Henri sat up straighter. “Yes, you’re right. If we can figure out who or what he is, then we can find a way to end him ourselves.”
“But your mother said Death and Morpheus were unable to stop the shimmer man,” Mai reminded me.
“She also told me she wasn’t there when any of the shit went down. It’s all conjecture.” I was on a roll now. “Think about it. Death and Morpheus were taken by surprise by the shimmer man. They wouldn’t have had time to do their research. Heck, they were probably forced to react on the fly, but we … We have the luxury of a little more time than they had.”
“Not if Lark and Poppy fail to come up with a drug to keep us out of his clutches,” Kris reminded me.
“They’ll do it,” Mai said. “Poppy and Lark are bloody smart.”
“So, we focus on the shimmer man,” Bres said. “We make a list of his skills and his attributes, and we search for an entity or creature who fits the bill.”
I nodded eagerly. “Jay, we’re gonna need a whiteboard to make any pertinent notes and a helluva lot of coffee.”
Emmett entered the room, lugging a whiteboard.
Fuck, he was good.
“I’m not sure our library will be sufficient,” Jay pointed out. “The books date back a century or so, and the shimmer man … I get the feeling he’s ancient.”
“The books I’ve requested contain transcripts from ancient texts,” Karishma said. “We should find something in them, but they won’t be here till the morning.”
We needed to widen our research net, and we didn’t need to wait. I dialed Luther once more, expecting it to go to voice mail, and almost dropped the phone when he answered.
“Kat?” He sounded breathless and disorientated.
“Luther, are you okay?”
“Am I awake?”
Oh, boy. “You were sleeping?”
“Is this a dream?” He sounded dazed.
“No, Luther, this is real. Snap out of it. We need you.”
“Real. Oh, God.”
“Luther, what happened?”
“I went to sleep, and then … Something’s wrong, Kat.” He sounded more alert now. “Something in the dream realm … Whatever you do, do not fall asleep.”
“I know all about it. I’ve been trying to ring you to warn you.”
“You know what’s happening?”
“Some of it. Look, I’m headed over now. Brew coffee. Strong coffee. I’ll explain everything once I get there.”
Henri was already on his feet, jacket on. “I’ll drive.”
Bres stood slowly. “I’m coming with you.”
“We got this,” Henri said. “Kat and I have a system.”
Bres fixed Henri with one of his unfathomable level glares. “Systems fall apart when you leave.”
Ouch. I shot Bres a what-the-fuck look, but he and Henri were in the midst of an eye wrestle, sizing each other up.
It had been me and Henri for so long, and as much as he said he was okay with my relationship with Bres, it would take some getting used to on his part. After all, he’d been the only guy in my life for two years now. My partner. My golem. But Bres was in my heart. Henri was going to have to learn to share.
Tris would have had something to say, a quip to make in my ear about testosterone or measuring dick size. Fuck, I missed her. So, in tribute to my gargoyle bestie … “You guys want to whip out your dicks and take measurements now? Or can we avert the apocalypse first?”
Henri frowned, but Bres’s lips twitched, and his powerful shoulders relaxed.
“You’re right,” Henri said. He nodded at Bres. “I apologize. We’re a team.”
Bres inclined his head. “Apology accepted.”
We headed out onto the porch, boots crunching through the snow as we beelined toward the car.
“Just so you know,” Bres said as we approached the vehicle. “When it comes to dick-measuring contests, I always win.”
He hopped into the driver’s seat, leaving Henri staring after him.
Henri blinked slowly, then strode around the vehicle and took the front passenger seat.
Really?
I rolled my eyes and got into the back.
Let’s hope the testosterone on the way to Luther’s didn’t choke me.
* * *
The supernatural market in Pendragon Square was as silent as a tomb. Dread skipped up my spine and coalesced in the pit of my stomach.
“This is bad,” Henri said.
Bres scanned the empty snow-frosted streets with their many pretty storefronts and colorful awnings. “I remember coming here a long time ago. I remember it being busier.”
“It usually is.” I cut through the square toward Wicked Imaginations.
Shadows skimmed across the periphery of my vision, left and right, and then something landed in front of me. A three-foot stone figure with wings and a concerned expression.
Glory.
My stomach twisted. Oh, God. She wasn’t alone, there were others surrounding us, but they kept back, leaving Glory to approach us.
“Kat, thank God you’re here. Do you know what’s happening? There’s been no Secret Eye for days, and people have stopped coming to the square.” Her gaze flicked from Bres to Henri then to my shoulder, to the spot where Tris normally sat. “Is Tris all right?”
Bile swirled hot and potent in my stomach. I took a deep breath and crouched so I was eye level with Glory. “There’s something I need to tell you…”
I spoke softly, maintaining eye contact and holding back the tears as I recounted what had happened with the shimmer man and what Tris had done to save me, to give us all a chance. When I finished, Glory stood taller, her wings flexed and snapped, her eyes hard chips of granite in her face.
“Tris was the bravest of us. Always the bravest,” Glory said.
The rest of the goyles murmured in agreement.
“We were created to protect and watch, not to love,” Glory said. “We don’t have children; we can’t procreate. But Tris had the heart of a mother, fierce and loyal. She claimed you as her own, Kat. She was one of us, and now that she’s gone, you’re our responsibility. She gave her life to save yours, and it won’t be in vain. You may have lost Tris, but you’ve gained a new family.”
The shadows shifted, and more gargoyles appeared—leonine, cat-like, bird-like, they moved through the snow without leaving a mark. Ten, no, fifteen of them. They surrounded us.
“We’re with you,” Glory said. “This shimmer man has no power over us. We don’t sleep and dream like you. Tris was special, able to go into the dreaming because of her connection and commitment to you. But he can’t touch us. Tell us what you need us to do, and we’ll do it.”
Tears clogged my throat, and I swallowed the lump of emotion. “We need help researching the shimmer man.”
Glory’s lips thinned in determination. “Gusta, Alfred, and I will help. We all read excellently. The rest will patrol Scorchwood.”
Two gargoyles stepped forward; one was larger than the others with a hawk-like beak and kindly eyes, and the other had a pantherine quality to him. Gusta and Alfred, no doubt.
Glory walked up to me and pressed something into the palm of my hand. It was a small silver whistle on a leather string.
“A way to call us to you if you need us,” she said. “My master had it made a long time ago. It creates a sound that only gargoyles can hear. I want you to have it. If you call, we will hear you, and we will find you.”
The gargoyles murmured in agreement once more.
I slipped the whistle around my neck and stood. “Thank you.”
My gaze caught on the red door across the street. Were the wolves okay? “Head over to Wicked Imaginations. Luther is expecting us. I’ll meet you guys there in a minute.”
Bres followed my gaze to the red door. “You’re not going alone. They threatened to kill you.”
“What?” Henri was instantly alert.
“It’s fine.” I placed a placating hand on Henri�
�s arm. “We gave them what they wanted. We’re cool. Besides, Rich is a friend of Kris’s. If they haven’t already succumbed to the sleeping sickness, then I need to warn them.”
“I’m coming with you,” Henri said.
But Bres was watching me intensely. “No. She needs to do this alone. They know her. They trust her. If she brings either one of us into their den with her, that trust will be violated.”
“So, we let her walk into the wolves’ den alone?” Henri looked at Bres, incredulous.
Bres smiled, his attention still on me. “Kat can handle herself.”
It was one thing when a man insisted on being with you, to protect you and all that shit, but it was another when a man stepped back to allow you to take the lead, to show you that he knew you could handle the situation. Man, I wanted to kiss his face off, but now wasn’t the time.
“I won’t be long.”
Henri opened his mouth to protest but then snapped it closed and nodded. “If you’re not with us in twenty, I’m coming in.”
And that was a huge allowance from Henri. I grinned up at him. “Thanks.”
* * *
The red door was unlocked. No morph guard, nothing but silence. The last time I’d seen the Prime pack, they’d threatened to hunt me unless I brought them the Custodian’s hand.
Jay removed our prisoner’s hand, and Kris delivered it, and me … I’d hidden in my room, berating myself for not doing my research on the Prime pack and their oral contract laws.
I took the steps down to basement-level, senses wide open to alert me to danger. The scent of cinnamon and musk filled the air, heavy and heady, and then I saw them, piled together in the middle of the room. They were all in wolf form, and in the center lay a woman, the woman we’d saved from the Custodians two months ago in Greendon Forest, the moonkissed female the Custodians had been using to do their dirty work.
She looked like a porcelain doll in repose. The wolves slept, chests rising and falling evenly. I stepped closer to look down on the huddle, and the aroma of musk and cinnamon got stronger. The air clung to me, tugging on me, urging me to lie down and close my eyes.
Fuck no.
I backed up the steps. This was him. This was the shimmer man’s call. There was nothing I could do for the pack now.
I turned and took the stairs back up to the street two at a time.
The only way to stop him was to find out who the fuck he was.
If it lived, it could be killed. We just needed to figure out how.
Chapter Three
The goyles sat on the huge table in Luther’s back room, poring over the books he’d retrieved from his secret reference rooms. Tomes bound in leather, embossed in intricate gold-leaf designs, and scrolls of parchment bound with leather ties covered the huge table.
Henri and Bres were hard at work too, notepad and pen handy just in case. Two hulking guys looking all studious. Be still my heart.
Luther handed me a huge mug of coffee and placed the pot on the table. Henri and Bres reached for it at the same time, and both froze.
“After you,” Bres said, inclining his head.
“Thank you,” Henri said.
Luther arched a brow. “Getting on then, I see.”
“You could have cut the tension with a knife on the drive over here.”
Luther chuckled softly and led me to his study. “Yes, well, I suppose being in love with the same woman can have that effect on people.”
I snorted. “Hardly. Henri isn’t in love with me. He told me.”
Luther’s brows shot up. “Really? He did?”
I took the seat on the other side of his desk. “Yeah. We cleared the air. The time apart helped us both realize that it was the bond confusing our feelings.”
Luther made a noncommittal sound that had me on high alert.
“What?”
He shook his head. “Nothing.”
“No, tell me.”
He sighed and lowered himself into his cushy high-backed leather desk chair. “Henri is in love with you, Kat. You know it. You just prefer to take his word that he isn’t because it makes life easier because you’ve moved on.”
His words were barbs of truth.
Luther smiled kindly, and even though his face was unlined and young, his eyes looked back at me, wise and ancient. “You’re in love with Bres. That is the truth, but Henri … Henri is your soulmate.”
“No, Bres is my soulmate. I love him.”
Luther let out a bark of laughter. “It doesn’t work that way. We don’t choose our soulmates, and a soulmate isn’t always a lover. It can be a sibling, a friend, a father, or a mother. Henri is yours, and right now, he believes that he’s in love with you because the bond you have is so strong. But give him time. He’ll realize that the lie he told you is actually the truth.”
“How do you know this?”
“I have my gifts.” He slapped the table. “But you didn’t come here to be educated about your love life. You came to find out about this shimmer man. I can tell you what I experienced. There may be clues that could help you.”
I nodded, pushing the Henri issue to the back of my mind. “Yes, please.”
He pouted in thought. “I was dreaming about … things, and then suddenly, I was in the water. Icy, cold water. There were others around me. I could sense them but couldn’t see them, and then something was biting into my skin, enveloping me. I was being crushed by others … not bodies but essences, and we were dragged toward something … bad … by what felt like a net.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I remember the scent and the kiss of cool air, the moon, and the grainy sensation of sand between my fingers, and then I was somewhere else.” He paused with a frown. “Somewhere I’d been before. A happy place.” His smile was wry. “I almost believed it, but there were tiny things that didn’t add up, and I realized that I was dreaming. As soon as I figured it out, the knowledge slipped away, and I was somewhere else.” He shook his head. “I don’t know how long that went on before it hit me that I was trapped in a shifting dream. That something was wrong. But once I accepted this, I was back on the sand, on a beach with so many others. They were just lying there, eyes wide open. The sea was shimmering, calling to me, and I ran for it. I ran into it even as I felt the presence at my back. I ran, and I swam, and then I was back here in the shop, and the phone was ringing.” He looked up at me. “That’s what happened.”
The net, the people on the beach … The shimmer man was doing this. “He’s pulling souls from the sea of dreaming using some kind of net and then trapping them on the beach by using their memories to create dreams that they believe to be real life.”
Luther looked thoughtful. “He almost had me.”
“But you figured it out.”
“It drained me, though.” He flexed his hands, and the ring on his finger gleamed dully in the light. “If I sleep again, I doubt I’ll have the power to resist his illusions. I’m sure there are other supernaturals who’ve managed to escape; it’s staying free that will be a problem.”
“But we have a solution to that. Or we will have one. Lark and Poppy are working on it.”
“Oh?”
“A drug to prevent REM sleep. I’ll make sure you get some.”
“Thank you, I’d appreciate that. I must admit I’m not eager to dream. Not for a long while.”
The temperature dropped sharply, stealing my breath.
Luther shot to his feet, his hand up, ring glowing, but I knew what the temperature drop meant.
“Whoa, hold fire with the mojo.” I grabbed Luther’s arm to stall whatever action he’d been about to take.
Philip materialized by the door. He was ethereal, reaching out to me with screaming eyes and a silent ‘o’ of a mouth. A screech assaulted me, forcing me to clutch at my ears. A whisper filled my head.
“Help us.”
And then he was gone, taking the cold with him.
“What just happened?” Luther asked, his eyes flitting around the room. �
�What was that?”
“That, my weaver friend, was a ghost. And from the looks of it, he’s in trouble.”
* * *
The street was empty, and it wasn’t just due to the lateness of the hour. It was a Friday night, which meant that the bars should still have been teeming with life. Cryptic Gods should have been lit up, and thumping bass sounds should have been filtering out into the night air. But the bars were dead, and Cryptic Gods was locked up tight.
Scorchwood was turning into a dead town.
Good Spirits flickered as we entered, and then the bar solidified around us. Damn, the place was trashed—toppled bar stools, glass everywhere, and a chandelier sitting in the middle of the room.
Not a spirit in sight.
“Hello?” I walked farther into the room, ignoring the crunch of glass beneath my boots. “Philip? Hannah? Anyone?”
Bres and Henri fanned out to search the place. For someone who hadn’t been to the ghost bar before, Bres was taking this place in stride.
Where the fuck was everyone, and what had done this? More riders?
The door to Hannah’s quarters flickered, drawing my eye. It bled from gray to red and back again. Was she back there? I strode toward it.
“Kat …” a voice called out, weak and reedy.
Hannah? I scanned the area to my left, made up of leather booths and Formica tables. A hand flopped into view across the nearest seat. Shit.
Hannah crawled out from her hiding spot in the booth and fell to the ground before curling up into a ball. Her body flickered like a badly-screwed-in lightbulb.
“Shit, Hannah.” I fell to the ground beside her. “Guys! Over here.”
Hannah’s spectral frame heaved as if she was struggling for breath. “You have to stop … stop it.”
Bres and Henri joined me, falling into crouches beside me.
“Riders?” Bres asked.
“No. Something else. Something big.” She lifted her chin, and I caught sight of her face.
“Shit.” Bres recoiled.
Her eyes were gone. The skin where they should have been was smooth and unbroken. Like the female ghost with no face. Like the specter she’d said had either lost her sense of self or been sliced. Hannah knew who she was. She had validation all around her, which meant …
Lay the Ghost: Nightwatch Series book 4 Page 2
