She fastened the rope and pulled up the ladder. Then she attached it to the railing and watched Ben climb up slowly. He was smiling widely when he arrived. “That was amazing. You’re amazing.”
She put her boots back on, silently grateful for the climbing gym she’d been frequenting since she moved to the Chapterhouse. She’d always been a good free climber, but now she had some of the technical knowledge to go with it.
Ben ran his hands over the window with a look of concentration on his face. His fingers glowed green as he worked, and her sensitive nose caught the faintest whiff of sawdust and leather, his witchcraft signature. The window made a faint popping noise, and Ben swung it outwards. “Just a simple opening spell,” he explained. “There weren’t any wards on this one to complicate things.”
“Don’t you need to say words?” she asked.
“Depends on the spell. And on the witch. This is kids’ stuff, I could do it in my sleep.”
He climbed in first, fingertips shimmering green. He tugged his hood off and crouched there a while, listening. Then he beckoned her in. “I think we’re okay. I can’t sense anything magical. Let’s go.”
The room they had entered was empty, containing nothing but dust and cobwebs. The entire third floor smelled abandoned. The heating was off up here, and it was musty with disuse. Raze shifted without warning, and Ben made a tiny startled noise. She gave him a wolf’s grin, mouth open and tongue lolling, and he glared at her.
“A little warning next time?” he hissed.
Together they crept down the stairs to the second floor. Here, her wolf’s senses picked up a shimmer of something, like a shifting light, and an unpleasant odor that made her eyes itch.
“There are wards here,” said Ben softly. “Stay still and let me examine them.”
He closed his eyes and extended his hands. Raze sat on her haunches, head tilted to one side, watching him work. His hands fluttered gracefully in the air as though he was stitching fabric, or perhaps weaving, that odd green light at his fingertips again. In her wolf shape, the smell of Ben’s magic was stronger, but not unpleasant. After a while he dropped his hands and opened his eyes.
“May’s better at this sort of thing,” he said, an apologetic note in his voice. “But I’ve unpicked part of the warding. Walk exactly where I walk, okay?”
Raze padded after him, sensing the rift in the shimmering magic as they passed. The second floor was also dark and silent, and she picked up no heartbeats or skin scents. This floor was furnished, with soft carpeting underfoot. Raze caught a glimpse of an empty bedroom and a living room. The walls were full of artwork, some of it lovely and some terrible to look at. Raze flinched as Ben’s flashlight moved over a horned clay mask, blank eyes staring at them malevolently. They reached the next flight of stairs and began their way down. Raze turned to look back up the stairs, hackles rising. She was sure she’d caught a whisper of movement from the hallway they’d just left. But there was nothing there.
“No warding downstairs,” Ben said from his vantage point a few steps up from the ground floor hall, oblivious to her unease. “Only the external wards on the windows and doors. Are you picking anything up?”
Raze shifted, shivering slightly as she always did when changing back to her colder human form. “Nothing. There’s no one here.”
She was about to take a step when Ben grabbed her arm. “Wait.” He pointed at the swiveling camera mounted on the wall. “Sorry, amateur night,” Ben said apologetically. “I almost missed that. I’m out of shape. It’s been too long. I was focusing on magical protection, and forgot about ordinary human tech. I can probably hex it, though again, that’s usually May’s sort of thing. I just need a moment to think of a spell.”
“I’ve got it,” replied Raze. She’d already spotted the tangle of wires at the base of the camera where it was set against the wall. She pulled out her knife, waiting for the camera to turn in an arc away from them to point at the front door. Then she darted forward, faster than any human, her werewolf speed blurring walls as she passed. She reached the camera just in time as it swiveled back, plastering herself flat against the wall beneath it. Then it was a simple matter of reaching up and slicing through the wires. The red blinking eye of the camera went dead.
“Nice!” said Ben. “Okay, the gems should be in a room at the back.”
“I thought this was an apothecary. Why do they sell stones? And remind me why we couldn’t just walk in and buy one like a normal person?” She’d asked the same question at Gareth’s, but everyone had gone shifty-eyed and changed the subject. This time, Ben snorted as he led the way to a door with “storeroom” on it.
“Lix is on the owners’ black list. Some ingredients she used on a job got traced back here, and they’ve never forgiven her. And yeah, they sell stones. They sell anything that can go in a potion, as well as minor magical artifacts.”
The storeroom was huge, but beautifully organized. It didn’t take long to find the minerals section. Raze went through the drawers on the left while Ben attacked those on the right. She flipped through transparent plastic bags neatly labeled with weirdly random things like “Dead Sea Sand (eastern shore)”, “Peruvian Granite (sacrificial)”, and “Opals (virgin blessed)”. In the end, she was the one who found what they were looking for: underneath a whole stack of “Mother of Pearl (moon gathered)” was a small bag labeled simply “Alexandrite,” with a single stone inside. The gem was as long and wide as her thumb, and seemed to shift and change color in the beam of the compact flashlight she carried. It had a hole drilled through one end, with a silvery chain threaded through it.
“Got it.” She waved the bag at Ben.
He took it and stuffed it in his jacket pocket. “Come on, Raze, let’s get out of here. This place gives me the creeps.”
“Do we go back up and down the rope ladder?”
“I think so,” he said. “I have no idea what sort of security they have on the front door. Upstairs is safe.” He led the way back to the staircase and set his foot on the first step.
Raze’s keen senses were the only thing that saved him. “Look out!” she screamed, yanking Ben backward. Something scythed past, she had a brief glimpse of a horned face and dark eyes, and then a thing was on them, slamming Ben to the ground with her underneath him. He rolled to the side, and she shifted, lightning fast, backing up and away.
The creature that had attacked them stood up. It was shaped in a crudely humanoid manner. It rippled as it moved, filling and fleshing out in the beam of Ben’s flashlight, drawing in the dark around them to contour its body. Its face was the mask they’d seen upstairs, hanging on the wall. It lifted an arm and Raze realized it had no fingers, just a slim black blade where each hand should have been.
She was snarling, still backing away from the stairs, Ben at her side. “Guardian spell,” he muttered without taking his eyes off the creature. “Tethered to the mask. It’s just one, though. I can take it.”
Raze felt Ben gather in power, fingertips glowing. He sent out a shockwave that hit the Guardian full on, blasting it into tiny globs of thick black matter that splattered all around them. He turned around, grinning. “I’m rubbish at hexes. I can’t do shields. But blowing things up is my specialty. Come on, we should—”
She growled, interrupting him. Behind him, the shadow shards were gathering, bleeding into each other like raindrops on a windowpane. This time they didn’t form a single Guardian, but three, four, five of them, all growing fast, already almost at full size. Ben stared at them, open-mouthed.
“New plan,” he told her grimly. “Front door. Run!”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Ben
Ben raced down the hallway, Raze in wolf form at his side. He could hear the skittering of her claws on the polished wood, and his own heartbeat thumping in his chest, but the Guardians themselves were utterly silent as they leaped from floor to wall and back again.
Lights, he thought. They were made of shadow, so maybe they would be sc
ared off by light? He began flipping on all the switches he could see, throwing the hallway into a blazing glare. But although the Guardians faltered and slowedat first, it didn’t hold them long. They soon strengthened again, drawing darkness from the rooms they passed and from upstairs too, long wispy tendrils of it snaking along and pouring into the spellcast creatures to make them even bigger than before.
But it had slowed them down enough for Ben to reach the front door. “Stand back,” he yelled at Raze. He summoned his magic, feeling it well up and build, and then he lifted both hands and threw his power at the front door. It shattered, raining splintered wood and glass all around. Raze gave a sort of barking growl and leaped through the open space to land in the street. Ben followed, hard on her heels.
He thought the Guardian spell would be tied to the property, but he heard the deep thrum of magic as the constructs breached the front door to follow Ben and Raze into the city.
“Don’t stop,” he gasped out at the wolf. “They’re right behind us.”
They raced up the short cul-de-sac, heading for the main street, but the Guardians were faster. They leaped from shadow to shadow, quickly getting ahead of Ben and Raze to cut them off. Ben blasted one out of the way even as he twisted away from another’s scything blow. The blade grazed his cheek as he weaved to one side.
Wolf-Raze jumped at another one’s throat, bringing it down, but yelped as she was thrown aside, tossed against the wall like a toy. The construct Ben had just blasted split and re-formed, and now he was facing six of them instead of five. They ignored Raze where she lay on the ground, and focused their eerie sightless eyes on him. They must have been able to sense the stolen gemstone in his pocket.
He retreated, heading back to the apothecary building. A faint whistle of air from behind was all the warning he got, and he ducked just in time to avoid another blow from one of the creatures’ blade arms. He turned, and then turned again. It was no use; he was surrounded.
Ben gathered his power and struck out again, this time not attempting to blast them apart, but to stun them. It worked for an instant, and then they were back on their feet again. He whirled around and punched the nearest one in the face. It lost all solidity as he connected, and his arm went right through its horrible mask-face.
Wait. It went right through, he thought. The masks weren’t real, they were constructs like the creatures. That meant…
Ben turned and sprinted for the apothecary building, diving under one of the creatures’ outstretched arms. They followed him silently, the very blackness of them gathering in a wave at his back. He ran faster than he’d ever run before, leaping through the ruined front door and racing for the stairs. The nearest Guardian sliced at his back, and he felt cloth catch and tear, but he never even slowed down. He reached the second-floor hall a split second before the Guardians did, and he ripped the mask from the wall and stamped on it, hard.
It broke underfoot, and then he channeled his magic into it without stopping, until there was nothing left but fragments and dust. Only then did he reel in his power, exhausted. He turned around to find there was nothing there. The Guardians were gone, every single one of them.
He realized he was shaking with nerves and fatigue. He climbed back down and made his way through the wreckage of the door and down the street, to where Raze lay in a pool of yellow streetlight, back in human form. He touched her cheek and she whimpered a little, wolf-like, still trapped unconscious somewhere between girl and beast.
“Raze. Wake up!” he called out urgently. He could hear sirens somewhere close by, and he was willing to bet they were heading this way. He hadn’t exactly been subtle about blowing up the front door. He hoisted her up, slinging an arm around her. “Raze!”
Her eyelids fluttered open and she blinked at him blearily. “Are they gone?” she whispered.
“They’re gone. We have to go, too. Come on, act like you’re with me. You know, my girlfriend.”
She wrapped a weak arm around his waist, and together they staggered out onto the main street. Ben was pretty sure his cheek was bleeding, so he kept that side tucked into Raze’s mane of tangled curls. They managed to get half a block before the sirens turned the corner. Immediately Ben slowed, pulling Raze closer against him as though they were just some couple out for the night. He kissed her on the top of her head as they passed — two police cars, all lights blazing — and the cops never even slowed down. They made it to the next street without incident and Ben hailed a cab.
“Your girl all right?” asked the taxi driver as Ben eased Raze into the car.
“Too much to drink. She’ll be fine,” he assured the man. He gave an address around the corner from his apartment, and sank back against the cracked leather seat.
***
Ben staggered up to the front door of his building, Raze’s arm slung around his neck. There was a flicker of movement, and he tensed, instantly alert. Someone was sitting on the doorstep, huddled up against the cold. The dark figure uncurled and stood up. It was Gabriel, eyes sharp in the street glow as he looked Raze over, head to toe. Ben’s heart skipped a beat, his feet dragging to a stop. He stared at Gabi, Raze’s unconscious body an awkward shield between them.
“You’re not supposed to be here,” Ben blurted out.
“It’s all right,” Gabi answered, without meeting Ben’s gaze. “My mom knows I’m here. Need help?”
“God, yes.” Ben gratefully surrendered Raze to Gabi as he fished for his keys. Their hands brushed as he gently passed her over, and Ben tried hard to ignore the warm touch as he concentrated on opening the door and getting Raze off the street.
“What happened?” Gabi asked, his voice business-like as his magic got to work, running a diagnosis on Raze. He had taken after his father, a healer. Magic fingers, they’d always joked. Ben’s head felt as fuzzy as Raze’s no doubt was. He forced himself to focus, to push away any thoughts of why Gabi would risk a visit. He couldn’t deal with this right now; everything about Gabi was too much, too real, and yet at the same time — thanks to the Baroness — not enough, never enough.
“Ben?”
“Sorry.” Ben switched the stair lights on and closed the street door. “She got slammed against a wall. Hit her head. I’m not sure if anything else happened after that, I was a little busy.”
“Lix?”
“Lix,” Ben replied, and the unspoken agreement not to talk about Angelica’s business ever settled around them, heavy and familiar.
Together, they hauled Raze upstairs and set her on the sofa bed. Ben pulled it out to full length and then hovered anxiously as Gabi ran gentle hands over her scalp and face.
“She’s mildly concussed. I can fix her. Do you want me to?”
“Yes. Please.” Ben hesitated, testing the limits of Lix’s contract spell in his mind. It should be safe to share her name. “She’s called Raze.”
Gabi nodded. “I’ll handle it.” He turned to Raze, stroking her head, fingers shimmering green. Ben watched Gabi work, his face set in careful concentration. He still hadn’t looked at Ben since they’d arrived: not properly, not in the eye. Now he glanced up briefly, his expression unreadable. “Why don’t you make her something warm for when she wakes? Do you have any chamomile? Put lots of sugar in it.”
Ben tore himself away, and went to fill the kettle. “Do you want some?”
“No.” There was something tight and controlled in Gabi’s voice. Like he was holding on, keeping things locked away. Ben suddenly remembered what he’d said on the doorstep. My mom knows I’m here.
“Gabi?” He didn’t ask the question, but Gabi must have heard the sudden panic in his voice.
“Not now.” The answer was curt. “Let me work, B.”
Ben boiled water and made tea, trying to focus on the small tasks. Teabag, water, sugar, stir. Trying not to think about what it meant that Gabi was here, of all places.
Finally Gabi stood up. “Your little werewolf should wake up soon. She’ll be fine.”
“
Thanks.” Ben gave a small smile. Gabi smiled back, but it was a sad shadow of a thing, heavy with the pain and guilt that Ben could read all over his face, clear as a beacon, as Gabi met his gaze properly for the first time that night. Ben took a step nearer and stopped, searching Gabi’s face for answers to the questions he didn’t dare ask.
They paused on the brink of touching, their bodies only a breath apart, for the longest minute in the whole wide world, the silence a mute glowering presence between them. Finally, Gabi bowed his head and held up his right hand. A gold band glittered on his ring finger. Ben frowned, confused. Gabi had told him once that when Brazilians got engaged, the couple wore wedding bands on their right hand, a symbol of commitment. At the wedding ceremony, the rings were transferred to their left hand. But although his brain obligingly replayed the information, it didn’t seem to make any sense.
“Is that…?”
“I’m engaged, yes. It happened today. There was a big party. Very lavish,” Gabi said in a flat voice. “We’re very happy. You can read about it in the news tomorrow. The happy couple. Ecstatic.”
“But how…?” Ben’s words weren’t working. That was it, his brain was broken. Maybe he was also concussed. Maybe this was all some goddamn fever dream, and he’d wake up tomorrow to find that none of it was real. He stared at the ring on Gabi’s still-outstretched hand.
“I’m sorry I didn’t warn you. Didn’t call, or text.” Gabi scrubbed both hands through his hair, his curls sticking up all wild and frantic. “I didn’t know what to say.”
Ben was still staring at the ring. He took a deep breath and made an effort to make some kind of sense. “Who is she? I imagine it’s a girl?”
Gabi’s laugh was a hollow thing. “Like my mom cares that I’m gay… Of course it’s a girl. Hadley Elliot. Impeccable bloodline. We’re to be married as soon as I turn twenty-one. In the meantime, I can’t be with you, ever. It’s over. But I told my mom I had to come, one last time. I had to say goodbye.”
Night Blade: Blade Hunt Chronicles Book Two Page 10
