by Faith Hunter
Beast pressed down on my mind, her claws out and piercing me with a headache. She peered out through my eyes. Fun!
I just shook my head in disgust at the plan. “I always hated gymnastics in school.”
“Why not Jane and me?” Rick asked.
“Because the magics might short out your electronics,” I said, pointing at his earpieces. “I’d rather not be trapped on the roof of a spelled, warded house with a screaming, half-insane black panther in a human body.”
“She has a point,” Eli said, trying to be helpful.
Rick snarled, turned, and walked away, around the building and to the left of the house we were trying to enter. So much for teamwork and effort.
“How long to make a death charm?” I asked.
“Before dawn,” Soul said.
“Eli, nothing we can do here. Let’s get some shut-eye. And hey, Soul?” She looked up at me, her platinum ponytail falling over one shoulder. “Before we head out, would you take a look at Bobby’s hands? They got burned when he was dowsing for the magics.”
• • •
Bobby—healed and out of pain—was asleep in his bed when we again slipped quietly out of Esmee’s and into the SUV, to meander our way back to the warded house. Rick was still there, and so were Bruiser and Soul, and none of them looked very happy. I got out of the vehicle and looked over the house. Nothing was different except for the thin line that ran from the front of one roof to the back of the other roof of the three-story buildings standing on either side of the warded structure. Someone had found mountain-climbing devices and lots of rope. On the highest point hung woven mesh straps and buckles and more metal, like a zip-line trolley and harness. With Beast vision, I could see that the rope passed directly over the opening of the hedge ward.
Eli followed me from the SUV, our feet silent on the sidewalk, our shadows long and diffuse in the light of the moon that appeared to be falling off the edge of the world. The magics of the first full-moon night were more muted now, many witch circles closed after the witching hour, others just closing down as dawn approached. There was a strange smell on the air, like burned hair and hide and odd chemicals, but it was old and faint, and I couldn’t place it. When we were close enough to be heard without raising our voices, I said, “Hey, Eli. How come I think our little experiment is gonna be way more dangerous than they expected?”
“Maybe because they look like death warmed over themselves,” he said. “What’s up, guys?”
Soul examined me. It was a way more intense examination than I’d ever gotten from her before, and it made me feel the way I used to when a schoolteacher suspected that I had done something wrong in class behind her back. I’d learned to stare back, mostly expressionless, a little curious and a lot bored—a look teenagers master early—and I used it on her now. She gave me a small, unamused smile. “Are you willing to risk death to possibly help your friend, who may not be inside?”
I thought about that, tucking my thumbs into my leathers, fingers hanging down as I came to a stop at the small group. “No. But I’m willing to risk it for her daughter. I promised Charly I’d get her mother back.”
Rick growled at that stupidity. Bruiser chuckled. Soul’s expression didn’t change, but I felt the tingle of magics as something happened to her or in the air around her. Her dress wafted and swirled before settling again. “I can’t make a magic that will survive a fall through a hedge that strong. I tried. The charm failed.” More softly, Soul said, “But I am a magic that will survive it.”
I looked over the guys, estimating their weight and Soul’s, and put two and two together, hoping I wasn’t coming up with four. “Sooo, I’m guessing that you want me to carry you on a zip line to the middle of the house, hoping that your magics will protect us from the magical seepage at the top of the hedge, and then drop us both through. And I’m guessing that it’s got to be us, because the boys weigh too much.”
“Yes,” she said, watching me like I was an interesting experiment.
“The pitch of the roof is steep,” Bruiser said. “When you land, you risk tumbling off the house. Once you are stabilized, you have to catch Soul. Then shift into your cat, or, even better, a big snake, slither down a chimney, and figure out how to turn off the ward so we can come inside. All without disturbing whatever biological deterrents are waiting inside.”
“Biological deterrents?” Eli asked. “Like the spidey vamps we’ve been killing?”
“Soul says there are at least four undead guardians inside,” Rick said, his voice less growly now that the night was nearly gone. “One in every room. The witch magics are so strong, she can’t pinpoint the location of any of them. If you shift on your fall through the opening to the hedge, you might die. If you slide off the roof when you land, you will die. If you can’t get inside through the chimneys and get stuck up there, you might die. And if you can’t fight off the things inside, you might die.”
“We don’t want you dead,” Bruiser said.
“And yet you’ve strung the line,” I mused.
“Because we had hoped that Soul and I could do the job. Or Soul and Rick.”
I placed the odd smell and started laughing. I couldn’t help it. And it only got worse when I saw the sour look on Rick’s and Bruiser’s faces and the confusion on Eli’s. Soul didn’t react, but her very nonreaction was funny. “How bad did you get burned when you tried it?” I asked them.
“I was unharmed,” Soul said, “and was able to heal the wounds of the others.”
“But I bet it hurt. Didn’t it? Still trying to protect the little woman?” I said, less kindly, shooting my anger at the two men.
“I refuse to apologize,” Bruiser said.
“We were afraid you’d shift when you hit the ward’s energies,” Rick said. “We’re still afraid you’ll shift. And if you do, you’ll probably die.”
It was interesting to see the two men on the same side of an argument for once. Even more interesting to see Rick siding with any male this close to the full moon. “Only one way to find out,” I said.
I began to divest myself of weapons and put them into a go-bag I had brought for that very purpose. I hadn’t been able to sleep back at the house, but had spent the time sitting with Eli in the breakfast room, him binging on coffee, me binging on strong tea, brainstorming, coming up with a plan, talking through the equipment we might need and gathering it all up. I’d have felt better if Eli had brought a shoulder-held rocket launcher, but he didn’t have one handy. That was his reply when I mentioned it. I was relatively certain that meant he had one somewhere. My partner was scary. In a totally cool, macho, U.S. Ranger kinda way.
“Eli, you want to tell them what we have planned?” I asked.
“I’ll plant explosive devices at every corner of the building, right up against the ward. Jane and Soul will move over the opening, shielded by the dead-thing charm on Soul. If Jane shifts, Soul will open the harness and let Jane’s cat fall through the opening. Then drop her clothes. Then drop her weapons. The cat will snag everything with her claws, prop them in the cleft of the roof and chimney, jump up on the chimney, and look down to see if the chimneys are open passageways or sealed, which they could be. If they are open, Jane will gauge the size, shift back to human, and eat to restore her energies, and catch you as you drop.”
He looked at Soul. “If she doesn’t shift, she’ll catch her equipment and you, when you fall through the ward opening.”
“And then?” Bruiser asked.
“Then I’ll drop an explosive device or three into the chimney,” I said, “and Soul and I will hide on the far side of the roof. Eli will set off the devices at the corners of the building to attract the attention of the guardians, and three seconds later, I’ll set off the ones in the chimney. Hopefully it will blow a hole in the roof big enough for me to get through, and disrupt the ward long enough for Soul to get you guys through the opening and onto the roof. While she’s doing that, I’ll drop inside, and you guys will follow as fast as
you can. If we time it right, the sun will be rising and will scorch some bad guys. We’ll kill us some guardians and save the witches. And hopefully find out where the leaders of the Naturaleza are.”
Bruiser smiled that quirky smile I liked so much. Rick snarled. Soul tilted her head, considering. “It might work,” she said. “I can make my clothing part of my death charm and extend a scarf, so that as you fall, the charm will extend with you. However, I put the chances of us all surviving at forty percent. The chances of us escaping unscathed at less than twenty percent. Are these acceptable to you all?”
“I put them much higher,” Eli said. We shared a smile. Eli was really, really good at setting explosives. And he’d brought enough to do the job.
I just hoped he had calculated the necessary explosives with the age and construction condition of the old building and didn’t blow it up around me. “Yeah. I think we’re looking at a seventy percent chance of survival.” To Bruiser, I said, “I saw a fire escape on the back of that building,” I pointed to the one on the right. “That the best way up?” At his nod, I said, “Meet you on the roof, Soul.”
• • •
With Beast vision, the hedge ward was fiery in the early dawn light. I tried to measure the size of the hole I needed to fall through while I pulled off my boots and stored them in the second go-bag. If I shifted in the harness, I needed to be mostly clothes free to allow me to fall and catch myself with my claws. Beast thought it looked like fun. I thought it looked risky and potentially deadly, no matter my seventy percent claim.
I had brought shoes with a grabby sole, loose pants, and an oversized tee, and I quickly stripped, putting my leathers into the bag with the boots.
While I changed, I also checked the stability of the zip line, which was attached to the highest point on the roof—the fake fourth-story wall. I had taken a mountain-climbing class a year or so after high school, and the line was wrapped around the entire wall instead of attached with gear into the mortar, which was smart. The height on this side allowed the line a slight angle across the chasm of the hedge to the building on the other side, where it was secured, out of sight.
I didn’t think I would have done anything different had I set it all up myself, and I wondered who had arranged the gear, Rick or Bruiser. I was betting on Bruiser, not the boy from the Deep South.
By the time I could hear the others climbing to the roof, I was shivering in the cold, dressed and wearing sneakers, all my gear stored in three different bags, watching the sky brighten prior to sunrise.
Bruiser appeared first, Soul right behind him, and I looked over the MOC’s primo. He was dressed all in leather in his Enforcer clothes, but unlike mine, his duds had been custom made and fit him like a glove. Leather pants, leather boots, and a leather coat over what had to be a silk shirt. Bristling with weapons. His dark hair slicked back.
“Nice gear,” I said grudgingly, as he looked me over.
The morning breeze spun by, blowing my clothes against my limbs. His smile widened, making him look lean, mean, and dangerous. “Beautiful woman,” he said.
I didn’t know what to say to that, but felt a flush spread through me, just as Rick stepped from the fire escape. He was carrying standard cop weapons, except for the earpieces and the small wire trailing to his jacket pocket, the sound of tinny music coming from it, a pair of nice vamp-killers strapped to his thighs, and the feral greenish glow of his eyes. All that was nonstandard issue. He had pulled his hair back in a queue, and I was reminded of the way Leo Pellissier wore his hair. Rick stalked across the flat roof, moving like a cat, his eyes on Bruiser.
I stepped between them. “If you can’t keep it together, you can go back to the street,” I said to Rick.
“I’ll keep it together. As long as he keeps his hands off you.”
Anger pumped through me, part embarrassment, part something else that I didn’t take the time to identify. “Just so you know. Jealousy is not a turn-on.” I swiveled on a heel and stepped into the zip-line harness, ignoring the two men.
From behind me, Brute snarled as if he were an attack dog defending his master. He was showing his teeth, which left me confused until Beast pressed in on my brain again and sent me a mental picture of her scratching the wolf’s nose. I/we snarled back, and I growled, “Nice doggie.”
His growl deepened at the insult and his ruff stood up. And while I was itching for a fight, it wasn’t with a wolf. I’d rather hit Rick. Or Bruiser. Or both. But Beast didn’t want to let it go and sent her claws deeper into my brain. “So far I/we have broken your nose two times, little doggie,” she said through me, her voice low. “Scratched you. Are you stupid, dog?”
Brute tensed, but quieted when Soul put a hand into his fur and scratched. Pea scolded the wolf with a burst of chitter. Rick stepped between us. Bruiser chuckled, the sound goading. The wolf turned angry eyes to the primo. For a moment more we tottered on the edge of violence. I pushed back on Beast, knowing this wasn’t helping to create a team. I took a calming breath. “Sorry. It’s the full moon. My Beast is . . . difficult. Come on, Soul. I’ll get you into the harness.”
“I have never done this before,” she said, leaving her team. As she walked, a sense of peace spread outward, and I knew we were being manipulated by her personal magics, but I let it happen anyway. We needed to be calm. We needed a sense of coherence. Or her percentages might become real and half of us could die.
Wolf should die, Beast thought at me. Thief of meat. Stupid pack hunter.
“No problem,” I said to Soul. But it was. Her dress made it difficult to get her into the harness in such a way that she could release the harness and fall without catching the clothing on the gear and maybe hanging her.
Finally we were in position, me in front with a zip-line steering trolley, her behind me in an abbreviated mountain-climbing harness, attached to the line with sturdy carabiners. I showed her how to release it so she could fall. Her scent changed as I spoke, and she tied the end of a scarf to a loop on my pants. Her magics began to rise.
When we were ready, I leaned down to see Eli staring up at me. He raised a thumb and melted into the shadows. The explosive devices were in place.
“Okay,” I said. “Let’s do this. Soul, let the harness take your weight, and put your feet against the roof wall to hold you still.” When she was secure, I pulled on gloves, eased down on the line, and hooked my carabiner to the zip-line trolley.
“We have to be close,” she said, her voice shaky, “for the death spell to start. I need to put my legs around you and hold you to me.”
I nodded, and Soul wrapped her legs around my waist, pulling me in close. It was a lot closer than my Beast liked. Her idea of personal space was something like miles away, unless it was a kit or a mate.
She said, “Are you ready? This may feel . . . odd.”
I nodded, and Soul took a deep breath and said, “The die is cast.”
Which made no sense at all. For a moment.
CHAPTER 22
“Thank You,” the Corpse Croaked
The scent of the grave surrounded me first, followed almost instantly by the visual transformation. Soul rotted before my eyes. Her body fluids melted into my clothes, her face sagged, the fluids and blood pooling with gravity while her eyes dried out. I looked at my hand and saw the same level of decomp. Ick. Eww. I was gross.
“Hurry,” she said, the croak sounding like the dead. The stench of her breath made my eyes water, and I pushed off the false wall with a thrust of my legs, out into the air and over the buzzing magics of the augmented hedge of thorns.
While the purpose of zip-lining is to gain speed on a downward-sloped line, one can adjust speed with the gloved hand behind the trolley and one’s body position. In our case, the line was too gently sloped and I expected that I’d have to pull us along with my hands. That was before my body reacted to being embraced by a ten-day-old corpse. My shove off the wall was too hard, and I had to brake, one gloved hand on the line, dragging behind
the corpse’s carabiner, my other hand atop the trolley, holding us stable. I was so busy working on the braking that I almost missed the energies passing over us as we reached the small hole over the top of the hedge.
When I felt the faint burst of magics, I adjusted our position carefully. The opening was only five feet below us, but the distance to the house roof was three feet more, making it a difficult leap and landing. Ankle breaking. And nowhere to roll afterward, just drop, hit, and stop. Hard.
I set one of Soul’s hands behind her carabiner to hold her steady, and she made sure her scarf was still attached. I said, “I’m ready to go. And just for the record, no offense intended, as I am very grateful that you got us here safely, but we really stink.”
“Thank you,” the corpse croaked, unwrapping her legs from me.
“Yeah. Dropping now.” I unhooked myself, held still until my body stopped rocking, bent my knees slightly to take the landing, and fell. Adrenaline spurted through me. My stomach followed a split-second later. Vertigo hit as I passed through the hedge opening. The scarf spiraled down with me.
The roof slammed me like . . . well, like falling off a zip line onto a roof. The jar whipped up from my toes, through my body, and out the top of my head. My teeth clacked together. I dropped to my knees, one foot on either side of the ridgeline, feeling the strain in my ankles and knees. My feet slid in opposite directions. I caught myself with my gloved hands, the rough roof beneath them grating. I stank of the grave, the stench so strong I wanted to gag. Beast, who had helped with the landing, withdrew.
The first thing I did was untie the scarf and set it to the side. When I was sure I could stand, I inspected myself. I was whole again, albeit still a bit stinky. I held up my hands for my gear, and the corpse above me dropped them one at a time. I positioned each bag on the roof and let them slide into the crevice of the rear chimney.
When they were secure, I held up my arms for Soul, having no idea if I would be able to catch her as she fell, even with Beast helping, or if I would drop her to the ridge, injuring her badly. I braced myself and nodded to her.
