I started walking toward them, slowly lifting my hands, one empty, and from the other dangled the bag. My stomach hurt from the tension. “I’ve got what you want.”
Amanda stood very still, and the baby lump in the blanket didn’t move either.
“Amanda,” I said, in case she was another victim, and not a traitor. “I’m glad you’re alive.”
There was no hesitation in the response, as the thing in Amanda’s body laughed, the full, rich sound of a much larger person. “She’s only alive in the basest sense, Guardian. The process of taking over a human mind is a rather violent one. I’m afraid once I release my puppets, there’s usually not much left of their mind. This body is merely a convenient vehicle. You have no friend here, merely a negotiating partner. Now, that’s close enough.”
We were fifty feet apart.
“Did you bring the payment for your baby?”
“Hang on. I need to—”
“Too late,” the thing in Amanda’s body said. It moved fast, grabbing the baby by the ankle, and suspending him over the side of the bridge.
“No!”
It was Ray. No doubt about it. He looked unharmed and very surprised, and as the little quilted blanket Holly had made fell into the river below, Ray gave vent to a scream of outrage and fear, his little lungs laboring overtime to let me know all was not right.
“Not a step closer, Guardian. You see he is alive. Don’t make me change that. Payment. Now.”
“Stop, stop. I’ve got it.” I opened the pouch and let him see the evil thing.
“Excellent.” Ray went on crying, pumping his little arms and legs with a will, and the thing that spoke through Amanda’s body raised his voice to be heard over the wail. “Now put the rope down. When the portal forms, place the artifact inside. I must warn you—those waiting to receive it will recognize a fake.”
I threw the rope on the bridge. When it hit the metal, it began to wiggle like it had a life of its own, gradually arranging itself into a circle. When the two ends met, there was a hiss of sparks, and the part of the bridge inside the loop disappeared. It was like a window had formed. The other side was too dark to tell where it went.
I’d seen these before, even gone through them. This one was only as big around as a basketball. It made me wish I had a hand grenade to toss through to whatever greedy bastards were waiting on the other side. But it was give up the artifact or Ray, which was no choice at all. I went to drop the pouch, but then my hand wouldn’t let go.
It was as though the curse that bound me to the thing was stronger than even love for my baby. Amanda’s face contorted in a horrible, unnatural grin as I struggled to let go.
“It’s difficult being chosen. What is stronger, I wonder? A desperate mother’s love or a Guardian’s curse? Hurry. This arm grows weary.”
Ray was screaming, upside down, all the blood rushing to his head. I needed to hold him and comfort him and stop his fear. My fingers were clenched so tight that my hand was shaking. I tried to tell myself it couldn’t be used to destroy the world for another five hundred years at least… Talk about kicking the can down the road.
I’ll get this back. I promise. Right now I have to save my child.
It took all my willpower to force my fingers to open and drop the artifact into the portal.
As it vanished I realized I could breathe again.
“It’s done! Give me my baby!”
“Not until I receive confirmation they have received the real thing.”
“At least turn him upright. You’re hurting him! Please. I’m begging you.”
But the thing wasn’t paying attention to me; it was like he was listening to someone else. Could this thing inhabit more than one body at a time? “Delivery confirmed… It was a pleasure doing business with you, Julie Shackleford.”
And then Amanda stepped over the edge.
Hands outstretched, I began running toward them, but horrified, I watched Ray fall, screaming, from sight.
I reacted without thought, flinging myself over the side after them.
The water wasn’t very deep right here. There was barely enough to break my fall, but then my body hit the rocks below. I came up, thrashing and spitting, searching desperately.
I’d lost my glasses on impact, but I spotted the blue blanket floating away. Then I saw Amanda, facedown…and then Ray!
He was beneath the water, unmoving, being swept along by the current.
I beat all speed records wading after him. When I grabbed hold, I lifted him out of the water, and started back toward the bank.
Thankfully he began to cry.
Stumbling, I climbed to where it was only ankle-deep, standing on slick rocks. “It’s okay! Hush, dear, hush. Ahhhh!” My leg nearly buckled when I put weight on it. I’d hit it hard on impact and not even felt it at the time. It didn’t matter. I didn’t care what I had to give up, the world included, to hold him in my arms again.
“Mommy’s here,” I tried to turn him over to examine him for injury, but he felt oddly lumpy. He was wearing the little outfit with the elephants that I’d put on him this morning, but suddenly it was like all his bones and joints were in the wrong place.
I got him turned over and found that all similarity to my son had vanished. The thing I was holding was like a hideous, hairless monkey. Its filthy claws raked down my face as its baby screams turning into something like hysterical laugher. I tried to drop it, but it clung to me and went after me, claws scratching my face, going for my eyes. I lost my footing and fell. It immediately started snapping at my face and trying to drown me. I got hold of one of its arms, now wiry strong, and tried to force it away, but it grabbed my ear with its other hand and tried to twist it off. I bit its arm. It tasted terrible, but I kept biting until it let go. I threw it away as hard as I could.
It hit with a splash, but popped right back up and loped toward me.
Even blurry, I recognized what it was now, a tokoloshe, an African water spirit, known for luring women and children to a watery death through its power of illusion. They could look and sound just like a baby, helpless and trapped, and then it would murder whoever tried to help it.
I’d been conned. Furious, I picked up a big rock out of the water, lifted it overhead, and smashed the evil little imp flat. I lifted the rock in both hands and started smashing it down, over and over. It was said a tokoloshe could curse you, an ill wish they called it. I wasn’t going to give it the chance. “Ill wish this, bastard!” Its skull splintered and cracked, gushing purple ooze.
By the time the orcs reached me, I was stomping what remained of the thing flat with my shoe. The water churned with mud and purple slime.
Shelly slid down the steep embankment and nearly fell in the mud. “No baby?”
I shook my head. “No.” My face and every bit of my exposed skin were all scratched to hell. I’d gone from terrified, to relieved, to furious, to disappointed in the span of a minute. This was exhausting. I just wanted to sit down and cry, but I wasn’t about to do that. Hell, no, I wasn’t about to do that.
He’d used a decoy. That meant Ray was still out there, and now the rat bastard had the artifact too. I didn’t know what I could do.
Neither did the orcs. Most were standing there, confused, but a couple of them had jumped off the bridge into the river—each landing far more gracefully than I had—and they’d swum after Amanda, who’d been floating off downriver.
“We follow,” Shelly said apologetically as she helped me out of the water. “We too late.”
“No. The baby was never here. I got duped.” Which just shows you that motherhood does things to people’s heads. How long had I been dealing with evil things? I should have known better.
Shelly picked my glasses out of the river and helpfully handed them over. “What do now?”
“I don’t know…” I just stood there angry, freaked out, soaked, and in pain. “I need a minute to think.”
I looked toward Amanda. A young male orc was pulling he
r body onto the mud. I limped over to her. I was going to have one hell of a bruise on my leg, but I’d worry about that later. I’d thought maybe I’d be able to question her, but she was obviously dead, eyes empty and staring at the sun.
Shit. I’d liked her. She’d been kind to Grandpa. But thinking of him just made me suddenly feel a lot more lost and alone.
The young orc had a short sword at his waist. I didn’t know if his life gift lay in combative arts or he was trying to emulate the infamous Edward, but he seemed pretty comfortable with the blade. And as much as I’d liked Amanda before she’d turned out to be a mind-controlled kidnapper, my number one suspect right now was the Condition, and their people often came back from the dead, and they did so quickly.
“Cut her head off.” The male looked at me funny, but I don’t think he spoke English. So I stuck my hand out toward Shelly and said, “Can I borrow a gun?”
Shelly obediently handed me a single-action Army reproduction. She was like an orcish Annie Oakley. I was almost never unarmed, but I’d followed the kidnapper’s instructions because I’d not wanted to give him an excuse to bail or hurt my son. I cocked the hammer, aimed, and shot Amanda right between the eyes.
The young male orc jumped back and gave me an angry glare, like warn me next time so I can plug my ears.
“Sorry,” I said to him as I handed Shelly back her gun. My ears were ringing too. In my defense, I had a lot of stuff on my mind.
What was I going to do now? The kidnapper still had Ray. Ray was still valuable. The kidnapper’s phone was still in my car. Maybe I could call him and offer something else. The problem there was assuming the kidnapper had sane and rational motivations, and what else could he want? I’d just stupidly given him a magical super weapon.…along with Mr. Trash Bags, who might still come through and call me…
It’s pretty sad when your best hope is a shoggoth. Then I began to panic as I realized Mr. Trash Bags had memorized my phone number, but I’d just jumped in a river. It was with great relief when I fished it out of my pocket and found it was still working. That had been close. I couldn’t imagine him calling Information.
“Flortz,” said the male orc. He was pointing at the messy bullet hole in Amanda’s forehead.
“Glowy bug,” Shelly translated helpfully.
A firefly had crawled out of the wound.
“What the hell?”
It was unusually large, shook itself in a tiny shower of blood, and then promptly flew away. The yellow light was visible until it disappeared into the trees.
Then I gasped as I remembered the other glowing firefly that had hit my windshield as we’d left Colin Wynne’s place. March is too early for fireflies, and they don’t normally glow during the day. Not in any way you can notice.
“I know what kidnapped Ray,” I said as I began climbing up the bank.
“What bad thing is?” Shelly demanded.
“An Adze.” The orcs shared a confused glance. Shelly’s googly eye turned back to me as she shrugged. They’d never heard of that. “Never mind. Take her body back to the compound, and I’m going to need what’s left of that magic rope.”
From the mists of my memory, I’d dredged up the probable creature I was dealing with. The Adze was a vampiric monster, rarely seen at all and almost never outside of Africa. The presence of fireflies and the possession fit. From what little I knew about these things, they were really bad news. An Adze was always described as powerful, cunning, and greedy.
By the time I got back on the bridge, I could hear a phone ringing. I ran over to my car and retrieved the phone the kidnapper had left me. The screen read Guardian. This asshole had never even mastered the fact that the call should say from whom it was, not whom he was calling. And yet he was smart enough to fool me. I hated my brain just then.
A booming laugh came from the phone as soon as I answered. “Did you think I ever meant to let you have your son?”
I spoke, though my lips felt like stiff cork, and my voice came out hoarse, as if I’d been running for miles and miles without a drink of water. “Is he alive?”
“Oh, yes, your spawn is alive. He is far too valuable to kill. I intend to sell him. Those who hired me didn’t care what happens to the baby. Think of it—the child of the Guardian and a Chosen? Such a thing has never happened before as far as I know. Such blood will fetch a high price at auction.” He sounded insanely pleased with his own cleverness.
My stomach lurched. I felt cold, very cold. I’d never been so cold in my entire life. My voice must have sounded just as cold, just as impersonal, as I said, “I’ll pay whatever price you want.”
“Ah, I’m afraid you can’t. You don’t deal in the currency I trade in. But someone else will. They will pay very much indeed.”
I snapped. It felt like a physical snap, like something within me had cut loose, like an overstretched cable that held me to sanity and humanity had let go. It’s not right to say I was furious. I’d left fury way behind. This was to fury as a nuclear explosion was to a slap. This was fury’s older brother, the one who looked all calm but could beat fury five ways from Monday.
And even I was surprised at how cold and composed the words came out, “Listen carefully. You think you know me, but you don’t. You don’t know what you’re messing with. I will hunt you down. I won’t just kill you. I’ll obliterate you. I’ll make you wish you’d never existed.”
I expected a snappy comeback, or that taunting laugh, but there was no sound from the phone. I finished through gritted teeth, “Enjoy what passes for life while you can, because you’ll be dead soon. I’m coming for my son.”
The line went dead.
CHAPTER 7
I stood at the edge of the bridge shaking. I wanted to kill things. I wanted to wreck worlds. But I had to think. I didn’t know where my son’s kidnapper was. I had almost nothing to go on. I was still covered in my friend’s blood, I had traded away a doomsday artifact for nothing, and my baby was in the clutches of someone who intended to trade him to something probably even worse.
I took a deep breath, then another. I was simultaneously angry and terrified, but then I focused on my training and experience. I had a job to do. Normally I was the Hunter who comforted the victim’s family. In this case I was both. I knew all the assurances and platitudes by heart, and I also knew the odds of recovering a victim. That didn’t change the Hunter’s job one bit.
So I shoved the emotions aside and got down to business.
“Okay, noble orcs. We’re going to get Baby Ray back. But first, do any of you know how this works?” I held up one end of the now scorched and useless rope.
All the assembled orcs shook their heads in the negative. I’d been hoping that one of them might. It might not lead to where Ray was, but it would at least get me to whoever had received the artifact. Milo had reactivated a used one of these before, but that had been with Frank’s help—and that freak of nature knew a lot more about magic than he liked to let on. And they’d powered it with the ward stone—which we didn’t have anymore.
“Maybe shaman?” Shelly suggested. “Two at village. Much wisdoms.”
“Call them. It can’t hurt to try.”
Milo knew how, only everybody on the siege was unreachable. But he’d documented the process and put it in the archives…except I’d need to look it up myself because Albert was in the hospital—I didn’t even know if he was still alive—and Dorcas probably wasn’t in any shape to do it either.
“Okay, everybody, back to the compound.”
One of the orcs handed me the little blue blanket.
* * *
I’d broken so many speed limits today that it was a miracle I hadn’t been pulled over yet. Which was good, since I was still blood-stained, both red and purple, drenched in river water, there were scratches all over my face, I was probably a murder suspect by now and, oh yeah, there was a dead nurse in my trunk, so I’d have a hell of a time talking my way out of a ticket.
I called Melvin. Normally
that shifty troll would let everything go to voicemail, only answering texts or emails, but by now he must have known we were in the middle of a crisis, so he actually answered.
“Why interrupt Melvin’s—”
“Shut up and listen, Troll.” Normally when dealing with him, I remained polite but firm, but not today. “I don’t have time for your usual bullshit.”
My tone must have conveyed how grave the situation was because shockingly enough he only said, “How may Melvin help Julie?”
I quickly told him about the portal rope. “Find Milo’s notes and figure out how to power this up again.”
“Seen Milo scribbles. Melvin will have to search troll net for empower spells. Good thing you pay for fast connection. But wait…you would put your body through portal…created by Melvin?”
Yesterday I wouldn’t have trusted him to mow my lawn, but right now I was desperate enough to let him play with the fabric of space-time. “Yes.” And saying that really must have accentuated how serious this was. “I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”
The next call was to one of MHI’s lawyers. This time I did get voicemail, which was good, because I left a breathless forty-second recap, accentuating how if Albert Lee lived through surgery, he was going to be arrested for gunning down a local businessman, so get on that.
From what I’d read about the Adze —keeping in mind they’re so rare a lot of our info was based on folklore and guesswork—it took them a little while to work their way inside someone’s head. They were sneaky and nefarious about it, and the details about their methods were fuzzy, but working through dreams and telepathic pressure, they could subtly begin to guide a person’s thoughts and behavior. After the Adze was fully established, they could then take their victim over completely, basically using them like a puppet.
As far as MHI knew, they could only get their psychic hooks into a few people at a time, and only fully possess one. Or at least that was our best guess based on their prior behavior, but that was based on the handful of cases where we’d encountered one of these things. I had no idea how much any good specimen could vary in that ability.
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