16. Hook
Never swept out of the room and down the hall, taking her irresistible energy with her. I moved to follow, only to have Leo step in my path.
“We need to talk,” he said, keeping his voice low.
My hackles rose at those four words, but I did my best to smother my reaction. “About?”
“Never is sure her brother is alive in his body, which means she’s going to have a hell of a time hurting him, even if she’s defending herself.”
A perfectly reasonable reaction given her devotion to her protecting the boy, though, not a terribly helpful one.
“So, we don’t let her near the shadow.”
He nodded, his expression grim. “And be careful with the kid, if it comes to it.”
Because even though a demon shadow was wreaking havoc inside her brother’s body, it didn’t mean she would ever forgive me if I killed him. Even to protect her.
“Wrap it up, boys, or we’re leaving without you,” Lily called from the other room.
We stared at each other for another beat, the unspoken understanding passing us between before Leo shook his head. “She’s not kidding.”
“Then we should get moving.”
The female tiger shifter was so different from the girl I’d known back on the island. She’d been young and vibrant back then. A little on the timid side for her kind and filled with the kind of reckless hope that only existed in youth.
Now, her boisterous nature had been replaced with a stoic silence, and her timidness was a thing of the past. That reckless hope, though? I couldn’t get a read on whether she still had any of that distinct magic flowing through her veins.
Following Leo out, I paused at the door and turned to take in the whole of Never’s room once more. I wanted to catalog everything about it, to memorize it so I could call it to mind anytime I needed a reminder of her. Just in case.
Three increasingly tight breaths later, I headed down the hall to find Leo standing in the open door leading out of the apartment.
“Time, Atlas. It’s all about time in this world.”
I jogged out of the room after him. Every realm revolved around time. Even ours.
An eternity and approximately seven heart attacks later, Never pulled her car up to a curb in a much older looking area of her city. A ways in front of us, the road was cordoned off with bright orange cones and strings of yellow tape. Uniformed men and women stood guard, keeping a gathering crowd at bay, and we all piled out of the car in silence.
What was there to say?
We needed to see the damage, and Never was leading the charge. She weaved through the crowd as we got closer, not so gently elbowing her way between people with me close on her heels. Lily was doing the same, combing through the throng at a different angle with Leo at her back. It didn’t take long to make our way to that flimsy tape, though when I caught sight of the reason for the commotion, I was tempted to haul Never to a stop and try to talk her into going straight back to her apartment.
Glass littered the ground in front of the bridal shop from the broken windows. Streaks of blood marred the antique white walls and stained the two dresses still hanging askew in view of the crowd. What I couldn’t see was where that blood had come from.
“Are you sure about this?” I whispered in Never’s ear. She shivered, and I reached up on instinct, wrapping gentle, supportive fingers around her upper arms. “Are you okay?”
She nodded before tipping her head toward the black door she’d mentioned on the harrowing drive. It was set back in the shadows, barely noticeable amongst the charm and character of the surrounding shops. Almost as though it was cloaked, like a person had to be looking for it to see it.
“We need to get in there,” she said over her shoulder.
That was where Lily and Leo came in. I caught Leo’s gaze resting on Never and me as he waited at the tape several paces away. We maneuvered as close to the door as we could manage, and on Never’s signal, Lily let out a wail of sorrow so convincing it tugged at my better side. It was all for the sake of distraction, but there was no way to fake that kind of heart wrenching sadness without experiencing the pain that came with the real thing.
Never stared for a beat too, concern creasing her brow. Leo moved in and made a show of trying to quiet the wailing woman, but the scene had precisely the effect we were hoping for without inciting panic. Two men in dark blue uniforms moved in, and everyone in the crowd was caught up in their dramatics.
I felt a tug on my sleeve and turned to follow Never under the tape.
The air in the dark alcove felt different from the air on the street. Cooler in a way that had nothing to do with lack of sunlight striking the area.
She reached for the handle but paused when she saw it was slick with blood. The concrete at our feet was spattered crimson as well. Which meant we were certainly on the right track.
I reached around her and grabbed the handle, twisting it before she could say anything. The door swung silently open onto a landing that stretched back all of two paces before a steep, dark staircase led straight up to another narrow landing.
Lovely, I thought sarcastically.
Never didn’t need any nudging or prodding after that, though I almost wished she did. I wiped the blood on my dark pants and followed, closing the door behind us. It left us navigating those steep steps by the light of the single dim fixture hanging at the top of the stairs.
“I would really feel better if you would let me lead,” I whispered.
This was an argument we’d had on the ride here. In Never’s mind, it was her job to save her brother. I didn’t want to deny her that, but the demon and its rogue shadow were my responsibility.
“Not happening,” she breathed almost silently as she climbed the stairs. Her hand drifted to the railing before she caught sight of yet more blood smeared along the scarred wood.
At the landing, we found another crimson streak, along with several heavy droplets staining the rough tile. This time, though, she reached for the door without hesitating, twisting the knob and easing the solid wooden panel open.
Scents washed out of the space beyond in waves. Incense, burnt sage, a hint of something ancient, and more blood. A lot more. I caught Never by the arm and hauled her back to me. One thing I’d learned in the many, many years I’d existed was to trust my instincts. Right now, they were telling me something was wrong.
She looked up at me, her suspicion mirroring my own. Instead of fighting me, she half-rolled her eyes, let out a silent huff, and stepped aside.
I moved past her, pausing just long enough to whisper “Good girl” in her ear.
Oh, the look she threw could have melted glass, which was the only reason I was wearing a smirk as I rounded the corner into what appeared to be a witch’s den.
The space was a mixture of modern and archaic styling. Tattered books and wrinkled parchment were grouped in chaotic stacks, piled on nearly every flat surface in the place. A fan in the corner swiveled slowly, catching and fluttering a few stray pages that had found their way to the worn wooden floor.
Instead of a cauldron over an open flame, there was a cast-iron pot resting atop a stove, with something bubbling inside despite the lack of flame beneath. Another scent was slowly filling the space, displacing the other, more familiar fragrances. The closer I drew to the stove, the stronger it grew.
The trail of blood, however, led away from whatever vile smelling concoction the resident witch had been brewing. I wasn’t aware of any potions or spells that called for rotten eggs, but perhaps it was something specific to the human world.
I felt a pull at the back of my shirt and found Never pointing to a body slumped in the corner. That sense that something was wrong tingled up my spine again, racing along my nerve endings.
Holding my arm out to keep her from coming around me, I made my way across the room to the body. Naturally, instead of following me, she’d chosen to follow the trail of blood.
The body was that of a witch. A modern witch, from her attire, but definitely a woman of magic. The problem was the lack of blood. I reached out slowly and lifted one eyelid. The whites of her eyes were shot through with red, and I caught the hint of bruising forming on her slender neck.
She was dead but still alarmingly warm to the touch.
Before I could relay as much, a crash yanked my attention across the room. Never screamed a curse and stumbled back as a lanky form advanced on her. I’d only glimpsed her brother on the deck of my ship, but I didn’t need to pull that memory forward to recognize the boy. His features were so very like hers, just with stronger lines and somewhat sharper edges.
If that wasn’t enough, the black sheen to eyes would have removed any doubt.
“Stop, demon,” I commanded, throwing power behind the order.
The boy’s head whipped my way. Surprise lit his youthful face before his lips pulled back in a wicked snarl. “Captain,” the creature hissed.
“You know how this ends,” I said, fighting for calm even though I could see Never in my peripheral vision. The front of her shirt was painted red, the same as the demon’s hands. Hell, the thing’s clothes were varying shades of red and brown, as though layers upon layers of blood and gore had already dried beneath the current shine of its fresh kills.
The thing looked from me to Never, until she leveled it with her fiery stare. “Let him go.”
Her brother’s head tilted unnaturally to one side, like a praying mantis watching its prey. “No.”
The shadow wasn’t really worth arguing with, or threatening, for that matter. I was too primitive to care. But why the hell was it stalling? This was a creature of action, not words.
“What are you looking for?” Never asked. “What do you need to leave my brother alone?”
It chuckled, a sound too low and vile to come from the throat of a seventeen-year-old boy. Its eyes dipped to Never’s chest, zeroing in on the pendant tucked inside her shirt. Still, it didn’t make a move.
“You know the drill, asshole. Come get it,” she said.
“No!” Had she lost her mind?
The creature charged forward only to haul itself back so violently it nearly pulled itself off its own feet. I was already across the room and at her back by the time she’d taken a step toward it.
“Matty?” Her voice wavered. “Fight it, Matty. Fight it and stay with me.”
I watched the boy’s body with my own muscles on the very edge of action, ready to throw myself in front of her the nanosecond that thing made another move in her direction. His eyes flickered from black to blue and back. He let out an inhuman bellow that shook the wall and rattled the windows.
“Enough!” I yelled over the creature.
I yanked Never behind me roughly. She tried to fight, but I refused to let that monster hurt her again. If I’d been there the first time, that first night she’d returned to this world, there was a good chance I would have gutted the boy to get the shadow out of him after what it’d done to her.
“Get. Out.” The words came out through gritted teeth, short and clipped. It took me a moment to realize it wasn’t the creature who was doing the talking. He turned his head slowly, wincing as he did, until he was looking at the pot on the stove.
With a violent jerk, the boy was facing Never again, only it was painfully clear who was running the show. The thing lunged forward, shoving me aside in its bid to get at her. And it was strong. Considerably so given its weak human host.
Its hand swiped mere inches from her throat before I caught it by the hair and yanked it back. It whirled on me, snarling and snapping like the feral creature I knew so well. I slammed the thing first against the counter, scattering bowls and books and heavens knew what else on the ground. Then I changed course, catching it by the back of its filthy shirt and hurling it at the wall.
“Stop!” Never screamed, her voice laced with agony.
I knew why she was screaming. I fully understood the reason she charged up and tried to shove me out of the way, but I couldn’t let the shadow escape again. The thing tried to get to its feet, so I moved in and delivered a swift kick to its rib cage.
The blow felt like a betrayal because that was what Never was feeling. It didn’t matter that what I was doing was meant to keep her safe. I wasn’t trying to kill her brother, but all she saw was an assault on a being that looked tragically like someone she loved.
The problem was, we couldn’t go easy on the human and hope to capture the shadow. That wasn’t the way things worked.
It crawled across the floor making miserable, desperate sounds meant to elicit compassion. Unfortunately, I had none for the demon or its shadow. Grabbing it by the throat, I hauled the thing up to face me, its boyish face twisted into a mask of pure hatred.
I knew the feeling. My hate for the demon had faded at some point during our endless lives, becoming little more than a slow simmer rolling in the background. Until I’d found Never on the beach those many months ago.
Since that morning, my enmity had grown. Sharpened.
The shadow kicked out, catching me hard in the knee before twisting out of my grip. It spun and kicked again, connecting with the center of my chest and driving me back. I smashed into a soft body and heard Never’s muffled cry of pain as we both crashed to the floor.
Common sense told me to keep my eyes on the boy, but everything in me wanted to turn and check on her.
Footsteps pounded the stairs, echoing into the room.
“He’s getting away,” Never grunted, sounding more angry than hurt.
Except, when I looked up, the shadow was still there, and it was wearing a smile so sinister it brought the hairs at the back of my neck to attention.
It fished a small silver rectangle out of its pocket and flipped the lid.
A lighter?Why would the thing need a lighter?
It took another half second for my brain to pick up the nearly undetectable scent of gas under the overpowering stench of rotten eggs.
Panic flared inside me. I didn’t have time to think. All I could do was haul Never into my arms and make a mad dash for the nearest exit. I spun at the last minute, letting my back absorb the impact of the shattering glass as I held on to the woman I loved for dear life.
A blast wave propelled us out, followed by a shock of heat and flames that made my heart twist for fear of what it might do to Never. I saw and felt it all in slow motion, watching the flames singe the air around us before gravity took over and the world went black.