by Rob Cornell
This is how worlds end, Gladys had said.
I did not need this shit.
I chewed on my lip and thought it all through. If we called on Rachel so soon, red flags would go up. But I could still shimmy around the truth. Yes, the Maidens had found a more powerful soul to expedite their ritual. But Rachel didn’t need to know it was mine.
An idea started to come together. It was an ugly idea. Possibly a stupid idea. But if I could bring in the cavalry without implicating myself in a crime that could lead to my execution, it seemed like the best idea we had.
I forced myself to sit up straight. My tired muscles protested with stiff throbs of pain. “I have a plan.”
Odi went suddenly still. “I already don’t like the sound of this. You reek of fear, dude.”
“It’s not fear. It’s stress. There’s a difference.”
“Whatever.”
I swatted the air as if shooing away a fly. “Just shut up and listen.”
Mom sat up as well, then she tucked her legs up under her. “We’re listening,” she said. “Right, Odi?”
Odi hung his head. “Yeah.”
“Step one,” I said when I was sure I had their attention. “We go in alone.”
Chapter Fifty-One
I kept circling the block until a spot at the curb across the street from the Maidens of Shadow’s apartment opened up. I swung in before someone else could steal it, put the car in park, and killed the engine. The heater had warmed the air on the way over, but the moment it turned off the winter night chill seeped in. The sweat under my arms began to cool. I tugged the collar of my coat closed to trap as much body heat as I could.
But I didn’t plan on sitting here long.
“Lights are on,” Mom said. She sat in the passenger seat with her tan coat buttoned as high as it would go. She had put her long gray hair up into a bun.
“So they’re home.”
“But are the mothers there?”
I reached across Mom’s lap to flip open the glove box and took out my .45. I ejected the magazine, checked the load, then slapped it back in place and racked one into the chamber. Thankfully, I could use regular bullets for this job. Silver rounds were so damn expensive.
In fact, I took a quick moment to appreciate that I wasn’t tangling with vampires for once.
Not that the most powerful black witch coven in the Midwest was any better. Probably worse.
Following my lead, Mom reached down and took up her shotgun from the floorboard at her feet. She pumped the slide, and that universally frightening chuck-chuck rang through the car.
“You’re supposed to do that right before you shoot,” Odi said. “More dramatic.”
Mom twisted to look at him over her seatback. “I’ll take a quick kill over a dramatic one. I like my life too much to pretend I’m a badass.”
“Wow, Momma Light, you don’t need to pretend.”
Mom smiled. “Momma Light, huh? I could get used to that.”
This coming from the woman who always warned me how dangerous Odi might become. But Odi had a way of charming you. You couldn’t help but love the dope.
“So, um, this plan,” Odi said. “We just run in and start wrecking the place?”
“We attack,” I said, “as hard as we can. Then we run away like little fraidy cats.”
“And what’s the point of this again?”
“Two things. First, we can force ourselves a peek at what they’re doing. Second, when we fall back, we call Rachel to let her know they’ve already started the ritual.”
“What if they haven’t?”
“As long as the mothers are there, it doesn’t matter. I’m not going to wait around for them to start. By then it will be too late. All Rachel needs to know is that it’s begun. She doesn’t need to know why we found out so quickly.”
Mom shook her head. “It seems like an odd risk to take. Why not call them now?”
“And tell them what? We don’t know what’s going on in there. If we ask for help now, she’s going to want to know what the hurry is. That leads to the whole reason we’re jumping the gun in the first place. And that means telling her they have some of my soul. And then they lock me up and set an execution date.”
“Pfft. After all you’ve done for this city, dude?” Odi flipped the bird. “Fuck ‘em.”
“The Ministry’s funny about their laws, kid. They expect us to follow them.”
We sat a couple minutes more, silent as we collected the pieces of our courage and put them into place like psychic armor. My nerves buzzed. I took a deep breath and sucked in the smell of gun oil. “Ready?”
Neither of them answered. I turned away from the driver side window to check on them.
Mom stared hard at me. “You sure about this?”
“Of course not.”
Odi chuckled. “Is he ever?”
We climbed out of the car together and regrouped across the street. Mom scanned the sidewalk to either side of us. “No wards I can sense out here.”
“They’ve got them in the lobby for sure,” I said.
“There are other people living here. Do we really want to shoot up the place and risk innocents?”
Part of me didn’t care. These witches had pulled one over on me. I wanted my damn soul back. But that was only a small, angry part of me who wasn’t in control at the moment. “Magic first. Guns only at close range and with a sure shot.”
“Magic for me, too?” Odi asked.
I took a deep breath, not believing what I was about to say, but saying it anyway. “Aren’t you hungry?”
His jaw swung open. “Are you…you want me to feed on them?”
“Don’t they deserve it, after what they did to Sly?”
“But I’ve never…” He fluttered a hand. “You know.”
I tucked my gun into my waistband and took Odi by the shoulders. “You’re a vampire,” I said and gave him a gentle shake. “Tonight you need to act like one.”
“But I…” His wide eyes shone in the streetlight. “I don’t want to.”
“Sebastian,” Mom said. “I’m standing outside with a shotgun in my hands. We should do this if we’re gonna do it.”
I let go of Odi and looked him straight in the eye. “If you can’t feed on them, how vicious do you think you can get?”
“I’m not worried about killing the bitches, dude. I just don’t want…” He worked his mouth as if he’d bit into something sour.
“Fine,” I said. “Then don’t bite their throats, just rip them out with your hands.”
“That I can do.”
I nodded, drew my .45. “When we hit the lobby, I don’t know how they’ll react to our presence. Last time, they just sent Angelica down to talk to me. Might go a little differently this time.”
I led the way to the front door.
“Be ready for anything.”
Chapter Fifty-Two
We entered the lobby just as a young guy holding his phone connected to the ear buds he wore came down the stairs. He was messing with his phone, so he didn’t see us at first. He had his music up so loud I could hear it through his ear buds. Something with a speedy snare and crunchy guitar.
The three of us came to a stop. My gun had a chrome finish that shined in the lobby’s light. Mom’s shotgun was a sleek black that shimmered like wet eel skin. Good thing Odi hadn’t vamped out yet. When this guy finally looked up at where he was going, I could tell by his look he nearly wet his pants. A vampire would have put him over the top, and I didn’t want the poor dude to ruin his skinny jeans.
He froze. He shuffled a step back. The music chittered away in his ears. His lips moved, but if he meant to speak, he didn’t form any coherent words, just a low uuuuuuuh that only stopped when he ran out of breath. Then he hiccupped.
“See,” Odi said. “Now would have been a great time to pump that shotgun.”
“Don’t be mean,” Mom replied.
I smiled at the guy and waved. “Just props,” I shouted so he
could hear me over his speed metal or whatever it was he was listening to. “We’re drama students.”
The guy’s wide gaze roved to Mom.
“She’s a non-traditional student. Pretty common these days.”
Odi chortled.
I don’t know if the guy bought the story, but he turned around and scurried up the stairs, his hurried footsteps echoing all the way up and out of earshot.
After he vacated, I listened for any other footfalls coming down the stairway. If I reached out my senses, I could feel the hum of magical wards around us, but I couldn’t tell if we’d tripped any. I hated to wait much longer, considering our brandishing unregistered guns and all while standing in a well-lit public space. I didn’t want to rush in, either. Not yet, at least. My hope had been they’d send one or two down and we could pick them off before charging up for the rest.
After a minute with still no sign of any of them, I had to accept that no one was coming.
“Now what?” Mom asked.
“They have to know we’re here, right?”
Mom pursed her lips and thought a second. “Could be they’re distracted.”
“By what?” But the moment the question left my mouth the answer smacked me in the face. “The ritual.”
She nodded.
Odi looked up at the ceiling as if he could see the Maidens up in their apartment. “Does that mean we’re too late?”
I felt a smirk tug my cheek. “It could mean we’re right on time.”
Chapter Fifty-Three
I conjured a gust of wind and blew the Maidens’ door in. Splinters of wood sprayed as the doorframe exploded. The corner of the door punctured a pizza slice-sized hole in the plaster across the hall, then bounced and tumbled sideways before landing on the floor with a hollow chunk and the jangle of loose hinges.
I had my gun in my right hand. I lit my left with blue flame billowing around my fist. The narrow entryway forced us to charge in single file. I took the lead with Odi right behind, Mom covering our backs. I knew the layout of their apartment, so I made an immediate left, heading for their front living room. I came to a halt two steps into the room. A light on the ceiling and a couple floor lamps lit up the space, but no one was in there.
A sick twist in my gut accompanied a cold panic that we had missed them, or that they’d gone elsewhere to complete their ritual. Or maybe they’d already completed it, and whatever horrible thing they’d conjured was now in motion, setting off the Ministry coup.
Then I heard chanting echoing down the hallway behind me. And caught the smell of burning sage, along with some black, greasy stink underneath. A primal instinct recognized it as the smell of cooked flesh. Corpse flesh, judging from the scent’s qualities.
I spun around. Odi and Mom had already turned toward the sound. Mom clutched the shotgun tightly enough to turn her knuckles white. I came up beside Odi and watched as he peeled back his lips. His fangs slid down, stubby little points compared to older vamps. His skin grayed and rippled, and his eyes glowed a deep red.
I could see toward the end of the hall where it broke open to the kitchen. The chanting clearly came from in there, but the witches themselves were out of my line of sight.
No one rushed down the hall to meet us. They just kept on chanting, seemingly oblivious. Their collective consciousness could have been on another plane, for all I knew. But I couldn’t believe they wouldn’t have somehow protected themselves while they were so vulnerable.
I no sooner thought that when I heard a wet growl come from behind the first door on the left that led into one of the bedrooms. A watchdog? What good would it do locked up in the bedroom?
The door creaked open inward. The light inside cast a shadow against the hallway’s hardwood floor. A big shadow.
The growl turned into a gritty chuckle. “Lunch is served.”
Out came a wolf standing on two legs. But not a wolf. A fucking werewolf. He had to duck to come through the doorway. Three-inch claws on his toes scrabbled across the floorboards. Claws twice as long protruded from his fingertips. His fur was a deep black with patches of tan, and it covered him from head to toe. A line of thick tan fur ran over his head like a mohawk between his twitching wolf ears.
Werewolves were technically shifters, but they differed from others by the nature of their form. Unlike most shifters, these beasts didn’t turn into the whole animal, but rather a monstrous hybrid of the two. They were the deadliest kind of shifter you’d never want to meet.
As a group, me, Mom, and Odi shuffled backward, kicking through the debris left from the broken door.
The wolf cocked his head as if wondering why we didn’t want to cuddle with him. I could smell his wet dog breath when he huffed and puffed, ready to blow our asses down. Then he peeled his lips back and chuckled again, the sound like bone through a wood chipper. “I smell two vampires,” the wolf growled, “but see only one.” His sharp eyes turned to me. “You’re not natural. Makes me wonder how you’ll taste.”
Mom’s shotgun boomed and set my ears ringing. Buckshot ripped open the wolf’s belly. Black blood and scraps of fur sprayed the wall.
The wolf staggered back two steps, but kept his feet. He looked down at his ravaged abdomen. The flesh began to stitch itself together with a sizzling sound. Then he looked up at Mom and took a swipe at her.
She had anticipated the strike. She threw up a hand. Shimmering green light wrapped around her. When the wolf’s claws hit the light, green sparks flew, and his hand bounced away. He threw his head back and howled while cradling his arm against his chest. Mom’s shield had sheared off three of his claws’ six inches.
But they quickly began growing back.
I kicked myself for not having any silver bullets. I made a pact that if I survived, I would never load a gun with anything but silver.
While the wolf was stunned, we fell back into the living room. We split apart. Mom going to the right, me to the left, each of us rounding the couch in the center of the room to put us between us and the wolf.
But Odi tripped on his own heels and landed on his ass. He scampered backward on his hands and heels as the werewolf recovered and stomped his way into the living room. His massive form filled the entryway.
The beast looked down at Odi and laughed, sounding as if he’d swallowed a chainsaw.
The smell of sage and burning dead meat billowed into the room as the chanting grew louder. The witches’ voices came clear, but I couldn’t make out any particular words. Not any in English at least.
The wolf charged in and grabbed Odi by the lapels of his flannel shirt. He lifted Odi off his feet and brought the kid’s face right up to his snout. The wolf snorted through his glistening nose. “Lucky you, I don’t eat undead.” The wolf shifted his grip so he had one hand around Odi’s throat, then he raised his free hand, poised to rake his claws across Odi’s face.
I still had my fire going, but I didn’t have a clear shot. All I could do was stand frozen in the moment, my gut twisted and throat closing.
Odi screamed despite the wolf’s grip around his neck—a bat screech through a megaphone. The wolf flinched and his ears flattened back against his head. Then Odi’s entire fucking body ignited in wild orange flames. The fire quickly caught the wolf’s fur around the wrist of the hand he held Odi with. Then the orange blaze ran up the length of the wolf’s arm.
The wolf threw his head back and bayed, releasing Odi in the process.
Odi dropped to his knees and the flames around him snuffed out. Shreds of the flannel on his back and the t-shirt underneath had burned away. Blisters rose and popped on the exposed skin. The rest of him looked unscathed. And I couldn’t believe it. That massive expression of fire magic and he’d only singed himself. Kid was learning, faster than I could have anticipated.
The wolf flailed his arm around, only managing to stoke the fire and make it spread up the side of his face. He stumbled sideways into the wall and crunched in the plaster with his shoulder.
While he
struggled, I ran forward, grabbed Odi by the arm, and pulled him back behind the couch with me and Mom. Not the greatest cover, but at least it put some kind of obstacle in the wolf’s way.
Mom pumped her shotgun (chuck-chuck) and squeezed off another shot. This one ripped off the side of his face yet to catch fire.
Amazingly, the wolf staggered but still did not fall. Then he got smart and began beating at the flames with a hand, tamping them down, putting them out.
The smell of his burning fur added a sickening gray note to the stink from the kitchen.
I bared down and swallowed the bile burning its way up the back of my throat. Now was not the time to get sick.
While he had nearly managed to kill the fire burning up along one side of him, I tossed a fire bolt of my own and nailed him square in the chest. Again, his fur caught fire. But he stayed composed this time and beat down the flames before they could spread.
I raised my gun and let loose six rounds. Three of them went wide and punched holes in the plaster. Two of them thumped into his smoking breast, and the third got lucky and hit him in the eye.
His head snapped back. He uttered a slobbery growl as he threw himself backward into the hallway. He took a couple retreating steps, then collapsed. On impact, the floor shook. I heard screams from the apartment below. The police would come soon. But if all that stood between us and the Maidens was this werewolf, I wasn’t about to run. We could end this now, without having to bring Rachel in.
The witches had screwed up, let themselves get cocky, thinking they were untouchable simply because they were the Maidens of Shadow.
Big fucking whoop.
I shucked off my coat, tucked my gun into my waistband at the small of my back, and lit both hands with the blue stuff. With a totally smug smile, I skirted out from behind the couch and stalked toward the wolf.
He lay still, smoking, but breathing. When I got close enough, I could see his burns healing. Both the seared side and the buckshot riddled side of his face bubbled and hissed as they reconstructed themselves. He began to stir.
