Monty kept the swords in a cross block and uttered words under his breath. Bullets raced at him and fell to the side as the wails increased. I raised my mala shield just in time to stop the hunter bullets from punching holes into me as they switched targets between Monty and me. In the distance I could see Peaches still mangling hunters and shredding their guns.
“What the hell?” I muttered under my breath as the bullets kept us back. “They’re retreating?”
“Simon, call him back, now!” Monty said as the wails increased. “He’s in danger.”
“I’m trying!” I yelled over the wails of the swords. “He’s not responding. I don’t think he can hear me through the dome.”
Esti laughed as she ran away. “Now, take it!”
Inside the blue sphere, the last group of hunters grabbed the net and tossed it at Peaches, who was busy destroying one of the rifles and slamming a hunter into the wall. The lattice landed on him and immediately exploded in a burst of violet light. Peaches went down with a whine.
“Peaches!” I yelled and moved to close the distance. I pressed the mark on my hand and realized my error. White light shot out from the top of my left hand, as Monty’s words crashed into my brain—one nanosecond too late.
Runes all around us.
“Simon, no!” Monty yelled running to my side. “The triggers!”
“Oh, shi—” I managed before the triggers around me went off and launched me back—away from the hunters and away from Peaches. I saw Monty slam into one of the side walls and fall to the ground, unconscious. The Sorrows disappeared a second later.
I crashed into the back wall—hard. Hard enough to shatter the brick with my body. I felt bones break, followed by searing pain. Warmth flushed my body as the pain squeezed the air from my lungs a second later.
Through the haze of my rapidly tunneling vision, I saw Peaches being loaded into one of the trucks by the hunters as Esti approached me.
“You may be immortal, but your hellhound isn’t,” Esti said as she crouched down by my head. “If you want him back in one piece, bring me the vampire.”
I tried to form the words, but the message from my brain to my mouth was getting detoured. I groaned in response.
“I realize you don’t know where we will be”—she reached behind her—“but as I understand it, you share a bond with that creature. Once you have the vampire, bring her to us. You have five days. Then I unleash your creature on this city.”
She brought her arm down and buried a blood arrow into my right shoulder.
“Fuck…fuck you,” I managed and spit up blood. “You are making a mistake.”
“Eloquent as usual,” Esti said with a laugh as she walked away. “I wouldn’t waste time. I hear hellhounds get positively monstrous when they aren’t fed and tortured.”
“I’m going…I’m going to kill you…slow.”
“Promises, promises.”
“Give him back,” I said. “You don’t know…you don’t know what you’re doing.”
She stopped and turned. “I do know what I’m doing, Strong. It’s called revenge, and reclaiming what’s ours. Judging from the way you came at us today, I’m guessing you thought you were the harder target. You were wrong. We’ve been studying you—your defenses are laughable.”
“Studying me?”
“You’re vulnerable in ten different ways,” she said, looking back to the van where they loaded Peaches as it pulled away. “This was just one of the easier methods to exploit your weaknesses.”
“You’re going to regret doing this,” I said. “It’s not too late to give him back and stop this.”
“Are you threatening me?” she asked, stepping close to where I lay redecorating the courtyard with my blood. She crouched down, smiled and pushed down on the arrow in my shoulder. I groaned in pain while she laughed slowly. “You’re in no position to threaten me.”
“It’s not a threat,” I said, clenching my jaw against the agony. “I will find you and dust your psycho, crazy ass.”
Her expression became dark, and she pressed down harder, twisting the arrow as I screamed.
“This is just the start of your suffering, Strong. I’m going to make sure you see your vampire bitch die first, before I kill everyone and everything in your life.”
“You have a real hard-on for Chi,” I said with a gasp when I could see straight again. “I thought you went after all vampires. Why her?”
“Ask her when you find her.”
“I’m not a vampire. This isn’t my fight.”
“You possess one of our blades, killed one of ours, and allied yourself with our sworn enemy. Did you think we were going to forget? Did you think we would forgive your actions…your arrogance?”
“Chi gave me this blade.”
“It wasn’t hers to give,” she replied, standing, the anger clear in her voice. “Those blades belong to the Blood Hunters. They are ours—and we will get them back.”
“Let Peaches go,” I said. “You have no idea what he’s capable of doing.”
“Be careful with the blood arrow,” she said, turning and walking away again. “I’d hate to hear you went to pieces over this.”
“You’re dead. You just don’t know it yet.”
“Bring me the vampire so we can end this, Strong. I promise it will be agonizing.”
“Give him back.”
“Do as you’re instructed, and it will all be over soon,” she said. “Like you said: this isn’t your fight.”
“You made it my fight the moment you took Peaches. I won’t be showing you the same mercy I showed Anastasia.”
She stopped walking for a moment.
“I’ll be waiting.”
Only one truck remained. I saw her get in and watched it vanish down the street.
SEVENTEEN
I noticed the scent first: lotus blossoms. It was a particularly citrus-heavy smell, like a freshly squeezed orange or lemon. This was mixed with a hint of cinnamon and reminded me of my youth—stealing cinnamon sticks from the kitchen to chew on, with a sweet and biting sensation that filled my mouth with each stick.
All of this was enveloped by the smell of freshly turned earth after a hard rain: musty, humid, and reminiscent of cut grass. Around me, the day shifted slowly out of focus as time slid to a halt. That, or I had one hell of a concussion.
“Oh, hell,” I said, groaning with the anticipation of more pain. “This day just keeps getting better.”
A pair of heels entered my field of vision. I noticed the red soles and figured that whoever was paying me a visit at least had decent taste in shoes. I wasn’t going to assume it was Karma, not with the day I was having.
“Splinter,” I heard the familiar voice say, removing all doubt. “You look positively quanked. Were you intentionally trying to blow yourself up?”
“Quanked? Did you make that up? Sounds like it has something to do with ducks.”
“Overpowered by fatigue,” she answered. “Although you appear to have been overpowered by explosions.”
“The triggers were percussive, not explosive,” I said, echoing Monty’s words. “Shit—Monty. Is he okay?”
Karma looked across the courtyard. “He’s still alive. Some broken bits, but that’s bound to happen when you slam yourself into a wall at that speed.”
“He didn’t slam himself, I slammed him.”
“I know. I just wanted to make sure you were aware of the consequences of your actions.”
I tried sitting up, but my body and the arrow impaling me were vetoing that move, so I opted for propping myself on my elbows, at least until Earth got its axis under control. Karma stood next to me and placed Grim Whisper on the ground near my hand. The blood-arrow wound in my shoulder throbbed with every heartbeat.
“What happened? You’re late.”
“Late?” she said, raising an eyebrow with a mix of curiosity and menace only she could pull off. “Late for what?”
She was dressed in an upscale version of the Kuro Hyogikai: black suit, white shirt, no sword. On her left lapel I saw the red, stylized B. Her loose hair framed her face, giving her a younger appearance. I didn’t know how old she was, but I imagined if she counted birthdays, it was in eons. She looked down at me with an expression of disapproval mixed with amazement.
Karma. Actually, the irony wasn’t lost on me in the moment.
“Late,” I said, suicidally. “As in, not here on time. I pressed the mark.”
She looked around and took in the devastation and damage.
“I noticed. You do realize Kali’s mark is not a summoning rune?”
“I do,” I said. “It’s just that they…I couldn’t stop them. They dropped that net on Peaches…I wasn’t thinking…then I pressed the mark.”
“In a courtyard full of runic triggers.”
“And where were you?” I asked, continuing to take my life into my own hands. “Busy? Is that why you were late?”
She crouched down and wrapped her delicate fingers around the lower half of my face, cupping my chin. For anyone else, this would have been a gentle caress of tenderness. For her, it was like having my face in a vise.
“I am never late, Splinter,” she said, applying a small amount of pressure. “Karma is always on time. I am cause and effect and ever present.”
I knew it was a gentle amount of pressure because I only blacked out for a second or two, and when she slapped me back to consciousness, I still had all my teeth.
“They took Peaches,” I said, rubbing my face and moving my jaw slowly. “They took him.”
“Yes, they did,” she said. “You have something they want. The real question is: are you going to give it to them?”
My body was still blazing as it dealt with the injuries. My brain functions were returning to normal, but emotions have a tendency to cloud even the wisest among us. In that moment, the anger and anxiety I felt was slowly mixing into rage. Not the white-hot kind, no, this was more of the slow burn of laying waste to an entire city until I felt satisfied.
That would only happen when I got Peaches back.
“Of course,” I said my voice low and full of menace. “Right after I put Esti and her psychohunters in the ground.”
“That may be difficult with a blood arrow in your shoulder,” she said, pointing at my arm. “Those arrows are a nasty piece of work. Looks like this Esti is a bit angry with you.”
“Something like that. She wants the blood blades back, blames me for killing her leader, and wants Chi and me dead.”
“Are they valid?” Karma asked. “The things she blames you for?”
“I didn’t steal the blades, I’m not a vampire.” I paused for a second “But I did kill her leader, yes. Now I have to finish the job.”
“You make the most interesting friends, Splinter,” Karma said. “I take it you will not comply with their requests for your or the vampire’s demise.”
“Correct,” I said. “Why didn’t you come right after I pressed the mark? Not that I was summoning you.”
“That’s a conversation for another time,” she said. “You have more pressing matters. We will talk later, if you manage to remain among the living.”
“Can you help me find Peaches?” I asked, knowing the answer. “Or, at least point me in the right direction?”
“That would be overextending my influence, not to mention skewing things in ways that would only cause you immense amounts of pain later. I’m sorry, but I won’t subject you to that.”
“Life is pain,” I said, nodding. “In that case, think you can give me an assist with the arrow?”
She smiled knowingly at me. I hadn’t directly tried to manipulate her: that would be a slappable offense. I really wanted her help, but knowing how she had reacted in the past, my face wasn’t resilient enough to take any more of her slaps.
“Well played, Splinter.”
I knew better than to ask for her direct help in finding Peaches. As the embodiment of causality, I knew she would say no. But I tried the big ask first, remembering how bad blood arrows were and hoping she would at least minimize some of the exploding.
“Which would you prefer? Dealing with the explosive arrow, or dealing with the explosive body? I won’t do both.”
“Explosive arrow,” I said. “I’ve had enough mind-numbing pain to last me a long time. I’d like to avoid exploding parts of my body.”
“Very well,” she said and placed a hand on my arm, grabbing the arrow with the other hand. Blood Hunters used broadhead arrows, which meant the retraction was going to rate a twenty on the ten-point agony scale. “Are you ready?”
“No,” I said. “Wouldn’t it be better to push it through?”
“Ordinarily, yes, but the more blood it contacts, the greater the chance of explosion—for you,” she answered, her voice grim. “Do you regrow limbs?”
“Can we not find out today?”
“Fair enough. Ready?”
“Pull it out,” I said, bracing myself. “I’ll deal with the arrow if you give me a moment to heal.”
“You are currently in stasis. Once I leave—well, I suggest you don’t hold on to the arrow after that.”
What made these arrows so dangerous was their delayed explosive quality. Once the runes came in contact with blood, they converted the blood around the wound into a liquid explosive similar to nitromethane mixed with ammonium nitrate.
It meant that not only was the arrow explosive, but the target became a ticking time bomb themselves. I didn’t know what would happen if my arm blew off, and I wasn’t in the mood to test that aspect of my curse today.
“I’m ready,” I said after a few seconds. “Do it.”
Karma pulled out the arrow and white-hot pain blossomed in my shoulder. It felt like my arm had burst into flame as I groaned and nearly lost consciousness. I looked over at my shoulder and expected it to be barbecued beyond saving, but it was only bruised and bloody.
“Your body should be able to repair itself now,” she said. “Now, the tainted blood.”
“Wait, what do you mean tainted—?”
I barely managed the words before she plunged two fingers into the wound without warning. The pain blinded me; I bit down until I tasted blood, my vision tunneling in as she dug in my shoulder for what felt like an eternity. I could feel myself slipping into shock.
The next thing I felt was her light slap bringing me back into sharp clarity. It felt like getting hit softly with a hammer. In her hand, she held a blood-soaked arrow covered in a small cloud of black energy.
“That it?” I asked, feeling better by the second as my body dealt with the damage. “Any more surprise blood removal?”
“It’s all there,” she said, looking at the arrow in her hand. “I suggest you dispose of this immediately after I leave.”
“Off to dispense some more of yourself?”
“I like to think of myself as being the just reward for people,” Karma said. “Good or bad—especially bad.”
“Like a vigilante bitch,” I said. “I mean that in the best way possible.”
Karma nodded with a smile as red and black energy crackled around her body.
“A bitchilante, yes. I approve,” she said, handing me the arrow. “You have ten seconds after I leave.”
“Thank you for the karmically imbued slaps of clarity,” I said, slowly getting to my feet and rubbing my jaw. “I’ll be feeling them for a while.”
“They aren’t as potent as hellhound saliva,” she said with a tight smile. “But it is my position that stupidity should hurt.”
Then she disappeared.
EIGHTEEN
Ten seconds doesn’t feel like a long time.
It’s all a matter of context. Holding your breath for ten seconds—easy. Holding your hand in a blazing open furnace for ten seconds—not so easy. Holding an explosive arrow and getting it far enough away from you, while protecting your unconscious partner, who was probably
in the blast radius, in ten seconds—complicated.
I couldn’t just throw it in any direction. The courtyard was large, but I didn’t know if it was large enough to offset the triggers that hadn’t detonated. I set my mental clock to ten seconds, threw the arrow to the end of the courtyard I’d cratered with my body and ran toward Monty’s prone form.
I didn’t want to take the chance of activating more triggers. and so only pressed the main bead on my bracelet, materializing my shield. I placed it between us and the arrow, bracing myself against the coming blast.
The arrow exploded, and I crouched closer to Monty. A tsunami of energy crashed into the shield, propelling us out of the courtyard and into the street. My shield stayed mostly intact as we rolled out onto the sidewalk. Monty groaned as I got to my knees, absorbing what remained of the shield.
I looked back into the courtyard and saw a deep trench running through the center of it. The far wall was missing a large section where the arrow had exploded. I took in the damage and realized even with the subtle runes keeping people away, Fumiko wouldn’t be too far behind this explosion.
“Next time,” I said, crawling over to where Monty lay, “we postpone the overseas trip and stay home.”
“You…survived the triggers,” Monty said, groggily. “Well done.”
“Sure, thanks. We need to get off the street before Fumiko and the bankermages show up.”
I got Monty to his feet and we shuffled down the street. One of his arms hung limply by his side, and I could feel him favoring one leg as we limped away from the courtyard.
“They will arrive soon,” Monty said, looking around. “The runes won’t mask that explosion from the Kuro Hyogikai.”
“How bad is it?” I asked, looking down at his arm. “Can you cast?”
“Feels like an ulnar break and tibial shaft fracture at the talus.”
“The triggers did that?”
“The wall did that,” Monty said, grimacing. “The triggers just facilitated the energy to launch me into the wall. I came away mostly intact, considering their force.”
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