by Ben Zackheim
Relic: Mask
A Kane Arkwright Supernatural Thriller
Ben Zackheim
KANE ARKWRIGHT SERIES
Relic: Origins (FREE to subscribers)
Relic: Blade
Relic: Hammer
Relic: Shield
Relic: Grail
Relic: Sceptre
Relic: Scroll
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Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Author’s Note
Book Series
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1
I had another stupid plan.
I knew it was stupid because Rebel told me so. A few dozen times. Actually, a few dozen times in a few minutes.
“Then you stay here,” I said, before stepping into my Swap Portal. My portal allowed me to travel anywhere in the world in an instant, as long as I swapped with someone at my destination. After years of using the thing to travel from mission to mission, I still had a tough time. Too much speed at once gives you whiplash. Too much space at once gives you, what? Landslash, maybe?
I stepped away from the noon sun of Berlin HQ, and walked into the twilight of Japan.
Or maybe I should say over Japan.
I’d swapped with a flying vampire. They were the most populous race since A-Day, so it made sense. But it was just after sunset, so I was hoping they were asleep.
No such luck.
It was a good thing Rebel didn’t take me up on my offer to stay behind. I was falling head-first toward the forest below when I saw her swap with another flying vamp. She fell toward me.
She looked pissed.
An orange plume of rage puffed from her hair, and her cheeks flushed a faint red. Her eyes stayed the same, but they didn’t need to turn a different color to tell me that the spell she had in mind was not going to feel good.
With a sound like a shot, she soared past me. Her hair whipped my face as she went. I’m sure that was on purpose.
I turned in time to see her shoving out some kind of web of light from her palms. The wisps hovered in the air, looking as fragile as a spider’s. She threw a few dozen of them, and they wove around each other, crafting a narrow bridge of yellow light arching between the tops of two trees.
She threw out one last string and grabbed it just as I hit the floating hammock. My arms flailed around as I tried to get a hand on the slippery stuff. I did a piss poor job of it. I would have fallen past Rebel’s concoction, but she pulled off another spell. I felt my fall slow. The last thread of webbing slipped under my chin and right armpit.
My weight pulled the strand down, all the way to its stretching limit.
Then I started to shoot up.
Like a pebble in a slingshot, I watched as Rebel got closer and closer. Her face got more and more annoyed.
By the time I’d reached her, she held out her hand. I grabbed it, and came to a sudden stop. My arm almost got yanked off, but I had a good grip on the web now.
The squeaking of the web strands waned until there was silence.
The wind blew through the treetops from which we hung.
“We need to stop meeting like this, Kane.”
“Always up for a dangle with you, Rebel.”
“Any other brilliant ideas?”
“A few. But let’s try another stupid one first.”
“You always start with the stupid ones. Why is that?”
“It makes things more interesting.”
“So you’re saying a post-apocalyptic world ruled by vampires and gods isn’t interesting enough for you?”
“I guess,” I said, shrugging.
“And how about leading a guerrilla army of gods and mortals to take the world back for humanity?”
“I kind of always thought that would happen.”
“Being my partner isn’t interesting enough?”
“It’s got its moments,” I said, knowing that anything else would be pushing my luck.
“So what now, genius?”
I took a look at the landscape below us. The web was dense enough to sit on. It was like a hammock a couple hundred feet in the air. I’d never seen the terrain this way, but there was something familiar about it.
“We’re close,” I muttered. I spotted a clearing about half a mile away. “Over there. I think that’s where the temple is.”
Rebel followed my finger, and squinted. “I can fly us there.”
“No. We need to head in low-key. Let’s land straight below, and we’ll walk the rest of the way.”
“You mean fight the rest of the way. If this place is as important as you say it is, then the forest will be packed with hostiles.”
“If we can’t get past them, then we fly.”
Rebel sighed, and took another look at our destination.
“Fine, but the first sign of trouble and I’m off like a rocket.”
I nodded, and felt the webbing dissolve from underneath me. The two of us floated down without a sound.
Our feet touched the dry forest floor. We got ready for a fight.
“Wow, did we get lucky?” Rebel asked from behind me.
“Yeah, where are the bad guys?”
“They’re not here, that’s all I know.”
There were no humans anywhere. We were used to that since the world went apocalyptic. Seeing a human was like spotting a Bigfoot, but without the stench and attitude. Sasquatch enjoyed a certain mystique with humans right up until the end of the world. Little did they know that the fuckers are basically hipster apes. Bathing is illegal, and they kept their distance because they think they’re better than us.
We had, however, been expecting a fight with Set’s forces. The sun had just dropped below the horizon, so we didn’t expect many vampires for a few min
utes. But we did expect to find their daytime forces. In Paris, they’d been trolls. If Lancelot was right, in Tokyo, they were demons of some kind. The guns-for-hire kept an eye on the cities while the undead napped. The trolls in Paris were well-armed, numbered in the thousands and, luckily, were as stupid as stop signs.
We couldn’t assume Japan’s vamps went to the same crappy school.
So the solitude of the abandoned forest took a moment to adjust to. I didn’t buy it. The hemogoblins’ forces would jump out at us any second now.
When they didn’t, I managed to settle down enough to put my Glocks away. I carefully moved toward a group of fallen trees. They’d make good cover.
“I’ll get a look around,” Rebel said. She hopped up, and stayed afloat.
“Be careful,” I said. “First sign of movement and you should come back down.”
“Kane, are you worried about me?”
“No. I’m worried about this mission.”
“I told you it was stupid. Walking right into the temple where the second scroll piece is being guarded? Come on. It’s just a fool’s errand.” She didn’t give me a chance to return fire. She flew straight up into the air, sending a cold breeze down on the top of my head.
I’m not sure why, but I heard Dino’s voice in my head as she disappeared into a low, thickening mist. My old troll friend had died in Paris a few days earlier while taking out a Leviathan. Still, I heard him say, clear as day, “She’s something else.”
I missed the son of a bitch.
I shook off the feeling. There wasn’t time to mourn. We needed to get this over with. My plan was reckless. It smacked of brinkmanship.
But it was simple at its core.
Odin’s forces would distract in Moscow with a bomb. Pandora would attack in Rio with a small army of humans. Rebel and I would steal the second scroll piece in Japan.
We couldn’t win in Brazil, according to Pandora. The enemy’s army was too big, and organized. But we could learn more about their forces. We could also measure Set’s interest in the scroll piece that was somewhere under our feet.
It was a plan with almost zero nuance. Everyone but me thought it would be a disaster.
We were about to find out who was right.
Chapter 2
There was no sign of vamps.
There was no sign of anyone or anything.
It might have been a trap, but that’s why we had to distract, attack, and reconnoiter around the world. We needed better info.
Hell, we needed any info.
“See anything from up there?” I asked Rebel through our comm, a link between our team that allowed us to communicate with just our thoughts.
“A fuck ton of trees. Some towns, all dark. An endless sky. That’s it. So what now?”
“Now we scope out the temple. If it looks clear, we head in, and grab the scroll piece.”
“When’s the last time things went that smoothly?”
“Never. But there’s a first time for everything.”
Rebel landed next to me, and gave me her best worried face.
“It’ll work. You’ll see.”
She shrugged. I followed her into the thick forest. A hush settled over us. The rich scent of ancient trees, and the soft ground under my feet made me feel safe. I knew it was bullshit, but it felt good.
I let myself relax.
Just a little.
“Kane?” Rebel’s voice sounded far away. “Kane? You okay?”
“Fine. Why?”
“You're walking weird. You hiding your whiskey from me again?”
“Do you feel it?”
“I feel like a beer. I feel like I haven't taken a shower in a week because I haven't taken a shower in a week.”
“No,” I said. I was annoyed, but I couldn’t make myself sound annoyed. My own voice felt like a part of the breeze. “It’s a bubble.”
“You have gas?”
“Peace. Bubble of… peace.”
“Kane!”
I felt my head hit the ground, and settle into the soft leaves. Rebel’s hands slipped under my head.
I couldn’t move.
Suddenly a piercing pain in my neck shot through me, charging every inch of me with a stinging shock.
My vision cleared. My brain followed. I realized that Rebel was sucking on my neck.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I asked.
She looked down at me, her lips soaked in my blood. She spit. “Saving your life, partner. Again.” She dove back into my neck. It felt like she was giving me a hickey.
It kept jumping from pleasant to painful.
Just like I’d imagined a vampire’s bite would feel.
“Is there a way for you to maybe move to another spot?” I asked, not in complete control of myself. “Lower maybe?”
“Okay, perv,” she said. She pulled my head back. I realized how weak I was. I couldn’t resist her at all. She held something in front of my face but I couldn’t make it out clearly.
“What’s that? A condom? Won’t work. Too small.”
“It’s a pincer of some kind, smart ass. You got stung.”
“By what? That thing is the size of your palm.”
She spit again. She’d sucked out the poison. I started to think clearly again.
“You didn’t feel the stinger go in?” she asked.
“Nothing. I just started to drift off. It felt good.”
“I could put it back in, if you’d like,” she said with a smirk, as she dangled the thing in front of my face.
“No thanks. Let’s just watch our backs. Whatever got me is still around.”
With the sun set, it was tough to make out our surroundings. The little light from the misty moon cast everything in a silver blue haze.
I spotted a shadow slide in between some ancient ginko trees.
It was a woman. I could make out the outline of her hair, and her narrow shoulders. But she was just a shadow to my eyes.
“Rebel,” I whispered.
“I see her. Hey! You! Yeah, sneaky creep! What do you want?”
The figure faced us, but didn’t speak.
The leaves all around us began to stir. They rose from the forest floor, and swirled, slowly at first. But suddenly the wind that lifted them gusted like a Thor sneeze. Rebel was knocked off of her feet.
I shielded my eyes.
I couldn’t see much, but I could see the woman still standing.
Her still hair was draped over her thin shoulders. As if she was in the eye of the storm.
As if she was the storm.
Chapter 3
Something heavy smacked Rebel in the head.
She fell to the ground with a thud that made my stomach tighten.
That was a killing blow.
The glow around her hands, an unformed spell, faded into the darkness that grew around us.
I was left in the black of death. Alone.
Well, almost alone.
The woman suddenly stood right in front of me. I don’t know how I could see her in the dark, but I could. It was as if she gave off a faint light of her own.
Was she a ghost?
As her face came into focus, the first thing I noticed were her eyes. Their almond shape was delicate, but they perched on strong cheekbones. Her fair skin beckoned me to touch her, but I’d learned my lesson a hundred times before.
Keep your hands to yourself, Arkwright.
I had good self-control. I wasn’t a pervert. Most of the time. So if I was having a hard time keeping my paws at my side, I knew I could be in the presence of a succubus.
The wind no longer hit me, either. I was swept up in her calm. My clothing settled down, and my eyes started to water up enough so I could see.
“Will you help me?” she asked.
“With an entrance like that? Hell, no.”
“Please, sir. I want to escape.”
“Escape who?” Dammit, Arkwright, I thought to myself. You know better than to ask her kind questions.
“Sorry to hear that. We all have burdens to bear. I can’t do anything for you.”
I tried to find Rebel in the mess of leaves circling the ground around us.
“Let me go. I need to help my friend.”
I made the mistake of glancing down at her again. Her stunning green eyes looked up at me, filled with a sheen of tears that didn’t just show her sadness.
They showed her desperation.
Again, I had to control my hands. I had to keep them at my side.
She was a succubus, all right. I was drawn to her in a way that was primal. Soon, there would be no controlling it.
I clenched my teeth. “You let me help my friend, and I’ll help you escape, lady.”
She laid her small hands on my chest.
I took a few deep breaths, and thought about vampires, and apocalypse, and Skyler, and whatever else would keep my heads calm.
The wind died down. But all that did was help me smell her.
She had the scent of violets all around her. She slid her hand down my chest to my stomach, and then let them fall to her side.
“Thank you,” she said softly. “Your friend is there.” She pointed to a mass of leaves on the ground.
I dug and found Rebel’s head. I cleared her chest of leaves, and listened for a heartbeat. She was alive. I examined her face and neck. No bruises or bleeding. The band that held her hair in place was gone, so her red locks were spread all around her. She could have had a bump the size of a baseball under that hair.