
I jumped up, spun around and kicked Azura in the chest, sending her back into the wall behind her.
“What are you doing, Azur—” was all Jax got out as he turned around and realized I wasn’t dead.
The blood drained from his face.
“Hi, nutsack,” I said as I punched him in the neck with my left hand while grabbing his wrist with my right. With a tight spin, driving my hip into his midsection, I flipped his ass onto his back and wrenched his arm with enough power to rip ligaments.
His anguished cry told me I’d succeeded.
The sword fell to the ground with a clang.
I kicked it away and pulled out my gun, sticking the barrel end right on his forehead.
“Do it,” he said, his eyes full of tears and anger. “Kill me, you pointless bitch.”
I’m not going to lie. I wanted to pull the trigger. Seriously, I wanted to pull the trigger. This guy had toyed with me and my crew like a pro. He’d made fools of us, and it looked like he’d even managed to kill Brazen and Kix. On top of that, he’d just been about to behead Reaper.
But I couldn’t do it. Jax had used the name Keller, and the burning in my brain signaled that name was paramount to…something. Whoever he was, I needed to find him.
I pulled Jax to his feet by his hair, giving him a taste of the medicine he’d fed to Reaper.
“I’m not going to kill you, Jax,” I hissed in his ear. “I may beat you silly and make you wish you were dead, but you’re going to prison for damn sure.”
“Ooh, I’m shaking.”
“You will be,” I said flatly, readying my fist for a solid punch to his stones.
“Piper,” I heard Reaper say, “let him go.”
Reaper was back on his feet. He was swaying back and forth, but he was up.
“I’m not going to kill him, Reap,” I said with a growl. “I want him and his lovely bride to…” I turned back to find that Azura was gone. “Shit,” I said, letting go of Jax while working my tattoo to see if I could spot Azura’s whereabouts.
No dice.
She was completely gone and it didn’t seem that she had the same kind of tattoos as the others. That meant we couldn’t track her.
That’s when I heard a massive whooshing sound, a brief yelp, and the sound of a body slumping to the floor.
It was Jax.
He was dead.
“What the hell…” I started, thinking that maybe he’d bitten into one of those pills like Gunter had. Then I looked up to see the look of determination on Reaper’s face. “Did you just kill him?”
Reaper’s eyes stayed on the body of Jax. “Yes.”
“What the fuck, Reap?” I yelled. “He had information about the mage who I’m guessing was powering these runes!” I winced at the voice in my head.
Reaper blinked and then glanced at me.
“Damn it,” he said with a groan. “I didn’t know.”
“Regardless, what about all that ‘I need the entire commission’ crap anyway?” I ridiculed him while pointing at Jax. “You give me shit about killing perps and then you took out the holy grail!”
“He needed killing,” Reaper replied evenly.
“What, are you from the South now?” I was beside myself with rage. “You just completely fucked our chances of getting to the mage who powered these runes, Reap. Thanks a bunch.”
He didn’t reply.
Brazen started moaning.
Reaper stepped over and dropped down, ripping open the man’s shirt to reveal he was wearing a vest. He pulled open Kix’s to find the same thing as Kix lurched up and began to cough.
So the Knockblast shots put them both out, but the vests saved their asses.
I sighed in relief that nobody from my squad had been escorted away by Reaper’s race that day.
But I wasn’t happy about losing the two people who knew about this Keller person. My head throbbed again with the thought of that name. We must have been put under some kind of spell regarding him. I wouldn’t doubt it, considering how mages could be the biggest bung masters ever.
At least Azura was still alive, wherever the hell she was. If we eventually found her, we might be able to locate her other half and take them both down at the same time.
Somehow I doubted that.
Chapter 30
Brazen and Kix were in a stint with Dr. Hale. They’d been wearing vests, but the Knockblast shots could mess with your head for days if you didn’t get proper attention.
Reaper was also on the road to recovery. He had a bottle of ibuprofen sitting on his desk and he was staring at it.
“Junkie,” I chided before putting a call in to Pecker.
“Pecker here.”
“What was the name of the wizard who drew the rune I sent down to you?” I asked, knowing full well what he was going to say.
“I don’t know. Starts with an ‘A,’ I think. One sec.”
“Azura?”
“Yeah, that’s it. How’d you know?”
“I met her today.”
“No kidding?”
I ignored the question. “We didn’t catch her,” I added while giving a sidelong glance at Reaper, “but at least we know who’s drawing these things.”
Something told me I also knew who was powering them, but that painful voice in my head told me to keep that information under wraps for now.
“I gotta run, Pecker. Thanks for the help.”
“No problem,” he said and then added, “Listen, Piper, I’m sorry about that comment regarding your torn shirt. I’ve been thinking about it and it wasn’t cool for me to say that.”
This caught me by surprise. “Oh, uh, okay. Thanks.”
“So are we good?”
“Sure, yeah. We’re fine.”
>
“Great,” he said, sounding relieved. “Any chance you want to go out for drinks or something, then? You know what they say, ‘Once you go Goblin, the next day you’ll be hobblin’.”
I sighed and hung up as the chief waved at me from his office.
“Chief wants us,” I informed Reaper as I headed off to Carter’s office. “What’s up, Chief?”
“I did some digging on this Azura woman you mentioned,” he answered, motioning for us to take a seat. “Seems she was a wizard who was terrorizing both the Netherworld and the Overworld a little over twenty years ago.” He flicked the paper he was holding. “She was captured and brought up on charges, but she got away.”
I nodded. “And now she’s getting herself back in the game.”
“Looks like it.”
“We’ll just have to keep an eye out for her,” I stated. “I’m sure she’ll surface again soon enough. Once they get the naughtiness bug going again, they can’t seem to quit.”
“No arguing that.” The chief looked at me. “Tell me, how did Brazen and Kix do?”
Here was the moment of truth for those guys. On the one hand, I didn’t like the idea of throwing a couple of mortals into the mix when it came to being Retrievers; on the other hand, it was likely that the chief assigned cases based on the level of power and protection his Retrievers had. They weren’t exactly safe walking the beat as cops anyway. Besides, it was their choice to do this or not.
“Honestly,” I answered after letting out a long breath, “they did a lot better than I would have expected.”
The chief seemed surprised by this. “Really?”
“Yeah, Chief. Really.”
He nodded, pulled out a slip of paper and pushed it over to me.
“Well enough to put your signature on that form?”
I looked down and saw both officers’ names filled in on the Retriever Training Program application. Under “Recommending Officer” it read “Piper Shaw.” That didn’t exactly give me the warm and fuzzies.
But, I signed it anyway.
“Great.” He tucked the document in an envelope and reached back to shove it into a tube. There was a fwump sound and the envelope disappeared. The chief turned to his computer and added, “I’ll get them assigned to RTP training starting immediately.” He tapped in one-finger style on his keyboard for a minute. “There. All set.”
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