Industrial Magic

by Kelly Armstrong

  I counted to three, then broke cover and leaned out to see an adjoining alley farther down. I took one slow step. The crunch of gravel under my feet resounded like thunder. I quickly recast my cover, but Edward didn't return. Again, I broke cover. Again, I took a single step. Again, the gravel crackled underfoot.

  This wasn't working. After a moment's thought, I cast a light-ball and tossed it down the alley, praying Edward didn't pick that very moment to look behind him. When Lucas saw the ball, he peered around the corner. I gestured to the side alley. He nodded, darted across the alley, and pressed himself against the far wall. Then he inched to the opening and peeked down it. As he pulled back, he waved me forward.

  When I got to the adjoining alley it was empty. Lucas motioned that Edward had slipped into a corridor farther down.

  "He has a gun," I mouthed, pantomiming a pistol with my hand.

  Lucas nodded and we set off in pursuit.

  The Target

  We hurried along the passage, then peeked into the cross-alley Edward had taken. It ended at a street. Edward stepped onto the sidewalk and turned right. We hustled to the end of the alley and looked out. Edward was poised on the curb of a busy road, as if debating whether to dodge through traffic. Lucas motioned for me to get into a better viewing position and cast a cover spell. I did.

  After a moment on the curb, Edward wheeled and headed left along the sidewalk. At the first stoplight, he joined a small crowd and waited, rocking on the balls of his feet. When the light changed, he wove through the other pedestrians, then darted into the first door on the other side.

  I broke cover.

  "He went into a coffee shop," I said. "Lying low?"

  "Perhaps. I'll take a look. Once I verify he's there, I'll call for backup. Best not to try taking him in on our own, not when he's armed."

  "But he's in a public place. He wouldn't dare shoot-"

  "Are you sure?"

  "You're right. In that case, though, I'm not sure I even want you peeking in the window. We need a spell. What about that glamor spell? The one you used with Savannah, to make me look like Eve."

  "It only works if the viewer wants or expects to see someone else. I don't know how much information that desk clerk gave Edward, but I suspect he knows who he's watching out for. I believe we're down to the most obvious, and least satisfactory, choice. Arm myself with a good spell, slip in there, and hope for the best."

  "Arm ourselves. I'll cover you."

  ***

  Edward wasn't in the café. Lucas even popped into the men's washroom to be sure, but came out shaking his head. I did a visual sweep of the room. Next to the bathrooms was a short hall with three doors. Two were marked STAFF ONLY. The third had a push bar on it-a back exit.

  We peeked out the rear door, then stepped into the alley. The empty corridor stretched a half-block in either direction.

  "Damn," I muttered.

  Lucas surveyed the ground. Water dripped from a leaky eaves-trough. During the cool night, a puddle had formed but now, in the heat of morning, it was drying fast. There were several footprints in the hardening mud, but only one still had water pooled between the tread marks. Lucas gestured in the direction the print pointed.

  A dozen yards down, the alley branched off, heading farther away from the street. Lucas motioned for me to wait, then peered around the wall. A second later, he pulled back, brows knitting, and motioned for me to look.

  I glanced around the corner. Edward was there, less than thirty feet away. I started to pull back fast, then noticed he'd stopped with his back to us. His knapsack lay at his feet and he was pulling out a map. Lucas tugged me back, then bent down to my ear.

  "Go into the shop," he whispered. "Call my father."

  I leaned over to his ear. "What if he leaves?"

  "I'll follow and call you."

  ***

  We'd let the café rear exit close behind us, so I had to walk all the way around the building. I was still in the alley when my phone vibrated. I glanced over my shoulder, but Lucas hadn't moved. I picked up the pace to get to the sidewalk, where I could answer without fear of my voice carrying to Edward. Before I was there, the phone stopped. I'd just set foot on the sidewalk when it vibrated again. I checked the number, but didn't recognize it.

  "Hello?"

  "Where are you?" Jaime's voice, words rushing out.

  "We're-"

  "Get over here now. Stop whatever you're doing, grab Lucas, and get over here."

  "We can't. We're following Edward. We have him on the run-"

  "Shit! No, leave him. Just back off and leave him alone. Where are you? I'll get the Cabal to send someone. Get back here-no, just get someplace-"

  "Slow down, Jamie. What's-?"

  The line buzzed, then Cassandra came on.

  "Paige? Listen to me. We're with Faye. She knows who Edward's next target is. It's-"

  I knew what she was going to say even before the name left her lips. I hit disconnect and fumbled to shove the phone back into my pocket, but it slipped and fell to the sidewalk. Ignoring it, I raced back into the alley.

  Coup de Grâce

  When I reached the alley behind the café, Lucas was gone. Edward was on the move. Of course he was. He knew who was chasing him. He wasn't running from Lucas; he was luring him in.

  I raced down the adjoining alley, where we'd last seen Edward. I didn't worry about how much noise I made. If Lucas heard me, he'd come running, away from Edward, which was exactly what I wanted.

  When I rounded the first junction, I saw Lucas. He was walking carefully, looking from side to side, his back to me. I opened my mouth to shout to him, then stopped. If Edward was lying in wait around the next corner, any disruption could spook him. I wasn't about to spook a vampire with a gun.

  I jogged down the alley. A few yards from Lucas, as I ran under a fire escape, a shadow moved overhead. I whirled and looked up to see Edward, crouched on the fire escape.

  "Lucas!" I yelled.

  As I raced toward Lucas, I realized that we were in a blind alley, with only an alcove adjoining at the end. I wheeled just as Edward leapt to the ground. He raised his gun. I side-lunged into his firing path, and started casting a binding spell. Edward trained the gun on my chest.

  "I'll fire before you finish," he said. His sunglasses were gone, and his eyes were as flat and emotionless as his voice. He looked over my shoulder at Lucas, who'd also frozen mid-incantation. "You, too. Cast and I'll shoot her."

  "Paige," Lucas said. "Step aside. Please."

  "So he can shoot you? You're the one he's after. That was the message Faye was trying to give us. You're the target."

  "Do you really think I won't shoot because you're in the way?" Edward said.

  Yet he didn't. He lifted the gun, as if considering firing over my shoulder at Lucas, then lowered it back to my chest, clearly not comfortable enough with his marksmanship to try for anything but a torso shot. He might not care about adding me to his body count, but he wouldn't take the chance that, in the time it took to shoot me, Lucas could cast a spell and escape.

  "Do you know what Benicio will do to you if you kill Lucas?" I said.

  "Same thing everyone else wants to do. Hunt me down and kill me. Do you think I care? I stopped caring the day I came back to my hotel room and found those Cabal assassins had finished their job."

  "We-"

  "I walked into that room, and do you know what I saw?" His gaze skewered mine. "Her head on the bedpost. My wife's head on the bedpost!"

  I tried to summon up some sympathy, but all I could think about were the dozens of bodies buried behind that cabin.

  A soft breeze fluttered down the alley, coming from behind us. Though I didn't dare peek over my shoulder, I knew there was a three-story wall behind Lucas. No breeze could come through that. Was I casting without knowing it? I'd done that once before, under stress. Could I do it again? But no, I couldn't rely on magic. Not now. I plowed ahead.

  "So you took what was dearest to them
," I said. "But when Benicio finds out-"

  "Are you listening? Have you heard a word I've said? I don't care!"

  "But you wanted immortality-"

  "I wanted eternal life with my wife. Without her, it doesn't matter."

  A gust of wind whipped through the alley, making us all freeze. It came again, not so much a wind now as a quaking, as if the air itself was heaving, churning.

  Edward stepped to the side fast and raised the gun at Lucas. I pitched sideways, throwing myself into his path, but the air around us vibrated so violently that I lost my balance and fell to one knee. As I twisted, the still-healing knife wounds blazed and I gasped.

  "Don't move, Paige," Lucas said, his voice tight. "Please, don't move."

  I shifted my eyes, straining to see Edward. He had the gun pointed at my chest.

  "Don't do this," Lucas said. "She hasn't done anything to you. If you let her go, I can promise you-"

  Edward swung the gun toward Lucas. "Shut up."

  "Listen to him, Edward," I said. "If you stop now, you can be with Natasha."

  "Natasha is gone!"

  "No, she's not. She's a ghost."

  His lips twisted. "You lying bitch. You'd say anything to save him, wouldn't you?"

  He started to turn the gun on me. Then the air around us crackled and popped, and he swung the gun back toward Lucas.

  "I told you, any magic and-"

  Behind Lucas, the air darkened, then the backdrop shattered, like a mirror breaking. Light streamed through. A woman's figure appeared in the light. Edward looked up. He blinked.

  "Nat-? Natasha?"

  She reached for him. Edward took a slow, cautious step forward. Then suddenly, Natasha's body jerked ramrod straight. The hole shimmered around her. Her eyes went wide and her mouth opened in a silent scream, and she tumbled back into the yawning hole, arms still stretching toward Edward.

  "No!" Edward shouted.

  The gun jerked, then fell from his hand as he raced for the portal. I saw the gun fall. I swear that is the first thing I saw, and in that moment I knew Lucas was safe. Then Lucas toppled backward, a dark hole in his breast pocket. Then, only then, I heard the shot echoing through the alley.

  I twisted around. Lucas was still falling into the hole. The light swallowed his head, then his chest, and finally his feet.

  I dove in after him.

  Through the Back Door

  I was jumping on a bed, leaping as high as I could, shrieking each time my feet struck down. Someone was singing. My mother? No, a younger voice, struggling to sing without laughing.

  "Five little monkeys jumping on the bed.

  One fell off and bumped his head.

  Momma called the doctor and the doctor said,

  "No more monkeys jumping on the bed!'"

  "Again!" I screamed. "Again!"

  "Again?" the voice laughed. "If you break your mother's bed, she'll have both our hides."

  I threw my chubby fists in the air as I jumped, then lost my footing and collapsed face first into the pillows. Hands reached down to pick me up, but I pushed them back, got up and whirled around, bouncing.

  "Again! Again!"

  A dramatic sigh. "One more time, Paige. I mean it. This is the last time."

  I giggled, knowing this would be far from the last time.

  Five little monkeys…

  I groaned and the dream faded, but I could still hear the song, that same person singing it. The voice tickled a memory, but it evaporated before I could seize it.

  I opened my eyes, but could see nothing. A cold, damp darkness enveloped me and I shivered. I blinked and tried to clear my fogged brain. I was lying on my side. I reached out and touched something cold but smooth and solid. As I ran my hand across it, I felt bumps and sharp edges. Rock. I was lying on rock.

  Four little monkeys jumping on the bed…

  I squeezed my eyes shut, but the tune kept playing in my head. What was that song? Now that I heard it, I could say every word by heart, as they bubbled up from my subconscious. An image came to mind. Me, no more than two years old, jumping on my mother's bed as someone sang.

  "No more monkeys jumping on the bed!"

  Three little monkeys-

  "Oh, God, stop!" I said, cradling my booming head.

  The song stopped.

  A voice sighed, that same dramatic sigh I'd heard in my dream. "Well, it was either that or scream until you woke up. Be glad I took the musical approach."

  I scrambled up and looked around. My eyes had adjusted enough that I could make out dim shapes around me, but none looked remotely human. I blinked hard and focused. Scattered around me were huge boulders, rising up from the stone bed on which I lay.

  "Rock," I said. "It's all rock."

  "Weird, huh? We have some very strange places here. Looks like you landed in one of them. Let's just hope nothing nasty pops out."

  My head whipped around, searching for the source of the voice, but I saw only rocks.

  Two little monkeys…

  "Stop that," I said.

  "Hey, I'm trying to jar your memory. You used to love that song. Savannah did, too. Both of you, crazy for it, though I think you just liked the excuse to jump on the bed."

  Savannah? How did she know-? I swallowed, making the only association I could.

  "Eve?" I said.

  "Who else? Don't tell me you've forgotten."

  When I didn't answer, she said. "Oh, come on. You must remember your favorite babysitter. I looked after you every Wednesday night for nearly two years. If I couldn't make it, you wouldn't let your mom get anyone else. You'd cry so hard she had to cancel the Elders meeting and stay home."

  Eve paused. When I still said nothing, she sighed. "You really don't remember, do you? Damn. I usually leave more of an impression."

  "Where are you?" I said.

  "Hold on. I'm working on that part. Just give me a-" A shimmer of movement to my left. The shape winked, then started coming into focus. "Almost there. This ain't easy, let me tell you."

  An audible pop. And there stood a grown-up version of Savannah, a tall, exotically beautiful woman with a wide mouth, strong nose and chin, and long, straight black hair. Only the eyes were different, dark instead of the bright blue Savannah had inherited from Kristof Nast.

  She hunkered down before me, then touched the ground and shivered.

  "Damn cold. You sure picked a helluva place to pop through. If I'd known, I'd have dressed warmer." She caught my eye, her wide grin a mirror of Savannah's. "Ghost humor." She looked down at her clothes: jeans, sneakers, and a dark green embroidered blouse. "You know, I used to really like this blouse, but after wearing it for a year straight… Time to figure out how to change clothes." She sized up my ensemble. "Not bad. Could have been worse."

  "I'm not-I'm not a ghost. I didn't-"

  "Die? Jury's still out on that one. All I know is you're here, and if you're here, you should be dead." Eve shook her head. "Never expected you to go all Romeo and Juliet on me, Paige. I know, once you commit yourself to someone, you go all the way, like you did with Savannah, but, really-" She waved at our surroundings. "This is too far."

  "Lucas," I said, scrambling up.

  "Easy, girl. He's right over-" Eve stood. "Now where…? Oh, there."

  I hurried past her. As I skirted an outcropping of rock, I saw Lucas's shoes. I raced around a large boulder to find him lying on his back, eyes closed. I dropped down beside him, fingers going to his throat, feeling for a pulse.

  "Uh, you won't find that, Paige," Eve said behind me. "Not on yourself, either. Part of the passing-over package deal. You can jog all you want and never run out of breath. First time in a week your stomach hasn't hurt, I'll bet."

  I touched Lucas's cheek. His skin was warm. I leaned down, bringing my face to his, and gently shook his shoulder as I called his name.

  "You could try kissing him," Eve said. "But I don't think that works in real life… or real afterlife."

  I glared at her. She held
up her hands.

  "Sorry, not the time for quips." She walked around Lucas and knelt on his other side. "He's okay, baby. This is normal. It's death shock. Takes a day or two to recover. Normally, you'd come through into one of the waiting areas, where there are people to look after you, but you guys took the back door."

  "D-death shock?"

  I looked down at Lucas's chest. His shirt was whole. I slid my hand under it, but found no bullet hole.

  "No, he's okay," I said. "He didn't get shot. He just fell through the rift, like I did." Eve said nothing.

  I turned to face her. "He didn't get shot. Look, no hole."

  She nodded, eyes not meeting mine. I swallowed hard, then pulled up my blouse. On my stomach, where Weber had stabbed me, the skin was now smooth and unblemished.

  Eve bent over Lucas and adjusted his glasses, which had slipped in the fall. "No need for these here, but they still pass through. Weird, huh?" She leaned back for a better look, then straightened the glasses again and brushed strands of hair off Lucas's forehead. "Poor kid. All these years, being Ben's son was the only thing that protected him, and now it's what killed him." She shook her head. "Did Lucas ever tell you we met?"

  I struggled to focus, then nodded. The memory flashed and a tiny smile tweaked my lips. "He said 'encountered' was a more accurate word than 'met.'"

  Eve laughed. "That's Lucas, isn't it? Got to be precise." She rocked back on her heels. "How long ago was that? Shit, it has to be four, five years. He couldn't have been more than twenty. Tried to confiscate some of my grimoires. But I caught him. Trounced him good, too."

  "So he said."

  Eve's left brow shot up. "He admitted it? Well, that's real strength, isn't it? Not being able to knock someone down, but being able to admit it when you're the one who hit the floor. He's a good kid. Good for Savannah, too. You both are." She looked from me to Lucas, then thumped down and pulled her knees up. "Ah, shit, what are we going to do?"