Mari had gone from my enemy to my ally in a matter of minutes. We’d been through hell together, and she was like a sister to me, even if we hadn’t spoken in years. There weren’t many people I’d trust with my life, but if push came to shove, I’d trust Mari.
“Mars,” I called through the container door. “Can you give me a hand?” I dragged Dom to the door by his armpits. “We need to get him out of here.” He wasn’t wearing anything substantial, just a pair of sweatpants and a white T-shirt—both torn and covered with bloodstains that looked black in the dim light—and he felt far too cold for my liking.
“I’m still too weak,” Mari said from outside. “I’ll just end up dropping him. Where’s Nik? He could help you.”
I frowned, my hand burning. “He’s not here.” I set Dom down a half-dozen inches from the edge and poked my head out through the opening. “How long until you’re strong enough? We need to get him out of here before anyone notices we’re here.” A thought struck me, and I realized we might be under a far greater time crunch than I’d previously thought. “Do they know this is how you escaped? Will they come looking for you here?”
Mari was still sitting on the ground, legs folded beneath her, back hunched, and hands in her lap. She shook her head. “I should be mostly recovered in fifteen minutes or so. They worked me over pretty good. Do you have anything to eat? That’d speed it up . . .”
I reached into the right zippered pocket of my leather jacket and pulled out the protein bar I’d stashed there before leaving my apartment. Never leave home without one. “What happened, anyway?” I asked, tossing the bar to Mari.
She tore into the wrapper with gusto. “They caught me nosing around in a restricted lab over there,” she said, nodding back toward the rest of SoDo sprawling behind her. “I found the missing Nejerets, but I was only able to get Dom out. He didn’t look too hot when I found him, but he was still able to help me fight our way out.” She stuffed the last piece of the protein bar into her mouth, balled up the wrapper, and threw it on the ground a few feet away. “We should find Nik and go back for the others.”
I glanced down at my palm. It burned something fierce now, like I held a handful of stinging nettles. My eyebrows drew together. Despite the very real and very uncomfortable sensation, there didn’t seem to be anything wrong with the skin of my palm. It wasn’t red or swollen, and the Eye of Horus looked the same, gleaming in the subdued evening light.
“Where is Nik, anyway?” Mari asked. “I thought he’d be with you.”
“Don’t know,” I said, shrugging. “Don’t care.” Why was she obsessing about him all of a sudden? They’d never been close, and her fixation on him was setting off alarm bells in my mind.
“Damn it, Kat. You couldn’t make this easy for once, could you?” Mari reached into the pocket of her bloodied lab coat and pulled out a black sphere about the size of a baseball. “I can’t go back there without him, and I really didn’t want to have to resort to this, but I swear I don’t have a choice.” She lobbed the black orb up to me, saying, “Catch!”
I reacted instinctively, reaching out to catch the thing with my right hand even as my mind screamed, NO! Because the orb was made of anti-At.
“No . . .” I gaped down at my hand, paralyzed by mind-numbing horror. Any second now, the anti-At would start soaking into my skin with a sickening tingling sensation.
Fuck. I’d gone and done it again. I just killed myself with my own stupidity and caught the damn orb of death. And thanks to me, Nik was nowhere in sight. This time, death—unmaking—would stick. And the damage to the timeline would be astronomical, because I’d been involved, however accidental or unwilling, in a lot of important, world-forming shit. If I disappeared from existence, everything I’d done since the day I was born would be undone.
“Where’s Nik?” Mari asked, on her feet now, fists on her hips and stare intense. “Call him. He’ll drop whatever he’s doing and come running to save you.”
“What?” I stared at the black orb, horrified and disgusted with myself, then gaped at Mari. “Why, Mars?” I looked at her, eyes stinging. “Why?” We hadn’t been close in years, but we’d been inseparable once. She was like a sister to me. I’d trusted her.
“Please, Kat.” She wrung her hands. “Call Nik. He’ll fix this.”
I blinked away tears, the chaos that had clouded my mind finally clearing enough that coherency returned, at least a little. “You need him.” I cleared my throat, eyes narrowing. “That’s what this has all been about. Your questions about me and him and the Senate . . . you telling me—us—to come check out this shipment . . .” I shook my head slowly. “God, I really am an idiot.”
“Your words . . .”
I glanced down at my hand. Why wasn’t it tingling? Last time, when her anti-At blade had been buried deep in my side, I’d felt the particles working through me like tiny, soul-consuming insects. But this time, I felt nothing but the slightly warm surface of the orb against my shimmering skin.
My eyes widened as I registered what I was seeing. The ancient goddess tattoo in my skin—she’d extended one of her wings, the iridescent feathers extending onto my palm, an unbroken barrier of At between myself and the anti-At orb. She was protecting me.
I looked at Mari, my lips curving into a grin. A low, deep laugh spilled forth. “Would you look at that . . .”
Mari stared at my hand, disbelief written all over her face.
“Not today, bitch,” I hissed, then chucked the orb into the water. It was relatively harmless out there, and I hoped the Puget Sound’s current would carry it away to unknown depths where, in all likelihood, it would never have the chance to unmake anyone’s soul again.
A slow, wicked smile spread across Mari’s face. She looked better now, like she’d healed some—or maybe she just hadn’t been that injured to begin with. Dom was still unconscious . . . still badly wounded. I frowned. He should’ve been regenerating. He should look better, too. But he didn’t.
“Do you have any idea what you just—”
“Oh, shut up already,” I spat, cutting Mari off as I drew my sword. Mercy sang out, a clear, pristine sound as her solidified At blade slid free of its steel sheath. It glimmered, almost glowing in the faint moonlight. I jumped down from the container, rolling on my landing and immediately settling into a defensive crouch a dozen feet from Mari. I didn’t know why she’d betrayed me, but I knew how she would pay.
Mari stood with her feet shoulder width apart, twin black daggers as long as her forearms gripped in either hand. They appeared out of nowhere. “I don’t want to fight you, Kat.”
“Then don’t,” I said, lunging at her.
She raised her daggers, crossing them to block my sword. Her shorter blades met mine in a shower of glittering sparks of every conceivable color. The only thing as strong as At was anti-At. Our blades were evenly matched, even if we weren’t. I’d always been the better fighter.
“I said I didn’t want to fight you,” Mari said through gritted teeth. “Not that I won’t.”
Chapter Fourteen
I was beating her. With every strike and parry, Mari weakened, and I drew closer to landing a lethal blow. She had to have known that if it came down to the two of us fighting, this was how it would end. So why set up some elaborate trap—and a shoddy one, at that—just to get to Nik? What did she need from him?
I blocked both of Mari’s blades with my sword, twisting my own blade so hers tangled. She cried out, dropping one. I kicked her in the abdomen, launching her back a solid six feet. She skidded on her ass and dropped her other dagger, freeing up both hands to catch herself.
I stalked toward her, stopping just beyond her feet. I wasn’t dumb enough to stand over her—not when she could materialize a new anti-At weapon in the blink of an eye. “Tell me why you’re doing this,” I said, staring down at her, sword at the ready should she try to lash out. “Why are you helping them? Did you really get caught, or was that all a lie, too?” For all I knew, s
he was the one responsible for Dom’s current condition.
Mari laughed bitterly but said nothing.
“Tell me!”
“I bet you can’t guess what’s in that little sphere.”
“I don’t give two shits what’s in the—”
“Dom’s ba.” She brought her hand up to her mouth, gasping dramatically. “But—oh, no! You threw it into the Sound! Now how will he ever be whole again?” She blinked, eyes wide and innocent. Mocking. “He won’t be able to regenerate without it, that’s for sure. And with his injuries . . .”
I shot the quickest glance at the open shipping container, suddenly more terrified for Dom’s life than I’d ever been before.
Not quick enough. Mari struck, knocking my sword to the side and stabbing something into my belly.
I looked down, shocked to see her hand around the glistening black handle of a brand-new anti-At dagger, plunged to the hilt into my abdomen. It hurt like a bitch, stealing my breath even as the pain made me gasp. But even worse than the pain was the tingling. I could feel the miniscule anti-At particles separating from the blade and soaking into me, binding with my ba—my soul. I could feel myself being unmade.
“I’m sorry, Kat,” Mari said, face twisted and eyes pleading. She seemed absolutely genuine, all mocking nonchalance from a moment earlier gone. Had it been an act? Or was this the act? “I didn’t want this, I swear, but you didn’t give me a choice. Call Nik and tell him to come here. He can save you.” Gingerly, she pulled the dagger free and tossed it away, then eased me down to the ground with an arm around my waist.
Why? Why was getting Nik to come here so important to her that she’d risk changing the world as we knew it by unmaking me? The possible reasons were too slippery, and I could focus only on one thing. Nik. I needed him. He could save me.
I sucked in a shuttering breath. “I—I don’t have—” I squeezed my eyes shut and clenched my jaw to fend off the pain. “—his number.”
Mari knelt on the ground beside me. “Well, where is he? You said he reached out to you—I know he wouldn’t just let you run off on your own.”
Lying on my back, right hand covering my stab wound, I stared at her. Now that the end was in sight, I was just glad that I wasn’t alone. Her presence was oddly comforting, even though she was responsible for my impending death. “W—what makes you say th—that?”
“Because he knows you too well. You’re rash, especially when your heart’s actually in the fight.” She shook her head, her eyes filled with sadness. “You let your emotions get in the way. You always have.” She squeezed my shoulder. “Where do you think he is? I’ll track him down. We can still save you.”
Tears welled in my eyes. I tried to blame the pain, but they’d only started after I’d heard the genuine concern in Mari’s voice . . . seen it in her shadowed jade eyes. “You’re th—the one who d—did this.” I inhaled shakily. “Why do you c—care?”
“Because I love you, idiot.” She combed matted hair out of her face with dirty fingers. “God, you’re such a moron sometimes.”
I stared at her, wide-eyed and dumbstruck. And dying. Worse. Being unmade.
“Where’s Nik, Kat? Please, you must have some idea.”
I narrowed my eyes, not trusting that this wasn’t all another act. “How do I know y—you’ll come back?” I tried to shift my body into a more comfortable position, but it only served to sharpen the twisting pain in my gut. “You know I’ll c—come after you.”
She shrugged. “I’ll chance it. But what I can’t risk is letting you get unmade. You’ve played too big of a part in shaping our world into what it is today. Who knows what it would’ve become without you?”
I coughed a laugh. “One w—way to find out . . .”
“That’s not going to happen.” Mari loomed over me. “Where is he?”
I stared into her green eyes for long seconds, weighing my options. There weren’t many. “The troll,” I finally said. I wasn’t positive, but it was my best guess. “In Fremont.” I switched hands, my right so coated in blood it wasn’t doing any good anymore. “He’s probably there.” With Garth . . . The thought felt important, but my sluggish, blood-deprived brain couldn’t figure out why. “If not—maybe my apartment.”
“Alright, it’s a start.” She stood and started jogging away. “Don’t go anywhere,” she called over her shoulder, a cell phone already at her ear. “I will come back for you.” I never even had a chance to find out why all of this was happening.
Mari was out of sight by the time I realized my palm was burning even worse than before. The searing pain became so intense it muted the stab wound to a dull ache. I pulled my hand away from the wound and held it over my face. The tattoo of the Eye of Horus had changed; it still shimmered with that otherworldly iridescence of At, but now shining onyx streaks spread throughout the symbol like veins in marble.
“What the hell?”
And then it hit me—the tingling caused by the poisonous anti-At had stopped. It was gone.
The obsidian streaks in the tattoo had to be the anti-At, pulled from me, body and soul, by the Eye of Horus. I stared in awe at the thing that had just saved my life. That had just saved my whole damn existence. Protection amulet indeed.
The burning in my palm subsided and the streaks settled, the anti-At particles bound to the At in the ink, and I was left lying there with an ordinary stab wound. It was the kind of injury I could easily heal from. The kind I could deal with later. There were more urgent matters to attend to.
Gingerly, I pushed myself up to a sitting position and unzipped my left jacket pocket. I fished out my phone with fingers slimy with blood and dialed 9-1-1.
The phone rang twice before an emergency dispatcher picked up. “Nine-one-one, what’s your emergency?”
“I need an ambulance.” I clutched my side, gritting my teeth. “My friend—”
“State your name, please.”
“My friend’s dying,” I snapped. “He needs help, now!”
“Where are you, ma’am?”
“Harbor Island—Terminal 18. There’s a man in a shipping container—slot A-27. It’s the second container up, so they’ll need a ladder.” I brushed my hair back from my face, cringing when strands pulled from sticking in the drying blood on my hand. “Just hurry, please!”
“Alright, ma’am, we’re on our way. I need you to stay with your friend until—”
I hung up the phone and shoved it back into my pocket. Gritting my teeth, I pulled my legs in and, ever so carefully, stood. I lifted my sword, hilt-first, with the toe of my boot, then bent down part of the way to pick it up. I strained against the pain to sheath it over my shoulder and hobbled to the edge of the shore of the artificial island to search the smooth, black and silver surface of the water for the anti-At orb.
It took me nearly ten minutes to find it, and by the time I spotted Dom’s ba bobbing along on the water’s surface, I could hear the approaching sirens. I dove into the water and swam to the orb, my heavy boots becoming leaden in the water and doing their damnedest to drag me down. I grabbed it with my left hand, trusting the Eye of Horus would protect me again, and crawl-stroked to the dock on the opposite side of the waterway, muscles fatigued, lungs straining, and side burning with pain. Staying afloat became so difficult that for a minute there, I doubted I would make it.
It took an insane amount of effort, but I managed to pull myself up onto the dock behind a massive container ship. I flopped onto my back, giving myself a chance to catch my breath before the police and paramedics arrived. I needed to be gone before they had a chance to spot me and drag me in for questioning. There was somewhere else I needed to be. I had to find a way to get to Nik before Mari found him. I had no idea why she was so desperate to get her hands on him, but if it had anything to do with Ouroboros and whatever they were up to, it couldn’t be anything good.
Garth’s at the troll, too. Again, I had the nagging sense that that piece of information was important, but I couldn�
�t quite put my thumb on the reason why.
I stared up at the stars, realization a bright burst in my mind, and I suddenly understood. I may not have had Nik’s number, but I had Garth’s. Or, at least, I had a way to contact Garth. I’d just used it.
I fumbled with my left pocket, pulling out my phone once more. It was dead, killed by the dip in the water.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” I grumbled, sitting up. The searing pain in my side was lessening—probably not because it was already healing, but because my brain was normalizing the sensation. I was getting used to it. Worked for me.
I climbed to my feet using one of the ship’s thick dock lines, took a deep breath, and stumble-jogged back to the Ducati. It was the fastest I could go.
Chapter Fifteen
The nearest pay phone I could find was four blocks east in the Industrial District outside of a twenty-four-hour convenience store. The clerk working the graveyard shift watched me through the front windows. I guess a drowned-rat motorcycle chick dripping blood on the pavement is quite the sight to see. I turned my back to him as I dialed 9-1-1.
Three rings this time before the dispatcher picked up. “9-1-1, what’s your emergency?” I was fairly certain it was the same woman I’d spoken to earlier.
I cleared my throat and made an effort to deepen my voice. “I have reason to believe one of your officers is in trouble. I need you to connect me to—”
“What is your name?”
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” I leaned my forehead against the inside of the phone’s metal privacy alcove. “Officer Garth Smith is in trouble, and I need to talk to him right now.”
“Officer Smith has already called for backup. What is your name and how did you know he would be in trouble?”
The Kat Dubois Chronicles: The Complete Series (Echo World Book 2) Page 10