Owl and the Tiger Thieves

by Kristi Charish

  13

  RABBITS AND THORNBUSHES

  Noon, beneath the cistern.

  “What have you been up to, Artemis?” Rynn asked, the corner of his lip turning up into a sneer. His footsteps clicked on the boardwalk as he made his way towards us, the red emergency lights lending a disturbing cast to his face.

  “Haven’t the faintest idea what you’re going on about.”

  I had to give Artemis credit for suicidal tendencies.

  “Hand over Owl now and walk away,” Rynn said. He stopped a few feet away, well out of arm’s reach, though somehow I was certain that he could stop us if need be.

  I searched his face, but whether it was a trick of the light or himself, I couldn’t see any of his usual warmth—only the icy chill I remembered from my dreams. Artemis continued as if we were catching up over coffee.

  “Interesting proposition, Rynn. Tell me, what do I get out of all this cooperation?”

  Rynn lowered his head, looking ever more the predator. “No one ever need be the wiser that you involved yourself in this debacle. You can go back to whatever debauchery you crawled out of.”

  Artemis made a clicking sound, mocking Rynn with the feigned consideration. “As lovely as that sounds, no.”

  A twitch rippled over Rynn’s face. He dropped any semblance of geniality, his mouth twisting into a vicious snarl. “You’re not usually this stupid—or reckless, Artemis. What do you have up your sleeve?”

  “Simple. I never underestimate just how much I piss everyone off— Shit!” Artemis ducked, narrowly missing a knife that embedded itself into the wood railing.

  Rynn turned his icy gaze on me. “Alix, hand it over,” he said.

  I backed up, more to buy myself time than in the hope of getting away. I hadn’t even seen Rynn throw the knife.

  But like hell was I about to hand anything over.

  I searched his face for something familiar, but there wasn’t a trace of the Rynn I recognized in the cold, icy eyes that were looking at me now.

  “Well, Alix? Is this the part where I let you live or rip your throat open for pursuing a fool’s errand?”

  I swallowed. “Fancy seeing you here, Rynn,” I said. “And can’t a girl just be out for a stroll looking for some run-of-the-mill ancient artifacts? Istanbul’s full of them.”

  “Option B it is.” Rynn produced another knife.

  “If that device does anything, now would be the time to tell me,” Artemis whispered from where he was still crouched.

  I inclined my head as Rynn strode towards us. “Why don’t you make us disappear?”

  “Because it doesn’t work when he’s standing right there in front of us!”

  Of course not. I kept my footing even as I backed away from Rynn. Never run from a predator; that was something he had told me.

  His lip curled. “I know you’re terrified of me, Alix. I can smell it.”

  Terrified was maybe a strong word for it— Shit.

  Rynn threw another knife, and it embedded itself into the boardwalk right by my feet.

  Apparently he meant business. “Run,” I said, and turned to do just that. Maybe we could lose him in the cistern—or buy ourselves time.

  My shoes clapped against the wooden slats, echoing across the water and off the cavern walls. Rynn bellowed behind us. I expected a knife. Instead, there was an ear-rattling explosion. A bullet struck the railing beside me.

  Great, now there were guns. We skidded to a stop as the gun barked again and the bullet struck inches away from our feet.

  There was a branch in the suspended boardwalk. “Split up,” Artemis said, and shoved me towards the left arm of the boardwalk.

  “That’s a horrible idea—goddamn it!”

  Artemis was already running.

  With no other choices and Rynn closing in, I bolted for the wire coffee tables that less than an hour ago had been filled with people. A handful of chairs had even been overturned in people’s rush to leave. I darted around one of the café tables, putting the wire and metal between us—not that it would do much, but he’d still have to push it aside.

  I turned, hoping Rynn would have chased Artemis. No luck; he was heading my way. Well, no point in putting off the inevitable . . . maybe I could throw him off. “Finders keepers, Rynn!” I shouted, holding up the silver device. “Back off, or I’ll do what I do best—break it!”

  His mouth twisted in the red light, and he lifted the gun, aiming at me. “You and I both know that you’ll do what you always do—it’s only a matter of time.”

  I searched behind Rynn for Artemis, hoping he might have looped around. No such luck . . . Coward.

  “And what would that be, exactly?” I asked as Rynn drew closer. He hadn’t fired yet, but even in my most hopeful state of mind I couldn’t see him missing me at this range.

  Still no sign of Artemis . . .

  I searched for a trace of Rynn in the supernatural bearing down on me, but I saw only the Electric Samurai.

  “Simply that you might feign putting up a fight, Alix, but you always buckle under a bigger bully, which in this case is me.” He fired at me, the bullet striking the metal table. I cringed, despite my resolve not to let him intimidate me—or at least not to let him see it.

  “Hand it over, and for once you can avoid the pain you invite others to visit on you.”

  I won’t lie, it hurt—partly because there was an undeniable grain of truth in it. Rynn knew he’d hit pay dirt. My emotions were ebbing off me.

  “You know it’s only a matter of time before you fold, Alix. And trust me, if you continue to make me chase you, I’ll make it hurt.”

  It already hurt. But if there was one thing I had learned over the past year, there was a hell of a lot more to me than being an underdog. It had been Rynn who’d showed me that.

  I glimpsed something out of the corner of my eye, a slight flicker in a dark cavern corner so faint I had to chance taking my eyes off Rynn to get a second look. Artemis. I wasn’t exactly certain what he was planning, but somehow he’d managed to get himself behind Rynn. And he let me see it. Meaning that he was going to toss some kind of ball into my court.

  His words came back to me: “So long as he’s still in there, you serve as a distraction.” “You’re forgetting the most important part about me, Rynn.”

  His upper lip twitched in amusement. “And what might that be?”

  Here’s hoping Artemis had read it right. “That I manage to piss all of you supernaturals off.” I shoved a table and chairs at him before bolting for the exit.

  “Alix, get back here!” Rynn roared, following up with more bullets. They struck the table and boardwalk but missed me. The real Rynn still had to be in there; otherwise the Electric Samurai would just hit me and get it over with.

  I might not be the most athletic woman who ever crawled through a tomb, but what I lacked in athleticism and grace, I made up for in raw, clumsy agility. I leapt onto the next metal table, sliding over the surface and knocking what was left of someone’s coffee and lunch onto the floor. I hit the ground running.

  More bullets struck around me, and I heard Rynn knocking the overturned tables and chairs out of the way in pursuit.

  I had no illusions about my chances of outrunning him. I was lucky to have gotten even this far. I kept my eyes peeled for any sign of Artemis—nothing, not even a glimpse of him in the shadows.

  If you were going to do something spectacular, Artemis, now is the time— Oomph!

  I hit the boardwalk face-first, Captain protesting from his perch on my backpack. I scrambled to get back up and couldn’t due to the thick rope weighted with heavy ball bearings wrapped around my ankles. A bola. He’d tripped me with a fucking bola? Oh, for Christ’s sake . . .

  Rynn was bearing down on me, pushing the tables out of his way, looking decidedly pissed off. “Since when the hell do you use bolas?”

  I tried to untangle myself but to no avail. I couldn’t let Rynn get ahold of da Vinci’s device. I searched f
or a hiding spot but couldn’t find one that didn’t scream “obvious.”

  Captain chirped, dancing back and forth as if he weren’t quite certain whether to sit and beg Rynn for a pat or attack him.

  Desperate times . . . I grabbed Captain’s collar and looped it through one of the broken segments of the silver orb, hoping it wouldn’t break into two. I then took hold of his head so he had to look at me. “Hide,” I said, and pointed towards the coffee shop.

  I highly doubt he had any idea what I was getting at; he’s a cat, after all. But he’s a resourceful cat. Whether it was my tone of voice, the fact that he was now in possession of one of my “treasures,” or that he really didn’t like the smell of Rynn, Captain decided now was as good a time as any to play. Your guess is as good as mine; the inner workings of my cat’s mind are a mystery. Whatever the reason, he let out an excited chirp and bolted for the coffee stand, his hind legs furiously scrambling to get his dark brown and white bulk underneath.

  Rynn reached me, crouching down beside me, his eyes still that terrifying icy blue. He gave me a sickening smile. “I use a lot more tricks than you remember.” He searched the inside pocket of my jacket roughly and when he didn’t find what he was looking for, went on to the rest of my pockets, then my bag. Captain had the good sense to stay hidden.

  I caught the glint of the knife in his hand—the kind I imagined people used to gut large animals. “The device, Alix.” He held out his other hand. “I won’t ask again.”

  I shrugged. “Sorry, Rynn. Must have dropped it—or maybe someone picked my pocket.” Fear and the urge to submit coursed through me as I stared into his icy-blue eyes. Just hand it over. Really, what was the point of keeping it? I wasn’t even supposed to be here, I was supposed to be collecting supernatural weapons for Mr. Kurosawa and Lady Siyu. Why bother with any of it? Just let the supernaturals beat the shit out of one another. With any luck, they’ll all kill one another and leave us humans alone.

  Those were the thoughts fueled by the emotions that coursed through me as I stared into Rynn’s eyes.

  Only problem: emotions were a poor substitute for the real thing. Nowhere near the subtlety that Rynn used, it was like having them forced on my thoughts with a sledgehammer—or an ice pick. The tactic was obvious, executed with brute force and a lack of imagination.

  The armor might have Rynn’s memories, but it didn’t have his finesse.

  I have never taken kindly to supernaturals telling me what to do.

  “Looks like you’ll just have to gut me then,” I said through clenched teeth.

  Confusion, then anger, flickered across Rynn’s features. The armor might have control over him, but all it could manage was a poor imitation of him—a powerful and dangerous imitation, but an imitation.

  Nevertheless, it hadn’t counted on my saying no and wasn’t quite certain how to deal with it. It might have control of Rynn, but it didn’t have enough to kill me outright. Maybe that was the answer? The armor had a temper. That’s what had happened the last time, wasn’t it? When Rynn had broken through.

  Whoever would have thought my talent for pissing off supernaturals to homicidal extremes would come in handy?

  “Didn’t expect that, did you?” I asked, addressing the armor. “You know, for all the control you’re supposed to have over my boyfriend, you’re really not managing much more than a cheap impression.”

  His lip curled into an angry sneer, looking less like Rynn. “Oh, trust me, Alixandra, I have everything—every intimate thought, every fear. What do you think I feed off of?” The voice was Rynn’s but hollowed out as the armor spoke directly to me.

  At least we were done with the facade. He reached out, gripped my throat, and squeezed it—not enough to knock me out but enough to stop me talking. “And more important, I know exactly how much pain killing you right here and now would cause.” The hand tightened. “I’d planned on drawing things out—instant gratification is very overrated, and you’re a bargaining chip. But just this once I could make an exception.” The knife pressed up against my chest, and I winced as it bit into my skin, but I still didn’t break eye contact. Please, Captain, no heroics—just stay hidden.

  “I’m not the one wearing my boyfriend’s skin like a really bad knockoff.”

  “Silence,” the armor hissed in its hollow voice.

  “Like Guggi-level bad.”

  I might have come up with more, but Rynn’s face twisted in rage and he began to squeeze. For a moment I wondered if I’d overshot my own card—my vision began to fade at the edges.

  The hand gripping me shook—then loosened.

  Rynn was staring at me, his eyes back to their normal shade of blue-gray. The knife at my ribs diminished its pressure. “Alix?”

  It was Rynn’s voice—his—I was certain.

  “That was very, very stupid,” he strained to say. “You can’t keep baiting the armor like this—I’m barely holding on as it is.”

  Sure enough, the knife shook in his hand as the armor struggled to regain control.

  “Fight it!”

  Rynn shook his head. “There’s only so much I can do. Its lapses in temper are fewer and farther between now. It’s learning. Every day, every hour, it works its way further into my mind. You need to stop.”

  “Like hell—”

  “It wants da Vinci’s device,” Rynn said, cutting me off. “It won’t tell me why, but it also won’t risk hurting you; otherwise it might lose control of me. But that will buy you only so much time. You might not have enough.”

  “Tell me what the hell you want me to do, then.”

  For a moment I thought I saw Rynn slip under the pale, icy eyes, but he managed to hold on. “I want you to stop trying to save me and start trying to figure out how to kill me.”

  “Are you out of your mind?” Like hell. Not even on the table.

  “For everyone’s sakes—otherwise it may be too late.” He winced and doubled over.

  “Rynn!” I shouted.

  Artemis was standing behind him with a chair in hand that he discarded on the floor. “I wasn’t even certain that would work.”

  I worked the bola off my ankles and I whirled on Artemis, my hands clenched. “It was him! He’d broken through.”

  Artemis ignored me and grabbed Rynn’s gun. He threw it into the water, then rifled through his jacket and found a series of syringes, the kind the Zebras were fond of carrying around to use against supernaturals. “What do you suppose these do?” he asked, holding two of them up, one red and one green. “Well, only one way to find out.” He jabbed them into Rynn’s shoulder, one after the other.

  Rynn seized as the chemicals coursed through him, his face turning red as he gasped for air.

  I stopped Artemis before he could add any more. “Enough! It was him!”

  Artemis’s lip curled as he dragged me up off the boardwalk and started towards the exit. “I’m well aware of that,” he said, glaring at me. “I heard him just as clearly as you did.”

  “We’re not going to try to find a way to kill him.”

  He shook his head. “Not that. The part about the armor taking over.”

  I started back for Rynn, but Artemis stopped me. “You’re not thinking,” he said.

  “I’m thinking he’s still in there and we’re leaving him.” He was unconscious; if we could keep him unconscious somehow—

  “Or the armor is manipulating the situation, only letting you think it’s him. Of course you can’t go back there. Instead of rushing in like you always do, try stopping and thinking.”

  I clenched my fists. It had been Rynn. I knew it, Artemis knew it . . .

  And so did the armor. As much as I wanted to tell Artemis to go to hell, he had a point.

  “What if we got him back to the Japanese Circus? Mr. Kurosawa has to have something that would hold him.”

  He stopped and turned to me once again. “And do you truly want to gamble that he won’t simply try to kill him? It would be easier, let alone safer, f
or everyone. What if the armor escapes? Better yet, what if it temporarily releases Rynn, then stabs everyone in the back while we aren’t looking? Mr. Kurosawa and the Naga aren’t going to risk that, not when there is a much simpler solution.” His expression was impassive; there was no charity or sympathy in it.

  And he was right. I don’t know who I hated more for that, me or Artemis.

  There was a groan behind us. Rynn—

  “Shit, the drugs weren’t nearly as effective as I’d hoped,” Artemis said.

  “Any more tricks?”

  Artemis shrugged. “Run?”

  I swore and bolted for the stairs, which were still empty. The emergency vehicles were likely held up in midday traffic, and no one had yet cleared the cistern and shut off the alarm. IAA interference, I imagined, wanting to prevent supernatural fallout. Small favors. Captain bleated as he caught up.

  The three of us emerged into the daylight. I stopped short of running out into the street. Which way, left or right? I started right, but Artemis stopped me.

  “Look around you,” he whispered.

  Sure enough, down the street were two of Rynn’s mercenaries, watching the cistern entrance. There had to be more nearby.

  “I’ll take care of the mercenaries,” Artemis said, and took off to the left. The two mercenaries saw him and chased after him.

  Goddamn it, what the hell was I supposed to do? I decided to run. I headed right, down the road, and ducked into the first alley I saw.

  I took two more corners before I slowed to catch my breath, my legs screaming, and not just from the effort. I doubled over to catch my breath. Five more seconds, that was all I needed . . .

  Jesus, that had been a colossal fuckup. I wasn’t even certain Artemis had the amulet.

  I forced myself to stand. Should I head back to the hotel or hole up somewhere?

  Captain let out a long-drawn-out, hostile hiss. I heard a noise behind a stack of cardboard boxes and turned in time to see a body shuffle out from behind a stack of crates, one that dressed in designer shoes and a dark suit. The disheveled appearance and rumpled suit made me do a double take.