“What do you know of Winged Warriors?” Lev intervened, taking up my questioning with a gentleness I didn’t have the patience for.
Mara shrugged, the movement disjointed and jerky. “Everyone on Unseen Street knows they make the best security.”
“Of course they do,” Lev said, shooting me a smug look. “It’s true.” He climbed to his feet. “Let’s go and come back before my dough finishes proofing.”
I bit back a snarl. Her explanation wasn’t likely, her excuse came too easy.
Winged Warriors didn’t leave the Fae, Arún had been the first of record. I had learned at least that much when circumstances had forced us to link mentally. I had more of that pointy-eared Fae knocking around in my brain than I had ever wanted to know.
Our faceless opponent was still out there. Trap or not, Lev wasn’t taking no-go for an answer. He would accompany Mara.
“Will the gatekeepers let us in?” I asked.
Mara’s eyes darted to me, to Lev, and then back to me. She leaned close to Lev as he stood stalwart in the center of the room. “I don’t know about the priest,” she whispered.
“I don’t know about him either.” Lev’s eyes twinkled when he grinned at me. “I guess we’ll try, and if we need to send him home, we will.”
I scowled as deeply as I could at him. He wasn’t taking any of this seriously, calling me an assistant and flirting with bait as though the fate of everything we’d built couldn’t be in jeopardy. A sharp pain in my jaw brought attention to my clenched teeth.
I relaxed the complaining muscles. “Ready?”
“Indeed,” Lev said.
The aged floorboards creaked as I made my way to the exit. I didn’t bother waiting on Lev and Mara to go first; they could keep up or not.
“Jason?” Woe’s sweet voice called my name, and my heart jumped.
She must have starting feel better if she’d decided to come up from the Cavern.
“Jason?” she called again.
I tugged on my Cossack to remove the rumples. “Yes?”
Dressed in black Kevlar pants and the utility belt I had given her not long after she had first arrived, Woe stepped into the hall, the Edison lights from the library just enough to see her. Her long hair had been secured in a low ponytail at the base of her skull, and a crease marred the space between her eyebrows.
“Jason,” she said, her eyes scrutinizing the room behind me. “Where’s Lev?”
She leaned forward and scanned the room. Bulging cargo pockets on her thighs grazed my leg. I refrained from taking a deep breath. She smelled of pomegranates.
“I’m not sure.” I blocked her way with my arm, bumping her shoulder in the process. I didn’t want a pregnant woman tagging along.
“I don’t believe you.” She glowered at the obstruction and stepped back as she crossed her arms.
“Heh.” She squinted into my face. I wiped my forehead.
She uncrossed her arms. “Need help?”
Lev cleared his throat as he stepped into view. “That won’t be necessary, my dear,” he said, puffing nonchalantly. “I have an appointment.”
“Appointment,” she repeated, but suspicion still showed on her face. She laid her hand on my arm and took a step forward. “Where’s the woman?”
Lev shrugged and made his way back into the hall.
She moved closer to me, leaned up on her toes. “Be careful when you leave, Jason. I don’t trust her.” Her breath fanned over my ear and set every nerve-ending on edge.
It was my turn to sputter. That wasn’t a part of her normal farewell.
“W-w-w-where are you off to?” My voice wasn’t steady. Nothing like that night in the Athenaeum.
“Hiking in the park.” Woe’s hands clenched, and her face hardened. Full lips narrowed, pressed into a harsh line.
At that, Mara’s gasp surprised her as much as it did the two of us.
“Is she still here?” Woe asked.
Mara stepped back into the office. Lev followed.
Woe didn’t say anything but tilted her head. She scanned the room and then our expressions. She jerked her head toward Mara. “What did she want with Lev?”
“I… I… I’m not…” I said, kicking myself for not thinking of a viable excuse sooner. Woe always managed to keep me off-kilter.
Lev shot me a disappointed look and ambled over to us, his movements far more nonchalant than he must have felt. He widened his eyes and stared intently at Woe. “This is Mara. She’s a parishioner.”
Woe scowled, and her eyes narrowed. We had strict rules about blowing our cover. Maybe Woe would buy into Lev’s bluff. He didn’t want a tag-along either.
“Ah.” She gazed at me with something different in her eyes. The word held heat, and the insinuation in her voice rankled. She wanted to argue.
“Enjoy your hike in the park.” I laid my arm over Woe’s shoulder to turn her away from the office.
Woe grimaced and then moved away. Her hair almost reached her waist, and my hands twitched as I ignored the memories of those silken strands between my fingers. She glanced up the steps that led into the sanctuary.
“Stay safe, you two.” Worry changed Woe’s face. It contorted the softness that I loved and made her someone I didn’t quite know.
As much as I loathed to admit it, in the short time they’d had together, Arún had healed so much more in her than her broken wings; he had helped her grow in ways I never could. And then he’d gone and done that final, heroic act.
Jealousy still churned in my stomach. I’ll never be free of that pale Fae. Guilt mixed with the jealousy.
I tugged on the white clergy collar that circled my neck. “Woe, I …”
Hope flickered in her eyes, and she straightened her shoulders. She drew her hand across her belly, an unconscious reference to her unborn child. “We have to talk about what happened. We can’t keep pretending it didn’t happen.”
“We will.” Not now. Not ever. It’s a mistake I’ll never live down. Addressing it would cost me too much. Worse, Woe had every right to reject me. I had been so close to taking advantage of her.
Woe stepped up onto the first stone riser, bringing her to my eye level. She leaned against the wall. After a moment, she pulled a metal flask from one of her pockets and took a sip. At my raised eyebrow, she said, “Fizz-tonic.”
I couldn’t decipher the long look she gave me as she replaced the cap. “Have a good night, Jason.”
“Be careful.” I couldn’t stand to lose her. Not after everything we’d been through.
“You, too.”
Lev sighed. “Can we get out of here now?”
Woe rolled her eyes at Lev, gave Mara a dark look, then hurried up the stairs and into the church sanctuary. Her footsteps faded into the distance, and I resisted the urge to chase after her. I had no right to offer her anything. The unlocked front door squeaked and signaled her exit, so I turned back to the business at hand.
Lev shook his head at me. “Jason,” he harrumphed, “someday, you have to work that out.”
“You know why I can’t.” I won’t argue this again.
An image of beating a punching bag until my knuckles bled played in my head. A metaphor for my life.
“Come on, Mara,” he said, taking the woman’s arm.
We followed the same steps Woe had taken. The short staircase put me out next to the floor-to-ceiling altar at the front of the cathedral.
A thin layer of dust covered the ornate mahogany structure. It was due for a cleaning. Reaching into my pockets, I retrieved a small pad, and I scrawled a note so that I would later remember to request a cleaning.
Rows of empty pews filled the worship hall, and I led the way down the center aisle, through the doors and out into the street.
Mara and Lev murmured to one another as we kept a quick pace to Unseen Street. The full moon lit the streets, casting eerie shadows across the pavement. I was used to late hours and had seen too much in my life to be frightened by the bump-in-the-
night things I continually tracked. We turned down 110th until we descended into the subway station.
Unseen Street wasn’t so much a physical street as a separate universe that ran alongside ours. Chronologically, it kept its own pace, apart from New Haven City; a day on Unseen Street might be equal to a day in New Haven City, but it might not, too. Physically, it was closest to the mortal world from Broadwing to Morningbean, and then spilled out into Raven Hill Road.
At any point in that area, someone could cross over with the correct combination of scientific instruments or magic spells. The local Indian tribes had been the first to visit Unseen Street. They summoned magic from the caves now located inside the park, using the rock formations as a funnel and focuser. They effectively knocked on the closet door, and it had been flung open, gaining access to the tucked-away universe.
As more and more paranormal beings came to live in New Haven City, the line of priests who had cared for the paranormal while operating out of Our Lady of the Park Catholic Cathedral maintained a welcoming committee and a running list of inhabitants, their powers, and their weaknesses. Through the years, the List had grown into a catalogue containing the good, the bad, and the ugly details of all paranormal and supernatural creatures. The list was an invaluable secret.
At least back before everyone knew about it.
As we picked our way through the crowds in the station, we moved through gates and turnstiles and checkpoints.
Absently, I fingered the key that I always kept around my neck. It was the only way into the vault that housed the thousand-page list. If nefarious hands ever captured the index of paranormal creatures, they’d be able to build a team powerful enough to take over the planet.
The scent of rotting fish and stagnant water assaulted my nose. There was no mistaking the smell of magic and were-creatures. That meant we were close.
Mara stepped between us, placed her hand in the middle of a “0” that marked a column in the center of the train platform. The circle fluoresced and then widened, extending the pocket universe until it enveloped us, hiding us from the crowds that were coming and going. A rectangular gateway opened, but two eight-feet-tall, Egyptian jackals blocked the way.
“Lev,” the one on the left intoned, his smile exposing pointed teeth. “Back for more cigars?”
“Not today,” Lev answered. His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down.
The gate attendants both resembled depictions of Anubis, and both were seated behind a desk, pens poised over paper. It was an odd place to find Jaru—or Reality—Jumpers. They scrutinized the other two members of our trio before their eyes settled on me.
The jackal on the left snapped its jaw closed and leaped over his desk, snarling and growling. The one on the right wasn’t going to be any help. He glared as though he wanted to escort me to the embalmers himself.
Trylon and his brother were old friends of mine. I had helped their other brother on his way after he had vandalized New Haven City Hall for the fourth time and engineered a plot to make a shape-changer the mayor.
When paranormal things went sideways, the stakes were always bigger than the public knew.
“Trylon.” I didn’t have much time to take the upper hand. I curled my upper lip and showed my teeth, feigning displeasure. It wasn’t hard. Those two had been a multitude of trouble in New Haven.
It could go well. Or I could die.
“Perisphere,” I added, sneering at the other one. Go big or get shot.
Neither said much else, but Trylon rose up on his hind legs and pulled a glowing pulse gun from beneath his loincloth.
“You aren’t welcome here,” Trylon growled.
“I intend to escort Mara to her apartment.” I glanced from one to the other. Maybe they would take the peaceable road. “You two can come with us.”
“No,” Trylon snarled. He glared at Mara, and then he glared at Lev. “What trash have you brought us? There’s a bounty on his head. I will be most pleased to collect it.”
Lev raised his hands. “No, boys, there’s not any reason to—”
Mara shrieked when Trylon launched himself toward me.
I grunted as his furry arms wrapped my chest and squeezed…
He pressed the pulse gun to my temple and forced me to my knees. At the impact of the pavement on my sensitive joints, the air rushed from my lungs.
“Why shouldn’t I kill this scum?” Trylon’s acidic green spittle splattered against my cheek and burned my skin.
If I survived the encounter, I’d probably have scar-freckles from Trylon’s spit. I could live with scar-freckles.
“Kill me if you wish,” I bellowed. “The Clan Everlasting will welcome me with yips of praise. I do not fear death. The Great Pack will be my eternal home.” Then I howled, pointing my chin at the sky.
Lev rolled his eyes and shook his head. Mara had her hands clutched beneath her chin. She obviously didn’t know how the Reality Jumpers worked.
Perisphere looked the other way, but the corner of his mouth twitched.
“You two should have followed your brother out of New Haven.” Not taken the next job that came along. I didn’t cower or shrink away from Trylon.
“Is that so?” Trylon tapped the weapon against my temple.
“He deserved what he got.” I worked up a glob of spit and flung at the ground beside us. Then I flinched, waiting for the death shot. Or the laugh.
Thumbs up or thumbs down from the emperor.
Waiting for the bolt of energy to decimate my brain, the life I’d lived didn’t flash before my eyes.
Instead, I pictured Woe in the firelight of the Athenaeum, laughing at the priest-went-into-the-bar joke I had told to lighten the somber mood. She had fallen silent and hesitantly licked her lips, and I hadn’t been able to tear my gaze away from her movement. Trembling, I had reached for her. Her tears had caught the light and sparkled as they had fallen over her pale cheeks.
“Don’t, Jason. You’re too late. I’m his now,” she whispered.
Then she slipped out without another word, and neither of us spoke of it again.
In forty-seven years of memory only one regret surfaced.
I should have been Woe’s first kiss.
10
Risky Business
Lev
Jason mastered the skill of over-acting. The unique form of bargaining made it clear.
At least to me.
Perisphere, Trylon, and Mara hadn’t figured it out yet.
Jason kneeled on the pavement with Trylon’s weapon jammed against his temple. Trylon conversed with Perisphere in their own language, probably about the bounty on Jason’s head.
Outside our bubble, oblivious commuters climbed on and off trains, walking by our unfolding drama, unable to see anything. No telling what would happen to the spell that hid us from the mortal realm if a weapon discharged. Trylon and Jason faced off, glaring at each other.
Trylon had the weapon, and what he thought the upper hand. Jason pretended it didn’t matter to him. Yet the murderous glint in Jason’s eyes mostly fake.
I shook my head. All for honor.
Or at least the semblance of it.
Mara wrung her hands, and her chin quivered. She had been sucked into the pseudo-drama. Obviously, she didn’t know much about the Reality Jumpers as a species. That meant she probably hadn’t been living on Unseen Street for long. Their kind came and went often.
We had to tread carefully with her. Naivety could get all of us killed, and I didn’t want to spend more time than necessary on Unseen Street.
Time to move things along.
“Now, now,” I said as I placed one hand over the charged weapon and pressed the barrel toward the ground, sensing the increased tempo of the creature’s heart. “You don’t want to make a bloody mess right here.”
Trylon met my gaze, sizing me up. It didn’t take clairvoyance to know what he was considering.
“I’m far past my prime,” I said, raising my hands to drive the point home. S
tress strengthened the raspy edge of my voice, and the timbre deepened. “I am not likely to increase your standing in the afterworld. I would be much too easy to kill for a warrior such as you.”
Trylon took the compliment to heart and inflated his chest.
I pressed down once more on the wavering weapon. “It’s been a good day for all of us. Let’s keep it that way, shall we?”
The Jumper’s erratic pulse slowed.
Over one hundred and sixty years had passed since I’d shifted. It wasn’t possible—not anymore, and my powers didn’t pass over into spellcasting. A beached whale in the middle of a subway station would not have been helpful to our situation. My, but that would have given public commuters a fright. I couldn’t resist a chuckle.
Jason’s eyebrows drew together. “Are you trying to help me or harm me?”
Trylon gritted his teeth, and the ray gun came up an inch.
“I’m considering the pros and cons,” I said.
Jason stiffened.
Trylon was a decent sort whenever I came down this way, but he had a hair-trigger temper. Perisphere was the calmer of the two but always followed where Trylon led.
“Come down off your lonely crow’s nest, Jason,” I said. “You’re not the boss in this part of the city. These two are the gatekeepers. Treat them like it.”
It was Jason’s turn to grit his teeth. He didn’t mean it, but the key was getting everybody through the mess and save face.
“Oh, most gracious Trylon and Perisphere, otherworldly brothers, legends of your good deeds precede you.”
Jason exaggerated his words and his sarcastic tone.
Mara gasped again but pressed her hands over her mouth. Surely, by now, she could tell Jason did it on purpose.
To Trylon, I said, “You know, something came to mind as I popped over for cigars.” Casual conversation would diffuse the situation even more.
“That’s been quite some time, Lev,” Trylon answered, and he relaxed slightly.
I counted back and blanched. “You’re right. I’m as old as dirt.”
“That’s not what I meant. How long has it been?”
Leviathan's Rise Page 6
