Death And Darkness

by E. A. Copen

  “What can I say? Someone was looking out for me. I’ve got connections in the underworld.” I hissed when Nate tugged on one of the stitches. “Easy. That’s still tender.”

  “Sorry,” Nate mumbled and snipped one of the strings. With a gentle tug and only a little blood, it slid out from under my skin.

  Ew. I turned away to focus on Emma. Her eyebrows were drawn together in concern, her lips pale from pressing them together hard. “How’re you holding up?” I asked her.

  She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter how I am. The only thing that matters is getting Remy and Jessica back, Laz.”

  “They’re in Faerie,” I said.

  Nate stopped snipping and glanced up. “How do you know?”

  I tried to shrug, but I was too sore. “I figured it out before I got sliced to ribbons by my own spell. Bizarro Me mentioned he had a standing invitation to the Summer Court and Remy being the Summer Princess. How could he know that unless he’d been there?”

  “Bizarro you?” Emma raised an eyebrow.

  It was a bit of a stretch in logic, but it made sense. The locator spell I’d used had latched onto Bizarro Me instead of Remy because he must’ve been the closer DNA match, but that might also be the reason we couldn’t find Jessica with Nate’s DNA. If the girls weren’t in New Orleans anymore, the spell wouldn’t have worked. Yet if they’d been taken to the airport, the blood would’ve tracked there. Go out of town in a car, and the spell would’ve taken us to the edge of the map in whatever direction they’d been taken. The only viable explanations were that either Josiah was right, and Jessica wasn’t Nate’s biological daughter—highly unlikely—or that she’d been hidden by magic. Taking the girls to Faerie was the best magical way to ensure they’d never be found. That, combined with Bizarro Laz’s remark about Summer, led me to believe that’s where the girls were, though I had no evidence to support that theory.

  The question left to answer was where in Faerie? My evil self had mentioned the Summer Court, but that wasn’t a given. If Titania had taken Remy, why take Jessica too? I had friends in Summer. Surely one of them would’ve gotten word to me that the Summer Queen had my daughter.

  Unless they didn’t know I didn’t know. I suppressed an involuntary shiver. What if they thought evil me was me? Leah had believed it, and Declan knew me even less well than Leah did. Titania might’ve also forbidden them from getting a message out or worse. She wasn’t exactly the most stable Faerie queen.

  Even if I could be sure they were in Summer, I didn’t know where they were being held and by whom. If Titania was smart—and in my experience, she was no idiot—then she wouldn’t have Remy at court. Faerie had weird reactions to Remy’s presence. When she was there, fae could die as if they weren’t immortal, which scared the hell out of most fae.

  Loki had promised to tell me who had them and a means to get them back, but I’d likely have to eliminate at least one name on his list to get that information.

  “Oh, thank goodness.” Nate tugged out more of the string. “Now that we know where they are, all we need is a plan to get them back.”

  I shook my head. “Faerie is a big place. There are five courts. While I think it’s likely that they’re in Summer, I don’t know for certain. It could be Titania just decided to steal her granddaughter back, or maybe a rival court took her to blackmail Titania into doing something. Fae politics are complicated. We need to get a fix on who has her and where. And even if we have that, there’s more to a rescue than marching into Faerie and grabbing the kids.”

  “Like what?” Emma asked, crossing her arms. “What do you need us to do?”

  “Well, for starters, finding a way into Faerie is damn near impossible unless you get a fae to show you an entrance. Jesus, Nate! That hurts!”

  “Sorry. I can give you something if you want, but it’ll probably make you tired.” He frowned at me. Nate already knew I’d refuse.

  “No, I’ve slept long enough. Just…warn me next time, okay?”

  He nodded and went back to work.

  I sighed. “Where was I?”

  “We can’t get into Faerie,” Emma said.

  “Right. But let’s say we do get into Faerie. Wherever we land, we have to negotiate with the local queen just to pass through their lands. Because of my connection to Summer, I could be seen as a hostile invader if we go in anywhere other than Summer. If we go in a Summer door, they might not be so welcoming either since they know what I’m capable of.”

  Emma paced, walking out of sight, turning, and walking back. When she passed me, I caught sight of the healing bruise on the side of her face, and new anger flared to life in my chest. He’d hurt her, possibly hurt Remy. I should’ve been there to protect them. Instead, I let some trivial work distract me so he could take my daughter, and my record got me tossed in jail, letting Emma get hurt.

  “Stop tensing,” Nate advised. “It’ll hurt worse.”

  It was my turn to mutter an apology. “Where are we anyway? This doesn’t look like a hospital.”

  “We brought you to the morgue to patch you up.” Nate pulled a long, bloody bit of string up and snipped it. I hoped that meant he was done, but then I felt him pull on another string and almost threw up at the sensation. “D.J. wasn’t happy. Tried to call Drake and Codey. Emma stopped him.”

  I rolled my head to the side again to look at Emma. “Nice. How’d you manage that?”

  She stopped and shifted uncomfortably but wouldn’t meet my eyes.

  “D.J. has a weird fetish,” Nate answered. “Emma threatened to out him.”

  “What?” Guess I didn’t know the guy that well, but he’d never struck me as the type. “Like balloons or something? ’Cause I watched this episode of My Strange Addiction one time about this guy, and that was pretty weird.”

  Emma sighed and uncrossed her arms to rub her face. She looked exhausted. “He has this Great Dane costume with blue fur…”

  Oh, hell. D.J. was a furry. Not that I cared, but if something like that got to be public knowledge, D.J.’s career would be over. Parish coroner was an elected position. “Emma, that’s a low blow. Even for you.”

  She shrugged. “You were dying.”

  “Wait, you didn’t…with him?”

  Nate cleared his throat. “Anyway, he assisted in the surgery, and we were able to keep you alive with the limited diagnostic imaging we had. After that, we moved you back to Darius’ place. Didn’t know of anywhere else that was safe.” His mouth twitched. “Okay, last bit. Ready?”

  “Yeah,” I said. I wasn’t. Not at all.

  Nate gave it a good yank, and the thread popped through a tiny hole that had scabbed over. Hurt like hell, but at least it was out. He grabbed a couple of cleaning wipes from somewhere I couldn’t see and mopped up the fresh blood to bandage me.

  “Josiah and Khaleda?” I asked through clenched teeth. I didn’t expect them to hang around. Josiah always seemed like he had something better to do, and Khaleda and I weren’t exactly friends.

  “They’re out,” was all Emma said.

  A knock at the door distracted her. Nate looked up from his work.

  I seized the opportunity to get away from him and all his pinching. Yeah, I was bleeding, but a couple of bandages and I’d be just fine. I sat up, fighting the dizziness in my head, and swung my legs over the side of a very uncomfortable cot.

  One of Darius’ guys, Marcelle, I think his name was, was at the door with a brown box in his hand. A blue label stretched around the box advertising free two-day shipping. Marcelle looked at me curiously. “Oh, he’s up. Darius’ll be happy to hear that. This came for him just now.” He held the box out.

  Nate stepped toward it, but Emma got there first. She carefully lifted the box out of Marcelle’s hand. “No one knows he’s here, do they?”

  Marcelle shrugged.

  “I don’t know how to make mail bombs,” I told Emma. At least, I didn’t think so. I hoped evil me hadn’t learned. But then again, he had blown up a car. />
  Emma lifted the package to her ear. “I don’t hear anything suspicious, but that doesn’t mean anything. Not all bombs tick.”

  I hopped off the cot and walked over to place a hand on the box lightly. Didn’t want to jolt it and trigger a detonator, did I? Of course, sending a shock of magic down into the package might not have been smart either, but I had to do something. The magic passed through. No iron on the inside. No magical resistance. The box was inert, and so was whatever was inside.

  Emma met my eyes. I shrugged and took the box. All three of them crowded around me while I tore it open and sifted through all the packaging. There, at the bottom of the box, was a slab of clay that looked like it’d come from an ancient piece of pottery. Etched in black was the image of a muscular man with dark hair and a dark beard. He held a plate in his hand while reclining across from a beautiful young woman.

  I was no ancient art scholar, but I knew exactly who was on that broken bit of pottery. I’d met him. One of the foremost gods who’d voted to execute Loki’s childhood friends, and one of the few gods who liked me.

  Hades.

  My first victim.

  Chapter Eleven

  Emma leaned in closer. “What does it mean?”

  Of all the times to be forced to tell the truth. I wanted to lie to her, tell her I didn’t know what it meant or who had sent it, but the spell wouldn’t let me. I wasn’t sure I could skirt the truth either, so I stayed silent.

  “A better question,” said Nate as I lowered the clay relief back into the box, “is who sent it. Whoever sent this box knows you’re here, Laz. Do you think your other self could’ve?”

  “It’s possible.” That wasn’t a lie. It was possible I’d sent it to myself, even though it wasn’t true. Or, I guess, that evil me had sent it to good me. Better me? I really needed a better name for this evil twin of mine.

  “If he knows where we are, then we need to move.” Emma pulled out her gun and checked the ammo before dropping it back into the holster. “Where else can we go?”

  “The minute we hit the road, we’re at risk of being discovered by the police. They’re still actively looking for someone who matches Lazarus’ description.” Nate nodded to me. “We can’t leave the city. My place is being watched.”

  “So is mine,” Emma confirmed.

  “No one was watching when Bizarro Me broke into your house and hit you in the face.” I eyed the fading bruise on her cheek. “How’d he manage that anyway? Didn’t you know I was still in jail?”

  Emma’s face flushed, and she touched the dark patch on her temple. “He was convincing. Said you’d gotten out.”

  “So, you took off your clothes for him?”

  “He was really convincing, okay? At least until I realized you never dressed that nice.”

  Well, score one for the necromancer with the outdated wardrobe. Who said flannel never saved a life?

  Emma dropped her hand. “Codey did try to send someone to watch the place, but I got them to buzz off for a while that day. That was before I went missing, of course.”

  “Missing?” I put my hands on Emma’s shoulders. “You’re letting the precinct think I took you? Shit, no wonder they’re looking for me!”

  Emma squirmed and studied the floor between us. Something wasn’t right. Had I said something to upset her? “Lazarus…there’s something I need to tell you.”

  Nate cleared his throat. “Well, I’ll take that as my cue to clear out. There are bandages on the table over there. Make sure he gets them on, so he doesn’t bleed all over the place. Darius won’t be happy if he has to get rid of the carpet.” He patted Marcelle on the shoulder. “Why don’t you take me to Darius? I can update him personally on Laz’s condition. I’m sure he’ll want to hear it straight from me.”

  Marcelle shrugged. “Yeah, okay. He’s on set, but they should be breaking for lunch any minute.”

  Nate and Marcelle left, closing the door behind them.

  The air in the room instantly felt heavier with their leaving. Last time Emma said she wanted to talk, everything had turned out okay, but she hadn’t had that look on her face. Like she was expecting me to get angry at her over something. The only time I’d seen her like that was when she had to admit she sold her soul to Morningstar to save me.

  I leaned back on the cot. “So, Nate seems to have stepped up in my absence. Never seen him order someone around like that before. Good for him.”

  Emma crossed her arms and turned away.

  “What’s wrong, Em?” I reached for her, but she dodged away in favor of grabbing the bandages.

  She ripped one of the paper packages open. “Take off your shirt. You’ve already bled all over it.”

  I looked down at the bloodstains on the shirt. Definitely had worse. If I didn’t do as Emma said, I’d probably get worse. I pulled the shirt off and leaned back against the cot so she could fix me up. “You know, I can do that myself.”

  “But you weren’t. You were just standing there, bleeding like an idiot.” She pressed the bandage to a hole over my ribs.

  I winced at how rough she was about it. Emma wasn’t what you’d call a gentle soul. Around the precinct, they called her the Queen of Thorns for her prickly personality. She might’ve been rough around the edges, but no one worth knowing wasn’t.

  Emma pressed another bandage over my stomach. “I quit the force.”

  “You quit?” I pushed her back gently by the shoulders. “Emma, I know how much the job meant to you. Why quit? Not over what happened with me.”

  She refused to meet my eyes, staring instead at the multiple oozing wounds on my body. “It was only a matter of time before Drake and Codey got me fired anyway. All the fudged reports, the open cases… It hasn’t been the same since I came back. Since I…” Emma closed her eyes.

  Since she shot that boy and left his body to rot in the swamp. She wouldn’t say it, but I knew that’s what she meant. The kid had been a loup-garou, a werewolf, and needed to be put down before he hurt someone else. She’d saved a group of kids by killing one. Emma didn’t see it that way. All she saw was the damage she’d done. Guilt weighed her down and she nearly drowned in it. She must’ve been walking on eggshells with Drake and Codey sniffing around. What if they uncovered what she’d done? Emma would be facing something far worse than getting fired. She’d do time. Cops didn’t last long on the inside. For her, a conviction was a death sentence.

  She ripped open another bandage. “Anyway, when they arrested you, I asked to go on record and sign a sworn statement as your alibi. The chief wouldn’t let me. Tried to put me on leave. Said I was a person of interest in the case. They asked me to help them get you.”

  “The bastards.” My fingers tightened around Emma’s shoulders. I’d told her before that Drake and Codey would get theirs, but maybe they wouldn’t. Good doesn’t always triumph over bad in the real world. “Em, your family. If they think you’re missing…”

  “I can’t afford to be found. Not until Remy is safe.” She finished affixing another bandage and opened another before continuing. “Besides, I needed to disappear and get away from it all for a while. I couldn’t handle their questions. I need answers, not more questions.” She hugged herself.

  Emma was right. All this was distracting me from what was really important. Finding Remy, bringing her home, and stopping my evil self. First, I had to know exactly what Bizarro Laz was, and we needed a way into Faerie.

  I leaned in to give Emma a quick kiss. “I’m sorry about your job. Are you going to be okay?”

  She shrugged. “I’m not worried about money. It’s the one thing you don’t really need when you go missing. The rest will sort itself out. I’m not the first woman in history to lose her career after a decade.”

  I nodded. “I need you to fill me in on what Bizarro Laz has been up to this past week. You said more people went missing? Who and where? Maybe we can establish some sort of pattern.”

  For the next hour, Emma and I sat in front of a borrowed
laptop and mapped out where the missing people had been taken from. It wasn’t that helpful to know, but she needed to stay busy. I could tell it hurt her, losing her job. Emma needed to feel like she was doing something, or she’d crumble.

  As for me, I needed to think about what I was going to do with Hades. The pottery hadn’t come with a note or anything, but I assumed I had to do Loki’s job before he’d give me more information. There was probably some kind of time limit, too. If I didn’t do what he asked, he could renege on the agreement, and I’d probably just fall over dead.

  Killing Hades would be easy once I got him to show. He wouldn’t suspect a thing. I’d helped him rescue his wife, Persephone, who’d also been my Reaper for a time. We were on good terms, Hades and me. If I called, he’d come. All I had to do was reach in, grab his soul, yank it out, and his body would turn to dust.

  The problem was, I didn’t want to kill the guy. Not only did I count both him and his wife among my friends, but killing him would get Loki closer to his goal. Since Loki wanted to kick off Ragnarök and the end of the world, I wasn’t keen on helping him.

  I wouldn’t be getting any help from Heaven. That much was clear. Eventually, I’d have to have words with this Michael guy and tell him where he could shove his apocalypse too, but that’d be for another time. Kill one god at a time, Lazarus, and Hades has to be first.

  While we went over the map again and again, putting digital pins on street corners and over sleepy lakefront houses, I racked my brain. There had to be a way out, some way to do this so it could be undone. I just wasn’t seeing it.

  About the time we got the last pin in the map, the door opened, and an exhausted version of Josiah stumbled in. Without a word, he found the closest beanbag chair and collapsed face-first into it.

  I looked up from the computer screen. “Rough day?”