“Mouth!” I screamed, and I was done. Done with the anger and the hurt and the grudges I was holding. I wanted him. I wanted him back and on my side. “Don’t leave me. How can I help you? Tell me, please.”
“Make him tell you…Tiptoe Shadow.” He was fading. His black robes were turning gray.
“Tiptoe Shadow. Why does that sound…? Got it. He’ll tell me. Just hold on, okay? I’ll find a way to take care of you. I’ll figure something out…”
A crash. Seth was passed out cold on the floor. I reached for him, and the remaining demon mist disappeared like fog.
I vaguely recalled teeny tiny feet. Whispers in the dark of night. That, mmm, laugh.
Seth’s breathing was loud in the silent room. I nudged my brother gently with the toe of my boot. He didn’t budge. My hands felt horrifyingly empty where I had tried to hold onto Mouth.
I was alone again.
The darkness comes when you’re alone.
Chapter Forty-One
It took Seth about sixty seconds to come to. I was ready.
“Tell me about this Tiptoe Shadow.”
He moaned, touched the back of his head where he had hit the floor. “I want a drink. Do we have anything to drink? Whisky? Vodka?”
“Since when have you touched a drop? Stop stalling and tell me about this shadow. Now.”
His face was dangerously white. Part of me said to stop riding him so hard, and the other part said to heck with it, press the guy until he squawks. I don’t know what exactly was going on with Mouth back there, but it had been major. And it had been ugly.
“Did…did this demon really say to tell you about the Tiptoe Shadow? I mean, did it use that name?” He turned huge eyes on me, and suddenly Seth seemed decades younger. It scared me.
“Yes. That name exactly.” I watched him carefully.
He sighed, and it was such a hollow, broken sound. Chilling, really, especially from Pulled-Together Seth.
“Hey, are you hungry?” I asked too brightly. “Want some popcorn while we talk about this?”
Nervous energy had me moving about the kitchen. I grabbed the popcorn and stuffed it unceremoniously into the microwave. I tapped my fingers on the countertop as I waited for the bell to ding.
“Listen, Luna, I have a story to tell you. It…it isn’t easy. Will you hear me out?”
I was almost irritated. “Of course I’ll hear you out! I’ve been trying to drag it out of you ever since you woke up from your fainting spell. How’s your head by the way? Need an aspirin?”
It was like he didn’t even hear me.
“When I was little, and you were just a baby, something used to creep into my room,” he said. I stopped my pacing and relentless finger tapping. He had my attention.
“Something like what?” I asked him. I didn’t realize I was holding my breath.
“Something dark. Something hunched over that came on its tiptoes.”
I was chilled. This was familiar but I was pretty sure I had never mentioned my old nightmares to Seth. “Did it have a face?” I asked carefully.
He looked at me with those too big eyes. “You know it didn’t.”
The microwave dinged heroically, but I didn’t move toward it. I leaned against the counter and crossed my arms over my chest.
“You actually saw him.”
“I actually saw him,” he agreed. “Every night. He’d come in and say things. The most horrible things, in the strangest, most bizarre way. His voice was like air. Like someone breathing cold. I tried to tell Mom, but she said it was a nightmare. Too many scary shows, and so we stopped watching TV at night.”
“Did you ever mention it to Dad?”
Seth snorted. “Of course not. Mom said it was nothing. And Dad? He had enough to worry about, you know. He didn’t need to know his son was…”
“Crazy.”
He flinched when I filled the word in for him.
“Yeah. That.”
I took a big breath of the festive, popcorn scented air. It didn’t make me feel any better. “I didn’t know you could see him, Seth. I thought I was the only one who could. But not until later. I don’t remember him until I was about four or five.”
“You were four. Four years old. Far too young to deal with the things you had to deal with. But even then, you were stronger than I was. I knew you could handle it. At least, I hoped you could handle it.”
“But why didn’t you tell me you saw him, too? It would have been such a relief to talk to you about it!”
His eyes darkened. “I couldn’t see him by then. Things had changed.” When he looked up, his gaze was intense.
“We had a pond in our backyard. Do you remember?”
I shook my head.
His words came out in a rush. “You were pretty young. The Tiptoe Shadow used to mention that pond every night. Saying there was magic in the water, that I should go put my face in there and look. I didn’t like the way he leaned close. Remember how he leaned close?”
“I remember.”
“And one day I finally just begged him to stop, that I’d do anything if he’d leave me alone. He looks at me all serious, and he says, ‘You’ll do anything? Give me anything? How about your sister?’”
My arms chilled. My mouth went dry. The microwave chirruped again, but I couldn’t move.
Seth rushed on. “I told him I couldn’t give up my sister. I loved you, you know? I mean, who knew where he’d take you, what he’d do? And he starts to laugh in that way of his. Do you remember? Where there’s sound but no sound, and it makes you want to throw up?”
I couldn’t say anything, so I nodded.
“He laughs and he says he won’t take you away, that it’s more fun to have you here to feel things and smell things and hear things. He said he’d tell you all kinds of things, and he’d leave me alone if he can visit you.”
I was torn between wanting to throw my arms around Seth as this scared little boy, and punch him in the face. “You didn’t. Make an arrangement, I mean. You couldn’t. Trade me for you?”
His face told me everything I need to know. I turned away.
“He told me there were more of them, Luna. More than just him. He said they’d all come, that they walked and flew and rode the currents and had legs…”
I whirled back around. “They do. And tentacles and they scream and sometimes they laugh and they even sob. They’re in the water. They’re outside. They came into the house and they’re always frickin’ here. Are you telling me I didn’t see them before, that I wouldn’t see them at all if only you had been a braver boy? Or loved me more?”
“I did love you.” He jumped up, tried to grab my arm but I pulled away. “I loved you more than anyone. Still do, except for Lydia. But I’m not strong enough, Luna. Even when you were smaller than me, just a little girl, you were stronger. More courageous. I knew you could handle it better than I could. I mean, look at you. You’re practically a warrior.”
“Did it ever occur to you that I don’t want to be a warrior?” I was yelling now, but I didn’t care. “I have to be this way, Seth, because I spend my whole life being attacked from all sides. Yes, even you,” I said, when he tried to deny it. “You threw me to the wolves when I was just a kid. You were my big brother and should have protected me. And then,” I said, my voice getting even louder as realization hit, “you acted like you didn’t believe me when I tried to tell you about the demons. You had me thinking I was crazy, when you knew they existed. You knew. How could you?”
“I’m sorry,” he screamed back. His intensity matched my own. “I don’t know how to fix it. I don’t know what to do.”
“I have to get out of here.” I stormed outside. Great, my bike was in the shop, and I’d left Seth’s car keys on the table. I stomped down the road. Seth ran after me.
“Wait! It’s the middle of the night, and it’s going to rain. You can’t go.”
“Watch me,” I said.
“We need to figure this out.”
�
��Forget it,” I said, and the look I shot him stopped him in his tracks. “Stay away from me, Seth. I don’t want to talk to you.”
He looked stricken, but I didn’t care. I blew through a pack of demons without even thinking twice. They blinked benignly after me.
I almost hate you for this, I thought to my brother, and I felt the Mark burn.
Chapter Forty-Two
Seth was right about the rain. It started when I was about half a mile from the house. I could feel the anger on my face and my mascara was surely running. I had to look like a lunatic.
I snorted. The irony of it was that I had been trying so hard to be normal. Not just lately, but always. Life isn’t kind to outcasts, and nobody is on the fringes more than the Demon Girl. And Seth knew? Had caused it.
I couldn’t think about it anymore. My head would explode, and I would murder my brother. Besides that, Seth was the only person in the world I had at the moment. No matter how angry I may have been, I still loved him.
Although there are different levels of love, and he’d just dropped down a few hundred pegs. Bottom rung love. Subterranean love.
A demon wisped by. It had the body of human and the head of a dog. Great. Just what I needed: another reminder of demonic Lydia’s wolf murderer. Like that scene hadn’t already played itself out in my head a zillion times today.
Mouth did try to warn me, I thought, and suddenly I knew what I had to do. Wandering around in the cold rain wasn’t going to do me or my temper any good. I had something better in mind.
“Hey, Anubis,” I shouted to the demon. It turned its strange canine eyes on me.
“Yeah, you. I have a question about something that happened to a friend. Think you can answer it?”
It drifted close. Too close. Rain dripped off its muzzle and ran down its fur. I wanted to pull away and give myself some space, but I didn’t want to appear intimidated, so I glared instead.
“Why would I help you, Luna? You are so disdainful of my kind.”
I sighed. Of course it knew me. They all knew me. I was a dark superstar.
“Not all of your kind, dog-face. I actually want to help one of you. I think he may be in trouble.”
“And I care because?”
“Uh, because demons of a feather must stick together?”
He barked, showing yellow teeth that made my breath catch in my throat. Hopefully he couldn’t hear it under the rain.
“I don’t think so.” He closed his eyes, sniffed the air. “Mmm. You smell delicious. Perhaps I should do all of us a favor and put you out of your misery.”
That gave me an idea.
“Really? Delicious? How delicious?”
He whimpered, more dog than man.
“That delicious? What if I told you I have the Mark? Your precious demon Tracing?”
His tongue ran around his chops. Gross.
“What if I also told you—”
“Yes?”
“That if you give me the information I need, I’ll let you feel the Tracing?”
His eyes snapped open, pupils dilated.
“But,” I said, and held my hand up, “only for five seconds. If you don’t back off in five seconds, we’re going to have a problem. Got it?”
His face was sly. “Oh, five seconds will be more than enough.”
So he thought. He wasn’t counting on my willpower or my anger.
“Let me see it,” he whined. “Let me see the Mark.”
“Uh, uh, uh.” I wagged my finger. “Information first. Do we have a deal?”
He sneezed. “Deal.”
Talk about making a deal with the devil. I pushed my soaking hair behind my ears. “Okay, so here it is. My demon buddy was in the middle of giving me DL on something, when—”
“DL?”
Oh yeah. This guy was more into Ra than the Urban Dictionary. “He was giving me the down-low. Some advice. A tip. Whatever.”
“All right.” His eyes were half closed. He was in La-La Land, deep in fantasies of possessing my soul and riding around in my body until it fell apart like the piece of meat that it was. I’d be lying if I didn’t say that chilled me.
“Hey, Fang, I’m onto you and your little doggie desires. But no info, no Marky Mark, dig?”
“I understand.”
“Okay. So anyway, in the middle of telling me this information, he started to really have a hard time. Struggle. Couldn’t get the words out. And then—”
The demon interrupted. “He physically couldn’t get the words out? As if he was choking?”
“Yes! And then he started going into convulsions. It was absolutely terrifying. What can cause that sort of damage to a demon?”
He shook his head, water flinging everywhere. “I would rather not say.”
“But you know.”
“I suspect, yes. But it is not something I care to share. Least of all with a human.”
I shrugged nonchalantly. “Hey, no skin off my nose. I was just curious. See ya later. My deliciousness and I will take ourselves elsewhere.”
I turned to walk away.
“Wait!”
Right on cue. I paused, looked over my shoulder. “What?”
“The Mark.”
“No go. I said you could touch the Tracing if you gave me info. You didn’t give me a thing. Now back off before I call the pound.”
I started walking again, my boots splashing through the puddles. I knew what he was thinking. Obviously he didn’t want to tell me what he knew, but the draw of the Tracing between my shoulder blades was too strong. And if he could slide his fingers in there, he’d most likely be able to take over my soul, so he thought. More than that, he’d be able control my body. He didn’t know I knew how to resist him, that I was stronger than he suspected. That would come as a nice surprise.
I stretched exaggeratedly, the muscles rolling under my skin. I popped my neck, and yawned. Oh, to be able to do such things. Oh, to walk down the street and have normal, everyday people see him. Oh, the power.
“I’ll tell you what you want to know. I need the Mark. I have to dig my claws into it.”
“Spill,” I told him. “What was happening to my friend?”
He chuffed, his black nose quivering. “He didn’t happen to be telling you about another demon, did he? Somebody more powerful than he?”
I thought. “He was telling me to ask about someone called the Tiptoe Shadow. Do you know who he is?”
His long ear flopped in irritation. “How am I supposed to know? You humans and your silly names. That isn’t important. What’s important is that he was obviously betraying one of the Others.”
This had my attention. “The Others?”
He growled. “The Others, the Builders, the Elders. Older than time, creators of all of us. You can’t betray the Others. It’s—”
“What, a sin? Don’t make me laugh.”
You never want to feel the full hate of a demon’s glare. I was experiencing it now. “Tread carefully, human. You know not of what you speak. There are laws, and they must not be broken.”
I nodded grudgingly. “Gotcha. So betraying the Others. Betraying them how? He just wanted to me to learn about this guy, that’s all. How can that be such a bad thing?”
“We do not speak of those higher in our line. It is forbidden.”
I started. “In your line? Like, you guys are sired or something?”
“Merely soldiers. There is a rank. We do not challenge or betray those who come before. There is a strict penalty.”
I grew cold, and it wasn’t from the rain. “What kind of penalty?”
“I have said too much. The Mark, Luna. Do not forget we made a deal.”
I wasn’t going to get any more out of him, but this was enough. I was pretty sure I knew where Mouth was. And I wasn’t looking forward to going after him. And honestly? I wasn’t looking forward to this impending scuffle with Old Yeller here, either.
I shrugged out of my leather jacket, turned around and pulled up my shirt. H
e moaned and ran his hands over the throbbing wound between my shoulders.
“I keep my promises. And don’t you forget you only have five seconds, or I’m gonna get real angry. Got that? Go.”
His fingers dove into the Mark with such violence that I was taken by surprise. I hadn’t expected him to turn solid so quickly. He pushed me down to the sidewalk, his knee in the small of my back.
“Hey,” I tried to shout, but couldn’t get the word out. I was choking on the rainwater that ran in streams down the sidewalk. This wasn’t going how I had planned.
“Your soul, it’s so inviting. It wants to be taken, don’t you see?” He did his dog-moan again, and I struggled against him. I felt the top layer of my spirit peel away. How had he gotten through so fast? Why were my defenses so thin?
“Enough! Your five seconds are up.” He didn’t move, but leaned into the Tracing with his full weight. I screamed. Another layer of soul was rent. I felt anger and desire and a terrifying sense of need fill my body. Those weren’t my emotions. They were coming from him.
“Uninvited!” I shrieked. “Uninvited.” I was panicking. I didn’t expect to be pinned underneath him; that changed everything. How was I supposed to fight my way out of it when I was stuck in a vulnerable position like this?
“What a wonderful surprise you’re turning out to be,” he murmured in my ear. “After all of these years, who knew I would have a body again? And you were so willing to hand it over. It really wasn’t a struggle at all.”
Another layer of soul tore apart, shredding like fabric. I could almost hear it. Nobody had ever dug down this deep. I bucked, tried to yank him off of me, but he was too heavy. He was panting, his breath hot and steaming in the weather. I felt a wildness build up in me, his personality merging with my own. I wanted to sink my teeth into warm flesh until blood ran across my tongue.
“That’s right,” he said. “That’s what we’ll do. Who first, Luna? Shall we find a store with strangers? Shall we go back to your house and lap the blood from the throat of your brother?”
I closed my eyes in want. That sounded so good. So good.
Nameless: The Darkness Comes Page 18
