by Alex Rivers
“Jesus,” I muttered.
“Lou, your hands!” Kane barked.
I saw the plumes of smoke rising from my fingers. “Oh, shit.”
“Breathe, Lou,” Isabel said. “Breathe and relax.”
I tried, but my breaths were too fast and shallow. The heat built in my palms, and I knew they were about to erupt in flames. A fire would be catastrophic right now, casting us in light, waking up the Shade. I tried relaxing my muscles, one by one, but my mind was whirling, muscles trembling from the adrenaline and effort, the struggle with the Shade. To my horror, a small flame began to dance on my right palm. I clenched my fist, but the flames snaked through the cracks between my fingers, my hand a flaming fist of light.
Then suddenly Kane stood between the flaming hand and the Shade, his body blocking the flickering light. He was entirely silent, his eyes meeting mine, as he gently grasped the wrist of my burning hand, bringing it closer to his body, hiding the blaze. It danced inches from his chest, but he showed no fear, no discomfort. Instead, he wrapped his free hand around my shoulder and pulled me toward him, his body hiding mine. My head spun and I lowered my face, letting my forehead touch his chest, focusing on that sensation of intimacy. After a few seconds, his fingers intertwined with mine, and I realized my hand was no longer blazing. The fear and anger I had felt had been replaced by other emotions.
“Everything okay, guys?” Sinead piped in my ear.
I cleared my throat and pulled back. “Yeah. We’re going for Harutaka now. You can join Isabel, or go back to peeping on the cops.”
“Can’t see a damn thing through those car windows,” she muttered, sounding irate. “These guys fogged them up completely.”
“Let’s go,” I told Kane.
He was pale; the effort of the spell he had cast had clearly sapped his strength. But he nodded at me, and when I began jogging down the street toward the warehouse’s door, he matched my pace.
The warehouse was a few hundred yards away from us, and my pace was fast. We had lost all our wiggle time and then some, because of the lover cops. But really, it was me. I was rusty. I should have known there would be some sort of hurdle, should have prepared for it, should have been ready to compensate. I couldn’t afford mistakes like these when we broke into the dragon’s vault. Everything would have to go flawlessly.
“Isabel?” I breathed hard. “Anything interesting?” The dark streets were deathly quiet. Even with my sharp night vision, it felt as black as coal.
“Nothing new,” she said, her voice calm, almost sleepy. It was impossible to read the future under pressure. She had to stay relaxed, serene, even when things got hairy. She was breathing steadily, probably going through her relaxation techniques, at which I had failed so miserably. “But you should hurry. The moon will be up soon. And I really need to pee.”
The warehouse door was up ahead, and for a minute my heart skipped a beat as I saw the looming figures around it. But they were all completely still, frozen by the utter darkness that enveloped them. The Shades were dormant.
Kane stumbled by my side, almost falling, and cursed.
“You okay?”
“I can hardly see,” he whispered sharply.
“The potion is wearing off. It’s your body weight.”
“Are you saying I’m fat?”
“Look out!” I grabbed him and pulled him sideways just before he ran into an erect, dormant Shade.
“Damn it,” he muttered.
“Here, take my hand.” I grabbed his palm. It was warm, and when he felt my touch he tightened his grip. For a moment I just focused on that touch, on our feet, running fast on the hard cobblestones. But the warehouse towered ahead, and I forced myself to focus, to sharpen my senses.
There were three Shades standing still by the door. The closest one towered high above us, over eight feet tall.
“What the hell is that?” I muttered.
“Shadow body manipulation,” Kane said, breathing hard. He pulled his hand from mine, now that we had stopped running. “The Shades can do that. You know how your shadow is huge if the light hits it from a certain angle?”
“Sure.”
“Well, apparently Shades can use that to warp the shape of their body as well. If their shadow is constantly bigger than the body, the body stretches. They become giants.”
I swallowed. We were only a few yards from the door, and I stared up at the enormous giant. The word stretched was right. He didn’t look like a large man, suitably proportioned. It was as if his body had been distended upward, his head a narrow oval, its features transfigured and twisted horribly, one eye lower than the other, the mouth twisted in a permanent, creepy, one-sided smile. I felt like an icy drink had been poured down my shirt as I gazed at him.
But it stood completely still, as did the other Shades. I crept over to the door, and tried the handle. The door didn’t budge.
“Locked.” I inspected the lock. It wasn’t particularly complicated, and I could pick it in five or six minutes. But by that time, Kane would be entirely blind in the dark, and I might start losing my night vision too. And the moon was about to rise…
I knew what I had to do, but for a moment I just stood still, mustering the courage. Then I edged toward the giant Shade.
“Lou? What are you doing?”
“Hang on,” I croaked, my throat dry. I glanced up at the giant, then down. His clothing was torn in places, but his pants still had several pockets. And through one, I saw the outline of a key chain.
I edged closer, the Shade’s smell hitting my nostrils. It was the smell of sweat and filth and rot, of a body that was no longer maintained, no longer groomed. After all, it was just a body. I slid my hand into his pocket and touched the key chain. Then, one of my fingers brushed against something warm. His skin.
The pocket was torn, and my finger had gone through, touching his inner thigh. It felt rubbery and… wrong. Almost like it was stretched too tight. I imagined his body, expanded by the Shade, the skin stretching to its limit. Would my touch be enough to punch a hole, as if it was a sheet of plastic? My mind filled with the image of the rotting meat underneath that skin. Feeling sick, I pulled my hand out of the pocket, clutching the keychain. Then I peered up into his face.
For a moment, I almost screamed. His eyes were staring back at me. But the body still remained completely inert.
And yet… something was alive in those eyes. They weren’t empty and blank. There was an emotion there. Pain, and desperation, and horror.
Suddenly I had a terrifying thought. What if someone was still in that body? Someone trapped in a puppet, completely controlled by its shadow? Only now, with the shadow gone, perhaps he could almost break free.
Almost.
It didn’t move. Only its eyes seemed alive. Tormented. Begging for oblivion.
I tottered backward, bile rising up my throat. I couldn’t throw up, I couldn’t. If I threw up, I would probably lose my night vision, and I needed it. I forced myself to breathe deeply, tears in my eyes, and turned to the door. The keychain had only two keys on it, and the first one slid in and turned easily.
“Are you okay?” Kane whispered.
I shook my head sharply, but said nothing. I didn’t trust my voice.
The warehouse was large and windowless. It was even darker inside it than outside. I could glimpse several still figures inside, none of them moving. There was one large shipping container, locked with a padlock on its far side.
“That’s where Harutaka is,” I croaked, pointing at the container.
“What is?” Kane asked. “I can’t see anything in here, it’s too dark.”
“There’s a shipping container. Come on, I might need your help.” I took his hand.
“You’re trembling,” he said.
“I’m fine. Come on.” I led him inside.
We circled around the still Shades, and I avoided their eyes, terrified I might see that same trapped gaze there.
The padlock on the container
was heavy, and would take effort to pick. I tried the second key on the chain, but it didn’t fit. Carefully, I tapped the metal surface of the container.
“Hello?” I said.
“Yes!” a muffled voice answered from inside. “I’m here!”
“We’re here to get you out. Do you know if there’s a key to this lock?”
“I didn’t even know there was a lock,” the voice said.
I looked around. I could search the Shades in the warehouse, but it would take some time, and I couldn’t be sure any of them had the key. After all, the giant had the key to the warehouse, but not to this padlock.
“There’s a padlock here,” I told Kane. “Can you blast it open?”
He considered it. “Not without creating a lot of light,” he finally said.
Light would reanimate the Shades, and I wasn’t keen for that to happen.
“Okay, I’ll handle it.”
I knelt in front of the padlock and fished my lock-picking kit from my pocket. I unrolled it and squinted at the tools. It was getting really hard to see. I felt them with my fingers, finding the small tension wrench and the curvy pick. I turned to the lock and tried to insert the tension wrench into it, but it was almost impossible. I couldn’t see the keyhole, could hardly see my hands. I tried to feel the surface of the lock, searching for the keyhole, but my fingers were numb from the cold, and my palm trembled slightly.
“Fuck!” I spat.
“What is it?” Kane asked.
“I can’t see the lock. Hang on.”
I rummaged in my pocket, finding the last vial. I pulled it out and unstopped it.
“What are you doing?”
“I need to see.” I took a quick swig of the potion. Just half. Enough to see… and hopefully not enough to kill me.
“Didn’t you say more basilisk venom would kill you?”
“Only pussies are afraid of a little basilisk venom,” I muttered, waiting for the potion to take effect. “Uh… I might need some help when we make a run for it.”
My body was already under the influence of the potion, and it took only a minute for my vision to sharpen enough so I could see the keyhole again. I inserted the tension wrench into it, applied a bit of pressure, then slid the lockpick inside. I was pretty sure there were five pins in the lock. I began fiddling with the pick, trying to find the sweet point for the first pin.
“Harutaka?” I asked.
“Yeah?” the muffled voice answered from inside the container.
“My name is Lou Vitalis. I’m here to break you out.”
“I’m much obliged.”
“In return, I want you to help us with something.” I felt the first pin catch. On to the second one.
“Well, I’m hardly in a position to refuse.”
“I agree. Don’t worry, you’ll like it.” I began feeling nauseous. The venom, taking effect.
“Lou, there’s something in the tea leaves,” Isabel said. “Something… bad. It’s unclear. A bad man, maybe two. I’m pretty sure it’s two… no… hang on. I’ll try to get a card reading.”
“No pressure,” I mumbled, feeling the second pin catching. Number three now. “Harutaka, I just want to make sure. You know how to counter Danann runes, right?”
A second went by. “If I say no, will you leave me here to rot?”
“Well, I don’t want to sound heartless.” Number three done. On to number four.
“Yeah, I know how to counter Danann runes. Piece of cake.”
Isabel cleared her throat. “Lou, it’s definitely on its way. It’s a shit storm. The cards aren’t happy.”
I wasn’t happy either. “What’s on its way?”
“Two Shades. Or one. I’m not sure. But they’re angry.”
“It’s dark here. They shouldn’t be able to move.” The fourth pin clicked. On to number five. The hand holding the tension wrench shook slightly, numb. If it shifted even a bit, all the pins would drop, and I’d have to start all over again. I gritted my teeth, trying to focus.
“Harutaka, can you walk? Are you tied up?”
“No, I’m not tied up, I can walk.”
I wasn’t sure I could. My feet felt weak, and a chill was spreading in my body. I couldn’t sense my toes. I wanted to vomit. “Okay, better get ready to run once we open this. Kane, I’m about to get this lock. Be ready to open the door.”
“Lou, whatever you’re doing, you need to get it done!” Isabel sounded panicky. The calm, serene voice was gone. That probably meant she could no longer read the future.
The fifth pin clicked and the tension wrench swiveled, turning in the lock. The padlock loosened, dropping to the floor with a loud clang, and I turned away and vomited loudly, coughing and spluttering.
I heard a loud metallic creak as Kane fumbled over me at the door, pulling it open.
“Thanks!” Harutaka’s voice was clear now. “I was sure I was about to… Oh fuck, what’s that?”
“Gods!” Kane whispered.
I turned around, horrified to see light beams in the dark warehouse. And then my eyes drew to the source of the light, and I gasped.
One or two Shades, Isabel had said, and she wasn’t wrong. It was both.
Shadow body manipulation, I instantly knew. When two people stood closely behind each other, their shadows mingled to create one shadow with four hands and two heads. And the Shades had found a way to use that and morph their bodies together. This thing was a monstrosity, its four arms protruding at weird angles from its deformed body, its heads half connected to each other.
It held flashlights in two of its hands, the beams sweeping the warehouse, casting light on the still Shades. And they began to move.
“The flashlights!” Kane barked. “Get the damn flashlights!”
The monstrosity shambled toward us as the rest of the Shades slowly turned around, hissing, realizing their prisoner was getting away. Kane began to mutter in his otherworldly language, raising his hand as he did so. The thing ran at us, and a faraway part of me noted that it scrambled on four human feet.
A large, azure orb of magical energy shot from Kane’s fingers and hit one of the flashlights. It exploded in the thing’s hand, taking off most of its fingers. The creature didn’t even flinch, the discomfort of its body irrelevant. It kept running for us, was almost upon us. In my peripheral vision I saw the other Shades closing in, surrounding us.
I went for my ankle holster, pulling out the small Glock. I aimed at the light, and began to shoot. Spots danced in my eyes, which had been primed for the darkness. The light from the flashlight was blinding, almost impossible to look at, but I kept my eyes straight ahead, my finger pressing the trigger again and again, feeling the jolts, the explosions loud in my ear.
And then a shot hit the flashlight with a clang, and it went out, plunging us into darkness. I was half blind, but could still see the forms of the Shades coming to a halt. The monstrosity kept going, inertia pushing it forward. It tumbled on its four legs, crashing two inches from me, one of its heads hitting the cement floor with a wet, sickening crunch.
“We need to go,” I said weakly. My throat felt swollen, and I could hardly breathe. “The moon is about to rise.”
Kane knelt by my side, fumbling for me. “Can you stand up?”
“Sure.” I tried, but collapsed, groaning, my muscles feeling like jelly. “Maybe not. Can you help me?”
He felt for me, brushing against my waist, which might have been nice if not for the fact that I was dizzy, nauseated, and possibly dying. Then, to my surprise, he lifted me in his arms, standing up straight. I could feel his muscles under his trench coat. He was strong—much stronger than I had thought.
“Walk straight,” I mumbled, and he began to walk. “A bit to the left… no, that’s too much… that’s right, straight ahead.”
In the land of the blind, the half-dead girl with the dancing spots in her vision was queen.
He strode through the door, past the giant, and onto the street. I was groggy,
feeling as if I was in a dream. Something large and white glimmered in the sky.
“Oh look,” I mumbled, half asleep. “The moon is up.”
A loud roar of anger rumbled behind us, and Kane began to run. Perhaps I should have been scared, but the jerking movement of my body just made me sleepier, and all I could think of was that one of Kane’s hands was under my ass, and that he really was very strong.
And when I heard the screech of the car, and Sinead shouting, “Get in!” I let myself lose consciousness.
Chapter Fifteen
The licking on my face was insistent enough to rouse me from my deep sleep. I struggled against my attacker, pushing his snout away before he licked me to death.
“Bwargh! Go away!” I said weakly.
Magnus barked happily in response, and placed a paw on my chest. Then he panted suggestively in my ear, sneezed, barked again, and left.
“Oh good, you’re awake,” I heard Sinead say.
I opened my eyes slightly, the light of day piercing through my skull like a hot poker. I was in my bedroom, Sinead standing in the doorway, holding a glass of water. I whimpered pitifully as my headache intensified.
“Here.” She put the glass to my lips and tipped it slightly. I took a few sips. It was cool, and felt like heaven was sliding down my throat. She let me drink some more, then set the glass aside.
“Thanks,” I croaked.
“You’re welcome.”
“What happened?”
“Well, Kane and Harutaka came out of the warehouse just seconds before the moon rose. Kane was carrying you in his arms, which is something guys should do more. The Shades gave chase, but Isabel and I picked you all up and drove off. Then, once we were far enough away, we pulled over and I checked your vitals. Kane said you poisoned yourself.”
I nodded, and immediately regretted it. My head felt like someone had filled it with rocks.
“Your breathing was a little shallow, and your pulse just a bit high, but it seemed like you’d be fine, so they dropped us here. Then I cleaned you up and put you in bed.”
“You also undressed me, apparently,” I muttered, feeling under the blanket.
