Pursuit: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Lillim Callina Chronicles Book 4)

by J. A. Cipriano

  “You know Masataka let you in here, right? He wants Lillim to run so that he can kill her parents with impunity.” Ordain reached out and seized Charlie by the shoulder and spun him so that they were facing each other. “You’re just a pawn, Dioscuri. I suggest you scurry away before something bad happens to you.” He looked past Charlie and shrugged at me. “Unless you want to leave your parents to die. It’s your choice.”

  “No…” I said, glaring at him. “No one else is going to die because of me!”

  Chapter 14

  “Open the door,” Ordain commanded, but the Royal Guard only inclined his head to the side as if studying some kind of weird-looking bug.

  “I’m not allowed to let anyone insi—” Ordain’s hand stabbed outward, catching the guard in the throat, cutting him off in mid-sentence. The guard reached up, grabbing his throat as he slumped to his knees. With an absent chop, Ordain knocked the guard to the ground. He lay there unmoving.

  “He’s alive,” Ordain said as he stepped over the body and shoved the immense stone doors with his right palm. They buckled along the center, as if barred from the inside. He struck again and the outer edges of the doors tore free of the hinges with the sound of shrieking metal. They fell inward and slammed to the ground in a cloud of debris. It was so loud that it made my ears ring. Ordain stepped past me into the room and fixed his eyes on the throne.

  Masataka sat bolt upright in the throne, eyes wide. His lips quivered slightly, and he swallowed once, the motion so dramatic that I could see his adam’s apple bob up and down from my perch beyond the doorway.

  “What are you doing here, demon?” Masataka said, face twisted in confusion and… fear as he leapt to his feet.

  “Admit it,” Ordain replied with a shrug. “You thought I was dead, didn’t you? You thought your pathetic excuse for a Hyas Tyee killed me, didn’t you?” Ordain reached up and ran his hand over the scar on his face. “She failed.”

  “I knew you weren’t dead,” Masataka said, pulling his trident free and pointing it across the hallway at Ordain.

  “What the hell did you do, Masataka?” I screamed, pushing past Ordain and stepping into the room. The first thing that hit me was the smell. The council chambers smelled like sweat, fear, and blood. I sucked in a breath that tasted like a bucket of copper pennies and cringed.

  Crimson sprays painted the walls and pools of thick, red fluid seeped from bodies strewn about the room. The lifeless faces of several councilors stared back at me as I took two steps forward, my eyes wide with disbelief. “Did you kill everyone?”

  “Mostly,” Masataka said, narrowing his eyes at me. “It makes sense that you’d join a demon.”

  “I am not ‘a demon’ you sniveling ant. I am Ordain, the second demon,” Ordain growled from behind me, and it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

  I swallowed, and shoved away the feeling of icy grasshoppers hopping over my flesh. “You can’t just kill everyone,” I said.

  “I didn’t kill everyone,” Masataka sneered, gesturing to the Royal Guards that filed into the room from the back chambers. “My Guard is fine.” He grinned at me, and his stupidly perfect teeth glinted like diamonds. “This is what you’d call a successful coup d’état.”

  More Dioscuri appeared, and my jaw dropped and hit the floor. My mother and father were marched inside, arms shackled behind them. Blood dripped down my mother’s face as one of the Dioscuri shoved her onto her knees in the center of the room. Her face was blank and empty, and I knew that if she got free, people were going to die… because that was her killing face.

  I’ve seen it only a couple times before. It always gave me the willies, and judging by the looks on the Dioscuri’s faces surrounding her, they knew the look too. I smirked. I didn’t think ‘I was just following orders’ was going to keep anyone out of harm’s way if she got free.

  Beside her, my father’s face grew from its normal unflappable calm to incredibly worried in the moment he saw me. Horror stretched the scars across his face into a tight mask of fury as he tried to get to his feet. “My daughter… why did you not leave us and run?” he said before a Guard smacked him on the back of the head. My father, Sabastin Callina, hit the ground like a sack of potatoes. My mother bristled next to him, but did not otherwise move.

  “Dad!” I screamed, charging forward just as Ordain grabbed me by the collar of my bloody t-shirt. The thin fabric tore as my feet flew out from beneath me, and I would have landed flat on my back if the demon hadn’t steadied me.

  “Have a care, Lillim. You can’t go charging into an army of Dioscuri,” Ordain said, glancing at me. “Not in here,” he added in a quiet whisper so that only I could hear him.

  “Why not,” I snapped, throwing off his hand.

  “Because there is no magic in here,” he replied, tapping his head. “Remember, I’ve sieged Lot before. I know things.”

  I wanted to respond, but honestly? I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. There was something about having a demon help me kill the king of the Dioscuri that was a bit… off? Then again, this was Masataka we were talking about. If anyone deserved to die, it was him.

  “That’s not actually true,” Masataka said as he strode past the fallen forms of my parents and leaned against the closest pew, his footsteps leaving bloody footprints on the stone floor behind him. “The King retains his magic within these walls.” He waved one bloody hand, and the fallen doors righted themselves and slammed back into place behind us. “You hear that? It’s the sound of inevitability.”

  “You just stole that from a movie,” I said as I pulled my Beretta from my pocket. “Goodbye, Mr. Anderson.”

  I fired three quick shots in rapid succession. The sound seemed to shatter the small room.

  The armor-piercing bullets hit him center mass, and Masataka jerked backward. His trident slipped from his grasp, clanging against the stone floor. He stumbled as his Vajra writhed, struggling to throw off the impact of the rounds as the bullets fell emptily to the floor, clanging against the stone.

  “And they say guns kill people,” Ordain said next to me, then shrugged. “Maybe you need a bigger gun. I hear mortars work well.”

  “I can’t fit a mortar in my pocket,” I said as I strode forward, gun in front of me. Before I’d taken even two steps, my mother, the vicious Diana Cortez popped to her feet. The top of her head smacked into the chin of the Dioscuri standing over her. His head snapped back with a wet crunch as she whirled so that her back was to me. She pushed her arms out as far as she could and screamed over her shoulder at me. “Shoot them, Lillim!”

  “That only works in the movies,” I said, and in that moment, another Dioscuri tackled my mother.

  They hit the stone hard with the man on top. The back of my mother’s head struck the stone and a glazed look filled her eyes. The man drove his fist into her face, and for whatever reason, the blow seemed to awaken my mother. She moved her head as the next blow came down and the Dioscuri struck the stone.

  His hand deformed as he yanked it back toward him, shrieking. My mother drove her knee into his crotch. His eyes rolled back in his head as he slumped to the ground next to her.

  “Try anyway!” my mother screamed, getting to her knees and thrusting her handcuffed hands back behind her once again.

  “Fine!” I said, dropping into a shooting stance and aiming at the cuffs. “This is going to hurt… a lot!” I called as I pulled the trigger.

  The bullet smacked into the cuffs with a shriek of breaking metal as the bullet deformed and ricocheted off, splintering apart as it did so. My mother winced as bits of super-heated metal pelted her from behind as the impact spun her around, her right arm shuddering violently. The bones in her arms writhed like a slugs beneath her flesh as she strained, muscles cording with the effort. The cuffs tore apart in a shriek of metal as her arms whipped out to her side.

  “Thanks,” she said, catching the first onrushing Royal Guard in the throat with the heel of her left foot. He jerked backwa
rd like a broken doll, hitting the ground with a thud.

  “Lillim,” Ordain said, and I glanced over my shoulder at him. He was pointing at the pews in front of me. Masataka stood, his left hand white-knuckling his trident. He looked right at me and shut his eyes in concentration. Blood dripped from the corner of his mouth… and the medallion around his neck glowed like the sun. That’s when the room around us shuddered.

  My stomach sloshed as the ground leapt from beneath my feet. I felt myself falling. I windmilled my arms, trying to grab hold of something, anything, and my gun went flying. My fingertips slid off the bloody pew next to me, and I hit the stone floor so hard that my breath whooshed out of my lungs. I lay there for a moment, trying to remember how to breathe as the ground roiled.

  A body tumbled off the pew and landed on top of me, pinning me to the ground. I screamed, trying to throw off the corpse as lukewarm fluid spilled over me. My stomach lurched as slick, crimson goo splattered across my face. I kicked, calling on my power to help me move the body… but nothing happened.

  A profound emptiness stuck me in the core of my being, and there was, quite suddenly, a hole where my magic should have been. I shrieked as numbing coldness swept down my body. My joints locked into position, leaving me unable to move. The corpse’s jaw fell open in a soundless scream, teeth grating against my throat.

  “I… can’t move,” I choked, the words barely scraping past my teeth.

  “Fool!” Ordain cried, reaching down and grabbing the body with his left hand. His other hand was gripping the bloody pew so tightly that his knuckles were white with strain. He pulled, muscles knotted with effort, and the corpse slid off of me, slumping against the stone next to me.

  Crack!

  The stone beneath me split with a sound like a gunshot. That’s when I started to fall, slipping into the fissure in the ground. I tried to move, tried to keep myself from falling, but it was impossible. I couldn’t move.

  Ordain seized my ankle, his fingers pressing painfully into my leg. But he wasn’t as strong as I remembered him being. I don’t know how to explain it exactly, but his grip felt… weaker. He grunted, black work boots sliding on the stone floor as he struggled to pull me from the ravine widening beneath me.

  “Stop. Using. Your. Magic!” Ordain growled from between clenched teeth. Sweat dripped down his face, plastering his multi-colored hair to his skin. His feet slid a little farther on the blood-streaked stone, and my head smacked against the inside of the fissure. Stars shot past my eyes, flickering so brightly that I could barely see through them as my vision darkened around the edges.

  That’s when it hit me, or well, didn’t hit me. As my magic fled in a spur of lost concentration, the paralysis faded ever so slightly. I would have shaken my head in annoyance, but I couldn’t because my body was stiff as a board. Something in the room was, somehow, reacting with my magic to place me in a state of complete and utter paralysis. In short, it was drawing my power out of me and using it to paralyze me.

  I exhaled and let my mind go blank, trying to stop calling my magic, to will it away. It was like trying to cut off the flow of water from a fire hose by clamping my hand over the top of it. But, as the flow lessened, the paralysis faded, not entirely, just a little bit at a time.

  “Good,” Ordain said, reaching out toward me with one hand. A moment later, I seized his wrist and hauled myself out of harm’s way.

  “Well that was fun,” I groaned, rubbing my head.

  “Try not to make a habit of being stupid.” Ordain glared at me and an icy snail slithered down my spine. “I may not save you next time.”

  He was breathing so hard that I could see his chest rising and falling beneath his tank top. The muscles of his arms were swollen with strain, standing out on his thin frame. He saw me looking and turned his back to me.

  “Not used to having no magic, eh?” I asked, smirking.

  “I’ll have my powers back soon enough, sprat,” Ordain snarled. “Taunt me again and I’ll tear out your tongue and beat you to death with it.”

  I swallowed, and instead of retorting, I looked down for my gun. The glint of its barrel under the pew caught my eyes, and I dropped to my hands and knees to fish it out. As I climbed half under the pew, my elbows squelching in thick, viscous red puddles, the ground stopped rumbling.

  I reached out, sliding on my stomach, and my fingertips just brushed the magazine extending from the bottom. I shifted, swiveling my body as the metal underside of the pew’s support bars bit into my side, restricting my movement.

  “Dammit!” I said. “Just a little farther,” I mumbled, stretching out and pressing the tips of my fingers against the weapon. Slowly, I pulled back, and the gun scraped along the stone. I reached out again and wrapped my hand around the weapon. Its cold, comfortable weight sent confidence rushing through me.

  I scrunched backward, squirming out from beneath the immense wooden pew and got to my feet. I scanned the room, looking for Masataka… but I didn’t see him anywhere. Next to me, Ordain smirked, and I spared a glance at him.

  “What?” I asked.

  “You need a new shirt,” he said, and I looked down. My t-shirt was plastered against my chest with blood, sticking to my skin in a way that revealed way more than I’d have liked.

  “Seriously?” I grumbled, grabbing the hem of my shirt with one hand and pulling it away from my body with a squelch. “My shirt is what you’re concerned about?”

  “Lillim!” my mother screamed, and as I turned my head toward her, something struck me hard in the side of the head. The world spun out from under me as everything faded into a faraway black dot.

  Chapter 15

  “Okay, let’s try this again,” Masataka Mawara said, bowing before me so that his black hair fell in front of his face. “Hello, my name is Masataka Mawara. Pleased to meet you.”

  I bolted, throwing my chair backward and toppling to the ground in a heap. My face struck the faux, redwood floor. Pain warbled through me, throbbing between my temples as I tried to scramble away… but I couldn’t. I wasn’t bound or anything, I just… couldn’t move.

  Masataka sighed, a deep exhalation of breath that was tinged with annoyance. He was leaning close to me, eyes narrowed in suspicion. “What’s your name?” he asked.

  “You know my name, jackass!” I cried, trying to swivel my body around but accomplishing nothing.

  “Humor me,” he said, the words soft as he knelt down next to me and ran his fingers along my face. Warmth spread through my cheek at his touch, and without realizing it, I nuzzled closer to his hand. “What’s your name?” he asked again.

  I swallowed, shutting my eyes to try and concentrate but the only thing I could think about was the feel of his fingers trailing across my skin. “I… I don’t know,” I said finally, my voice half-strangled.

  “You don’t know your name?” he asked, voice suddenly softer, less annoyed.

  “I… can’t remember,” I replied, reaching back and scratching my neck with my left hand. My clothes felt itchy and… unfamiliar. Wait… I’d just moved my hand. I opened my eyes and stared at my hand, only now I couldn’t move it anymore.

  My eyes widened a fraction as I stared. I was wearing pink. I hated pink… didn’t I? I glanced down at the rest of my body. I was clad in a pink overcoat with lavender blossoms embroidered on it… and that was it. I blushed and felt the heat spread across my cheeks.

  “Please don’t look at me like this,” I said, gripping the hem of the overcoat and pulling it down to cover myself as I scooched away from him so I wasn’t revealing quite so much skin. “I feel like I need more clothes… like a pair of pants or something.”

  Masataka looked at me for a long time before smirking. “I didn’t dress you,” he said after a moment, “but you’re welcome to change into something else.”

  “Okay…” I swallowed. “Do you know where my clothes are?”

  “Your clothes?” he asked, confusion invading his voice. “Aren’t you wearing them?”
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  “I’m wearing my clothes?” I asked, running my hands over my body in a quick motion. “These don’t feel like my clothes. This doesn’t feel like something I’d wear at all.”

  “Dirge, those are your clothes,” he said, sighing again. “This is the third time you’ve tried to change.”

  “Dirge… is that my name?” I asked, and the words flopped out of my mouth like a dead slug. “That doesn’t seem right.”

  “This isn’t working,” he called over his shoulder before turning back to me. Something buzzed in the air, like a tiny gnat speaking into his ear and he frowned. “Fine,” he said after a moment. He smiled and reached out, taking my hands in his. “Let’s try this once more.”

  I looked down at my hands in his as his thumb kneaded my flesh. I swallowed and looked at him, my heart starting to hammer in my chest. “I’m really confused,” I said. “Do I know you, Masataka?”

  “Yes,” he said. He placed one of my hands against his chest, and I could feel the thump, thump of his heartbeat. “I am Masataka Mawara. I have been assigned to you, Dirge Meilan. You are supposed to train me.”

  “Oh, sorry,” I said, shaking my head. “I don’t remember that at all.”

  “It’s okay,” he replied, helping me to my feet and righting my chair before holding it for me. “Let me get you some tea.”

  “Um… alright,” I said, sliding into the seat. My clothes felt foreign and scratchy pressed against the wooden chair. “Are you sure I don’t have other clothes?”

  “Afraid not,” Masataka said as he picked up an antique copper teapot and poured steaming brown liquid into a tiny white porcelain cup. He picked it up by the saucer and placed it in front of me with a smile. “Drink some, you’ll feel better.”

  The tea started to swirl as I stared at the cup. I picked it up with both hands, cradling it between them and watched the steam curl off the top. The scent of jasmine and mint filled my lungs as I inhaled and blew. The first sip melted over my tongue like honey, and it was like the fog in my mind burned off in the morning sun. I glanced across the table at Masataka and narrowed my eyes at him.