“Ecclesiastes 3:3,” said Nadia.
“I am surprised you know the reference,” I said.
“The last time Lucy dragged me to church,” she said, “that was the reading.” She snorted. “Then she tried to match me up with some nice young man who had just completed his term of service as a man-at-arms in Duke Tamirlas’s forces.”
“And you turned him down for me?” I said. “I’m flattered.”
“Well, you should be,” said Nadia. Her face grew still. “Lucky for that nice young man.”
“It’s a bad idea to denigrate yourself in front of others,” I said.
“Come on, Riordan,” said Nadia, her voice growing serious. “You know what kind of person I am. Do you really think I should inflict myself on some nice young man who just finished his six years of service and wants to settle down with a family? How do you think that would go? ‘Oh, sorry dear, I would love to stay home and make dinner, but I have to go rob some damned mansion or another.’”
“You are too hard on yourself,” I said. “I expect you would get bored with a nice young man in short order.”
“And you’re not a nice young man?” said Nadia.
“I am neither,” I said.
“Then why are you here, then?” said Nadia.
“You did give me your phone number,” I said.
“Be serious for a minute,” said Nadia. “Why are you here?”
This wasn’t going well.
To be fair, it had been a long, long time since I had been on a first date and I was out of practice.
The most immediate answer, of course, was that I wanted to sleep with her. But while that was true, it was not the entire truth. If I wanted a one-night stand, I could get that anywhere without much effort. And I hadn’t, not for years. The experience of a short-term lover left me feeling colder and grimmer than I had before.
The truth was that she fascinated me, and not just because I wanted to sleep with her. She was smart and brave and determined, so determined that it was almost inhuman. She had sacrificed her entire life to save her brother. Nadia Moran might have been ruthless and cold and without a trace of mercy, but she loved her brother so much that she had dared the Shadowlands to save him.
And I had to admit that her constant irreverent remarks made me laugh. Few things could do that any longer.
I spent too long wrestling with my answer.
“Ah,” said Nadia. “It’s a way to get at my employer, isn’t it?” She was smart enough not to use Kaethran Morvilind’s name in public. “Because of what he did to your brother.”
“No,” I said. “I hate him for what he did…but it was a long time ago. And I cannot avenge Aidan. I might as well declare war upon the sun.” She nodded. She knew Morvilind’s power as well as I did. “And your employer did keep his word and save my sister’s life. Hopefully he will do the same for your brother.”
Nadia nodded. “All right. So why are you here?”
“That would depend,” I said. “Why are you here?”
Nadia blinked. “What?”
“You said it yourself,” I said. “You’re not the kind of woman for a nice young man. You need secrecy and stealth, not a burger and fries at the sports bar. You were the one who gave me your number. I didn’t ask for it, but you gave it to me anyway.”
She sat in silence for a moment. A waitress approached, and we both ordered cups of coffee. I waited as Nadia thought.
“A while back,” said Nadia at last, staring off into the distance, “I was…in a relationship, let’s say.” I nodded. “It ended very badly. He wasn’t who I thought he was, and I almost got killed.”
“Bet you made him regret that,” I said.
She smiled a vicious smile. “And then some. But after I got away, I swore I would never let myself be vulnerable again. That I would never let anyone have power over me again.” She shrugged, a little embarrassed. “And then…you found out who I really was. And you didn’t screw me over with that knowledge.”
“Why would I do that?” I said, baffled. “You saved my life…twice, I think. Maybe three times, depending on how you count it.”
“I would say four times,” said Nadia. “Anyway, I was sure you would try to screw me over with the truth. When you didn’t…I decided to take a risk.” She shrugged again. “It’s just possible I have trust issues.”
I burst out laughing.
She glared at me. “It’s not funny.”
I stared right back.
“Okay, maybe it’s a little funny,” said Nadia. “A little. Anyway, you didn’t betray me.” She smiled a little. “And…you looked really good in a tuxedo.”
“Flatterer,” I said. “If it makes you feel better, I have trust issues, too. I was married once, and in a relationship for a long time. Neither time…ended well.”
Nadia nodded. “Nora mentioned that.”
“Nora talks too much.”
“No one’s perfect,” said Nadia.
“No,” I said.
“So maybe we can learn to trust each other slowly,” said Nadia. “Over time.” She paused. “If…you’re all right with taking things slowly.”
“Yes,” I said. “I would prefer it.”
“I thought Shadow Hunters had different women every night of the week,” said Nadia, some of her sardonic manner reasserting itself.
“No,” I said. “Your brother has been reading too many trashy novels.”
“Those are the ones he doesn’t tell Lucy about,” said Nadia, and then she laughed.
“What?” I said.
“This is a first date,” she said, “and we’ve talked about religion, politics, and our exes. All I need is to throw up on your coat and I think we’ll have committed every faux paus possible.”
“Or we got the worst out of the way,” I said, “and we can enjoy ourselves.”
“That would be…” started Nadia.
Someone screamed, long and loud.
My first reaction was one of tremendous annoyance. The first time I had been on a date in years, and something like this had to happen? Then my training and instincts took over, and I got to my feet, my Shadowmorph stirring within me. I didn’t have a gun or a knife on me, but that didn’t mean I was unarmed. I had the training and spells from my time in the Wizard’s Legion, and I could have killed half the people in the dining room with a lightning bolt before anyone could stop me. My Shadowmorph made me faster and stronger than a normal man, and it could also manifest as a blade of shadow capable of cutting through almost anything. Of course, the Shadowmorph wanted to kill everyone in the room and feast upon their lives, but I kept that impulse in check.
Nadia had gotten to her feet as well, her left hand twitching toward the right side of her coat, likely where she had her gun hidden.
One of the waitresses ran towards the sports bar’s emergency exit. A man in the white uniform of a cook had stumbled through the door, his shirt shredded and wet with blood. He went to one knee, breathing hard. There were claw marks visible through his shirt, and I had seen wounds like that several times before.
“A wolf,” rasped the cook, “it was a wolf…”
“Is there a doctor here?” shouted the waitress.
As it happened, there was one doctor and three nurses, all with the hard, distant looks I associated with veteran men-at-arms. Likely they had treated wounds inflicted on men-at-arms by the creatures of the Shadowlands. In short order, they took charge of the situation, bundling up the cook and tending to his wounds, and the panic in the dining room died before it could begin.
“Goddamn dogs,” I heard one man say.
“It’s the Archon attack,” said another. “A lot of people got killed, and their dogs went feral.”
It was a reasonable explanation. It was also completely wrong.
Nadia and I sat back down. Her face was tight, her eyes hard.
“Hell of a dog,” she said in a quiet voice.
“You don’t believe that any more than I do,” I
said.
She nodded. “Wraithwolf?”
“Probably,” I said. “Or a similar creature.”
“You think someone summoned it?” Nadia said.
“It probably came through one of the gates,” I said. “The Archons had a dozen gates throughout Milwaukee, and some of them were open for hours until you moved the Cruciform Eye. Likely quite a few creatures slipped through the gate and have been hiding out in the city ever since.”
Nadia stared at me for a moment, all the emotion draining out of her face, and I wondered what I had said.
Then she stood up.
“This was a mistake,” she said. “I shouldn’t have come here. Thanks for the coffee.”
Without another word she walked for the door.
I stared after her, baffled. Was she frightened of the wraithwolf? She had less cause to be frightened than most people, given her magical abilities. Had I offended her?
Had I…oh, to hell with it.
I almost let her go. I didn’t need this kind of trouble in my life. Nora’s warning played over in my head again. Nadia was indeed exactly my type, and that had gotten me into trouble in past. This would have been too complicated. I was better off just walking away.
I watched her go through the front door, and came to a decision.
“They’re right,” I muttered, getting to my feet. “I am an idiot.”
I left a few dollars on the table to cover the cost of the coffees and followed Nadia to the sidewalk. By the time I reached her she was astride her sportbike, reaching into her coat for her keys, her helmet balanced on the seat before her. She tensed when I stopped a few yards from her motorcycle.
“Dear God, I hope you’re not going to beg for me to come back?” she said.
“Of course not,” I said. “That would be undignified. You’re a grown woman, and you can do whatever you please.”
“Damn right,” she said.
“I would like to know why,” I said. “If you don’t want to tell me, then you don’t want to tell me, and that’s that. Though if you get the chance, tell Russell to read ‘The Knight And The Lance’ by Malcolm Lock.” That was the pen name I used. “He’ll like that one.”
Nadia stared at me, and a flicker of emotion went over her face.
“Look,” she said. “Come closer. I don’t want to shout this.”
I stepped next to her, and she stared up at me.
“It’s not you, all right?” she said. “I like you a lot, spooky assassin that you are.”
“And I like you a lot,” I admitted, “smart-mouthed thief that you are.”
She smiled a little. “But…listen, okay? Just listen.” She pointed at the bar. “The manager is calling Homeland Security right now to complain about the giant dog that attacked his cook. When Homeland Security shows up, they’ll realize it’s a wraithwolf and that bullets won’t work on it. So they’ll call the local Elven lord, and he’ll show up with some of his vassals to use their magic to kill the wraithwolf.”
I nodded.
“And every single one of them will question witnesses,” she said, “and I can’t be questioned, Riordan, I just can’t. One of them might figure out that I can use magic, and then…they’ll try to arrest me. I’ll have to escape. I might get killed in the process. And if my employer figures out what happened, he’ll kill me remotely. And if that happens, my brother dies of his illness.” She shook her head. “That can’t happen, Riordan. That just can’t happen.”
“I understand,” I said.
She let out a long breath. “Good. Bye, Riordan. I’m sorry it didn’t work out, but I didn’t think it through.”
“Or,” I said, “we could kill the wraithwolf ourselves.”
She blinked. “What?”
“We both have magic,” I said. “We could find it and kill it before it hurts anyone else.”
She sneered a little. “So we can save those people in the bar?”
“Why not?” I said.
“Do you think I care about them?” said Nadia. “I care about my brother. If those people know what I really was, they would try to arrest me and hand me over to Homeland Security, and they would watch the Punishment Day video of my execution. To hell with them. The wraithwolf can eat them for all that I care.”
“You don’t really believe that,” I said.
“Yeah?” said Nadia. “I keep telling you that I’m not a good person, and you don’t believe me. So prove to me that I care.”
It was a completely irrational question, but I had the perfect answer.
“Because,” I said, “you didn’t let the High Queen nuke the city.”
She rolled her eyes. “Come on, Riordan. I didn’t have much choice in the matter.”
“But you saved their lives once already,” I said. “So you’re being hypocritical.”
“I’m being hypocritical?” she said. Her voice rose a half-octave on the final word.
I stared at her.
Then she laughed. “For God’s sake. You really are determined, aren’t you?” She hopped off the bike. “Fine.”
“You’re in?” I said.
“I told you to show me a good time,” said Nadia, “and I suppose an exciting time is almost the same thing, and what’s more exciting than hunting creatures from the Shadowlands?”
“That’s the spirit,” I said. “This way.”
We walked into the alley next to the sports bar. The side door had been closed and locked, likely to keep the “stray dog” from venturing into the building. The alley opened into a dusty parking lot behind the bar, empty save for a dozen cars and a pair of dumpsters against the back wall.
I saw no one.
“So,” said Nadia. “How do we hunt wraithwolves?”
Memories flashed through my mind. I had spent a lot of time in the Shadowlands as a younger man, first as a man-at-arms in the armies of Duke Tarmegon of Houston, and then when the Wizard’s Legion had recruited me. The High Queen had many, many enemies, not just the Archons and their armies of orcish mercenaries, and I had fought most of them in the Shadowlands. The High Queen’s enemies were dangerous enough, but the native creatures of the Shadowlands were just as deadly. Wraithwolves and bloodrats and anthrophages and worse things haunted the battlefields, falling upon the wounded and the stragglers. Several times I had survived a battle only nearly fall to the wraithwolves.
“Carefully,” I said.
“Be more specific,” said Nadia.
I lifted my right hand and cast a quick spell, one to sense the presence of magical forces. I didn’t detect anything, which didn’t surprise me. Nadia was likely the only other wizard for miles.
“Wraithwolves are predators,” I said. “Like all predators, they’re drawn to specific things. Usually blood and magic. I don’t feel like bleeding at the moment, so we’ll use magic instead.”
“Hey, quick question,” Nadia said. “Bullets work on anthrophages, right?”
“You’ve shot several yourself,” I said.
“So why don’t they work on wraithwolves?” said Nadia.
That was a good question.
“I don’t actually know,” I said, turning in a circle as I cast the spell to sense the presence of magic once more. Any moment now, I expected the spell to draw a response. “The explanation I heard was that anthrophages originated in Earth’s umbra within the Shadowlands, and therefore they were vulnerable to bullets forged from the metals of Earth. The wraithwolves come from the wild places between the worlds, from the deep Shadowlands, and so are only vulnerable to magic and fire and massive amounts of kinetic force.”
“Makes sense,” said Nadia. Her tone was light, but her eyes were hard as knives, her head moving smoothly back and forth as she tried to watch every inch of the parking lot at once. “Morvilind told me basically the same thing about Elves. I didn’t understand the explanation, but…Riordan.”
A sheet of white mist flowed between a pair of cars.
It was more white mist than I expected.
“Two of them,” I said. “Get ready. They’ll materialize and attack. They’ll probably come after you first.”
“Wonderful,” said Nadia. “Why?”
“You’re smaller and weaker.”
She snorted. “Gosh, that’s just not fair.”
The mist rolled forward and condensed into two wraithwolves.
The creatures looked vaguely like wolves, albeit larger and far more muscular than normal wolves. Despite their bulk, they seemed somehow gaunt and lean. Strange bony armor covered their long bodies and their heads, making it look as if they wore a second skeleton or perhaps a suit of armor. Their black fur was ragged and stringy, and their black eyes burned with a red gleam.
The wraithwolves glided forward, their eyes fixed upon us.
“Lightning globes,” I muttered. “You take the one of the left, and I’ll take the one on the right.”
“Won’t kill them,” said Nadia, flexing the fingers of her right hand. “I can’t hit them that hard, and neither can you.”
“It’ll stun them,” I said, drawing together power for a spell. “And that should be long enough. On three. One, two…”
Blue sparks played around her fingers.
“Three!”
I lunged forward, thrusting out my hand, and Nadia did the same. A globe of blue-white lightning exploded from my fingers, snarling and crackling, and a smaller globe erupted from Nadia’s hand. Hers wobbled and jerked a bit, since she wasn’t as experienced with the spell, but it nonetheless worked. Both lightning globes slammed into their respective wraithwolves, and the creatures reared back with screams of fury, fingers of lightning crawling up and down their limbs.
In their instant of pain, I moved.
I leaped forward, drawing on my Shadowmorph, and the symbiont came at my call. A blade of shadow erupted from my right hand, shaping itself into a weightless sword that could cut through anything. I swept the sword forward, and took off the first wraithwolf’s head before it could react. A surge of power went through me as the Shadowmorph fed upon the creature’s alien life, converting it into strength that I could use. The second wraithwolf started to turn, but I flicked my wrist, driving the Shadowmorph blade down, and I cut it in half, more life energy surging into me.
Cloak Games: Omnibus One Page 52
