by Leah Cutter
“Delivery!” I told them cheerfully, walking directly toward them.
This seemed to startle them, at least for a few moments.
Not enough time, though, for me to actually get through the door.
“Hey, wait, we don’t know of no delivery,” the one on the right said.
“You really want to keep Dusty waiting?” I asked, leaning back before either of them reached for me. “I got the papers here for him to sign.”
The two goons looked at each other.
“Just a second, let me check,” the first goon said. “No one told me to expect any papers.”
“Yeah, cause they’re going to tell you everything,” I said disparagingly, giving him the once–over.
I turned and looked at the other guy. “You got more than two brain cells to rub together?” I asked.
He just gaped at me. Dumber than a box of rocks. No, the rocks might have been insulted in comparison.
“Look,” I said. “You going to let me in? Or you going to check? Then wait for your last paycheck?” I asked. I backed away a couple of steps, ready to run out the door if either of them tried anything stupid.
Just then, the door opened.
The first person coming out the door wasn’t Dusty.
It was Hunter.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I asked.
Hunter looked confused, as well as more scared than usual.
I hated that look on him. It meant he was using again. A lot.
“Cassie?” he asked, confused. Then he moved, as only Hunter could move.
I only registered that the door had closed by the echoing slam. First one, then the second of the goons went flying.
“What are you doing here?” Hunter asked, coming to that eerie complete stop that he did directly in front of me. “I can’t protect you here.”
“And I can’t protect you at all,” I told him. “So maybe you should come with me.”
Hunter reached behind him and pulled harshly on the door, preventing anyone behind him from coming through. “Dusty won’t be pleased,” he said slowly.
Fuck. Was Hunter working for Dusty?
“Dusty will just have to understand,” I told Hunter. I took two steps away, then turned around, seeing Hunter still struggling with the door. “Come on!” I told him.
Hunter looked at me, pausing for another long moment. Then he levitated up and kicked down on the door handle, breaking it off.
I’d forgotten just how freakishly strong Hunter was.
“Where we going?” Hunter asked as he rushed past me and out the door.
“This way!” I shouted, pointing at Hakeem’s town car.
Hunter hustled his way over there, getting to the car well before me and opening the door.
Hakeem was already squealing toward the exit before we got the back door slammed shut.
Not that I think Dusty and his goons would have started shooting at us when they got out of the tennis courts.
But better safe than sorry.
Hunter just grinned at me. “So where are we going?” he asked.
I gave him a shrug. “Where else? To save the world.”
Chapter Fourteen
Getting a coherent story out of Hunter was challenging. He’d been tripping. A lot.
Had Dusty been drugging him? Lying to him about dosage? That wouldn’t surprise me.
Hunter had known that we needed the ghost tripper drug, that we would need it to be able to see the non–men without it. Why, after he got the drug, he then hadn’t come to find me, I wasn’t quite sure. Something about how he wasn’t there in the end battle. His visions turning dark. Vines and things creeping in with his sight.
Had Erik somehow managed to fuck with Hunter’s visions? I didn’t know if it was possible.
If I could somehow run into Dr. T outside of the Jacobson Consortium, I’d have to be sure to ask her.
“Dude,” I told Hunter, interrupting his third lamentation about me being alone at the end. “There won’t be a single battle. There are probably going to be two. You might need to be at the other location.”
Hunter blinked, blinked some more, then seemed to melt into the seat of the car. “Oh,” he said, deflating, all of his manic energy dissipating. “I had thought…I had thought that you would be alone. That you would save the world again. Not me.”
“Without you finding Loki, I wouldn’t have been able to save the world the first time,” I told Hunter seriously. Hunter was the one who’d hunted Loki down. “I wouldn’t have known to go after him without you.”
“I helped?” Hunter asked.
I’d never heard Hunter’s voice so broken. “You were essential,” I assured him. “Both last time and this.”
“But I didn’t save the world,” Hunter said. “You did. I was the one who had to be saved. After Loki…after Loki…”
Fuck. I hadn’t heard that tone before from Hunter. But I’d heard it from the working girls. More than once.
It hadn’t occurred to me that Loki would have abused Hunter. I cursed silently and vowed that I would make damned sure that Hunter got the therapy he needed.
“There isn’t a Loki, this time,” I told Hunter firmly. “But there are bad guys. Lots and lots of bad guys. And no one is as effective as you at laying waste to large groups of opponents.”
Hunter nodded, considering. “We will need to stop them,” he said slowly.
“Yeap. You and me. Blood brothers to the end,” I told him.
“You shouldn’t fight,” Hunter said, turning his head to look at me.
It was like it was the first time he was seeing me since the tennis club.
“What the hell do you mean by that?” I asked, bristling.
Hunter shook his head. “You won’t move like me, not ever,” he admitted. “I was wrong, trying to teach you that, thinking that was what I should be teaching you. Instead, I should have taught you how to hunt. Like how I do.”
Now it was my turn to blink. “Oh,” I said. That…that actually made sense. It was all tangled up in our paranormal abilities, that weren’t really like anyone else’s.
“I don’t know where this group will be meeting tonight,” I told Hunter. “Just a vague idea. Somewhere near a body of water.”
Hunter sat up, his usual unbounded energy bouncing around us. He caught Hakeem’s eye in the mirror. “Are you ready to help us?” he asked seriously.
“To save the world? Yes,” Hakeem said seriously.
How much had he understood of our conversation? Or was he just humoring the obviously crazy man?
Hunter gave me a huge grin, almost boyish. “Then let the hunt begin.”
Ξ
Hakeem took us off the freeway as soon as he could, following back roads and side streets that only locals knew.
Hunter approved. “We should keep this driver,” he whispered to me at one point.
“I’d like to,” I said. I wasn’t looking forward to how much money this trip was going to cost me.
Outside, the houses appeared like black lumps. I told myself that the Old Ones hadn’t already risen, that they were just houses, not haunted places, the windows empty eyes, the fences like teeth. The few cars we passed were driven by normal men and women, not zombies or mindless hordes.
We’d decided to start on the river road, next to the Mississippi. It was the longest contiguous stretch of water. We figured we’d increase the chances of finding the cultists starting there.
As we approached the river, Hunter started directing Hakeem, telling him to go south first, sticking to side streets, then go back north.
“What is it? What are you sensing?” I asked.
“Close your eyes,” Hunter instructed. “Now, find your area of knowing.”
I followed his instruction. I jumped when he reached over and took my hand.
I was a post–cog. Hunter was a pre–cog. We shouldn’t have been able to share a damned thing.
But Hunter had always proclaimed me his bl
ood brother, even though he’d never been able to describe what that meant.
“Follow the strongest line first,” Hunter told me.
Because we were traveling, even at slow speed, the lines kept changing. I couldn’t find a single area to grab onto. “I can’t see anything,” I growled at him.
“No, no, not see. Just follow the line along,” Hunter said. “Don’t go diving into the area yet. Then follow the next line. Then the next.”
That didn’t make any sense, but I tried to do as Hunter asked. It got easier after a bit, though I was never, ever one to just “go with the flow.”
But that appeared to be what I needed to do, flowing from one main line to the next to the next.
“Okay,” I told Hunter after a bit. “I think I got it.”
“Good,” Hunter said. He squeezed my hand. “See if you can show me.”
I sighed. The only person I’d ever shared with was Sam.
But Sam wasn’t here, would likely never be here again.
Instead, I tried to push what I was seeing, one line after another, toward Hunter. It was like pushing through thick cotton wool. There wasn’t anything to grab onto, or even anything solid to push through. It all seemed to be slow motion in a gray fog. I couldn’t tell if I was making any progress at all.
Suddenly, a window opened, as if someone had been digging through the wool from the other side. I didn’t see a hand, but that was what it felt like—as though a hand had broken through the wall and had grabbed the line I was trying to push through.
“Easy there, boy,” I told Hunter when he tried to pull. I could only move as fast as the lines appeared.
Damn. Did Hunter do everything at superhuman speed?
Hunter relaxed his grip and suddenly he was there, sharing the view.
For a moment, I wondered if this ability was another that the Jacobson Consortium knew all about and had just never bothered to inform the community.
“Good, good,” Hunter said. “Now, let me show you what I’m seeing.”
My line was suddenly boxed in a long rectangle. As the line progressed, the box duplicated to the side, moving with it.
The whole area lit up, then went dark again. Then lit up again when Hunter turned it.
“See?” he asked softly.
“The light?” I asked.
I felt Hunter’s shoulder shrug against mine. “I don’t see brightness, just clearness,” he said. “But there,” he said, turning his area of knowing. “There. To the south.”
“Yes,” I said, excited as the area lit up again. “What does that mean exactly?”
“That’s the location where something is likely to happen,” Hunter explained. “It isn’t certain. The timelines could always shift, someone could make a right turn instead of a left. But there’s a higher probability of an event occurring at that location. Since it’s tripping both of us, I’d say the probability is higher than when I’m hunting alone. It means something will occur that we’d both be able to see.”
“That’s kind of awesome,” I said.
Hakeem must have been listening to our conversation as he turned the car and was heading south again before we had to say anything.
“Were you trained to do this?” I asked Hunter.
Before he answered, we both said, “To the right!” out loud.
“The ghosts showed me,” Hunter said seriously.
“You know, I’m going to have to meet these ghosts some day,” I said.
Again, I felt Hunter’s shrug. “Someday,” he promised.
The car slowed. “Which way?” Hakeem’s voice sounded like it was very far away.
I opened my eyes. It was much darker outside. “I think we walk.”
“Yeah,” Hunter said. He caught Hakeem’s eye in the mirror again. “Thank you.”
“It was my pleasure!” Hakeem assured us.
“How much do I owe you?” I asked, pulling my wallet out of my pocket.
Hakeem waved it aside. “You are here to save the world, yes?”
I glanced at Hunter.
“This is where something significant will happen,” Hunter assured him.
“Then it was my pleasure to help,” Hakeem said. “And maybe, in the future, you will do me a favor.”
I didn’t like owing favors to anyone. Particularly not something as unspecified as this.
But I was broke, and soon to be out of a job.
“Deal,” I said.
Hakeem gave me a calculating smile. What kind of favor did he have in mind?
It didn’t matter. I’d find out later, if we managed to save the world.
Ξ
The night pressed in all around us. The humidity had gone through the roof. I wouldn’t have been surprised if was at two hundred percent or something ridiculous like that. The ferns and the leaves of the bushes near the path gleamed with sweat. Orange clouds rolled above us, close in and threatening.
Hunter and I moved along the river walk at a good clip. I wasn’t running—I don’t run—but I did try to keep up with him. He, in return, tried to move at a more human pace, though I could tell he was itching to just pick me up and go.
The group of cultists was actually easy to find. The walkway curved gently away from the river. In the opening, a group of half a dozen adults stood. They chanted in a weird, guttural language that sent nasty shivers down my spine. They held hands in a semicircle, facing the water.
Hunter pulled up sharply.
“What is it?” I asked as he pulled us both into shadows.
“Don’t you see?” he hissed. “They’re protected by guardians. The non–men.”
I didn’t see them.
Crap.
Did that mean I had to take the ghost tripper drug?
“Can’t you break through anyway?” I asked. “All we have to do is break the line.” That was what I’d done before.
Actually—one of the people in the line, that nerdy guy on the end—he looked like the one I’d tackled at Lake Calhoun.
Hunter looked at the line and the non–men critically. I could see the calculations running in his head. “I can break through,” he said softly.
“Can you do it and not kill the people?” I asked.
I mean, these were the creeps that were trying to bring hell to earth. I was okay with them getting permanently injured. But I didn’t want them dead. The paperwork and the court cases and everything else just wasn’t worth it.
Hunter thought some more. “I believe so.”
“Then go. Break that line. Stop them,” I said.
Hunter paused. “You must help too,” he said firmly.
I snorted. “Like some non–men are going to stop me.” Hell, if I couldn’t see them, maybe they couldn’t see me.
“The one on the end is mine,” I added. I was going to go tackle that nerdy guy again.
“Deal,” Hunter said. “Good hunting,” he added.
“You too,” I said. “Let’s roll.”
I crouched down, pausing to let Hunter hit the line first, then I took off, racing for the nerdy guy.
It was the weirdest feeling I’d ever had. When I came out of that crouch and tried to run, it was as if the air had turned to Jello.
Goddamn it. I didn’t know if it was the non–men holding me back or what. But it was a struggle to even go a few feet, let alone hit that asshole with speed.
Hunter wasn’t fairing much better. He could still move, but there appeared to be a lot of the non–men between him and the line. He whirled and kicked, took out opponents left and right, but still barely made any progress.
“Suggestions?” I called out to him.
Hunter turned, then took a huge step backwards, casting his hands forward. That seemed to disengage the non–men, at least for a few moments. He jogged over to me, only pausing a couple of times to strike opponents I couldn’t see.
“Maybe we should work together,” he said.
I’d never seen Hunter winded before, but these non–men seemed to be
taking it out of him.
I knew what that meant. I knew that meant I was going to have to take the ghost tripper drug.
I knew that I was screwing my own future.
But if there was going to be any kind of future at all, we had to stop these assholes.
“Hit me,” I said, holding out my hand.
Hunter put one of the luminous pearls in my palm. The night seemed to pause. The non–men shrank back—I no longer felt them breathing down my back.
“Well, here goes nothing,” I muttered, swallowing it down.
The drug seemed to take effect faster this time. Mists formed right away, shadows and sheets rolling across the open clearing.
I took another step back. I couldn’t see any shadows immediately around me. Then again, Hunter had sprung back into action, whirling and kicking and jabbing. It would have been more cool to watch if we didn’t have such a desperate purpose.
Finally, the night lightened up enough that I could see the other beings there. They weren’t like Loki or the other non–men, the armies I’d seen going to fight in Ragnarok. No, these were like primitive men, half–formed, with brutish faces and meaty hands. They wore ragged loincloths, and some had tiger hides tied across their shoulders.
“Left!” I directed Hunter as soon as I saw a pattern.
Hunter obliged and started fighting toward the left.
More of the non–men got into the fray. They wouldn’t overwhelm Hunter, even I could see that. And luckily, none of them carried any weapons.
They were still fierce fighters. I think normal people would have fallen over like shredded tissue paper under Hunter’s blows.
These guys weren’t trained, but they fought back, hit hard, and there were a lot of them.
Fortunately, they weren’t too bright.
As soon as most of them had started circling Hunter, I made my move.
First I raced to the far right of the group. None of the non–men followed me.
Then I abruptly turned and charged back. They were much easier to avoid now that I could see them.
They couldn’t stop me. I had some momentum finally.
I smacked directly into my target, wrenching him from the group, tackling him to the ground.
The non–men vanished abruptly when the chanting stopped. Hunter could easily take out the other guys in the group now, though only one of them actually put up any fight, a pudgy guy as nerdy as the one I’d tackled, who also wore glasses.
