by Eva Chase
Omen’s jaw worked, but Sorsha had perked up a little from her despondence. “That’s perfect,” she said. “I’ll just pop in, see if there’s anything I can do or anything they can tell us that’ll help us crush these bastards, and pop back out. You know Thorn would never let me get up to anything ill-advised.” The smile she gave me was both sweet and a little sly.
“I could drive around the other side of the block and park there,” Bow offered. “The tour bus guise is pretty multipurpose—we can stop just about anywhere without looking strange.”
Omen threw his hands in the air. “Fine. A quick ‘pop’-in. But if you’re not done in half an hour, we’re leaving without you and you can find your own way back.”
Bow brought the bus to a surprisingly smooth stop less than a minute later. Sorsha sprang up immediately. “Be careful,” Snap said with a worried frown.
Ruse moved to stand. “It might be easier with more than one of us—”
“Everyone else stays put,” Omen said in a cutting tone. He jerked his head toward the doorway as he fixed his gaze on Sorsha. “Your half hour has started. Get a move on.”
Sorsha mouthed a quick “Thank you” to me on her way out, already opening up the pack of lock-picking tools Ruse had gotten her this morning to replace her old ones. Our lady was so sure of herself and so stubborn. By the realms, I hoped I hadn’t made a mistake in offering to orchestrate this surreptitious entrance.
Whether I had or not, the thing needed to be done swiftly. I stepped back into the shadows and trailed behind her out through the general haze of the dusk across the street. She ducked down an alley to weave toward the office building out of view, and I raced straight to the bright walls of the hospital.
It wasn’t, I realized once I’d squeezed through the shadow around a doorway, the most ideal environment for a shadowkind. Stark lights glowed all across the hall ceilings and reflected off the pale walls. I leapt from one thin patch of darkness to another until a trolley of operating equipment carried me the rest of the way to a stairwell. It was fortunate that the size of my physical form had no bearing on how I filled out the shadows.
The caller who’d notified Sorsha of the attack had told her that her injured friend was on the fifth floor. I rushed up that far and then dashed through the patient rooms on the side of the building that faced the offices. Finally, I entered a darkened room where the bed lay empty. I emerged from the shadows by the window, yanked out the screen, and shoved the lower pane high.
Sorsha spotted me from a fifth floor office room farther down. She gave a quick wave there, vanished, and reappeared directly across from me in a matter of seconds.
The buildings had only a five-foot gap between them. I stepped to the side, and she threw herself across that space with only a slight oomph as she caught the window ledge with both arms. She scrambled inside, bobbed up to peck me on the cheek, and hurried out to the hall.
I had the distinct impression that I’d hardly go unnoticed with my broad human body in the clothes I’d chosen for comfort several centuries ago, but I wasn’t going to let her charge off completely undefended. With another leap into the shadows, I followed her to her friend’s room.
A few figures from those meetings of hers stood outside the doorway. They all stiffened at the sight of Sorsha.
“What are you doing here?” asked a young man whose soft face didn’t show any of the strength he’d built up in his musclebound body. During my time on the battlefield, that would have marked him as easy pickings, barely worth the time it’d take to knock him off his feet. I might have judged it worth the effort anyway after his sneer at the lady.
“I had to come,” Sorsha said, her back stiffening. She glanced past him to the other figures. “How’s she doing? Is she awake?”
“Huyen’s in with her now,” one of the women said flatly. “From what she said, Ellen is still pretty out of it. They hit her hard—concussion, broken ribs, all that.”
At that moment, another woman strode out of the hospital room, her face tight with worry. Her mouth pulled even tighter when she saw Sorsha. Without a second’s hesitation, she grabbed our mortal’s arm and yanked her farther down the hall. The soft-faced man slunk closer, presumably to listen in, which only increased my desire to punch his face in.
“You have to get out of here,” the woman snapped in a harsh undertone. “This is all because of you and your crazy crusade.”
Guilt flashed through Sorsha’s expression. “I didn’t mean—I tried to make sure we were careful.”
“Obviously not careful enough.”
“I’m so sorry, Huyen.” Sorsha set her jaw. “I know it doesn’t make up for the attack, but—you can tell her we’re going to bring down the assholes who did this tomorrow night.”
The woman sucked in a sharp breath. “Are you kidding me? Do you want to screw us over even more? The people who attacked her asked her to pass on a message: to tell you and your friends to stay out of their business. They nearly killed her, you know. I didn’t even want you coming here—Lila shouldn’t have called you.”
Sorsha swallowed audibly, her shoulders drooping. “I’ll go. I just wanted to see—when I heard—” She shook her head. Then her gaze jerked back up with a flicker of concern. She raised her voice so it would carry to the cluster by the door. “Did anyone call Vivi?”
The woman who’d spoken to her earlier nodded. “I tried. Went straight to voicemail. Either her battery’s dead or she was on the subway or something.”
“Okay. Okay.” Sorsha looked as if she wanted to make a run for the injured woman’s room after all—I collected myself in the shadows in case I needed to clear the way for her—but then she spun around and hurried to the other room where she’d entered.
As soon as she’d shut the door, she pulled out her phone. I emerged into the physical realm next to her.
She answered my question before I had to ask it. “They went for Ellen—why wouldn’t they go for my best friend too? If they’ve identified the Fund members, they’re not going to buy Vivi’s phony story about her grandma’s car getting stolen anymore. Shit, shit, shit.” She grimaced at the phone, which I supposed hadn’t connected with Vivi, and shoved it back into her pocket. “I’ve got to go to her place. They jumped Ellen right outside her apartment. Vivi would usually be working late today—if I can get there first—”
“Where are we going?” I asked as she clambered into the window.
Sorsha glanced back at me. “I don’t expect you to come. Omen was pretty clear that he didn’t approve of getting even this involved. You can let the others know I’ll meet you all at the bus lot on Lincoln Road.”
If she made it back to the lot at all. Did she really think she could tackle a band of attackers on her own—or that I’d let her attempt it?
“No,” I said firmly, striding over to join her. “We have each other’s backs—isn’t that how you put it? We’ll do this together. Omen can wait.”
“Are you—oh, fuck it, there isn’t time. Thank you.” She shot me a smile and leapt back to the office building.
I flung myself after her, stretching myself to cross the entire space as little more than a blur of thicker darkness in the hazy evening dimness. On the other side, Sorsha dashed straight for the door she must have jimmied open.
“Thank heavenly heathens Vivi just had to live right in the middle of downtown,” she said, racing toward the stairs. “Her apartment is only six blocks from here.” A wild laugh hitched from her chest. “We might even make it back before Omen’s thirty-minute deadline is up.”
We sprinted through the alleyways and along a busy street lined with restaurants and shops, Sorsha’s sneakers smacking the sidewalk and me soaring through the shadows where I could move faster and without obstruction. She only slowed on the fifth block, with another jab at her phone’s screen. I hurtled ahead of her but stopped where I could still hear her voice as it pealed out with relief.
“Vivi! Please tell me you’re not home yet. Oh
, geez, if you squint you’ll probably see me down the street.” She started walking again at a brisk clip. “Don’t come any closer. We’ve got to—”
I’d already peered ahead to where a familiar figure with a puff of black curls and a sleek white outfit stood outside a shop at the other end of the next block. Or rather, she was standing outside it when my gaze first located her. An instant later, two figures in plated vests charged from around the side of the nearest building.
Sorsha’s voice cut off at her friend’s shriek. She propelled herself forward as fast as her mortal feet would carry her.
I reached the attackers even more swiftly. Leaping from the shadows at the last second, I plowed my fist straight into the nearest miscreant’s throat.
The man fell with a sputter of blood, but the other attacker hauled Sorsha’s friend through the doorway next to him. Sorsha and I charged after them—and two more Company combatants rushed in after us, the first raising a gun and the other flicking one of those whips of light that made my entire being twitch with discomfort.
A thick, meaty scent filled my nose. We’d barreled into a butcher shop. I managed to kick the gun from the one man’s hand with a snap of the bones in his wrist. Then I raced after the man who’d grabbed Vivi, who was now hauling her through another doorway at the back.
Sorsha and I burst into a room of hanging carcasses, vibrant red and pink etched with paler lines of fat. The smell rolled over us in a thick wave, but Sorsha didn’t hesitate even as she coughed. She launched herself straight at her friend’s captor.
My first instinct was to hurl myself after her and take the fellow down for her, but I forced myself to stop and quite literally have her back instead. I ripped a thigh off one of the cow carcasses and slammed it into the man who’d come in behind us before he could slash either of us with that unnerving whip.
The strategy worked out well enough, as Sorsha clearly had her side of the battle under control. She dodged to the side at the last second and heaved an entire carcass into Vivi’s attacker, pummeling him in the head with the raw meat.
The man grunted and teetered; Vivi tore free with a yelp. When the man lunged after her, his hand jerking upward with a pistol in its grasp, Sorsha tackled him.
Sparks shot up. The waft of heat she’d conjured browned the carcasses above them, turning the raw meat stink into barbeque.
Our attacker with the whip hadn’t been dissuaded yet. He flung the arc of light toward me, and I dove under it, ramming into his legs. As he toppled, I threw myself around both the weapon and the venomous plates of his armor. I rammed the beef thigh into his mouth hard enough to puncture the back of his throat.
“Eat that, villain,” I said, and swiveled around to discover that Sorsha had managed to bury her foe under three of the heavy carcasses. The cords they’d been hanging from dangled with blackened ends where they’d been burnt through.
She caught my eye, and I found myself smiling at her, a rare sense of elation filling my chest. I hadn’t enjoyed combat in eons. But this… this had been good. What a battle was meant to be: comrades conquering evil side by side. Protecting each other wasn’t all it came down to. I had to give my companions room to be the warriors they were capable of becoming too.
Perhaps I could make sure this war was won the right way after all.
Vivi was braced against the far wall, breathing hard, her sleek white outfit now streaked with blood. “Sorsha?” she said tentatively, her eyes wide.
The lady held out her hand. “Come on, Vivi. We’re getting you out of here.”
22
Sorsha
“Well, this is… something, all right,” Vivi said, taking in the walls in the low-ceilinged living space, which looked—and smelled—like they were pasted with dried algae. From her face, I suspected she was resisting the urge to wrinkle her nose.
Gisele pranced around the room, which otherwise held an odd collection of rattan furniture with cotton cushions that at least appeared to be cozy. The unicorn shifter’s perky voice gave no sign that she’d noticed Vivi’s hesitance. “Kaiso said we could drop in and use the place any time. He’s got houseboats all over the world, so he’s not here that much.”
“A big fan of water living, huh?” I adjusted my balance as the floor rocked under us with the shifting currents of the river.
“It makes sense. He’s a kappa, after all.”
Vivi’s eyebrows shot up. “Um, are you totally sure he won’t be back while I’m staying here?” Temperaments really varied even across shadowkind of the same sort, but kappa did have a reputation as tricksters at best and murderers-by-drowning-mortals at worst.
“Oh, I’m sure it won’t be a problem even if he does,” Gisele said. “Just tell him you’re a friend of ours.”
Vivi didn’t look any more certain about that strategy than I felt—who was to say the water spirit would ask for introductions before getting down to drowning—but Omen stepped into the boat’s interior then. He didn’t hesitate to wrinkle his nose as he glanced around.
“You should be safe from any shadowkind who come wandering this way,” he said. “I’ve marked the place with my power as a warning. There aren’t many who’d purposefully risk the wrath of a hellhound.”
Marked the place? What, had he peed on the deck in hound form to leave his scent? The image made the corners of my mouth twitch, but I decided it was better not to risk his wrath right now by sharing it. Too much gratitude was tickling up through my chest.
I hadn’t expected Omen to even participate in finding Vivi a safe place to hide out, let alone use his influence to protect her.
“Thank you,” I said, meaning it.
He shrugged and stalked back out without another word. “I guess the other guy got all the friendliness on offer when they came into being, huh?” Vivi said with a quirk of her lips. Ruse had been by a few minutes earlier to drop off food and a couple of changes of clothing he’d gathered for her, which he’d presented in his usual charming fashion.
“Something like that.” I glanced at Gisele. “This is great. Thank you so much too. Can you give us a little while to talk?”
“Of course!” The unicorn shifter bobbed her head with its rainbow of hair to my best friend. “A pleasure to meet you.” She trotted out after Omen.
Vivi flopped down into one of the rattan chairs. “My God, what a night. Out of the frying pan and into a five-alarm blaze.”
The comment pinched at my gut. I knew she only meant it as an expression, but I also wasn’t sure if she’d noticed the spurts of heat and flame I’d been able to produce while I was taking down her attacker in the butcher shop. She hadn’t brought it up, and I’d figured it was better not to heap any more craziness on her than she was already dealing with… and also I wasn’t super keen on seeing how our friendship might change if I revealed I might not be completely human after all.
“Ruse will bring more supplies around if you need them,” I said. “And I’ll always have my phone on me. But hopefully what we’re going to do tonight will get us a huge step closer to taking down the Company of Light completely, and then we won’t need to worry about them coming after you again.”
“You think so? They’re a hell of a lot more organized and vicious than any hunters we’ve tangled with before.”
“Well, if we can free a bunch of higher shadowkind they’ve been torturing, that’s tons of new allies right there. And we’re going to get all the info we can out of the people working there, whatever files they have on site, and then hopefully erase everything on their end so all their experimental data is kaput… We’re a lot better prepared than we were before.”
“You had things figured out well enough to get to me before the jerks strung me up or whatever the heck they were planning, so I have all possible faith in your plans.” Vivi reached to pat my arm as I sat down beside her, but her usual energy was still dampened.
A sharper jab lanced through my stomach. If I hadn’t pursued the Company and kept helping Omen an
d the others work out how to take them down—if I hadn’t gone to the Fund asking for help—right now, Ellen would be at the theater getting everything ready for the day. Vivi would be able to go back to the apartment she’d decorated with so much flair. Neither of them, or any of the other Fund members, would be living with the fear of murderous psychopaths in silver-and-iron armor rampaging into their lives.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t realize—I thought taking this to the Fund would be safe with all the precautions we took. The last thing I wanted—”
Vivi held up her hand. “I’m going to stop you right there. I begged you to let me be a part of this, Sorsha. Ellen and Huyen made their own choices too. The whole point of the Shadowkind Defense Fund is supposed to be to stop assholes who treat the shadowkind as worse than vermin, and these Company people are clearly the worst of the lot. Do you really think it’d be better if we stepped back and let them run their experiments and murder anyone else who stumbled onto their scheming? Because I don’t. I’m still 100% on team Crush Those Assholes To Smithereens.”
I had to smile at that, but my fingers tightened against my pocket where my phone formed a flat, silent lump. “You’re the only one out of the Fund who feels that way, as far as I can tell. The only people who answered when I tried to reach out this morning didn’t have much to say other than to fuck off.”
“Aw, they’ll get their heads on straight when you expose everything the Company has been up to. And those who don’t are just chickens.”
Her vehemence eased my guilt a little. I sank back into my chair with the rocking of the boat. Thankfully it was docked far down the river from the place we’d be crashing into tonight.
“So…” Vivi prodded me with her index finger. “How many shadowkind groupies do you have now?”
I rolled my eyes at her, ignoring the faint flush that crept into my cheeks. “Still just the three. You don’t think that’s enough?”
“Why stop there? That Omen guy is pretty hot in an I’ll-rip-your-face-off sort of way.”
