by E. A. Copen
“Well, they told me I had to wear one,” I said, smoothing my hand over the tie. “And they didn’t even give me the option of a clip-on.”
He scanned the room with his predator eyes. “Any sign of our quarry?”
“Not yet. Think we should just hang out here until they show up?” Beth had said to come find her, but honestly the further she was from the box, the safer she was.
Osric shrugged. “The deadline is midnight tonight, so they’ll be here and likely put up quite a fight. Are you prepared?” He gave me and my staff a wary glance.
“Are you? How’s your arm?” I gave his bicep a punch.
He winced and paled, grabbing for the impacted area. Not good. I’d hoped he’d be a fast healer, but he hadn’t had the advantage of a god giving him a boost.
“I take it from your reaction that you won’t be doing any dancing here either, huh?”
The Shadow Knight growled. “I’m not here to dance. I’m here to make sure you win.”
A few more attendees spilled into the room holding champagne glasses. There were now a dozen civilians in the room and half as many police officers or security.
“How’s Odette?” I asked, watching the new people stop by one of the pottery shards.
“Alive for now, though I don’t know how long that will last. The queen was rather enraged when she saw her.”
I frowned. “Why?”
Osric stepped away from the pedestal, blocking my view of the couple coming closer. “When was the last time you saw Odette?”
“Two weeks, give or take. Not long. Why?”
“Time flows differently in Faerie. Of course. I didn’t even think of that. You probably don’t even know, do you?”
My mouth was suddenly dry. Sweat gathered on the back of my neck at the hairline. “Know what?”
He didn’t have time to answer me before a scream split the air. Everyone in the room spun around, facing the hallway which seemed to be where the scream had originated. The cop standing behind us pulled his weapon and stormed past us, joining several others as they made a mad rush for the hallway.
Osric’s daggers appeared in his hands, and he took a step away from me. “Get ready. They’re here.”
Then the lights went out and left the hall—and us—shrouded in shadow.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
If I were a bad guy that could travel through shadows, and was more powerful in the dark, the first thing I would do is cut the lights. Luckily, I thought of that beforehand and expected one of the two competitors to try it and tested out a theory beforehand. I didn’t need light to see souls.
As the frightened partygoers screamed in terror, I called up my Soul Vision, blinking at the sudden light present in the darkness. A grouping of silver souls staggered around on the other side of the room, searching for the exit.
“Flashlights!” Emma’s voice shouted. “Get your lights on!”
Dammit, I’d hoped they’d leave the area and get out of the way. No such luck.
Several lights clicked to life on the other side of the room, wide beams sweeping through the darkness. In absolute darkness, I couldn’t tell the difference between souls and a flashlight at first glance, so I shut down the Vision. At least I’d been able to verify there still weren’t any gods in the room with us.
An icy chill slipped down my spine along with the distinct feeling of being watched. I spun around my staff raised. Someone batted it away and scampered off to my right side with a maniacal chuckle. Hapi. I reached after him and caught his tail as it swung by. That didn’t slow him down, but it did jerk me off my feet. My back slammed into the floor, the air exploding out of my lungs. Flashes of light that weren’t really there danced in my vision.
White fur, a long face, and fangs snapped into my vision, and fifty pounds of primate landed on my stomach. Hapi in his baboon form screamed in my face, long strings of saliva landing over my head, neck, and arms.
“Ugh, baboon breath!” My right fist connected with the baboon’s chin, sending him scuttling away into the dark to come at me again. I sat up and moved my hand over the floor, searching for my staff. It’d gotten knocked out of my hands when I landed, and I was pretty sure I’d heard it roll away.
Flashes of light lit up the room along with several deafening popping sounds as the officers fired their guns. Somewhere off to my left, Hapi screeched and launched himself at the police.
At the same time, my hand closed on the familiar solid wood, and I hauled myself to my feet, pointing the staff across the room. With a shout, I unleashed a bolt of blue energy that branched like lightning. It missed Hapi, but split the air directly in front of him, knocking several pillars full of artifacts over in the process. Hapi paused in his assault, giving the police time to get off more shots. But their bullets weren’t doing anything more than irritating him. The baboon god looked down at the bullets bouncing off his chest and howled. I had to get to Hapi before he got to the officers or he’d tear them apart.
My mind flashed back to the scene outside the morgue. Police in body armor had literally been ripped limb from limb because I hadn’t acted fast enough. I wasn’t going to let that happen again.
“Protect the box!” I shouted to Osric and took off running for the baboon.
Hapi dropped to all fours and charged the police officers, moving at twice the speed I could. I tried to get off another shot, but it went too far behind Hapi. I wasn’t willing to shoot any closer to the police, especially since my magic wasn’t that accurate even with the staff. Someone was going to get hurt.
I’m not moving fast enough. He’s going to beat me to them. I ducked my head and pumped my arms and legs harder.
Hapi bounded into the air and stretched his arms out, reaching for the person in the front of the line of officers. Emma. And I was still too far away to do anything. Almost in slow motion, I watched Emma raise her gun, squint, and then lower her weapon. The baboon closed the distance, but instead of landing on Emma to tear her face off, he met her foot. The kick came so fast I barely saw it, but it landed with a good, solid crack. Hapi’s body crashed through two glass cases, hit the wall, and slid down, leaving a visible dent.
“Hell of a kick,” I huffed, reaching Emma.
“Tranquilizer!” she shouted, and someone slapped a weird looking gun in her hand. The barrel was too long to be a normal handgun, and the sight looked different. She pointed the gun at Hapi as he pulled himself off the floor and pulled the trigger. There was a dull, airy thunk, and suddenly a big pink dart was sticking out from the center of Hapi’s forehead.
Hapi crossed his eyes to look at it and promptly fell over.
“Well, shit,” I said. “Nice shootin’, Tex.”
“Do me a favor, Laz.” She handed the gun to Moses. “That asshole killed some damn fine cops. Go rip out that baboon bastard’s soul.”
“You got it.”
Five flashlight beams focused on Hapi, lighting my approach. The baboon god lay groaning, rolling his head back and forth in a daze. Apparently, being immortal didn’t mean he was immune to modern tranquilizers. I’d have to remember that next time I went hunting gods.
“End of the line, Hapi.” I activated my Soul Vision and knelt next to him.
He was barely conscious, but the realization of what I was about to do showed in his eyes. They widened with fear, and he let out a pained call. Suddenly, his form shifted, all the extra hair retreating and his legs growing, back straightening. He was shifting back to his human form. The change pushed the tranquilizer dart out of his forehead. That all-too-familiar grin appeared on his still-shifting face. “You know it was me, don’t you? The shadow that jumped from that little fae girl’s car? The one who ripped apart your police friends? And, oh, did the little pretty girl’s lungs taste so sweet. I didn’t even need to feed that night, but I just couldn’t resist.”
Before he could finish his shift, I thrust my hand into his chest. The smile faded, and his breath caught. “Her name was Lexi.” I rippe
d his soul out of his chest.
His half-monkey, half-human fingers clawed at the glowing gold spark of life I held in my hands, but he was too weak now to get it free. Like ash in the wind, his body crumbled to dust in the darkness.
The orange emergency lights finally kicked on, revealing the extent of the damage around me. My blast had punched a hole in the wall that created a passage to the other hall where they kept the mummies. Several gawkers approached the triangular hole, whispering to each other.
Seb pushed his way past all of them. He stared at me holding Hapi’s soul, kneeling over the pile of ash that had been his brother, then at the smashed artifacts. “My exhibit,” he exclaimed and put a hand over his mouth. “What have you done?”
“A small price to pay to save some lives,” I said and frowned at the soul in my hands. It was struggling against my grip, but I had nowhere to put it. The Baron had never said what I should do with the souls I collected. All I could do for now was close my fingers around it and hold on tight. “Seb, you and Beth need to get everyone out of here.”
But he was too busy wading through the rubble, a stunned look on his face. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”
I hadn’t figured everything would make it through my confrontation with two gods intact if they started a fight, but then I hadn’t planned on blowing a big hole in the wall either and knocking over nearly every glass case in the room. I had hoped that they’d talk to me first, give me a chance to move the fight elsewhere. Guess I couldn’t be that lucky. Still, my priority had to be the people that were still in danger, and not a room full of artifacts.
Seb wandered into the center of the room, pulling at his hair. I called after him one more time before giving up and turning to Emma. “A little help?”
She nodded. “All right, everybody form an orderly line and make your way to the exits, slowly and calmly.”
Moses came forward to help a few people through the fallen debris while I focused on jamming the soul into the inside pocket of my suit and buttoning the pocket closed. The soul strained against the suit lining, but didn’t seem to be able to get out.
“Sir, I need you to come with me.”
A small commotion in the corner of the room drew my attention. One of the officers was arguing with a man in a dark suit who had his back to me. He’d separated from the rest of the crowd and started moving toward Seb, but the officer blocked his path. It might’ve been Imseti. He was tall and thin enough, but I couldn’t be sure. Just in case, I started toward him at a cautious pace.
“Afraid I can’t do that,” said Imseti’s familiar voice.
The officer went for his gun, but he wasn’t fast enough. Imseti grabbed him by the shirt, lifted him off the ground and slammed him into the floor with a resounding crack. The other police in the room all turned their attention to him. Seb whirled around, eyes wide. I started to close the distance between me and Imseti, but Osric moved first. One of his shadowy daggers sliced through the air, headed straight for Imseti’s head.
Imseti lifted a hand and caught the dagger between two fingers as if Osric had tossed him something harmless, a smile crossing his face at Osric’s shock. The distraction was all I needed to get close enough. I swung the staff, aimed at Imseti’s head. His hand shot up, gripping my staff and stopping the strike before it could hit him in the head. His head whirled around, eyes narrowed.
Across the room, Osric shouted something, but I couldn’t make out what he said before there was a sharp, icy pressure in my chest. My next breath came out in a wheeze as the pressure tightened and Imseti leaned forward. I thought at first he was just applying pressure somewhere uncomfortable. Until I looked down and saw the knife sticking out of the right side of my chest. I tried desperately for another breath, but it felt like I was under water.
Imseti pulled the knife out and pushed me away. I let go of the staff and staggered backward, trying to put shaky hands over the hole he’d punched in me to stem the flow of blood. But it was coming out too fast, and I couldn’t get enough pressure on it. I sank to my knees, desperate to breathe, to stop the blood. To live. That suddenly mattered more than any box or god in the room, though I didn’t think there was anything I could do to save myself.
Imseti crossed the room, tossing Seb out of the way as if he were a child. Osric alone stood between him and his prize, two daggers at the ready.
“Move,” Imseti commanded. “You cannot kill me. You should have taken the box while you could if you wanted it, little knight.”
“I don’t want the box,” Osric said.
“Then move out of my way.”
Osric’s eyes went to me, an apology written on his face. I understood. He couldn’t beat a god. He’d been relying on me for that, and I’d lost. I couldn’t even stay upright anymore, let alone come to his aid.
The Shadow Knight stepped aside.
Imseti unhooked the velvet rope and closed on his prize. He placed his hands on either side of the box and lifted it carefully, as if he were waiting for a booby trap to spring.
“No!” Seb shouted and stood. He was bleeding from a cut in his forehead and unsteady on his feet, but he staggered toward his brother anyway.
“It’s over, brother,” Imseti said, casually dropping the inner box into his pocket. “I’ve won.”
And he was right. There wasn’t anything anybody could do to stop him. He’d take the box back to Nyx, become her consort and let her murder Odette and probably more fae. And why should I care? If I survived the stab wound, which seemed unlikely, considering I could practically feel my body going into shock from blood loss, I could go on living. As The Baron had pointed out, this wasn’t my problem. Odette had betrayed me, and I owed her nothing. So what if a few fae died? People died every day. This wasn’t my fight.
Except it was. This was my city and these were my friends. That asshole and his brothers had killed people close to me, mocked me, and wrecked my car. And if Imseti were allowed a place in the Shadow Court, the Shadow Court would go to war. That would tip the balance of power in the city and beyond, and that was my problem. Besides, I couldn’t just let some god kill innocent people, even if I was bleeding to death on the museum floor.
It’s not hopeless. I just need to stop the bleeding and heal myself. Beth wasn’t far away. I could feel her magic hovering somewhere close by, though I couldn’t see her. Yet her healing magic had proven ineffective the last time. It had taken the power of another soul, a god’s soul, to get me back on my feet.
I slid my hand inside my suit jacket, feeling the warm, glowing ball of light I’d tucked away there. Just brushing my hand against it made the soul shudder, but the healing sun-like warmth I’d felt when Seb helped me before didn’t appear. I needed to activate it another way, though I wasn’t sure how. Last time, Seb had done that. Then it dawned on me. Blood. I needed blood.
On the other side of the room, Seb threw a punch at Imseti, one that Imseti caught with ease. “I warned you not to interfere.”
Seb screamed as Imseti tightened his grip. Bones crunched. I was out of time.
My fingers fumbled undoing the button on the inside pocket. This is going to be unpleasant, I thought, drawing out the soul and pulling my shirt away from my chest. Already, some of the blood had dried, making tearing the spider silk fabric away from my skin hella painful. Once it was clear and the wound exposed, I gritted my teeth and shoved Hapi’s soul into the bleeding hole in my chest.
To say it hurt would be an injustice to the definition of pain. I would have much rather had Imseti jabbing that knife into me repeatedly than try to force another soul into an open wound. It burned as if the soul were made of salt, but it went into the small hole. Warmth flooded my body, radiating out from the soul. My magic rose, drawing on the soul, feeding on it just as I had done with Seb. Only this time, I didn’t shut it down. I let my magic consume the soul until there was nothing left.
Time slowed. The world around me came into sharper focus, the colors brighter and li
nes sharper. My Soul Vision activated without any input from me, showing me all the other souls in the room. Something deep inside whispered for more and I shuddered at the strange new desire coursing through me, the desire to rip out and consume souls.
Was this what the gods felt? I’d seen Imseti devour his brother’s soul, and every supernatural creature’s eyes lit up with hunger at the sight of those souls in the tank. They were like sharks in a feeding frenzy, barely contained. If it was, no wonder. I’d never felt such a strong urge to do something so unsettling.
Power thrummed in my chest, pumping through my veins, pounding in my head so hard I thought I might explode. I needed to use it, to get that power out of me and tone the pounding down to a tolerable level. Magic lashed out of me, searching for a target, anything to fill with necromantic power. But the artifacts in this room had never truly been alive. All the cups, plates, and jewels were inert, and my magic was unable to penetrate them, and so I searched further as the power built, flooding all my other senses. I felt death lurking nearby, though with the pounding in my head I couldn’t pinpoint where. It didn’t matter. If I didn’t get rid of some of that power right now, my brain was going to overload.
I poured the power into the two waiting vessels in the next room, falling to my knees and grunting with the effort. As the power left me and I could finally think, I tried to analyze what had happened. There were no ghosts and no shades lurking close by, so whatever I’d done, it hadn’t been to pull one of them through.
Beth reached my side. “Lazarus! Are you okay?”
I sat up, panting, and my eyes fell on the hole I’d punched in the wall. The larger exhibit pieces were on the other side, everything from a few pyramid bricks to a sarcophagus and…
Oh, no.
“Beth, how many mummies are in the next room?”
“Two. Why?”
A low moan drifted through the hole in the wall. Loose stones toppled, sending up a fresh dust cloud of debris. Two shadowy forms lurked on the other side of the rising dust. The room became silent enough I could hear Imseti’s footsteps as he walked away from Seb. “What did you do, Horseman?”
