Forged Steel

by H A Titus

  "So," I said. Neither David nor Larae acknowledged me. I kept going. "How do you guys know where to find Marc? It can't be common knowledge where Blodheyr keeps his prisoners."

  "It's common knowledge that he owns a loan shop near the pink strip club on south Campbell," Larae said in a flat voice. "We'll start there and see if we can find anything. If not…" Her voice trailed away. Her hands tightened around the shotgun.

  David took up her thought. "If not, we'll have to start from square one again, and hope Eliaster gives us enough time."

  "Doubtful. That selfish amadán doesn't care about anything other than his conspiracy theories," Larae muttered.

  I fingered the raw area on my neck and looked out the window. We rumbled up to a stoplight. Beside us, a fae in a pickup revved his engine and motioned to David, egging him on to a race.

  Just how many fae were there in Springfield? I scanned the sidewalk. Most of the shops were closed at this time of night, but in the parking lot beside us, under a light, I could see a group of five teenagers playing hacky sack. Two of them were fae. Across the street at a gas station, a fae girl stepped out of her car, her glamour image blurring her real face.

  I frowned. Did every city have this many fae? Were we humans really so oblivious? Another shiver crawled over my skin.

  The light turned green, and the Porsche glided forward. David ignored the roaring engine as the truck blazed ahead.

  A couple of blocks went by without any more fae sightings. The pink strip club came into view, the neon lights clashing with the orange city-glow of the clouds overhead. We pulled past it and into the next lot. A small group of shops sat beside a fence that separated the parking lot from the strip club. Two pawn shops bookended the group, and in the middle was a bar with one boarded up window, and a shop with the words

  24-Hour Loans: Quick Cash emblazoned above the door in broken neon lights. All but the loan shop lights were dim.

  "Cheery place," I muttered.

  David parked close to the loan shop. He turned in his seat. "You hang back, Josh. Even if you are some human fighting prodigy, you're not ready for a fight yet, and Eliaster would have my head if you got hurt."

  "Fine by me."

  He raised an eyebrow. "What is, hanging back, or Eliaster having my head?"

  "Either one."

  David guffawed. I tried to laugh, but it sounded more like a whimper.

  Larae pushed her door open and slid her seat forward. As I crawled out, the sword hilt snagged on a seatbelt, jerking me to a halt. I freed it and trotted after David and Larae as they headed around to the back of the shops. As we walked, Larae unzipped her backpack, removed several throwing stars, and slid them into loops on the sleeves of her jacket. She loaded her shotgun and ratcheted the cartridges into place.

  David unzipped his jacket and withdrew two pistols from a shoulder holster.

  I rubbed my sword hilt, full-out vampire bats fluttering in my gut.

  Behind the shop, there was another fence. The tiny space had just enough room for one car and three Dumpsters. Larae glanced into the car while David went straight to the shop door.

  "How are we going to get in there?" I asked.

  David tried the knob. The door swung open, silent and smooth. He grinned at me and ducked inside.

  Larae and I walked after him. The door opened into an employee area with a battered TV with a converter box perched on the top, a scraped-up refrigerator, and a depressing table and chairs set. A closed door to our right had the word Office on it, and an open doorway ahead led into the shop area.

  David glanced into the brightly-lit shop. The place was sparse, with a dingy carpet, a few chairs, and a Formica counter that housed a computer and a couple of desktop calendars. Underneath the counter, shelves were stuffed to overflowing with boxes and file folders.

  Larae reached around David and turned the lights off in the front of the shop. "Where's the employee?"

  David jerked his head toward the office. "I'll check in there. You two take care of the stuff up front."

  I headed straight for the computer. It was on, the desktop background a shot of a skimpily-dressed woman reclining on a couch of dollar bills. I followed the wires to a power strip at the back of a shelf and pulled the plug.

  Larae knelt beside me and started digging through the boxes.

  I turned the computer box on its side. "You don't happen to have a screwdriver, do you?"

  She pulled a multi-tool from her hip pocket and handed it to me. I flipped the Phllips-head screwdriver out, unscrewed the sides of the box, and pulled out the hard drive.

  "What good is that going to do us?" Larae asked, riffling through a folder. She growled and threw it to the side.

  Before I could answer, a body came flying through the doorway. The guy crashed onto his back and laid still, blood trickling from his nose. David stepped into the shop, flexing his hand and wincing.

  "You didn't…ahhh…" I started.

  "He'll wake up with a headache and maybe a broken nose," David said, rolling the guy on his side. He pushed past me and crouched beside Larae. "There's another computer in the office, if you're done with this one. I'll help Larae here."

  I nodded, stuffed the hard drive into my pocket, and went back through the break room to the office. There was another door in the office, leading into a bathroom. The office was just big enough for a tall safe and a desk, both stacked with more folders and loose papers.

  I ran my hand through my hair. If clues to Marc's whereabouts were hidden in the paper files, we were screwed. We could probably go through the files for years and not see it all.

  A blinking icon on the bottom of the computer screen caught my eye. I grabbed the mouse and hovered over the icon.

  A pop-up window announced, Security alarm has been triggered.

  "Um, guys!" I poked my head into the break room.

  David looked out from the shop. "What?"

  "Your buddy must've triggered an alarm before you got to him."

  David swore. "Any countdown or clock or anything that lets us know when backup will get here?"

  "Nope."

  "Let's get moving, then. Larae! Hustle up!"

  I tipped the computer onto its side and pulled the hard drive. Just as I was moving it back into place, the back door crashed open. Four fae with swords stormed into the break room. From somewhere in the front, David starting cursing. I slammed the office door.

  Seconds later, it shuddered. I threw my weight against it, my felt-soled sneakers sliding on the carpet as the fae pushed. I was never wearing Converses on a covert mission again. Something broke in the shop. Larae's voice rose, screeching in Gaelic.

  I stumbled as I lost my grip on the door. Goldtooth stood in the doorway, grinning.

  If I get through this, I'm buying myself boots. Maybe with built-in spikes. I shuffled backward and drew my sword, brought the weapon up at an angle in front of my body. The blade stayed steady in my hand.

  "Nice to see you again, Josh." Goldtooth's eyes flicked to the sword, and his grin stretched wider. "One of Opti's? My, my, Eliaster really must think highly of you. How cute." He drew a long knife from his belt and edged forward.

  I gripped my sword with both hands. "No verbal sparring this time, huh?"

  "I must admit you're my better in that. We'll just go straight to the physical sparring this time." He lunged, sweeping the knife up under my guard.

  I jerked back and knocked his hand out of the way with my hilt. The Unseelie recovered and came at me again. I caught his knife stroke. The tip of my sword sliced into the wall. Goldtooth scraped the knife down my sword blade and slashed the back of my arm.

  I hissed and stepped back. The heel of my back foot thudded into the wall. Stinging pain ran along the shallow cut. He shouldn't have been able to come near me with that knife, but the length of my weapon was no longer an asset in the cramped office. I mentally cussed out Eliaster for telling me a sword would be more useful than a pistol.

  Gold
tooth didn't attack, but stayed alert, his dark eyes on my weapon. He knew he had me cornered. I squared my shoulders, inched the sword a fraction higher.

  Over his shoulder, I caught sight of turquoise and black striped hair.

  I dropped my sword and held up my hands. "You know what? You're my better at fighting. I'll readily admit that."

  Goldtooth snorted. A throwing star zipped past his neck and hand and buried itself in the drywall by my shoulder. Blood welled along two thin cuts on the fae's neck and hand. He snarled and spun, only to smash straight into the butt of Larae's shotgun.

  He crashed to the floor, blood running over his lips and chin.

  Larae turned and headed for the back door. I grabbed my sword and headed after her. As we stepped into the alley, David came barreling after us, a fae with a raised sword chasing him. Larae raised her gun to her shoulder. David ducked. The Unseelie took a faceful of pellets and dropped. Acrid smoke drifted into my face as the sound of the shot bounced back and forth between the walls of the narrow alley.

  I rubbed my ears. Even in the aftermath of the shotgun blast, I could hear the wail of sirens. They were dangerously close. I ran around the side of the building. Two black SUVs were parked at the pawn shop curb, both with their driver-side doors hanging open, one still running. David and Larae ran past me,heading for the Porsche.

  "Come on!" David yelled to me.

  I jerked one jacket sleeve over my hand, leaned inside the still-running SUV, and plucked the keys from the ignition. I stuffed them into my pocket, then checked the other vehicle. That driver had been smarter—they'd taken the keys with them.

  The sirens were louder now. I glanced up, saw flashing blue and red lights bouncing off the pale pink strip club walls. David revved the Porsche's engine. I ran over and clambered inside, squishing past Larae to the back seat. David peeled out of the parking lot as she slammed the door. I twisted in my seat and watched as three police cars squealed into the opposite side of the lot.

  My heart pounded so hard I almost expected it to burst. I sank against the seat and took a deep breath. I held up my hands. Just like the last two times I'd been in danger, they were just now beginning to shake. I'd always been able to compartmentalize very well, but I'd never expected that I could just shove away any fear reaction until the danger was over. I dropped my hands to my legs, clenched handfuls of my jeans. Was I turning into some kind of psycho?

  "Never a dull moment," David said cheerfully.

  "Well, at least we got the computer hard drives," Larae said. "Eliaster won't kill us for nothing."

  "Small comforts," I muttered to myself.

  #

  I ditched the SUV keys in a trash can outside the ground level of the parking garage. We sneaked back through Roe's front door at three in the morning.

  Roe wasn't there, waiting for us, so I guessed she'd gone to bed. I crept up the stairs, cursing every creak, collected my computer gear, and headed back down to the library. Larae and David were crashed in their usual spots. David already looked half asleep, his arm tucked under his head. Eliaster's chair was vacant.

  I settled in on the couch, plugged in the hard drives, and started combing through them. For all the trouble we'd been through, there wasn't much on them. The shop computer mostly had games on its hard drive. The office computer had a few more programs I expected for a business computer, including an accounting program, but that was no good.

  I needed to dig into the very core of the hard drive, to access data that I wouldn't be able to access through normal means. I shut down the external hard drive reader, opened my word processor, and began to lay down lines of code. It would be a piece of cake to write a simple program that could crawl through the hidden data, extracting passwords and cached and deleted files from the hard drives.

  Larae looked over my shoulder. "What are you doing?"

  "Writing a program to access some data."

  "Did you find anything on the hard drives?"

  "Not yet."

  She groaned. "Please don't tell me that was a worthless risk."

  "Don't rule it out yet." I squinted and double checked the last couple of lines. "I might be able to dig up passwords, deleted files, all sorts of stuff. Just give me a little time."

  David chuckled. "You say that a lot."

  I pursed my lips and glared at him over the edge of the laptop screen. "That's because you people keep asking me to do things that take time, but you expect immediate results."

  The front door rattled under a couple of heavy blows. I jumped, nearly dumping the laptop onto the floor. Larae went into the hallway. The door creaked open, and Eliaster's voice exploded into the house.

  "What were you thinking?" he bellowed. The library door slammed open and he stomped inside. "Out of all the freakin' stupid things you could do—"

  "What did we do?" Larae demanded. "For all you know we've been sitting here quietly all night!"

  "Strike three." Eliaster ran his hands through his hair, making the blond spikes stand up even more.

  What was—oh, right. Blodheyr had said something on the video about 'strike two' for Eliaster. "What moved you up to strike three?" I glanced at David and Larae's puzzled faces and remembered we'd never told them about the video.

  "You brilliant people did, apparently. Whatever happened, Blodheyr thinks I'm responsible, and that makes the third time I've meddled with his plans."

  Roe shuffled into the room, tying the belt on her bathrobe and yawning. Her white hair fluffed around her face like a cloud. "What's going on?"

  Eliaster grabbed my arm and pulled me off the couch. I grabbed my computer and just managed to prevent it falling to the floor.

  "Get your stuff. We're leaving right now." He spun to Roe and gently put his hands on her shoulders. "I'm sorry, but I think you'll have to come too, just for now. I think I lost it, but I don't want to take chances."

  She gripped his hands. "Lost what, Eliaster?"

  "Yeah, how about you actually explain something for once rather than leaving us all in the dark?" David said.

  "Please, guys." Wild, random spikes of color shot through Eliaster's eyes. He gave Roe a gentle push toward the door. "Just get going."

  Larae stared gap-mouthed at him.

  "Oh, how the mighty has fallen," I said, stuffing my laptop into my bag. "You actually said please, Eliaster. Sure you're not coming down with something?"

  He stepped to the front of the room and edged back the curtain over the window. David shrugged at Larae, and they left to grab their stuff. I slung the messenger bag over my shoulder and joined Eliaster at the window.

  The street outside was light with the dull orange night-glow of the light globes. Thin lines of light showed from other houses on the block, outlining windows that had heavy curtains or blinds in front of them. The street was deserted except for one black-cloaked figure walking down the center of the road.

  Eliaster tensed, and one hand crept down to a sword hilt, gripping it so tight his fingers whitened.

  The figure's head turned from side to side as it strode down the road. It passed a bit of light from a window, and that brief second, I saw the flash of long, glistening claws emerging from the cloak's sleeves.

  Eliaster dropped the curtain back in place, his jaw muscles bunching. He went into the hall. "Roe!"

  She came down the stairs, dressed in khakis tucked into rugged knee-high boots, and a dark button down shirt. She held a large, colorful tote tucked under one arm. David and Larae stood near the front door. Larae was peering out of the door window.

  She turned to Eliaster, eyes wide. "He sent a sluagh for us?"

  "For me. He told me he would, one day, if I didn't stop interfering." The tinge of fear had disappeared from Eliaster's voice. His eyes had calmed, and his face was set in hard, impassive lines.

  "Do we have time to lay down a couple of knots?" David asked. "Slow it down a little, anyway?"

  "We shouldn't have to," Roe said. "The windows and doors are lined with sil
ver. It can't cross those lines."

  I looked over Larae's shoulder. The thing—the sluagh—had paused in the street, facing the door. The head shifted, and a cold chill struck through my skin, to my bones. Somehow, even though I couldn't see into the dark depths of the hood, I knew it had just made eye contact with me. Some part of me, deep inside my chest, clenched like a fist, squeezing a small gasp from my lungs.

  Roe gave me a concerned glance, then put her hand on Eliaster's arm. "We're safe here. You can relax."

  He shifted free of her touch. "Let's get in a back room anyway, away from the windows."

  We'd just started toward the kitchen when the front door crashed open, making us all stagger back. The sluagh stood in the doorway, clawed hands raised. Its hood had fallen back.

  The thing's face had skin stretched tight over its skull, spurs of bone like a hooked beak lined with sharp teeth overhanging the mouth area. Sunken cavities marred either side of its face where cheeks should have been, and fine white wisps of hair hung over its shoulders. The eyes were black, but seemed to glow from deep within. The effect was like a dark, unholy anti-fire, not providing light, but instead sucking it into the shifting darkness.

  My gut clenched tighter as it made eye contact with me, and I doubled forward, gasping in pain and clutching at my heart, but still unable to break eye contact. Rushing, like ocean waves, filled my ears. Over the noise, I could vaguely hear Eliaster yelling something at the others. The sluagh reached toward me, clawed appendages nicking into my shirt.

  Something in my chest tugged hard, sending a burst of sharp, clarifying pain through me. I grunted, pushed back against whatever it was that dragged me closer to the sluagh.

  Eliaster lunged between us, the fireplace poker clenched like a sword in one fist. He slammed the poker into the sluagh's side, and it shrieked—an impossibly high, harsh cry that like a bird of prey.

  The pain in my chest eased.

  Eliaster shoved me. "Move!"

  We dashed through the house and out the kitchen back door. As I clattered down the back steps, I realized Eliaster wasn't with me again. I spun around, the glass door slipping from my hand and swinging shut.