Metal Angel: An Urban Fantasy Adventure (Rings of the Inconquo Book 3)

by A. L. Knorr

  Marcus’s features were stamped with exhaustion and Daria hunched over, eyes darting everywhere, as though terrified Ninurta might appear from any direction. I drove my fists down as I fought to rise.

  “Nearly there.” Daria slipped a hand under my arm and helped me up.

  I found my feet again, moving shoulder to shoulder across a speckled, snowy landscape scattered with trees. I wanted to ask where we nearly were but couldn’t find the energy for words.

  We continued to run until the trees began to spread and we found ourselves trudging through snow in an open field that sloped gently downward. I sobbed a cry of thankfulness, fighting to keep my legs from collapsing. At the bottom of the slope, a military type Land Rover sat with its engine growling softly.

  “Come on!” Daria called, plunging through the snow toward the vehicle.

  I slowed to an inching stagger.

  “Who is she?” Marcus asked, seeming all too happy to adopt my slower pace.

  Daria reached the vehicle and turned to beckon us on before throwing open the driver’s door.

  “She was a friend, once.” I slid over to give Marcus what little support my shoulder could offer.

  “Can we trust her?”

  Marcus gasped a curse as he came down on his damaged leg.

  “I don’t know.”

  I looked back to the horizon of burning trees.

  “I’m not sure we have a choice. She at least seems determined to get us out of here.”

  “I’ll take it.”

  We reached the Land Rover and I helped Marcus climb into the tarp draped bed. We were breathless by the time we were settled against the back of the bed.

  Daria appeared at the tailgate and gave us a once over.

  “Both need medical attention,” she declared, presumably into a communication device, her tone clipped and frustrated. “There’s no time. Need to make distance.”

  She slammed the tailgate shut, then climbed into the driver’s seat.

  The idling motor roared to life.

  My mind told me to be wary: stay alert, remember what Daria is, remember what she had done.

  My body decided it needed sleep more. Within minutes I was dozing, curled up next to Marcus and rocked into blessed oblivion by the bouncing gait of the vehicle.

  ---

  I awoke on the ground, naked from the waist up, with a glaring light sweeping from my face down over my body and back again. Everything else was darkness.

  I tried to twist my body away from the revealing light, but I only managed a fitful twitch before I collapsed back onto the ground.

  “Hold still,” Daria’s voice instructed from behind the light. “After I’ve cleaned the wounds and bandaged them, you can move.”

  Her matter of fact direction irked me to a degree far beyond what her words merited, but I found I couldn’t even will my mouth to open and curse her.

  I felt her working on my body, swabbing the lacerations from my crushed wings, but it was an awareness of pressure and changes in temperature. There was no pain, which was a discomfort of its own.

  I lay there, completely helpless, as she wrapped my wounds and applied salve to the burns on my neck, face, and hands. The vulnerability ate at me.

  Daria nodded once she had completed her ministrations and I felt something cold and sharp slide free from my neck. As the intrusion into my body withdrew, I was reminded of another such a violation by an edimmu.

  In control of my body once more, I rolled away from her, knocking the cast-off medical supplies in every direction. I climbed to my feet clumsily, one hand cocked back in a fist while the other was held out with a warding palm. My metallic sense swept around for anything I might use as a weapon.

  “Ibby, wait.” Daria rose from her crouch, her headlamp stabbing into my eyes. She put out a hand. “It’s alright. Calm down.”

  Several steel chains were close at hand, the Land Rover a few feet to my left. I drew the snarled chains up, setting their links to clinking as they swung menacingly around me. The bandages around my chest made it hard to draw a full breath, but I sucked in enough air to loose a warning through bared teeth.

  “How dare you!” I spat. “You pumped your poison through me!”

  Daria was a vague silhouette, but her hands rose palms up in surrender.

  “I’m sorry.” She slid back as the chains rattled like Jacob Marley’s. “I wanted to make sure you wouldn’t hurt yourself when you came to.”

  “What are these for then?” I demanded, shaking the chains as they orbited me. “If the poison didn’t work, were you going to chain me up like an animal?”

  Daria stared before responding in a flat, dry tone.

  “Those are the snow chains for the Land Rover, and I think it would be incredibly stupid to try and bind an Inconquo with metal chains, don’t you?”

  Allowing the chains to sink to the floor, I had enough sense to feel sheepish, though I still held the links in my mental grip. Looking around I saw nothing but darkness except where Daria’s lamp revealed a bare and grungy expanse of concrete. Gooseflesh crept along my arms and threatened to engulf the rest of me.

  “Where are we?”

  “An abandoned garage near Raylees,” Daria answered. “I’ve got a plane chartered from Eshott Airfield in a couple of hours, but the roads were getting treacherous and I needed to check your injuries. I still need to look at Marcus’ leg.”

  It all made sense, but the memory of everything Daria had put us through, combined with what Ninurta had told me, left me more than a little suspicious.

  “How do you know who Marcus is?”

  Daria let out a small sigh before answering, her voice strained with forced patience.

  “He told me. He was awake when we got here and insisted I look after you first. He wanted to watch over you but he fell asleep.” She cocked her head toward the Land Rover.

  I flinched a little as she crouched, then felt silly when she stood with a dangling lump of fabric.

  “You should get dressed.” She held out my clothes. “We need to get you clean ones, but they’ll at least keep you warm until we’re in the air.”

  I dressed as Daria moved to the back of the Land Rover.

  “Why is it so dark?”

  “The garage gets used as a flophouse from time to time,” Daria explained as she climbed into the bed of the vehicle. “So they blacked out the windows. Can’t have nosey people peeping in on their recreational activities.”

  My shoe scuffed against something that gave a brittle crunch, and I cringed, hoping I wasn’t scooting around spent hypodermics.

  “Charming.”

  I watched her do a quick inspection of Marcus’s twisted leg before drawing out a pair of bandage scissors.

  “It’s clear.” She began cutting up the length of the injured leg’s trouser. “I wouldn’t walk around barefoot, but I think I cleaned out the space around the Land Rover well enough.”

  To my amazement, Marcus didn’t stir as she slit the garment all the way to his grey underpants. Quick and precise, she yanked the liberated fabric away, revealing his muscled leg. His knee was swollen and the colour of a plum – all that strength hadn’t spared him serious injury.

  I swallowed a sob as Daria tentatively probed the distended purple skin that seemed ready to split open. Marcus shuddered and let out a low moan at the touch, but didn’t wake up.

  “Running on the leg didn’t do him any favours, but I don’t think there is a fracture.”

  Daria did something at her waist before I heard the clink of a belt buckle and she shifted toward Marcus’s face. She shook his shoulder, and when he didn’t respond slapped lightly at his cheek until his eyes fluttered open.

  “Huh? What?” he muttered thickly, squinting up at the light.

  “Open your mouth.”

  “What f-uph,” was all he managed before she stuffed the folded strap of her belt into his mouth.

  Daria moved towards his knee with a relentless insistence. I saw wha
t was coming just before her hands braced his knee on either side.

  “Bite down hard!”

  Her hands went into action and there was a wet, almost wooden, pop.

  Marcus’s entire body arched in agony, his teeth clamping down on the leather that muffled his scream. His hands knotted into trembling fists to pound against the bed, while his head beat a staccato tattoo. His uninjured leg thrashed, nearly knocking me out of the Land Rover as I crawled toward him. Daria had secured the injured leg between her own and was wrapping it in a long, swaddling bandage.

  “Marcus, I’m here.” I slid up next to him, a soothing hand on his arm.

  His breath billowed in my face, and I could hear the jingling buckle of the belt still clutched in his teeth. I reached out to stroke his brow. His skin was cold and clammy, but I could feel his entire body clenched with pain. My throat threatened to close up, seeing him like this.

  “He’ll need an X-Ray and an MRI, but it’ll do for now,” Daria said as she extricated herself from Marcus and exited the vehicle.

  “I’m here,” I whispered, tears rolling down my cheeks.

  Marcus collapsed against the bed of the Land Rover. His breathing was rapid but steady, and I felt his pounding heart slow when I laid a hand against his chest.

  The snow chains rattled and clinked as Daria fixed them to the tyres. For a second, I considered helping her. But when Marcus reached out and gripped the hand I’d placed over his chest, I couldn’t leave him.

  As Daria was finishing the last tyre he whispered hoarsely, “That went better than I expected.”

  “What were you expecting?” I almost laughed. “For her to amputate?”

  Marcus did laugh, but the sound was soon swallowed by another fit of coughing.

  “I wasn’t talking about my leg,” he croaked after the fit subsided. “I meant the fight with Ninurta.”

  The bemused smile fell from my face at the first Inconquo’s name. Images of the night flicked through my mind like a video recording. If this was his idea of cheering me up, it wasn’t working.

  “What did you think was going to happen?”

  “I thought we’d be dead, obviously.”

  “Ah. Well, we’ve bought a little time.” I was unable to keep the bleakness out of my tone. “Nothing more.”

  “Wasn’t that the point?” He chuckled dryly and cleared his throat. “Mission accomplished and we’re not dead.”

  It was hard to argue with that logic. I smiled at him. His hand squeezed mine gently before sliding up to stroke my cheek. My skin was raw, but he was so gentle I felt nothing but a cool tingle at the caress.

  Daria slid into the driver’s seat, turned on the vehicle and pulled us out of the garage. Leaving the engine to idle, she got out and closed the door before settling in behind the wheel again.

  “We need to make good time,” she called as she revved the engine. “Sorry in advance for how rough this could get.”

  I tore my eyes away from Marcus’s ashen face, blinking in the light. “You still have a lot of explaining to do.”

  Daria didn’t look back, but I could feel the razor smile in her answer. “More than you know, luv, more than you know.”

  Fifteen

  The next twenty-four hours were a blur of planes, trains and automobiles. We landed in the south, in rain rather than snow, and had a chance to clean up before boarding a train to London. We sat across from one another at a table while Daria brought us up to speed, rain lashing at the windows as the train ate up the miles.

  “Once Ninurta bent me to his service, I was forced to play the long game. Part of that meant cooperating with Winterthür when it was time for him to wake up.” Daria sighed and looked out the window at the green smudge of the countryside.

  Marcus and I shared a look but neither of us responded. I thought I knew what he was wondering. Daria had saved us, but did that mean she could be trusted?

  “I’m sorry it is all so cloak-and-dagger,” Daria went on, folding her hands on the table-top, “but please understand that I’ve never shared this with anyone.”

  “Oh, yes,” I sniped. “It would be difficult to share that you’ve been working for a mass-murdering madman for thousands of years, and had to join an evil secret society to set him free.” My hard words were followed by a heavy silence before I added in a softer tone, “Jackie might never walk again because of how you played your long game.”

  “You have every right to be angry.” Daria did not look away, accepting my anger and harsh words calmly, her voice full of regret. “I am not asking for forgiveness, no matter how much I would wish for it. I just want you to understand, to know what has happened, what is happening, and why.”

  I looked out the window, working to move my ire about Jackie into the background so I could listen. Daria waited for me to give her permission to proceed, studying me intently while I watched the muddied countryside roll by. The dismal vista did nothing to improve my mood.

  I took a deep breath as Marcus took my hand. “Go ahead. Tell us everything.”

  Daria seemed to relax, letting her hands slip off the table and leaning back. “It would take me days to tell my story, and we don’t have that kind of time. What you need to know is this: Ninurta made me the keeper of his resting place, but I’ve never willingly served him. My phylactery was held hostage with him, and to get it back I needed to do my part.”

  “That’s where I’m not clear,” Marcus interjected. “I’m new to all this, but if I understand how that phylactery thing works, wouldn’t it being with Ninurta, in his un-openable tomb, be a good thing for you? You’d never have to worry about anyone else finding it, and if Ninurta was sleeping he couldn’t use it against you. Win-win, right?”

  Daria nodded but gave him the saddest smile I’d ever seen.

  “Yes, if I had wanted to live this long. But even before I met Ninurta, I hated what I’d become. I didn’t, don’t, want to live forever. You can probably imagine how … uncomfortable these past few millennia have been.”

  The confession cut through the layers of anger and disgust, even banishing the image of paralysed Jackie for a moment. Daria, a woman who’d saved my life multiple times and who I’d once counted a friend, wanted to die.

  I looked at her, realising, not for the first time, that I barely understood this striking creature who’d crept into my life. Suspicion, empathy, and anger fought a three-way tug of war as I watched her wrestle to putting words to the burden she’d borne since before the great pyramids of Giza had been built.

  “What about the attack on Museum Station?” I asked. “The attack that nearly destroyed Lowe, and left Jackie paralysed.”

  “Herr Niemand found my phylactery when they opened Ninurta’s tomb. That was a possibility I hadn’t considered. The Group of Winterthür wanted Kezsarak’s cube back and held my phylactery hostage to ensure I would assist them to get it. I’m sorry about Jackie. That wasn’t part of my plan. I didn’t realise what Sark had done – I thought your group had the cube.”

  “Then why are you helping us now?”

  “I have retrieved my phylactery. Neither Ninurta nor the Group of Winterthür have any hold over me. I wish to fulfil my mission for Lamashtu: destroy Ninurta. Whatever the cost.”

  “Why now?” I asked. “Why is this the time to end it all?”

  “The short answer is you,” she said with a fractional shrug. “You are the first person I’ve met in my long, long life who stands a chance of defeating him.”

  The answer hit me like a sled between the eyes. My cheeks burned as shame flooded me. “You’ve over-estimated me by f-”

  “No.” Daria’s sharp word cut me off. “I haven’t.”

  Her gaze burned into mine, glimmering with inhuman intensity. The weight of that look settled heavily over my shoulders, along with the weight of expectation.

  “It wasn’t even a fight, Daria.” I shook my head, memories of the recent battle flashing through my mind. “He toyed with us.”

  Mar
cus shifted and cleared his throat, looking down at me. “Not to be grotesquely optimistic, but after Ninurta pitched me like a ragdoll, I saw you do... something… to him. It looked like you were pulling something out of him. Even with my bells rung, I could see that you were turning the tables. He was scared, Ibby.”

  Daria’s eyes darted back and forth between us, widening. “What happened?”

  The hope in her voice, so urgent and bright, made my gut feel full of ash.

  “I tried to draw out the metal that’s within in him, that’s part of him,” I explained. “But even catching him off guard and using all the power in the rings, he still beat me down like I was an afterthought. I just wasn’t strong enough.”

  For several heartbeats, no one spoke. The thrumming of the train and the occasional murmur of conversation from further up the compartment were the only sounds.

  “No offence to Marcus,” Daria said, eyes still shining with hope, “but you faced Ninurta nearly on your own. We can change that. I can change that.”

  I swung my gaze back to Daria, narrowing my eyes. “You didn’t seem to be so eager for a fight back in Northumberland.”

  “You were spent and injured by the time I got there,” Daria replied. “I may want to die, but that doesn’t mean that I want to waste my death.”

  We lapsed into silence as the countryside gave way to the suburban expanse that girdled London. I felt Daria waiting. Not waiting for me to forgive her, but waiting for some sign that I was willing to work with her again. Which meant I had to trust her, believe her story. I didn’t want to. My love for and allegiance to Jackie made me want to throw her offer back in her face and leave her as soon as we pulled into the train station. But though I hadn’t given her any indication yet, I did believe her. Marcus and I were alive thanks to her. Not only that, we needed an ally that did not rely on metal weapons in order to fight Ninurta.

  I looked over at Marcus and in his look was a silent communication. He believed her story too and he was all for working with her.