by Leah Silver
“It didn’t take us this long to cross the room before, did it?” I asked, slowing down to a brisk walk.
“I don’t know. It was a big room,” Oscar said, remaining diplomatic.
Just as I was about to stop walking and basically melt into a puddle of despair, I saw them in the distance. The box clanged in my hands as my feet pounded the cement ground, bringing me closer and closer to saving my baby.
Even Ike couldn’t keep up with me as we ran, and I skidded to a halt in front of Ed. But the scene before me wasn’t how I’d left it at all.
Strings of all different colors were wrapped around my child, tied in knots, tangled all around her body from her head to her toes.
“What the—” I tried to comprehend what I was looking at.
“Don’t touch it,” Levi warned in hushed tones. “Ed has only just now been able to reveal the depth of this spell.”
Ed was visibly sweating as he plucked carefully at a string. It unraveled, disappearing beneath his fingers. “Slowly but surely,” he said, his brow furrowed together, giving him a deep crease between his grey eyes.
Ike came to a screeching halt next to me, huffing and puffing.
“I believe I won our bet. And now you owe me.” I didn’t look at him as I goaded him, unable to tear my eyes from the web of magic before me.
“I’ll gladly pay you in the bedroom, hunter,” he said, giving my ass a swat as he panted.
Levi brought me back to the rather pressing predicament in front of us. “Did you get the serum?”
“It’s in here, I assume.” I held out the box for him, and he took it.
“How do we get inside?”
“I’m hoping Ed can help us with that.”
“He’s a bit busy right now,” Levi pointed out.
“Oh, really? I had no idea. I was planning on asking him to solve my problem right this instant, but now I think I’ll wait.” I sat down cross-legged on the floor, and Levi plopped down next to me. Oscar stayed standing, and Ike stretched out on the floor nearby.
After just a few moments, I got restless. In that time, Ed had managed to take away two more threads. We’d be here for days waiting for him at that rate. “Ed, is there anything I can do to help?”
“You might want to take care of that,” he answered.
“What?” I asked, completely confused. But before he could answer, I heard it. A rumble. And there it was again. And a third. Coming faster and faster now. “Shit shooters. What in the name of Jareth the Goblin King is that?”
“Likely not Jareth,” Levi said as he stood up. The echoes were coming from behind us. Down the tunnels we’d walked. I faced that way, my daggers out, ready to fight whatever came out of the darkness. It was what I did. What I was made for. Or maybe what I was made into. A fighter. A hunter. A mother.
The men lined up on either side of me, forming a wall of supernaturals to guard Ed and Sara. “I can’t stop now that I’ve begun. Her life is tied right into these threads. If I break one, or walk away, she’ll die.” Ed’s voice was pained, and heavy with stress.
“Ed, you keep her safe. I’ll keep you safe. That’s the deal,” I said. He nodded as the rumblings sounded closer together.
“Here it comes,” Ike said before changing into his wolf, baring his teeth at the black expanse in front of us.
Cold air rushed through the room, sucking the hope from my lungs, and I knew we were too close to Ed. “Move,” I commanded. The men followed my lead as I ran toward whatever was coming for us, swinging left, trying not to run right smack into it.
“What is it?” Oscar asked, having turned to stone as he prepared for the fight.
“Not sure yet,” I said, trying to circle around for a better look.
The darkness I’d led us into was absolute. Why weren’t the lights working in this part of the room? Probably because we’d set off another trap that was made to be played out in the dark.
Damn it, Devlin, I thought while trying to calm my breathing and listen for movement. Everything had gone completely quiet. I could see the light from Ed’s area off in the distance, and I could only hope leaving him unguarded wasn’t a mistake.
No one spoke or moved while we waited for whatever challenged us to reveal itself.
A smell filled my nose, one I would never forget as long as I lived. And the more I hung around with the four men who were trying to help me, the less I thought I’d live a whole lot longer.
“Well, well. If it isn’t Mort. How ya doing, old friend?” I asked.
“Your definition of friend and mine are wildly different.” His voice was the embodiment of terror, low and creaky. And the dark was his playground. He’d nearly killed me the last time we’d met up, and I had no desire to enter into round two with him.
“What are you doing here? We had a deal.” During our last fight, he’d had the upper hand until he made a rather foolish mistake. I’d taken advantage, and while I’d held the blade to his throat, he’d asked me for a deal.
“Someone made me a better deal.”
“Better as in…”
“I get to take care of you, then I’m free forever.”
“Let me guess, it’s this mysterious new super race?”
“Super race? No. They’re no better than me. In fact, I could probably kill them with a kiss.” He drew out the ‘s’ sound, making his voice bounce around the room so it was nearly impossible to tell where he was.
“I’m sure you could, Morty.”
“What’s with this guy?” Oscar whispered in my ear.
“He toys with death. The shadows are his minions. Don’t let them touch you, or they’ll drag you beyond the veil.”
“A gargoyle gets dragged nowhere,” he said, and I imagined he was puffing out his chest, despite the fact I couldn’t see him.
“We’ll see,” I said, quietly trying to decide what to do. I’d had more light the last time we fought. He definitely had home-court advantage. We needed one of Ed’s light balls. And fast.
“Ed,” I yelled. “Let there be light!”
“A bit busy here,” he called back.
“Ed,” I yelled louder.
A ball of light headed our way, and suspended above my target. Mort shied away from it, darting for the shadows. Ike took that opportunity to lunge at him.
“Ike, no,” I yelled. But I was too late. He got a hold of Mort’s leg, biting down hard.
A low laugh rumbled out of him, and I could feel it in my chest as he dragged Ike into the shadows. “Ike, let go,” I commanded.
An unworldly scream pierced the darkness, and I heard Mort grumble. “You got one, wolf, but you won’t get another.”
Why couldn’t I see what was happening? When I heard Ike’s yelp, I nearly leapt into the darkness myself, but Oscar held me back. “Werewolves are creatures of the dark, Merry. He’ll know when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em, as you say.”
Just before I couldn’t stand it anymore, Ike jumped out of the darkness. He landed at my side, definitely a little worse for the wear. His eye was swollen, and his ear looked like it had a chunk taken out of it. I wanted to kneel by his side, make sure he was okay, tell him how stupid that was, but there was no time. Mort was ready.
“Smart dog,” Mort said. “Now, we dance.”
“Shit shooters. I hate dancing.”
“You just haven’t had the right partner,” Levi said.
“Just watch your backs, and stay in the light,” I told them. The rumble Mort announced himself with started as he called his minions. “The shadows are coming,” I breathed.
“What can we do?” Oscar asked.
“Keep them busy. I need a clean shot on him.”
“You got it.”
“And hey, don’t let them touch you. I mean it.”
“I heard you the first time,” he said before he leaned in and fiercely kissed me. His lips were cool and hard, and I melted into them. It was everything I needed in that moment to give me the strength for this one last
battle. I refused to think of it as a goodbye kiss.
“That was for luck, right?” I asked.
“Of course.” He winked, then took off to the edge of the light at my back. I stood in the center of the circle, and three of my four men formed a triangle around me.
“All right, Morty, let’s dance.”
“You have too many people on the dance floor. Let’s remedy that, shall we?”
“I think not,” Oscar said as he produced a rock and launched it at a shadow moving silently toward him. It sailed right through the shadow’s head, and crashed hard into the wall beyond. “Well, that doesn’t work.”
Ike started barking at the shadows as they closed in on us, but there were too many of them. They knew they could overpower him, and so they kept coming.
Levi said nothing, but I could feel the prickle of his charms crawling up my arm, sending shivers down my spine. The shadows created a perimeter around him, not coming within arm’s reach.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Suggesting they go somewhere else.”
“They’re influenced by you?”
“I guess so?” He phrased it like a question, not a statement. As if he had just as much of an understanding about what was happening as I did.
“So, you have a charmer at your side. He won’t be able to save you,” Mort said. His confidence rivaled Devlin’s, and it made me a bit envious. When did the bad guys become so certain? I wanted to be certain, too. Certain my daughter wouldn’t die before my eyes. Certain Ed could release her, get the serum opened, and we could move on from this. But I wasn’t certain of any of that. If I’d learned anything in my years on this earth, it was that there were no guarantees for anything. The Mother giveth, and she taketh away.
“No, I don’t expect him to. He’s not much more than a pretty face, huh?” I needled, trying to buy me some time.
“Hey,” Levi said, ratcheting up the charm. He was laying it on so thick it almost hurt. The prickles along my spine made me fidgety. I shifted my footing, trying to shake the feeling.
“Fine, I will just go straight to the source.”
In a flash, Mort was heading for Ed. “No,” I screamed, launching myself out of the circle of light Ed had given me.
As soon as I hit the darkness, I knew it was a trap. Mort descended on me, surrounding me with his shadows as he went, leaving me no way out. He cut me off from not only the three men, but also from Ed and Sara. I was alone. But I’d been alone before. In fact, I was quite good at it.
I spun the daggers in my hand as we faced off. “Fine, Morty. Have it your way. Let’s dance.”
The shadows grabbed for my ankles as we circled around, sizing each other up. “Get your lackeys off me. This is between you and me.”
“Fine. I don’t need them to defeat you, anyway. You know this.”
“Again with the arrogance,” I said. But they disappeared all the same. At least I didn’t have them to deal with. My men closed in around me, and Mort bristled.
“If I can’t have my minions, you can’t have yours.”
“Fair enough,” I said. “Back off, guys. This demon’s mine. We have history.”
“I’m not sure I like the sound of that,” Oscar said as Ike growled.
“Tell your charmer to lay off. He won’t be able to keep me from you, not in the end,” Mort commanded.
“Levi. Stop,” I said, wanting relief from the tingling, too.
He frowned, but the tingling quit. “Thank you,” I said and turned back to Mort. “Now the dance floor is empty except for you and me. So, let’s go.”
“Yes. Let’s.”
He reached for me, sending a dark wisp of air my way. It crawled toward me like he was blowing smoke. I dodged it and stepped to the side.
“You know how this ends,” he said as the smoke-like tendrils looped around, trying to get a hold of my legs as I jumped and rolled away.
“No, I don’t believe I do. Why don’t you enlighten me?”
“We can dance like this until you drop. But I will win. Why not save us both some time?”
“Here I thought you liked to dance, Morty.”
He growled. He hated that name, and I liked to use it as liberally as I could. Anything to distract him, and throw him off his game.
“I do. But I can taste my freedom. New Orleans is a cesspool. I want to travel. And the ones who freed me seem like a fun group.”
“Good. A race Mort thinks is fun,” I said over my shoulder. The boys didn’t respond, though. They were probably too focused on the death demon coming at me to make jokes.
“Enough,” Mort said, and I knew he meant it. Now or never. I lunged at him, and he grabbed me midair by the neck. I swiped at him with my daggers, but they did nothing against his vapory body.
Shit shooters, I thought. I could hear the boys screaming behind me, but they stayed where they were. Maybe Mort had brought out his shadows again, keeping them in place. I’d never know.
Darkness crept in at the edges of my vision. I looked over Mort’s shoulder at Sara, still tangled up in Devlin’s magician’s spell.
Oscar. Tell her I love her, I thought, hoping he was listening.
Just as I was losing my grip on consciousness, a flash of light made him drop me less than gently to the ground.
“Mort. You don’t belong here.”
“Neither do you, Tempest,” Mort said, rage making his deep voice rumble even harder. It felt like the walls were shaking from it as I tried to get my feet under me again.
“Tempest?” I asked, my eyes having trouble adjusting to the light. It was so bright.
“That’s who I was on this earth, child.”
“I’m sorry about Floresta.”
I felt a warmth surround me. “There is nothing to forgive. She’s paying for her poor choices.” The sadness in her voice overwhelmed me, and I knew she was influencing me in every way. She was in control … of everything.
“By the void,” I breathed. “You’ve become the Mother.”
The light warmed toward me. “Yes and no. There is too much to explain now. I told you I had work to do. You will be my hands and feet on this earth now, and to do that, you must survive.”
A flash of light filled the room, setting me back on my ass. I blinked, completely blinded by what she’d done. “Tempest?” I asked, but there was no answer.
I felt hands on my shoulders, on my arms, on my back. “Merry, are you all right?” Levi’s voice came to me, and I blinked furiously.
“I can’t see.”
“What happened?” Ike asked. I reached for his hand, grabbing it like a lifeline.
“I can’t see,” I said more urgently. Maybe they hadn’t heard me the first time.
I blinked a few more times. Some odd shapes came into view, but I still couldn’t tell what they were.
“How did you beat him? One second, he was there. The next, he wasn’t. His shadows went with him. Where did you send him? He looked like he was killing you,” Oscar said, his voice shaking. He must’ve been rattled by what he’d seen.
“I didn’t do anything, but Tempest blinded me.” I blinked about a million more times. Slowly, my vision came back, bit by bit.
“Tempest?” Levi asked skeptically.
“She’s the Mother now, or something like it, I guess. I don’t know. She blinded me and disappeared, taking Mort with her. Demon’s breath. I’ve had enough of this goat rodeo with you fellas,” I said. I let Ike go to rub my eyes. “How’s Ed coming?”
Levi chuckled. “Come on. Let’s go see.” He helped me to my feet. and I clung to his hand as we walked, rattled by what had just happened, and needing support more than I’d like to admit.
“Ed?” I asked.
“You do like some excitement, don’t you?” he teased.
“Cut the crap. How’s it going?” I asked, in no mood to banter. I could see Sara lying in front of him, but I couldn’t see any threads.
“I’ve done it. She’s free.”<
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“By the Mother. Really?” I asked, hating Tempest a little less for blinding me. She’d saved us, after all.
I reached out and grabbed Sara’s hand. “I’m here, my angel. I’m here.”
“Where is the serum?” Ed asked.
“It’s in that box.” I didn’t bother to look over my shoulder. My tears were blurring my vision now, not Tempest’s little trick, and I swiped at them. Levi stood at my left shoulder, rubbing my back.
“Well, isn’t this a puzzle?” Ed said. “I really hate Devlin. And I hate that magician even more.”
I turned back to him. “Is there a problem?”
“No, just an annoyance.”
He flourished his hand around the box, and black smoke oozed out of it. He didn’t recoil, but I heard a sizzle sound, and smelled something like cooking meat.
“Demon’s breath,” he cursed as the box dropped to the ground. A small bottle rolled out of it. Oscar bent and picked it up.
“Ed?”
“I’m fine.” He clutched his hand, and it seemed like he had a matching burn with Oscar. He swirled his hands in front of him, and a syringe appeared. “Give it here.”
With his good hand, he pulled the serum out and took Sara’s arm. Slowly, he injected it, and the black spots retreated almost as rapidly as they showed up. I slumped back against Levi. It was over. She was going to be okay.
We were all a little worse for the wear, but that didn’t matter. We were together. And we were alive.
Dirty words and heavy breathing
Sara sat by my side at the table. She was still a little pale, but the council wouldn’t wait any longer. I’d put them off twice already in an attempt to let her recover. But they weren’t having it. I’d already told them everything I knew, but they wanted more, more of something I didn’t have to give. They were in full-on panic mode. Couldn’t say I blamed them, really, but I wasn’t in the mood. My crisis was over. I wanted to rest and try to take back some semblance of normalcy in my life.
“So, Merry, you say this super race is behind the plague?” the pooh-bah asked me.
“I don’t say this. They are. Two demons and Devlin all admitted it.”
