Chapter 5
5
T he far west part of the city was on the rougher side, and less than pretty. It was downright rough, but the road we were headed down butted up against the edge of a cemetery, and I could sort of see the appeal. If you were the kind of supernatural that was drawn to death and graveyards that is.
The thing was, it resembled the Hollows Graveyard in a very real sense. It was a part of the world, yet the humans didn’t see it. We stood near the end of Spring Street, people walking past us as we stared down the dark line of houses that seemed to have gloom and doom written all over them. Maybe not even just gloom and doom. Gloom, doom, and demons.
The whole street felt…like the Sorrel Weed House, the one that had been right next to Gran’s home. The one with a demon living in it that had caused us all sorts of grief.
Robert kept pace with me, swaying silently. I tapped him on the shoulder. “Maybe it would be better if you were a finger bone for this part. I’ll put you in my back pocket.”
He gave me a skeletal thumbs up and then collapsed at my feet, reducing to a single finger bone as requested. I scooped him up and tucked him into my pocket. I felt better just knowing he was with us.
“How do you know where Damian lives, Kinkly?” I tried to keep my voice light, as if just casually asking. But I’d heard the way she spoke about him, and he was a handsome guy if you ignored the whole demon aspect.
“Well, I haven’t been here exactly. I’ve met him a couple of times around here because he wanted to check on my wings. His house is up ahead, but he might not be there,” she flew ahead of me, her eagerness a little surprising. Her heartbreak over Eric had been real, even though she’d hidden it well. Which made me ask the question.
“Why is he so different from Eric?” I blurted out. “There’s still the issue of size, is there not? And I just…I don’t want to see you get hurt again, Kink. You never told Eric how you felt, in fact you drove him away to keep you both safe from more heartbreak.”
Kinkly slowed and spun around to face me. “Damian’s not my kind and he’s bigger than me, for sure. But he can change his shape,” she said softly. “He…doesn’t care that I’m not like other fairies, that my wings are still sore, or that I have been cast out of the land of faerie. We both love playing cards and people watching. We have a lot in common, actually—”
“Kinkly!” I gasped, my fingers flexing on the yellow envelope. “You never told me you’d been cast out of faerie!”
Karissa, it must have been Karissa’s doing.
“Well, it’s not exactly a pleasant topic, but yes, when I sided with you, Karissa had me booted out. I mean, I can go into the land of faerie, but there’s no living there, no staying. Even though she’s dead the casting out of me still stands.” She dipped and dove between two lamp posts and then we were heading down that dark stretch, me hurrying to keep up.
“I’m sorry that you were kicked out. It’s my fault, you stayed with me, sided against your queen, and—”
She zipped back to my face and pressed her toe on the end of my nose, stopping me. “No, don’t apologize. We have a family with our bunch of weirdos. A strange, mixed-up, kind of family, but I love it. I belong here, with all of you, fighting against the things that would hurt our city. I know that if I were stuck in hell, and there was a chance to get me out, you’d try this hard to save me too. I know it.”
She was not wrong—I would fight to save any of my friends. I reached up and held my hand out to her, eyes burning a little. “I wish I could hug you.”
“Me too.” She shivered and flew to my shoulder, hanging onto the edge of my ear. “It’s colder than a witch’s third tit here. Let’s hurry this along.”
I smiled, feeling a rush of love and gratitude. The sensation and warmth of emotions were a relief after all the grief that had been dragging me under, which no doubt the dampening spell had added to that sensation as well. Kinkly’s words had reminded me that as much as I missed Crash, as much as I was working hard to find him, we still had each other. Our group of friends was amazing beyond anything I could have ever hoped for in my life. The fact that they were out there working the city, trying to find a way to Crash, trying to help me do the impossible was all the evidence I needed to know I was with the right people. People who believed in me and loved me no matter what was thrown our way.
The warmth slid away as a particularly cold gust blew down the road, and straight through us.
“You’re right, it feels like a winter night here.” I rubbed my arms, wishing not for the first time that I’d put on my leathers. It was cold in this part of town, the kind of cold you got from days and weeks of no sun. Or a bitter, icy night seeping into you. Being that Savannah was rarely this cold, never mind in the late summer, the temperature was more than a little surprising.
I looked over my shoulder into the bright sunshine of Savannah behind us. It was like there was a line drawn across the street, one that couldn’t be seen by the average human. I saw a couple of sets of human eyes swing our way as they walked by, pause, widen, and stare into the dark surrounding us. But I didn’t have time to explain what they were seeing as I disappeared down the street. Hell, I barely understood it myself some days.
The shadow world was an ever-evolving beast, its very own character within the story of my life. And I took none of what I’d seen of it at face value. Because there were always more shadows, more layers to the world beneath the surface of Savannah.
I drew in a breath and blew out slowly, the air around my face misting up with the cold, and then did as Kinkly had suggested and hurried my feet up. My footsteps echoed in the damp, cold air.
“Any idea which house?” I breathed.
Kinkly gave a little hum and then said, “There. At the end on the left. That’s where I’ve seen him exit the last few times.”
Good enough for me. I picked up my pace even more, doing my best to focus on the house Kinkly had indicated. Because each of the homes that we passed felt very much occupied, and the occupants very much irritated that we were on the street, where I had no doubt we didn’t belong. Flashes of red eyes could be seen through slatted windows, peeking around door edges, even though I was doing my best not to look. More than once I caught the flutter of curtains as they were yanked back and then dropped. The creak of wooden doors slamming shut, a low rumbling of deep mutters that sounded like cursing. No, the occupants here were not subtle at all.
A high piercing scream in the distance followed by laughter that was deep and wet, as if coated in blood almost had me turning around. The whole place felt dark on a level that not many parts of the city did.
Nope, this was a whole lot of nope. I shivered, the fear creeping into me, reminding me that I really didn’t want to die.
“We don’t belong here,” I muttered as I moved a little quicker, almost running by the time I got to the end of the street and the house we needed.
“Even if he’s not here, we could wait for him,” Kinkly whispered, but she was shivering harder even than me, and I felt bad for her. Because she was getting a dose of reality—a demon, no matter how kind he’d been to her, probably wasn’t her match any more than Eric had been. Not if he expected her to stay in a place like this. Then again, I was getting ahead of myself. Maybe it was just a fling. A fun time for a little while between Eric and whoever Kinkly ended up with.
“Right, let’s see if he’s here, if he’s not, we’re getting out of here.” I hurried up the steps of the house Kinkly had indicated and knocked firmly on the door. But the door bounced open, showing us an interior that was as trashed as Stavros’s home had been. Furniture and windows shattered, the floor a mess of items that had been chucked around with a violence and strength that was no small thing. Deep gouges in the wall where massive claws had dug in and dragged through, tearing the walls to pieces.
Just like all the other crime scenes.
“Shit,” I breathed out the word even as I picked up on that strange briny smell that Feish and Kinkly had noticed first at Stavros’s home.
“Oh no! Damian?” Kinkly was off my shoulder in a flash, moving faster than she had in some time as she whipped through the room. “I don’t think he’s here. But those claw marks are everywhere! Are they fresh?”
I stepped in the front room, and the chill deepened, the skin on the back of my neck prickling like it was going to try and leap off my body. “Kink,” I whispered her name, my fingers clutching the large envelope still. “We have to go. Now .”
She spun around in mid-air, but I was looking past her, into the depths of the house, down the long, dark hallway that led to the back of Damian’s place. More than that was the hulking frame of something looking back at me, its eyes slowly opening, gathering light and glittering with nothing short of malice and hunger.
“Kink,” I whispered to her, motioning with my hand. “Fly to me, slowly, carefully.”
Her whimper told me she wanted to turn around. “What is it?”
“Don’t look, just fly to me. I think we found the monster. And it’s looking at me.”
She fluttered her wings and started toward me. The hulking thing shifted its weight and lurched forward. It was like watching Marge’s picture of the monster that had killed Homer come to life. Only it was so, so much worse than any drawing could ever encompass. Worse and bigger.
Four tusks on its head stuck straight out and then curved outward as if angling toward each quarter of a compass. The maw that was its mouth opened, showing a mix of flat, sharp, and jagged teeth, as if someone had gone into a bin of extra teeth and just grabbed a handful and thrown them in willy nilly. The beast’s eyes were massive and dilated like a cat’s as it took a ground-shattering step toward us, the frame of the house groaning under its weight.
I took a step back, and Kinkly landed on my shoulder and spun around to face the monster with me. “What the fuck is it?” I whispered. Gran had recognized some of its pieces but not all.
I figured it was an appropriate time to break that auto correct thing I had going on. Because the creature in front of us most certainly warranted it. Monster indeed . This was what had killed Stavros and Homer and how many other supernaturals? Had it killed Damian too?
The thing slowly unfurled, a low rumble building inside its chest. It couldn’t fully stand up in the house, it was so big. There was a deep marking on its chest, that of a square with a pair of crossed lines within it. There was no armor on its body, no clothing, but there were thick, dark red scales that covered its chest and midsection which no doubt would act as armor. The rest of the body looked like it was covered in hide, down to the hands. Paws maybe. I took another step back, and the monster stepped further into the light, standing more fully upright and spreading its fingers. But fingers weren’t the right word for the digits on the ends of its arms. They were claws, easily seven inches long, narrowed at the tip, and curved like a big cat would have. The body in general didn’t look like it fit together properly, more like it had been patched together into a Frankenstein of epic proportions.
Witch-made.
Bramble had done this, there was no other possibility, I knew it in my heart.
I’d never longed for my weapons and leather armor more than at that moment. I didn’t even bother to pull Robert out of my pocket. Not that I was thinking he could have actually beaten the thing in front of me, but it would be nice not to die alone in my humble opinion.
“What are you? Who sent you?” I took another step back, reaching behind me for the edge of the door with one hand as I used the other to flap the envelope of pictures at its face. “Gargoyle maybe? Not a demon, I don’t think. Not even those slim bastards who have chased me before are as ugly as you. Wendigo, Gran said you had some of that too.”
Its wordless rumble carried an obvious threat. I wrinkled my nose, but it didn’t smell other than that strange briny scent. Its wide eyes were locked on me, dilating even further. Getting ready to leap.
I knew that look. Every damn cat I’d ever met had that look right before they pounced on their prey. I took a breath, preparing to spin and leap for the door, when I was grabbed from behind.
I screamed, not sure what was happening, and dropped the envelope behind me, so much for keeping police property safe.
The hand that had grabbed me clamped down tight and yanked me hard, and then we were hurtling out of the door, the beast crashing into the door frame behind us. A roar from it rattled the world enough that it would have made a T-Rex proud.
“Run!” Damian bellowed as he half dragged me down the street, blood streaming from a wound in the side of his head.
“I can do better,” I yelled, “Skeletor!”
My undead horse burst out of the ground just ahead of us, and Damian and I leapt for his back. We made it on, and Skeletor put on a burst of speed as the beast behind gained on us.
“Hurry!” I clutched at Skeletor’s mane as he tore down the street, his hooves silent on the cobbled streets, his body nowhere near the skeletal look he’d had when I’d first called on him. He was now almost a fully fleshed-out horse, solid black with a thick mane and eyes made of the night sky. I looked over my shoulder and my heart iced. The beast was not giving up. It was right on our heels, running on all four limbs now, propelling itself along. “How do we lose it?”
“No idea!” Damian hung onto my waist; his forehead pressed to my back. “Just don’t let it catch us!”
Kinkly shimmied down my back from my shoulder, to Damian, and I looked past them to the monster that was picking up even more speed, gaining on us with every stride.
“Faster, Skeletor!” I begged my mount, and he impossibly found another gear. The world whipped by us, the humans unaware of the battle we had going on of life and death.
But I didn’t know where we were going. This beast had to belong to the Dark Council and Bramble, only I had no idea what it was or what its weakness might be. Even the worst monsters had at least one weakness.
Running water.
Salt.
Holy water.
“A church, would a church do it? Would we be safe?” I looked over my shoulder again and gulped. The monster was gaining again—apparently Skeletor wasn’t the only one who could turn on more speed.
“I don’t know.” Damian lifted his head. “I can’t enter a church.”
“We can’t leave him behind!” Kinkly yelled.
“Right! Of course!” I yelled back, feeling stupid for suggesting it. “We need something or somewhere we can lose it! Something meaner than a witch’s creation!”
Meaner. The worst of the worst. Enemy of your enemy and all that jazz.
You need to get to Toltza . Altin’s voice whispered through me.
I wasn’t about to argue with my grandfather, not in the middle of this mess.
“Damian, where is Toltza? Could he handle this thing?” I yelled to be heard over the rushing wind around us.
Damian groaned. “That…yes. He might but it’s a terrible idea! He’s truly the worst of us, Bree. The absolute worst!”
The sound of the beast breathing told me it was almost on top of us. “I don’t think we have a choice, do you? Unless you can think of someone else who could handle this critter?”
Because I surely wasn’t leading this beast back to my friends.
Damian grimaced. “To Ossabaw Island then. South of the city. Can the horse get us there without getting caught?”
“Skeletor, you heard him. To Ossabaw Island.” The island was nearly an hour drive south, and from there you needed a boat to get to it. But I had faith in my steed that he could take us and keep us out of reach of the thing crashing along behind us.
Skeletor turned his head, and if I’d thought he was running fast before, it was nothing to this new speed. Even so, I could all but feel the breath of the monster on the back of my neck. I leaned forward and Damian clung to me. I knew getting to the island was a long shot, but it was also our best chance. Strike that, it was our only chance.
Funny, how I thought of Crash right then. He’d have been able to handle this monster, I was sure of it. He was strong both in body and magic. He was the fae king, the blacksmith, a power unto himself.
The minutes were heavy as we raced through squares and around homes, past historical statues and under the Spanish moss, all while feeling our lives were a claw swipe away from being finished.
There was no sound from the beast other than the heavy breathing that was there and then between one stride and the next…not.
At the south edge of Savannah, the air around us changed. I looked over my shoulder to see…nothing. I almost didn’t want to stop, but the beast was as if it had never been.
“Easy, Skeletor, slow down but be ready to sprint again.” I patted his neck.
The horse slowed and then stopped, blowing out a great breath of steam. But that wasn’t what had my attention. The monster was gone. I looked down around and saw something that explained why the critter had disappeared.
The sign welcoming people into Savannah.
“We crossed the city line,” I said.
Damian twisted and looked around. “Well shit, that’s this thing’s weakness? Territory?”
I shivered. “I guess. Kinkly, we have to get back to Haven House. We need to warn the others.” And maybe then Gran would tell us just what we were dealing with. Maybe she would know when I told her what it looked like in person. And that symbol on its chest had to mean something.
Damian grabbed my wrist. “You can’t. I’d bet money that the moment you cross that line, the beast will be there, waiting for you. It’s not stupid, Bree. It waited for me to lower my guard before it attacked.”
I slid off Skeletor’s back, jerking my hand out of Damian’s hold. “Let me check. You might be right, but we need to make sure.”
Moving slowly, I walked back toward the city.
The second my foot crossed the line, the air changed and the only thing I saw was the beast’s eyes as it charged at me.
I threw myself backward, the tips of its claws cutting through my once white t-shirt, right across my chest, skimming the top layer of skin.
I hit the ground hard, still scrabbling backward, trying to put more distance between myself and the near de-boobing that I’d had. I looked down to see my bra still intact, the shirt with three gouge marks and one slice across the top of my breasts just beading up with blood.
“Bree!” Kinkly flew to me first. “Holy shit sticks! That was close. It’s still there, the monster?”
“Yeah.” I was breathing hard as I pushed slowly to my feet. “It’s still there, in my city.”
Anger was blooming now, anger that fueled the power connecting me to the dead. Savannah was my city, I was the sentinel, the guardian of all that was in it. And this monster was driving me out? I think the duck not.
This was what my grandfather had been trying to get me to see, and finally I was getting it. I had bigger issues than Crash. Bigger issues than my stupid love life or lack thereof.
“Um. Your hair is rising on its own?” Kinkly said as she fluttered off my shoulder and made her way to Damian.
“I think she’s pissed,” Damian said. “Just a guess though, the only other hair-raising woman I’ve seen is a witch, and she was mighty pissed when it happened too.”
Their words were distant to me as I let my power crawl out of me and across the ground, searching for those who would answer my call. Skeletor bumped his nose against my shoulder, and I reached up and touched him, the power and fury that had been building in me draining away as I soothed him. “We should try another entrance in. I don’t think the beast can see us on this side, any more than we can see it.”
Kinkly did a slow turn in the air. “How do you know that?”
“I don’t.” I shrugged. “But it’s the best we’ve got right now. We can’t just abandon the city, Kink. Feish and Gran, Eric, Eammon, Sarge, Jinx, Winnifred…everyone is at Haven House. We can’t leave them unprotected.”
And no, I didn’t even have a cell phone with me. I left my bag behind, with everything in it like the idiot I was.
“You’re right, of course we can’t! We’ll find a way back in.” Kinkly swept up to my shoulder. “You coming with us, Damian?”
He lifted an eyebrow. “How did you know about Toltza? That’s not a name that is common even among demons.”
Skeletor went to one knee when I approached, helping me get up onto his back. I was no rider, but I’d gained a bit of experience over the last months. But I was never going to be able to mount bareback from the ground, and both Skeletor and I knew that. “It’s a bit of a story, you game to listen as we go?”
Damian looked thoughtful, but I noted that he glanced at Kinkly before nodding. “All right, tell me a story. Seeing as we just survived certain death together, that rather ties us, doesn’t it?”
He jumped on behind me, making sure there was some distance between us now that we were out of danger. Smart man.
I drew a breath, but before I launched into it, I asked a question of my own first.
“Is Alexandra, okay? Her and the children?”
Damian was quiet, as if trying to figure out how to answer me, which made my heart plummet. “They are safe,” he finally said. “Stavros?”
I shook my head. “Gone. I’m sure it was the monster back there.”
“Damn it, he was a good friend,” Damian sighed. “I don’t know what it is, and I’ve been around a very long time. But the beast is deadly and seemingly impervious to weapons.” He paused, then dove right into the thick of it. “Stavros is the one who gave you Toltza’s name? I have a hard time believing that, he didn’t hold Toltza in any regard, felt he was too much of a dick to be worth dealing with.”
“His shadow told me the name,” I said. “As he died, he said the only one who could help me find a portal into hell was Toltza.”
Damian did a funny little jerk and nearly fell off Skeletor. “Why would you want to go into hell? I wouldn’t go back and I was born there.”
“Crash is there, trapped in a sort of limbo.” I rubbed a hand over my face. “But finding a way in has been difficult—”
“It is impossible,” Damian said softly. “There is no way into hell, Bree. Those stories are just stories. And if you know what is best for you, you will let Crash go and move on with your life. Toltza will tell you he can help you; he will take whatever it is he wants from you, but he will not hold up his end of the bargain. Please believe me when I say that I would help you myself if there was a way into hell. I would. But the only way into hell is by dying, Bree. And we need you, Sentinel. The city and all of us within it need you.”
His words shook me to the core, shattering what was left of my hope of finding Crash. “Marge—”
“Marge set you up to this? Lucifer’s balls, Marge is a voodoo queen. And she believes the same stories that you’ve been told, the stories that have been going around for thousands of years, stories that allow demons to trap unsuspecting souls and possess them fully.” Damian’s voice was gentle, and I could see why Kinkly was drawn to him. For a demon, he was being incredibly kind. Hell, he was still treating me better than my own ex-husband had ever treated me. “Bree, there is only one way in or out of hell, and that is death. Anyone who tells you differently is selling something or trying to get you killed. Do you understand?”
I shook my head, hating that his words were so…logical. My voice cracked. “Are you sure? Is there nothing…no way other than death?”
Damian looked away and then back to me. “I do not know how to convince you that I’m telling the truth. I am a demon, so if there was a way into hell, I would know it.” He thumped his chest with his hands as if steeling himself. “Breena O’Rylee, you mean everything to this city, you are the light that stands between all of us and the darkness that would swallow the city whole given the chance. We need you to be whole and, more than that, we need you to be present. Here. Doing what you are called to do. Especially with this monster on the loose, killing our friends, killing those who cannot escape it.”
I closed my eyes and let his words sink in. I didn’t know if he was right, if death was the only way to Crash. But everything that had happened that day was pushing me away from Crash. My path—as my grandfather had pointed out—was facing this monster and Bramble.
And I knew in my heart that it was time to listen.
Kinkly’s wings brushed against my cheeks. “Maybe it’s like Suzy?”
I opened my eyes. She hovered right in front of me. “What do you mean?”
“Well.” She scrunched up her face, as if looking for the right words. “We know we’re going to bring Suzy home at some point. But right now, we can’t. We don’t have the right ingredients or path forward. Maybe it’s the same with Crash. Maybe we just need to let it happen when it happens?”
Her words were an echo of what Altin had told me. It was all about the path I was on.
Damian sighed. “False hope is not kind, Kink.”
“It’s not false hope.” She spun in mid-air. “If anyone can find a way to do the impossible, it is Bree. But I agree that we need her here right now, in body and heart and spirit. We need Savannah’s protector.”
I shuddered, and Kinkly hugged the side of my neck as Damian gave my arms a careful squeeze. “I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news, Sentinel.”
I nodded but couldn’t find the words. Nope, strike that, I found them. “I don’t understand why Stavros told me to go to Toltza then? If what you’re saying is true.”
His sigh was heavy. “Our shadows are known for making trouble after we pass. If we are lucky, Stav’s shadow will find another body, and I’ll be able to have my friend back in time. But when they are free of a body, they can be tricksters. That’s when they end up haunting homes, causing problems, making trouble.”
Damian’s words felt off to me. Like what he was saying wasn’t quite true. I didn’t think he was lying, exactly. But I doubted he had all the pieces to this puzzle either. Or maybe like the Shadow had said, he was forbidden from speaking the full truth.
Either way, I found myself coming around to what the day, and everyone in it, had been trying to show me. Crash was important, and I would never give up on him. But right now, the city needed me.
There was a monster that needed dealing with.
We rode for a solid hour, Kinkly and Damian speaking quietly to each other as we circled around to the east side of the city, which would put us a little closer to Haven House.
“Here,” I patted Skeletor on the neck and he stopped, allowing me to slide off. I nearly went to my knees, my legs and feet like Jell-O under me. Apparently, you did use muscles riding, and they were muscles I’d never really used much. My inner thighs ached and screamed at me as I took my first few steps, then slowly eased up as I shook them out.
“Let me look across the city line,” Kinkly said. “I’ll fly in high and see if anyone is there.”
I gave her a thumbs up and she shot high into the sky. I turned to Damian the second she was out of earshot. “You hurt her, and I’ll make sure your shadow is looking for a new body, one that still has its balls intact.”
His eyes widened and then he smiled, his features softening. “I will not hurt her, Sentinel. Your threat is…perhaps my new favorite. I shall use it on another demon, I think.”
I shrugged, unable to smile back. Unable to think beyond the next step, which was to get to Haven House. Once there, I would talk to my friends, tell them that the hunt for Crash was on hold while we dealt with the monster. I would need to see his grave, lay flowers, and say my goodbyes properly. Maybe Eric could recommend a good counselor. But first…a monster was terrorizing my city. It was time to deal with it and the witch who’d created it.