“We have a job to finish.”
“You are perfectly capable of catching the Siren Eel on your own. You don’t need me.”
He hurried to stand in front of her, blocking her progress half-way down the massive staircase. “We agreed to be a team.”
“I am now disagreeing.”
He gawped at her while she stared at the varnished railing under her fingers. Finally, he shifted his feet and hardened his voice. “Are you telling me you no longer have the courage for the job? Do I need to spread the word that Melusine Doré is afraid of the big bad Siren Eel?”
She no longer had the courage to spend any more time with him. Who knew how far her heart had already betrayed her?
“It’s you, not the beast,” she said, her chest nothing but an inferno of pain.
“Ah.” He nodded, his expression turning stony. “So you’re terrified of handsome gentlemen. Your admirers will be quite disappointed.”
Levi knew how to play with her ego. The last thing she wanted was for the city to think her a coward. No. Not true. She didn’t care what the city thought. But despite knowing down to her very bones that it was a bad idea, part of her still wanted to stay.
“Oh, confound it all,” she said.
“Have you changed your mind?”
She glared at him and sighed. “We’ll need some new weaponry.”
Levi turned on his heel and led her down the remaining stairs. “I know just the thing.”
Outside, Edwin’s steam carriage puffed a symphony as it trundled in front of the mansion. Levi gave a street name to the automaton driver and the two of them slid inside. “My father has a man here—Zahn—who is always coming up with better engine designs for his airships. But Zahn deals in much more than engine design. It’s been years since I was at his workshop, but I know I can find it.”
Levi directed the driver to one of the most dilapidated neighborhoods in Chicago. The warehouse was red brick and crumbling. Mud sucked at the steel horse’s hooves as they neared the building, the mechanical stallion’s steps getting slower and slower. There were no wooden sidewalks here, and the street level had yet to be raised. Levi and Melusine dismounted into a sea of muck that reached their ankles.
“Please tell me you have a pistol on you.” Melusine said.
“Lost in the lake.”
“A crank gun?”
He shook his head.
“A —”
Levi held up his hand. “I’m only armed with my good looks, Miss Doré.”
“That won’t get us far.”
He fished something out of his pocket. “And a folding knife.”
She rolled her eyes. “You’ve been out of Chicago too long. In the past year or two, the stagnant sludge in this area has become infested with nests of mudsnares. We need something loud to frighten them or they’ll constantly try to pull us down.”
“Ah. Lazarus Mudsnares. Those little monsters that pop up over and over again as if rising from the dead. I haven’t had the misfortune of ever coming across them before.” He held up his knife. “And why won’t this work…?”
Melusine let out a long sigh. She’d already had a confrontation with the city authorities over this. She refused to exterminate an entire species just for being a nuisance. “They’re mischievous. Not deadly. I don’t maim or harm without reason, Mr. Cannon.”
He nodded and gave her a look. “Not with weapons you don’t. But your words are often barbed.”
He pointed to a small, lit window in the building. “Zahn’s here.” He started forward and they picked their way towards the faded wooden door, eyes scanning the shadows for any trouble.
The quiet squelching of movement in the mud made the skin along Melusine’s spine tingle. Then all of a sudden, the ground itself seemed to slither around. “Run!”
But they hadn’t taken two steps when long fingers, lots of them, wrapped around their ankles. Levi swore and kicked at the creatures, sending one or two flying into the air. Melusine shook her feet and tapped the monsters on their bumpy brown heads. Their wide mouths spread into a grin, a hissing laughter filling the air. They looked like large toads—with the bugged out eyes and rounded bodies and folded legs—but they had long, muscular arms and skinny fingers that ended in hundreds of tiny spurs, allowing them to hang on to things even in slippery mud. While she gently tried to extricate herself from their grasp, a dozen more gripped her legs.
Levi had gotten rid of his pests, easily kicking them away again when they came back to him. He now began to rip the mudsnares off of her. Still smarting from his remark, Melusine growled, “I’m fine. Just get to the door.”
The beasts tugged and tugged. One of her legs was already up to the knee in mire.
Levi knocked, the sound of it echoing into the night. He tried the doorknob, but it wouldn’t budge. “Zahn!” he called.
No noise came from inside the building.
One mudsnare then another hopped to her waist, wrapping their arms around her. They were heavy as boulders, and with every movement she felt her equilibrium falter. “Get off!” She was beginning to rethink her decision not to hurt the monsters.
More pounding on the door got Levi nowhere.
While Melusine was delicately trying to remove the creatures from her person, he batted them away as if they were mere flies. “Do you need my assistance, Miss Doré?”
Another mudsnare wound itself around her knees and she toppled backward into the mud. “NO! I’m quite all right! Just get us inside.”
Melusine ignored Levi’s barely stifled laughter.
“I’ll need to break a window.” Levi undid his waistcoat and shirt. He shrugged off the clothing, his chest bare, and slipped on his gloves.
Levi moved quickly, his long strides taking him to where he wanted to be in seconds. He jumped, his fingers scrabbling on the sill, but finally taking firm hold. As he began to pull himself up, a mudsnare wrapped itself around his ankles and yanked.
He swung his legs and banged the creature into the brick wall. It shrieked and let go.
Levi pulled himself up onto the window ledge, wrapped his shirt around his hand and punched the window, shattering it. While he cleared out the sharp pieces, the mudsnares made a game of dunking Melusine into the mud, letting her up, then piling on her to push her in once again. The muck got into the still unhealed scratches on her arm, her nose and her mouth.
She’d had enough.
She yelled and swung her arms about, wrenching mudsnares off of her body with adrenaline fueled violence. “Damn you, you little fiends! Next time the governor asks me to kill you, I will! I’ll crucify you slimy beasts!”
Above her, she heard a quiet cough. She stopped thrashing around, no more mudsnares near her. Levi stood over her. His brow creased and he held out a hand to pull her up. “Ready?”
Stepping on Levi’s bent knee, Melusine hopped up through the window, miniscule shards of glass biting into the palms of her hands. Levi scrabbled up behind her. The both jumped the short drop to the floor inside.
In the darkness, they could make out cogs and sheets of metal and gears and springs lined up against the walls. Haphazardly piled onto the floor were rusty engines, pipes, cages, different gadgets that looked like giant guns. Levi nodded at the stock while he shook glass from his balled up shirt.
“Zahn’s here. There is no doubt,” he said.
They shuffled through the room, trying not to knock anything over. Outside the door was a long hallway, a line of gas lights spitting in their brackets leading to a closed door.
Levi turned to Melusine and opened his mouth to say something, but his gaze froze. Then he tilted his head back and laughed long and hard. When he looked at her again, his eyes were wet. “Is it impossible for you to come out clean after a meeting with monsters?”
Melusine glanced down at herself. Every inch of her was covered in mud. She couldn’t even imagine what she looked like. She glowered at him.
“Have you seen yourself?” she asked. �
��You look –” but the word that came to mind, seeing him there, his chest exposed, the line of muscles evident in his stomach, the strong expanse of his shoulders, was beautiful “—naked.”
His mouth twitched, and she thought he was going to laugh at her again when he slid his arms into his shirt and began buttoning it. “You did a fine job out there, Miss Doré. I apologize for having brought us to this neighborhood unprepared.”
Melusine nodded. She wanted to say something about her behavior, but it was better for both of them if he hated her.
They moved to the closed door, not quiet about their approach with Levi shouting, “Zahn!” every few feet. But when they opened the door, it was obvious why they hadn’t been heard: the long warehouse room was filled with machine after machine, clicking, whirring, huffing and dinging. In the corner, a squat man in a dressing gown sat at a table covered with tools, peering through magnifying goggles at some tiny copper hinges.
Levi went over and put a hand on the man’s shoulder. It startled Zahn enough that he knocked half his tools off of the table. “Levi Cannon?” he said, his eyes large as carriage wheels behind the goggles.
The two men clasped each other’s arms in greeting and exchanged courtesies. How’s your father? How’s business? Did that whirladoodle ever work? So glad you’re here. Finally, they both looked to Melusine, Levi with a wide grin and Zahn with puckered eyebrows. “And who is this…ah…lovely…ah…lady?”
Melusine shook hair from her face, causing an avalanche of drying mud to fall to the floor. “Melusine Doré. Pleased to meet you.”
Zahn blinked his magnified eyes at her then ripped off the goggles and straightened his dressing gown. “The Miss Melusine Doré? The Miss Melusine Doré who destroyed an Abaasy with only a jade-toothed trap and a piece of rope?”
“Well…and a hat pin.” Melusine shrugged.
Zahn reached for her hand with both of his, then kissed her fingers. His lips came away full of grime. “So you must have taken on the mudsnares! Pesky beasts, those things. But my rent is cheap!”
He looked as though he wanted to put his arm around Levi’s shoulders, but being so short, he barley hit the middle of Levi’s back. “Levi Cannon and Melusine Doré. It’s about time the two of you teamed up.”
“Yes…well…it’s a short-lived alliance. Just for one job.” A strained laugh followed Levi’s words. “Then we will go back to being rivals.”
Zahn frowned for a split second, then seemed to recover his manners. “Come! Let me offer you a drink where it’s more comfortable.”
More comfortable meant a small square of a room with couches that coughed dust as they sat upon them. From another room, Zahn brought in a large battery, a shiny tin reflector and a lamp, a zap of energy shooting between the two poles inside the glass case. The room lit up like it was midday.
He served them whiskey, downing his own glass before they’d even put theirs to their lips.
“So what can I do for the two of you?”
“We need to kill a Siren Eel and our weapons have been too…modest.” Melusine said.
Levi added, “The beast is larger than a Leviathan and is covered in thick scales. The only weak spot is its mouth.”
Levi smoothed down his waistcoat. She couldn’t believe he was there with nothing more than soiled shoes and she looked and smelled like a barnyard animal.
The mud drying to dirt on her skin was itchy. She scratched white lines through the grime and watched as Zahn popped up and began to pace the room, dust swirling about him. He was rubbing his hands together in enthusiasm.
He stopped and clapped his hands, his dressing gown twisting about in a way to reveal the fact that he wore practically nothing underneath. “I’ve the perfect item! A new invention of mine!” He tightened the sash around his waist and squeezed Levi’s upper arm. “How’s that muscle? How far can you throw?”
Then, without waiting for an answer, he dashed from the room. When he came back he had a palm-sized metal ball in each hand. The first had a series of small holes spiraling around it and two gears bumping up against each other, a tiny crank in the middle. The second was completely smooth apart from a seam around its middle and a simple key bow sticking out of one end. Zahn’s eyes were lit like bonfires.
“An incendiary device,” he said, pressing the orb with the small holes into Levi’s hand. “It’s not new, but it’s reliable. And…” He held up the smooth sphere. “…my most recent edition to the armory. An explosive apparatus of my own design.”
“Not very large,” Levi murmured.
“Ha!” It was what Zahn was waiting for. “Come! Come! Follow me!” He hurried down the hall, Levi and Melusine on his heels.
At the front door, Zahn heaved back the bolt. The stench of stagnant mud and sewage came at them full force. Zahn turned the crank on the incendiary device still in Levi’s hand, little clicks and the hissing of flint being lit coming from inside the apparatus. “Now!” He motioned for Levi to heave it into the expanse of marshland before them. Levi took a step forward and sent the device far ahead of them.
But before it hit the ground, the gadget spurt out flames, some the length of a full-grown man. The bulging eyes of the mudsnares shone in the brightness as they shrieked and hopped away.
Now Zahn focused on the other globe. “Pay attention,” he said. He wound the key five times counter-clockwise and the seam around the device’s middle opened with a hiss, steam pouring out. A metallic thunk came from the weapon.
“Heads up, little beasties!” Zahn hurled it into the parcel directly in front of them, less than ten feet from the door. There was an awful BOOM and then it rained down mud and mudsnares. For once, Levi got the brunt of it. The webbed foot of a mudsnare landed on his head, and a sheet of mud covered him from head to toe.
Melusine couldn’t stop the laughter that bubbled up. She winked at Zahn and said, “We’ll take two of each.”
Chapter Seven
Sir Edwin Aldridge’s steam carriage and its automaton driver were still waiting for them, though Melusine and Levi had to shake a few mudsnares off of its shell.
“Take us back, driver,” said Levi.
Melusine gave her own address. “I’d prefer to gather a few things first,” she said, thinking she’d need different clothes of her own if she didn’t want to find herself in another silken gown. The carriage whirred and clicked, tumblers in the door lock falling into place to open. Vapors streamed out of the automaton’s joints as it lashed the whip on the clockwork horse.
Leaning back into the velvet seat, Melusine watched Levi as he settled in across from her. Though Zahn had given them flannels to wipe their faces with, they were still a mess. A muddy clump of hair stuck out from the side of Levi’s head, as ridiculous as the plumes ladies wore on their hats.
She tried to hide the smile on her face by looking out the carriage window. The whole of the evening swept through her head, from her idiot follies with those infernal mudsnares to the sight of Zahn’s pale belly flesh to the look of shock on Levi’s face when slapped with a torrent of mud. Dear God, it had been fun.
She, Miss Melusine Doré, had actual fun.
Laugher made her shoulders tremble and though she was doing her best to keep it quiet, little snorts and sniggers escaped. She turned back to Levi who looked utterly confused.
He leaned forward, his caramel eyes searching her face. “Are you weeping?”
She wiped a finger across her cheek and found that, yes, it came away wet. This just made her laugh even more. Levi resisted at first—his back straight, his face stern. But eventually her mirth was contagious and they both giggled like little girls, rolling about their seats in the carriage. When they were exhausted and hiccupping, he beamed at her and shook his head. That simple gesture was enough to make her lungs so full of longing that she could barely breathe.
“Have you drugged me, Mr. Cannon?”
“You cannot be serious.”
“If not, then why am I so giddy in your presen
ce?”
The light atmosphere in the carriage plummeted. “I wouldn’t know, Miss Doré, as only hours ago you insisted that my very presence made you ill.” His expression was sober.
Her stomach soured. “I said nothing of the sort.”
His eyes flashed. “Oh?”
She studied Levi’s face—ridiculously comic with an unwiped layer of dirt drying over it and yet so sincere and sensual. “At no point did I say your presence makes me ill. I said…I said you were the problem, not the monster. Your presence makes me uncomfortable, Mr. Cannon.”
“How so?” His voice was sharp.
Melusine glanced out the window, not seeing anything on the other side of the glass. What if she gave in? She swallowed. Who did she think she was kidding? She was beyond gone.
Her fingers ran over her mud-crusted thighs, feeling nothing but dirt and the scratches from the Siren Eel. She glanced down at the ribbons round her wrists, no longer thin, white bands, but large, mud colored clumps. How could she even think about giving in?
But maybe it wouldn’t happen this time. Maybe she’d outgrown it. Maybe Mother had forgiven her and released her from the curse. Maybe it had all been a nightmare and there had never been any danger of it happening at all.
Excuses. All of them. For she knew what would happen. But perhaps tonight she could give herself over to him, regardless. Just once. She was not sure she could live another day without doing so.
“How so?” Levi asked again. “In what way does my presence make you uncomfortable?”
The carriage rolled over uneven ground, bouncing them about. She gripped the closest thing to steady herself, but that turned out to be Levi’s arm. Warmth fizzed around inside her like the arc of energy popping in the light Zahn had brought out.
“In the most unprofessional way,” she whispered, hardly believing she’d said the words aloud.
His eyes widened and several seconds ticked by as he gaped at her. Then his mouth was on hers, hot and tasting of whiskey and soil. He took her bottom lip between his teeth and dropped a hand to her lower back, pressing her to him. His body was firm and smooth and strong against her own.
Falling in Deep Collection Box Set Page 110
