Nothing to fear. None of her bats spying overhead, no strange insects who might be hers. The tension in Azeban's shoulders eased. This should be safe for a good while. She can't interfere with someone in another death lord's city, right? Nah. We're good.
It was late for working humans, so the streets were quiet. Azeban left his shades off and wandered, happy to drink in the night. Kau's eyes weren't as well adapted to the dark, so he kept to Azeban's shoulder, making muttered comments and muted clacks about things they passed. They finally found a park near Azeban's final destination, a nice one with a little river where Azeban could clean up the dinner mess on his hands and Kau could splash around on a shallow sandbar.
When they found a thick stand of wild rose and ivy near the water's edge, they curled up together for the night, and Azeban finally admitted he was exhausted. Sleep beat out any lingering worries, the first good one in weeks.
"Good morning, my lord." Charon kept his voice low in case his lordship's headache lingered. He risked a quick assessment while he pulled a bowl of batter from the fridge. "You look more yourself this morning."
"Still a little… drained." Hades eased onto one of the stools by the kitchen island, moving far more carefully than he would any normal morning. "Would you mind terribly taking Nike for her morning run?"
"Not at all, my lord. Are you hungry, perhaps?"
Hades nodded slowly. "A bit. I think. Nothing too sweet, please."
Charon stopped himself in the act of reaching for the bowl of strawberry compote. "Plain pancakes it is, then."
Half an hour later, sounds crept around the corner from the master bedroom. Thump. That was Ti startling awake, feet hitting the floor. Patter, patter, patter, slam. That was Ti rushing to the bathroom as his bladder screamed that it didn't appreciate being jerked out of sleep. The startling awake wasn't quite as often anymore, but some leftovers of his time on the streets were slower to fade than others.
"Hey." Ti managed to cover his mouth as he yawned, stretched, and scrubbed a hand through his bird's nest of hair, all without breaking stride as he came to wrap his arms around Hades from behind. "Feel better?"
For Ti, Hades only nodded as he sipped his coffee, truth and omission at once.
"So better, but not all the way better." Ti leaned his chin on a powerful, black-T-shirt-clad shoulder. "Gonna take the day off, right?"
"I have some research to do." Hades still wouldn't meet his lover's eyes. Just how much was he hiding? "Before you berate me, I'll not step out the door. In my study."
Ti settled onto the stool beside him with a grunt. "Okay. I'll let it go. You just kinda worried me, you know? Fine one minute, and then you got all glassy-eyed, and bam! Thought you were gonna fall right into the main course for a second there."
"You're exaggerating," Hades growled before he tried a tentative bite of his pancakes.
"Maybe a little. Still freaked me the hell out."
"My apologies, love."
Charon retrieved the compote for Ti and slid a second plate of pancakes in front of him, with a third holding the remainder between the two. "I'm glad the domestic dust storms have settled. But I have a certain demanding young lady who wants her run."
"You're not eating breakfast with us, Char?" Ti's gray eyes blinked up at him.
"I ate while you two slugs were in bed. A person could starve to nothing but skin and bones waiting for the two of you." Charon kept the smile from his face when he said it just to get that odd twitch from Ti when he couldn't figure out how to respond to something that might have been a joke. Finally, he let his sharp teeth show in a gradually blooming grin. "It's a good thing there's so much of me."
Ti snickered. "Yep, we're both regular ripped slabs of beef."
"Hmm." Charon took the leash from its hook by the pantry and whistled to Nike. "I have my phone, my lord. Please call if you need me."
"You would think I lay dying the way you both fuss," Hades grumbled without looking up from his breakfast.
Perhaps it was simply a leftover headache, but Charon's bones itched uneasily. Something wasn't quite right. He simply couldn't identify it yet.
The day was bright and chilly, the clean, sharp sort of chill that chased dark thoughts into the depths, the sort that Nike particularly enjoyed. Charon jogged with her along the river path all the way to the bridge by the old mill site and back. He had to shorten his stride, which was more tiring than running full out, oddly enough, but poor Nike would never have kept up otherwise.
With his hair pulled back in a tail, in boots, trench coat, and dress shirt instead of a three-piece, Ti called this his as casual as Char ever gets look. He slowed to a walk as their building came into sight again, flashes of white through the branches, and slowed further when he spotted the figure sitting cross-legged on one of the flat rocks by the path. Head bowed, wide-brim hat pulled down to hide his face, attention seemingly taken up by an object in his hand…
Azeban. Of course. Nike growled as they approached, and Charon shushed her, though he knew it would only get worse. The raccoon god had an amazing rapport with all sorts of animals. Dogs were not among them.
"Good morning, oh, Azeban the Great!" Charon called out cheerfully, as if he needed to announce his presence. He knew he didn't. Azeban knew he didn't, knew exactly, precisely where Charon was long before he'd come into sight, but it was only polite.
The hat lifted to reveal oversized mirror sunglasses and a bright, crooked grin. "Hey, Char."
At the sound of his voice, Nike snarled and lunged to the end of her leash. Azeban squeaked and pulled his feet under him so he crouched on the rock, hissing. Nike's leash coiled around his hand so she didn't slip free, Charon spoke a sharp word, and she subsided to low rumbles as Charon told himself sternly that a hissing, anxious raccoon god perched on a rock was not amusing and certainly not cute.
"Char?" Azeban's voice cracked as he edged away as far as his rock allowed. "I kinda need to talk to you. Could you ditch the canine?"
"Maybe I'd feel better about talking to you if Nike's between us."
A crow fluttered onto the path in front of Charon, hopping about and calling out in agitation. Now Nike's growls had two targets, her thick claws scrabbling on the path's asphalt.
"Good morning to you too, Master Kaukont." Charon nodded politely at the crow. "Yes, yes, I'm taking the dog away. We don't want Azeban frightened into a fit, now do we?"
"I'm not scared!" Azeban protested, though his voice squeaked. The crow let out a sound that was too close to a laugh to misinterpret. "I'm not!"
"Of course not." Charon let out a sigh and pulled Nike in closer. "I'll be back in a moment."
He left Nike with a somewhat bemused Ti and flashed back down to the rock before Azeban had a chance to recover his poise or come all the way out of his crouch.
"Better?"
Instead of answering, Azeban unfolded himself into a sitting position and took off his sunglasses, something Charon understood was a considerable concession. He waited until Charon had joined him on his rock, then held a hand out to him, opening his fingers on the pocket watch lying on his palm.
"I took your watch. I guess you knew that." He said it softly, glancing up at Charon through long black lashes as he offered his ill-gotten prize.
"Not in time to stop you, obviously." Charon took the watch back and placed it in the coat pocket farthest from Azeban. "Why do you do it, Az? Steal from immortals? Humans are much less… perilous targets."
"I brought it back, didn't I? I wasn't going to keep it." Something in Charon's expression must have registered, since he dropped the offended front and shrugged. "Challenge. Habit. Because I can."
"Hmm. Difficult to change one's nature, I suppose."
Again, the sideways glance through those gorgeous, impossible lashes. "You did."
"Me? Oh no, little god. Redirected my talents, yes. Changed a single blessed thing? No. I was created as an avatar and facilitator of death, and so I remain."
"Sheesh. S
teal one little pocket watch, and people go all dire and doom on you."
Charon laughed and patted Azeban's knee. "Sorry. You have to let me have my scary moments sometimes. I appreciate the return of the watch, but you could've put it in the mail for me. That can't be the only reason you wanted to talk."
A tiny, distressed sound lodged in Azeban's throat. He squirmed under Charon's gaze, staring at the gravel beside the path. "Do you think he—" A nod toward the top floor of the condominium complex left no doubt who he was—"minds if I crash in his city for few nights?"
Charon considered this a moment. Lord Hades hadn't barred many beings from his city. He thought it unlikely he would take exception to a mostly harmless little god. "Who are you running from?"
That got him a twitch and the hint of a grimace. "I can't… Char, I can't say, all right? But if there's trouble, it'll only be for me."
"Az." Charon drummed his fingers on his knees. "Is this an odd, passive-aggressive way to say you need help?"
For a long moment, Azeban stared at him, shadows lurking in his dark eyes. The grin was too sudden, the laugh too forced. "Ha! No. I manage on my own, thanks."
Kaukont let out a raucous cry, hopping in an odd, agitated pattern in front of Charon.
"Uh-huh."
"Really. Hush, Kau. Stop exaggerating. Come on! You know me. I just need time to… ah…"
"Slip back under the radar."
The cocky grin slid into a more sincere smile, the rascal's face softer and handsomer for it. "Yeah. You do understand. Thought I'd better check though. In case Hades doesn't like my kind in his city."
Charon raised an eyebrow. His kind? "We have plenty of raccoons here."
"No." Azeban snickered. "Gods like me. The inbetweeners. The trickster gods."
Inbetweeners. That was a good way to put it. Every pantheon had its trickster, at least one, some more malevolent than others, though they all had their reasons for independence and playing one side against the other. In Hermes's case, it manifested in diplomacy. In Loki's, it simply meant he had his own agenda. In Set's, there was an almost pathological need to disrupt the order of things. Azeban just wanted to be who he was and have fun doing it.
"You're just you, Az. It's not as if you came to cause anything but small mischiefs while you hide out. I'm sure his lordship won't mind."
Azeban leaped up, his crow friend immediately flying to his shoulder in an explosion of wings. "Great! Thanks, Char. Sorry about the watch."
"Quite all—"
He cut himself off with a sigh. Reassurances would have fallen only on leaves and gravel, since Azeban had already danced several yards away, snatching up small stones from beside the path to juggle as he skipped and turned.
What would it be like to feel so unrestrained? So light and free? Without obligations or promises? Not something Charon could conceive of properly. He had no frame of reference, but he supposed sometimes it might be lonely too. Outside. Different.
One of these things is not like the others.
Charon stood, tugging at his shirt cuffs to settle them. Left. Right… He lifted his arm to peer at the French cuffs. "That blatant little reprobate. He stole my cufflink."
Not as good a tourist spot as Central Park, granted, but a busy square with attorneys and business people at lunchtime? Almost as good. The police officers here regarded him with wary amusement rather than outright hostility, and that was even better, though he carefully kept his juggling to the non-flammable variety.
Kaukont was just as welcome. A "trained" crow was such a novelty here, and Azeban's smallish lunchtime crowds were more generous when he kept up a patter of question and answer with Kau.
"Anyone have a slice of pepperoni they want to sacrifice? Kau loves pepperoni, don't you, m'dear? You can toss it up for him if you want," Azeban called out through his juggling of disparate things.
Kau bobbed his head in a good approximation of a nod. One young man held a piece down low for Kau to hop over and take from him. Another took Azeban's offer and flipped his piece up into the air, and Kau was ready for it, immediately taking wing and snatching it before it reached the top of its arc. With a little chortle, Kau flew over and dropped the greasy little meat round into Azeban's juggling ring.
"Seriously, Kau? Gross!"
The gathered crowd laughed, right on cue, and Azeban never missed a beat, though he did catch the pepperoni in his mouth the fourth time it came around, and Kau let out his well-rehearsed caw of protest to laughter and applause. Lunch hour was nearly over. He needed to wrap this up.
"Kau, could you return the things we've borrowed from these lovely people?"
It had taken them years to perfect this trick, but by now, they had it down to a science. Kau remembered which human had provided which item. He circled over the juggling and waited for a borrowed item to be at the top of the arc, then swooped in to retrieve and return. He repeated this until all Azeban had left in the air were his own knives—unlit—which he caught one at a time so he could take his bow.
They varied the act from day to day in small parts, but this last was always the same. Every day, the hat had been nearly full of cash.
Eventually this site would be tapped out. The same crowd every day would lose interest. For this week? It'd been fucking perfect—the weather, the audience, the authorities, everything. There may have even been a certain ferryman/death lord's seneschal/funeral director at the edges of the crowd some days. Checking up on him, maybe, though he preferred to think Charon had come to watch the show.
His thank-you's and much-appreciated schtick was on autopilot, grin firmly in place as the little crowd began to drift away. Did he care that Tall, White, and Sexy came to see him? He checked in with his possible hook-ups center and his people we might like on our side list and concluded that, yes, he did care. Not that he knew any details about Charon's love life—whether he had affairs, assignations, or even a one-night stand—but some people were discreet. Not like some immortals, who practically advertised their sex lives.
Kau pecked at his boot, reminding him that they were both hungry. He offered an arm for his crow friend to climb on, set his hat firmly on his head, and strolled the couple of blocks down to the Brown Bag for cheesesteaks. Excellent cheesesteaks too. He had to remember to check out their garbage some night.
The rest of the day Azeban spent thinking, or rather letting his thoughts meander. He'd been wound far too tightly, and it was good to just walk, talk to some of the local crows and grackles, and let his feet take him where they wanted. Oddly, or maybe not so oddly, they took him back to the riverbank across from Lord Hades's building.
Kau let out an irritable, inquisitive croak.
"Why? Not sure yet." Azeban lounged on the bench they'd commandeered. "Might be thinking about a seduction."
"Crehhhhh-heh."
"S'not funny, you know. Maybe he's not… Maybe he won't ever be into me, but it's a lie about him having no heart. He's got one, and I think it's squishier than he lets anyone see."
As if to prove his point, Charon chose that moment to emerge from the building with that monstrous dog on a leash and an elderly woman on his arm. She had her own tiny dog on its own little pink leash, and they were, by all the holy waters, chatting. Definitely one of the three strangest sights Azeban had ever seen: the forbidding ferryman escorting a fragile granny on a genteel perambulation. Even odder? Azeban wanted to join them, to stroll along and listen in, and maybe have a conversation that didn't have an ulterior motive.
Tired. That's where this came from. Too much enforced running, too many nights full of fear had left him depressed and sentimental. He didn't cross the bridge to join them. Just as fun to watch from a distance, and the evening was comfortably cool and quiet. Peaceful by the river…
* * *
His head jerked up as he twitched awake. Damn. He'd dozed off without even finding a secure place to sleep. That was stupid. The night sky hung overhead, no stars, no moon, and certainly no Charon. He would've g
one inside with his lady friend and the dogs a long time ago. Kau slept nestled against him, a black smudge on the bench, and Azeban had to remind himself that they were safe here. Relatively speaking.
A bat flitted above the treetops. Azeban's nocturnal eyes had no trouble picking it out against the blue-black of the sky. Brown bats, weren't they, the ones around here? The ones who suffered from the white-nose infection. Poor things. He did like most bats. Chatty, noisy people whose conversations were often scattered, but they picked up interesting bits of gossip.
He watched the seemingly random flight through sleepy eyes, picking out a second and a third joining the first, most likely chasing late-season mosquitoes. Except they were above the trees… and such tiny bats shouldn't look like ravens above the treetops… and there were many of them now.
"Holy shit on a sandbar." Azeban moved slowly, scooping Kaukont up into his coat. "Shh, Kau. We've got to run. Stay still. Stay quiet."
He melted into the shadows as smoothly as he could. No sudden, jerky motions to catch the eye, no noise of flight to flick at oversized ears. Those weren't friendly little brown bats, no, oh no. They were hers, and despite this city being under protection, she still had the big brass balls to send them. Which way though? He could… No, he'd already burned that bridge. Even Lord Hades. If the god of the Underworld ever found out what he had done, there wouldn't be any help from that direction. But he didn't know yet, right? Or Charon would've come after him? And there really wasn't any harm in it. He'd stopped before there'd been real damage.
He had escape routes through the Ways, but they were too exposed to her and led to strange cul-de-sacs where he might not be able to turn around in time. A shriek from above sent a jagged electric spear down his spine. They'd been spotted. He was out of time.
The bridge. He had to make it across the footbridge and from there to the home Lord Hades had made here. If her monsters attacked here, so close, the death lord would have to feel it. Azeban could plan his speech pleading for asylum and forgiveness later. Right now, he had to run. Quick, quick, quick, in short spurts and forays, from shadow to shadow. Kau's tiny heart banged against his breastbone in an accelerated mirror of his own. He didn't dare look over his shoulder. Never stop to look if you're the prey. Just move.
Brandywine Investigations Page 25