Detached

by Elicia Hyder

  “It will.”

  He grabbed his oneiryte vial, flipped open the top, and poured a line of sand on the ground. Stepping over it, he vanished, and reappeared on the other side of the fallen demon. He grabbed the dagger, and with a powerful jab and rip, cut off its head completely.

  The demon stilled, and Mal screamed again.

  Baker and Rivera looked over, but of course all they could see was Mal, screaming at seemingly nothing. Essex scooted back away from them.

  “You.” Orion stalked toward Mal. “I should have known you’d be tangled up in all this somehow.”

  Mal’s eyes doubled with recognition. “How did you . . . ? What . . . are you . . . doing here?” She scrambled away from him like she’d done with the nightwalker.

  “You know each other?” I’d known Orion knew of my mother, but I wasn’t aware they were acquainted.

  “Shall I tell her how we met?” Orion asked Mal, standing over her.

  “I wanted . . . to help you,” she wheezed.

  He crouched down. “You wanted an easy payday.”

  “What are you talking about?” I asked.

  Essex stood slowly. “Orion.” The way he said his name was full of understanding. “O-rion,” he repeated slower. He looked at me. “The officer who died in the fire. Officer Owen Ryan. O. Ryan, like on our name plates.”

  My uniform’s name plate read S. Nyx. I muffled a gasp with my hand.

  “It was Detective Owen Ryan,” Orion said.

  “That was you?” I asked.

  He gave a slight nod.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Would it have made you trust me more?”

  Probably not.

  He looked at my mother again. “Hello, Malena.”

  Mal was shaking. Mascara tears streaked her cheeks.

  “Damn it, Sarge!” Baker yelled, breathless, behind us. We all turned to see him, still pumping Tyler’s chest in the dark.

  The defibrillator beeped. “Evaluating.”

  “It’s . . . too late,” Mal gurgled.

  “She’s right.” Orion crossed the garden. “He’s too far gone.”

  “That can’t be true,” I said, putting myself between Orion and Tyler’s body.

  The machine beeped again. “Shock advised. Administering shock. Clear. Three . . . Two . . . One.”

  Tyler’s body convulsed. Baker pushed the Narcan nozzle into his nose. “Breathe, Sarge.”

  Tyler’s eyes were open, staring into nothing.

  Orion shook his head. “There’s no bringing him back.” He looked at Tyler. “I’m sorry.”

  “No.” I grabbed Tyler’s stunned spirit. After a second, his arms closed around me.

  “I’m going to die like this?” His voice sounded small. Distant.

  I held him tighter.

  Something pressed against my thigh between us. I reached down and felt the lump in my pocket. I pulled out the ergane bag I’d stuffed into my pocket. Inside it was a glass vial.

  The Water of Lethe.

  My wide eyes met Orion’s. “You said it would fuse my spirit to my body. That I’d no longer detach.”

  “Yes.” His whole countenance lifted as he understood what I was thinking. “It might work. It’s never been tested on a normal human, but he’s dead if you do nothing.”

  I snapped the neck of the bottle.

  Orion caught my wrist. “Remember what I told you. There’s no going back.”

  There would be no going back for me or for Tyler. He’d forget, and I’d be doomed to be . . . whatever I was forever.

  But there was no choice.

  Black saliva drizzled from the closest nightwalker’s fangs . . .

  I palmed the back of Tyler’s neck and kissed him. “I love you.”

  Then I poured the liquid into his body’s gaping mouth.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  The sound of oxygen being pulled into Tyler’s lungs was a sweet song in that valley of death. On the pine needles, I slumped forward and held my thighs as I fought to not choke on my tears.

  Baker laughed.

  Jones fell onto his hip, sighing with relief.

  Essex was breathing on his own.

  Dani crested the hill with her medical bag. Right behind her was Everly. He lost his footing on the steep terrain and slid down the incline straight for Mal, and the plant, and the nightwalker he couldn’t see.

  Weaponless now, I pulled on my ergane glove as I dove toward Tyler’s body. I reached beneath his shirt, on his right side, and wrenched his gun free of its holster. Seeing the gun, Baker flinched back, unsure of what was happening. I rolled onto my back, curled up in a crunch, and fired.

  Pow!

  I wasn’t fast enough. And I missed. The bullet sliced across Mal’s cheek just as she palmed Everly’s face with her hypnox-covered hand.

  Stunned by the gunfire, everyone packing had pulled their weapons. A cacophony of frantic questions were yelled in every direction.

  “Who fired?”

  “What was that?”

  “Anybody hit?”

  “Everly?”

  Everly wrestled Mal’s arms to the ground. “Ma’am, I’m here to help you!”

  After a moment, she stopped fighting him.

  Everly sat up, dazed, swaying from side to side. His eyes crossed, and his body face-planted in the grass. At that second, the first nightwalker I’d failed to kill broke free of the hypnox plant.

  It spun toward Everly’s body as his spirit detached. The demon dove for the body, its flailing claws slicing through Everly’s spirit.

  The nightwalker vanished.

  Orion lifted a hand, and a bolt of white energy ripped through the cloudless sky. When his arm came down, the bolt sizzled across the landing, missing Everly’s body by inches.

  Everly’s spirit crawled sideways across the ground toward the cliff’s edge. I ran to him and grabbed him. “I’ve got you, Brian.”

  “Nyx?”

  “Yeah, I’m here. It’s going to be OK.”

  It really wasn’t going to be OK. He had three deep gouges in his torso, open wounds full of black sludge. I dragged his spirit to the edge of the water.

  When he saw his body, he panicked. “What’s happening?”

  Hugging him, I held his head against my chest as I watched in horror as his body arched off the ground. His mouth opened wider and wider until the jaw bones snapped and his face peeled back.

  A long clawed hand shot through what remained of his face, and then the head of the demon pushed through his chest.

  “What the fuck is that?” Jones screamed, squinting against the darkness.

  Orion came closer and reached for the sky again, but another black spot ruptured beneath him, toppling him to the ground.

  Through Everly’s bloody corpse, the nightwalker stood, leaving a black gaping hole in the center of what remained of the torso. It was a portal, I realized.

  A passageway for other monsters to follow.

  The rumbling black spots on the ground stilled as the first nightwalker slinked forward. Another followed through the hole. And another.

  The demons advanced toward my friends.

  “Help me,” Ransom said, grabbing the stunned EMT’s sleeve. “Help me up.”

  “Sir, no—” the man tried to argue.

  “Help me.”

  Ransom stood and stumbled forward to face the nightwalkers. My metaphorical heart nearly stopped.

  I grabbed Everly’s face and turned it toward the moonlit valley. “Stay here. Don’t look.”

  He was crying, but he nodded.

  Weaponless, I put myself between Ransom and the seething monsters.

  “Nyx, get out of there!” Orion yelled, raising his hand toward the sky again.

  “They’ll have to kill me to get to him.”

  “They’ll kill you both!”

  I didn’t care. I advanced, and the nightwalker stopped. It took a step back. A little stunned, I took another step forward. It retreat
ed more.

  “Nyx, stop,” Orion said, pointing behind me.

  I turned just as Ransom stepped through me. My whole spirit quivered with searing-hot energy that took me to my knees. Ransom’s hands were outstretched as he walked forward, and the closer he got to the demons, the farther they moved away.

  One by one, the nightwalkers slinked back into the portal, disappearing from Earth’s view. Ransom fell to his knees, breathless.

  I stared open-mouthed. “Holy shit. Orion, what happened?”

  “A scion cannot be heir to more than one bloodline,” he said, almost to himself. “Ransom couldn’t have been Elias’s firstborn . . .” Orion looked back at Mal, who seemed as stunned as the rest of us. “Because he was hers.”

  “What?”

  “Mal has the spirit of Icelus. She’s the God of Nightmares, and Ransom is her heir.”

  I covered my mouth with my hand. “But Mal’s not dead. How’s he controlling them?”

  “They must recognize and obey the bloodline.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I don’t. Not for sure. But it makes sense. The Elders might know.”

  More spots bubbled on the ground around us.

  Orion grabbed my arm and pulled me up. “I’m going to burn this whole place to the ground, and the smoke will be toxic. Get back into your body, and as soon as I set the plant on fire, get everyone down the mountain.”

  “What about my friend?” I asked, looking back at Everly’s spirit, curled in a fetal position on the ground.

  “I’ll take him to Imera. The Elders can help him, but you must go. Quickly.”

  I returned to Everly. “Brian?”

  He looked up.

  “I have to go.”

  “Don’t leave me, Nyx.”

  “My friend Orion will take care of you. I need to get everyone else out of here.”

  “Am—am I dead?”

  I forced a smile and touched his cheek. “No. You’re going to live forever.”

  Orion touched my shoulder. “He’ll be fine. Let him go.”

  “Will I see him again?”

  “Someday.” Nightwalker heads sprouted from the black spots around us. “Nyx, you really have to assimilate.”

  “I’ll see you soon,” I said to Everly, fighting more tears. I got up and jogged back to my body.

  A second later, I opened my eyes.

  “Nyx?” Rivera said over me. I held up a hand, and he pulled me up.

  Jones had a hand on his bald head. “Boy, did you miss a fucking show.”

  Ransom reached for me.

  I grabbed his hand and pulled him into a desperate hug. “Are you all right?”

  “I . . .” he stammered over my shoulder. He pulled back to look at me. “I don’t even know. What the hell just happened?”

  I shook my head and hugged him. “I’m not sure.” But in my mind, Orion’s words replayed. If Mal was the God of Nightmares, my brother would someday be too. What the hell would that mean for all of us?

  But those worries would have to wait. Mal coughed up more blood as she tried to push herself up.

  I lumbered to my feet and snatched my jacket off the ground. “Anybody got tape?”

  Dani searched through her medical bag. “Nyx!” She tossed me a roll of white medical tape.

  I walked to Mal and knelt beside her.

  “What . . . happened?” she wheezed.

  Popular question.

  Ignoring it, I flipped her onto her stomach, wrenched both arms behind her back, and wrapped the jacket around her hands. I wound the tape tight around, securing her hands and the hypnox behind her. “Rivera, you and Jones take her down. Don’t let her get her hands free!”

  “Roger that, Nyx,” Jones said.

  “Saphera!” Mal croaked as my teammates pulled her up.

  I didn’t respond.

  “Sergeant Essex, can you hear me?” Dani asked, adjusting the oxygen mask over his mouth and nose.

  I slowly walked over. Baker moved out of my way and put a hand on my shoulder as I sank down next to Essex. I leaned toward his face. “Tyler?”

  His eyes slowly fluttered opened and met mine.

  “Can you hear me?”

  He nodded, barely.

  I swallowed. “Do you know who I am?”

  He searched my face.

  Please, I silently begged, tears burning the corners of my eyes. I wanted to grab his hand, but I couldn’t move. I couldn’t even breathe.

  Please.

  Finally, Essex locked his gaze with mine . . .

  And shook his head.

  The hospital kept all of us the rest of the night. Ransom, because his blood pressure was still low; Essex, because he’d actually been dead; Mal, because she’d needed surgery to repair her lung; and me, because I’d scared the shit out of everyone with an emotional breakdown in the emergency room.

  Ransom and I shared a room (Celise’s doing), while Essex was taken to the ICU out of an abundance of caution. Paps and Bess both stayed with us, despite my many objections. They were asleep in identical recliners when my spirit woke up.

  Orion was seated on the foot of my bed.

  The clock above my medical chart said it was four in the morning.

  “Hi.” My throat was painfully dry, probably from all the crying earlier.

  He closed the folder in his hand. “Hi.”

  “Have you been here long?”

  Orion shook his head. “No. I just got back.”

  “How’s Everly?”

  “The first few days are always the hardest, of course, but he will be OK.”

  “Thanks for taking care of him.”

  Orion bowed his head.

  I glanced at the folder on his lap. “What’s that?”

  “History.” He stood and carried the folder to where Bess was sleeping. Carefully, so as not to wake her, he placed the folder on her lap. “Someone’s been busy.”

  “Is it about Chief Magnus?”

  “And about me.” He returned to my bed and sat on the edge of it, beside my hand. “Joe is a longtime friend of mine.”

  “The chief?”

  He nodded. “We went through the police academy together a million years ago, and though our department didn’t have partners, if it had, he’d have been mine.”

  “Was he there the night my parents—” I stopped myself. “Was he there the night you died?”

  “I never died, remember?” He smiled, but there was no joy in it. “He was outside, along with the rest of my brothers who would have died had I not set that fire.”

  “How did you know to burn it?”

  “Elias. He was failing to get my spirit back into my body, and the nightwalker was almost into the Boundary. He told me only fire could kill it. When I heard my guys outside, I begged him to forget about me and kill it. That was when the nightwalker ripped through my body and materialized on Earth.

  “Elias panicked and scrambled back, dropping an ergane glove near the fireplace. It sparked, and I threw it at the beast. It blew up, and the rest is history.”

  I put my hand on his. “I’m sorry.”

  “And I’m sorry to you for what happened tonight.”

  “Did you tell Chief Magnus about me?”

  “I did.”

  “How?”

  “The same way Elias would talk to you.”

  I frowned. “Please don’t ever do that to me. I hate it.”

  “It’s a useful tool when it’s necessary. It’s allowed Magnus and me to put away some very dangerous people. He was very excited when he knew he had the chance to work with you.”

  “I’m not going to take the job.” My eyes, and my thoughts, drifted away. “Especially now.”

  He looked at the floor. “It’s probably for the best. You did a brave thing. I honestly didn’t think it was possible, but you saved your boss’s life. As far as I know, no one has ever done what you pulled off back there with your boss and the Water of Lethe.”

  Problem was, I
didn’t feel very heroic. Or successful. Essex was lost to me, maybe forever.

  Orion and I were both quiet for a while. Finally, he looked across the room at Ransom. “He changes things.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, your mother isn’t a raging bitch without reason. The power twisted her, sickened her. When Mal dies, it won’t be easy for your brother either.”

  “How did this happen?”

  “I think it was your great-grandmother.”

  “Never knew her.”

  “I know. Nettie Marcotte was executed before either of us were born.”

  “The first woman to die in Nevada’s gas chamber.” I smirked. “Sounds like my family legacy, doesn’t it?”

  “A little.”

  I looked at Paps. “But shouldn’t her power have passed to him?”

  “It should have, unless he drank the Water of Lethe.”

  I stared at him. “Is that what happened?”

  His shoulders rose. “I don’t know. Soon, I’ll be able to return to the Elders and find out, but all I can do now is guess at the missing puzzle pieces.”

  “And what’s your guess?”

  “Mal clearly doesn’t know what she is, and your grandfather didn’t know to tell her. The only way that’s possible would be to not only drink the water of forgetfulness, but to also kill anyone else who knew about it.”

  My eyes turned toward the ceiling. “Paps’s mother murdered her family, so he would grow up without knowing.”

  “And the gift passed to your mother without anyone being the wiser.”

  “Mal is the reason the nightwalkers were here.”

  “And she and Ransom will be the reason they stay.”

  I looked across the room at my big brother, his mouth gaping and his inked forearm draped over his eyes. “Will I lose him too, like Gran and Paps lost Mal?”

  “All scions have a choice. I believe it’s why the River of Lethe was created to begin with. But when your brother inherits the spirit of Icelus, this life won’t be easy for him. You will outshine and outsmart him at every turn. You’ll be the star, while he has nothing but a front-row seat to watch all he should be able to do. That’s a poison that grows from deep within, and for which there is no cure. He will have to continually weed it out. Otherwise, it will overtake him.”

  “Ransom is a good man,” I said with all the confidence I could muster. And he was. But it was no secret that my brother teetered on the very top of a dangerous slope.