She searched his face. He hoped liked hell it projected calm acceptance instead of gut-wrenching anxiety. “You know you don’t have to go with me if you think it will be too intense.”
He shrugged. “I’ve been through worse.” At the moment, he couldn’t think of anything that was worse than being a sexual prisoner and prey of the bultungin, and he didn’t want to try. No sense bringing more horrifying memories to the surface.
She reached up to touch him then, her hand hesitating before cupping his cheek. “I know you have. That doesn’t mean the time with the bultungin didn’t leave a lasting impression. It’s okay to take a breather.”
“I won’t let you go alone. Besides, these are Americanized were-hyenas, right? They must have changed greatly to prosper and blend into American society.” He hoped like hell they had.
“I don’t know about that,” Kira said, concerned. “Atlanta does have a large black population so it’s easier to blend in. Also, this particular clan took over a housing project over on the west side. People have a certain perception of places like that, which suits the were-hyenas well. They’ve been sort of isolated.”
He fought rising apprehension. “So this could be good, or this could be all kinds of bad.”
She covered his hand, making him realize he’d gripped the hilt of his dagger. “Yeah, but we’ve got a couple of days before we have to worry about that. Take that time to decide if you really want to go or not. I certainly won’t think any less of you if you decide not to. I don’t know if I could do it, if I had gone through everything you have.”
“You would, because no one else can do your job like you can. It’s the same reason why I’m going with you.”
She drew back with surprise. “Does that mean you’re going to take Balm up on her offer to become a Shadowchaser?”
“No. My job is to protect your back. And no one can do that job like I can.”
Her lips curved. “Wynne might have a thing or two to say about that when we meet up with her and Zoo for lunch tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?”
“I mean, later today. Wynne wants the complete rundown of the exhibit. I thought I told you.”
“Must have put it out of my mind.” Khefar grunted. “I’d rather deal with the were-hyenas.”
She stilled, caution filling her eyes. “Why would you say that?”
He shrugged again. “I don’t know. No reason.”
Stubbornness mixing in with the caution. “You’re being evasive.”
“I’m being guarded,” he clarified. “It’s only a feeling. I don’t have anything other than my gut to go on.”
Kira stepped back from him, wrapping her arms about her abdomen. He wondered if she realized that she made the gesture when something stressed her and she wanted comfort. “What is your gut telling you?” she asked, as if dreading the answer.
He decided to be blunt. “Something’s going on with the Marlowes. I don’t know if it’s the Gilead training they’ve been through or if it’s the work in Egypt finally catching up to them. If Wynne thinks no one is looking, she seems troubled, like she’s thinking hard about something. As for Zoo—my dagger reacted to him differently the last time we were all together.”
“What?” Kira dropped her hands, her gaze automatically going to the Dagger of Kheferatum tucked beneath his arm. “Are you serious? How did it react to him?”
“Zoo’s magic is mostly healing magic, with some defensive spells thrown in. The dagger didn’t see him as a threat before. Lately, though, the dagger has been reacting to Zoo as if he’s a threat.”
Tension blanketed Kira’s shoulders. “You think he’s dabbling in Shadow magic?”
“I don’t know. I do know something’s changed, and it hasn’t been a good change.”
He watched as Kira worked through the news. A lot had happened to Kira and her friends in the last couple of months. He doubted that any of them had had time or opportunity to come to grips with all of it. Hell, if he still carried the scars of his time with the bultungin, he couldn’t imagine what was going on in Wynne’s or Zoo’s mind.
“Okay, I’ll find some way to broach the subject with Wynne while we’re at lunch tomorrow. Hopefully she’ll open up to me.”
“And if she doesn’t?”
“Then, I guess I have one less person to watch my back. Like that’s anything new.”
“You’re not going to lose me.”
A small smile bowed her lips. “Of course.”
He could tell that she didn’t believe him. Well, he would have to convince her.
“Hey.” He wrapped a hand around the back of her neck, pulled her back to him. “You’re not going to lose me, Kira Solomon. I told you I’m going to have your back and I meant it.”
Her eyes searched his face, looking for conviction. She must have found it, because the smile she gave him this time was truer, and reached her hazel eyes. “So you’ll have my back,” she said, her voice soft. “What about the rest of me?”
He tightened his hold on her. “I’m sure I can come up with something to satisfy you.”
Chap†er 10
So how did the gala go last night?” Wynne asked, sliding into one of the padded wooden chairs of the half-booth in the restaurant most people affectionately called the Garage. She had dyed her hair again, and her wild bob was now jet-black with a green streak at her right temple.
“About what you’d expect,” Kira answered, automatically scanning the restaurant that couldn’t decide if it wanted to be a pub paying homage to roller derby or a dining establishment that catered to drinkers more than diners. As usual, she had her back against the wall, giving her a good view of the entire floor. Khefar sat beside her, Wynne across, and Zoo next to his wife. It was right after the lunch rush, and the tavern was at less than half capacity, giving them the opportunity to talk business if they wanted to.
Dining out was always a harrowing proposition for Kira, and she had learned to apply a process similar to the clock method used by the blind. She blocked off her quarter of the table, her boundary marked by condiments and tableware. She would leave her gloves on until food and drinks arrived. Once everyone was situated she’d be able to take the gloves off and send a blast of her extrasense to discharge any psychic residue. It was something Balm had taught her before her first Shadowchaser lesson, and though she had overheard people calling her phobic, using this method enabled her to eat food she didn’t have to grow and prepare herself.
“Do you have pictures?” Wynne asked.
Khefar obliged her by pulling out his smartphone. “Here you go.”
Wynne grabbed it with a squeal of delight. “Sweet. Hey, Kira actually showed some leg? You go, girl!”
“Yeah, well, I’m back to normal now,” Kira said grumpily. She turned to Khefar. “I thought I’d kept my eye on you pretty well. When did you have time to take pictures?”
He shrugged. “We posed for a number of pictures last night. It was easy enough to have one of the photographers take extras. That Mr. Hammond certainly made sure he was in every single shot.”
“Is this him?” Wynne turned the screen around.
Kira nodded. “Yes. I’m not sure which one Hammond’s more interested in—the exhibit or the attention.”
“It was neck and neck last night,” Khefar said wryly. “Wynne, give me your email address, and I’ll forward these to you.”
“Thanks!” She handed back his phone.
“As for the exhibit,” Khefar added, “it was about what I expected: an inaccurate hash of ancient custom to delight and titillate the uninformed.”
Kira kicked him. He coughed. “Not the part that Kira had a hand in. She put together a great collection of artifacts. And most of them were properly identified.”
Kira cut him a look. “I seem to recall, when I asked you for clarification on a couple of items, your response to me was along the lines of ‘I’ve forgotten more than I can remember.’ Which, I’m beginning to figure out, is your standard
answer for anything you don’t want to talk about.”
A flash of anger caused his jaw to tighten. “Think that if you like. What I told you is the truth. I’ve died a few dozen times but that doesn’t mean I have intimate knowledge of any of the funerary texts. As a warrior, and a Nubian one at that, I wasn’t anywhere near the southern pyramids, so you would know more about the pyramid texts than I do. My first death was in a foreign land after a massacre that I initiated. There was no one left to return me to Egypt, put me in a coffin, or give me a Book of Going Forth by Day. Once the Great Lady Isis brought me back and gave me my charge, I had no need for any of the spells. I did pray at the chapel of my lord who gifted me the dagger, and I saw enough then to know that what Hammond has put together is nothing more than a patchwork for the sole purpose of entertaining people like a Halloween fright house. As for your identifications, when I actually saw the displays I did see some small details I could have been of assistance with after all. My apologies for not realizing this earlier.”
Kira stared at Khefar. From the silence, she guessed that Wynne and Zoo were also staring at him, surprised by his outburst. “Wow. That was a whopper of a speech. Obviously the way to get you to open up is to get you mad.”
Khefar actually bared his teeth. “I suggest that no one push me further.”
Luckily, at that moment, their waiter approached the table. They placed their orders. When the waiter left, Kira rested her elbows on the table. “Okay, since the topic of last night’s party is off-limits, how about we get to other business?”
“Sure.” Zoo picked up the backpack beside his chair, handed it to Khefar. “Here’s the gear you asked for, Kira. I even made a couple of extra assault charms for Khefar.”
“How is that possible?” The Nubian lost his perpetual scowl. “I don’t have magic.”
“You don’t need it with these,” Zoo said, as excited as only a geek talking about his work could get. “These are tap and throw.”
“Tap and throw?” Kira echoed. “Are they safe?”
Zoo looked affronted. “Would I give you anything that’s not safe?” He took the pack back from Khefar, reached in, and withdrew what looked like a small brown rubber ball, though a knobby, malformed one.
“You may not have magic, but your dagger does,” Zoo said. “So all you have to do is tap the charm with your dagger to charge it, throw it, and poof!”
Khefar gingerly took the ball between his thumb and forefinger. “Poof as in girly sparkles or poof as in gonna need a shop vac to get up all the pieces?”
“Door number two,” Zoo said.
“Nice.”
Kira glared at both men. “You want some girly sparkles, I’m sure Wynne and I can show you both exactly how serious our girly sparkles can be.”
Zoo held up his hands with a laugh. “No, thanks. I already know how deadly you two can be.”
Kira felt her smile freeze. Zoo spoke lightheartedly enough and had included his wife in the retort, but Kira could only think of how she’d hit him with a blast of her power a couple of months before, almost killing him in the process. Wynne’s expression shut down, became blank, and Kira knew Wynne was remembering that terrifying night as well.
Zoo and Wynne had forgiven her and despite her attempt to ease the Marlowes out of her life, out of danger, they insisted of being in the thick of it with her, going so far as to officially join the Gilead Commission. Still, that did little to assuage the lingering guilt she felt over injuring Zoo and killing other innocents.
An awkward silence welled up like a slow-moving mushroom cloud. Kira searched for something to say to defuse the tension. Khefar provided the opening. “Too bad you didn’t give me these yesterday. I could have really given Hammond an entertaining exhibit.”
“By the Light,” Kira groaned as Wynne and Zoo both laughed. “I’m going to make sure you’re banned from going anywhere near the Congress Center. I don’t trust you to mind your manners if you were to meet Hammond again.”
Khefar handed the assault charm back to Zoo, who returned it to the pouch. “I can be a master of manners, when I need to be. I simply think I would have to be a bit more direct with Hammond, if I wanted to make sure he completely understood my point of view.”
The waiter arrived with their meals. Hungry and grateful for the distraction, Kira maneuvered her platter of sweet potato fries, steamed asparagus, and beer-battered tilapia sandwich. She pulled her gloves off and steepled her hands over the plate, her elbows on the table. She figured that to many people it probably looked like she was saying grace over her food. She did, a whispered prayer to Ma’at slipping from her lips.
“Lady of Truth, thank you for another day and another meal. Give me the strength to always seek your face, to see your truth with grace and clarity.”
Her prayer of thanks done, Kira then called her extrasense. Some days it was like mentally opening a window between the mundane and the magical, or opening a tap to let water flow. Power poured through, pooling into her hands. She didn’t need much—she wanted to cleanse her food, not obliterate it—so she cut the current before power could fill her entire body.
The turquoise shade of the haze of power draping her hands still bothered her, but not as much as it had when the mixed hue first manifested two months back. She was more bothered that she wasn’t bothered. She was changing, had been changing since Comstock’s death, but stressing over the mix of Light and Shadow in her magic wasn’t as important as having the Egyptian god of chaos stalk your dreams.
“Tilapia is best while it’s hot,” Khefar whispered to her. “Is your food not to your liking?”
“It’s fine.” Khefar couldn’t see the color of her extrasense. Neither could Wynne. If Zoo noticed, he didn’t show it, busy as he was with his teriyaki noodle bowl. Kira opened her hands, the pool of power widening. She brought it down like a net, draping the power over her food, tea, and quarter of the table. A subsonic hum vibrated the air before the power dissipated.
As they ate, Zoo ran down the other charms he had fabricated for Kira. Wynne gave a perfunctory description of the new knives she was working on, but her heart didn’t seem to be in it. She seemed distracted.
“Hey, guys,” Wynne piped up after they finished their meal. “There’s a pool table open in the back there. Why don’t you two go on back, and Kira and I will join you in a little bit?”
Here it comes, Kira thought. The showdown finally happens.
“We can wait for you to finish,” Khefar said, unknowingly coming to Kira’s aid.
Zoo shoved back his chair, clapping the Nubian on the shoulder. “That was a subtle attempt to make us leave so they could have some girl talk.”
“Not all that subtle,” Kira muttered, the sweet potato fries congealing unpleasantly in her stomach. Wynne probably didn’t want girl talk, though it would be worse if she did. Kira didn’t do girl talk.
“How about this, then?” Wynne asked, pointing toward the pool tables. “Boys, go play pool. I need to talk to Kira alone.”
Khefar hesitated. He had an uncanny ability to sense her every change in mood, Kira realized, though it wouldn’t take a genius to know she was uncomfortable with the thought of talking to Wynne alone. He must have seen the desperation on her face. She certainly felt desperate.
Khefar began to speak, hopefully to bail her out, when Wynne cut in. “So, Kira, what do you use when you have that not-so-fresh feeling?”
“How about a game of nine ball?” Khefar asked Zoo as he pushed out of his chair faster than he needed to.
“Sounds good to me,” Zoo answered. They moved off.
Kira glared after them. “The man didn’t move that fast during the seeker demon attack at my house.”
“Good thing he does know when to retreat,” Wynne observed. “For a moment there, I thought I was going to have to get graphic.”
Kira leaned back against the redbrick wall. “I guess you don’t really want to reenact a feminine hygiene commercial, do you?”
“No.” Levity left Wynne’s face as she hunched forward. “I kind of feel silly right now, sitting here with a full belly and a beer in my hand, about to have this conversation with you. Especially considering everything we’ve been through.”
Kira concentrated on pulling her gloves back on, smoothing the dark material over her hands. She had no clue what Wynne wanted to talk about, but was beginning to wish it were about girl stuff. “Considering everything we’ve been through, nothing seems silly. So what’s on your mind?”
“Religion.” Wynne spun the brown bottle in her hands. “Well, not religion per se, but faith. Belief in the gods and goddesses.”
Whoa. This was deeper than Kira had expected Wynne to go. Of all the conversations they could have had at that moment, Kira wouldn’t have bet on religion. “Do you really want to talk about this here?”
“Now’s as good a time as any.” Wynne took a swig of her beer. “I’m agnostic. Was, anyway. Being in wartime situations, either you find faith or you lose it. I didn’t have a lot of faith before I served and by the time we got out, I was all but an atheist. I mean, seeing what people do to each other, it was easier to believe that religion was an excuse people used to explain why they do what they do.”
“Religion is different than faith,” Kira said. “At least, to me it is. To me, religion is something created by a group of people in an effort to tap into godhood. Because it’s created by man, it’s inherently fallible. Faith is a personal gift given by the gods, a gift that’s even better when you give it back to them.”
Wynne bobbed her head. “Okay, I can get with the idea that faith and religion are different. I mean, Zoo doesn’t do much organized stuff with other people, but his faith has deepened a lot over the last couple of months. Way back in the beginning of our relationship, I thought he was doing that neo-paganism stuff that most of our customers come into the store for. Then I met the rest of his family, especially the ones still in Romania, and magic and spells and charms and faith seemed a natural part of their lives. They all worship the Great Lady and say all their magic comes from her.”
Shadow Fall Page 10
